Page 21 of Lust & Lies

AIDEN

I COULDN’T MOVE. ALL I could do was sit there in my office, staring at the wall without really seeing it. I wanted to be with Noe. Needed to be with her. But I couldn’t go to her yet. Not while my head was a battlefield.

Not while my thoughts were a mess. If I went to her now, she’d sense my turmoil, sense the storm within me. I didn’t want to alarm her in any way. So I sat there, staring, thinking, paralyzed by my emotions and fears.

The silence of my office felt too loud, yet not loud enough to drown out the chaos in my mind. Every tick of the clock cut through those wild thoughts as if they were counting down to something I didn’t want to face.

Like it was counting down to my doom. To the moment when all of my lies exploded in my face. My brother’s words were still echoing through my mind, taunting me, challenging me, driving me fucking crazy.

If you didn’t let her go, if she’s yours, as you say, why did you kidnap her?

He didn’t understand. No one did. They couldn’t because they weren’t walking in my shoes or living with my regrets. And my brother damn sure couldn’t understand. We were not the same.

He’d let the woman he loved go the second grandfather threatened to cut ties with him. And to my knowledge, he’d had nothing to do with her since. Tristan had chosen family over love. No, he’d chosen the family businesses and money over love.

He’d chosen the comfort of our lineage and wealth over the woman he was supposed to protect. As for me, I hadn’t done that. I’d chosen love. I’d chosen Noe. I’d been prepared to leave the family. Fuck the family businesses.

I already owned shit that was solely mine. I would be okay with or without the Park family and their connections. So, would Noe. In the past, before I could make that move, before I could convince Noe that I wanted to leave with her, I’d fucked up. Big time.

And shit just unraveled from there. She’d left me. Hurt and heartbroken, she’d agreed to my grandfather’s plans for her. That was my fault. She hadn’t been in her right mind. She never would’ve made that choice if it weren’t for me.

This wasn’t kidnapping. This was me righting my wrongs. Taking back what had been ripped away from me. Repairing what I’d broken. Noe was mine. Always had been. She’d been stolen from me by people who claimed to know what was best for her and me.

And I’d let them. That was my mistake. My sin. And I’d been paying for it every damn day since. I leaned back, gripping the arms of the chair until my palms hurt. I thought of every scheme that brought an end to my relationship with Noe.

Every trap. Every lie. Every excuse. Every mistake.

Then, I thought about every step I’d taken to get us to this point, to this country estate.

All the plotting, the planning, the risks, the lies, the killing.

I thought of the things I’d done and the people I’d manipulated to bring her back into my life. Every move had been calculated. I’d left nothing to chance. At least, I thought I hadn’t. I hoped I hadn’t.

But Tristan’s warning about the investigators, about Ethan’s mouth running, about her memory possibly returning... it felt like a fracture in the foundation I’d built. Once the foundation started to fracture or shift, everything built on it became at risk of coming down.

I’d worked so hard to get to this point, I couldn’t let it all become rubble just because of a few fractures. My jaw tightened. I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t. I had to rethink my plan and search for any loose ends.

This would be the second time I had to rethink things. The first time was after the car accident. That accident hadn’t been in my plans. The accident I’d manufactured to fake Noe’s death involved a fire.

It was the fire that my grandfather was investigating. I’d known a normal house fire wouldn’t justify there being no part of Noe left for identification. Bones and teeth could stay intact during a normal fire.

So, I’d plotted, waiting for a time when the conditions would be perfect. That time came when Noe was supposed to meet up with one of my grandfather’s clients at that client’s warehouse.

She’d gone to renegotiate a contract for our grandfather. Ethan had handled the initial contract. But in normal Ethan fashion, he’d agreed to almost all of their conditions without convincing them to agree to ours.

And in normal grandfather fashion, he’d sent Noe to renegotiate our deal with Magnolia Gulf AgriSupply. Though their warehouse was large, it was also the kind of place most people in town didn’t think twice about.

It was just there. Had always been there. And most people assumed it would always be there. It was just a big warehouse on the edge of the industrial district, away from other businesses and structures.

A place where truckloads of feed and fertilizer came in and out of every day, all day. They supplied everything from livestock feed and crop seed to heavy-duty pesticides, herbicides, and industrial-strength fertilizers for farms along the Gulf Coast.

I’d been there a few times. As soon as you turned down their dirt road, you could smell the chemicals. Inside, the air was always thick with the tang of ammonia from nitrogen-based fertilizers.

That tang mingled with the acrid fumes of weed killers and the musty scent of livestock feed. Whenever you left that place, you felt like your nose hairs were burning. Afterward, the stench lingered in your nostrils for hours.

Inside, there were rows of metal drums of liquid pesticides and flammable solvents. It wasn’t unusual to see forklifts moving crates of powdered chemicals that, when mixed or ignited under the right conditions, could burn hotter than most structure fires ever dared.

When I learned the client wanted Noe to meet him there, I knew that would be my chance to put my plan into motion. I’d also known that the fact that he wanted to meet her after hours meant he probably had other things in mind.

That was why I’d had no problem letting him and his right-hand man be casualties in my carefully crafted plan. Plus, he’d tried to get over on my baby brother. I’d already planned to handle him for that alone.

The plan had been simple. Make sure Noe never ended up at the warehouse during that time, and make sure the explosion took down the entire building. I’d personally gone to the site with my team to make sure there were no fuck ups.

Everything had gone according to plan. Except that Noe’s stubborn ass had gotten into an argument with the person I’d sent to bring her to me and keep her away from the warehouse. That argument led to the unplanned car wreck.

The car crash had thrown a wrench in my plans. I’d nearly lost my fucking mind when I’d gotten the call. I’d rushed to her side. Watching her in that hospital bed, pale and fragile, wounded because of me, had filled me with so much damn guilt.

The doctors I brought in had assured me that she would be fine. They’d followed my instructions, handling things the way I’d told them, saying what I’d wanted them to say, falsifying records the way I’d instructed them to.

And I’d remained by her side during her entire treatment, making sure she got the best care, making sure she was never alone. The only time I’d left her was to go to her funeral and stare at a closed casket that contained no body.

After the funeral, I returned to Noe’s side, where I remained until she woke up. When she’d awakened with no memory of me, that had felt like both a knife to the gut and a gift wrapped with a bow at the same time.

It hurt because she didn’t remember our love, didn’t remember how far we’d come, didn’t remember any of the special moments we’d shared or the promises we’d made. It was a gift because she also didn’t remember the pain, the fights, the nonsense that had torn us apart, none of it.

That gave us a chance at a fresh start. It gave me the opportunity to give her the life she was always meant to have... with me. But if her memory returned, would she see things my way, or would she think I was no different than my grandfather?

Would she forgive me for the past? Would she forgive me for our time apart? Or would she want to go back to her life without me? Back to the man she didn’t love, the one grandfather had chosen for her?

Fuck that! I was never letting her go back to that asshole and that loveless relationship. I rubbed a hand over my face, then let it fall to the desk, fingers curling into a fist against the wood.

It didn’t matter how she saw things if she got her memory back. I’d told her there was no leaving, and I’d meant it. I’d tried to take my time with her, but she’d rushed things. She’d stared at me with love in her eyes.

She’d kissed me so fucking tenderly, smiled at me so damn sweetly. I fell asleep holding her in my arms yesterday. I hadn’t done that in so damn long. How the hell could I let her go after all that?

I wouldn’t. I refused to. I was confident that I could rebuild the relationship we’d lost. And yet, there was a part of me, a tiny, unwanted part, that wondered if love rebuilt on shaky ground, trust rebuilt on lies, could withstand the truth when it finally broke through.

That thought made my chest ache, and the ache made me angry. I didn’t have time for doubts. I didn’t want to bother with these types of questions and possibilities. I wanted her. I had her. And I’d do whatever it took to keep her. That’s it.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and told myself that Grandfather wouldn’t find anything that pointed to Noe still being alive during his investigation. The bastard he’d chosen for her would not notice anything strange about me and my actions.

And if he did somehow catch on, I’d kill him. He didn’t deserve Noe anyway. And if Grandfather grew suspicious of me, I’d take Noe and leave Mississippi. Opening my eyes, I exhaled slowly.

Everything would be alright as long as I stuck to my plan and stayed three steps ahead of my grandfather and Seo-Jin. I already had my guys watching over Seo-Jin. If he came near any of my properties, they would alert me.

If he knew what was good for him, he’d stay the fuck away from me. I took a few more seconds to calm myself and assure myself that nothing was going to go wrong with my plan. When I finally stared at the clock again, I cursed.

Damn, I hadn’t meant to stay away from her for that long. I rose from my seat and left my office. When I eased the bedroom door open and peered into the room, I found my Noe curled up on her side with the cover pulled over her.

There was no way she’d fallen asleep that fast. Was she mad at me for being gone too long? If so, I had no problem licking the anger out of her, then fucking her until she was smiling again.

I entered the room and shut the door as quietly as I could. She didn’t stir. I eased into bed, closing the space between us until her warmth brushed against me. Pulling the cover back just enough, I found her still bare beneath it.

My mouth went to her shoulder, pressing a soft kiss there as my cock stirred, waking up again. I trailed my lips up the curve of her neck, breathing her in. We’d only been apart for a few minutes, yet I’d missed her.

I was gone for this woman. Crazy about her. Obsessed with every part of her... mind, body, and soul. As I wrapped my arm around her, she stirred, stretching before rolling onto her back and staring up at me.

“You’re back,” she murmured, voice still heavy from sleep.

“You were really asleep, huh?” I said, watching her lashes flutter.

A faint, drowsy smile touched her lips. “Sorry. I tried to wait up, but it got chilly, so I pulled the covers over me. After that, it was a wrap. I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

“That’s okay.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go back to sleep.”

“What about you?” she said, then yawned. “I got mine, but you didn’t get yours.”

“I’ll get mine when we wake up,” I told her.

“You sure?”

I nodded. I could wait. She looked so sleepy. Her rest came before my arousal.

After yawning again, she whispered, “You gonna let me suck it for breakfast?”

My mouth damn near dropped open. This woman! Smiling, I lowered my forehead to hers. Nothing should make me blush, but this woman always could.

“You can do whatever you want to me once you’ve rested,” I told her.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Let’s seal the deal with a kiss,” she countered.

I lifted my head and stared down at her. Damn, this woman owned me. She was my entire world wrapped up in one beautiful, precious package. I would give my life to keep her with me. I lowered my head and claimed her lips in a soft kiss.

When I pulled back, I whispered, “Now, go back to sleep, beautiful.”

“Okay, handsome,” she mumbled before snuggling against me.

I rested my head on my pillow and held her, listening to her breathing as she drifted off to sleep. It was a long time before sleep claimed me. My mind was too full for me to rest easily.

But when it finally came, I dreamed of my future with Noe. It was a sweet dream, a dream I strove to turn into our reality. But that dream was shattered by a loud scream. I jolted awake, sitting up, reaching for her.

I found the space next to me empty. Fear hummed through my veins as I rushed from the bed to search for my wife.