Page 46 of Settling the Score

Her lips pulled to the side. ‘Same old, same old,’ she demurred. ‘I’m more interested in hearing about you. Why don’t we get a drink and you can tell me what you’re up to these days?’

‘I’d like that,’ Cynthia confirmed with a nod.

* * *

Watching his mother and one-time girlfriend gossip over champagne was doing strange things to Aiden’s belly. Like making it flip and flop as if he was about to play for the Stanley Cup. More and more guests had been arriving each day, so the foyer that had seemed sparse on the first night was more filled out now, making it hard to keep a clear line of sight on Sienna.

Which shouldn’t have bothered him. Not even a little.

Except no matter how much he kept telling himself that, Aiden couldn’t stop staring at her.

And it wasn’t just because of that dress, though that definitely didn’t help.

Since when had she started buying this sort of thing? He couldn’t imagine her owning anything like this in Ashbury Falls. Bright red and skintight, it wrapped around her body in a way that his dreams would undoubtedly have fun with later that night.

Not that he’d be getting any sleep anyway, if that damned cricket had anything to say.

He ground his teeth and tried to focus on the investment opportunity Chuck was describing. Ribbing aside, he admired the other man’s technological prowess, and this did sound like a great chance to get in on a cool new project at the ground level.

He just didn’t exactly have the brain space to devote to it, then and there.

‘So, you want to see more info?’

‘Yeah.’ Thank God, Aiden thought. More information that he could compute at a later date. Not when Sienna was leaning close to his mother and whispering something in her ear, so Cynthia tossed her head back and laughed. Sienna’s lips, painted a perfect shade of red, curved into a slow smile, and at that moment, her gaze flicked across the room and landed square on his face, so his heart felt like it was about to jolt out of his chest.

He should definitely not have kissed those lips.

He should definitely not be standing in the middle of this drinks event thinking about what those lips had felt like. Or how damned much he’d like to stride across the room, throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to the beach, or the nearest bed, or hell, even the lawn outside, and finish what they’d started.

He groaned softly.

‘All good, bro?’ Chuck asked.

‘I wish everyone would stop fucking asking me that,’ he snapped, then offered a grimace by way of apology. ‘Sorry, man. It’s been… a weird couple of days.’

Chuck nodded thoughtfully. ‘Sienna mentioned you guys used to date.’

Something about that landed strangely for him. He didn’t know if he was glad Sienna had mentioned their history, or annoyed, because somehow it trivialised it. ‘It was a long time ago.’

Chuck’s grin was knowing. ‘Yeah, I can tell.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Just that you’re staring with definite intent.’

Aiden forced himself to look anywherebutat Sienna, grinding his teeth to find the other man laughing.

‘Why don’t you ask her out and get it over with?’

Alarm bells sounded. Panic slicked his insides. Ask Sienna out? Well, wasn’t that just a whole can of worms he’d been spending pretty much every waking moment avoiding peering into? Blake’s suggestion of ‘hanging out’ for a casual week was one thing, but this was a whole other level. Dating meant a promise. The beginning of something Aiden didn’t want to ever finish.

‘Nah, it’s not like that.’

‘You sure?’

He swallowed, his throat rough and dry. ‘Yeah.’

But his eyes slid back to Sienna and his gut lurched. God damn it, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but that didn’t even matter. It wasn’t about how she looked. It was the way she laughed. The way she talked. The way she listened. The way she…