Page 131 of Between the Lines

“Okay,” I say. “I think we might need to… talk.”

Aiden is lying on the other couch across from me. We’ve been working for the last hour in his giant living room. It’s Tuesday evening, and for the past few days, we’ve been in and out of bed. In and out of his large en suite shower. On and off these large couches.

With a few short breaks for him to take calls from the office, or for me to chat with Vera about the book’s progress. We swam in his pool this morning, where he cornered me in the deep end and then slowly peeled off my bikini top like he was unwrapping a present. Then he’d made me come around his fingers beneath the surface of the water.

It’s been… a very good few days.

At my words, Aiden looks up from his sprawl of papers. His hair is messy, and the scruff on his jaw is thicker now. A dark shadow that more and more resembles the short beard he’d had at Zion National Park all those months ago.

I had told him the other day that I liked him with facial hair.

He hasn’t shaved since.

“Sure,” he says. “Do you have the pitches ready for me?”

“Almost,” I say. The document is open on my computer, the idea I’ve increasingly become enamored with. But showing it to him… I don’t think I could handle it if he didn’t think it was good enough. “But that’s not it.”

He leans forward, elbows resting on his knees. “What do you want to talk about, Charlotte?”

Nerves make it momentarily hard to speak. But I’ve done harder things. This shouldn’t be so complicated. “About what we’ve been doing.”

A slow smile spreads across his face. “I’m happy to talk about that.”

Despite us having done virtuallyeverything,a flush still creeps up my cheeks. We’d put the things in that little goodie bag to good use. He’s so free in bed, comfortable in ways I’ve never experienced before. Like nothing is off the table.

“I just want to touch base about the rules again.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “Right. The rules.”

“Yes, the rules. They’re good for both of us. We only have a few weeks left now until the deadline.”

“I’m aware.”

“Right. Well, I don’t want tostopdoing what we’re doing… I just want to doublecheck that you didn’t spend Sunday here instead of at the office because of me. Or that your sister suspects anything after the party. Or that you had a thing tonight that you might… have canceled.”

He nods a little. “Right. Because that would violate rule number two. This—us—might then affect the memoir. Our professional deal.”

“Yes, exactly.” His sister and I had lunch out by the pool yesterday. It was fantastic. I’d gotten so much good material that I had to write all day today just to get the ideas down.

Aiden leans back on his couch and motions for me to join him. “Come here. If you wanna talk about this, do it while sitting with me.”

“I think that’ll make the conversation even harder.” But I’ve already pushed my laptop away. He opens his arms for me, and I sink onto his lap. The pull to touch him, to be near, has strengthened over the last days of intimacy until it feels like a cord. Stretched taut between us.

“No. Touching you makes everything easier.” He settles his hands on my hips and rests his head on the back of the couch. “Now, talk to me.”

“I just did.”

“Tell me what’s really bothering you.”

I wrap my hands around his neck. His skin is warm to the touch. “I’m feeling a bit scared about what we’re doing,” I say. There’s enough truth to my words to make the nerves in my stomach tighten

He just nods once, like that’s to be expected. “Yeah. I get that.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

I breathe out a long-held breath. “Good. And we have the rules.”

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