Page 69 of One Time in Paris
She cringed. Mason had a good heart and was a loyal friend, but she wanted to smack him.
“Mason, I say this with all the kindness in my heart, but this really doesn’t involve you. Or Callum. It’s no one’s business but Aiden’s and mine. We’re getting an annulment, and then the whole thing will cease to be an issue. Callum won’t know that you knew because we won’t tell him—either about the marriageoryou knowing. And that will be it. Life will carry on as normal.”
Mason tensed, looking from Aiden to Isla, then back to Aiden. “I?—”
“Don’t you think Isla should have the final say in all this? It’sherfamily, mate. You’re threatening her privacy with her own brother,” Aiden said, crossing his arms.
A few more tense beats of silence as the three of them squared off, Mason twisting with discomfort.
Then a French door opened, and Quinn popped his head out. “Everything all right?” he gave them a curious look.
“Brilliant,” Aiden breathed under his breath, then offered Quinn a disarming smile. “Yes, why wouldn’t it be?”
“You all look like you’re having a serious discussion, that’s all.” Quinn held a dirty diaper in one hand and leaned against the door handle with the other. “Not to mention you’re all out here.”
“Oh, they just distracted me on the way back to the guesthouse,” Isla said, taking a few steps away. “I’ll be over there in a few.”
Quinn nodded, then glanced at the diaper. “I should throw this out,” he said, then slipped back inside.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Isla said to Mason with a sharp look. “But I’m warning you, Mason. Don’t you dare think of telling Callum anything. If anyone is going to talk to him, it’s going to be me, understood?”
Mason raised both brows as though startled by this side of her. Then he nodded. “Fair enough.”
She didn’t give Aiden another glance as she stalked away. She couldn’t afford to. Mason already knew too much. If he caught even the slightest hint of flirtation between them, it would only make things exponentially worse.
But as she slipped into the guesthouse and closed the door behind her, she caught the tremble of her fingers against the doorknob.
Mason wasn’t entirely wrong. Too many people knew enough about her and Aiden—Callum could find out.
And somehow, that still didn’t make her want Aiden any less.
But she needed to figure out a way to break this to Callum—if there was a way. How could she tell Callum that she no longer saw one of his best friends, someone they’d both known since childhood, as a platonic friend? That she’d crossed that line and wanted to keep crossing it ...over and over?
She closed her eyes, the sizzle of hot lust curling through her as she thought of Aiden’s kiss the night before. Her thighs clenched, her jaw squeezing tight.
Maybe it was a crush.
Maybe one taste,one night, would be enough to satisfy whatever attraction kept pulling them together.
But one thing was for certain: staying away from Aiden wasn’t an option.
23
AIDEN
“So, you lasted one class?”Mason asked Elle’s friend Taryn across the large, farmhouse-style dining room table.
Taryn laughed, shifting her weight forward as she lifted the glass of red wine beside her plate. “I lastedten minutes, Mason. I went into that one class, decided I’d rather stab my eyeballs out with a fork than listen to an entire lecture on statistics, and walked right out.” Taryn shrugged. “Went right over to the guidance office, switched my major to dance, and never looked back.”
“What I can’t understand,” Quinn said as he leaned back into his chair, “is how you possibly thought you could have done economics in the first place. You’re a natural performer.”
That was putting it mildly. Aiden had seen Taryn dance on more than one occasion—both on stage with Elle, when his sister-in-law still performed in public—though that was getting rarer these days—and at private functions like Elle and Quinn’s wedding in Costa Rica. The beautiful Black woman owned any stage she walked on. She had presence in spades.
Taryn set her napkin beside her plate. “Maybe, but my parents wanted me to do something in STEM. They thought a degree in the arts was useless and gave me hell for it. Now they’ve come around.” She winked at Elle. “Helps that Heartbeats has grown so much. They don’t worry about me not being able to pay the bills anymore with the steady income of the dance studio.”
“Not to mention that you’re a co-owner of a highly successful business,” Elle said with a proud nod.
“I’m jealous, I have to admit,” Isla said from her seat beside Elle. “I miss the performing arts so much. Of course, in my case, no one really fought me when I tried to pursue them, so I suppose I had it easier.”
