Page 94 of Betrayal (Corrupt Empire 1)

“Five hours? Did you wait outside for me that whole time?”

“Yes.”

“Aiden… why?”

“I had to. What if you saw them again? I can’t listen to you screaming like that.”

I hugged him tighter. He’d stayed to make sure I was okay. How did I remotely deserve that? And here he was trying to get me warm again.

“I didn’t know you cared,” I mumbled into his chest.

“You just haven’t been paying attention.”

He stroked my back, his fingers soothing.

“Are you hungry? You haven’t eaten.”

I was, but he’d done enough for me.

“Yes, but you’ve not eaten either. I don’t want you to have to make me something though.”

“I was thinking of ordering in.”

I pulled away from his chest and looked up at him. Aiden never did takeaways, at least not since I’d been here.

“Really?”

“What do you want?”

I thought about it for a moment.

“Is it so terrible that I want to lie in bed with you and eat pizza?”

He laughed. The rumble of his chest against mine vibrating my insides.

“No, it’s not.”

Aiden ordered in from a local family run pizza place nearby and set up his laptop, putting a film on whilst we ate. It felt like we were doing something normal for once.

He held me whilst we sat up in bed and dotted my nose with tomato sauce at one point. And he licked it off. His face being so close to mine made my blood thunder in my ears. I’d never wanted to kiss someone so much in my life. I wanted his lips on mine, to taste him and have him take me under.

Those urges didn’t go away, even after the film was done and I curled up by his side, my arm wrapped around his waist. I wasn’t sure if I could fall asleep, but the exhaustion of the day caught up with me and I drifted off.

The very next thing I knew, I was screaming and Aiden was holding me so tightly I couldn’t breathe.

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