Fugitive (Misty) Read online

  This seemed to be a routine for about three weeks of living with the boys. I still hadn’t seen Casey again in three weeks. I had no idea what kind of job he could possibly have that he kept those hours, but I was sure he was avoiding me. I asked Aiden while I was posing for him if he could arrange for Casey and me to talk so that I could clear the air between us.

  Aiden put his paintbrush down and gave me this pained look. “You can’t talk to Casey because he’s not ready yet, but there’s something you can talk to me about. It’s something we all discussed.”

  I gulped and shifted on the couch I was posing on. They were going to ask me to leave. I tried to make it work and I didn’t. I’d never find another place like this to stay, but I could go back to my original plan of seedy motels.

  “We all want more time with you,” Aiden said.

  I was so wrapped up in the thought of them not wanting me here, his comment didn’t sink in right away. “Wait, what?”

  “You’re spending a few hours a day with all of us. We’ve all come to treasure the few hours a day we get with you, but we’re all sad when it ends. We all have set days off except Gareth. Would you be opposed to spending our days off with us? Andre has Saturday and Sunday off. My days off are Money and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday can be for Gareth and if Casey ever decides to face you, we’ll figure something out for him.”

  “I thought Casey didn’t like me? That’s the whole reason I haven’t seen him.”

  “Casey is a bit intimidating. No one stands up to Casey except us. You intrigued him when you cursed him out at the restaurant. Casey’s been avoiding you because he doesn’t know what to do with you. I think he liked it when you cursed him out,” Aiden said, chuckling.

  “But I was drunk and you know what happened after I cursed him out! He should be running in the other direction. You all should have after that.”

  “Ah, Misty. Even swearing and puking, you’re adorable when you’re drunk. Casey took you home in his car and we all picked your room for you and put you to bed. There was this huge argument over who was going to stay with you in case you vomited again. I only won because I knew you a little longer than the others and we didn’t know how you were going to react when you woke up at our house.”

  I just blinked and stared at Aiden. “So, you all want an entire day with me because I’m adorable when I’m drunk?”

  “No, Misty. We all want to get to know you better and we have fun with you. You’ve got this hot pinup girl look and you’re sexy when you’re posing for me, but most of the time, you’re just low key and fun to be around. And you’re adorable when you’re not drunk too. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. If it puts you off we’re all interested in spending more time with you, we’ll back off and just do what we’ve been doing.”

  Three hot guys were interested in getting to know me better? I didn’t count Casey. I still thought he hated me or I would have seen him by now. I was interested in getting to know them better too, but probably not how they wanted to get to know me. I liked Aiden and his appreciation for beauty and art. I liked his easy going personality. I liked Gareth and his dirty jokes. I liked his critiques on movies and how he would argue with me if our opinions differed, then he would crack jokes no matter how heated our argument got. I liked Andre and his abilities in the kitchen. I liked watching his elegant hands julienne vegetables then watch him totally cut loose playing video games.

  I liked all of these guys and I shouldn’t want to get to know them better the way I was. It was just going to bring drama or heartbreak. They probably didn’t want to get to know me that way anyway. I was probably just another one of the boys to them.

  Chapter 7

  Aiden told me they all wanted a full day with me on a Monday and I agreed. We would start on Tuesday, which was his day off. He just told me when I woke up, to just knock on his door and walk in. I’d never been in any of the boy’s bedrooms before, much less being in there alone with one of them. I thought this was probably just a friend zone thing, but I showered and changed clothes five times before I settled on an outfit. Since I couldn’t leave the house, I had done some online shopping to replace the clothes I left behind.

  Aiden said he liked my gray eyes, so when I was doing my makeup, I played them up. I didn’t know if we were eating breakfast or not, so I walked into the kitchen first. Instead of being bustling with Andre cooking and Gareth joking, it was totally empty. The coffee machine was on and there was a note from Andre he left me breakfast in the oven. He went all out and I ate slowly, nervous about spending time with Aiden. Aiden hadn’t come out and joined me yet.

  I nervously walked down the hall to his bedroom. I knew his room was two doors down from mine. He’d only been in my bedroom once, the night he was worried I would vomit. I hadn’t been in his bedroom at all. He had a separate studio he painted in that I posed for him in. He said to just knock and walk in, but I just knocked.

  I didn’t hear anything on the other side of the door. I stood out there and knocked for five minutes, wondering if Aiden was playing a game. He said his bedroom, not the studio this time. I decided to be brave and opened the door a crack. I didn’t see him, so I just walked in. My mouth dropped when I saw his room.

  He had paintings all over the walls and I knew he must have done them himself. They weren’t like his tattoos or the paintings I saw in his studio. These looked like Renaissance paintings. The furniture and bedding all matched the artwork on the walls. When I looked up, he had painted murals on the ceilings like they had done in the churches we visited when my father took us to Italy.

  I forgot about Aiden and where he was for a minute. I just stood there in the center of the room gaping at the ceiling. I heard a noise behind me and whirled around. My mouth fell right open again when I was staring at Aiden wearing nothing but a towel. He was still wet and he was toweling his shaggy brown hair off with a towel. He stopped when he saw me and we both just stared at each other.

  I couldn’t help my eyes traveling over his body. His muscular chest was covered in tattoos. I didn’t know if I wanted to stare at that or the V of his hips as they disappeared under the towel and wonder what was under it. I was practically eating Aiden with my eyes and I didn’t care what he thought.

  He finally grinned at me. “Sorry, Misty. I thought I had time to take a shower before you made it in here. Can you turn your back so I can put clothes on?”

  I cleared my throat, finally bringing my gaze up to his eyes. “Yes, please do.”

  I could hear the rustling behind me as he put on clothes. I whispered a little prayer, I don’t know to who, that when he turned around, he was hiding in baggy clothing for once. No such luck. When he asked me to turn around, he was wearing black jogging pants slung low on his hips and no shirt. His hair was still dripping on his chest.

  I couldn’t help the moan that escaped my mouth. “You forgot your shirt why?”

  He grinned and strode over to me like a huge, tattooed panther. His finger stroked my lower lip. “Because I liked your reaction when you saw me in a towel,” he said huskily.

  “Did you plan that?”

  “Happy accident. Same as me being in the salon the day you walked in for a change. I’m so glad you stayed.”

  “You want me looking at you like that?”

  “Oh, Misty. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but we all do. That’s why we asked for more time with you.”

  I didn’t even correct him on my name again. He always slipped and I always corrected him. “But that’s insane! I should leave before I cause problems with your friendship.”

  I moved to march out his room and pack, even though I didn’t want to, but he caught me and pulled me into a huge bear hug. I was pressed against his chest and I could smell his body wash. It was some sort of frankincense and myrrh combination and it was so sexy on him. I knew I should be pulling away and running out that door, but I felt so safe in his arms even if I knew this was going to end badly.

  “Mis
ty, you won’t. We talked this out like we talk out all our issues. If you want one of us or none of us, we will accept it and things will go back to the way they always were. No one will hold it against you if you don’t pick them and we won’t fight.”

  “How do you know it’ll end that way? How do you know this isn’t going to end in disaster?”

  “Easy. We all grew up together. You’re the first girl all of us have been interested in, but you’re not the first more than one of us have been interested in. Casey and Gareth were interested in the same girl in high school. She picked Casey. Gareth moved on and you can see we’re all still friends.”

  “Casey is still avoiding me,” I pointed out. “That was high school and that girl wasn’t living under the same roof as you. Gareth didn’t have to think about them having sex right in the next bedroom.”

  “Casey was a part of the conversation too. Trust me, Casey is interested too, he’s just got some issues he’s working through. Me and the boys have been friends since kindergarten. We’ve been interested in the same girls a few times and it’s never driven a wedge between us. If you can tell me now you’re not legitimately interested to see where it goes with any of us, we’ll all drop it.”

  That was the problem. “I can’t say that, Aiden. I’m still scared this is going to end in disaster.”

  “Don’t worry about hurting our feelings. We’re big boys.”

  In more ways than one. They were all over six-foot-tall and ripped with muscle. And I was still thinking about what was underneath Aiden’s towel while still worrying about hurting his feelings.

  “So, what do you have planned for me today?” I asked. I was still sure this was going to blow up in all our faces. I really liked all of them and didn’t want to choose. Maybe if I spent the time they were wanting with them, I actually could pick one. I was still pressed against Aiden’s chest and he hadn’t let go of me yet. He tilted my chin up to his.

  “I’d like to kiss you. May I?”

  He didn’t need to ask permission. Between the smell of his body wash and the feel of his body against mine, he could have ripped off all my clothes and taken me on the floor and I wouldn’t be mad at him. He looked so unsure of himself, like a lost little puppy. I wasn’t normally an aggressive person. You wouldn’t think that by the reason I was hiding in the first place or the fact that I ran away when I was sixteen. I was only aggressive in making deals at work.

  I was aggressive with Aiden now. I grabbed the back of his neck and crushed his lips to mine. His beard tickled my chin and his tongue parted my lips to caress mine. His hands went to the back of my neck to tangle in my hair. I’d never been kissed like this before and my knees were getting weak. I wanted more of him. I still wanted to know what was under the towel. My hand trailed down his abs, loving the bumps of his muscles, but he caught my hand before I got to the waist of his jogging pants.

  “Sorry, Misty. One of the rules we agreed on was no sex until you’ve decided. You can’t get into my pants.”

  Was he seriously going to kiss me like that then tell me no? Is this what was going to happen with all of them? I was going to have to buy a vibrator online for when I was alone if it was like this with all of them.

  “You’re adorable when you pout, Misty. We said no sex, but I’m not going to torture you. I think this is more torture for all of us.”

  He lifted me up in the air and I wrapped my legs around his waist. His hands cupped my ass and squeezed. He growled at me as he walked over to the bed. “Did anyone ever tell you that you have a dancer’s ass?”

  “Ballet lessons until I was sixteen,” I said. Now that I was close, I was nibbling on his earlobe. I had no idea what he had planned for me and I didn’t care. I hoped he ripped my clothes off and just went for it.

  He didn’t. He placed me on the bed gently and laid to the side of me. I wanted him on top of me and he had stopped kissing me. He stroked my hair and looked down at me.

  “I loved your red hair when I saw you in the salon, but you pull off the pinup girl so well. You looked like this angel with the red hair and now you pull off sultry and cute at the same time.”

  “I didn’t think you noticed me and I was wondering what a huge, sexy tattooed man was doing getting a pedicure.”

  Aiden chuckled. “It’s something to pass the time while I was for my granny. Andre gets manicures, but mainly because he’s a little vain.”

  “Don’t insult your friends around me, Aiden.”

  Aiden looked surprised. “I’m not. Even Andre will tell you he’s a peacock about his appearance. You’ll see.”

  “You have me in your bed. What do you intend to do with me?” I asked.

  “So impatient, Misty,” he said stroking my cheek. He’d been calling me Misty since I walked in and I hadn’t corrected him. I knew why I needed to, but I liked hearing my real name in his deep baritone voice. Maybe he could call me Misty in private and Tasha in front of the others. Did I want the others to know my real name too?

  He didn’t seem to want to kiss me or do any of the things I was wanting to do. Maybe it was against their rules. I decided to change the subject. “Your ceiling is beautiful.”

  “Thank you, but I don’t think you want to talk about painting right now.”

  “Well, you have me for the whole day and I don’t know what you want.”

  “Well, we are going to have to discuss your limits before we talk about what I want.”

  “Aiden!” I sighed. “I know you won’t have sex with me, but you smell good and I want to kiss you again. I want to touch you.”

  Aiden chuckled and gave me a quick peck on the lips. “And I want to touch you. But how much of you can I touch today?”

  I wasn’t having this conversation. I got aggressive again. I’d never been this way with men before ever. My sex life had mostly been boring until right this minute in this room. I’d never wanted anyone so badly. I rolled Aiden on his back and straddled him. He groaned and grabbed my hips when I kissed him deeply and ground against his hips. I could feel him through his thin jogging pants. He was long and thick.

  Aiden pulled my hair when I started nibbling on his neck. “I didn’t think you would be like this, Misty, but I like it. If you want to be in control, we can do that.”

  I’d never been in control during sex before. This was new to me, but I liked it. I could do whatever I wanted to Aiden except for sex. I trailed my fingers down his muscles and littered them with kisses. I sat up, still grinding my hips against his erection.

  “Take your pants off, Aiden,” I demanded. “I’ve wanted to see what was under that towel since you came out of the bathroom.”

  “Are you sure—”

  “Pants off, Aiden!” I said, climbing off him.

  He was out of his pants in seconds and I could finally see what he was hiding under that towel. It was erect now and bigger than anything I’d been with before. He was long and thick and I desperately wanted to have sex with him right that minute.

  “Now that you have my pants off, what do you want to do now, Misty?”

  I liked this. He was asking what I wanted and doing whatever I ordered. I pushed him on his back. I couldn’t have him inside me, but I could have him in my mouth. I wanted to show Aiden how much I appreciated him bringing me here. I took the tip in my mouth and swirled it with my tongue. I could taste him and took his entire shaft down my throat.

  Aiden drew in a hissing breath. “Shit, Misty.”

  I took as much of him as I could into my mouth and started working him. Aiden’s hands found my hair again and I liked it when he pulled it. I was working him faster than I had ever done this before. He was moaning my name, my real name, and he was having trouble staying still.

  “Misty! Stop! It’s going to happen in your mouth.”

  What he didn’t know was that I wanted it to. I never let up on my speed or pressure until I felt hot liquid hit the back of my throat. I didn’t stop until I had the last of it and sat back proud of myself. I
looked over at Aiden and he looked totally dazed. He had his hand on his forehead and his face was flushed.

  “Holy shit, Misty. I wasn’t expecting that today.”

  I crawled back up and nestled myself into his chest. He wrapped his strong arms around me. I rubbed my face in his neck because I loved his smell.

  “I wanted to show you how much I appreciated you bringing me here.”

  “You must be thanking me a lot if you just did that.”

  “I knew I wanted to as soon as I saw you in that towel dripping wet.”

  “May I return the favor?”

  I had been in control this entire time, but I was almost in pain I was so turned on from what we had done. I needed him, even if we didn’t have sex. I wanted whatever he had planned to return the favor.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  As quickly as I took control, I relinquished it to Aiden. This time, it was him ordering me to take my clothes off. He didn’t want me to do it like he did it. He wanted me to turn my back and do it slowly so he could watch. I’d never done a strip tease before, but I tried to give him what he wanted. By the time I was naked and turned back around, he was already back at attention and I was hoping he would break his no sex rule.

  As rough and fast as I was with Aiden, he was slow and gentle with me. He kissed every part of me, including every single one of my toes before kissing his way up my thighs. He was right at the apex of my thighs and I parted my legs willingly. He still looked up at me and asked me if it was okay.

  “Aiden, I’m literally going to die if you don’t.”

  He gave me this evil grin. “In that case…”

  He dove right in, licking hard and fast. His hands were huge and I felt two large fingers slide into me. He was working me with his fingers and mouth and I’d never felt anything like this before. My college boyfriend didn’t do oral sex and I didn’t really date much after college. It felt like my entire body was on fire and I was sure the entire house could hear me screaming.