Emilia ✔️ NOW PUBLISHED!

56

♥️

After changing and eating breakfast, Aiden leads us to the basement through the secret passageway. I can't believe he's going to teach me to fight after arguing about it last night.

This labryinth in the walls that I wasnt aware of stilll confuses me, we have a regular basement with stairs leading from the living room but I had no idea of the secret area. "Is there no other way down here?"

He covers my hand with his as we descend the stairs, "Yes, there's another way out."

I trail my fingers over the stone tunnel as we walk through, wall lanterns light everything in golden hues. "Can you show me?"

"Soon." His tone is clipped, but then he gives me a smile.

I bite my lip as we walk past the sauna, remembering the night we shared at the charity ball. Fear, love, want, so many emotions were experienced that night.

Finally, we reach an archway leading to a state-of-the-art gym. "Woah." I say, taking in all of the equipment around the room. It is completely surrounded by mirrors. Aiden immediately begins grabbing weights and placing them on a bar.

Winking, he gestures over to a rack with mats. "I want you to stretch, I'm going to warm up for a minute. I have to work off the delicious breakfast you made me."

I smile, grabbing a mat and beginning to stretch my stiff muscles.

With Aiden shirtless, and lifting the weight loaded bar above his head with ease I have trouble concentrating. Eventually, I get into the rhythm of stretching and doing some yoga poses my mom taught me.

A loud clank hits the ground. "Did you really feel it necessary to wear yoga pants?" Aiden asks, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth.

I wiggle a bit while I bend down, "Am I distracting you?" I ask, trying to get out of stretching and into the fighting part.

His tongue darts from his mouth to lick his lips, "Every fucking day." He stalks towards me, then shakes his head holding up a finger and waving it in the air. "I know what you're doing, Emilia. It's not going to work." He smirks when I sigh.

I gesture around the room, feeling ready for whatever if I can't get out of it. "So what weights do I need?"

He wipes his hands, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a swig. "None of them, we're going outside."

"Why did we come to the gym then?"

He stretches his long arms above his head, his muscles contorting in a delicious way. "Because, darling. You don't need to lift weights, you need hand to hand combat. I needed to get warmed up and you needed to stretch."

He re racks the weights while I fold up the mat and place it back on the shelf. Aiden surprises me with a slap on the ass. "And if I see you bending over in those pants anymore, I'm going to fuck you for the rest of the day and we need to train."

I roll my eyes playfully at him, following his movements as we turn right out of the gym area instead of the original way that we came. He notices my confusion, "Showing you the other exit."

We reach a locked door and Aiden pulls a key ring from his basketball shorts, unlocking three bolts he opens the heavy door and ushers me out to a large clearing.

"This is beautiful!" I say, looking around at the space. The leaves have been gone for a while now and all that lays in the meadow is dead grass and bare trees, but it's still hauntingly breathtaking. During spring, this will be my oasis.

Aiden walks out a ways, getting into a fighting stance. Still shirtless and heart-wrenchingly beautiful, I feel my heart pound in my chest when he bends his knees and beckons me with a finger, "Come at me."