Avriel Kaplan: Well dressed, well groomed, beautifully handsome, quiet and brooding and exactly the kind of man Ariel Declan doesn't need to know. But, that is not for her to decide.
Alexander Kirk: wickedly handsome, well known and well liked, egot...
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"Please. Don't open those." Ariel shrieked and spun herself around to face the owner of the voice. She already knew who it was. How did he wind up in her room and when did he come in? Was that not a dream last night? Her mind raced and her back stiffened as she turned. He was sitting in the shadows in the same chair that she saw him sitting in the night before. He was sitting forward with his elbows on his knees and hands together touching only at his fingertips. His eyes were locked on her. She could feel the weight of his full attention upon her skin and her cheeks flushed. She squirmed under it. He was a very intense being.
Ariel took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. It was just Avriel, yet he somehow didn't look quite himself. She needed to see him. She had so many questions for him. "How? When?" They were the only words that would exit her mouth.
"Do you not remember?" Avriel asked quietly.
"Clearly not." Her words dripped sarcasm.
"It's probably better that way. You had a night terror. You were screaming incoherently. I thought someone was trying to kill you. I found you tangled in the blankets on the floor beside the bed. I made sure you were breathing, picked you up and tucked you in. Then I sat here." He looked up at her as she approached him. He sat back in the chair.
"You've been here all night?" She looked at him not quite believing him.
"Yes."
"Something else happened last night," she accused. He masked his shame. "I don't remember leaving the bathroom. I don't remember walking over here to you. What happened? Why were you sorry?"
"I am still sorry, please forgive me."
"I can't forgive you if I don't know what I am supposed to forgive you for." She knelt on the floor in front of him. Her eyes trapped his. He could not look away if he wanted to, he didn't want to. "What did you do that was so wrong that you left like that. Left me here with that Mrs. Prim."
"Primrose." He quietly corrected.
"Prim, Mrs. Prim as in prim and proper." Her anger flared thinking about it. She felt he had abandoned her. "Did you know, she thinks I am a prostitute." She couldn't hold her fear, anger, and insecurities in any longer. "A fucking prostitute, Avriel." She still held his eyes with hers, they scorched him. "Just how many women do you bring here? Am I to be one of your conquests?" Images of all the different women that left on Avriel's arm flew in her face. She turned violently away from him and took several steps away.
She didn't hear him move. She felt his hand firm on her elbow as he turned her to face him. He was angry. His green eyes were ringed in crimson, absolutely beautiful, and a small vein pulsed on his forehead and neck, yet she could have easily withdrawn her arm from his light grasp.
"I can assure you she doesn't think you are a prostitute," he said through clenched teeth. "I have never paid for sex. No one has ever serviced me. Women are not possessions. I don't have any conquests and I have never brought anyone here. You are the first. I can clearly see that it was a mistake." His anger stung her and scared her more than a little. She could feel it pulsing through her body as they exchanged their energies through their skin contact. He didn't bother with hiding his mind from her. She saw herself weak and crying, a whimpering mess, tangled in the blankets on the floor beside the big bed. She saw his hands as he picked her up carefully after and cradled her in his arms until her hitching and crying stopped. Why couldn't she remember that? She saw as he lay her gently on the big bed and covered her up. She watched her own face as she settled back into a peaceful slumber. There was a brief darkness and an amazing warmth. Then she saw the room as he saw while he walked to the chair and sat down and watched her sleep. She felt a very strong and curious emotion flowing through him as he looked at her sleeping form. Then he closed his mind.
"Did you see?" He asked aloud, anger still flowing in him. She nodded and bit her lip. It was her turn to apologize.
"I'm so sorry," she all but sobbed. "I'm not a mistake. It's just all those women at the bar and the way she looked at me like she didn't approve of me somehow." She felt very vulnerable and raw. She never gave this much of herself to anyone, so why him? "You don't have to tell me. I don't need to know. I forgive you. I could forgive you anything. Please. I don't want to be angry. I don't want you to be mad at me. Let's not fight." Tears were streaming down her lovely face. Avriel was at a complete loss as to what to do. She solved that problem for him as she stepped to him and wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest as she had at the bar. He hesitated for a very small moment before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gently pulled her to him. He rested his bearded cheek on the top of her head and just held her until her crying stopped.
"I didn't mean to say that. You are my choice. You are not a mistake. You never will be." His voice was soft and warm and comfortable again. "I simply escorted them to their cars or Ubers if they had been drinking. I have never done more than that. I swear. I didn't mean to hurt you. To. To make you cry. I'm sorry."
"You say that a lot, don't you?"
"More to you than anyone."
"You are only human. We make mistakes."
"Am I?"
"Aren't you?"
"No. I'm something else. That is what happened and why I left." She didn't move from his arms. She was soft, warm, entirely human, and extremely tempting to him. Good Lord, what had he gotten himself into?
