[Aurora Rothschild]
"Thank you, Rhett," I said as he placed me down on my bed.
He cleared his throat "I'm sorry for what happened, Aurora."
A deep sigh left my mouth "It was quite disappointing because I thought money wasn't what you cared about."
Rhett immediately shook his head "No, I don't care about it at all, Aurora," a frown appeared upon his face. "It was a stupid comment I made to—" he seemed frustrated with himself "each of my sisters are so successful with bright secured futures and I'm just the failed brother who teaches six-year-olds to read."
A frown appeared upon my face "You're not a failure, Rhett; teaching little kids is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and probably the one in which you can change the most lives. Have you ever thought that a baby from your class might want to be a teacher just because of you? Or that girls feel like they can grow up to be anything they want because you encourage them? The impact you make on people is what's valuable in the end—I'm not going to pretend that money isn't essential for a good quality of life and opportunities but it's not everything. I haven't worked for 99% of my fortune which is one of the major reasons why I don't like talking about it."
The man took a deep breath; I know he's beyond ashamed "It won't happen again; it was a stupid mistake on my behalf. You don't have to forgive me."
A chuckle left my mouth "Of course I forgive you, handsome, just don't ever do it again."
"I won't," he took my hands and pecked the back of them. "What do you say we play a board game or should I start lunch already?"
My lips curved into a smile "Let's play some board games and then we can make lunch together even if I'll be of no help."
We played a lot of Monopoly, like four hours of Monopoly and then decided that we were actually going to order something to eat so we could rest. Rhett put the board game away and came to sit on the bed whilst he looked through the Netflix catalog.
"Rhett?"
"Yeah?" He glanced at me over his shoulder.
I cleared my throat, trying to shake away the nervousness "Why don't you lie down beside me? I mean, we can cuddle if you want or if you're more comfortable there—"
"No, I want cuddle with you," he quickly kicked off his shoes and crawled to my side. The man wrapped his arm around me and I immediately leaned against him "Was that too far?" He asked, making me chuckle.
"No, it's perfect," my hand fell on his chest "This is lovely Rhett."
Rhett softly chuckled "This reminds me of the night of the day I helped you move," his hand was caressing my arm. "Do you remember how we just lay on the floor and fell asleep talking?"
A grin appeared on my lips as I relived it in my head "Yeah, we woke up and you were late for work. I picked you up after it and we had a lovely lunch here on this bed."
"It was a lovely time with a lovely girl," his words caused me to look up at him. "Aurora Rothschild you are incredibly beautiful," my cheeks turned hot as his right hand raised to trace my jawline with our eyes locked. "I really want to kiss you, Aurora."
"Please kiss me," I gripped his sweater to pull him closer "I've been waiting for you to kiss me."
Rhett smiled "Okay darling," he leaned down to peck my lips then pulled away to look at me, leaving me hungry for more than just a peck, teasing me with electricity.
I climbed on top of him, ignoring the stinging of my wound "That's not the kiss I needed after months of waiting."
The man chuckled, gently caressing my thighs "Then show me the kind of kiss you want, beautiful."
I unbuttoned my jeans "Does that give you an idea?"
Rhett's smile grew into a grin "Definitely."
I leaned down to join our lips in a soft kiss that quickly escalated to his hands slithering to my ass and my hands slipping inside his sweater to feel his skin against mine "Mhh," I moaned, pulling away to take off his sweater.
"Wait wait, Aurora," Rhett stopped me.
I frowned "What is it? I'm not wearing my glasses am I?" My hands raised to touch my face.
"No no, it's not that," he showed me a smile. "Even if you were I don't mind but I want to ask you if you're really sure we should take this step."
My cheeks turned hot "I mean, don't you want to?"
The man nodded "Yes, I want to but do you want to? Don't you think we should wait longer? I don't want us to rush into anything, beautiful, you don't need to do this to keep me interested..."
He's referring to a talk we had during those days we spent together; I confessed to him that I always have sex with men right away to keep them interested.
"I promise I wasn't always like this," I looked down at my fidgety fingers. "With Sebastian it never felt like that but then after him, I couldn't seem to keep guys interested or maybe it was all me...I don't know but somehow I knew I had to let them fuck me when it pleased them so they would at least come back for that. After a couple of guys I met Russo and you know how that went and then Clark but you also know how that went," a nervous chuckle left my mouth. "All of them lost interest in me because I was simply not enough and I don't know how to be enough—"
"Darling, you are enough; they're the problem, not you," he took my hands as our eyes locked. "You've had a rather hard time with problematic men but that doesn't make you the problem."
My eyes filled with tears instantly "Nobody had told me I am enough in such a long time...the last person who said it to me was my granddaddy," my lower lip quivered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry because now I'm crying—"
Rhett frowned as he wrapped his arms around me to hold me closely "Cry as much as you need, Aurora, I'm staying right here with you."
And just like that, the tears commenced to pour out of my eyes without any heads up whatsoever. I guess I've held more than I thought over the years.
[Rhett Carter]
Aurora cried in my arms for thirty minutes, she didn't apologise again which I was so happy for; she needs to be unapologetic about her feelings.
We've been watching Sex & the City for two hours now and Samantha is Aurora's favourite, what she doesn't know is that I've watched this show over and over again — my sisters showed it to me when it originally came out.
"I hate how Carrie treats her," I commented as Samantha, the character that's open about her sex life and my favourite, was being shamed by the main character Carrie for blowing a guy in her office.
"Wait, have you seen this before?" Aurora gazed up at me with a light smile.
I nodded "I have; Samantha was ahead of her time."
Her smile grew "Right? She is everything I've always wanted to be."
"Same; her confidence is unmatched and I love that."
"I love it too," Aurora giggled. "Do you want to eat some crisps? I have lots in the pantry."
I nodded "I'll go get them; want one in specific?"
"Cape Cod," she replied "please," Aurora sat up. "Oh and could you bring me some tomato juice too?"
"Absolutely," I jumped out of bed and made my way to the kitchen. "What do you want to have for lunch?!" I asked.
"Risotto, I can teach you how to make it!" She shouted.
I grinned "Absolutely!" I have cooked risotto before but I really want her to teach me her way because it's most likely a thousand times better than my technique.
Once I had all the snacks in my hands, I went back to bed with her...it feels nice to say that someone is waiting for me in bed, even more so because it's a person who I fancy very much.
[Aurora Rothschild]
"And then we keep on adding the chicken stock then lightly stirring it until the stock disappears, and then more stock until we get it to the right consistency," I explained as Rhett sat across from me, looking closely to my moves. "Want to try it?"
"I'm good right here," he showed me a big dashing smile. "Is this from your grandma's recipe book?"
"No," I replied as I softly smiled "this is the only thing my grandpa knew how to cook and I loved watching him so that's how I learned how to make it."
"Is it your favorite meal?"
"Yeah," I looked at him through my lashes, trying to ease my nerves. "Have you ever cooked for a date?"
He nodded "Yeah but only simple things, nothing like this risotto," Rhett picked up his glass to take a sip of his red wine.
I chuckled "Rhett, do you remember the last day we spoke before I left?"
The man assented "Yeah. I hadn't had that good of a time in months, why?"
"Well, we talked about how your knuckles were bruised when we first met and you said we would one day talk about it...do you want to talk about it now?"
Rhett straightened on his place "Are you sure you want to know? You will probably not like it and tell me it's bad for me."
My right eyebrow arched "Okay, now you're scaring me but I'm still intrigued and I do want to know; I highly doubt it's bad — I mean, you teach little kids."
"Every Friday and Saturday I—" he took a deep breath "I go to underground fights and, well, fight."
I grinned "Is that how everyone calls MMA fighting these days?"
Rhett kept a straight face "I'm not joking Aurora."
"Oh," my smile quickly disappeared "well, I mean, all I know is that bets are placed...do you do it for money or—"
"Not at all," he softly chuckled. "I don't know, um, I guess it has to do with my unresolved abandonment issues."
I frowned "Come here."
"Why?"
"Because I can't walk, Rhett; come here," I turned down the heat.
The man walked around the kitchen island to stand beside me with an arched eyebrow "What—"
My arms laced around his torso to hold him tightly "I know your mom probably told you this already so I don't know if this counts, but I'm not leaving you behind, Rhett, I promise."
Rhett's arms wrapped around my shoulders to hug me close "No one had ever said that to me."