After so much shopping, Aidan wanted to puke out his breakfast. He was already regretting his decision to use Nathalie to test Kate; it was such a stupid plan anyway but it was working. The day before, he had heard everything and had enjoyed every minute of her discomfort but he had discovered one thing.
Kate would never admit to loving him because she was too moralistic for that. And by the way Kate had behaved yesterday, he was damned sure that she returned his feelings and had decided to confront her. The jealousy game was working but he could wait no longer. They had only two weeks and four days left and he had to take a decision as soon as possible.
But Kate had been nowhere to be seen that morning. Not even for breakfast. When he had politely broached the subject, he had learnt that she had gone out with her father. It was then he remembered she was supposed to be vetting the food arrangement as Judith had asked her yesterday.
Impatient, he paced on the alley of the garden waiting for her when he heard his name resonate in the castle. Which was not a trivial thing as the castle was quite big. Who the hell was looking for him just when he wanted to talk to Kate? As he made his way towards the castle, he felt his phone ring in his pocket and identified the caller as Ryce.
Swiping the screen from left to right, he picked up and before he had the time to greet a hello, Ryce was in a frenzied state.
“Where are you? I found something I need to show you now.”
“I’m in the garden,” he replied. “I’m coming inside the house,” he replied almost in front of the door but stopped as Ryce instructed him not to move as he will be joining him in the garden soon. Hell, he was not going to be able to bear another shocker; it had better be something positive.
On the edge, his eyes fixed the door and Ryce finally came to him in hurried steps heaving with effort. “I’ve been looking for you all over the house, dude!” he said breathlessly making his way towards him.
“What’s the matter?” Aidan asked him when he almost reached him.
“Guess what I found in one of her books?” he whispered to him and as he came closer, Aidan could now see that he was holding a paper in his hand.
Too impatient to play the guess game, he snatched it from him as soon as he was within reach and time stopped as he read what was in the paper. It was another poem. Although not addressed to him this time, he had the irrevocable confirmation that Kate had written it for him.
For all those years… I have loved you always
So deep, so true… Only to be left unloved in so many ways
Sometimes it seems so long ago…That everything appears in a blur
Sometimes, the memories around…Are so vivid that I still suffer
Sometimes, I wish you could not live without me…Sometimes, I wish I could live without you
Sometimes, I wish I didn’t love you so…Sometimes, I wish you did love me true
You haven’t realized my worth...And it makes the pain invincible
I feel like a ghost….Haunting you, yet invisible
It seems to be part of my fate…You were never destined to be my mate
I still can’t take it….Just have to live with it
Oh hell, what wonderful words! His heart was a mass of emotions as he re-read the words over and over again. It was the same intense feelings as before; that someone loved him so much that it made him want to believe in love. So many emotions could not be fake. And it was Kate after all his secret admirer.
His little Kate had loved him so much and still loved him so much that even if he wanted he could not feel anything for her except respect and admiration. She had never confessed her feelings because the situation had never been in their favor. Not six years ago, not now.
And he felt her pain through the words she had written as if it were his own. Loving someone so profoundly and not being able to express it must have been painful. And that must be why she had believed never to find love as she had stated yesterday. Because she had believed that he loved Jennifer and would never love her back. Oh, what a mess!
“Stop worrying, mate!” Ryce told him. “You know now that she loves you; even more than anyone could love someone. So relax! We’ll find a way out,” his friend promised.
“What?” he rasped tensing at his words instead of being comforted. “She’s getting married in less than three weeks and I respect the Thorntons too much to do such a vile thing.” Aidan felt frustrated as the situation was getting out of hand. At least he had now resolved part of the mystery; he could now choose whether to go forward or not.
“I understand. But we don’t have any choice. We’re not doing it just for the heck of it. We have to prevent her from getting married to that loser. And to hell with the consequences,” Ryce said vehemently.
“Hell, I don’t know,” said Aidan raking his hand through his hair and turned round at the sound of Alex’s car driving through the alley. He would talk to Kate and confess his feelings to her. And then she would decide whether she still wanted to marry that Bigfoot or not. “I’ll talk to Kate and tell her how I feel and let her decide. It’s her life after all and I don’t want to create a havoc now.”
But before he could say anything else, he saw Kate getting down from the back seat of the car followed by a toddler looking like a small bundle of joy.
“Flint!!” cried Ryce and the little boy chuckled in delight at the sight of his father who ran to grab him in his arms.
Aidan watched the reunion between father and son and both looked happy and were raining kisses on each other. His eyes met Kate who was smiling with delight at the scene and Alex standing behind her had the same expression. It was a nice sight.
“Surprised?” asked Kate smiling at Ryce who was still hugging tight to his little son and Aidan joined them.
“You bet!” he replied huskily at the emotion in his voice. “I’ve missed him so much.”
“Me too, dada!” said Flint shocking everyone since no one was paying particular attention to him. Everyone laughed at his astuteness and the toddler grinned at having so many adults bestowing their love on him.
Ryce put him down and showed Aidan. “Meet you uncle Aidan,” he said gently to the little boy who looked at Aidan in amazement before his face broke into a cute grin.
Solemnly, he walked to him and shook hands with him before Aidan grabbed him in his arms too thinking he was too cute to resist. He was so well-mannered and looked so precious.
Kate also was quite taken in by the little charmer and was in a hurry to introduce Flint to everyone especially his mother.
“Flint!!!” Jennifer shrieked as soon as she caught sight of him and everyone looked in the direction of the toddler who walked in hand in hand with Aidan. “Oh baby, I missed you so much,” she said picking him up in her arms and lifting him up in the air before finally kissing him.
After that, the entire household was cowering over Flint like he was some lost treasure and Aidan had difficulty in finding some time alone with Kate.
Looking for an opportunity to see her alone was becoming a challenge and he was getting impatient. She was surrounded by so many people that it was difficult for him to sort her out. And he felt helpless. Nobody knew how helpless he felt on watching his love but had no right to go to her, talk to her. He was living pure hell.
And he wondered how Kate had lived through that hell all her life. It was something he would always admire in her and he so did not want an unhappy ending for them. It would be such a pity if they had come all that way only to be separated.
Finally, unable to wait any longer, he sent her a message asking her to join him in the garden as he had something urgent he had to tell her.
I am busy. We’ll talk later. I have something to tell you too.
Feeling like a caged lion all day, he paced here and there and finally decided to get on with his work to make time pass quickly. When Kate was ready to talk she would message him. Engrossed in his work, he did not realize it was already night until darkness filled the study room he was occupying and he got up to stretch his muscles.
Frowning, he checked his mobile and found no missed call or message. Was she trying to avoid him? Resolutely, he closed his files and went downstairs in search of her. And found her in the kitchen preparing dinner.
As he was making his way towards her, he saw her eyes flowing frantically in the direction of her fiancé and that panicked look made him stop. Damn! She was scared to even talk to him in front of that damned Bigfoot now. Stepping back, he realized she was right. There was no need to make a scene. Whatever he had to say was between him and Kate but he was getting so impatient to see her that he was not thinking clearly.
After dinner, he saw no hope in being able to talk to her amongst the family and her fiancé and so he retreated back in his room his morose mood getting worse. Time was running out and he felt frustrated not being able to make the most of what was left.
When he heard a tap on his door, he was so tensed that he jumped at the unexpected intrusion and was quite surprised to find Kate outside. He had been sure that she was avoiding him.
“Kate?” he greeted almost in question.
“You were looking for me, right?” she asked nervously fidgeting with her hand and Aidan closed his hand around hers to bring her closer. God only knew how much he had waited for that time to come and now that it had he was feeling as reckless as a teenager confessing his love for his first crush. Get a grip, Waldorf, he chided himself.
“Yes,” he said simply unable to get anything else out and watching her fretful demeanor with both amusement and tenderness.
“How was your day with Nathalie?” she asked suddenly dropping her hands to either side looking as if it was what she had meant to say. “I mean are you really falling for her?”
He could have laughed at her insecurities. Last night he had taunted her because he had wanted to use jealousy for her feelings she had buried to surface. And she had fallen right into the trap. How could she not see how much he loved her? He had portrayed everything he felt for her in his eyes wishing that the message would get through.
“Jealous?” he taunted feeling his amusement fade when she looked up at him. Her golden eyes held the saddest expression even sadder than he had ever seen before and he felt like a heel for making her suffer like that.
Putting a hand on her right cheek, he brought her even closer and took a deep breath. It was time for him to take the big leap; it was after all his retribution after being responsible for hurting Kate so much. “Let me tell you the story of a man who was at war with love. He always thought that love was a hoax that everyone was making it up trying to fool themselves into believing they were happy. That was until someone wrote him a poem. A poem so true and pure that his heart melted at the sincere words that were written for him,” he said and watched as her eyes flare as she understood the meaning of his confession.
“Unfortunately, he got confused and thinking that the author of the poem was her best friend asked the latter out instead. And the one who loved the man so sincerely had her heart broken.” He stopped as she tried to move her face away but he held it in his hand and prevented her to look away.
“The man did not realize how much he had hurt that wonderful person and instead of making it up to her, he shunned her out of his life like some useless toy. As if it was not enough, he arrived at her house six years later only to take revenge from her. To destroy what she and her friends had. Until he saw again how pure the woman was. How she wanted to mend him and become someone worth her love,” he said sincerely wiping a tear away as one drop fell from her eyes.
“It was the that the man really got to know how foolish and blind he had been all his life. How he had pushed her away when all he should have done was to love her and only her. It was then that he realized how much he loved her. But it was too late. His angel was getting married to someone else,” he said as she gulped down whatever she had to say.
At her silence, he caressed her wet cheeks and went on. “Now he had to do the right thing. Go back to where he belonged and let the one he had lost live her happily ever after. The only thing she had always believed in. Except to find that she no longer believed in the happily ever after. The monster had hurt her so much that she had stopped having hope,” his voice came out husky as he said the last words which hurt him.
“Don’t say that!” she said in between sobs and put her finger on his mouth which he kissed out of pure admiration.
Another drop of tear fell and he held her face in both hands wiping off the tears and shaking his head at her. “Don’t cry honey. I’m so sorry.”
Shaking her head, she tried to inhale deeply but more tears came anyway and she sobbed while he hugged her close to his heart never to let her go now that he had found her.
“Oh, Kate,” he whispered caressing her hair. “Sssshhh now, please don’t cry,” he comforted inhaling her scent and kissing her forehead.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said again. “I’m not crying because of you. It’s pretty emotional what you have just told me,” she said trying a watery smile. And Aidan kissed her on the mouth.
“I know. I love you. It’s how I feel. I’ve realized I loved you before I even knew you were the author of the poem.”
“How did you realize that you loved me?” she asked finally still in his embrace.
“When I saw you with Bigfoot,” he said above her head. “You looked so sad when you were with him and I found something wrong. That was when I realized that nothing mattered to me more than your happiness.”
Kate smiled at him happily and kissed him on his nose. “That’s so sweet, Aidan.”
He smiled back feeling full of love for her. “But I was still hesitant to tell you about my newly discovered feelings because of your upcoming wedding. I so did not want to break off your wedding because of me. I had to make sure whether you still loved me back after all those years to make the move worth the hassle.”
“I understand. I was in a pretty dilemma too. From the way you were behaving, I wasn’t sure whether you were playing or you were serious. Then I realized that I did not want to marry Edward irrespective of whether you love me or not.”
Giving her another quick peck on the mouth, he held her close not wanting to let her go. “How did you know I was the author of the poem?” she asked suddenly remembering that missing information.
Amused, he fished the paper from his pocket and held it to her before reluctantly stepping a bit back. “Ryce found this. And it confirmed every doubt I had about you. I was having qualms about breaking off the wedding without being sure that you loved me.”
Looking curious, she opened the paper and blushed when she remembered the contents before quickly folding it back again and tried to put it away when Aidan stopped her.
“This is mine,” he said putting back to its original place in the pocket near his heart. It meant so much to him that he vowed to always carry it around with him.
“I had no idea to know whether you still loved me or not. So I tried to make you jealous with that Nathalie but... ouch!”
He got a kick in his chest and forgot the rest of the sentence as he tried to massage his assaulted body. “What was that for?”
“You were playing with me,” she reproached gently. “I was so jealous of her. I thought yesterday you were almost confessing that you loved her.”
“I was almost confessing that I loved you. Hell, it was getting so difficult for me to hide my feelings and the thought of you with another man was eating me inside. I almost lost control yesterday. That was why I was so mean at the end,” he confessed feeling pained at having to hurt her. But he was glad he had finally found the poem; the intensity of the emotions had finally given him the courage to pour his feelings to Kate.
“Yes, you were!” she accused playfully not looking as if she minded at all and Aidan grinned wolfishly at her before taking her in his arms again. That was what he liked most about her. She was a cool chick, never one to make an issue out of anything.
Feeling his heart swell with love for her, he kissed her squarely on the mouth and as something flared between them, he felt as if he had waited for too long. Too long to confess his love for her, to catch up on wasted time, to stay away from her.
He would never let her go now, he promised silently not knowing yet how to tackle the wedding problem yet. But he would fight for her. He would fight the world for her just to be with her and now that he was convinced that he was the only one who would keep her happy.
Unable to resist, he kissed her properly fearless of the intensity of his feelings now and was quite impressed to see that every demand of his were matched by a more ferocious demand of his beloved. His every stroke were met with another lash of her own whether it was his tongue or fingers.
Intertwining his fingers with her, he deepened the kiss and suddenly backed off when he felt that her finger was empty.
“Kate where’s your engagement ring?”
Kate grinned at him showing off her empty left hand. “Gone! I just broke off the engagement,” she winked at him wickedly.
“Hell, have I told you how much I love you?” he asked pulling her in another hot interlace.