Love Novel 35

Aiden rubs his fingers up and down my arm as we lay in my bed together.
He’s still mostly dressed, but I was too lazy to put my clothes back on.
He sighs, his chest rising and falling beneath my cheek. “Not that I’m complaining, but did you just use me?”
I chuckle into him.
His returning chuckle is warm and deep, settling the ache in the pit of my stomach. “I didn’t mean to overhear.”
I press my lips together and sit up, running my hand through his hair. “It’s fine. I mean, I guess you would have found out
sooner or later.”
“That your mom’s a bitch?”
I chew on my lip, hiding the tilt of my lips. “She wasn’t always.”
His eyes lower to my breasts for a second and then he raises them back to my gaze, wrapping an arm around my waist to
drag me back down to his chest.
I press a kiss to the corner of his lips and settle, frowning as I think about how to phrase my next question without giving
away that Zaid and I were tangled in a web deeper than he could ever know. “I didn’t know you and Zaid were brothers.”
He stiffens beneath me and he tightens his hold on me. “You didn’t?”
I shake my head.
He frowns slightly, watching me as if he is trying to gauge his own response. “I guess I never mentioned it.”
“Nope.” My face burns, and I hope to god I am not as red as a tomato.
“We’re not exactly on friendly terms.”
I tilt my head and keep myself from asking the question that needles me in the back of my throat. Why? What happened?
“And dad now wants to send him abroad, to boarding school after his expulsion.”
My breath catches in my throat and I sit up, my hands on his chest. “He got expelled because of me.”
He shrugs, gripping my leg to bring me closer to him, placing his hardening length between my legs.
These men are as insatiable as they come.
“He would have found a way sooner or later, Zaid isn’t exactly role model material.” He runs his fingers through my hair,
swallowing thickly.
I ignore the burning in my stomach and run circles on his chest with my finger. “Is it true he went to juvie?”
His eyes turn dark, nostrils flaring. “Why? What has he told you?”
His reaction throws me off and it takes me a moment to catch my breath. “Nothing. I don’t talk to Zaid.”
“Good.”
I twist my lips relieved that he didn’t hear the defensiveness in my throat. “What’s the story there?”
His fingers still and he presses his lips together. “Why are you so interested in Zaid?”
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“He’s your brother, everything about you interests me.” When did I get so good at lying?
He seems convinced, and frowns before inhaling. He looks at me, as if gauging how much he wants to say, how much he
can trust me with. “I was there that night with him.”
I hold my breath, not wanting to stop him.
“We were out with a group of basketball guys. I was getting picked as captain that year. Zaid was…he had gotten injured
real bad on a game and he was never able to play the same again.”
He pauses, his jaw clenching and I almost feel guilty enough to tell him he can stop, but I keep my mouth shut.
“He stepped down from the team, which is why the captain spot was open. We were celebrating that I was chosen. We
had some drinks. Smoked some things.”
I chew on my lip, my breath on the edge of thin.
“Someone dared him to a car race. I tried to stop him, I tried to tell him he couldn’t drive in his condition, but he didn’t
listen to me. He got behind the wheel and lost control. He ended up hitting a house.”
I gasp, covering my mouth as I shake my head. “What?”
He nods, avoiding my eyes as he swallows thickly. “He sent one man to the hospital with a broken leg and arm.”
“Thank god it wasn’t worse.”
“It could’ve been much worse. Anyway, he was arrested, tried, and dad was able to get him a lighter sentence.”
I can’t help the hot rage that flutters through me. “Only because he didn’t kill anyone.”
He holds my waist, shrugging. “Can we talk about something else?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
He starts talking about basketball, about his school tour they invited him to take. I can only half listen, a little disturbed
by the conversation we just had.
Still, I can’t seem to understand why Zaid had me ask Aiden for the information, why could he not tell me the story
himself? Was he too ashamed, maybe?
I blow out a stream of hot air and Aiden lifts his head to press a kiss to my neck. “Want to go get some food? I’m
starving.”
I smile at him, nodding. “You don’t have practice today?”
“I did, but I told coach I was sick. I wanted to check on you after you left school.”
“Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t feeling too good, and then my mother’s outburst kind of made everything more terrible.”
“And then I made everything better,” He whispers, smiling wide at me.
I roll my eyes and shake my head, “Sure.”
He laughs and I dress, he follows me, zipping up his pants. Soon we’re out of the house and in his car, where he places
his hand on my thigh and blasts music with the windows down as we make our way to a burger shop.
He tries hard to take my mind off of the conversation we just had, but it still gnaws in the back of my head. Still, I plaster
on a smile and pretend everything’s okay, and that I’m happy just where I am.
Nikki and Parker join us later and we go to a park where the guys shoot hoops and Nikki and I sit on a bench and talk.
Everything is fine and smooth, until Zaid shows