“I am so sorry. You scared me and—”
“Tess,” he said, sucking in a harsh breath. “Can you get me a bandage and an ice pack or something? It hurts.”
I widened my eyes. “Oh. Right. Hang on.” I dashed to the bathroom and rummaged through the medicine cabinet until I found my favorite pink Band-Aids with the strawberries. They were really cute. Just the sort of thing to cheer him up.
When I got back, I handed one to him with an apologetic smile. “They’re scented,” I told him. He rolled his eyes and handed it back.
“Can you please put it on for me? It’s hard to see the spot where I was stabbed.”
Sheesh. I’d already apologized. Besides, he had no idea what kind of pressure I’d been facing. Aiden pulled his T-shirt over his head, tossing it on the kitchen table, and stood there, barechested. Kind of sweaty. I breathed in deeply, loving that athletic smell.
I glanced up to meet his green-eyed stare.
“Like you haven’t seen it before,” he mumbled as he looked toward the ceiling with a huge grin.
I laughed, but it didn’t stop me from taking a little longer than necessary (I was really concentrating on applying the adhesive). “There,” I whispered, smoothing it down.
“Thank you, baby,” he said, leaning in to kiss my cheek. “And hello. It’s nice to see you. I have to say, I’ve definitely missed this uniform.” He must have noticed the cle**age too.
“Sorry I assaulted you.” I did feel awfully bad about that. “You just—”
“I know. I was trying to surprise you, not give you a heart attack. I stopped by the school to see Darren and bumped into Kira. She said you left early. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m just happy to see you. I called you a little while ago, but you didn’t answer.”
“Must have been on my way here,” he said before walking over to the fridge. “Oh, yeah,” he said, peering inside. “Your back door was unlocked. That’s how I got in. Did you forget to lock it this morning?”
“What? It was? No.” I looked toward the living room and furrowed my brow. I was 99.5 percent sure that I’d locked it before school.
Alarmed, I ran my fingers along the door frame. I gasped. Deep scratches.
“Aiden,” I said, my voice trembling, “someone broke in again!” My heart nearly exploded in my chest as I slammed and locked the door.
Jimmying open my lock was bad form. Sneaking in a window. Using a pick. All acceptable forms of breaking and entering. But actually damaging my property? Inexcusable. This copy-Kitten was either a complete rookie spy or thoroughly evil.
“Broke in?” Aiden asked. “What the hell do you mean, again?” He stomped over and protectively draped his arm around me. He was breathing heavily, as if he was ready to fight. He was still shirtless.
“Someone’s been in your house?” His eyes were wide as he searched the room. “No wonder you’re spazzing out, Tess. You should have told me.” He exhaled. “Stay here. I need to make sure the house is safe.”
“Safe?” I squeaked. It hadn’t occurred to me that they could still be here. I’d just gotten dressed! What if some creepy stalker had been watching me? I sucked in a frightened breath.
Aiden took his hands from me, jetting his gaze around carefully until it landed on my mother’s empty crystal candy dish from the side table. He lifted it above his head and slowly crept toward my room, looking decidedly dangerous.
I gulped. If someone was in my room, they’d need more than a strawberry Band-Aid once Aiden got done with them. My ex-boyfriend (sort of) was not about to let me get stalked. Um… again.
As I stood alone in my living room, all that registered was silence. But after a few minutes, my brain began to generate every horrible scenario imaginable. I couldn’t wait any longer.
I walked toward my room, running my hand along the tan-painted wall to steady myself. “Aiden,” I whispered. He didn’t answer. I shouldn’t feel this frightened. I’d been scaling trellises my entire high school career. But now I was acting like a scaredy-cat!
When I reached my half-closed door, I took a steadying breath. The hallway was silent, more silent than it should have been. As I slowly began to push open the door, I felt a tickle in my nose. I tried to wiggle it away, but it was too late.
I sneezed. A full-force, loud, bend-over sneeze. I knocked my forehead into my bedroom door and Aiden yelped as it banged into his back.
Then he dropped the crystal. There was a thunk (my head), a yelp (Aiden), and then the sound of glass breaking (loudly).
“Shit, Tessa!” Aiden yelled, holding his back where the doorknob had struck him. “I told you to wait!” He looked frustrated. Aiden’s unexpected visit wasn’t going all that well.
I reached up to feel my forehead. I was no longer scared, but definitely kind of sore. My forehead would no doubt be bruised after this little stunt. I couldn’t believe that even in uniform, I could feel this discombobulated. “Ow,” I said.
Aiden sighed, then stepped carefully around the broken shards of dish. He paused in front of me, reaching out to cup my face and tilt it up to him. “The room’s clear,” he said, his gorgeous green eyes shifting from my wound to my eyes. “But you’ve got a lump.” He ran his finger over it gently. “And I have a stab wound.”
I scrunched my nose. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss my shoulder, his fingers at the waistband of my skirt. “It just means that later, you’re going to have to be nice to me. Really nice.”
Heat rushed over me as I closed my eyes, letting Aiden wrap me up in his arms. I had so much to talk to him about, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I just wanted him.
I lay back into the soft chenille sofa with an ice pack on my head. After Aiden and I made out vigorously—working on our relationship—I realized that the bump on my head was totally killing me. Now he was being sweet—tending to my skull between bites of ice cream.
“So,” I asked him as he spooned some Chunky Monkey into my mouth. “How did things go at school? Did you talk to Darren?” I let the bite slide down my throat, but I was still uneasy. I didn’t know if Aiden had heard that SOS had been revealed, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for him to know. He might go ballistic with worry.
“Yep,” Aiden said, licking the back of the spoon before dipping back into the pint of ice cream. He glanced over at me. “Darren told me about SOS. That it’s all over school. That some”—he held up finger quotes—“ ‘crazy bitches’ are spying on people.” Aiden looked away and took a heaping spoonful of ice cream, chomping on it like he was mad. “What have you girls gotten yourselves into?” he asked, scooping more ice cream and holding it out to me.