The Pretend Girlfriend(104)

As the car pulled out onto the street, the paparazzo jumped out behind them and started taking more pictures. The cops came after him, barely able to haul him back onto the sidewalk and out of the way of an oncoming taxi.

Aiden and Gwen watched the display through the back window. Gwen kept gulping down air, her whole body shaking. Now that it was over, she was coming down from her adrenaline rush.

"That was..." Aiden began.

"Shocking? Startling? Crazy?" Gwen said, her mind going a million miles per hour.

"Unexpected," Aiden finished, giving her knee a comforting squeeze. It didn't help. "Come on, let's get back to my place and we can figure this out."

That sounded nice. A quiet evening at his condo, high above the street and the cameras.

Except that proved no safe haven, either. As soon as the Town Car pulled up to the curb outside his building, the vultures moved in. The driver forced his way around the car to their door and hauled it open. Aiden doubled as boyfriend and bodyguard as they fought their way to the front door.

The doorman looked terrified, practically shaking in his nice cap and jacket. He opened the door just enough for the Gwen and Aiden to squeeze in through the gap, then battled against two or three other sets of hands to finally pull it closed behind them.

"Thanks," Aiden said, giving the man a pat on the shoulder.

The gesture bolstered the man's nerve. He straightened his back and said, "No problem, sir. Don't worry, none will get inside. Not on my shift, at least."

"Good man," Aiden replied, his voice tired.

When they reached his condo, they both collapsed onto his couch, neither having even bothered to kick their shoes off.

"Oh my God!" Gwen said, rubbing at her eyes. Her whole body ached like she'd been working out all day. It was amazing how much this sort of attention could take out of you. It was no wonder that celebrities hated these people. She didn't know how they managed it.

"I don't think the limelight is for me," Aiden said, rubbing his temples.

"How are we going to get out of here? Do you think they'll stay all night?" Gwen said.

"Hopefully not. Maybe Miley Cyrus or Justin Beiber will come to New York and take all their attention... Besides, would it really be so terrible to stay here with me all night?" He reached over and pulled her body against his. Her shoes dragged across the couch, leaving the dust of the street behind, but he didn't care.

"No, I guess it's not so terrible," Gwen said, letting her head fall back against his shoulder.

"You..." he said, kissing the top of her head.

Joking around helped a little. But even as Gwen snuggled into him, she couldn't help worrying. He might have food in the fridge, and they could get stuff delivered, but they would need to leave eventually. Aiden for work, Gwen for school. They couldn't stay forever.

And she could be sure that Henry wouldn't give up until he got what he wanted.





Chapter 29


"Hey, look at this," Aiden said.

He sat shirtless in his office chair. Gwen wore that shirt, a light blue button-down that set off Aiden's eyes so nicely, and nothing else. It felt nice against her skin, and hung most of the way down her thighs. She came up behind him, kissing those broad, naked shoulders. His skin broke out in gooseflesh at the touch of her lips.

"Oh, you like that, do you?" Gwen replied, her voice sultry.

Shortly after they'd arrived, Aiden had made certain to close all the curtains over those big windows. Then he'd made them supper (spaghetti with a sauce of his own making). And then they'd settled in for some cuddling time in front of the TV.

Of course, cuddling time became something that could be better termed as naked fun time, followed by naked sleeping time with a couple fun time interruptions thrown in.

All that fun came at a price, however. Every muscle and fiber in Gwen's body ached like someone had wrung them all out one at a time like they were wet cloths or towels.

Still, Gwen figured she could work through the pain if Aiden could. Her lips traveled up his neck and she nibbled lightly at his earlobe.

Aiden succumbed to her charms quickly, pushing himself out of the chair.

He put his arms around her and pulled her close, ready to go in for the kill, Gwen waiting as his willing prey.

And then she got a glimpse of his computer's screen. It was a picture of the back of a yellow cab speeding away down a New York street. Gwen could make out her own face, as well as Aiden's, staring out the back window of that taxi.

"That's from yesterday?" she asked, her lusty desires whisked away by growing concern.

"Uh, yeah. Hey, you shouldn't look at that. It's nothing," Aiden said, reaching to back turn the computer off. She batted his hand out of the way. His unwillingness to let her see just what it said unnerved her, but by then she couldn't contain her curiosity.