The Proposal(33)

“For your information, there’s more of me than the last time you saw me,” she argued as he adjusted the seat.

He turned around and shrugged. “I doubt that. Besides, you’re still just as beautiful as the first time I saw you.”

“Always the flirt, aren’t you?” she replied with a grin.

“Just stating facts, ma’am.” Aidan’s hands then reached for the hem of her shirt. Instead of protesting, she let him pull it over her head. His gaze hovered over her cleavage a little longer than it should have before he tossed her shirt onto the wicker hamper. “Stand up,” he instructed.

“You’re so bossy.”

“And you’re so damn stubborn,” he countered as he pulled her pants down.

Left in only her underwear, she shivered. As if to even the playing field, Aidan’s fingers went to his fly and took his pants off as well. His eyes met hers as she brought her arms around her back and unfastened her bra. After it slid to the floor, she wrapped her arms around her breasts.

“Oh Em, seriously? Quit acting like I’m some pervert getting off at this.”

That little flicker of hellfire sparked within her at his exasperation. Her hands then went to the waistband of her underwear, and she ripped the panties down her thighs as best she could with her belly getting in the way. Meeting his surprised gaze she strode over to the shower and sat down on the chair. “I’d like my vanilla body wash please and the pink sponge. Thank you.”

His chuckle echoed off the bathroom walls. Sticking his hand in the shower, he gave her the body wash. “I already put your shampoo in there.” He closed the shower door behind him. Emma didn’t dare glance back to see if he’d dropped his boxers or not. “Want me to wash your hair?”

“You seriously want to do that?”

“Of course. Besides it’s not like you’re going to let me wash the good parts anyway.”

A giggle escaped her lips. “I thought you were going to behave,” she protested.

“I am. That’s why I want to keep my hands busy with your hair.”

“Fine then.”

Taking the shower nozzle, he brought it to her head, soaking her hair. Once it was fully wet, he squirted the peach smelling shampoo in one hand and then worked up a lather.

She couldn’t help moaning as his fingers massaged her scalp. “Oh God, that feels so good.”

“I’m glad you like it. If I end up getting fired for taking this time off, maybe I have a future in cosmetology.”

Emma laughed. “I can’t quite see you doing hair for a living.”

“Me either.”

“You know, you washing my hair like this reminds me of Out of Africa when Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep’s hair,” Emma remarked.

“My mom loved that movie.”

“Really?”

Aidan laughed as he started rinsing her hair. “Yeah, she loved anything with Robert Redford. She used to say he reminded her of a blonde haired version of Pop.”

“Oh my God, now that I think of it, Patrick does look a little like Robert Redford!”

“I can’t believe he hasn’t already mentioned it to you. It used to give him a big head.”

“Hmm, an inflated ego? Sounds like a Fitzgerald family trait.”

“Ha, ha,” he replied. When Aidan’s fingers ran over the ridge of her scar, she tensed. “Em, what’s this?”

The sponge she had been bathing with fell from her hands and onto the tile floor. “It’s nothing. Just an old war wound.”

“It doesn’t feel like nothing.” Aidan’s hand left her head and came to rest on her shoulder. “Tell me.”

She hugged her arms around her chest. “It’s a reminder of a very painful time in my life when I did something very stupid.” When Aidan’s hand remained frozen on her shoulder, she sighed. “After my mother died, I was so alone. My grief for Travis was still very fresh. There was no husband, no father, no mother...I couldn’t see through the dark clouds that I still had Grammy and Granddaddy.”

A tremble ran through her body as she let the skeletons of her past dance precariously around her. “One night when I was in the mountains, I got up in the middle of the night and got into the car. I started flying over those curvy roads, hoping another car would come along, and I could end it all.”

“Oh God,” Aidan muttered, his hands squeezed her shoulders tight.

She glanced back at him. “I slammed into a tree instead. And even though it totaled the car and gave me that horrific scar, I walked away.”

“Was that the only time you tried to…” She could tell he couldn’t bear to say the words.