Page 71 of Seduced in Ink

“Please, don’t. Let’s just not talk about him anymore. Or to him. I’ll tell my mom what happened, and as long as she doesn’t blame me, hopefully, she’ll stop with this whole me marrying him thing.”

“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?” Aaron asked, his voice low.

“We got distracted,” she said, blushing. She had wanted to be distracted. She hadn’t wanted to talk about what’d happened, hadn’t wanted it to be real.

But now that she had told Aaron, it felt far too real.

“Okay, I just…I don’t know what to do now.”

“We’re going home,” he snapped.

She lifted her head. “I want to go home. I think that’s why I put on the jeans.”

“Good. We’re leaving, and I’m going to go cuddle you and feed you ice cream, and we’ll figure out exactly what to do next.”

“I thought that maybe you and I would tell my parents everything today,” she said, blurting out the words.

He froze.

“You mean about the lie?”

“Well, we’re not engaged, but we’re sort of…whatever we are. Anyway…I just want to go home.”

Thankfully, he didn’t bring up exactly what she had just said. She didn’t know what he wanted, and she wasn’t ready for that conversation, not with so much else on her mind.

Lightning flashed outside, and Aaron frowned, looking out the window as she followed him.

“Fuck, I knew there was a storm coming, but I didn’t know it was going to come this fast or be this big.”

Neither of them made a penis joke, and that should have told her something.

“I think we should go and find my mother, see what the plans are. We’ll have to see if we can even get home in the storm.”

Aaron nodded, held her close, and kissed her temple. “Yeah, you’re right. Your mom needs to know about Guy. We can tell her about you and me later.” The unsaid words were:once we figure out what we are.

Madison loved him, that much she knew. But she needed to untangle her thoughts and feelings to see what was best for her, for him, and what would be best forthem.

She grabbed her bag and slid her fingers into his as they walked out of the room towards the dining area where, hopefully, her mother was just now getting ready for breakfast.

Her mom stood there, her eyes narrowed as she took in the two of them standing together in jeans, looking way too casual for the retreat.

“What do you think you’re doing?” her mother asked, her voice pleasant but with an edge.

“We were going to try and head home today,” Madison began, “but I don’t think the storm is going to let us.”

“You can’t just leave,” her mother snapped. Madison was grateful that nobody was around to hear.

“Yes, we can. We came, we schmoozed, and we can leave. Unfortunately, with this storm, we may be stuck here for another day or so.”

“You’re so ungrateful,” her mother snapped.

“No, I think you are. But this is not the time or the place for this conversation.”

“And where did you put Guy? I haven’t seen him since your little coffee trip, and I have no idea how it went.”

“You mean he didn’t report to you?” Madison said, her voice a bit snide even as fear slid over her. Where was Guy? Had he left? Or was he lurking? He was always creeping, something that really hadn’t clicked for her until he grabbed her yesterday.

Had he been there solely on her mother’s request or because he was just that creepy?