Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm) by Annie Walker Read Free Book Online

two have had a year of foreplay. What did you expect? Of course it was going to be unbelievably out of this world. You waited long enough for it.”
     
    Her words made Cara want to cry even more. If only that were true. She knew better. Aiden was in love with Miranda.
    “No, that’s not true. I mean, yes it was. It was amazing, in fact. But it wasn’t directed at me. It was all Miranda. And I not only cheated on her, I cheated on Jason as well.”
    “Oh please!” Shelby interrupted in an explosion of anger. “Miranda is too good for you and for him. She only cares about Miranda. And Jason, well, you’re right he didn’t deserve it but you knew going into the relationship that it was just to protect yourself against Aiden.”
    Cara stared at her. Was that the truth? Had she simply been dating the half dozen or more men to protect her heart from Aiden? Jason was the latest in a long line of guys she’d dated this year. Truth was, Cara rarely dated at all that much before Aiden. She’d been preoccupied with her career. Meeting Aiden had thrown her for a loop in so many ways.
    “ Cara, Aiden’s not in love with Miranda. No way. He was just using her for…”
    “For sex? Because she is the perfect female specimen for him? Because Aiden’s only attracted to models?” Shelby’s expression said all of those things were true. “So where does that leave me. I don’t want to be one of those women. I can’t. I—” Cara bit her tongue and clamped the words off before she could say the words, ‘I’m in love with Aiden.’ In Love? Where had that come from?
    “ Cara, who cares what happened in the past? Aiden was just playing the field. He could never be serious about Miranda or any of her kind.”
    “ Aiden isn’t serous about me either. I’m no different from the others. I just don’t look the same.”
    “Oh, Cara. You are such an idiot. You can’t possibly believe that?”
    “Its true and I do and I don’t want to talk about it any more.”
    “You’re not going to call him back, are you?”
    “No. What’s the point? He just thinks he feels something for me. Give him a few days and he’ll be begging her to come back. Or worse still. He’ll have moved on from the both of us to Miss July.”
    “Oh, Cara.”
    Cara started back to the kitchen.
    “You don’t want to talk about it?” Shelby asked as if she’d just sprouted two heads.
    “No.” She took tonight’s entrée out of the oven and shoved it on the counter. “There’s nothing to talk about. And if Aiden calls back, I’m out. Forever. For the rest of my life. In fact, I’ll never be in for Aiden again.”
    * * * *
    Aiden didn’t actually believe Shelby’s cover up, but still, the thought of Cara with Jason left a hollow feeling in his gut and made him want to turn the rented car around, go back to the airport and return to Dallas to find out for sure.
    “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he told himself again. Give her space. She was just…what? Upset that he’d made a move on her? Unhappy that she’d betrayed Jason? Or just unmoved. Like he’d pictured her over the phone. Like she’d sounded when she’d told him it was just a mistake.
    Mistake? He’d never met a woman whose body responded to him like Cara’s had. How could that be anything but meant to be? Fate. The person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with?
    Aiden had a full day ahead of him. Best to stop obsessing over every little tone or word that she’d spoken. If he were going to give her space, he’d at least try to get the Shelby Advertising back to profitability after the former chief executives screw-ups. A year. That’s all. He’d promised himself that he would stick it out for one year to get the experience and then he was coming back home to Dallas to start his own agency. That had been Aiden’s lifelong dream.
    Two days ago, one year in his life hadn’t seemed like such a big thing. But that had been before Cara had rocked his world and sent his