Darker The Forbidden Berry

Chapter 6

Aja woke up to a soft pounding behind her eyes. It was not the worst hangover she’d ever had, but she had certainly felt better. She was awake but she kept her eyes closed because she was not ready to face what she had done last night. She’s been so sure of herself just a few hours ago but now she was not sure how to approach the situation.

 She took a deep breath and finally opened her eyes. She was surprised to see that Finn was still sleeping next to her. His eyes were closed and he was still wearing the casual outfit from the night before. She had been convinced that he was going to go back out and maybe hook up with Allison so she was pleasantly surprised to see that he never left.

 Aja slipped out of bed quietly, trying her best not to shift the bed and wake Finn up. She had been enough of a bother the night before in the last thing she wanted to do is to be the person who woke him up. Aja took her bonnet off and went to the shower In an attempt to wash the shame away. As she stood under the water she felt silly for even telling him what she told him. She should have just kept it to herself and things would have been easier. Now they wouldn’t even be able to be friends with benefits because it was going to get too complicated.

 She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her figure, walking back to the bed. Finn’s eyes were open and looking towards her now. Aja stopped in the doorway, feeling the sudden need to run away. Finn calmed her nerves a little by patting the bed beside him.

“Come sit. We need to talk,” he said gently.

“We really don’t,” Aja said quickly in a knee jerk reaction that was meant to protect her.

“I’m not going to make you talk to me about it, Aja, but I think staying silent isn’t the way to go,” he said softly.

Aja’s lower lip shook a little and she looked away from him, taking a deep breath and finally nodding. He was right. They could not just leave it in the ether. They were going to have to address it at some point. She sat on the spot on the bed where he’d been patting.

“Lie back, Aja. Get comfortable.”

She did what he asked, but struggled to get comfortable. She was nervous and honestly a bit scared. There was a strong possibility that her ramblings from the night before might lose her the job she’d been so invested in.

“Do you still feel the way you felt last night? You told me you wanted us to be an item.”

Aja considered lying. She could just tell him she was drunk and had not hit it off with Killian. Hell, maybe she could just say she was horny. That did not feel right, though. Finn was smarter than that and would have easily seen through her excuses.

“I do,” she finally said, her voice soft and hesitant.

A smile pulled at Finn’s lips and he leaned in close, kissing her cheek gently.

“Good.”

The response shocked Aja and she turned to look at him, her brows pulled together.

“Good?”

“Yeah! The reason I did not want to talk about it last night was because you were a little…”

“Drunk?”

“Yes, drunk. I did not want to get my hopes up before I confirmed that it was not just the mixed- drinks talking.”

Aja leaned back, staring at him for a long time.

“You want to be together too?”

“Yeah. You’re amazing Aja. I tell you that all the time.”

It was true. Whenever he got the chance he planted a solid kiss on her cheek and told her she was incredible. She always just assumed he was being nice.

“If we’re being honest, it’s kind of felt like we’ve already been together a while, you know? We hit it off and I haven’t really been…Well, I haven’t been missing seeing other women, you know? I’ve been happy with what we have. It’s not something I ever really thought I’d admit to, but it’s true.”

“You haven’t been sleeping with other women these last few months?”

“No! I thought you knew that.”

“I…You never told me! I freaked out last night because you were getting so close to Allison!”

“You thought I was going to sleep with Allison?” There was almost laughter in his voice.

“Why wouldn’t I think that?” She asked, crossing her arms over her towel-covered chest. “You were all over her!”

He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.

“Were you jealous?”

Aja considered lying for a moment but sighed and turned to hide her face in his shoulder.

“A little bit.”

“I think it’s cute.”

Aja relaxed after a long moment. “I did not like how it made me feel,” she admitted, peeking up at him through her lashes. “I did not like how angry it made me feel….”

“You don’t have to worry about feeling that way anymore, Aja,” he assured. “I’ve been thinking about our future together a lot. I don’t want to let that slip through my fingers.”

“If you’d been thinking about it for so long why was I the first person to say it?”

“Well…I would have felt weird being the person to bring it up.”

“Why?” She asked, sitting up and frowning deeply.

“Think about it for a minute, Aja. What if I came to you and asked you out? Don’t you think that would have felt a little bit like coercion considering that you work for my family? I did not want to put you into a position that made you uncomfortable.”

Aja was shocked. After all, no man had ever considered her feelings when it came to things like that. She had plenty of clients and bosses hit on her over the years and none of them seemed to understand why that put her in a bad position. She’d had to come up with flat out lies before when turning down romantic offers because she either feared for her safety or her job. Hell, there had been clients she worked with where she made up a whole fake husband and wore a wedding ring. Having a man realize what it was like and act accordingly was something Aja was not used to.