Chapter 3 A Night with a Stranger

The two men finally backed off.

Miles photographed their faces and license plate, then confirmed the location of the wrecked car. Elena borrowed Aiden's phone and sent her location, the photos, and the plate number to the attorney who had been helping her investigate Claire's trust. She also left a voice message.

If she didn't check in again within two hours, call the police.

Only then did she get into the SUV.

Before handing the phone back, Elena sent her attorney one final message: I'm safe for now. I'll contact you tomorrow.

The black vehicle pulled away from the mountain road. The second the door shut behind her, Elena felt as if she'd finally been cut loose from the nightmare of that wedding.

Her body, however, refused to settle.

The drugs were still in her system.

Not the heavy, foggy confusion from earlier. This was something hotter. Sharper. Harder to ignore. Her skin felt too sensitive, even the fabric brushing against her body irritating her.

The worst of the drug had passed. Her mind was clear, though her skin still felt unnaturally sensitive.

And Aiden was sitting beside her.

He kept his distance, almost pressed against the opposite door. The sleeves of his black shirt were rolled to his elbows, and there was still a scrape across the back of his hand from when he'd stepped between her and those men.

Elena suddenly realized she didn't want the last memory her body carried from today to belong to the Vale family.

She wanted to prove something to herself.

Her body was still hers.

She turned her head and looked at Aiden.

She wanted him.

Aiden noticed.

"Elena?"

She didn't answer. She simply slid closer.

Aiden frowned and leaned back half an inch.

"You still have drugs in your system."

"I know."

"Then don't do something you'll regret tomorrow."

Elena watched him for a few seconds before reaching out, grabbing the front of his shirt, and pulling him toward her.

"I don't want a man because I need one."

Her voice was low, but perfectly steady.

"I want you."

Silence filled the back seat.

Aiden's breathing changed.

"Elena—"

She kissed him.

There was nothing hesitant about it. If anything, the kiss carried a trace of everything she'd been forced to swallow all day.

Aiden didn't respond at first.

Then Elena leaned in again and deliberately caught his lower lip between her teeth.

"Damn it."

The curse came out rough and quiet.

A second later, he reached for a button beside him.

The privacy partition began to rise.

Elena watched the glass slowly block off the front seats and smiled.

"Finally done pretending you can resist me?"

Aiden looked at her, and something in his expression had changed completely.

"You really should stop pushing me."

"Then stop resisting."

She swung one leg over him and settled onto his lap.

His hands went instinctively to her waist, gripping harder than before. The sudden closeness stole a sharp breath from her, but Elena didn't pull away. She caught his shoulders instead and kissed him harder.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

And exactly who she wanted.

Aiden finally let go of that maddening restraint.

His arm tightened around her waist, drawing her flush against him. The cramped back seat left almost no room between them, and Elena could feel his breathing growing just as uneven as hers.

She reached for the top button of his shirt.

One.

Then another.

Her fingertips brushed warm skin.

Aiden caught her wrist.

He closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them again, whatever restraint he'd been holding on to was gone.

His hand closed around the back of her neck, pulling her down into another kiss.

Elena felt the difference immediately.

She was still straddling him, and the back seat was far too small for either of them to pretend they had room to retreat. One of Aiden's hands stayed at the nape of her neck while the other tightened along her waist.

The kiss was deep and urgent.

Elena's breath caught, but instead of backing away, she pressed herself closer.

The SUV took a curve, shifting her balance. Aiden caught her immediately, holding her steady against him.

The sudden pressure made her inhale sharply.

He paused.

Elena looked straight at him and slid her fingers into his hair.

"Don't stop."

His breathing was completely uneven now.

"You're making it damn hard to behave."

"Then stop holding back."

She kissed the line of his jaw, deliberately lingering at his neck.

Aiden swallowed, his grip tightening at her waist.

A second later, their positions shifted.

Elena sank back into the seat as Aiden leaned over her, his mouth moving along her throat. Her skin was already painfully sensitive, and now every touch seemed magnified, heat spreading everywhere his lips had been.

She didn't try to quiet her breathing.

She didn't want to.

The privacy partition was up.

No one in the front could hear a thing.

Tonight, she didn't have to be anyone's good daughter.

She didn't have to play anyone's bride.

For once, she only had to be honest about what her own body wanted.

After that, time lost its edges.

There were only city lights flashing past the windows, heat building in the cramped back seat, and two sets of breathing that had long since lost any rhythm.

Elena stopped thinking about the Vales.

She stopped thinking about the wedding.

If today had to leave something behind, she didn't want it to be the ruined wedding dress. She didn't want to remember being hunted or the humiliation of losing control over her own body.

By the time the back seat finally fell quiet again, Elena was so exhausted she simply rested against Aiden's shoulder.

Aiden didn't ask if she regretted it.

He only draped his jacket over her and let her stay there.

The SUV kept moving for another half hour.

By the time it stopped, Elena could barely keep her eyes open.

The rear door opened, letting in a rush of cold night air. She instinctively curled closer to Aiden, and a moment later, he lifted her into his arms.

Elena forced her eyes open just enough to make out a dark house beyond the driveway.

The driver had gotten out to open the door, but his gaze remained firmly fixed on the ground the entire time, as if his continued employment depended on pretending he had seen absolutely nothing.

Miles had positioned himself even farther away.

Aiden carried her upstairs.

Elena became slightly more alert when her back touched a soft mattress.

She expected him to leave.

Instead, as Aiden leaned over to pull the blanket across her, their eyes met.

The air changed again.

His shirt was still a mess.

So were her clothes.

Elena stared at him for a few seconds. She was exhausted, but her body remembered every second of that back seat far too clearly.

Aiden started to straighten.

Elena caught his shirt.

"You weren't this considerate in the car."

His gaze returned to hers.

"Who was the one provoking me in the car?"

A faint smile touched Elena's mouth.

"I still am."

Aiden went very still.

Then he muttered under his breath.

"Damn it."

Elena barely had time to smile before he kissed her again.

This time was different.

There was no cramped back seat, no privacy glass, no city lights racing past outside.

She sank into the mattress, and Aiden finally had the space to let loose everything he'd been holding back in the car.

The second time was slower, deeper, and far less restrained.

The heightened sensitivity still lingering in Elena's body, the adrenaline left over from running for her life, and the attraction neither of them had bothered denying anymore all blurred together.

By the time it was over, Elena had nothing left.

The next morning, she woke in an unfamiliar bedroom.

Gray morning light had just begun to creep through the windows.

Aiden's black shirt was draped over the back of a chair. He slept on the other side of the bed, the old scars across his shoulder and back more visible in daylight than they had been the night before.

Elena lay there watching him for a few seconds.

Her memories were perfectly clear.

The car.

This bedroom.

Twice.

A clean set of clothes had been left for her on the chair. Elena changed, found a pen and paper on the desk, and wrote only one line.

**Thank you for saving me. Last night was my choice. We're even.**

She closed the door softly behind her.

Only after the sound of her footsteps disappeared did the man in the bed open his eyes.

Adrian Blackwood had been awake the entire time.

He hadn't stopped her.

A few moments later, he sat up and picked up the note.

His eyes lingered on the words *We're even.*

Then he smiled.

If the Vale family still intended to go through with that wedding—

this time, they would have no choice but to put Elena's name on the new marriage papers.