The Best Kept Secrets...: The Secret Affair - Brenda Jackson

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as a figment of her imagination when she saw him. A man wearing a teal feathered mask stood alone on the other side of the room, watching her. So she watched back, letting her gaze roam over him. Was he the one who’d given her the rose? Who was he? Why was she reacting to him this way?

      As she studied him she found him oddly familiar. Was she comparing the man to Aidan to the point where everything about him reminded her of her ex? His height? His build? The low cut of his hair?

      She shook her head. She was losing it. She needed another drink after all. That’s when the man began walking toward her. She wasn’t going crazy. She didn’t know the when, how or why of it, but there was no doubt in her mind that the man walking toward her—mask or no mask—was Aidan. No other man had a walk like he did. And those broad shoulders...

      He was sex appeal on legs and he walked the part. It was a stroll of self-confidence and sinful eroticism. How could he have this effect on her after a full year? She drew in a deep breath. That’s not the question she should be asking. What she wanted to know was why he was on the same cruise with her. She refused to believe it was a coincidence.

      Her spine stiffened when he came to a stop in front of her. Her nostrils had picked up his scent from five feet away and now her entire body was responding. Sharp, crackling energy stirred to life between them. And from the look in his eyes he felt it, as well. Hot. Raw. Primal.

      She didn’t want it. Nor did she need that sort of sexual attraction to him again. She blew out a frustrated breath. “Aidan, what are you doing here?”

      * * *

      Aidan wasn't surprised that she had recognized him with the mask on. After all, they’d shared a bed for three solid years so she should know him inside out, clothes or not...just like he knew her. Case in point, he knew exactly what she was wearing beneath that clingy black dress. As little as possible, which meant only a bra and thong. And more than likely both were made of lace. She had the figure to handle just about anything she put on—or nothing at all. Frankly, he preferred nothing at all.

      “I asked you what you’re doing here.”

      He noted her voice had tightened in anger and he figured it best to answer. “I’ve always wanted to take a Mediterranean cruise.”

      She rolled her eyes. “And you want me to believe you being here is a coincidence? That you had no idea I was here on this cruise ship?”

      “That’s not what I’m saying.”

      “Then what are you saying, Aidan?”

      He placed his half-empty wineglass on the tray of a passing waiter, just in case Jillian was tempted to douse him with it. “I’ll tell you after dinner.”

      “After dinner? No, you will tell me now.”

      Her voice had risen and several people glanced over at them. “I think we need to step outside to finish our discussion.”

      She frowned. “I think not. You can tell me what I want to know right here.”

      In anger, she walked into the scant space separating them and leaned in close, her lips almost brushing his. That was too close. His bottom lip tingled and his heart beat like crazy when he remembered her taste. A taste he’d become addicted to. A taste he’d gone a year without.

      “I wouldn’t bring my mouth any closer if I were you,” he warned in a rough whisper.

      She blinked as if realizing how close they were. Heeding his warning, she quickly took a step back. “I still want answers, Aidan. What are you doing here?”

      He decided to be totally honest with her. Give her the naked truth and let her deal with it. “I came on this cruise, Jillian, with the full intention of winning you back.”

       Chapter Eleven

      Jillian stared at Aidan as his words sank in. That’s when she decided it would be best for them to take this discussion to a more private area after all. She removed her mask. “I think we need to step outside the room, Aidan.”

      When they stepped into a vacant hallway, she turned to him. “How dare you assume all you had to do was follow me on this cruise to win me back?”

      He pulled off his mask and she fought back a jolt of desire when she looked into his face. How could any man get more handsome in a year’s time? Yes, she’d seen him a couple of times since their break-up, but she had avoided getting this close to him. He appeared to have gotten an inch or so taller, his frame was even more muscular and his looks were twice as gorgeous.

      “I have given it some thought,” he said, leaning back against a railing.

      “Evidently, not enough,” she countered, not liking how her gaze, with a mind of its own, was traveling over him. He was wearing a dark suit, and he looked like a male model getting ready for a photo shoot—immaculate with nothing out of place.

      “Evidently, you’ve forgotten one major thing about me,” she said.

      “What? Just how stubborn you are?” he asked, smiling, as if trying to make light of her anger, which irritated her even more.

      “That, too, but also that once I make up my mind about something, that’s it. And I made up my mind that my life can sail a lot more calmly without you.” She watched his expression to see if her words had any effect, but she couldn’t tell if they had.

      He studied her in silence before saying, “Sorry you feel that way, Jillian. But I intend to prove you wrong.”

      She lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”

      “Over the next fourteen days I intend to prove that your life can’t sail more calmly without me. In fact, I intend to show you that you don’t even like calm. You need turbulence, furor and even a little mayhem.”

      She shook her head. “If you believe that then you truly don’t know me at all.”

      “I know you. I also know the real reason you broke things off with me. Why didn’t you tell me what you thought you saw in my apartment the night of my birthday party?”

      She wondered how he’d found out about that. It really didn’t matter at this point. “It’s not what I thought I saw, Aidan. It’s what I saw. A woman giving you a lap dance, which you seemed to enjoy, before she began stripping off her clothes.” Saying it made the memory flash in her mind and roused her anger that much more.

      “She was a paid entertainer, Jillian. All the ladies there that night were. Several of my frat brothers thought I’d been living a boring and dull life and decided to add some excitement into it. I admit they might have gone a little overboard.”

      “And you enjoyed every minute of it.”

      He shrugged. “I had a few drinks and—”

      “You don’t know what all you did, do you?”

      He frowned. “I remember fine. Other than the lap dance and her strip act...and a couple other women stripping...nothing else happened.”

      “Wasn’t that enough?” she asked, irritated that he thought several naked women on display in his apartment were of little significance. “And why didn’t you tell me about the party? You led me to believe you’d done just as you said you were going to do—watch TV and go to bed.”

      He released a deep breath. “Okay, I admit I should have told you and I was wrong for not doing so. But I was angry with you. It was my birthday and I wanted to spend it with you. I felt you could have sacrificed a little that weekend to be with me. I hadn’t known you changed your mind and flew to Portland.”

      He paused a moment and then continued, “I realized after we’d broken up just how unpleasant my attitude had been and I do apologize for that. I was getting frustrated with the secrecy surrounding our affair, with my work and how little time I could

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