Between Heats (Downtown Aquatics Book 1) (9 page)

“Dude, if
your
reaction time’s any
indication, I’m guessing the lady’s not all satisfied in bed,” Patrick quipped,
upping the ante.

Aaron shook his head, grinning. He had showered in record time
because Madison had dropped by and he didn’t want to waste any more time
trading wisecracks with the rest of the guys. All he had on today were jeans
and a plain black shirt, but Madison hadn’t sounded like she wanted to go
anywhere fancy. Still, if he wanted to get the night started, he had to get
going. He grabbed his bag from his locker. “The next time you guys take a dig
at my reaction time, it’ll be because I’ve kept you out of a podium finish,” he
countered. They always got a little competitive around meet time. “See you
tomorrow, ladies.”

Aaron ignored the jeers and shouts from the rest of the guys as
he hurried over to where Madison sat talking to Coach Didion. She was talking
animatedly and flailing her arms, and he could only guess that she was talking
about swimming. Coach Didion bade them farewell when Aaron came jogging up.

“Hey, hotshot,” Madison said with a lazy grin as he leaned down
to kiss her. “The water’s so tempting that I want to jump right in.”

Damn. The thought of her in the pool was enough to heat him up.
“Why don’t you? I can join you.”

She laughed. “I’m not sure I should.
 
You know our history with pools. I’d
rather just sit here safely where I’m guaranteed not to get thrown out.”

Aaron sat down beside her and threw an arm over her shoulders,
giving her a reason to nuzzle closer. He breathed in her familiar aroma. “Did
you come from the cafe?” he asked.

“Did my eau de caffeine give it away?” she kidded, cradling his
cheek and giving him a long kiss. Her fingernail scraped against his jaw,
teasing him.

He could kiss her forever. She tasted like coffee, giving him a
jolt with every darting lick of her tongue against his lips. “What were you and
Coach talking about?” he asked when they drew apart.

Madison leaned against him. “He asked me if I was a member of
the club and I said that I wasn’t a swimmer like you. He was nice enough to say
that he was pleased you met a girl like me because he was starting to worry
about you.” She gave him a sly sideways glance.

Aaron groaned inwardly. “They work us to the bone and then
wonder why it’s so hard for us to be in serious relationships,” he grumbled.
“Coach wasn’t too happy with my drill work today. He thinks I haven’t been
conditioning enough.”

A look of worry crossed Madison’s face. “I’m sorry! Is it
because of me? But we hit the gym often—”

He kissed the top of her head. “Hey. Don’t worry about it. He’s
just in a bad mood because we’re going to start tapering off practice. That’s
the break we get before a competition, so we’re relaxed. Maybe Coach is already
missing yelling at us so he’s trying to make up for it.”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” she murmured, snuggling
closer, making Aaron not want to move from his spot at all. “But I know you
work harder than anyone. You’d be doing drills in that water if I weren’t here.
He’s probably just as proud as your dad is.”

He wasn’t too sure about that. His dad had been a competitive
swimmer once and he still kept a close eye on his training. It seemed to be the
only thing they talked about. He’d be all over Aaron’s case whenever he did
something that wasn’t part of the plan. Just once Aaron wished someone could
show up to his meets and not judge him for underperforming. Madison’s family
wasn’t in LA, but at least they had kept a close bond. “How was
your
day?” he asked, immediately
changing the subject. He remembered her texting him earlier about a go-see.
“How did the casting go?”

“Which one?
The mall runway show?
The
commercial?
The fashion house looking for a new fit model?
Three jobs and I didn’t book a single one,” Madison sighed. “Oh, sure I got a
‘you-fit-our-look-we-can-use-you-next-time,’
but at the end of the day, that just comes down to one fat zero. I mean
,
they needed someone’s back for that commercial! You’d
think I had a decent back—”

“Mighty fine back,” Aaron interjected, kissing her shoulder but
that didn’t deter her from her rant.

“Apparently, I don’t have the right dimples of Venus.”

“What are dimples of Venus?”

“My point exactly.” She shook her head. “I had really hoped
that after the Stroke campaign, offers would be coming in. I know it hasn’t
been released but...”

Aaron frowned. He hated seeing her sound defeated. She was
usually much sassier than this. “I can’t imagine anyone saying no to you.”

That got her to roll her eyes but the smile on her face was
more tender than sarcastic. “You’re probably the only one who’ll say that.” She
sighed again. “I always like being in control and feeling like I can handle
things. Modeling and acting really isn’t for the faint-hearted. It makes you so
vulnerable. You face so many rejections in one day that sometimes you wish you
could just weigh and grind coffee beans your whole life. But I want to make
something of myself, Aaron,” she said. “Seeing you work so hard pushes me to
work harder, too.”

He liked that she was getting vulnerable around him, that she
wasn’t afraid to share her thoughts. But he didn’t want to tell her that
because it might spook her. “I know you’ll keep at it,” he said instead.
“You’ve got a fire in you that nobody can put out.”

Madison’s phone rang suddenly and she nearly jumped. “It’s
Elliott,” she told him. “I’ll need to take this call. Maybe I have the right
dimples after all.”

Aaron leaned back against his seat as she turned to talk to her
booker. She was always quick to tell him whenever it was Elliott or Common
Grounds or even her family back home. But there were calls and texts that she
seemed to ignore and hide whenever he was around, just like their first night
together. She would always brush it off as ‘work,’ but it was all Aaron could
do to keep his mind from leaping to one jealous conclusion after another.

He tried to relax himself, playing with her nape and her
ponytail instead as she talked. When Madison ended the call and faced him, she
had an apologetic expression on her face. “So. Dimples?” he asked hopefully.

“Not exactly. But one of the models got fired from a job and
Elliott knew I was in the area,” she explained. “I’m sorry, I knew you were
looking forward to tonight—”

Aaron smiled. “Hey, don’t sweat it.” He rubbed the worried
crease on her forehead with his thumb. “What’s the job? I’ll drive you.”

“The mall runway show,” she said. “You could even stay and
watch. You’ll see me in a gown.”

“I’d rather see you naked,” he teased.

Madison grinned, her spirit and fire returning to her face.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky tonight.”

“Oh,” he said, fishing into his pockets. “Almost forgot. Had
this copied.
”
He took out a key fob and handed it to
her. It hadn't been easy. He had to ask Donoghue for help since his teammate
always knew someone who knew someone, and now he owed Patrick a solid.

“For your apartment?” Madison’s mouth formed a soft O, as if
this was beyond anything she had expected. Aaron smiled at her reaction and
when she turned to him, there was a slight shimmer in her eyes. “I think, Mr.
Harding, that you really
will
get
lucky tonight,” she said softly.

 
Up until that
point, Aaron had just been teetering on the edge. Her expression was all the
push he needed to be head over heels in love with her.

Aaron was in the middle of signing some boxes when Madison
came up one night. “I didn’t know you wear glasses,” she told him in surprise.
The dark frames were perched on his nose, briefly hiding his intense gray eyes.
She decided it looked cute on him, and was glad the rest of the world hadn’t
yet seen him with them.

She caught a glimpse of limited edition Stroke swim caps before
he grinned and put them away.
 
There
was something so sexy in the way that he sauntered over to her that made
Madison meet him halfway and kiss the hell out of him. She pushed his glasses
up over his head. “Hello, hotshot,” she said, when they broke apart.

“Have you had dinner?” he asked. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” she teased him. She lifted a brown bag.
“Got you a couple of burritos.”

Aaron cocked an eyebrow. “Does this mean we’re staying in
tonight?”

“I thought you’d like a quiet evening and rest for a change.
Besides, the number of places I can take a sleeping swimmer has been
drastically reduced,” Madison joked.

“That was one time,” he grumbled, taking the bag from her and
unwrapping a chicken burrito. “Have you eaten?”

Madison shook her head. “I just inhaled all the lovely scents
coming from your bag. That one’s got extra guacamole. Trust me, I’m plenty
full.”

They curled up by the couch, Madison tucked underneath Aaron’s
strong arm. He had finished his dinner quickly and she was always a little
amused at the way he would disappear into the bathroom and come back with fresh
minty breath. She loved that about him. When he returned to the couch, she
snuggled closer.

They were watching a travel documentary and debating on whether
they’d be taken in by scams in European countries when her phone rang. She took
it out and ignored it when she saw that it was from Sean. But Aaron wasn’t
about to let it go.

She felt him stiffen beside her. “Why don’t you answer that?”

“It’s not important,” she replied.

Aaron was silent for a while. Then he spoke, eyes still glued
to the TV. “I’m not the only one you’re seeing, am I?”

It was the question that she was dreading. She thought she knew
how to handle this but it turned out she didn’t have a clue. “We’re not
exclusive, are we?” Madison answered softly.

He grabbed the remote and muted the sound. “No,” he admitted,
“but you’re not answering my question. I thought you would have at least told
me I wasn’t the only one.” He paused and looked at her. “I would have… wanted
to know.”

“Does it make a difference?” She moved away from him and met
his gaze, her green eyes unblinking. She didn’t want to do this. Then before
she could lose her nerve, she blurted out, “Yes.”

Plenty,
Aaron
wanted to say, but he bit back his reply when she said ‘
Yes.’
He was surprised by the rush of jealousy
that washed over
him. He had long suspected there was someone else, ever
since
their
first night together. But she had admitted
the first day that she was single and he had gone on that assumption. Now all
his worst fears were confirmed.

“And if I ask you if you want to be exclusive?” he asked,
trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

She sighed. “Aaron, it’s not quite as easy as that.”

Damn.
That was not
the answer he was hoping for. “Are you married?”

“No!”

“Are you living with him?”

“It’s not like that at all, Aaron,” Madison protested. There
was a tremor in her voice that he hadn’t heard before, something that sounded
almost desperate.

His jaw clenched and unclenched. “Then maybe you should drop
him and be with me,” he said with a growl. He meant it as a flirtatious
suggestion; it came out as a demand. Even he was surprised by the amount of
heat in his voice, in his body. He had dated around, too. Had non-exclusive
relationships and never demanded for more. But with her, it was different. With
a furious, selfish thought, Aaron realized that he wanted her all to himself.

He was too emotional and possessive and it was definitely
not
how he had thought this was going to
go. He took deep starting-block breaths and shook himself, trying to calm
himself down. “I think we have a pretty good thing going here, Madison. Why
can’t we give it a try?”

She looked like she wanted to cry. “Aaron, it’s not that easy,”
she said again.

Double damn.
So she
cared for him. All this time he thought that he was the only man in her life
and it turned out that she had this other man whom she cared enough to want to
keep around. He had to admit that it hurt. Not just the blind jealous rage that
came over him when he thought of her in someone else’s bed. What pricked at him
more was that she didn’t want to let the other guy go.

Madison got to her feet. “I should go,” she said miserably.

She was already near the door when he reached for her.
“Madison, wait—”

He was a damn idiot, he knew. But sharing her with someone,
even just a small part of her, was better than not having her at all. He tugged
on her arm, pulling her to him.

“I-I can’t explain about Sean right now,” she stammered, “and
I’m sorry I never said anything in the first place. But I didn’t think I’d have
all these intense feelings for you. I hope you know that.”

He gave her a quick grin. “I
thought
I knew that.”

She gave a shaky laugh in return. “Don’t doubt it, hotshot. God
knows I don’t deserve you, but it’s just… I need things to be the way they are
now.”
 

Aaron looked down at her. “We don’t need to talk about it right
now. I don’t want to pressure you.” He slowly stroked the side of her face. “If
you want to take it slow, then we’ll take it slow. If you don’t want to commit
just yet then it’s…” he nearly spit the word out, “...
fine
. But
I have to warn you
,
I
am
competitive
.
I don’t give up easily.” He grinned. “Just don’t go tonight,” he asked softly.

“Aaron…” He couldn’t read the look in her eyes. “I don’t even
know why you’d want—” She took a deep breath and touched his hand on her
cheek. “But if you still want me, I’ll stay.”