she was there? He was the last person she wanted to see.
“Jill?”
Jillian drew in another deep breath and met Paige’s gaze. “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll go cruising alone. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy myself.”
Paige smiled. “You will. There will be plenty for you to do and on those days when you feel like doing nothing, you can do that, too. Everybody needs to give their mind a rest once in a while.”
Jillian nodded. Her mind definitely needed a rest. She would be the first to admit that she had missed Aidan—the steamy hot text messages, the emails that made her adrenaline surge and the late-night phone calls that sent heat sizzling through her entire body.
But that had been before she’d learned the truth. Now all she wanted to do was get over him.
She sighed deeply while thinking that Paige was right. Jillian needed that cruise and the time away it would give her. She would go on the cruise alone.
* * *
Dr. Aidan Westmoreland entered his apartment and removed his lab coat. After running a frustrated hand down his face, he glanced at his watch. He’d hoped he would have heard something by now. What if...
The ringing of his cell phone made him pause on his way to the kitchen. It was the call he’d been waiting for. “Paige?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Is she still going?” he asked, not wasting time with chitchat.
There was a slight pause on the other end and in that short space of time knots formed in his stomach. “Yes, she’s still going on the cruise, Aidan.”
He released the breath he’d been holding as Paige continued, “Jill still has no idea I’m aware that the two of you had an affair.”
Aidan hadn’t known Paige knew the truth, either, until she’d paid him a surprise visit last month. According to her, she’d figured things out the year Jillian had entered medical school. She’d become suspicious when he’d come home for his cousin Riley’s wedding and she’d overheard him call Jillian Jilly in an intimate tone. Paige had been concerned this past year when she’d noticed Jillian seemed troubled by something that she wouldn’t share with Paige.
Paige had talked to Ivy, Jillian’s best friend, who’d also been concerned about Jillian. Ivy had shared everything about the situation with Paige. That prompted Paige to fly to Charlotte and confront him. Until then, he’d been clueless as to the real reason behind his and Jillian’s breakup.
When Paige had told him of the cruise she and Jillian had planned and had suggested an idea for getting Jillian on the cruise alone, he’d readily embraced the plan.
I’ve done my part and the rest is up to you, Aidan. I hope you can convince Jill of the truth.
Moments later he ended the call and continued to the kitchen where he grabbed a beer. Popping the top, he leaned against the counter and took a huge gulp. Two weeks on the open seas with Jillian would be interesting. But he intended to make it more than just interesting. He aimed to make it productive.
A determined smile spread across his lips. By the time the cruise ended there would be no doubt in Jillian’s mind that he was the only man for her.
Moments later, he tossed the empty can in the recycle bin before heading for the shower. As he undressed, he couldn’t help but recall how his secret affair with Jillian had begun nearly four years ago....
Four years earlier
“So, how does it feel to be twenty-one?”
Jillian’s breath caught in her throat when Aidan Westmoreland’s tall frame slid into the seat across from her. It was only then that she noticed everyone had gone inside. She and Aidan were the only ones on the patio that overlooked a beautiful lake.
This birthday party had been a huge surprise and Aidan’s attendance even more so since he rarely came home from medical school. She couldn’t imagine he’d come home just for her birthday. With her away at college most of the time as well, their paths rarely crossed. She couldn’t recall them ever holding what she considered a real conversation during the four years she’d known him.
“It feels the same as yesterday,” she said. “Age is just a number. No big deal.”
A smile touched the corners of his lips and her stomach clenched. He had a gorgeous smile, one that complemented the rest of him. If there was such a thing as eye candy he was certainly it. She had the hots for him big-time.
Who wouldn’t have the hots while sitting across from this hunk of sexiness? If his lips didn’t grab you then his eyes certainly would. They were deep, dark and penetrating. Jillian’s heart missed beats just looking into them.
“Just a number?” He chuckled, leaning back in his chair, stretching long legs in front of him. “Women might think that way but men think differently.”
He smelled good. When did she start noticing the scent of a man?
“And why is that, Aidan?” she asked, picking up her glass of lemonade to take a sip. It suddenly felt hotter than usual. It had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with her body’s heated reaction to him.
She watched him lift a brow over those striking dark eyes. A feral smile edged his lips as he leaned forward. “Are you sure I’m Aidan and not Adrian?”
Oh, yes she was sure he was Aidan. She’d heard about the games he and his identical twin would play on unsuspecting souls, those who couldn’t tell them apart. “I’m sure.”
It was Aidan and not Adrian who stirred her in places she’d rather not think about at the moment.
He leaned in even closer. So close she could see the pupils in his dark eyes. “And how are you so certain?” he asked.
Was she imagining things or had the tone of his voice dropped to a husky murmur? It was rumored that he was a big flirt. She had seen him in action at several Westmoreland weddings. It was also a fact that he and his twin were womanizers and had developed quite a reputation at Harvard. She could certainly see why women were at their beck and call.
“Because I am,” she replied. And that’s all she intended to say on the matter.
There was no way she would tell him the real reason, that from the moment her brother-in-law Dillon had introduced her to Aidan, before he’d married Pam, she had developed a full-blown crush. She’d been seventeen at the time, a senior in high school. The only problem was the crush hadn’t lessened much since.
“Why?”
She glanced back up at Aidan. “Why what?”
“Why are you so certain? You still haven’t said.”
She inwardly sighed. Why couldn’t he leave it alone? She had no intention of telling him. But since she had a feeling he wouldn’t let up, she added, “The two of you sound different.”
He
