✿ Reid's POV
I check the little nook hidden away in the garden and hear her voice before I spot her yellow dress. As I approach, I realize she's talking to Sirius. I watch her for a few minutes, the events of the past nights together in the same bed with her playing in my head.
She was everything I was not, in every way that mattered. And yet, I was drawn to her, like a moth to a flame.
My lips curve at the stunningly visual representation of that flame as she sits there in her yellow dress, with the wisps around the edges, and her hair blowing in the light breeze.
That moment in the bed... there had been a spark, there was no denying it. I wasn't even going to try. She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, but there was more. Her spirit, her loyalty, her pride, her ingenuity, even Sirius took an immense liking to her immediately.
It was an uncharted territory for me and I felt enormously unprepared. My life had been planned out, a series of deliberate actions, like a long uninterrupted singular tunnel. But ever since I ran into her on the road, there seemed to be a brighter light shining at the end of it, and it stirred unrest deep inside me.
I sigh and hold myself back, trying to catch what she's saying.
“You think I should run away from this engagement too right?” she mutters, “Or I sit and let everyone call me names for the sake of Armani?”
Sirius lets out a bark and Aileen chuckles.
“Right, right. I'm doing this for my family and myself, not that hunk of a man I'm starting to like a little bit too much.”
My breath catches.
She likes me?
“As friends of course,” she chuckles, still giving Sirius scratches.
As friends...
“The other kind of friends would just never work out so I'm not even going to try to catch feelings. Plus Armani's still in love with Anika. He just doesn't realize it yet.”
“Aroo?” Sirius lets out, tilting his head.
“Right? He wouldn't be going through all this trouble for her if he wasn't” she sighs wearily. “How is wish I could just stay here till everyone else left.”
Sirius moves away from her and sits at her side as Aileen hugs her knees.
“I'd ask you to bite Portia Dalton but her bitterness might seep into you and you're too sweet to be corrupted by that woman.”
I smile.
“But I can see how much she worries for Armani. And he loves her. If only she were a bit... less uptight and mean” she mutters and goes still for a while, “But what do I know about these people huh?”
I begin to step closer.
“When you're ready to go just lemme know, okay buddy?” she rubs his back and smiles.
“Lee” I call out, startling her.
She turns and her smile is replaced by a frown.
“Hear me out before you make a decision” I quickly say.
Aileen stands, her stance defiant.
“I know you're mad and my mother was unfair to say all those things about you.”
She opens her mouth to protest, but I interrupt.
“I know, Lee. I know I could have said something to defend you but I just stood there worrying about creating a scene to stop her from going that far and for that, I'm sorry” I say, my voice quiet and sincere.
YOU ARE READING
To Capture A Bride
Romance|Updates every Tuesdays| "Come with me." I laugh and wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead. "And why would you think I'd go anywhere with you?" I ask. He fills his cheeks with air and glances at the time on his watch, before slipping his hands s...
