Shield's Devotion: Book One

Chapter 10: Aiden

The smell of culinary greatness wakes me from my peaceful slumber. I see that Carter and Taylor are still passed out on the adjacent couch to mine so I slip out of the room and walk down the stairs as quietly as possible. On my way to Aurora's kitchen, my stomach starts to growl, desperate for some good cooking.

"Good morning," Aurora greets me with a glass of orange juice.

"Good morning. Thanks," I take the glass of juice from her and take a seat at one of the kitchen barstools.

"Breakfast will be ready soon. I hope you like pancakes because I made too many of them. Making too much food is a bad habit that I have," she shrugs her shoulders and turns back to the stove.

"I love pancakes," I respond, distracted by her simple beauty.

She's still in her pajamas, a silky pink tank top that shows a little skin between the bottom of it and the top of the matching silk shorts she's wearing. The top is kind of low cut in the back and just a tiny bit of Arabic tattooing peeks out from the fabric.

"Why Arabic?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" She turns around to face me.

"Your tattoo. It's in Arabic," I point out.

"Oh right. You saw that," she smiles.

"Yeah. I'm fluent in that too. That's the anniversary of your mother's passing isn't it?"

"Yeah it is. I chose Arabic because she was trying to learn it before she died. She would always ask me to demonstrate the pronunciation of different words. It was the funniest thing to witness her try to pronounce them and completely fuck it up," she laughs at her memory and it makes me smile a little, glad that she's not gloomy about it.

"That's very cool. Did she teach you how to cook?"

She starts laughing and pulls out her phone, walking towards me. She shows me a video of a messy kitchen, filled with smoke, and a woman trying to control the situation.

"That's my mom," she points to the lady trying to gain control of the kitchen. "She couldn't cook worth a shit," she starts laughing again. "I took this video a few months before she died. She was trying to make a surprise dinner for my dad because it was their anniversary. I ended up cooking the meal and letting her take credit for it," her smile is so wide it makes me truly happy on the inside.

"You look like her," I point out.

"Thank you. She was the most beautiful and innocent person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. It means a lot that you said that," she hugs me and turns back to the stove.

I decide not to say anything and continue to watch her in her element. When she's done she hands me a plate and tells me to dig in. I pile the plate with pancakes, cheesy hashbrowns, and some bacon, sitting down to eat it.

"Fuck me," I say aloud after taking a bite of the chocolate chip pancake.

"Who's fucking you?" Carter walks into the kitchen with Taylor.

"Nobody. I was just praying," I smirk.

"No offense dude, but I don't think Jesus is interested in fucking you," Carter remarks and Aurora laughs next to me.

We all eat and, when we're finished, let the girls go upstairs to get dressed for riding around.

"So what are your thoughts on your new lady friend?" I bump Carter's shoulder.

"She's fucking perfect, dude. I don't really know what else to say about her other than that. Perfect," his eyes noticeably get brighter, which is strange.