Defining Love: Volume 2 (Defining Love #2) Read online

  Books by Elizabeth Reyes

  Moreno Brothers Series

  Forever Mine

  Forever Yours

  Sweet Sofie

  When You Were Mine

  Always Been Mine

  Romero

  Tangled—A Moreno Brothers novella

  Making You Mine

  5th Street Series

  Noah

  Gio

  Hector

  Abel

  Felix

  Fate Series

  Fate

  Breaking Brandon

  Suspicious Minds

  Again (coming Summer 2015)

  Desert Heat Series

  Desert Heat

  Defining Love

  Defining Love Volume 1

  Defining Love Volume 2

  Defining Love Volume 3

  DEFINING

  Love

  Elizabeth Reyes

  Defining Love

  Copyright © 2015 Elizabeth Reyes

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover by Amanda Simpson at Pixel Mischief Design

  Edited by Theresa Wegand

  Table of Contents

  Defining Love Volume Two

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Defining Love Volume Two

  Chapter 6

  Your heart doesn’t seek other people’s opinions.

  Sometimes not even your own.

  Henri

  Bald-faced lies were not my thing, but I felt this case warranted one. It also helped that I didn’t particularly like who I was lying to. Since I wasn’t one hundred percent sold on this new job with Aaron working out, I didn’t want to quit my job at the hotel outright just in case. So I lied to my boss at the hotel and said there was a death in the family and would be gone a few weeks. Without so much as a “sorry for your loss,” two weeks with no pay was the most she callously said she could give me. Her insensitive response about my fake dead family member had me feeling less guilty about lying and a little more grateful that I had the opportunity to walk away from the shit job.

  Regardless, I still wasn’t sure about the position with Aaron, but I figured two weeks would be long enough to help me decide. I’d also lied by omission because I didn’t tell anyone I hadn’t just quit, not even Edi. I didn’t need to plant any insecurities in Edi’s head where there shouldn’t be any. The morning Eileen told me about the position everything about it was too perfect. Since quitting my job to take this one was such a no-brainer, there was no way I could explain to Edi what my hesitation was.

  I was under no illusions that a guy like Aaron—gorgeous firefighter, older, and a sophisticated and successful entrepreneur—would have any interest in me.

  Despite that moment we’d had New Year’s Eve.

  Eileen had also mentioned he was now engaged to his equally gorgeous and put-together long-time girlfriend. But I did know that being around him so often would be a blinding reminder of how gay I wasn’t. It had involuntarily come to mind each time I’d been around him and what had kept the ongoing memory of that moment we’d had going.

  My first day on the job was as exciting as it was nerve-wracking. Beatriz thought I’d be more comfortable if I started on the days she was there and she could pick me up instead of Aaron. She was so right. As nervous as I was about the awkwardness of working for Aaron in his home, I was eternally grateful to Beatriz for having been there, especially that first day.

  We came up the driveway to the two-story colonial house as she filled me in on her brother buying it a few years ago but only moving in late last year. She also warned me it was more of a warehouse than a home.

  “You’d think with a house like this he’d move his fiancée in and make it all cozy and what not,” Beatriz said with a disapproving shake of her head. “Instead, he’s focused completely on this company he’s building, and, yeah, he’s doing very well, but he’s a workaholic who won’t even take time to enjoy all he’s worked so hard for.”

  We walked through the large sparsely decorated front room and all the way through the dining room and huge kitchen until we were in this big back room, which was likely supposed to be the home’s great room for entertaining. There was a big, fancy, but mostly empty bar in one corner and a giant rock fireplace in the opposite corner, but if it weren’t for those clues, you’d never know it was a home. The furniture in the room consisted of three desks with computers and off to the side two big tables that looked like a mini assembly line for packing and getting things ready to be shipped. The rest of the room was filled with boxes and packing stuff.

  Beatriz looked at me as she sipped her coffee and rolled her eyes. “Like I said, real homey.” I followed her without saying a word toward one of the desks in the room. “This is where you’ll be working. Eileen said she mentioned to you this wasn’t the most exciting job, but it beats cleaning toilets, right?”

  I nodded, glancing around, not sure yet if I’d regret this or not. The huge sliding glass door that faced the back patio brought in a lot of light, so as unhomey as the place was, at least it wasn’t gloomy. Beatriz clicked on a small black box on the desk she’d sauntered over to just across from mine and music started playing.

  “Hello, Henrietta.”

  Aaron’s deep voice startled me, and I flinched, turning to the sound of it. He stood at the doorway, appearing freshly showered and very comfortable in his dark blue Ingham County Fire sweatpants, a matching snug county T-shirt, and tennis shoes. He seemed even taller and bigger than I remembered as his body took up almost the entire frame of the doorway.

  “I’m sorry.” He smiled, making me feel that familiar strangeness inside I’d only ever felt around him. “I just got home. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “No,” I said, feeling my face warm. “I just . . .”

  “I haven’t told her much,” Beatriz said, inadvertently saving me from my sudden discomfort. “I figured you’d want to give her the spiel on all this.”

  Aaron nodded, striding into the room. The anticipation I hadn’t allowed myself to acknowledge about seeing him again was doing a number on me because his enormous presence was so much bigger and more intimidating than I remembered. “First of all,” he said, bringing a hand over his big chest. “Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. I’m not sure if Bea told you, but I’m really desperate for any help I can get.”

  I nodded, trying to gulp back the anxiety from watching him in all his greatness walk toward me. For a moment, I wished I’d tried harder to convince Maggie to take this job with me. At least we could take turns being all giddy and excitable about being around him.

  “Thank you for the opportunity,” I managed to say without my voice sounding shaky as I thought it might. “I don’t know if Beatr-Bea filled you in about what I did at my past job, but it was pretty crappy.”

  “Literally.” Bea laughed. “She
was cleaning crappy toilets at a hotel.”

  “Well then”—he smiled at me again, and I hated my insides for going completely nuts over something so trite—“I’m glad we could help each other. Have a seat.” He motioned to the seat next to the desk I was standing nearest to. “Let me tell you what this business of mine is all about.”

  As if I weren’t already impressed with everything else about Aaron, I was blown away when he explained the type of business he’d started all on his own and was now so big he needed to expand. The snug sweat suit allowed for a more thorough inspection of the incredible body I hadn’t been privy to before. I knew he was big and clearly well-built, but the definition of his muscles on both his chest and arms was breathlessly visible now. On top of all that, the man was brilliant. He was an inventor. Albeit his invention went hand in hand with his line of work, it was incredibly impressive that he’d come up with it all on his own, got a patent, hit the road to promote it, and set up an online store. Now business was booming.

  I really didn’t understand the complexities of it all. Basically, his invention and what he called the EPG was a gadget that detected a certain chemical in the air that’s present just seconds before an explosion. It then instantly turns off all power sources in a home or business. He explained that since gas and electrical fires accounted for the majority of home and restaurant fires shutting off the source of a potential explosion before said explosion was vital. But it was far more complicated because there were some businesses where turning off all power wasn’t feasible, like hospitals and large commercial plants where keeping heating or cooling on was crucial, so he figured out how to have this gadget turn off only the very specific sources that would avoid an explosion.

  Here at his makeshift warehouse we’d only handle the smaller orders for mom-and-pop restaurants and other small businesses. The larger, more complex orders would be sent out directly from the manufacturer, but we were still in charge of making sure the orders were put in correctly and following up to confirm the clients had received them. Then we continued with calling the clients to make sure everything was running smoothly and they were happy.

  Many parts of his very technical explanation went completely over my head, but I still listened intently, trying my damnedest to not drown in his heavily lashed eyes as he spoke so passionately about the whole business. Bea answered calls and pretended to be busy on the computer. Though more than once I saw her tapping her fingers on her cell-phone screen.

  Bea had already told me about all the different trade shows Aaron attended to get his invention out there and the trips he made to pitch it to all the many different businesses that could benefit from his gadget. They had the potential to be huge clients since some of these were international companies with plants and branches all over the world.

  “Eventually,” he said, “at least until I’m able to resign from my job—”

  “You’d quit being a firefighter?” I asked.

  Being a firefighter to me had always seemed like one of those dream jobs most guys and even women would die to have. Little boys dressed like them for Halloween! Some of the boys I grew up with in foster care pretended to be firefighters when we played make-believe. And Aaron was considering resigning?

  I must’ve sounded as shocked as I felt, because he turned away from the computer monitor to look at me and smiled. “Don’t get me wrong, Henrietta. I love my job. It’s very rewarding. But so is this. And this has the potential to prevent so many of the tragedies I’ve been witness to over the years. I can always try to get back in or volunteer on my down time once I get this rolling at a steady pace. But right now I need to focus on this. Between this and working full-time, I’ve hardly had time for anything else—”

  “Like Mia,” Bea said, staring straight into her computer with one brow exaggeratedly lifted high.

  “That’s why I’m seriously considering resigning, Bea,” Aaron reiterated as I witnessed for the first time his hardened demeanor. I was still busy trying to catch my breath from hearing him say my full name again. The first time I’d heard him say it back at the party New Year’s Eve had left me breathless.

  My name had never sounded so good.

  “Having her move in already might buy you more time, you know,” Bea said, taking a sip of her coffee with a disapproving glare. “A proposal with no date in sight is only going to hold her interest for so long, Aaron, and I can’t say I blame her. She’s been waiting on you for years. First while you made it into the academy then as you worked your way up and now—”

  “That’s enough, Bea,” Aaron said, clicking a different screen on the monitor we were both looking at, and turned back to me with a forced smile. “I have a call I have to be on in a few minutes and need to prepare for it. Bea can walk you through pulling the smaller orders and getting them ready to ship out.” He turned to his sister with a stern countenance. “This call shouldn’t take more than thirty, forty minutes. I’ll come back and take over Henrietta’s training then.”

  I waited until he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him before looking back at Bea and wincing. For a moment there, I’d forgotten she was his sister and not at all intimidated by him as I was.

  She rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee before saying anything. When she did, she lowered her voice a bit. “I swear I think I’m more worried about him losing Mia than he is. He must think she’s gonna wait around for him forever. The poor girl’s been waiting on him for”—she gasped, counted quickly on her fingers, and then her mouth fell open—“going on eleven years!” She counted again as if she must’ve counted wrong the first time. “Holy shit!” Her voice wasn’t as low as before, and I glanced at the door, nervous he might hear. “They’ve been together since their senior year in high school, and, okay, I’ll give him that the first year they were still in high school she wasn’t waiting, but, technically, that would be ten years of her life she’s been with him. No wonder she’s felt like family to me forever.” Her eyes widened as if all of this were just now sinking in. “I was still in grade school when they met, and she’s been like an older sister to me ever since. Even when they broke up, we kept in touch, talking on the phone almost every day.”

  “Well, he did say he’s seriously considering resigning,” I offered, curious about when and why they’d broken up but didn’t ask. “Maybe that’s what he’s waiting on before setting a date?”

  The thought of being Aaron’s girl all those years even if, apparently, they’d broken up once didn’t seem like such a sacrifice to me. But I supposed it must’ve been frustrating for Mia to be with him all those years and him not even ask her to move in. The house was big enough. And Bea did have a point: if they were engaged anyway, having her move in might tide her over in the meantime.

  After she huffed about it for a bit more, saying how she really believed her brother was just full of excuses and afraid to commit, we moved on to my training.

  I kept my opinion to myself about Aaron and Mia. Even if they had broken up once, ten years with the same girl qualified as major commitment to me. From what little I knew about him so far, I’d say he was just very passionate about his work, but sticking with one girl all this time, when clearly he could’ve had as many as he pleased, did say a lot about his ability to commit. Of course, I was assuming the guy had been faithful the whole time. Maybe he hadn’t been and that’s why they’d broken up. What did I know?

  Aaron’s call seemed to go on much longer than I expected. A good hour later, Beatriz was done explaining the process of pulling orders from the queue online, and I’d even packaged and readied several for delivery. I’d actually started working down the queue fairly quickly without Bea having to hold my hand. I was so into it that, when she mentioned she was heading down to the corner for a smoke break and asked if I wanted to come, I passed. Partly because I didn’t want to lose the momentum I’d gained and partly because I wasn’t particularly fond of second-hand smoke. She regarded me a bit strangely, and
I pretended not to notice, though her only comment was to ask me not to mention to Aaron anything about her smoking.

  “It’s why I walk to the corner. I’m not allowed to smoke on his property,” she said with another annoyed roll of her eyes. “But I’d like to be spared the lecture I’m sure I’ll get if he knows what I’m doing out there.”

  Ten minutes after Bea had left, Aaron sauntered into the room just as I was finishing up packaging the latest order at the packaging table. I smiled big, proud of myself. “I’ve done several all on my own now.” I held up my latest to show him.

  “I noticed you guys made quite a dent in the queue. This is good news.” He glanced around and out the back sliding door. “Where’d Bea go?”

  “She, uh . . .” I lifted my hand toward the front of the house. “She’s taking a break . . . went for a walk.”

  His lips puckered immediately. “Smoking, no doubt.” He shook his head. “You don’t smoke, do you?”

  “No.” I started back to my desk.

  “Good,” he said as he made his way to my desk as well. “I don’t know what’s so hard to understand. Smoking kills. Plain and simple. It’s not a theory or rumor; it’s a fact.”

  I glanced at him silently, not sure how to respond to that. His expression softened after noticing what must’ve been a blank expression on my face. “Sorry.” He smiled. “I don’t mean to sound like such a nagging big brother, but I can’t stand to know my baby sister smokes.”

  I smiled back, shaking my head. “No need to be sorry. It’s natural to worry about your siblings. She obviously worries about you too.”

  No sooner had the words left my mouth than I regretted them. Not only was he not smiling anymore, but my comment seemed to have hit a nerve. Was he upset that I’d touched on a subject he’d made clear earlier was one he didn’t want to talk about. That what Bea was worried about—him neglecting his fiancée, a personal subject that was none of my business—wasn’t something I should be commenting on. Before I could backpedal or try to change the subject, he surprised me with his next question.