Free Hot Christmas Nights by Farrah Rochon Page A

chest as he decided to put it out there, once and for all.
    “Because I’m in love with you. It doesn’t matter what you say, or what you do. I’m convinced that I’m destined to love you.” He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I want you to give us a chance.”
    She wrapped her arms around her middle and pulled her trembling lips between her teeth.
    “I just don’t know, Aiden. After what happened on my wedding—”
    “Forget that one day,” he said, cutting her off before she could bring it up again, as if that one day meant more than all the others they’d shared. He put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes.
    “Think about how you felt before your wedding day. Remember what it felt like to stroll around the Ancient Americas Exhibit at the Carlos Museum, or through the tulip meadows at the botanical gardens. Think about that first time you reached for my hand as we sat on the swing in my parents’ backyard.”
    She tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her. Turning her face to his again, he said, “You felt it that night, Nyla, that very first time you reached for me. You knew then that there was more than just friendship between us. I know you did, because it was the first time I saw fear in your eyes. Because you knew what was happening between us.”
    “Of course I was afraid,” she said. “You were my fiancé’s younger brother.”
    “I was a man who cared enough to learn what it would take to make you happy. I was a man who deserved a chance.” He tucked a finger underneath her chin and tipped her face up. “I still want that chance, Nyla, because even after three years apart there is nothing in this world I want more than to make you happy.”
    Her eyes fell shut.
    Aiden had to fight the urge to pull her trembling lower lip between his teeth. He could practically see the war taking place within her.
    This could all be so simple, if only she would let go of that guilt she still carried.
    “Is it really that hard to give yourself permission to be happy?” Aiden whispered.
    “I’m trying,” she said.
    “At the very least, I want you to admit that you loved me,” he said. “Admit that what I felt wasn’t one-sided.”
    She looked up at him, her soft brown eyes swimming with emotion. “I don’t have to tell you how I felt about you, Aiden.”
    “I need to hear you say it.”
    She sucked in a deep breath, and said, “I loved you.”
    Her voice was so small he could barely hear it, but he did, and the pleasure her words set off in his head was as addictive as anything he’d ever felt.
    “Thank you,” he whispered against her hair.
    He pulled back slightly and looked down at her. “I’m not going to push you, but can we please at least try to stop pretending that we’re just these two friends who knew each other a few years ago, and just happen to keep in touch online from time to time? I can’t go back to that. I need to know that there’s at least a chance that we will finally be together.”
    After several weighty moments passed, finally she said, “Yes.”
    Aiden wasn’t sure if he believed in Christmas miracles, but he was certain he’d just experienced his first one.

Chapter 5
    N yla rested her head on Aiden’s shoulder as they swayed slowly to the delicate strumming of the serenading musicians on the Piazza Navona. For the first time in a long while—in three years to be exact—she felt light, free, as if a weight she didn’t want to admit to carrying had suddenly been lifted.
    Happiness.
    That’s what she was feeling right now.
    If anyone had dared to suggest that she was anything but happy with the new life she’d built for herself, Nyla would have laughed it off. How could she not be happy? She’d left a job she never truly enjoyed to pursue her lifelong passion in one of the world’s most amazing cities, then had moved to the rolling hills of Tuscany, with its gorgeous landscapes and rich history. She was living a