Bared by Stacey Kennedy Page A

life he had with her. How happy she made everyone that was in her presence. How happy she made him.
    Now he had returned to the man he was before Lily. Yet somehow even he knew how much he had changed since her. He had a small moment of heaven once, and now a dark cloud had settled over his day-to-day routine
    How could a man touch an angel and then be asked to forget about her?
    He couldn’t.
    Aidan wondered at times if he was being punished. Had he done something to deserve a taste of heaven, only for a moment, when others had a lifetime together? He sighed. “Yes, Mother, I’m aware how long it’s been.”
    So many things he regretted, but his biggest regret of all: not proposing to Lily. He wondered if Lily truly knew what she had meant to him. Even if he’d told her he loved her, they were young when they started dating.
    He hadn’t been given enough time to go down that road. In fact, he’d been too busy with his career, trying to build the perfect life for her. He had become comfortable. He thought he had forever.
    Aidan had never been so wrong.
    His mother smiled softly. “You know, I hear this online dating is a hot, new thing.” His father frowned. She gave him a dismissing flick of her hand. “Perhaps you should give that a go.”
    “Perhaps,” Aidan replied. He preferred to agree instead of continuing with this conversation. He had Cora. What they had worked. He didn’t want to date. “Tell me about Europe.”
    “It’s beautiful, Son,” his mother replied, fluffing up her light blond hair with silver highlights. “We’re thinking of staying for a while after the cruise is done. Could you come for a visit?”
    Aidan nodded. “Get roots set down and I’ll make it happen.”
    His father gave him a stern look. “That would make your mother very happy.”
    Aidan chuckled. So his mother had been talking about missing him for a while, had she? He thought over what to stay next, but fell short. He remembered times when he and Lily would chat to his parents over Skype on their travels, and Lily would talk to his mother for an hour.
    Lily had been a talker; so was his mother.
    By the end of the conversation, both he and his father had said all of ten words. And Aidan hadn’t minded. He loved listening to Lily speak and watching her smile. His parents had loved her, too.
    “All right,” he said with tightness in his chest. “Enjoy the rest of your cruise. Drop me aline when you’re at the next port.”
    “Of course,” his mother replied. “We love you, Son.”
    “Be safe,” Aidan replied.
    His father gave his typical nod goodbye and crisp smile. Then Aidan ended the Skype call and sat back in his chair. He glanced across his desk to the picture of Lily by the telephone. So much had changed since her. She had been the center of his life, the sweetest and purest part of his world, and that had been ripped away. With her, his days had been full and his life had been happy.
    Things were different now, even he knew that. He worked, he played in the dungeon, he climbed mountains. Before, with Lily, he had the world at his fingertips. He had it all. But that life died with Lily.
    Though he did have Cora, and she brought him something different. She had reminded him to wake up every day, and gave him something to look forward to on the weekends. She had that sassy smile. Her quick wit amused him. Her submission drove him crazy.
    Two lives, totally different—yet both belonged to him.
    With thoughts of Cora and all that she’d given to his life, he couldn’t stand feeling that she was hurting. How he felt now had reminded him of his pain; it horrified him to think she could feel such dark emotions.
    Cora was too good. Her soul too kind. She didn’t deserve it.
    He had to fix this.
    “Affidavits are all done.”
    Aidan glanced up as his legal assistant, Ella Snow, entered his office with a folder in her hands. At twenty-six years old, she had a quiet reserve to her. She had an old soul. Her flowered