Flirting With Destiny: Aedyn Book 1

Chapter 15

Lauren 

A shower of brilliant purple-blue rainbow of colors sparkled across my lap as the light from the sun shining through my window hit the center diamond on my ring. I held my left hand strategically into the sunlight, twisting it to make the colors dance across my hand. I hadn't stopped admiring the torrents of fiery colors since Chip slipped it on my finger, hoping that if I stared at it long enough my heart would feel the beautiful love it represented. An engagement ring was supposed to symbolize the radiant love that went with it. But now, after the initial excitement of accepting the ring wore off, deep down, I wasn't sure that was ever going to happen. 

 I had hoped Chip's proposal would have been a more romantic one. I had envisioned him getting down on one knee while on a picnic at the park, or have the words "Marry Me," written in the sand on some exotic beach. Not a proposal in a hospital bed. Not with his bruises on my arms and Aedyn hovering nearby. I hadn't wanted a proposal spurred by jealousy. 

Was it too coincidental that Chip just happened to have a ring in his pocket? That's not usually the kind of thing one carries on their person at all times. Had he been told a mystery man had assisted me and was at my bedside? That he had insisted he ride with me in the ambulance?

But still, he must have already purchased the ring sometime. 

Now, here I was with a ring on my finger and doubts in my heart. Aedyn had turned my head, but more than that, I realized I really did deserve more than I was getting. Yes, I was scared. Yes, I wasn't sure what to do. But there was a tiny spark building inside me wanting more. 

I hadn't anticipated the emotions Aedyn had stirred in me and I was just as confused as to where those feeling had even come from. A person in love shouldn't be feeling desire for another. I thought I was happily in love with Chip until Aedyn stepped out of that limo and into my life. 

 I shifted restlessly on the couch. The memory of how Aedyn looked at me as I lay in the hospital, his sexy blue eyes connected with mine made me shove my hand back into the shadows. I was sure that my own eyes had betrayed me in front of both Brandon and Chip. I felt like he could see what was going on between Aedyn and me. 

 Stop it, I nearly scream to myself. Stop all this crazy talk right now. 

Fuck! I'd seen the man three times in the last ten years and here I am imagining him as my knight in shining armor, sweeping in to save me from a fucked up life. True, there had been a spark, an absolute connection when we touched, but we hardly knew each other anymore. I didn't even know his hopes and dreams. 

I sighed, my anger fading into sadness and guilt. I know it's wrong to want Aedyn. Wanting him now is breaking all the rules. He filled a space in my heart that Chip couldn't reach, or maybe it was a hole that Chip had created by taking away a part of me with his abusive behavior. 

 I was so confused, torn between the two. Part of me said, forget Aedyn. It's a gamble with him.

He might not even feel the same way about me anyway. I should just stick with Chip and try to work out our problems. I had accepted the ring, but that was for two very different reasons. One, I was caught off guard, hurt and in the hospital; the pain and medication ensured I could barely think straight. Two, I had been wanting Chip to propose for so long, it was what I'd been dreaming of. So when it finally happened, I automatically said yes. 

 Then there was the other side of me that wanted to run into Aedyn's arms while I told Chip to take his ring and stuff it up his ass. But that side was the long shot, the bet I was sure to lose. The way Aedyn looked at me when I'd confessed to having a boyfriend told me that.