Chapter 24

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It's been four weeks since I was shot.

For the first two weeks Aaron wouldn't let me leave the hospital room in his house, he had me on bed rest 'until he said otherwise'.

After that night he climbed into the small single bed with me he continued to climb in every night and suffocate me with his 6'3 heavy body. At first, I protested at any given moment but after a week of it, I didn't mind.

He is always warm, that's why I didn't mind him sleeping in the bed with me, the only reason... as I keep telling myself.

It took a lot of shouting, persuading and crocodile tears to get Aaron to agree to me getting out of the damn bed and back to my room.

At one point I made Vienna and Cole lock him in the room while we all made a power point presentation of why he should allow me back to my room. Jessica was even on FaceTime shouting abuse at Aaron, he tried to end the phone on her, but an annoyed Cole stopped him.

Speaking of Jessica, she is arriving today to spend Christmas with us which is less than a week away. Once again Aaron tried to protest it telling me that Jess would 'only cause havoc' and apparently 'my body can't handle that yet' but it's not like Jess would listen to him anyways, all she had to do was text Cole to send the private jet and the plan was set.

I don't know how she got his number which is another thing I must ask her when she gets here, there's some weird tension between them and I have no clue what it is. It seems neither does Aaron with the facial expressions he's pulling at Cole who is ordering for the house spotless before she arrives and setting her up in the guest room that is conveniently opposite his room.

"I don't want to see a speck of dust in that room. There should be fresh towels and girly stuff. I don't know that the fuck girls use but make sure it's in there." He shouts at the poor maid who only started two weeks ago.
She looks terrified so I give her a small nod as if to stay 'it's not you he's angry about, he's just a caveman.'

Aaron is leaning against the wall biting the side of his cheek, he does this when he's trying not to laugh. It's one of the many little things I've noticed about him over the past few weeks. Aaron isn't a man who shows much emotion to people, in fact I don't think anyone outside of this house has seen him do anything other than scowl and give looks that could kill a man.

To the outside world he's terrifying. The devil reincarnated, but I guess that's what happens when you're Don, if people don't respect you, they have to fear you or its you and your men who end up dead. Like I said, I've learnt a lot about Aaron over the past couple of weeks, things he hasn't realised I've picked up on.

Inside the house Infront of his friends and trusted men, he can be himself slightly, he can be Aaron the person instead of Aaron the feared powerful leader. He can laugh, smile, make jokes. People can even joke with him without fear of being shot between the eyes, but that is only with his most trusted men... and me and Vienna.

He's biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing, he knows if he laughs at Cole for throwing a bitch fit to make everything perfect for Jess, Cole with jump on him and try get him for taking the piss. The more I watch both the more I realise they're just like brothers, brothers who are in bodies of big scary men but are still just boys at heart.

"Aaron if I turn around and see a single expression on your face, I will beat your ass." Cole grunts as he turns around to face Aaron.

Aaron loses the smirk for two seconds before he burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. "that's it!" Cole shouts as he throws himself over to Aaron knocking them both over. They roll around for a few seconds laughing and throwing light playful hits before they get up.

The sound of Aarons laughter flows through my body, it's a sound I've grown to enjoy and a sound I hear more of since I started spending more time with him. At first it was terrifying hearing him laugh, I stared at him like he was an alien, but the sound is so beautiful that I just can't get enough of it.

Just as the boy's dust themselves down the door flings open followed by a loud screech. All jokes are lost and every gun in the house is now pointed towards the figure standing in absolute horror, the figure only being Jessica. Aaron threw himself in my direction shielding my body, he is scanning over me making sure I'm okay.

"Um hi guys, I know you all love an entrance but let's but the guns down" she is still holding her hands up as she leaves her bags at the door and is slowly walking in towards me before she's abruptly stopped.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Jess we could've killed you! I was meant to be getting you from the airport, you were meant to text me when you landed! Why the fuck was I not contacted when she landed?!" Cole is bellowing as he grabs hold of Jessica's arm dragging her towards him.

She scoffs at his reaction "Sorry dad my phone died, and I didn't have a charger so I thought it was easier to get a taxi, plus I thought it would be a nice surprise but now I see we don't do surprises around here..."

"You were meant to fucking call me Jess, don't do that again." He growls in her ear, loud enough for the rest of us to hear.

"Jesus' you caveman, why are you so clingy? I'll do as I please" Jessica saps back at him

Everyone else in the house is silent watching this scene unravel before us, I think Vienna, Arron and I have all gone into a state of shock all of us are gaping mouths opened at the volatile interaction before us. It's one thing for Vienna and I to be shocked but for Aaron to be stood speechless shows just how confusing this situation is.

Aaron is still standing partially Infront of me, next to him I look like a child he is a whole head above me; I just make it to his neck. As intimidating as it is I find myself feeling safe whenever he is next to me, which is when I realise throughout this argument between Jessica and Cole, I have been playing with the bottom of his sleeve, and he didn't stop me once.

Awkwardly self-aware I let go and walk up towards Jessica, I can feel Aaron's presence burning into my back, I don't need to see his face to know he watches me as if he's ready to eliminate any threat near me. Cole can also see the look in his eyes as he lets go of Jessica's arm and takes a step back as I get closer towards her.

As I reach her Vienna runs over to join the group hug, we all squeal jumping up and down spinning around with excitement.
Jessica squeezes me extra hard before letting go "I missed you so much, I know you barely even made it through the first week of freshers before that big grump kidnapped you, but it's not the same without you."

I let out a little laugh, I know she can feel Aaron's blaze of a glare on her after what she just called him. "I miss you too, drop out of uni and move in here with us."

She chuckles with me "not all of us have a big grump to fall back on darling"

"Hmm I don't know about that; you have a lot of explaining to do miss girl" I whisper the last part so only Jess and Vienna hear. We all burst into laughter again.

"Cole grab Jessica's bag, we're going to go shopping since we have... a lot of catching up to do." Vienna clicks her fingers as she tries to push us out the door.

Before she can get me out fast enough, Aaron has made it over to us grabbing me by the waist separating me from the girls. He spins me around wrapping his arm around my chest so I can't fight him.

"What the HELL are you doing?!" I scream at him trying to claw my way out of his grip.

"You're not going shopping Florence; you were shot last month." He growls in my ear.

If he wasn't trying to stop me from going out, I'd probably find it sexy, but right now it's annoying.
"I thought Cole was the caveman today, clearly the title still belongs to you. Yes, I was shot but no I am not permanently damaged, I can still walk and talk just fine and if you're that bothered, I will bring someone specifically to hold all my bags"

He sighs into my ear, now that was sexy. "Florence baby I'm not trying to ruin your fun, but you're not fully healed, and I don't want you doing anything that will jeopardise that."

Everyone in the room is startled by his softness, only Vienna had seen him in the hospital bed with me that night, she is the only other person apart from me that has seen he can be somewhat affectionate.

"Fine, you and Cole can come with us and personally hold ALL our shopping bags and pay for everything I want." I say trying to look up at him even with how tightly he is holding me to his chest.

He looks across at Cole who isn't smiling externally but is clearly grinning internally as he looks across at Jessica who is hanging in the doorway and back to Aaron giving him a small nod.

"That's fine princess I'd carry all the bags in the world for you, but you were going to use the black credit card I gave you if I was there or not." He answers loosening his grip so I can walk back to the girls. I know he's pleased with himself for sabotaging girls' day, and I know Jess and Vienna feels it too.

"Cavemen always ruining girl talk" Vienna rolls her eyes as we walk to the car. Jessica and I don't say anything instead we just nod in agreement.

We get to the shopping centre, and it is packed with people doing last minute Christmas shopping. The whole car ride over all five of us were debating English words versus American words, for example Vienna keeps calling it the mall but to Jess and I it's a shopping centre. This kept Aaron and Cole entertained, I think Aaron kept making me repeat words for the sake of he likes my accent.

Cole and Jess are squabbling Infront of me while Vienna tries to break it up, I feel a hand around my waist pulling me closer to a large body, I don't bother looking or getting startled I know who it is, my caveman bodyguard. "Stay close to me at all times princess, if you go off make sure its with the girls and if you lose sight of me call me immediately" he whispers in my ear only loud enough for me to hear.

"I think it would be impossible to lose the man who's going to be carrying all my bags around for the day" I reply smiling up at him.

Surprisingly he smiles back at me, I don't know what it is but it makes me feel comfortable. Comfortable enough for me to grab onto the end of his shirt again like earlier. He watches the action without saying a word and continues walking with a grin.

"Why do you grab my shirt princess? why not just take my hand?" He asks genuinely curious.

"I'm not sure" I answer truthfully. "Earlier I hadn't even realised that I'd grabbed your shirt and now... well it just felt right I guess."

He plucks my hand off his shirt and places it into his hand, it swallows my hand whole. I've always had soft hands whereas his are rough with callouses, though I'm not surprised since I know the line of work, he's, he isn't going to have hands like mine. I don't know what scares me more, the fact I'm holding the hand of A mafia Don or that it feels right.

Without another word we continue walking hand in hand, as if we are a couple, a real couple. None of the others say anything as we walk searching for shops to go in but it's obvious by their stares they're just as curious as I am as to what this means.

After four successful hours of shopping, we are finally done. Well Vienna, Jessica and I are done, Cole and Aaron didn't have time to buy anything since they were playing chauffeur walking us around carrying all our bags.

Aaron Carries all my bags with one hand refusing to let my hand go in the other, we have been walking round like this all day, hand in hand and I can't say I haven't enjoyed it.

This is probably the most comfortable I've been since been here, everything just feels so right especially having Jessica here. I wish I could convince her to stay but it seems I can't even get her alone to talk about her situation let alone the possibility of her staying here

"Come on guys let's get back, the sooner we're back the sooner we can get our matching pyjamas on" I call out dragging Aaron by his hand to the car.

"Matching pyjamas?!" Aaron and Cole call out in a horrified tone at the same time.

Christmas is going to be so much fun torturing them, I cant wait.

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