Claire grabbed Aiden's hand and moved over to his seat. He covered her with the blanket and snaked his arm around her waist to hug her against him. Something to which she didn't complain.
He looked down at her and they locked their gazes on each other. They stared at one another in silence for a while until Aiden started to draw circles on her waist with his thumb, prompting her to speak.
"I..." Claire didn't know how to explain herself no matter how much she thought about it. So in the end, she decided to simply speak whatever came to mind. "I'm not used to meeting with people outside of work besides my family. Keeping secrets and having to constantly hide is honestly awful to me. But... it's because of my ability to keep them that I can protect myself." She looked at Lily's sleeping face. "And more importantly her."
A few more seconds of silence ensued before she continued. "Like you said, it's easier and safer to keep my circle small. And thanks to the fact of having few people around me, I can save myself from having to hide who I truly am around them." She took a deep breath and kept going.
"But even so, I'm not that innocent or blind. I know we have chemistry. I also think that the probability of us having a lot of things in common is high. And it's precisely because I know that you're different that I can't be selfish enough to involve you in my life. Not you or anybody else." She was being as honest and she could. Maybe then he could finally understand her reluctance to have the kind of relationship he was obviously hinting at.
"Too much blood has been spilled and too many tears have been shed already. It doesn't matter if that means I can't have friends or a...." She stopped herself from completing the sentence and looked up at Aiden. Realizing how he hadn't stopped looking at her since she started talking.
"Or a lover?" Aiden finished her sentence when he noticed she wouldn't do it herself.
"Or a lover." Aiden saw her pained eyes as she seemed to remember something. She continued in a lower voice. It was laced with something Aiden could only recognize as pain."The demons I deal with.... have already taken too much from me. I'm not willing to keep adding to the list of things I might lose."
Aiden placed his hand on her cheek as he focused on her eyes. Being so close to her led him to notice all the broken pieces laying just beyond the deep forest she held in her enchanting jade orbs. He caressed her soft skin with his thumb as he spoke.
"I like your eyes." Claire's expression turned a bit confused due to Aiden's abrupt compliment during such a serious conversation. But Aiden wasn't finished.
"I like the way you don't lie to Lily when you explain things to her. I like how you wear cute animal print pajamas and pink fluffy bunny slippers. I like how you manage to hide from the world in plain sight. I like how your hair matches the fire in your gaze when you get serious. I like how you don't act recklessly while under stress. I like how you don't mind going out without wearing makeup. I like how you have a sharp tongue when you talk. And I really like how you blush hard while I tell you the things I like about you." He chuckled while looking at Claire's cheeks turn a deep shade of red.
"But what I like the most is the fact that no matter what I see, I find myself liking you even more." His expression turned serious. "I sit on a very high thrown Claire. It's so high up on the food chain that it gets hard to breath from time to time. I've fought and slain more demons than I can even try to remember in order to get to where I am now. To be who I am now. Yet there hasn't been a single one that has ever even remotely made me want to bow out. So trust me when I say that whatever demons or monsters you're dealing with, aren't enough to stop me from finding new things to like about you." He could see her gears turning quicker than she could properly process, but he needed to be clear if he wanted to at least have a fair go at whatever it is that he felt between them. "So don't turn me down even before I get the chance to find more things about you that I'm sure I'll end up liking."
Claire felt her walls try to come crashing down. Her eyes turned misty while her heart beated so hard she thought it would jump out of her chest. She had never felt so scared yet so happy at the same time. Looking up at Aiden while he spoke to her that way was all she needed to not be able to refuse what she yearned for anymore.
"I-I come with a little girl that has special needs." Claire stuttered as she felt the tears in her eyes start sliding down her face.
"She's already my little princess." He answered as he gently wiped her cheeks.
"You o-only met me recently." Claire felt her body tremble as she spoke.
"We have all the time in the world to get to know each other." He looked down at her lovingly as he reassured her.
"A-are you sure? I-I'm not very interesting and-" Claire was silenced when her lips were sealed off.
Being surprised by the sudden kiss, she froze. The feel of his warm breath on her face, his intoxicating scent and his soft lips pressed against hers made Claire's mind go blank. Her eyes fluttered shut as she let herself melt from the sensation. The kiss was sweet and short, but it conveyed everything she needed to know. He wasn't going to back down.
Aiden pulled back a bit and rested his forehead against hers. He watched her as she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him.
"I'm sure." He said as he saw something glimmer in her eyes while she blinked a few tears away. Wiping them off he continued. "Now instead of crying, how about that nap?" A soft smile spread across his lips.
The amazing feeling of her lips on his was something he wanted to explore more, but he knew it wasn't the time or the place. Not that he minded waiting, the expression on her face was enough to make his entire week.
"Okay..." Claire replied as she slowly nodded. She was in such a daze from what had just happened, that she simply complied to his suggestion.
Aiden adjusted their position so that he had one of his legs spread on the seat and the other on the floor. Claire lifted her legs to comfortably stretch them on the seat as well and leaned on him to use as a pillow. After making sure she was completely covered by the blanket, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her against his body while she rested her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and leaned back as they both closed their eyes and enjoyed each others warmth.