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After changing and eating breakfast, Aiden leads us to the basement through the secret passageway. I can't believe he's going to teach me to fight after arguing about it last night.

This labryinth in the walls that I wasnt aware of stilll confuses me, we have a regular basement with stairs leading from the living room but I had no idea of the secret area. "Is there no other way down here?"

He covers my hand with his as we descend the stairs, "Yes, there's another way out."

I trail my fingers over the stone tunnel as we walk through, wall lanterns light everything in golden hues. "Can you show me?"

"Soon." His tone is clipped, but then he gives me a smile.

I bite my lip as we walk past the sauna, remembering the night we shared at the charity ball. Fear, love, want, so many emotions were experienced that night.

Finally, we reach an archway leading to a state-of-the-art gym. "Woah." I say, taking in all of the equipment around the room. It is completely surrounded by mirrors. Aiden immediately begins grabbing weights and placing them on a bar.

Winking, he gestures over to a rack with mats. "I want you to stretch, I'm going to warm up for a minute. I have to work off the delicious breakfast you made me."

I smile, grabbing a mat and beginning to stretch my stiff muscles.

With Aiden shirtless, and lifting the weight loaded bar above his head with ease I have trouble concentrating. Eventually, I get into the rhythm of stretching and doing some yoga poses my mom taught me.

A loud clank hits the ground. "Did you really feel it necessary to wear yoga pants?" Aiden asks, his bottom lip tucked between his teeth.

I wiggle a bit while I bend down, "Am I distracting you?" I ask, trying to get out of stretching and into the fighting part.

His tongue darts from his mouth to lick his lips, "Every fucking day." He stalks towards me, then shakes his head holding up a finger and waving it in the air. "I know what you're doing, Emilia. It's not going to work." He smirks when I sigh.

I gesture around the room, feeling ready for whatever if I can't get out of it. "So what weights do I need?"

He wipes his hands, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a swig. "None of them, we're going outside."

"Why did we come to the gym then?"

He stretches his long arms above his head, his muscles contorting in a delicious way. "Because, darling. You don't need to lift weights, you need hand to hand combat. I needed to get warmed up and you needed to stretch."

He re racks the weights while I fold up the mat and place it back on the shelf. Aiden surprises me with a slap on the ass. "And if I see you bending over in those pants anymore, I'm going to fuck you for the rest of the day and we need to train."

I roll my eyes playfully at him, following his movements as we turn right out of the gym area instead of the original way that we came. He notices my confusion, "Showing you the other exit."

We reach a locked door and Aiden pulls a key ring from his basketball shorts, unlocking three bolts he opens the heavy door and ushers me out to a large clearing.

"This is beautiful!" I say, looking around at the space. The leaves have been gone for a while now and all that lays in the meadow is dead grass and bare trees, but it's still hauntingly breathtaking. During spring, this will be my oasis.

Aiden walks out a ways, getting into a fighting stance. Still shirtless and heart-wrenchingly beautiful, I feel my heart pound in my chest when he bends his knees and beckons me with a finger, "Come at me."

"How?" I ask nervously, a little worried I'm going to look like an idiot.

"Act like I'm about to attack you, and come for me."

I shake my head, it's not that easy. "What if I hurt you?"

The laugh that forms from his lips is music to my ears, even at the expense of making fun of me. "You... hurt... me." He doubles over, "Emilia, just do it." I shake my head, I don't even see the point in this, what could I even do to someone who really was attacking me?

He smiles, "Pretend I kissed someone else."

I scoff, "That doesn't make me want to hit you, it makes me want to cry."

He thinks for a moment, "Okay, imagine I'm the bad guy. Now me, Aiden, is standing behind you, and someones trying to kill him."

I lunge, trying my hardest to fight, but all I know to do is try and tackle this goliath of a man. My body slams into his, and I fall to the ground. He doesn't move an inch.

He crouches down, offering me a hand. "Are you okay baby?" Worry lines crease on his forehead, "Maybe this isn't a good idea I don't want you to get hurt."

I stand and shake off my nerves, "No, I'm not a flower. Bruises heal, we need this." I plead.

He presses his body against mine, I can feel the skin of his bare chest radiating through the thin material of my tank top. He bends down to whisper in my ear, "I only like to push you around in the bedroom, are you sure this is okay?"

"Positive."

We spend the next hour with him teaching me how to dodge a punch, and how to properly throw one. Although, I feel like my punches won't do much as he didn't even flinch when I hit him. I sighed, about to raise the white flag and he graciously bent over in "pain" on my last hit.

He nods approvingly after we finish, "Okay, I think you've got the basics down... now you need to disarm me."

I look at his hand, "Disarm you of what?"

He grabs a rock nearby, and puts it to my temple. "Pretend this is a gun, what do you do Em?" He pauses, hesitating. "I hate this, I hate that you're having to fucking do this. You're to pure to be wrapped up in my bullshit."

I form a smile on my lips, trying to hold it together. "Aiden, all of this probably isn't necessary, just look at it as bonding."

He scoffs, "bonding? I should be bonding with you with dates and dancing not teaching you how to protect yourself. This is all so fucked!"

I bring my voice to a calm tone, "it's okay, babe."

"Emilia! I was holding a fucking rock to your head pretending it was a gun because THAT is a possibility for you if you don't run the fuck away from me. Do you not get that?" He bellows, there are no leaves for his words to bounce off of for an echo, they just disappear into the forest.

I walk towards him slowly, throwing my arms around his neck and staring deeply into his jade eyes. "You would never let me get that close to danger, this is for fun... okay?" I lie, trying to diffuse his freak out.

I grab his hand, bringing it to my head, he shakes off his fears as I think about what to do.

My line of sight goes from my shoe to his crotch, he notices. "Exactly, no need to do that to me." He laughs nervously, his body still rigid with worry. "But that's exactly what you need to do. Hit them in the balls and run away in a zig-zag motion, or bring your fist down on their wrist hard if you're able."

I'm exhausted, and even though it's cold out I'm burning up. I collapse onto the dry grass, thinking about how nice my shower will be. Aiden sits down, studying me.

"We're doing this daily, breaks on weekends. I think you're onto something with this, it will make me feel better you knowing how to fight."

Silence creeps through the meadow, I've been thinking about this non-stop but I was too nervous to say anything, "You know the night of the charity ball?"

He smiles, remembering the good parts, the part I'm talking about. He slides up to me, his hair sits flush above his black eyebrows. "What about it? Wanna go again?"

"While we were..." I blush, "and I told you to, ya know-"

"You begged for me to cum inside of you." He deadpans, a smirk tilting on his face.

"Thank you for... not." I say, and watch his face fall. "Not because I don't want kids with you!" I assure him, kissing his cheek. "I just want us to not be in danger first, and... I always imagined I would be married but that's not to say you should propose right now, im not trying to force you into anything im just saying what I would prefer down the line whe- he cuts off my rambling with a finger to my lips.

"And that's exactly why I didn't. I want those things too, Emilia. When the time is right." He winks, causing chills throughout my body.

"We're going to be okay, Emilia. You know that right?" He pulls me into his lap and gently plays with my hair as we cool down from our work out in the cool January air.

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I'm SO excited to hear your thoughts on the published version of Aiden!!

A few have asked if AIDEN will be removed or made paid, those along with other questions will be answered here:

• Will the published version be different? •

It will be better! I hired an incredible editor who worked hand in hand with me to make it the same story you love, but with added content and a polished manuscript. Any book I publish will always have an epilogue, so you can look forward to that too! 😉

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• Are you taking it off of WattPad? •

Absolutely not! This story will always be free for you guys on here :) and it will not be a paid story. If you want a paperback to hold or the ebook to have at all times, it would make me the happiest girl in the world! if you just want to purchase to support ya girl, it will mean the world to me and for the publication of Emilia which is my ultimate goal!

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• Will you be adding the extended chapters/edited version/epilogue on WattPad •

No, this version will remain as it is. If I delete or edit anything I'll lose all of your wonderful comments! Plus, there's something intriguing about this staying on here unedited and as a well loved rough draft.

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📚 Okay enough Q & A, Where can I buy it!? 📚

It is available WORLDWIDE through Kindle!

And you can buy your beautiful paperback copies through Amazon!

♥️See y'all Tuesday!♥️