A/N Sorry in advance as a lot of you are going to be fed up with  this chapter, but I promise this is building to a crescendo of sorts. Hope you enjoy, MZxx

Chapter Twenty Four

Julia had a to do list, but it wasn't as long as her shopping list. If she asked Aaron, she had no idea that he would offer her his car, or even his driver. But she was putting on him enough. So she instead finished work early and got a bus to the nearest large supermarket. It was a few miles away, there were obviously closer shops, but they weren't brilliantly stocked, and expensive. This one was nowhere near the size of supermarket that she was used to, but compared to the local shops, it was a dream and she couldn't believe that she hadn't been to it before.

As predicted, she spent far too much, and she was glad that she had planned for a taxi to take her home. One came in a few minutes, and there was only just enough room in the boot for all her bootie. But what bootie it was, chocolate, great coffee, proper tea, then there was her menu for the weekend, bacon, eggs, waffles and pancakes. She could cater for twenty or more she was sure, but she so wanted the weekend to be perfect.

The cab pulled up outside the apartment block, and the driver helped her unload her bags on to the pavement. As he drove off, she looked at the numerous bags and the distance into the apartment block that she had to cross to the lift. And groaned. She couldn't leave bags in the street whilst she went inside with other bags...suddenly it all seemed a bit difficult. She wasn't sure that everything would fit into the lift anyway.

Groaning she ran a hand through her hair, nothing was ever easy. Thinking for a moment, she realised that the only way to get her things into the apartment was to do it in stages, carrying the bags in several stages, a few feet at a time. This was going to take time. Sighing she reached for the first five bags and managed to open the door to the lobby and use the bags to block it open. Then she moved back to get another few. Once they were all just inside the doorway, she moved the first to the door of the lift. On her second trip of that stage, the bag burst and it had to be the one filled with fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes, apples and bananas spilled with lettuce and mushrooms. Dropping to her knees she started to scrabble, shoving the stray items in to the top of the remaining bags.

Then a pair of immaculate dark brown, polished leather shoes appeared in her small visual field.

"You can't be left unsupervised for a day can you, Miss Trouble?"

Aaron.

She froze, drinking in that voice, she'd missed him so much, she had no idea how bad she looked, but for a change she didn't care. With a sigh, she lifted her head to meet his eyes.

"Grocery issues. I should've asked the taxi driver to help me inside the foyer with these."

He rolled his eyes, "why didn't you tell me you were going shopping? Patrick would have picked you up, AND helped you get the bags upstairs."

She felt the heat of a blush fold her face and neck, "I am trying, and I know failing, to show you that I can do these things alone. I hate that I rely on you for so much."

Offering her a hand he hauled her effortlessly to her feet. His suit was impeccable, despite what she imagined was a five or six-hour flight, though his tie was loose at his throat, and his jaw was more stubbled than usual.

"It's hardly any effort, there is a driver and a car, redundant...there's a spare room...it is all just logic."

It was SO much more than that, but she wasn't about to fight him on that.

"I thought you were back tomorrow."

Aaron shrugged, "I wanted to make sure I was home for Luke, and then there's this ridiculous decision about taking the sofa."

"Aaron, YOU are not going to be bed less. It is your home, we are all guests. I'll sleep in with the dogs if you don't agree to this."

He laughed, "what you'll be in the dogs' room whilst they're on your bed?"

Rolling her eyes, she reached for the bags at their feet, and the few stray apples that were still in his path, then marched inside to call the lift.

Between them, they got the umpteen grocery bags, themselves and Aaron's travel bags into the lift, and it was far more organised, they actually made it inside the apartment.

"So how many people are you expecting this weekend? I reckon you could feed the five thousand." He dumped the remaining bags on to the kitchen island, "you really carted all this back here on your own?"

It was her turn to roll her eyes, "I am a functioning member of society, Harding. I have been caring for myself and shopping etc for years."

He chuckled, "I'm going to shower, then I'll help you store all this."

She shook her head, "go relax, I'll make us dinner. I picked up these amazing looking shrimps earlier, they're huge."

He growled, "I LOVE seafood..."

Big, fat, juicy prawns in a spicy tomato sauce, with linguine, rocket, garlic bread and sparkling rose wine. That was what heaven felt like to Aaron.

After his shower, he pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, leaving his feet bare. Before their trip he'd been in full on flirt mode, but he wasn't going at her today. They needed a truce of sorts, and dinner smelled delicious.

He sat across the table from Julia and groaned. "If this tastes a fraction of how it looks and smells, I can die tonight extremely happy."

She giggled as she reached for her glass of wine and sipped it, "this is my favourite meal...I haven't had much appetite this week. So, I needed something really appealing."

As soon as she said it, she realised that she was revealing more than she was happy with. He studied her for a moment, taking it in, digesting that. She could tell.

"Is that a control thing?" When she didn't answer, merely stared back at him, he added, "the not eating. It's been mentioned a few times."

She dropped her eyes for a moment, twirling the pasta around her fork, but it was a long moment before she answered, "when I'm stressed I lose my appetite. I'm not anorexic, not like they all think. I love eating, but I don't if I'm under pressure. It's not deliberate, at least I don't think it is."

"And that happens a lot."

It wasn't a question, but a statement, yet she felt the need to justify it. "I have a stressful life, but I control that...yet people accusing me of not eating makes me worse."

He took that in good nature, lifting an eyebrow, "point taken."

With that he tucked in to his pasta, giving a loud and enthusiastic groan.

"Well, you, Miss Curtis, are an exceptional cook. I am SO glad that you are here providing for me."

She wrinkled her nose in mock contempt at his attempt to level the playing field. It was about time she started to realise that he wasn't looking for recompense or any sort of payment. He liked having her there, and she was a far better cook than he was.

"Flattery gets you nowhere."

That made his eyes widen, then he grinned, "just speaking the truth. Now. Tomorrow..." He was looking forward to seeing his little brother, he was too distant from his family, and he wanted to rectify that. "I'm going to be free from lunch time. They get in at two thirty?" When she nodded he added, "so I'll come back here, pick you up and we can take my car?"

"You're coming to the airport?"

He nodded, "about time I took my foot off the gas. Have some time off. Thought we could make a plan of what we're going to do with them. After all this is the city that never sleeps."

Julia smiled, "Abi sent me a bucket list of things she MUST do. Not sure if you boys want to do it all with us."

He gave a shrug, a smirk, "we're up for partying too."

He crossed the room, then came back with a pad of paper and a pen, "so, let's start."

An hour later, they were into their second bottle of wine and had moved to the sofa. Aaron was scribbling an 'essential' and 'possible' list. Both were growing rapidly in length as Julia, flopped flat out beside him, he legs draped over the arm of the sofa, her head near his legs, came out with place after place, shops, museums, sights...it was impossible to do all that she wanted, but he knew they could try and formulate some sort of agenda to take in as many things as they could.

"See, this is why you couldn't do this alone, Aaron. You are NO fun, and despite living in the city for years you STILL don't know all the best places to go."

He looked down at her upside down face and shook his head, "The Museum of Sex? Really?"

Julia grinned, "of course! I hear it's fun."

Rolling his eyes, he scribbled on the pad, as he had with every one of her suggestions, "that's in the 'possible' column."

Laughing, she rolled onto her side, then reached down to the floor to her glass, slugging at the wine, she pulled herself up into sitting, "you are such a prude. Do you know that?"

It was his turn to laugh, leaning towards her he shook his head, "oh I am definitely not a prude..."

He let it just hang there, like a white elephant between them, at the same time his eyes found hers, and they connected. It had happened before, and it was happening again.

Like a flick of a switch, the tension was there, those beautiful eyes stared at him, penetrated his. Her breath hitched as she tried to swallow, he could see a pulse beating in her throat as his eyes moved from hers, just for a moment. He could hear her as her breathing restarted, hard rasps. Her lips were inches from his, all he had to do was lean forward and he'd be touching her. He wanted that, more than anything, but he needed it to come from her. Otherwise she'd run, that would be it and he would ruin everything.

He tried to slow his breathing, cam himself, but it was almost impossible. Every cell in his body was tuned in to her every cell.

She groaned, a husky sound, before leaning forward. Her lips hit his, swamped him, but it didn't stop there, she leaned into him, pressing him back into the sofa, her body flush against his. And he could feel every curve. Her lips were amazing, he wanted to devour her, but he wasn't intimidating by her intensity this time, he revelled in it, her mouth was furious, her lips parting his, her tongue reaching out to his. He took it, he absorbed it, he felt his whole body respond to her.

Then she sighed against his lips and her hands made for his shorts. He almost shrieked when he felt them on the tie, tugging to undo it. This was how it had been before, furious, desperate. Last time he'd been intimidated, now...he loved it, he wasn't at all threatened. As her fingers laid over his erection, pressing against the cotton of his shorts almost aggressively, he thought he might react like a teenager and explode there and then in his boxers.

He thought sobering thoughts until he could regain his control. All the while her lips met his, challenged his, and their tongues duelled like they were made for each other. Unable to hold on any longer, he reached out with his hands, one sliding around to her backside, cupping a cheek; the other slide over her curves, her hip, her waist until it reached her breast.

His palm hadn't contacted with her hard protruding nipple for a second, when she reached up and moved his hand down to her hip. He took that for a moment, as her hand tugged at the waistband, trying to slide her hand under his shorts.

Whilst he kissed her hand descending rather rapidly to his rock-hard erection, he wanted to touch her too, his lips had migrated to her neck via her jaw, but he needed more, so he returned his hand slowly to that plump, hard tipped breast, but she once again snatched it away.

As he started to protest, she made contact with the tip of him inside his boxers, his head flew back in rapture for a moment, but then he moved, to tower over her.

"I want to touch you," he breathed against her throat. When she shook her head in denial, her hand still trying to fully enter his boxer shorts, he pulled back to look at her. "I want to touch you, I need to touch you."

She again shook her head, securing both of his hands with hers. "We just..." She kissed him again, trying to distract him, but he couldn't do this, couldn't let this be one sided. He wanted to touch her, to kiss her, to taste every inch of her.

Sitting back he looked down at her, her wide eyes, her lip snagged between her teeth.

"Julia, why won't you let me touch you, kiss you?"

When shrugged an answer, she pulled back too, glaring at him, "I'm not good enough for you. Is that what you're saying?"

Suddenly he wanted to go back to his lips on hers, and her hand down his pants. He must be crazy challenging her like this. Yet he knew that this was wrong, he wanted her in the moment, he wanted all that he'd said, and he wanted to watch her face when an orgasm hit her. He needed that as much if not more than he needed his own.

"Julia," he captured her face in his hands. "I don't want to stop kissing you, ever. But I can't not touch you, can't you see that."

She shook her head, "I want sex, I need you to fuck me."

His body surged at the words, "I want that so much too."

Aaron reached out and tucked her hair behind her ears, then ran his hand down, over her shoulder, to the slope of her breast, all the time he watched her eyes - wide, staring at him. Then fear, terror even. He gasped at her torment.

"What is it?"

She moved back, planting her feet on the floor, "I can't do this, it's all wrong."

"I just want to make you feel good, I want..."

Shaking her head she stepped away, "I want to do this my way, what man doesn't want that?"

He stared at her, "what fast, quick and clinical? Not me. I want to take time, explore you, taste you and I want to make it as good as it can be. We can't rush this, it'd be an injustice."

She shook her head, "not happening." Then offered a weak smile, "I'll see you in the morning."

Before she disappeared out of the door, he spotted the tears rolling down her cheek. If this was her being some sort of tease, then he'd be angry. But it seemed so much more than that, and his mind was heading to places that he didn't want to go. But he knew he had to get to the bottom of it, either that, or just let her walk away.