No Strings... by Janelle Denison Page A

the rib-eye steak and potatoes, and Chloe opted for the grilled salmon and rice pilaf. When they were offered either wine or champagne, he went for the cabernet, while Chloe asked for an iced tea, citing that she’d consumed way too many love potions cocktails that afternoon.
    Once the waiter was gone and they were alone again, Chloe eyed the red die on the tray, a very vixenlike smile curving her mouth. “So, shall we play?” she asked him.
    He took a drink of his cabernet and quirked a brow at her. “Are you sure you want to?”
    She leaned a bit closer, amusement shimmering in her gaze. “What, are you afraid of having to give up deep, dark secrets?”
    “I have no problem sharing truths,” he replied. The loose top portion of her dress slipped a bit lower on her arm, distracting him a moment with the urge to trail his fingers along that smooth, tanned skin, all the way up to the side of her neck. “I’m just thinking of what dares might be in store for us.”
    “I can handle any dare thrown my way,” she said boldly. “How about you?”
    “Oh, absolutely.” He waved a hand toward the game items. “By all means, ladies first.”
    She rolled the single red die, and the word Truth remained faceup. Deciding to go easy on Chloe for the first round, Aiden selected a wooden stick from the “mild” category.
    He read the question out loud. “What is the reason why your last serious relationship ended?” Recalling their vague conversation on the plane about the guy she’d been dating, he acted on a hunch. “And I don’t think that guy I saw you with at the Executive Bar counts.”
    Her body language stiffened slightly, enough to tell Aiden that she’d been about to go the easy and superficial route with her reply. “Why not?”
    He met her gaze and held it directly, not at all put off by the defensive tone of her voice. “Because I get the impression that he was more of a temporary thing, than someone you’d been committed to.”
    She glanced away, and when she hesitated, he knew he’d assumed correctly. She absently bit the corner of her lip and he was struck at how vulnerable she looked in that moment, an emotion he never would have equated with the strong, always self-assured Chloe, had he not witnessed it himself.
    Clearly, she didn’t want to discuss her last serious relationship. But Aiden was suddenly intrigued and wanted to find out what had happened that had made her so guarded, and how her past experience had shaped her current views on relationships, as his own divorce had.
    “Spill the truth, Reiss,” he said, adding just enough of a challenge to his voice that he knew she’d never back down from. “That’s the name of this game.”
    Schooling her features into an indifferent expression, she shrugged her bared shoulder. “I broke up with Neil because he was a real asshole.”
    Aiden smirked. Okay, that was succinct, he thought, more curious than ever. But being an asshole translated to many things, and she’d just avoided the truth of the matter with a vague reply. “You’re cheating,” he murmured as he swirled his red wine in his glass. “And I’ve never pegged you for someone who would skirt any issue.”
    That bit of prompting made her chin jut out stubbornly, and he waited patiently to see which direction she decided to take this conversation—avoid it completely, or give him a glimpse of something personal, and clearly, painful for her.
    “Obviously, Neil isn’t someone I like to talk about. If I could, I’d erase the eighteen months we were together.” She paused, as if deciding what she wanted to reveal, then spoke again. “I met him my junior year in college, and everything was fine our first year together, until we got engaged, and then he...changed.”
    Aiden was very familiar with how people could change, how someone he’d trusted so implicitly could betray him so completely and leave him with devastating regrets that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He