I GLANCED AT the digital clock on the side table and groaned when I saw that it had just turned one thirty. Great. I wasn’t having any luck falling asleep tonight, and there was nothing I hated more than lying in bed staring at the ceiling. But I knew the exact reason for my insomnia, and he happened to be sleeping four doors away on the floor of my childhood bedroom.

I grabbed the quilt and pulled it up under my chin as I rolled onto my side and wondered if Aiden was having as hard a time sleeping as I was—okay, maybe a hard time was the wrong way to phrase it. An accurate one, but not the one I needed to be thinking about right now.

After the disaster with Lucifer after game time, and cleaning the mess he’d left in his wake, I would’ve thought my eyes would shut the second my head hit the pillow. But all I could think about was the way Aiden had looked sitting at the coffee table with my family playing cards, the way he’d smiled and flirted with me in the kitchen, and the delicious way the man smelled…

Yeah, that wasn’t going to help me get any rest.

I shut my eyes, willing sleep to find me, but the longer I lay there, the more elusive it became. Grumbling, I rolled to my back and gave up entirely. I stared at the fan above my head and thought back over everything that had happened since I’d arrived home. Now that I was over the shock of Aiden being here, and why, I had to admit I’d taken a step back to really examine why Beth had felt the need to “hire” him in the first place.

Sure, we all teased her about when she was going to get married and give my parents grandchildren, and mom was always on about how she just wanted Beth happy. But was it really fair to think that the only version of happiness for a woman in her thirties was married with children?

I already knew the answer to that: no.

Just like it wasn’t fair to think I’d find a nice young girl and settle down. Everyone’s version of happiness was different, and it hadn’t even occurred to me how much it bothered Beth when we ribbed her about it. But it must if she’d gone to such lengths to avoid it this year.

I made a promise to myself to talk to her about it tomorrow, and I was about to try again for some kind of shuteye when I heard the handle of the guestroom turn. I propped myself up on my forearms to see who it was or what was wrong, and when the moonlight caught on Aiden’s face, my eyes widened.

Oh my God. What is he doing here? But when he shut the door and I heard the distinct sound of the lock clicking into place, I decided I didn’t really care.

“Miles?” he whispered, and when he took a step forward, my heart began to pound.

“You better be glad it’s me,” I said, and couldn’t stop the ridiculous grin I knew was on my face. A low chuckle made its way through the dark and wrapped around me, as Aiden stopped at the foot of my bed. “How would you have explained that to Rick…or my father?”

“Lucky for me, I found the right bed with exactly who I wanted in it.”

If it was possible, my grin became even wider, and while I knew we’d made a promise to behave this weekend, there was no way I was about to send him out the door without finding out the reason he’d been looking for me.

“And now that you found me?”

Aiden walked around the bed, and as he came closer, my eyes tracked every step he took.

“Now that I’ve found you,” Aiden said, “I’ve decided to see how quiet you can be.” He lifted the sheets up and slid in beside me. The bed in the guestroom was only a full size, so he had to scoot in close so he wouldn’t fall off the mattress.

Umm, I wasn’t complaining. At all.

Pushing myself up on my elbow, I shook my head. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe. Is this okay?”

Was it okay? It was my fantasy come to life, though when I’d imagined Aiden in my bed, that bed wasn’t in the guestroom of my parents’ house. I wasn’t about to be picky, though.

“It’s more than okay,” I whispered, settling my head in my hand to match Aiden’s pose only inches from me. He wore a thin blue T-shirt and grey pajama pants, and it occurred to me that I wasn’t wearing nearly that much. My chest was bare, and I had on only a pair of boxers.

As if he knew what I was thinking, Aiden pushed the covers down to my waist, devouring me with his eyes. I should’ve felt self-conscious, even though the room was dark except for the sliver of moonlight creeping in between the drawn curtains, but…I didn’t. I liked the way he was looking at me, and the way his hand came up to trail lightly from my shoulder to my hip, leaving goosebumps on my skin.

“That feels good,” I said, watching him as his fingers trailed back up my arm and moved to my chest. My body trembled. I couldn’t help it. Just looking at Aiden caused a physical reaction I couldn’t explain. Even though in the back of my head, I knew we shouldn’t be doing this here, I couldn’t find the will to stop and make him leave. Not when I wanted to touch him too.

When his fingers reached the place over my heart, I caught his wrist, and he stopped to look up at me.

“This is hardly fair,” I said.

Aiden quirked a brow. “Is there something you want, Miles?”

“Yes. I want your shirt off.”

With a wicked grin, he pulled away and removed his shirt, tossing it onto the floor.

Good God. Are you kidding me?

Aiden’s body was nothing but defined muscles beneath smooth skin, not an ounce of fat anywhere. If he’d come in looking like that, I would’ve hidden under the damn covers.

“Wow,” I said, as he scooted closer, and then his lips came down to press softly against my shoulder.

When he lifted his head, he smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”

Mere inches separated us, but it still wasn’t close enough. I ran my fingers over the stubble covering his jaw and remembered how it felt when he’d kissed me before. I needed those lips on mine again, and this time, I wouldn’t wait for him to make the first move.

Before I could talk myself out of starting something I didn’t know if we could finish, I brought his face to mine and crushed our lips together, both of us moaning at the initial contact.

Damn, he tasted as good as he looked and felt even better. I didn’t waste any time diving into his mouth, and he seemed just as greedy, wrapping his hand around the back of my neck to pull me closer. But I quickly realized that wasn’t close enough, because Aiden’s arm wound around my waist, hauling me on top of him. His arousal pressed into my hip, and I was sure mine was just as obvious, especially since thin boxers were all I wore.

“God, Miles,” he murmured against my lips, as he reached down inside my boxers to grab my ass with both hands, squeezing and then bucking his hips up, creating a delicious friction between us that had my eyes rolling in the back of my head. “You feel so perfect.”

“Shh,” I said, then covered his mouth again with my own, even though I wanted to hear more of his words. We didn’t need anyone waking up to discover him missing from Beth’s bed. “Quiet, remember.”

“Hmm,” Aiden said against my lips. “In that case, you better shut me up.”

I grinned against his lips, and when he spread his legs and put his feet on the mattress so I could nestle down between them, I squeezed my eyes shut and burrowed my face into the crook of his shoulder.

Aiden rolled his body up against mine, and his new position added a forceful momentum that had a throaty moan leaving my lips, and when his fingers crept between my ass cheeks, I shuddered.

“Oh God,” I said by his ear.

“Uh-uh. Quiet, Miles…”

I pushed myself up and planted a hand by either side of his head, and as I looked down at him, I bit into my lip and ground my erection over the top of his. Aiden’s fingers dug into my naked flesh, and he shoved his head back into the pillow, and damn, he looked sexy. So sexy I couldn’t seem to keep my hips from moving.

I grabbed hold of the pillow on either side of Aiden’s dark hair and began to thrust over the top of him. Aiden’s hands molded to my body, and he growled low in his throat, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it would be when we could actually make noise—because I planned to make a lot of it next time with him.

And yes, there would be a next time if I had any say in the matter.

“Miles…” Aiden said, and this time my name sounded like a wish, which was fitting, since he had been mine. “You look and feel like a dream.”

I let go of one side of the pillow and trailed my fingers down the side of his face, and then I cupped his jaw and took his mouth with mine, wanting to taste his lips, wanting to feel his body tremble against mine, wanting to swallow the sound of his groans as I memorized every single thing about the way he was moving beneath me.

As our kiss intensified, so did the movement under the sheets, and when the pleasure became too overwhelming, the emotions too much to bear, my toes curled and I felt Aiden’s body tense beneath mine.

I tore my mouth from his to bury my face in his neck, knowing there was no way I would be able to keep quiet through such an overpowering release, and when he craned up to sink his teeth into my shoulder, I knew he was thinking the same thing.

The muffled groan and the way his body vibrated against mine sent me over the edge, and not a second after, I was right there with him, trembling in his arms, blissed out in a way I’d never been in my life.

Aiden let me sink down, boneless, into his body and wrapped his arms around me as we struggled to keep our heavy breathing down in the silent aftermath.

Had I just… Had we… I couldn’t even think straight. My nose grazed against the sensitive spot beneath his ear, and I inhaled his scent deep into my lungs, committing it to memory along with what we’d just done. If it never happened again, I’d still die a happy man, but something told me this wasn’t the end of Aiden and me, but the beginning.