I gasped for breath, falling back on the bed, naked and covered in sweat.
Aidan collapsed next to me, his breathing also shallow as he tried to catch it.
“I take it that means I’m forgiven for being a drama queen and that you love me too?” I asked the ceiling.
The mattress shook beside me with his laughter. “I love you too, Pixie.”
Joy suffused me, and I turned my head, my hair rustling on the pillow, to meet his gaze.
His reaction to my confession had been gratifyingly fast and demonstrative. One second I was on the other side of the door, and the next I was in his bed and we were tearing each other’s clothes off.
I didn’t see much as he dragged me like a caveman to his room, but what I did see was no evidence of his departure tomorrow for the States. “When is your flight supposed to leave?”
“What flight?” He frowned.
“Your flight. To New York.”
“Ready to be shot of me already?”
I smacked him playfully. “Of course not.”
“I didn’t really take the job.”
Confused, and feeling outrage building, I sat up. “What?”
He sat up too, his expression placating. “Look, I would lose my good name if I agreed to a job and then backed out at the last minute, which we both know I would’ve done when you came back to me. I was only going to accept the job if you didn’t come to me.”
Yes, definitely outraged. “So you lied to me? You manipulative ass!” I attempted to lunge off the bed but his strong arms wrapped around my waist, hauling me back down onto it. Then he pinned me to the mattress with his hands wrapped tight around my wrists.
“What? No. Off. Now, Aidan.”
“I love it when you’re bossy,” he growled playfully against my lips.
“Aidan!”
He rolled his eyes and pulled back, but I could see that amusement still dancing in his eyes. “I told a wee white lie. A little story … for my storyteller.”
“Oh, don’t get cute. You lied.”
“I played with the truth a wee bit. But just a bit.” Aidan let go of my arms, but he didn’t get off me. His expression changed. “I didn’t know what else to do. When you left the first time, you know it had a massive impact on me. I hoped that the idea of me leaving you would provide you with perspective—a real chance to work out whether you loved me without it dragging on for ages. You know I’m not a patient man, Nora.”
“It wasn’t about whether or not I loved you, Aidan. That was never in question. I’ve loved you since that day on Portobello Beach. I was afraid of myself and the past.” I sat up, curling a hand around the nape of his neck and drawing him close to me. “But I love you more than anything else. I’m done telling everyone that I’ve moved on; now I’m actually going to live like I’ve moved on. With you by my side.”
He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against mine. “And I’ll never leave your side, Pixie. I’m yours.”
“And I’m yours.”
He lifted his head but only to draw me tighter against his chest. His hands caressed my naked back, his eyes filled with desire and tenderness.
I leaned in to brush my lips over his. “Love me in the knowledge that you’re the only man I’ll ever want like this.” I kissed him with all the fierce love and need I had inside me. My tongue danced with his in a deep, drugging kiss as we crushed tight against each other.
Aidan broke the kiss to follow a path down my throat with his mouth. I gasped for breath, my hips surging against his erection as he kissed his way down to my breasts. When he wrapped his lips around my nipple, I lost all control.
I pushed up on my knees, wrapped my hand around him and guided him to my entrance. I lowered down, and we panted as he slid inside me. The thickness of him took my breath away for a moment, and we both held still as my body eased into accepting him.
I sighed when I moved up on him slightly and back down, shivers exploding down my spine.
Aidan pulled my mouth back to his, kissing me with a hunger that seeped into me—I couldn’t get enough of him. I began to ride him. Slowly, savoring each deep tug of desire in the pit of my belly as I slid down on him and dragged up.
Our hot breaths mingled as sweat slickened our skin and our moans filled the bedroom. Our eyes locked on each other, never breaking the connection, as we undulated together, our movements growing steadily faster as we sought completion together.
What we both realized as our fingers bit into each other’s skin was that we already had it.
A connection no one could break.
“I love you,” I whimpered against his lips.
“I love you too.”
His words were a trigger, and my shout of release was swallowed in his kiss, followed quickly by his groan reverberating in mine as the pulsing clench of my climax around his cock wrenched his orgasm from him.
I collapsed in his arms, my face buried against his neck, and I felt his soft lips kiss my shoulder. He gently threaded his fingers through my hair to clasp my nape and brought my head back. I looked into the face I loved more than any other and wondered when I’d stop kicking myself for prolonging this moment.
“I was too long without you,” he said, sounding pained.
I brushed my fingers tenderly along his cheeks, still scratchy with bristle. “Never again,” I promised. “I’ve never been this happy.” It scared the hell out of me, but I wouldn’t run from it.
And I knew he was thinking the same thing.
Aidan Lennox and I never seemed to make sense on paper. He was older, worldlier, and more experienced.
Good thing I finally found the sense to rip that paper into little pieces that I then set alight.
Until it was nothing but dust floating in the wind.