“What are you doing?” I asked, momentarily struck dumb. I’d been trying to get away from him. How had we ended up locked in a tiny room together?

The determination on his face answered that question. Because Aiden wasn’t done talking, that’s how.

“There’s no privacy in this house. Unlike the rest of them, I’m smart enough to remember to lock the door.”

“Let me go. I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

“Not until you hear me out.”

“I think I’ve heard enough of what you have to say.”

“No, you haven’t.”

“Aiden—”

“I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I wasn’t listening. I was treating you like a problem to solve. I don’t want you to be an extension of me. I want you to be you.”

“You have to let me make my own decisions,” I said quietly. “I need to figure this stuff out for myself.”

“I know.” Aiden took a step forward, backing me into the island, his hips pinning me in place. He ran his hands down my arms and dropped his forehead to mine. At the contact, he let out a long breath, just standing there, holding me, saying nothing. After a long moment, he stepped back.

“You have to understand. I’ve been taking care of my family since I was twenty. My parents were gone. My aunt and uncle had been dead since I was a kid. It was all on me. The company, the kids. I was trying to convince the board I could take over for my father and helping Annalise and Vance with their college applications. Taking Tate to get braces. Sitting up all night getting puked on when Charlie had the flu. I was scared out of my mind, and the only way I got through it was to convince everyone I knew exactly what I was doing. Especially myself. I couldn’t stop to doubt or I’d lose my nerve. Eventually, I guess I convinced myself I really did know everything.”

“Oh, Aiden.” I reached for him, my heart breaking at the thought of him carrying so much on his own.

Aiden raised a hand to ward me off. “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. That’s not it. I’m trying to tell you, I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never done it before.”

“Done what?”

“This.” He gestured with his hand between us.

“A relationship? You were married.”

“She was never a partner, Violet. She was happy to let me set the agenda as long as I signed the checks.”

“I don’t want you to take care of me, Aiden.” I reached for him again, catching his hand in mine. He let me pull him closer. “I just want to be with you.”

“I want to be with you too,” he said.

“I don’t want to be just another thing for you to take care of, Aiden. I don’t want to be a line item on your to-do list.”

“I don’t know how to sit back and let you struggle when I can make it easier for you,” he admitted.

I let go of his hand and hooked my fingers in his belt, tugging him close enough to wrap my arms around his waist.

Resting my cheek against his chest, feeling the thump of his heartbeat through his dress shirt, I let out a deep sigh.

“I need you to try,” I said. “The way you take care of your family, of the people who matter to you, is one of the things I love about you, Aiden. It means everything to know that if I need you, all I have to do is ask. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need to do this on my own.”

He rested his cheek on the top of my head, his arms around my shoulders, the tension draining from his body.

“I can try. I promise I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask. If it helps, I’ve never done this before either.”

Aiden raised his head and leaned back, holding me against him, studying my face. “I know I’m not the first man you’ve been involved with.”

“No, you’re not the first. But it’s never been like this before. No one’s ever mattered like this before.”

He traced the curve of my lower lip with his fingertip. “Scared?”

“Terrified.” I tasted his skin against my mouth.

Dropping his hands, he gathered the fabric of my skirt and hiked it above my hips. Cool air slid over my skin as he lifted me and set me on the island, making space for himself between my spread legs.

“So am I,” he admitted. “I’m in love with you. I think I fell in love with you that day in my office when I hired you as my assistant. You were so cool, like ice, but underneath I could tell you wanted to tell me to go to hell. I’d never wanted a woman like I wanted you. I figured I’d fuck you and then fire you.”

The abrupt vulgarity startled a laugh out of me. “Lovely,” I said. “But I figured that part out in the interview.”

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his dark eyes hot and a little hesitant. “I knew that too. And I never saw it coming. We were playing a game, playing each other, and then you were the last thing I thought about at night and the only person I wanted to see first thing in the morning. You’re sharp as hell, and sarcastic, and funny, and a stone-cold bitch when you need to be. You’re so fucking gorgeous I can have you all night and still not want to let you out of bed in the morning. And I’m scared to death I’m going to fuck this up and lose you.”

“Aiden, I love you, too. You’re not going to lose me.”

“You don’t know what it’s like. Not yet. My family is huge and nosy. If they aren’t poking around in my business, it’s the media looking for dirt. I work too much. I’m overbearing, and I’m used to getting my way.”

“I know all that, and I’m still here. I love you. You, Aiden. Not your family, or your name, or your money. I love you. I love the way you kiss and I love watching movies with you. I love dancing with you and talking to you, and when I make you smile I feel like I’ve touched the sun. I just need you to let me be a partner. I don’t want to be one more burden. You carry too much already.”

“You could never be a burden, Violet. I love you. I love you until it makes me crazy. You can trust me.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone I trust as much as I trust you,” I said, hearing the tremor in my voice. It was true, and I think that scared me as much as loving him. The only other person I’d ever trusted this much was my brother. Thinking about him didn’t exactly build my confidence.

Aiden’s lips brushed the hinge of my jaw, hovering over the tender skin before he lightly bit the side of my neck, sending shivers all the way to my toes. He ran his hands down my sides and I knew what he wanted. Bracing myself on my elbows, I raised my hips off the granite countertop, letting him push up my skirt and slide the scrap of lace beneath down my legs. The stone was cold against my heated skin.

My arms holding me up, my legs spread wide to Aiden’s hungry gaze, all I could do was lay there and watch him. He moved slowly, so slowly it was torture waiting for him to touch me. One by one, he slid the pearl buttons of my blouse open, the thin silk falling away to reveal pale gray lace that matched the thong he’d shoved in his pocket.

A guttural groan rumbled in his throat. His fingers shook as he hooked them in the cups of my bra and yanked the lace beneath my breasts. They were heavy enough, full enough, to hold it there, my flesh spilling out into his hands. I felt like a virgin sacrifice, body on offer, ready and willing to be taken.

Ready, willing, and eager. But Aiden wanted to make me wait. His hands molded my breasts, his mouth dropped to mine. His tongue thrust inside and I wished it was his cock. Fingers pinched my nipples, sparks shooting straight to my clit. I rolled my hips into his, drowning in his kiss, desperate to get him to move, to get naked, to fuck me.

Then he was nudging my entrance, pressing inside, breaking our kiss to take my breast in his mouth as he filled my pussy with his thick cock. He started slowly, sliding deep, grinding the base of his cock into my clit before easing almost all the way free of my clasping pussy, then doing it all over again. And again.

His mouth fed at my breasts, sucking, nipping, devouring me whole, his cock keeping up the same steady pace. Thrust, grind, slide. I was losing my mind, the slow build pushing me higher and higher, not quite enough to shove me over the edge.

Aiden owned me. My heart. My body. Everything.

I was blind with need, deaf to everything but the rasp of my breath, the slick sounds of our bodies moving together, the growls of possession rumbling from Aiden’s chest. I barely registered the rattle of the door handle, the sound of muted voices through the heavy wooden door.

Aiden ignored it. I whimpered into the quiet room, falling back, the cold granite firing off the nerves in my damp skin. Arms splayed, I arched my back, pressing my breast deeper into Aiden’s mouth.

More.

Faster.

Harder.

I didn’t know what I was saying, what I was begging for. I wrapped my legs around his waist, hooking my feet for leverage and thrusting into him, holding him there so he couldn’t slide out.

“Please. I need it, Aiden.”

His eyes went black with lust, his grin feral with possession. Hand on my thighs, Aiden spread my legs, pushing my knees wide and flat to the counter, pinning me in place. I tried to squirm, to take more of him, to get him to move. I managed no more than an inch before his grip stilled my restless body.

“Tell me what you want,” he ordered in words so low and rough I had to struggle to make sense of them.

When I did, I had only one answer. “You. I want you.”

“You want this?” Aiden drew back until the head of his cock was barely past the gate of my pussy. He slammed inside, the sudden pressure on my clit driving a burst of pleasure straight to the base of my skull, exploding in my brain.

“Yes. God, yes. Please. Yes.” I wasn’t making sense. It didn’t matter. Aiden knew what I wanted. He always did.

He leaned over me, covering me with his body, sucking and biting at my shoulders, my neck, my breasts as he fucked me in hard, deep strokes that got more and more uneven, ragged, harder and rougher as we climbed the peak together.

I went first, my pussy seizing around his cock, sucking and clenching so hard I couldn’t breathe. His control shattered, his teeth sinking into the side of my neck, his groan torn from him as he came, filling me with him, sending me flying.

It wasn’t until later, when I had my breath back, that I remembered the noise at the door.

“Oh, my god.”

“I know.” I could feel him grinning into my neck, licking the spot he’d bitten. I shivered, my still tender pussy pulsing around his softening cock.

“Not that. Did someone almost come in?”

Aiden chuckled, the shaking of his body sending more aftershocks through me. “They tried.”

“I should be embarrassed,”

“Are you?”

I thought about it. “Maybe later. I feel too good right now to be embarrassed about anything.”

Aiden braced himself on his elbows and looked down at me. A frown creased his forehead. Shifting his weight, he lifted a hand and stroked the side of my neck where his mouth had been, tracing a tender spot there before sliding to my shoulder and from there to the side of my breast.

“What?” I asked, alarmed at the dark expression in his eyes.

“I marked you. I’m too rough with you.”

Wiggling my arm from my side, I caught his fingers and brought them to my lips. I kissed them once, then again, then turned my face into his palm and rested my lips there. Tasting the salt of his skin, I said, “I liked it. I love that you lose control with me.”

“I never want to hurt you.” The remorse in his voice burned a path straight to my soul.

“And if I asked you to stop? If I looked like I was in pain?” I took his face in my hands and brought his mouth to mine. “You’d never hurt me, Aiden.”

“I couldn’t,” he swore against my lips.

“No, you couldn’t. You’d never hurt someone you loved.”

“Never,” he agreed, between kisses, “Never you, Violet. I love you.”

His mouth moved to my neck, my shoulders, passing over my skin in reverent, gentle touches so filled with love my heart sighed. “I love you.” He kissed and made promises, his cock hardening inside me, rocking into me, as sweet and gentle as the first time had been rough and claiming. I came beneath him, clutching his arms and sobbing out my orgasm, overwhelmed with pleasure and raw emotion.

Aiden followed me, breathing into my ear, “Mine. You’re mine, Violet. Always.”

At the time, his words filled my heart with joy. I wanted that. Wanted to be his.

I should have stopped and thought about what that meant. Thought about what he was saying.

By the time I realized, it was too late.

I was too lost in him, in the promise of us, to protect myself from the inevitable.

And when the crash came, it tore me apart.