Now that I don’t believe. I wrap my arms around his waist and turn my head to the side, my cheek against his chest.
“If you think about it, we all keep saving each other. You probably didn’t know, but that lottery card bought medicine for Casey that Eric refused to spend‘his’money on. The textbooks came just when I was thinking of quitting. The cab ride got me home before curfew and saved me from a beating. What if Dax is onto something with this fate thing? Do you think that’s why we’re all tied up in it together? Perhaps we deserve each other because we’ve earned it along the way?”
“You’re not mad?” He stokes my hair, his chin resting gently on my head.
“Furious.”
Aiden pushes me away to look straight into my eyes. “We’re sorry, Tiger. We—”
“I’m mad because it feels like wasted time. I’m also pissed that I wasn’t as observant as I thought.”
He holds me tight against him again. I like it here, in his arms.
“We can train that. With your memory and how smart you are, you could be formidable.”
“Could be?” I pinch his side.
His chuckle rumbles through the space. “Fine…you’re already formidable.” He steps back and bends to kneel before me, bowing in a mockery of a Victorian gentleman. “Forgive me for my mistake. Allow me to worship at your feet, my lady.”
I fan my face and stick my nose in the air, playing along. “Why,good Sir, while worshipping your lady is an admirable notion, I do believe you would be remiss in starting at her feet.”
Aiden grips the backs of my thighs and pulls himself into me, resting his chin against my abdomen and looking up at my face. “Tiger, are you asking me to keep my promise?
“Keeping your promises is a great way to earn good karma,” I reason.
“Then we should go back upstairs.”
“Or we could start right here?”
“On the cold concrete?”
“This is where it all starts, right? The building blocks of your future?”
“Our future.”
“I like that. So, let’s make it ours.” I barely finish speaking and he’s undone my jeans and is pulling them down along with my panties. He buries his head between my legs then growls in frustration when he notices I’m still penned in by my clothes. Oneby one I lose my shoes, jeans, panties, and then he pulls me to his mouth, his fingers digging into my butt cheeks and hooks my leg over his shoulder. I’m forced to lean into him for stability, but he just uses my weight as an excuse to thrust his tongue deeper into the heart of me.
My panting fills the space. The windows expose us on every side. We are an exhibit of lust and love and everything in between. His mouth is heaven and hell. Between his tongue, the exposure, and my desperate want, I come in a wave of shivering bliss.
When my legs can no longer hold me up, he moves us to lean against a pillar. Wrapping my legs around his waist, he tells meI’m beautiful. I’m brave. I’m his. Convincing me with long, deep kisses. My nipples peak as he sucks at my throat and raises my arms above my head to remove my blouse. He slides his fingers between the lace of my bra and my skin, pulling the cups down and tucking them under the globes of my breasts. The cold is a cloak that kisses the fire Aiden stokes beneath my skin.
I unbutton his shirt and drag it over his shoulders when he leans in to nip at my nipple. Reaching for the button at his waist, he makes me moan as he plunges a finger into my heat and glides it in and out in a damnably slow rhythm.
He pulls a condom from his pocket. I shuck his pants and grip his cock in one hand before licking the other and reaching down. I pump him in the same rhythm that he fingers me. When he realises, he increases our twinned pace, breathing heavily against my ear.
“Just like that, Tiger. Fuck.”
Five little words and am alive. I want him to come. I want to see his release. Watch his breath catch because of me. Because I pleased him.
Just as the pressure builds, just as my own orgasm blooms to completion for the second time, he pulls away and spins me to face the pillar, my cheek pressed to the wall. I hear the packet tear, feelhim adjust himself as he sheathes his cock, and then feel his fingers gliding through my heart. He bends his knees, giving him the height he needs to reach between my legs and notch the head of his cock at my opening. He pushes slow. The sensation of him filling me like this is primal. Pressed between his fiery, muscled body and cool, unyielding concrete. He crowds me, and it feels right. Claimed. When he’s fully seated, he stands a little taller, forcing me to tilt my arse to keep him deep. His chest heats my back. His lips suck my earlobes. His fingertips dance upon my skin; little brushes and tingles that heighten everything.
He nuzzles at my neck and whispers, “I love you, Juliet, Joslyn Girard, my tiger. I love every iteration of you. Who you were, who you are, and whoever you will be.”
I want to tell him that I feel the same, but he kisses my open mouth, eating up my words and fucking me until words no longer make sense.
So instead, I commit it all to memory.
This moment is mine. Forever.
