“Especiallyfor that reason. Can…” I tentatively reached a hand between my legs. “I don’t want to be greedy, but can I… when we…?”
“God, yes.”
The slow, wet swirl of my fingers over my clit was bliss. More than anything, I loved the way he watched me. That intense scowl. The serious, sexy frown. Like he couldn’t quite believe it.Awed. I only paused my own pleasure to feel it fully—that moment, the first time—when Aiden’s restraint finally gave way and he slid his cock inside me on a broken, shuddering moan.
“See,” he murmured, trailing light fingers along my hip. “Nice and gentle.”
I gasped in breath after breath. Those first thrusts didn’t feel gentle. They felt deep and too full, but the painful, longing ache to be close to someone had finally been soothed. Aiden was inside me.Withme. My nails carved into his skin, and with every muffled cry against his neck, I clung tighter, desperate to keep him there.
“Still those quiet little moans,” he murmured, moving in a slow, deliberate rhythm. “Just for me to hear, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.” I arched my back, my nipples aching and hard against the crinkly hair on his chest. He needed to be closer. “Just for you.” My legs parted wider, my hips grinding against him, pushing my hand firmer to my clit.
He moaned his praise between kisses and the steady rhythm of his body moving with mine. He liked it when I touched him, so I touched him everywhere. One hand kept busy between my legs, but my other hand was free to roam. I loved running my fingers along the smooth muscles of his strong arms more than anything else, and his deep, manly grunts of pleasure only made the ache for another release twist tighter inside me.
“Lola, I had no idea…” A light sheen of sweat glistened on his bare skin, his muscles straining, fighting to hold back. “It shouldn’t be this good. I can wait—”
“I want you to come.”
“God.” Aiden’s rhythm faltered, his hips driving into me. “Not—God,not yet.”
Sweat slicked my thighs against the pretty pink sheets, the bed squeaking almost enough to be distracting, but he anchored me back in the moment. His palm cradled my cheek, holding me close as I worked my fingers over the desperate ache between my legs until I shattered again, moaning a sigh into the space between us.
His restraint broke with it.
“Lola… My Lola…” He kissed me as if he couldn’t bear to stop, only pulling back to murmur, “Why would you want me?”
Our foreheads touched as a deep, broken moan slipped from his lips, and he finally gave in. I held him close, his ragged breaths catching in my hair, his heartbeat thudding against my flushed, naked skin. I didn’t want to let go. Not yet.
A moment like that was rare. Precious. Worth remembering.
And I let myself believe Aiden felt the same because he kissed me so tenderly and whispered, “This is the best night of my life.”
8
He Didn’t See Past the Nightmare
Aiden
My eyes snapped open.
Reality was hazy. Inky shadows drowned the room, plunging me back into the choking waves of a nightmare I never quite woke up from.
Where am I?
Lost. Stuck.My heart hammered in my chest. A scratchy, broken reel of images played over and over, and even with my eyes forced open, raindrops danced in the slow swirls of red and blue lights over a silent highway.
Nights were always worse.
I pressed my hand to my chest, forcing myself to swallow the rock blocking my throat. The squeal of ancient springs under my weight speared through my temple.
Get up.
I sucked in another breath and tried to move, but my body stayed tangled in sheets and the pale, delicate limbs of…a woman?I squinted through the shadows. No, not just any sheets. Pink sheets. A fist squeezed around my heart.
Lola.
I eased my leg out from between soft thighs, and my hand slipped away from the gentle curve of her belly.
