Her hand lifts to my chest, and she traces small circles against my skin. My muscles tighten, and my breath catches. It’s been too long since she touched me like this.
“Why did you have lunch with her today?” she asks.
I let out a breath. “Because she wanted to talk about the continuing education classes at the hospital. The chief of medicine has been on me to help fill them, and I thought if I got her on board, she could convince some of the other nurses. I didn’t want to have lunch with her. I was trying to get her out of my office, and?—”
Her eyes widen. “What was she doing in your office?”
“It was nothing,” I say quickly. “She came in to tell me about a surgery, then asked if I was okay. She offered to listen if I needed to talk, and I shut it down. I didn’t like being alone with her. Itfelt wrong, so I agreed to talk in the cafeteria because I wanted her out of my office.”
Aria’s face tightens with anger. “So she wants you.”
“She doesn’t matter.”
“But she wants you.” She lets out a humorless laugh and looks away. “Of course she does. People have noticed the distance between us, so maybe she thinks she has a chance.”
I catch her chin gently and turn her face back toward me. “She doesn’t.”
Her hands settle on my shoulders, and her eyes search mine. “But there is a distance between us.”
Her words hit me hard. She’s right. We both know there is.
The truth is right there, sitting between us. I should have told her a year and a half ago before I started pulling away and before I let her think this was her fault. But once she knows, she’ll see what I’ve been keeping from her. She’ll know I can’t give her the future she wants, and she’ll either leave me or stay and resent me.
Instead of telling her what I’m hiding, I give her the only truth I can. “More than anything, I don’t want there to be a distance between us.” I lean closer until I can feel her breath against my mouth. “I love you, Aria. I love you more today than I did the day I married you, and I’ll never stop.”
She lets out a breath, and some of the tension leaves her body.
Then she leans up, pressing herself against me. “I need you, Penn,” she whispers. “I need to feel you.”
My control snaps. I stretch out over her, letting her feel the weight of me. We’ve both been busy, and we’ve both been hurting. I spent the last year and a half building walls between us because I thought distance would make this easier.
But nothing about this is easy.
I lower my mouth to hers. The kiss starts soft, but Aria makes a small sound against my lips, and everything changes. The kiss turns hungry and desperate.
It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had her like this, and I want to take my time with her and remind her that she’s mine.
I pull my mouth from hers and move down her body. When I take her breast into my mouth, she arches toward me, and I drag my teeth lightly over her nipple before soothing it with my tongue.
“Fuck,” I groan.
Even after all these years of marriage, she still responds to me in a way that makes me crazy.
CHAPTER 6
ARIA
“Please, don’t stop,” I plead with him.
His lips make a smacking sound as he pops off my breast. His eyes are almost black and filled with desire. “I’m not stopping,” he grunts.
He kisses down my body, and every touch of his lips has my skin jumping in anticipation. His wide shoulders push my knees apart, and he inhales sharply as he stares down at my sex.
“Fuck, you’re so pretty, Aria.”
I run my hand through his hair, and he doesn’t waste any time. He practically dives between my legs, and with one long swipe of his tongue, he strokes through my folds. My body reacts. I can feel the heat pull in my lower belly. My legs fall even wider, giving him better access, and I suck in a breath because what he’s doing is driving me crazy.
When his tongue hits my clit, my hips rise, but he doesn’t let me go far. He throws a big muscular arm over my hips, holding me down as he adds pressure to my pulsating clit.
