Page 111 of Pretender

LINNEA

My nerves crash over me again as Aiden fills the doorway of my bedroom. He’s lit up by the peachy late afternoon sun flooding the room behind me. His skin practically glows in this light.

He’s quite a sight. With his hands hooked on the top of the doorframe, his shoulders and biceps bulge, stretching his black shirt. His tousled hair falls across his forehead, and with that playful expression on his face that’s been making my ears blush in the last few weeks… He’s never been sexier.

I press my lips together, although I want to burst into song and dance. I’m about to find out what Aiden is like in bed.

“You’re nervous,” he rumbles.

I nod, not trusting my voice to stay even.

He drops his arms and prowls towards me like a black panther, and heat blooms in my chest. He grabs me by the waist and I squeal and laugh as he makes us fall back onto the bed, my decorative pillows bouncing off it.

“I’ll take good care of you, Linnea,” he says against my neck.

I actually believe him, and answer with a hum. He brushes a kiss to my lips, and then he pushes back off.

“Fuck, hearing you like that in the car had me so hard,” he says, unbuttoning his shirt.

Hard indeed.

His erection strains against his chinos, and my stomach tingles knowing I get to see it soon. I get to feel him inside me. He will fill me up. In every way.

More buttons are opened. More skin glows in the early evening sun.

And there he is. Aiden shirtless.

I grin at him, or maybe I’m gaping. I’m not sure.

Just like in Florence. Except this time I don’t have to pretend I’m not loving every second of what I’m seeing. That taut stomach—a smooth six-pack, but not over the top, a broad chest with a smattering of black hair, shoulders and arms that bulge in all the right places.

“I liked your eyes on me in that shop.”

“You noticed that, huh?” I bite my lip.

“You’re not as subtle as you think you are.” He laughs, starting on his belt. “Do you want more?”

“Uh-huh,” I breathe. “I mean yes, yes, please.”

“That’s right.”

I move my hands to unbutton the front of my summer dress while Aiden’s trousers hit the floor, closely followed by his boxers, but I stop with my hands on a button, mind blown by the sight of him naked at the foot of my bed. Gaping, I take in the detailed tattoo of the fractured goddess Venus on his thigh. It’s a bulging, muscly thigh, and finally, I allow myself to look directly at his glorious, tan erection.

Holy fuck, what a cock.

It’s hard, veiny, and grand, stretching up towards his belly button. It’s fucking perfect. Like the rest of him. I could watch him for days.

“You are beautiful,” I whisper.

“If you could see what I’m looking at,” he says. And as if in slow motion, he braces on the edge of the bed, and then … he crawls towards me.

His eyes are darker somehow, and he flashes me that easy smile of his before kissing my leg, just below my knee. I’m throbbing so hard I’m surprised we can’t hear it.

He moves up my thigh, brushing his lips against my skin so gently I let go of my breath. A small moan escapes and he hums in response. Strangely I don’t have the discomfort I’d usually be fighting about now. Rather the opposite.

He finds the hem of my dress. “I want to open this gift.”

One button, and then another.