AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Still half-asleep, she turned her head and licked his naked flesh. She knew Aiden’s taste, his smell after a night of making love with him, but it still made her giddy. He would always make her giddy. The sun wasn’t up yet; they still had time.
Her hand reached under the sheet and closed around his velvet heat. Sucking in his breath, Aiden twisted her so that she was lying on her back.
“Hello, beautiful. Have I mentioned how I love these…” he whispered as his mouth closed around her one breast while his hand fondled the other one.
“Once… or twice.” She groaned, the fire back in her belly. “Aiden… I…” But he captured her mouth, and with one movement of his body, he buried himself in her.
Home. He was her home. Being together with him like this, was home.
*
Aiden knew hewas alone in the bed the moment he opened his eyes Sunday morning. He felt empty. Wrong.
Closing his eyes, he recalled every beautiful moment of the night before. They hadn’t slept much. Each time he’d turned, or she’d moved, his body had been ready for her. She had been ready for him.
Silky limbs, deep, shuddering groans, small hands driving him mercilessly higher and higher—he was never going to forget last night. Making love to Vivian, her long hair closing off the rest of the world to create their own private cocoon, wasn’t like anything he’d experienced before.
A sound from the direction of the bathroom had him turning his head. And there she was, fully dressed in jeans and a top. His heart swelled and for a moment he was struck speechless. She was so beautiful.
“I thought you’d left.”
“I’m on my way. Thought it best to try and get home before Carol Bingley wakes up.”
“Come here,” he invited and pat on the bed next to him. “I want to make sure I haven’t dreamt last night.”
“Which part?” she teased as she sat down next to him on the bed.
His hand trailed over her face. “All the parts, but especially the part where you agreed to a long-distance relationship?”
“I want to see you again. It’s not a difficult decision to make. But I have to ask—why do you think you’re not the marrying kind?”
“Let’s just say I tend to hurt people. Even if I try and help—as you’ve just experienced.”
“That was more a lack of communication, I’d say. What happened? You had your heart broken?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think. You really want to hear this? Because”—he checked his watch—“we still have time for…” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“So talk fast.”
He leaned back against the pillows. “I don’t talk about it, ever. Riley and Craig know, of course, but it’s not something I’m proud of. Two years ago, I was chasing a story on cyber-bullying in Portland when I met a young girl, Samantha Taylor. She was fifteen. Typical story. She was bright, beautiful, a top student. Then someone from her school, probably with some or other imagined grudge against her, began posting memes about her online. It quickly spiraled out of control as these things tend to do. I’d met her through a colleague’s daughter. The colleague knew I was looking into this kind of thing, and when his daughter mentioned what was happening to Samantha, he asked if she would talk to me.
“We met a few times, and I tried to get her to see she shouldn’t read all the stuff about herself, but despite all my efforts, she refused to talk to a therapist or even tell her parents about it. Eventually, she tried to take her own life. Fortunately, she didn’t succeed, but she ended up in the hospital…”
*
Vivian took Aiden’shand. She was struggling to talk. A lump the size of a golf ball was stuck in her throat. Her heart was breaking for the young girl whose life had forever changed, and for Aiden, who had tried to help her only to see her ending up in the hospital, anyway.
“Surely you have to know it wasn’t your fault. I’m not a psychologist, but what I do know is that by the time someone tries to commit suicide, they’ve been down a deep hole for quite some time. They’d need expert help, like you’ve suggested, and if she’s refused that, it’s not on you. Have you spoken to someone about what has happened? You’ve obviously also been traumatized by the situation.”
He shook his head. “I’m not good at talking about my feelings.”
“Well, I’ve spent time with you, watched you over the last few days. You’re a good man, Aiden O’Sullivan, whether you want to know it or not. Look how you’ve helped Tommy. You didn’t have to do that, but you patiently showed him how to go about buying flowers for someone. It’s not something he, or anyone in this town for that matter, will ever forget.”
Aiden pulled her close. “Can we please stop talking now? I’ve been thinking I want to show you exactly what you’re doing to me sitting here on my bed, fully dressed.” And grinning, he swung around so that she was lying beneath him.
Within minutes, she was out of her clothes again. Hugging him to her, she tried to convey her deep love and need for him with her hands and mouth. He didn’t want to talk about feelings, but she could show him how he made her feel.
*
