by Sara Whitney
His delighted smile eased her embarrassment at such a sentimental, Aiden-centric name. “Blueprint. I like it.” He reached out to ruffle the dog’s fur, and for a scary second the three of them felt like…
No. Those feelings—those family feelings—had no place here. Zero. She didn’t do family feelings, and neither did he. She squashed them and turned to her friend. “Thanks, Kye. I owe you.”
“Happy to help.” She handed over a clinic-branded leash. “Call me. Let’s do drinks sometime.”
Aiden held open the door for her, and after they’d paid at the counter, they came face-to-face with an older couple who’d just entered with a miniature poodle on a leash.
Aiden stopped short, and his hand shot out to claim hers, linking their fingers in a death grip. “Mr. and Mrs. Santiago. Hello.”
The stiffness in his tone surprised her, but she threw herself into good-girlfriend mode without batting an eye, softening into his side ever so slightly and letting her lips curve into a pleasant smile.
“Hello.” The gray-haired man spoke curtly, his gaze darting to Thea and then down to Blue, who was in the middle of sniffing the poodle’s butt.
“This is my girlfriend Thea Blackwell. Thea, this is Tony and Isla Santiago. They own Santiago’s Pharmacy. Murdoch Construction’s in the middle of a big renovation project there.” He spoke carefully, with none of the relaxed confidence she was used to, and a glance at the Santiagos showed identical grim sets of their mouths.
Huh. No idea what this was all about, but the tension radiating from all three of them made her want to crawl out of her own skin. “Nice to meet you,” she said, flipping through her mental index of people she knew. “Let’s see, Santiago… Are you related to Millie?”
If anything, that made the vibe so much worse. Aiden twitched, Isla frowned, and Tony’s mustache quivered in outrage. “That’s our daughter,” he bit out, eyes cutting to Aiden.
Shit shit shit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out where the awkwardness stemmed from. Time to do some serious tap dancing to smooth over whatever sexual indiscretion Aiden had committed with their darling little girl.
She took a tiny step forward to ever so slightly interpose herself between Aiden and the frowning couple. “Oh, that’s so great! Millie and I were in the same graduating class. She was the smartest girl in algebra. How’s she doing? Last I heard she was studying engineering, right?”
At the mention of Millie’s smarts, the Santiagos melted before her eyes. “She finished her PhD last year and went to work for Saratoga.” Isla beamed.
“Did she really? That’s amazing! Is she designing medical equipment for them, or is she more on the manufacturing side?”
Now Tony came to life. “Manufacturing. Very hands-on.”
“Well of course! Do you remember our senior year science fair? She built a working semiconductor that put my golf ball model of the solar system to shame. I always knew she’d get out there and change the world. And is she still dating that medical student?”
She held her breath, praying she was correctly remembering the conversation she and Millie had the last time they’d bumped into each other at a bar on Thanksgiving Eve a year or two ago.
She’d guessed right.
“He’s a doctor now. An internist,” Isla said. “They’re engaged.”
“That’s wonderful!” Thea clapped a hand over her heart. “You must be so proud.”
Both Santiagos nodded immediately, and Thea did an imaginary victory dance for a job well done.
“Please tell her I said hi and to look me up when she’s in town next.” Then she turned to Aiden, who was staring at her with an incredulous expression on his face. “But right now I think we need to get our girl home and fed, don’t you, hon?”
As if on cue, Blue looked up at them with an adorable little whine that made the whole group laugh.
“Absolutely,” he said, smiling down at her. He dipped his chin toward the Santiagos. “Good to see you both.”
They headed toward the exit, but Tony’s voice stopped them. “Wait.”
Aiden’s hand tensed in hers as he turned back around.
“I was sorry to hear about your father’s health issues. How’s he doing?”
He tensed even more, and she dropped his hand to slide an arm around his waist. Not for the Santiagos’ sake but because he looked like he could use the comfort.
Although he kept his eyes on Tony, he dropped his arm over her shoulder and hugged her to his side. “He’s getting the best treatment we can find for him, and we’re hoping for good results.”
“I’m glad. Give him our best,” Tony said. After a beat, he added, “Drop by the store sometime if you’d like to see how the work is progressing.”
The tension in Aiden’s body dropped, and he nodded. “I will. Thank you, sir.”
After they said their goodbyes and stepped through the exit, Aiden stopped dead on the sidewalk, gathered her close, and dropped a fast, firm kiss on her lips. “God, you’re good. Do you even know how good you are?”
“How good am I?” The words sounded shaky as they escaped her lips, but what else could she do under that hot, admiring gaze?
“So fucking good, killer.” He kissed her again, not in an overtly passionate way but with a comfortable, proprietary press of his lips against hers that Thea enjoyed way, way too much. “I’ll fill you in on the way home.”
Sixteen
“Thea? Blue?”
Aiden’s steps echoed on the newly exposed wooden floor in the living room as he moved to the kitchen. The glow of the late April sun filled the room, but there was no sign of the woman he was looking for, or her dog.
“Thea?” This time he raised his voice, and an answering “up here” floated down the staircase.
He bounded up the steps and into the master bedroom, but that was empty too. “I’m here to take final measurements for the cabinet install, sugar lips.”
“Oh yay!”
The balcony. Her voice was coming from the balcony. His breath froze in his lungs as he sprinted to the sliding door and found her on her knees, trying to coax Blue away from the railing in the far corner.
She tossed a look over her shoulder. “This little lady got out and refuses to—”
Her words ended in a squeak when he stormed onto the balcony and scooped her up, cuddling her close to his chest where his heart was flailing against his ribs. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he carried her across the wooden boards in two long strides.
Once they were safely inside, he turned and gave a sharp whistle. “Blueprint!”
At his stern command, the dog trotted inside and sat on her haunches, her tail lashing back and forth against the floor and her tongue lolling happily. He kicked the door shut with his heel and wrapped a hand around the back of Thea’s neck, pressing her face to shoulder.
“I told you it’s not safe!” He was shouting, but fuck, she might’ve just taken a decade off his life.
She pushed back to look at him, pointing toward the balcony. “And I told you Blue got out, and I—”
“It could’ve collapsed,” he rasped. “It’s a twenty-foot drop. You could’ve been hurt. You could’ve…”
The thought of losing her was too much for him to put into words, and with fear and adrenaline tangling in his chest, he poured it all out on her the only way he knew how. With her body still cradled against him, he lowered his head and kissed her.
Kissed her? Hell, he devoured her, biting at her lips until she opened for him, sweeping her mouth with his tongue until she squirmed in his arms. He swung her so her legs wrapped around his waist, and he banded one arm around her lower back while his other hand tangled in her hair, pulling enough to tilt her chin upward.
“Don’t do that again.”
Her brown eyes blazed. “If I do, will you kiss me like that again?”
He growled and spun around so her back met the wall, using it as leverage to flatten her body against his while her legs tightene
d around him. Her chest rose and fell as she pulled air into her lungs, and that’s when he realized he was so far beyond the boundaries of their agreement that he couldn’t see the line anymore.
“I’ll kiss you any way you want as long as you don’t go out there until I’ve fixed it.”
To show her how serious he was, he gripped the bottom of her T-shirt and yanked it up. She raised her arms to assist, and he gave a helpless grunt when he saw that she wasn’t wearing a bra. The sight stopped him in his tracks. Given the choice over the years—and he’d generally been blessed with a multitude of choices—he’d always favored curvy, well-endowed women. But now he was cursing himself for missing out on this all his life. Thea was sleek and lean all over, from the slopes of her collarbones to her flat stomach to her perfect breasts. They were apricots tipped with dusky-pink nipples, and he bet he could fit all of her into his mouth. He swallowed hard at the thought and raised a hand to the soft slope of her shoulder. Her heated eyes followed his movement.
“I’m—” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat to try again. “I have to touch you. Is that okay?”
A wicked little smile drifted across her face. “I told you weeks ago, you don’t have to ask for permission.”
“This is gonna be pretty fucking different than what we’ve been doing,” he warned her in a dark voice.
When she arched her back toward him in invitation, he exhaled hard and ran a finger across her solar plexus and down to one hardening nipple, smiling when a shiver rippled along her perfect skin. Bending, he swiped his tongue along the path that his finger had just taken, and her shivers turned into a shudder.
Unable to hold back any longer, he placed an openmouthed kiss over her left breast and found that yes, he could fit all that tender flesh into his mouth. So he did, circling his tongue over the nipple while sucking on her skin, scraping it lightly with his teeth. Her chest heaved as she gasped for breath, and her fingers crept up to tangle in his hair as he kissed his way to her right breast and repeated the action.
He gripped her hips and pulled her down tight where his dick was straining in his jeans, sneaking a look at her face. Her eyes were screwed shut, face twisted with pleasure. He trailed his fingers down her stomach and settled them between her legs, gratified by the heat he found there. He pressed the heel of his hand against the seam of her leggings and twisted once, twice, three times until they were both moaning.
“Aiden,” she whispered. “Now. Please.”
“But you haven’t—”
His hand kept up its motion between her legs, but she whimpered in her impatience. “I’ve waited long enough.”
He didn’t have to be told twice. He pivoted and all but tossed her on the bed, then stripped off his shirt, shoes, jeans.
“Condom. Nightstand.”
He obeyed her command, then gripped the waist of her leggings and dragged them off her to join his clothes on the floor. Her silky blue underwear followed, and she fell backward on the bed, legs spread in welcome.
“My God, killer.” He tore his eyes away from the beauty sprawled in front of him long enough to rip open the condom and slide it on with clumsy fingers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this rushed, this raw and eager. When he stretched over her body, her hands gripped his shoulders.
“Now,” she urged, and he settled between her legs, pausing to enjoy the heat of her mouth on his as he guided himself into her.
Every coherent thought stuttered to a halt as he plunged into her tight warmth. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her fingers dug into the muscles of his arms, and he was sure he’d never felt anything hotter than this woman’s sweet pussy.
“God, yes.” She thrust up against him. “Harder.”
Her assertiveness hit him like an electrical prod to the nerves, and all the sensations heightened: her hot little breasts brushing against his chest, those strong legs wrapped around him, her nails branding his back with streaks of pleasurable fire. And all the while commands spilled from those soft lips, urging him to claim her, take her, fuck her.
He was on the brink of losing himself in the arms of someone he liked. Someone he more than liked.
Too much. It was too much. It bowled him over, and his balls started to tighten.
“Oh God, you… you’re…,” he stuttered out. “I’m going to…”
And then he was coming, spilling inside her, feeling every delicious pulse from his scalp to his heels until he was nothing but a boneless husk of a man slumped against the woman who’d just shattered his equilibrium.
Several moments passed before he was able to think clearly, let alone speak. When he finally caught his breath, he rolled off her and grabbed a tissue from the box on the nightstand to wrap the condom in.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped out. “You didn’t finish. I was too fast. Your body… I just…”
His cock twitched as he relived the deliciousness of the past few minutes, and he reached for her waist to pull her to him. “Your turn now—”
But she slithered out of his grasp and leaped from the bed, snatching her shirt from the floor. “No, that’s okay,” she said, her voice thick. “That was— That was fun, but you should go.”
Wait, what? “Not okay. I want to do for you what you just did for me.” He gave her his best lopsided smile, the one that worked on women in bars and servers at restaurants and old ladies in line at the grocery store.
It didn’t work on Thea though. Her expression remained stony, and his smile faded as he sat up. “Hey, I’m really sorry.” And Christ, he was. Both sorry and embarrassed. He pushed his hair off his forehead. “I swear, I’m not usually such a fast finisher. It’s just that you—”
“Yeah, I get it.” She held her shirt in front of her like a shield. “You don’t have to spell it out.”
Aiden was starting to feel like she’d fucked all the smarts out of him because he had no idea why she was upset. He slid across the mattress to sit on the edge of the bed in front of her, which put them almost at eye level. He reached out and rested his hands on her hips, giving her plenty of chance to back away. She stayed put, but she also stayed tense, so he spoke gently. “I’m sex-dumb right now, so talk slowly to me. What’s going on here? Don’t kick me out because I got off too fast.”
A tear leaked from the corner of her eye, and she directed her gaze to the ceiling. “Please stop saying that,” she whispered. “Please just go.”
She wouldn’t look at him. Why wouldn’t she look at him? He surged out of bed and stood in front of her, naked and desperate to understand what he’d done to cause her tears.
“Talk to me, killer. What did I do?”
“Are you really going to make me say it?” Her voice trembled, then she snapped her head up and met his gaze, defiance sparking in her eyes. “Fine. You’ve made it super clear over the years that I’m not the type of woman you’d ever choose to take home.” She gestured to her chest, the movement angry. “I just didn’t think you’d want to rush through sex to get it over with. I thought—”
“Rush through sex?” He barked out a laugh. “Are you kidding?”
Hurt bled into her voice. “You don’t have to make fun of me.”
She turned away again, and he was horrified to see her dash impatiently at another tear. But at least he was starting to understand what was going on.
He wrapped his hands around her shoulders and turned her back to face him. “Are you telling me you think that I fucked you fast to get it over with because your breasts are a little smaller than the last woman I slept with?”
She pulled away from his hands now, trying to get free. “I said, don’t make f—”
He hauled her against him and kissed her hard, teasing her lower lip with his tongue. She was stiff at first, but after a beat she gave a little sigh and let her rigid shoulders fall. Once she’d gone pliant in his arms, he broke their kiss and moved his hands up to cup her cheeks.
“Killer, I finished fast because you are so goddamn
hot.”
Thea snorted—actually snorted—and tried to pull away again, and Aiden’s anger flared. He should be back in that warm bed working her toward an orgasm, not standing naked on a drafty floor trying to convince this woman that she’d just rocked his world.
Actually no, fuck that. He should be getting dressed and walking the hell out of her bedroom. Nothing they’d just done was part of the plan they’d agreed to in February. None of it. She might have wanted to sleep with him in the moment—it’s what women usually expected from him, after all—but now that she was back on solid ground, she’d realize he’d just erased all their agreed-upon lines in his relief that the balcony hadn’t killed her.
Leaving was absolutely what he should do. But he didn’t reach for his pants. Instead, he addressed her in a sharp tone, unaccountably anxious that she believe him. “Hey. Listen. I’m telling you the truth.” His hands moved to rest on her shoulders again. “I think you’re exquisite. Every inch of you is perfectly made. And I came faster than I have since I was fifteen because having sex with you was so good that I couldn’t slow down.”
His thumbs brushed her cheeks, and his eyes met hers, searching for some sign that she believed him, that she saw the truth of his words in her eyes. But doubt still caused her brow to furrow, so he grabbed her hand and guided it down to where his cock was hardening again at the thought of what they’d just done. Her eyes widened, and her fingers tightened fractionally around his length. He bit back a groan.
“See? I want you. Let me prove it to you.”
This time he abandoned the lady-killer grin and just smiled at her, at Thea, hoping his expression reflected the genuine delight he found when they were together. Thea offered a small, tentative smile in return and let him pull the shirt out of her hands. Better still, she crawled back onto the bed and watched raptly as he followed her and kissed his way down her body before settling between her legs.
“Let me show you how perfect I think you are. Let me worship.” He wrapped his hands around her thighs and nudged his shoulder under her knee, lowering his mouth to her. She bucked against him at the first light stroke of his tongue, and as he settled in to drive her wild with his mouth and fingers, he reached up to cup her breast with his free hand, teasing and stroking with his left hand while his right hand found every sensitive spot between her thighs.