by Elena Armas
And I didn’t think I wanted to.
Not after having a taste of what could be mine. And I wasn’t talking just about Aaron’s lips. For the first time since we had landed in Spain, every touch, look, smile, or word was real. After that kiss, every time Aaron grazed my arm with the back of his hand, it was because he wanted to. Every time he brushed a kiss on my shoulder, it was because he wasn’t capable of helping himself. And every time he gathered me close and whispered something in my ear, it wasn’t because my family was looking and we had a role to play. It was because he wanted me to hear how beautiful he thought I looked and how lucky he felt to have me in his arms.
We danced for hours, this time with nothing hanging over our heads, and I kissed that smile that was only for me. More than once. I simply couldn’t help myself.
Tonight, I had decided I’d stay in our bubble and deal with what awaited in New York when we got there. Tonight was ours.
Aaron closed the door of the room behind him, and I couldn’t help but stare at him from my position at the end of the bed. We had just gotten to the apartment, and I had decided to give a rest to my wobbly legs and hurting feet while he fetched some water from the kitchen.
One of his arms was behind his back, making me tilt my head with curiosity. He smiled, and when he revealed what was in his hand, I almost screamed at him to stop going after my poor, weak heart. Because it wouldn’t survive.
A doughnut, glazed and filled with chocolate cream. They had served them as a snack late in the night. And I had probably eaten more than I should have.
“Aaron Blackford,” I said, feeling as if something were being squashed in the middle of my chest. “Did you smuggle doughnuts out of the wedding in your pocket?”
His smile turned into a grin. A bashfully, unassumingly handsome grin. And my poor heart squeezed some more. “I knew you’d be hungry.”
“I am,” I admitted, my voice sounding all wrong. “Thank you.”
He strode across the room and placed the doughnut on a napkin on top of the dresser. I took the chance to tell my heart to chill the hell out before it was too late and we both went down.
Aaron turned, as if he knew I needed one more minute to gather myself. But instead of doing that, I gawked at his back. Watched how he shed himself of his suit jacket and delicately placed it on the only chair in the room. Dangerous thoughts started piling up in my head, traveling to the bottom of my stomach. When Aaron finally faced me, just as he was undoing the knot of his tie, those dangerous, reckless thoughts were probably displayed all over my face.
Our gazes connected, and an uncontrollable blush rose up my neck, reaching my cheeks. Ironic, how I had been devouring his lips hours ago, and now, a simple look turned me inside out.
Restless and flushed, I averted my gaze and leaned, reaching for my right foot. My fingers were clumsy as they worked at the strap of the beautiful yet painful high-heeled shoe. Exhaling with frustration, I fumbled with the thin band tied around my ankle for an embarrassing amount of time.
I sensed Aaron coming closer, right to where I was, sitting on the bed as I unsuccessfully tried to untie the clasps of my right heel. If he found my predicament funny or ridiculous, he didn’t say. Instead, he knelt on the floor in front of me and placed his palm over my hands, bringing my attempts to a halt.
“Let me,” he said. “Please.”
I did. I was beginning to understand that I’d let him do about anything if he asked.
Aaron’s strong fingers unclasped the fine straps and slowly slipped the shoe off. Killing me with a tenderness I would never—not in a lifetime—have enough of. His hand captured my foot, placing it on top of his thigh. Only that gesture, the contact of my sole on his leg, had the power to undo me.
And it did. It cracked me wide open as Aaron’s fingers slid to my ankle, kneading and easing the tension away as they went, robbing me of my breath.
Those hands. What those hands could do to me if the simplicity of what he was doing sent bolts of electricity up my legs, straight to that neglected point low in my belly.
The enemy that my own mind could sometimes be decided that this was a good moment to remind me that it had been a long time since I had been intimate with someone. And Aaron … well, one just needed to take a look at him to know that he probably had more experience than me. Anybody would. I had barely dated after Daniel and—
“Relax.” A deep voice jerked me back to the moment. Aaron’s fingers were still delicately rubbing my right ankle, softening the stiff muscles. “I don’t expect a single thing from you tonight, Catalina.” He looked up at me, our gazes meeting. There was only earnestness in the blue of his eyes. “Earlier, when I kissed you, I let myself get carried away. Came on a little too strong, and I apologize.”
My lips parted, but nothing came out.
“You have to say something, baby. You are very quiet, and that’s starting to freak me out.”
Baby. That baby did things to me. I liked it. Far too much.
“You have nothing to apologize for.” I tried really hard to swallow all those stupid insecurities. “So, don’t apologize, please.” I looked into his eyes. “You were perfect. You … really are.”
That last part left my lips as nothing more than a whisper.
The blue in Aaron’s eyes simmered, darkened with determination. It did for a moment that stretched and stretched until he cleared his throat and resumed his work.
Turning to my other foot, he repeated the process, leaving the left stiletto where the other one rested on the floor. He massaged my left heel, his fingertips making their way up my ankle too. And only after he finished kneading the muscles and tendons there, he spoke, “All set. Let’s get you out of that dress, and you’ll be ready for bed.”
And that was what did it.
His unassuming words, the tenderness with which he had bared my feet and the way he looked up at me from his position on the floor, as if his only goal here was making sure I was cared for. All of it broke something inside of me.
I swore I even heard the cracking sound, slicing the silence in the room in two.
“No.”
His back straightened, his gaze rising until eye-level with me.
“Then, tell me.” His jaw hardened. “Tell me what you want.”
Instead of voicing it, I reached out and placed my hand on the nape of his neck. I pulled, attempting to bring him closer. And Aaron let me, allowing me to show him where I needed him. Our faces were mere inches away. My memory of the taste of his lips was almost too powerful for me to resist him any longer.
Still on his knees, Aaron inched closer. Placing his torso between my thighs and his hands on each of my sides. Right next to my hips.
“What else?”
I could hear the need in his voice. I could almost taste it.
Unable to stop myself, my fingertips pulled at the strands of raven hair at his neck. You, I told him with that tug, incapable to articulate a word.
“I need to hear you say it,” he breathed into my lips. Not closing the gap, still not sealing it.
My other hand landed on his upper arm, and I noticed immediately how those toned muscles bunched beneath the fabric of his shirt, constrained. As if he was physically stopping himself from coming closer. My gaze traveled down his arm, all the way to his hand, discovering he was fisting the comforter right beside my hip.
“Tell me what you want,” he repeated, his voice almost breaking.
“You,” I rasped out, a dam breaking. “I want anything you’re willing to give me.” I needed him to inch closer, to eat the space between us and make it disappear. To come on top of me until blurring the outlines of our bodies. “It’s you I want.”
Never in my life had I imagined breathless words like mine would be the key to something so powerful. A growl escaped Aaron’s body, his eyes turning feral. Hunger like I had never witnessed—not even earlier, when we had kissed—burrowed itself in Aaron’s features, giving way to a pained expression.
/> “I’ll give you the world,” he said against my mouth. “The moon. The fucking stars. Anything you ask, it’s yours. I’m yours.”
And then my world exploded. Aaron’s mouth was against mine, nothing soft about the branding contact. He parted my lips, his tongue plunging inside, while his hands slowly trailed up my back.
He pulled me to him, leaving my ass resting on the edge of the bed. My legs went around his waist, a little too high to make the contact I craved the most—that I knew would make me see those stars he had just promised me.
My head spun out of control, the feel of his strong body between my thighs overwhelming, intoxicating, provoking. I wanted to stay right here forever—with Aaron on his knees and my body wrapped around him. With his lips against mine. His hands in my hair.
No. I wanted more than that, but I needed all these clothes to go away first.
Aaron pulled me closer into his chest, making my body churn, looking for the friction I ached for.
Without breaking the kiss or his hold on my body, he stood up on strong legs, taking me up with him. Holding my legs around his waist, he positioned me exactly where I was coming out of my skin for him to be, sending a twirl of pleasure through every cell in my body at the maddening sensation of having his hardness nestled between my thighs. The warmth of his hands on my ass seeped through the clothing of my dress, the heat of his length throbbing against my center. Hot, so hot that my skin burned.
In two strides, Aaron had me against the wall. He rocked against my center, just once, and it ripped a pained whimper out of me.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he gritted out against my lips, his body stiff and rocklike beneath my hands. “Tell me what’s okay for me to do.”
Pushing his hips into me to hold me against the wall and bringing to my sight a starry sky of delirium, he dragged his hands up my sides. Stopping when he reached the swell of my breasts, his long fingers grazed the thin cloth covering them.
“Does this feel good, baby?” he rasped.
Nodding my head, I arched my back, pushing them against his hands. Hands that didn’t waste a second in accepting my offering. Aaron kneaded my breasts leisurely, his thumb grazing over the fabric that covered my nipples. That urge of shredding my dress off my body returned with a vengeance. And I had to physically fight my hands from exposing my skin, so he’d touch me. Not the stupid gown. Me, me. Just me.
As if he had just read my mind, Aaron’s hands flew to my shoulders. He took ahold of the straps of my dress, playing delicately with the fine material before asking, “Can I bring these down?”
His watchfulness, his never-ending diligence at making sure I was comfortable, kept tearing at something inside my chest—something I was afraid that once brought down, wouldn’t crystallize back into the same ever again.
“Yes,” I told him. Hearing the urgency in my voice.
Catching me completely off guard, instead of bringing the straps down, Aaron’s hands slid to my waist, dislodging me from his body. He deposited me on the floor, and my fingertips drifted from his neck to his chest at the difference in height.
Frowning at the loss, I looked up. Aaron’s soft chuckle and radiant smile barely registered when those two large palms that rested on my hips turned me around. Briskly.
My hands fell flat on the wall.
His breath caressed the back of my neck, launching a riot of shivers to gallop down my body. Strong fingers reached for the zipper of my dress, just above the small of my back. He brought it down, my underwear peeking out, if I recalled correctly how low that zipper went.
I felt myself swallow, just as I heard a strangled sound leaving Aaron.
His fingers slowly trailed up my spine, a flock of tingles taking flight. When he reached the straps at my shoulders, he pulled them down. The dress slid down my body and pooled on the floor, leaving me in nothing but my panties. And, God, I had never been happier about wearing a dress with a built-in bra.
Looking over my shoulder at him, I found a troubled expression marring his handsome face. Unconsciously, my body tried to turn, but Aaron’s arms came around me. One hand landed on my stomach while the other went to my hip. He pulled me into him, the heat of his whole body on my bare back, overrunning my senses.
His chin dipped, falling on my shoulder. “Give me a minute,” he breathed into my ear.
After a few seconds of neither of us moving an inch, just taking it all in, I felt his lips on my neck.
“I’m trying to take this slow, Lina. I swear I am,” he continued, his hand drifting up my stomach. His thumb grazed the skin of my breast. “But you are driving me right out of my mind.”
That fingertip brushed over my nipple, eliciting a deep moan out of me. Earning me one of his in return. The hand that rested on my hip slid down to my thigh, close to the edge of my panties. Just a few inches from the point where all this heat running through my body gathered.
“I’m dying to learn every inch of skin on your body.” He took my nipple between his index and thumb and pulled softly.
I whimpered, demolished. Devastated.
“To memorize you.” His voice danced with the same desperation rushing down my belly. “Do you want that?”
“Yes.” My voice sounded brittle, just as much as my sanity if he denied me. “I need you to touch me.”
Aaron grumbled, his chest rumbling with the sound. My hands flew back, landing on his shoulders and arching my body for his taking.
His arm pulled me closer, my backside flush against him.
He rocked his hips, and then his hand trailed up and down my thigh. “Open up for me,” he demanded into my neck while pushing my legs open with his knee from behind, widening my stance so it granted him easier access. “Let’s finally see how wet you are.”
His fingers snuck under the edge of my panties, grazing the hair and skin there and making my legs wobble at the pleasure of the powerful contact. Aaron’s hold on my hip tightened, pulling my back against his hard length, and I felt it pulsating against my skin, even through the fabric of his pants. Continuing his path, his fingers finally reached my wet folds, pressing for just an instant and then gliding down slowly.
My lips parted as a moan climbed out of my body. I hadn’t been this wet or turned on in my entire life.
“Fuck.” Aaron’s curse wasn’t more than a rasp. “Is this all for me?”
If I’d managed to whimper an affirmative reply, I couldn’t know. I just guessed that whatever my answer had been, it satisfied Aaron. Because his fingers moved up and down my folds, coating everything in my pleasure, turning my blood into molten lava.
“If I slide my fingers inside your pussy, I’m going to lose control,” he told me in a deep and inky voice. A warning, a promise. “Is that something you are ready for?” His thumb started circling my clit, almost bringing me to my knees.
My back arched. “Aaron.”
His voice lowered even further. “That’s not an answer, baby.” His fingers increased their pace, making me light-headed. “Do you want me to get you off and hold you until you fall asleep?” His other hand rose to my breast, teasing my nipple. “Or do you want me to claim it with my cock?”
So commanding and yet so fucking thoughtful. Cherishing me, ravishing me. He was everything I needed. Everything my body craved and my heart had been missing.
For what I would soon learn was the last time tonight, I told him what he’d demanded to hear. The truth that I had kept under key deep inside. “I’m ready, Aaron.” I brought my hand to his, which was partly covered by my panties. “Take me. All of me.” I tightened my hold on him and pressed both our hands against my center. “Claim me.”
Aaron didn’t lose any time. One of his fingers slid inside me in one swift motion, a moan forming in the depths of my chest at the blissful invasion.
God. It had been so long since nothing but my own fingers had been there.
“You are drenched, baby. All for me.” Aaron kept thrusting inside, adding a second fi
nger and bringing bright little spots to the backs of my eyes. “All of you, mine.”
Something started unraveling, cracking me wide open. Tilting my body toward the edge. “Aaron. This … this is too much.”
Panting. I was panting as I lost control over my own body.
“It’s not too much. This is what real feels like,” he murmured against my neck as his other hand grazed one of my breasts.
I was so close to toppling over. A million different sorts of sensations cascaded down my body, spreading from every point where Aaron was touching me. Tattooing my skin. The way he thrust his fingers inside of me. Or how he played with the tips of my breasts. The rocking of his hips against my backside, in sync with the plunging of his hand. It was all too much. Too much.
“That’s it. I can feel your pussy gripping my fingers.” His words pushed me a little closer to the edge. Every single second of this blissful torture blinding me with more pleasure. “Ride them, baby. Come on them.”
And I did. Oh God, I did. I tipped over the edge. My head went spinning; my limbs were robbed of all strength. And while I moaned and whimpered senseless words mixed with Aaron’s name, his fingers kept driving inside of me. Dragging it out, walking me through it, until eventually slowing down and coming to a stop over my still-pulsating center.
After what could have been a couple of seconds or a few minutes, Aaron extricated his fingers from me. Tipping my head to the side, I looked up because I wanted to see his face. His handsome face and ocean-blue eyes. I found him gazing down at me with a smile that was new. It was one that I had never seen. One mixed with hunger and need and something else. Something more powerful than all that.
As I eyed him, probably with a spent and blissful look on my face, I watched how he lifted the fingers that had been inside of me moments ago and introduced them inside his mouth. His eyes closed, and his face contorted into an expression I would never forget. An expression that would be branded in my mind for the rest of my goddamn life and that would haunt me in the wet dreams I’d start having now.