by Cat Johnson
She swallowed visibly hard and raised her gaze to meet his. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to come over there to you.” Mouth dry, he admitted the truth.
At least, he admitted a part of the truth. He didn’t tell her everything that was winging through his mind.
What he kept to himself was how he wanted to strip those pants off her and take over what she’d been doing with his own hands and his mouth.
She was breathing as heavily as he was. He watched the outline of her breasts rise and fall beneath the thin cotton of her T-shirt. “Then do that…if you want to.”
There was an undercurrent of hesitation, uncertainty, in her voice.
Was she really unsure of what he wanted? She needn’t have worried. Aaron didn’t need to be asked twice. He was in motion the moment the words were out of her mouth, striding across the small bathroom, closing the short distance between them.
He dropped to his knees in front of her, trying to ignore how his erection tented the front of the too-thin cotton of his boxer shorts. She didn’t ignore it though. He watched her focus drop to the bulge. He itched to touch her, touch himself, to watch her as she watched him doing it, but there was something else he wanted to do first.
Leaning forward, he brushed a hand across her cheek and then cupped the back of her head as he brought his lips to hers. She let out a soft moan at the contact. The sound cut right through him, ratcheting higher his need for her.
Ignoring the soreness in the knee he’d landed on that night, he tipped his head to the side and deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue. She responded with another tiny sound that had him wishing they were in his bed.
They’d both be more comfortable there, but damn, things were moving fast, even for him. He couldn’t imagine how she felt. He didn’t want to rush her. Or this. The thick bathroom carpet his mother had insisted on buying him cushioned his knee enough he’d be okay. Besides, he was barely aware of anything besides the heat of her mouth and the sound of her breath quickening.
Aaron reached down and ran a fingertip over the seam of her pajama bottoms where it pressed on the juncture of her thighs. She drew in a stuttering breath. He did it again and enjoyed the same reaction.
No woman should ever have to take care of herself when there was a man who was ready, willing and able to do it for her.
Grabbing the waistband of her bottoms with both hands, he wiggled them down over the swell of her hips. He broke the kiss and watched her face as he did. “This okay?”
Eyes heavily lidded, she didn’t protest. Instead, she nodded, braced her palms on the edge of the tub and lifted her hips, giving him the permission and the freedom he needed.
He pulled the bottoms the rest of the way off, all the way past her feet. He tossed them to the floor and ran his hands up the bare skin of her legs, between her thighs and then up higher.
Her breath caught in her throat when he reached her folds, spreading her with both thumbs. His hands on her were a beautiful sight. Jill, half naked and breathless, was an even better sight. He ran one thumb over her clit. She let out a little gasp.
There was nothing that did him in like the tiny sounds a woman made at times like this. He ran the opposite thumb over her and got the same reaction. Watching her face as he did so, Aaron wet both fingers with his tongue and brought them back to her clit, alternating them in a massage that had Jill dragging in ragged breaths.
An adorable crinkle formed between her brows as she leaned back against the wall, all while looking down so she could watch him work her with his hands.
The muscles of her thighs began to shake. She was close, poised and ready to break into an orgasm. He was breathing as hard as she was as he lowered his head. He replaced his fingers with his mouth and she reacted to the change, letting out a cry and lifting her hips.
He gripped her thighs and worked her faster.
She came apart beneath him, shaking and filling the room with sounds of a woman being well pleased. He pushed her long and hard until, gasping, she grabbed his head and lifted it off her.
When it was all over, he was bowled over by feelings. Guilt. Doubt. Confusion.
Emotions were something he wasn’t usually burdened with in situations such as these. If Jill had been a girl he’d picked up at an event, he’d have already picked her up and tossed her on his bed. He’d bury his aching cock inside her and then order a pizza after he was done, because sex never failed to make him hungry.
Instead, he kneeled on the floor of the bathroom paralyzed.
This was Jill, not some buckle bunny. She’d worked for the woman he’d spent the weekend in bed with. She’d been fired because of him. Even if it hadn’t been his idea to be in bed with CeCe with Jill only one room away, it all still made for an awkward situation.
He shouldn’t have touched Jill at all. But damn, he’d enjoyed it while he had been in the moment.
Still perched on the edge of the bathtub, Jill silently watched him. For lack of any better idea, he reached for her pants on the floor and handed them to her. “Um, here.”
Standing, he noticed the tent in his boxers hadn’t gone down at all. In fact, things in that area had gotten worse. Now there was a wet spot in the fabric that accentuated the tip of his erection.
As she pulled on her pants, Aaron hooked a thumb toward the doorway. “I’m gonna…go.”
A frown wrinkled her brow. “Oh.”
He paused. Something was up with her. “Unless…do we need to talk about this?”
“About that?” Standing, she waved a hand toward the tub—the site of Aaron’s mistake—and laughed. “No. I don’t want to talk about… No.” She shook her head.
“Okay. So we’re good?” Jeez. It was as if he was some damn virgin. It was crazy. How had he forgotten how to talk to girls?
At his question, Jill opened her mouth and, looking as if she had no idea what to say, closed it again.
“We’re not good.” Aaron ran a hand over his face. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have.”
He’d overstepped his bounds. Walking in on her had been bad enough. Invading her privacy like that. But to go over and… What the hell had he been thinking?
She shook her head. “No. That’s not the problem.”
“Okay. Then what is?” Maybe she was embarrassed. Hell, he sure would be if the situation were reversed. If she’d walked in on him in the middle of jerking off. He should tell her not to worry. That he’d never seen anything so hot in his life.
“I guess, I thought… You know.” She lifted one shoulder as her gaze dropped to the bulge in his boxers.
“Oh. Yeah, don’t worry about me. That’ll go away. Eventually.” Yeah, standing in front of her with a hard-on and having a conversation wasn’t embarrassing at all.
“Aaron.” She let out a sigh. “I thought maybe we weren’t done yet.”
Realization hit him. He hadn’t wanted to push her into something she didn’t want, but maybe she wanted exactly what he did.
Jill knew very well he’d been with CeCe just twenty-four hours ago. He thought that would be a deal breaker for her.
It wasn’t for him. CeCe was in his past. With any luck, he’d never have to see or even think about her again, but females were different about this stuff.
A guy could close one door and open the next without looking back. Women—well, he figured they tended to want a bit more distance in between.
“Oh. I didn’t want to assume anything. Not knowing what you want…” He let the sentence hang in the air, waiting for her offer.
“You’re going to make me say it?” She looked so adorable. All shocked and insulted and, if he wasn’t mistaken, interested. In him. That was the best part.
His spirits and hopes lifted as he grinned. “Yeah. I think I am gonna make you say it.”
“Aaron.” Her v
oice squeaked with disbelief.
“What?” He took a step toward her and then another. Putting a hand on each of her shoulders, he dropped his forehead until it rested against hers. “Sometimes a guy just likes to hear it, you know?”
She rolled her eyes, obviously catching on that he was messing with her. “Can I come to bed with you?”
“Is there something wrong with your bed?” He fought the smile as he teased her.
“Yes.”
“Really? What? Is the mattress too thin?”
“A little, but it’s more that my bed is missing something.”
He moved his hands lower on her back, enjoying the warm, soft cotton of her shirt beneath his fingers. He pulled her closer until they were pressed together. “What’s it missing?”
Giving her hips a little thrust, she bumped against the bulge in his boxers. “This.”
His smile widened.
“Oh. Then I suppose you can come to my room since that—” he glanced down between them, “—is standard equipment in my bed.”
“Good to hear.”
It was very good to hear she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He’d had about enough of the foreplay in the bathroom when he had a whole apartment to use, but he couldn’t resist one more quick kiss. He brought one hand up to cup her face and lowered his mouth to hers. Even with as tightly as they were clenched together, he couldn’t get close enough to her. Not here while vertical.
What little clothing separated them seemed like too much. He craved more contact. So much more. Too much for where they were. He reached down and hoisted her against him. Jill wrapped her legs around his back. He carried her out of the bathroom, down the hallway and all the way to his bedroom.
He dropped her onto the mattress and followed her down until he was on top of her on his bed. He kissed her as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close and holding him there. Jill captured him in her embrace and he was more than happy to be there.
There was no need to rush. They had all the time in the world, or at least the rest of the night and all of tomorrow too. He intended to use it all. The slow, intense kisses she returned in response to his working her mouth told him Jill was in no hurry either. It felt as if they were on the same page, moving at the same speed, just happy to be touching each other.
Kissing her was simple. Easy. Perfect. Being with Jill was the opposite of what being with CeCe had been like. He hated that he’d even thought CeCe’s name while he was with Jill. It felt like a betrayal, but the differences in his feelings about being with Jill were so glaring.
The heat of her palms slid over his bare skin as Jill moved both hands down the muscles of his back. She didn’t stop when she reached the waistband of his boxers, but continued the journey down, sliding her hands beneath the fabric.
She snaked one hand around to the front. A more than willing participant in her exploration, Aaron rolled to the side, just enough to give her access.
When she made first contact with his cock, he hissed in a breath. When she wrapped her hand around him and delivered a single stroke up his length, he couldn’t help the moan that rumbled from within him. He felt her smile beneath his kiss and pulled back an inch. “Feel free to do that move again, if you’d like.”
“You enjoyed it, did you?”
“Mmm, hmm.” He brushed his lips over her ear and moved down to nip at her throat.
She tipped her head. Her eyes drifted closed as he kissed her neck, but she did as he asked, stroking him at the same time.
He’d intended to take things slow. He really had. But every pass of her hand up and down his length ramped up the need to bury himself in her and finish this.
When she trailed the tip of one finger over his slit, spreading the slick pre-come around the head of his cock, he was done holding back. He pushed his boxer shorts down his legs and tossed them to the floor, leaving him naked as the day he was born on top of the bedcovers.
Jill dropped her gaze to take him in. All of him. All of his nakedness. Seeing her look him over didn’t help the urgency to have her. His new goal was to get Jill equally as naked. He went to work to make that happen.
He’d strip her bare, but he would take his time doing it. He started with the bottoms he’d already had off her once tonight. The ones he had foolishly given back to her. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. Now that he knew she was as into this as he was, there’d be no more hesitation on his part.
After tossing the bottoms onto the floor with his own shorts, he moved back to finish the job. He pushed her T-shirt up as he moved his hands up her body, over warm skin, across the soft peaks of her breasts.
He pulled her shirt over her head and flung it, much too intent on Jill to care where it landed. She lay beneath him, bared and beautiful. A feast for the eyes. A feast for his mouth too. Leaning low, he drew one nipple between his lips while he ran a thumb over the other one.
She bowed her back, pressing up toward him. He smiled against her flesh before setting to work to please her more by scraping his teeth over her tender peak.
The reaction made him want her writhing beneath him, with him inside her. Then again, he’d be just as happy doing plenty of other things with her, if that’s all she could handle right now.
Things might feel easy and simple with Jill, but in reality, they weren’t.
He kneeled on the bed. Watching her face, he ran his hands between her thighs, spreading them wide. He paused, waiting for a signal from her to dictate his next move.
Reaching up, she grabbed his shoulders and guided him closer. As he laid between her legs, she ran her hands down his back. She settled them on his butt cheeks and pulled.
His tip nudged at her entrance. Straightening his arms, he braced above her. “We doing this?”
“I certainly hope so.” She frowned. “Don’t you want to?”
He laughed that she thought she had to ask. He’d been as hard as a sack of nickels for the better part of an hour thanks to her. He hadn’t thought his willingness was in question.
“Oh yeah. Just making sure.”
“I’m very sure.” She pulled him closer again.
He felt the wet heat of her body against him. He had to roll off her before he lost his mind, gave in to the temptation and slid into her warmth unprotected. One unplanned pregnancy in the family was enough. At least his sister and Garret had been married at the time their little oops happened. Silver and Garret could take chances. Aaron wasn’t going to.
He reached for the bedside table, happy he happened to keep his supply in the bedroom. Not because he brought girls back to his apartment. He really didn’t. In fact, Jill was the only one he’d had here besides a girl he’d dated for a few months a couple years ago. But with his mother and sister dropping by to visit all the time, the bedroom drawer seemed like the only private spot to stash something. He didn’t trust them not to go snooping in his bathroom cabinets.
The reason didn’t matter. He was simply grateful for the close proximity of the condoms now. He didn’t have to get out of bed. Didn’t have to leave Jill. He only had to reach over and grab one. A quick tear of the foil and he was back right where he wanted to be—between Jill’s legs.
Wasting no time to get where he was going, he slid inside her. Her mouth opened as he entered her. He lifted her knees and stroked deeper. She sucked in a breath.
“You okay?” As good as it felt to sink so deep into this woman, he was worried he hurt her.
She laughed. “Yeah. Very okay.”
“Good.” Because it felt way too good to stop.
Funny that after the initial thrill of being with a sexy older woman had fled, it had taken CeCe’s drawer of kinky sex toys to get him excited sexually. That wasn’t the case with Jill.
With Jill, all it took was a glimpse of her skin, or the sound of her gasp. A touch. A look. Just…her.
He moved inside her and felt a shudder run down his spine like a jolt of electricity surging through him. No batteries. No restraints. No toys necessary. This woman alone was more than enough to thrill him.
Of course, he might not mind exploring some wilder stuff with Jill. One day, but not today.
He loved her until he felt the tingle start inside him, but he wasn’t ready to be done yet. He pulled out and concentrated on kissing her until the sensation passed. When he slid back in, he felt as if he could last for hours. With her, he was in no rush to finish. He had no intention of letting it end anytime soon.
“Jill?”
“Yeah?”
“This might take a while.” He leaned back, reached between them and found her clit with his thumb.
She let out a gasp. “That’s quite all right. Keep doing that and you can go all night, if you want.”
He hoped she was serious, because that’s exactly what he hoped to do.
Chapter Twenty
Aaron trailed his hand lazily up and down Jill’s bare arm. “I’m glad you stayed instead of going to the airport.”
Jill lay with her head resting on Aaron’s chest, so she heard his incredibly sweet comment as it rumbled through him and against her ear.
“I’m glad too.” She was having a much better night with him than she would have waiting at the airport all night for a standby flight.
He angled his head and glanced down at her face. “So, uh, wanna tell me what inspired that little self-love session that I walked in on in my bathroom?”
“Oh, God. Aaron, please. Can we never talk about it again?” She hid her face in her hands and tried to roll away from him.
He reached out and grabbed her hip before she could get away and rolled her back. “Nuh, uh. Come on. Tell me.”
Finally, she uncovered her eyes and faced him and the embarrassing subject. “I don’t know.”
“Uh, yeah you do. What made you get out of bed in the middle of the night, go to the bathroom and…you know?”
“I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to pee. Then when I was there, I went in your medicine cabinet and I smelled your deodorant and then I sniffed your aftershave, and that was it.”