Even when Mike finally disappeared behind the bar again and left them alone, the mood didn’t return. There was hardly anything left of the intimate and compassionate atmosphere they’d shared before. They sat silently, unable to get back to that deeply personal sphere they’d entered when confiding in each other.
Feeling vaguely disappointed, a few minutes later, Kayleigh suggested they leave the pub. She couldn’t explain the despondency that had suddenly gripped her as she walked through the dark streets of Charlestown with Aidan. It wasn’t as if this had been a date. Aidan was her roommate, and in another week’s time, he’d be her brother-in-law. If she neglected the fact that they’d had sex once a few months ago, she thought she could see him as a friend, and nothing else. A friend who was able and willing to help her with the renovations on her house.
A question formed in her head then. Why was she thinking so much about Aidan, when she really should’ve been looking forward to Alec being her date for her brother’s wedding?
For almost three years, she’d been mooning over Shane’s partner like a dumb teenager, clamoring for his attention. Now she had the chance to go out with Alec—even though he thought of their date as more of a joke, and a chance to drive Shane up a wall. Yes, she actually had to remind herself of that impending date, because it had all but slipped her mind.
In fact, she had to admit that she’d hardly wasted a thought on Alec the last two weeks. Maybe it was because Aidan was constantly around, and she reveled in his attention. After all, her guest treated her with utmost consideration and care. And she had caught him staring at her legs or boobs several times.
She liked Aidan, but didn’t she wish it was Alec who stared at her legs and boobs?
Distracted by her wandering thoughts, she hardly noticed that they were turning down her street. Aidan’s sudden voice brought her back to the present. “I haven’t thanked you for the nice evening yet.”
She looked up at him with a weak smile. “Not for that, no.”
“I haven’t had that much fun in a long time,” he admitted as they reached Kayleigh’s house.
“Mm,” she replied monosyllabically and rifled through her pocket for the key. “I had a good time, too, Aidan,” she added in a much more accessible tone. “And it was nice of you to come along with me.”
“Kayleigh?”
She found her key and climbed the first step of the small set of stairs to the porch before turning around to him. “Yes?” Now they were looking each other straight in the eye, no longer any height difference.
Aidan seized the chance. He leaned forward, cupped her face with both his hands, and whispered, “Behind your big mouth you’re hiding an amazing woman.”
And then he kissed her.
At first Kayleigh was far too surprised to react; she simply let it happen. But as soon as she tasted him and felt his warm body against hers, she closed her eyes, pressed herself against him, and opened her mouth with a moan, ecstatically returning his kiss.
Her hands gripped his sweater. Wrapped up in his scent and the feeling of being at the mercy of this strong man, who ravaged her mouth with surprising tenderness and held her face in his strong hands, all Kayleigh could do was press herself even closer and torture his lips with unrestrained nips and bites. His moans wakened in Kayleigh the urge to tear off his clothes right then and there and rub herself against his naked body. She devoured his mouth with hers and felt, with a surge of triumph, that he seemed to have the same urge, the way he thrust his tongue into her mouth and pressed his frame against her pliant body.
Their passion seemed to make the steam rise in the humid night air around them. Kayleigh stumbled, holding on to him to keep from losing her balance and falling backwards up the stairs.
When Aidan’s hand moved from her cheek to her butt and clutched it with a deep moan of pleasure, two things suddenly dawned on Kayleigh.
One, they were standing on the brightly lit porch steps in front of her house, probably delivering a great show for the entire neighborhood. And two, she realized she had the fanatic desire to sleep with Aidan. She wanted to drag him upstairs to her bedroom, tear off his clothes, and find out whether her memory had played tricks on her, or Aidan really was able to drive her crazy in bed.
But that was not a good idea.
This kiss was not a good idea.
In a week, they would be side by side, acting as best man and maid of honor at Shane and Thorne’s wedding. And she would be there with Alec. They were living as roommates under the same roof. Sex would only make things complicated.
Thus, she struggled to pull away from him now, pressing both her hands against his pulsating chest, while her own chest heaved with the same frantic heartbeat. Her knees were weak, and her mouth yearned for a sequel to the kiss.
“Aidan,” she croaked.
“Jesus,” he moaned, obviously struggling to get a grip as he stared at her mouth as if she’d hypnotized him.
Kayleigh couldn’t stop herself; she brushed a strand of his black hair away from his forehead. Before she could pull back her hand, he’d grabbed it and was pressing a hot kiss into her palm.
An eternity passed as his eyes burned into hers, not giving away what he was thinking, before Kayleigh found her voice again.
“This is not a good idea,” she said, trembling.
“I know,” Aidan agreed, but he didn’t let go of her.
Kayleigh grabbed him by the collar of his sweater, pulling him closer, kissing him, and then dragging him with her into the house.
Chapter 10
Before Aidan knew what hit him, he and Kayleigh were headed up the stairs, and he was losing one item of clothing after another. When they arrived on the upper landing, he realized he was barefoot and missing both his sweater and tee, and that Kayleigh was about to open his belt and push him into her bedroom.
His heart beat a wild tattoo as he buried a hand in her short hair and lowered his head to kiss her like a drowning man, letting her drag him into her room.
It wasn’t surprising that he liked being treated like a private sex toy by a woman, but he liked even more that it was none other than Kayleigh Fitzpatrick, who was suddenly behaving like she might die if she couldn’t have him naked in her bed in about thirty seconds.
He kissed her with all the pent-up hunger he felt for her, nibbled her lower lip, sucked her tongue into his mouth, and yearned to finally touch her everywhere. To his regret, she didn’t waste nearly enough time with foreplay, which he’d have savored had she asked him. He dreamed of laying her down on her bed naked, exploring every delectable inch of her body for hours. The urge to run his tongue over her bare skin nearly overwhelmed him, but Aidan forced himself to let Kayleigh take charge. He found that he enjoyed tumbling into bed with a passionate woman like her, one who didn’t seem to tolerate resistance.
Red-hot lust burned through his veins as he gently forced her to pause for a moment and return his overheated kiss. At the same time, he rubbed his bare chest against her torso, which was still wearing a t-shirt.
Aidan didn’t want to end up stark naked before a fully clothed Kayleigh, so he pulled the shirt over her head and then let his hands roam her velvety back. He opened the clasp of her bra and pulled the straps down over her shoulders. Before she could take charge again, he lowered his head, kissed her neck, and sucked the sensitive spot above her throat, trailing a wet line of kisses down to her breasts, which he then cupped and showered in kisses.
Her deep moan told him he was doing it right, so he sank down on the edge of the bed and pulled her close between his legs, and then circled her nipples with his tongue while moving his fingers to the fly of her jeans.
He was so aroused he all but saw stars in front of his eyes and couldn’t utter anything but meaningless moans. Pure, unadulterated lust suffused every fiber of his body, while his throat got increasingly dry and his pants increasingly tight. Suddenly, he knew he could no longer bear extensive foreplay, either, so he pulled her jeans down with
trembling, clumsy hands. His lips sucked on her breasts, and his hands cupped her now-naked butt—until he found himself on his back moments later.
Apparently Kayleigh’d had enough of him taking charge.
“Don’t move,” she ordered in a rough whisper and bent over him.
The sudden fear that he might make a fool of himself in front of the dazzling—and diabolic—Kayleigh Fitzpatrick flashed through his mind as she lowered her mouth to his neck and opened the fly of his pants with much nimbler fingers.
Aidan clawed at the covers with both hands, moaning her name, as she showered his neck and chest with kisses and nips, her soft but strong hands massaging his shoulders, then his chest, and finally his abs. She pulled his pants off with a little help from his own frantic hands.
He lay before her completely naked and blinked up at her, just as naked, in the twilight of her room.
It almost drove him crazy to see her like that. He started to sit up with a hissing exhalation of breath, but the naked beauty, with her long legs, gently rounded hips, and full, swaying breasts, shook her head and kneeled over him again, pushing him onto his back.
“Don’t move, I said,” she commanded hoarsely and lowered her upper body further, until he gasped at the touch of her soft flesh on his steely erection.
Aidan uttered a grim sound and moved to grab her, but she slipped even lower, almost lying down on top of him, and bit his lower lip.
“Don’t touch, Aidan,” she ordered.
“You’re killing me,” he growled low in his throat. But he submitted to her and was rewarded seconds later with the most erotic kiss he’d ever received. Her wet mouth suckled his, and her tongue wrapped around his. She placed her hands on his and laced their fingers together. They were now lying on her bed, her on top.
He felt dizzy with lust and closed his eyes to savor the burning, devouring sensation in his gut, when he felt her lean to the side, and then heard the sound of a drawer closing. Before he could say anything, Kayleigh had put a hand around his penis and rolled a condom over it. Then she impaled herself on him, but with agonizing slowness.
Aidan didn’t care that she had just told him not to touch her. He couldn’t stop himself from putting his hands on her hips when she sat up and began to move her pelvis. The soft flesh under his fingers, her warm body, and the small, luxuriant sounds she emitted with every movement drove his arousal into the red, making him clench his teeth with the need to come.
His eyes were hypnotized by her breasts, which jiggled up and down before his face. The image was burned into his retinas forever. With a suppressed moan, he moved faster under her, digging his fingers into her butt in order to force her to speed up to his rhythm. He ignored the sound of protest that came from her lips together with a drawn-out moan and a flash of warning in her green eyes. He used the force of his athletic body to roll both of them around so he was now on top of her.
“Hey,” she whispered hoarsely and looked up at him with her cheeks blazing and her eyes gleaming. “That was not the agreement.”
“Such a pity,” he rumbled as he braced his arms on both sides of her head, so he could lean down and kiss her.
She had never appeared more beautiful to him than at that moment—until she nipped at his lip. After a brief moment of disbelief, Aidan laughed out loud and then began to move in her again.
It was a sensual fight over who was in charge, causing them to nearly fall off the bed in the process. Somewhere in the middle of it, he was afraid he was being too rough, might hurt or break her, but Kayleigh didn’t hold back, scratching his shoulders and digging her teeth into the side of his neck like a vampire. Her loud screams added fuel to the fire of his lust, until he gasped for air like a pair of bellows and feared he might faint with exertion.
That was exactly the moment she dug her fingernails into his shoulders like a woman possessed and screamed with ecstasy, which in turn had him coming violently.
After, he sank heavily down on her and prayed for air to breathe, strength, and that he wouldn’t squash her. Those were the final thoughts that flitted through his head before he fell into a deep sleep.
He awoke when Kayleigh’s fingers wandered over his shoulder blade. He opened his sleepy eyes and rolled over on his side, pulling her along, since she was still in his arms, which made her sigh softly.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a muffled, sleepy voice.
“I just wanted to see how your wound was doing,” she said, sounding so much more awake and refreshed than he felt.
Much to his surprise and joy, she pressed a kiss to his shoulder and then snuggled up to him.
Aidan braced himself on his elbow and studied her, lying next to him on her side, naked and unabashed as she looked up into his face.
God, he’d just had extremely hot sex with the woman who’d been invading his thoughts much too often in the preceding weeks, and now, just by looking at her naked body, something was stirring in him, urging him to ravish her once again. But then a different feeling overruled the caveman in him, who wanted to drag her into his cave and chain her there so she wouldn’t get away. It was the sudden feeling of closeness, intimacy that went beyond the purely physical, an emotion he had missed for so long. It made him look at her and wish he hadn’t made some of the mistakes in his life.
“You went and did it again,” she declared with a smile and scooted closer. She reached out and placed her hand on the spot where she could feel his heart beat.
“What have I done again?” he asked in a choked voice.
“You fell into an almost comatose sleep, just for a few minutes. Last time you did the same.”
Since his sex life had been on hold for several years, he couldn’t say much about his normal post-coital behavior. He put a hand on her thigh and gave in to the urge to run his rough fingertips over her soft skin. Again, he sensed his throat go dry when he touched her. He explored her skin with genuine awe, watching it shimmer like pearls in the moonlight, and then he dug his mouth into the hidden spot behind her ear. “How come your skin is so soft?” he murmured.
“And how come your body is so full of muscle?” she asked in return, her fingers riding his abs. Unlike him, she sounded amused.
Aidan let his head sink back into the pillow and stared into her green eyes. “Hard work on the oil rig,” he told her earnestly. “And then there’s this woman I know. She has a house that needs a lot of renovations. She drives me like a real slave …”
She giggled and scooted closer, slipping a leg between his. “You don’t say! I hope you don’t have even more women in your social circle who own such fixer-uppers.”
He clicked his tongue. “Don’t worry your adorable head, Kayleigh. You’re the only woman whose house I remodel—or who I sleep with.”
“Good to know,” she replied with mock relief. “Now I can sleep soundly again.”
“You’re welcome.”
He could sense her getting more serious again now. “You like renovating houses, don’t you?” she asked.
He shouldn’t have been surprised by her question, since he’d seen several times that she was rather perceptive. He took a hesitant breath, fully aware that he would be baring his soul to her if he spoke. “It’s true. Creating a place where someone can feel at home is the most rewarding work I can imagine doing.”
“Mmm,” she sighed dreamily. “That sounds wonderful.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.” She offered him a gentle smile.
Aidan swallowed against the lump in his throat. “That’s what I want to do—renovate houses and turn them into homes. Help people feel safe and cozy and comfortable.”
She frowned at him, puzzled, and leaned her head back to look into his face. “That’s what you want to do?”
He knew he’d just told Kayleigh a secret that not even his sister knew, but it seemed completely right to reveal his dream to her now. “Yes, that’s what I want to do for a living. Of course I could always find work as a
welder for some corporation, but at some point I’d like to have my own company—just a small firm that specializes in home remodeling and renovations in a neighborhood like this. The money I’ve made so far probably won’t be enough to get started yet, but I can always put my dream into reality later.”
Aidan didn’t know what he’d expected, but Kayleigh surprised him by remaining silent, giving him a long, pensive look, and then taking his face into both her hands and kissing him.
***
When he woke up, it was bright as day.
Aidan rolled over on his back, let his gaze roam Kayleigh’s room contentedly, and grinned as he thought about the preceding night. Not only had he experienced several very satisfying hours of play, but he’d also fallen asleep with the awareness that he was beginning to fall in love with the woman snuggling up to him in her sleep.
Little wonder then that when he noticed Kayleigh was no longer lying next to him, he wanted to go look for her and threw back the covers feeling highly motivated—for anything, really. He sauntered out of her bedroom naked, following the sounds that indicated she was in the shower.
The thought of seeing her naked under the hot spray of water and stepping in to join her made him grin and walk faster. He opened the bathroom door expectantly and spied her silhouette behind the frosted glass of the shower stall.
He didn’t want to give her a fright, so he opened the door gently and asked casually, “Care if I join you?”
Aidan didn’t know what he’d expected, but when Kayleigh turned off the water, wiped her face, and then gave him a look of almost shy reserve, he knew he’d been counting on a slightly more enthusiastic response.
“Good morning,” she said simply, reaching for a towel with nervous hands and quickly wrapping herself in it.
“Good morning,” he echoed suspiciously, pulling his brows into a frown. “Everything okay with you?”
More Than A Feeling (The Boston Five Series #3) Page 12