He gritted his teeth harder. Then managed, “It most definitely did not.”
“Then this isn’t really a fantasy come true, is it?” she asked. She wiggled again. Another inch.
“Zoe,” he said firmly. “You gotta let me take the lead here.”
“Why? Because you’ve done this a million times? Because you’re the expert? Because you’re the big, strong man who’s taken so many virgins?”
His teeth were grinding now. “Because I might hurt you.”
“Oh, wouldn’t you love that? For me to tell my friends how big and rough you were and how you did me so hard I could barely move after.” She wiggled again, arching her back slightly.
He slid deeper, and she felt pleasure ripple through her.
“Dammit. Don’t mess with me. I’m trying to be a good guy here,” he said, frowning. “Considerate and sweet and gentle and shit.”
She laughed, feeling a euphoria she hadn’t expected to come from something other than an orgasm. She and Aiden were doing the most intimate thing imaginable—under very bright, hide-nothing lights, in a place where they would both be frequently, unable to forget—and they were still laughing and teasing and taunting each other.
It would never be like this with anyone else.
She tightened her muscles around him and he groaned.
“I’m not delicate, Aiden,” she said. “I want you as much as you want me. If I’m a little sore tomorrow, then I’ll just be thinking about you even more.” She squeezed him again. “Every time I move just right or sit down or—”
Aiden suddenly gripped her hips and thrust, burying himself the rest of the way inside her.
Zoe gasped and for just a second thought she’d made a huge mistake. Emphasis on huge. That did hurt. That was a really tight fit. This was obviously very new.
But then he pulled back and thrust again. Then again.
Maybe the idea of making her think about him with every step around the bakery tomorrow was what did it, but whatever it was, Zoe was pretty quickly thinking she was brilliant for teasing him. Because This. Was. Amazing.
He filled her up in a way her fingers, her favorite vibrator, nothing ever had or could. He was hot and hard and huge. The friction was unmatched, the angle was perfect, the… everything was unlike anything before. Especially the way he was watching her, still with jaw clenched, his eyes on hers.
“God. Aiden. I—” She tipped her head back and opened her legs even farther.
“Zoe,” he bit out. “Dammit.”
It was a good, dammit. Somehow she knew. She arched her back. Hot sparks shot through her body from where Aiden was buried, to deep down to her toes and up to her scalp.
“This is so good,” she panted.
“Fuck yeah, it is.”
She liked that. She knew he was no virgin, and she wanted this to be good for him too. She had no idea how to really make that happen, but she wanted it. She looked up at him. “Tell me what to do.”
“Just fucking lie there, and look like a damned goddess, and let me worship you.” His voice sounded different as if he was feeling a whole bunch of stuff that was all trying to come out at once.
She knew the feeling.
“Just lie here?” she teased. “Easiest gig ever.”
He ran a hand from her belly up between her breasts to cup one. He plucked at the nipple as he thrust then circled his hips.
“Oh, God,” she moaned.
“Yeah, just lie there,” he said, his grin cocky.
Well, she’d let him be cocky with this. He was earning it.
He ran his hand back down and rubbed his thumb over her clit. She shuddered. “Oh, more of that.”
“I love that you’re vocal,” he said. “But I could tell that was good.”
He did it again, and she felt her muscles tighten around him.
“Yeah, milk me with that gorgeous pussy,” he muttered as he worked her clit again.
As if she could help it. Her head fell back again. She was all his. She didn’t have a ton of leverage here anyway, and she was quickly losing the ability to function beyond remembering to breathe. Even that was becoming secondary to chasing the orgasm that was tightening low and deep.
“I’m never going to get enough of you,” he said.
“I hope not. I’m going to need a lot of this,” she said, breathlessly.
He groaned. “I might have created a monster.”
“Yeah, you did,” she told him as he did some magical swirling thing over her clit while pumping deep.
“But you’re my monster,” he told her. He thrust again. “Only mine. All mine.”
“Oh my God, yes.” She couldn’t imagine being like this with anyone else. Letting someone else see her, touch her, taste her the way Aiden had. “Only you.”
That made him give a growl that shot straight through her and her muscles tightened. He picked up his pace, still circling her clit. She lifted her head as she felt everything begin to coil.
Their eyes locked.
“Let go for me, Zoe,” he said roughly. “Let me feel it.”
She couldn’t have held it back if she tried. “Aiden!” she cried as the orgasm seemed to start in her toes and work its way up to where he was buried deep. She clenched around him, gripping his shoulder with one hand, trying to grip the tabletop with the other, but finding no purchase.
Which was no problem at all. Aiden was holding her so tightly she wasn’t getting even an inch away from him. He clutched her hips, pulling her against him as he pumped deep and then came, shouting her name, pulsing inside her.
Add that to the list of never-befores. Feeling Aiden’s climax, feeling him coming apart inside her was almost as good as feeling her own.
Almost.
Because her own orgasm with Aiden deep inside her was absolutely the best thing. Ever. Full stop.
“I can not believe I waited so long for that,” she said, sitting up and throwing her arms around his neck giving him a big hug.
The change in positions, shifted him inside her and she felt ripples of pleasure even from that. She wiggled.
“Wow, could we go again?” she asked.
He laughed, the sound rumbling against her ear, and squeezed her ass. “Give me a little bit. But yeah. We’re going to go again.”
Her inner muscles responded to that with their own little, “yay!” He must have felt it because he groaned.
“Monster. Definitely created a monster.”
She pulled back. “That was so good.” She frowned. “You denied me that at Christmas? You are such a jerk!”
He shook his head. “That was unbelievably good. I can’t believe I denied us both that.”
“But—” She thought about that. “Are you saying it was only that good because it was us?”
“That’s what I’m saying.” The look in his eyes was softer now. Affectionate. Sweet.
She smiled. “Oh.” Then she frowned. “You still have kept that from me for five months!” She slapped him lightly on the chest.
“Can you imagine having this and then having to wait five months to have it again?” he asked. He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have survived. I had to wait until I was here and could give it to you over and over again.”
He kissed her. It was deep and slow but sexy as hell.
“You knew it would be this good?” she asked when he lifted his head.
“I had a pretty strong inkling,” he said, seeming totally sincere.
“How?”
He shrugged. “It’s you. Even kissing you. Seeing you in that lingerie. It was stronger than anything else I’d ever felt.”
That was a pretty good answer. “Maybe you would have been inspired to come back sooner. Maybe it wouldn’t have taken five months.”
He seemed to think about that for a second. He frowned slightly. “Maybe. This business opportunity just really… made sense now.”
She lifted a brow. “I wouldn’t have been enough to bring you back?” She was teasing. M
ostly. But it did occur to her that it was a fair question. Sure, the guy needed to have a job. Well, he didn’t need one like most people did. But he probably needed something to do. Still, he claimed he’d come back because he was ready to be with her. He’d made it sound like Christmas had started him thinking about them as a couple, and he’d decided he was ready for that to happen so had come back to Appleby for her.
“Come back and be your sex slave?” he asked as he pulled back. “That does sound like my kind of gig.”
She watched him take care of the condom, even taking the bag out of the trash can by the back door and tying it up, presumably to take it out with them when they went to their cars.
She supposed she wouldn’t want Josie to find that. Not that she didn’t have every intention of telling Josie what had transpired here. After she reassured her she’d fully cleaned and sanitized everything. Which reminded her she needed to do that.
Zoe slid to the floor and grabbed her panties and dress, pulling them back on. Aiden started dressing as well. She took the bowl of cream filling to the sink, giving the Hot Cakes wrappers and leftover cakes a little frown.
Dammit. He had made her think more fondly of them. She’d see them in a gas station now and probably get a little hot and bothered.
“So what is this business thing you’re working on?” she asked as she washed the bowl out and loaded it into their industrial dishwasher. That was definitely something they’d added over the years. Letty was still jealous of the thing. She had come down occasionally to do dishes, just so she could use it and be in awe.
“We’re… acquiring a local company,” he said.
Zoe looked over her shoulder. “Really? Local like Dubuque?”
He blew out a breath. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it.”
She shut the water off and grabbed a towel, drying her hands and turning to face him. “Okay. I’d love to hear about it.”
“The guys and I—” Just then his phone rang. He hesitated, clearly debating about answering it.
Zoe waved her hand. “Go ahead.”
He was still watching her, a strange expression on his face, as he reached for where he’d evidently set his phone earlier on the counter near the ovens. He glanced at the number then frowned, lifting it to his ear. “Hey.” He paused, listening. Then he looked surprised. “Now?” He glanced at Zoe again. “This is not a good time.”
She smiled. “I’m okay.”
She was. She was so okay.
“Hang on,” he said into the phone. He lowered it. “What do you mean you’re okay?”
“I mean, I’m spectacular. I’ve never been better. I feel so damned good I think I’m going to be able to float home.”
He gave her a bemused grin. “Yeah?”
“Dude, I just had sex for the first time.”
His grin grew. “I’m aware.”
“And it blew my mind.”
“Yeah?” he asked again.
“Definitely. I probably need a little recovery time. You know from all the big, hard thrusting and pounding and stuff.”
His gaze heated but he did say, “Are you sore?”
“In such a very, very good way,” she assured him.
He blew out a breath. “We need to talk about a few things.”
“You know where to find me. If you need to go do something with this fabulous new company takeover or whatever you’re doing, then go.” She crossed the tile to where he stood, lowering her voice a little so the caller wouldn’t happen to hear her. “If I go to bed before you get home, I’ll go to bed naked. You know which door is mine.”
His gaze heated. “Open invitation?”
“Oh yeah.”
He lifted his hand to her face. “I’m crazy about you. I really need you to know that.”
Her heart flipped in her chest, and she felt another of those surges of, oh, yes. She turned her head and kissed his palm. “I do. And same.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m all in. I know I gave you a hard time at first and I know I said this was too boring and cliché and all that but… you’re the one, Aiden. I think you’ve probably been the one for a long time.”
Emotions swirled through his eyes. Surprise, heat, affection, lust, and something else. Something that looked like concern. But that didn’t make sense.
He lowered his head to kiss her before she could really study his face. The kiss was hot and sweet, longer than she’d expected. He lifted his head reluctantly.
“Okay, I’m going to go take care of this,” he said. “But I’ll see you later.”
“For sure,” she said. “We have a lot of laters, Aiden.”
He gave her a smile that looked like he couldn’t quite believe she was saying this stuff.
Well, he’d convinced her. What could she say? She could admit when she was wrong. And when she’d thought a relationship with Aiden would be predictable and boring, she’d been very wrong.
He kissed her again. “God, I don’t want to go.”
“Then hurry up so you can get back. Text me when you’re on your way. I’ll probably be at Jane’s. Or Josie’s.”
“I didn’t know you had plans with the girls. What if I was going to take you home and ravish you all night?”
“I didn’t have plans. Until now.”
“Now that I’m leaving you alone?”
“Now that you’re leaving me alone and I have a huge story to tell them!” She laughed. “But even if I did have plans with them, I would have canceled. No problem. I would have sent them a message that said, ‘Can’t make it’ and an eggplant emoji.” She grinned. “They would have been fine with it.”
He laughed. “That’s all it would have taken?”
“Totally. I would have gotten high-five emojis back. Or maybe the one that looks like a noisemaker with confetti. Or maybe the honeypot emojis. You know what those mean, right?”
He nodded with a half grin. “I definitely do.”
“Of course, after I tell them our story, we’re going to start using the cupcake emoji.”
He lifted a brow. “You’re going to tell them our story?”
“That’s why I’m going over there,” she said. “I’m definitely telling them this story.”
“All of it?”
“Well, the highlights. And that the cupcake emoji definitely needs to be added to the sex emojis.” She grinned and couldn’t help but hug him again. “It was so good, Aiden. Oh my God, I’m getting hot again just thinking about it.”
He squeezed her ass. “Same.”
“Good.” She gave him another quick peck. She wanted to do so much more than that, but she stepped back. “Now I have some deep scrubbing to do on this table,” she said with a grin. “Go.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay.” He lifted the phone back to his ear. “I’ll meet you in twenty minutes.”
Then he was gone.
Zoe had never grinned so much, or gotten so horny, cleaning up her kitchen.
She really hoped he’d hurry home.
He shouldn’t have slept with her before he told her about Hot Cakes.
Aiden realized this insight was one, too late, and two, probably shouldn’t have been a huge revelation actually. It seemed obvious now. After the fact. He should have definitely told her before taking her on her worktable. With Hot Cakes cupcakes. Definitely.
Dammit.
But he hadn’t had a real plan for when to tell her. He hadn’t had a specific plan for sleeping with her either. Not one that went beyond I’m definitely going to do that. Well, and okay, the cupcakes. Those had been part of the plan from the day he’d promised to make her love that cream filling.
But he should have told her he was now in charge—sort of—of the production of that cream filling. Before he’d smeared it on her breasts.
That did seem obvious. Now.
The last few days had been so damned nuts that both of those things—confessing his new business deal and finally making love t
o the woman he was falling more in love with every day—had simply been “Get to that ASAP” in his mind. They hadn’t been really related.
Except now he could see that one should have definitely come before the other.
If just one damned thing with taking over Hot Cakes would have gone smoothly, then he might have gotten it right. If things had fallen into place the way he’d expected, he could have gone to her and said, “So there’s this thing I’ve been working on” and told her everything, before getting the best blow job of his life.
“We should have a town hall.”
Aiden looked up at Dax, refocusing on the conversation.
“I was nearly driven out of the building with pitchforks,” Ollie reminded him. “So naturally, you want to call even more of our new employees together in one place and ask them how they feel about things?”
Ollie had gotten to town about an hour ago. He’d flown. Using the private jet they owned but rarely used. He’d then gone straight to the Hot Cakes factory. Because he could never just fucking chill.
Apparently, his arrival had not been met with a red carpet and champagne toast.
Now he, Dax, and Cam were all checked into the hotel in Dubuque, and the four of them were sitting around Dax’s suite with Grant on Skype trying to figure out what to do next.
“Pitchforks?” Dax asked. “Come on. People found out the new owner was in the building and they had some questions.” He shrugged. “Makes total sense to me. Besides, it was only the business office people and one of the foremen, right?”
“Forewoman,” Ollie corrected. “Though she’s also the new union leader, I guess. Gorgeous redhead. Riled up, gorgeous redhead.”
“That’s the best kind of redhead,” Dax said.
Ollie shook his head. “She had a ton of questions, and I think she kind of hates me now.”
“Why?” Aiden asked. It was Jane. It had to be Jane. She’d gone in to talk to Ollie. Good for her. “What did you say?”
“That I didn’t have any answers,” Ollie said. “Which is true.”
Aiden could understand why that would have frustrated Jane. The employees were already worried about this change, and to hear the new guys in charge didn’t have a clue, wouldn’t make anyone feel better. “You should maybe let Whitney handle this stuff for a little while,” he said. “She’s at least good at PR.”
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