“Fine,” she said, giving in. “Let’s go camping.”
* * *
Aiden had brought Sadie to the tree house behind his parents’ house last year. She hadn’t seen what he’d done to it since and he found himself excited to show it to her.
But he was more excited for what he’d get to do to her after.
She climbed the wooden slats to the top, commenting they were easier than the rope ladder she’d scaled the last time she was here. He let her go ahead of him, shouldering the duffel and sleeping bag as he kept his eyes securely fastened to her butt as she climbed.
Every inch of this woman was more beautiful than the last. Aiden could hardly wait to have her completely nude and beneath him tonight. And on top of him. And in front of him. He didn’t want Sadie in any way…he wanted her in every way. Heart, soul, body, and mind. With any luck, this trip to the tree house would pave the way for getting what he wanted long-term, too.
She entered through the floor and he heard a soft gasp and climbed in behind her. “Oh my God, Aiden.”
He could get used to hearing that a lot tonight.
Aiden stood to his full height, the recently remodeled tree house easily six inches over his head. He dropped their effects on the smooth wooden floor as Sadie took in the room. She swiveled her head toward the windows, the ceiling, the floor that latched and locked, to the mattress, easy chair, and footrest. It wasn’t expansive—he could walk the width of the room in five steps—but what it lacked in space, it made up for in privacy.
“The last time we were here, this was a dusty, cobwebbed shell,” Sadie said.
He and his brothers and father had originally built the ramshackle hideaway when Aiden was twelve. It hadn’t aged well.
“When I moved in, Dad and I made the remodel of this place our project.”
After Mom passed, his father was at loose ends. And since Aiden couldn’t get the man to talk about her, Aiden suggested they redo the tree house for Lyon so Dad had something to do besides watch television until he fell asleep in his chair. After the place was rebuilt, Aiden had spent a few nights out here himself. Nights when the house felt a little too familiar, or the grief a little too oppressive.
“We’d come out here every night after work until the weather got too cold,” Aiden told her, referring to the brief, miserable stint when he’d worked at the factory with his father. “We finished it in the spring.” He smoothed a hand along the wall until he found the switch for two small sconces on either side of the bed. They blinked to life, bathing Sadie in a soft, yellowish glow.
She quirked a brow at him. “Impressive.”
“Has everything but a bathroom.”
She wrinkled her nose. “But the house is so far away.”
He crossed the short distance between them and clutched her hips. “Yeah, which means you can be as loud as you want.”
Sadie tucked her fingers in his belt loops and pressed against him. “Yeah, well, so can you,” she purred up at him.
He bent forward and took her waiting mouth, backing her to the bed before forcing himself to stop. “You probably want a blanket on that bare mattress,” he reminded himself aloud. He could have thrown her down on it as is. He made quick work of spreading out the sleeping bag and propping open the windows. A cool breeze and the soft chirp of crickets wafted through the screens.
This was her first time. He wanted it to be as perfect as possible. He didn’t think it could get more perfect for him. Especially when Sadie sat on the edge of the mattress and unzipped her dress.
Aiden knelt on the floor in front of her and watched. There was such a vulnerable, open light in her dark eyes. She kept her focus on him as she shimmied out of her dress, revealing the breasts he hadn’t gotten enough of and the triangle of black panties he’d felt but hadn’t yet seen. Scalloped lace edges swept over her hips—beautiful, curved, rounded hips that lead down to a pair of creamy thighs. Hips he’d kneaded beneath his palms, but until just now had never laid eyes on.
She reached for his shirt and unbuttoned it, one button at a time, keeping her eyes on his. He didn’t dare look away from the openness of her face; the sheer look of trust that would have brought him to his knees if he wasn’t already on them. This was all he wanted. Sadie. One-hundred-percent willing, pure Sadie.
She ran her fingers along his chest, exploring him with her eyes and hands while his breaths shortened. When she tugged the shirt from his waistband, he stood and joined her on the mattress.
She worked his belt, sliding it aside and unbuttoning his pants. “This is where you stopped me last time,” she whispered, a hint of mischief in her eyes.
“Not going to happen,” he rasped.
She snort-laughed and he fell a little more in love with her. He hadn’t even known that was possible. She slid the zipper down and Aiden made quick work of shucking his pants, underwear, socks, and shoes, leaving them in a ball on the floor. He hovered over her and reached for her panties. She leaned back on her elbows and lifted her hips and he pulled them down her legs.
Finally, he was seeing Sadie in all her nakedness. His heart collided with his ribs like a battering ram. His hands shook. His brow broke into the tiny beads of sweat. How long had he waited to have Sadie in his bed? How long had he wanted her? How many times had he gnashed his teeth over the thought that he’d lost her forever?
Yet here she was.
Gloriously naked and spread before him, trust and desire mingling in her eyes. And she was his.
Almost.
He slid up her supple body, taking a nipple in his mouth as his finger found her center. She was wet and warm and ready for him and he groaned around the tight pink bud on his tongue. Sadie’s hands went to his short hair and she guided him, arching her back and squirming beneath him. He lifted his head, laving first one breast then the other, mentally promising to return to them later.
But for now, he had to kiss her.
Aiden slanted his mouth over hers and Sadie raked her fingernails through the hair at his nape, causing him to shudder. She could turn him on completely clothed, with just her nails against his scalp. When her hand left his neck and found his cock, he was surprised the top of his head didn’t shoot into the stratosphere.
“Now,” she breathed into his ear. “I need you now.”
Her lids were at half-mast, her mouth damp from his kisses. He held her gaze as he brushed a hand down her body and slid a finger inside her, thrilling as those same eyes grew wide and dark. Then he added another, moving gingerly within her, preparing her for him.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, closing his lips over her neck. As badly as he wanted to be inside her, be encased in all her warmth, Aiden would sooner die than cause her any pain.
“You won’t.” She lifted his face and kissed him softly, her words coming out on a heated breath. “I trust you.”
Her trust was an elixir for his soul and all the encouragement he needed. He left her body with an apology and dug a condom out of his discarded pants. There were five more in the duffel bag he’d carried up, and if he could physically walk—or crawl—after making love to Sadie, he intended to spend as many of them as she’d let him use.
He knelt beside her on the mattress and rolled the latex on.
Sadie watched him hungrily. “Wow, I had no idea you were…wow.”
He grinned. A feral, ego-driven grin he couldn’t help. “I’ll go easy on you.”
She chuckled, a throaty sound, then arched an eyebrow and said, “I hope not.”
Aiden hovered over her, feeling the happiest he’d felt in…God. Ages. Just being with her like this, completely bared, and joking, and smiling—it was all he could ever want.
He coaxed her legs open with his knee and leaned into her, massaging her entrance with the tip of his arousal. Sadie clutched on to his shoulders, her smile fading as she pulled in a short breath. Aiden leaned on his elbows, threaded his hands through her hair and watched her closely as he slid in an inch.
Sadie closed her eyes and threw her head back. Her cheeks were pink, her lips swollen from his kisses. She was the most beautiful thing he’d seen, maybe ever. Aiden pulsed within her, gritting his teeth and wondering how the hell he’d hold out long enough for her to come first. He was halfway there already.
Clenching his jaw, he slid into her another inch and Sadie gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into the flesh of his back. He held himself tightly in check, grinding his teeth into dust and reminding himself that a gentleman should last longer than a few hot seconds. He slid in a little farther…then a little farther, agony and excitement merging into one.
Sadie emitted a soft cry, her eyebrows pinching together, and Aiden halted, afraid he’d hurt her, gone too fast too soon. He loved her too much to go any farther if she was ready to stop. He cradled her face in his hands and through a harsh breath managed to ask, “Do you need me to stop?”
Sadie’s eyes flew open, fire sparking in their dark depths. She grabbed on to the back of neck and hauled him closer, and gave him the best warning of his life.
“Don’t you dare.”
* * *
Sadie didn’t think a dimple could cause an orgasm…until Aiden’s mouth curved into a half smile and the divot appeared on the side of his cheek.
But before she could unravel, he sealed his mouth over hers and kissed her. Distracting her with his tongue, he slid in to the hilt in one, smooth motion, effectively shifting her focus to the sensation of the absolute fullness, the absolute rightness of Aiden being inside her. It was nothing like she’d ever imagined. Nothing like she’d ever dreamed.
He’d been right about one thing. This wasn’t “just sex” at all.
Aiden froze above her, his breathing high and tight. “Okay?” he asked, nodding his encouragement. She wondered if he could speak more than that one word, because she didn’t know if she could speak any.
Sadie nodded instead. She was more than okay. The slight pain had faded, replaced with so much pleasure she wouldn’t ask him to stop if the tree house caught fire. Not right away, anyway.
He backed out slowly and, just as slowly, slid back in while Sadie made noises she hoped sounded like approval. She didn’t know how Aiden had been so sure, but she was beginning to think he was right. She was a screamer.
She dug her heels into the backs of his solid thighs, urging him forward at every thrust. Gauging her reactions, he kept his eyes on hers, his hands on the side of her face as he pumped into her, quicker and quicker. She lifted her hips to accommodate all of him, knowing on some basic level that no one else could have felt this good, this right. Knowing she’d waited for the right moment, the right man. This man.
Aiden’s handsome face contorted, his eyebrows pulled together, teeth bared as he tried to hold out. She couldn’t wait any longer. The friction, the smell of his sweat, seeing the pleasure she’d given him evident on his face…It was all so hot. It was too much.
He thrust again, hitting a spot deep inside her, and Sadie came undone, clasping on to Aiden with her arms and her inner muscles as she let out a sound she was pretty sure, by anyone’s standards, was a scream.
His chest hair brushed her nipples and the sensations continued to ripple through her. His breathing grew shallow, labored, as he thrust into her once more, twice more, then shouted his own completion in her ear before falling silent and sucking in one harsh breath after the other.
Aiden braced himself on one elbow to keep from crushing her and dropped his forehead onto his arm. She clasped his bicep, feeling the quake in his muscles.
I did that.
What a completely heady, amazing idea…that with only her body, she’d brought this Adonis to a shuddering halt.
Aiden laid there, head down, for a few breaths, while Sadie stroked his short hair, his shoulders, and ran her fingers over the ridge of the scar on his back.
The scar. The tangible reminder that Aiden wasn’t bulletproof. And a reminder to Sadie of just how precious he was, how very much she cared for him.
With everything I have. But she couldn’t let him become everything, she reminded herself. Everything was too much.
Aiden’s lips pursed against her shoulder and he kissed his way up to her neck, unaware of the direction of her thoughts. He pulled out of her and Sadie felt more empty than she had in her entire life. Even when his lips closed over hers. Even when his fingertips stroked her hair.
Some part of her told her she was past the point of no return.
She met his sea green eyes only to find them brimming with emotion. “I love you, Sadie.” He kissed her again, breathed her in. “I love you so much,” he whispered.
She’d heard him proclaim it once already. It meant so much more now. Now it meant everything. And that’s what scared her down to her toenails.
Everything was too much to trust to any one person.
Chapter 15
Aiden and Sadie had sneaked back into his father’s house in the middle of the night like a couple of teenagers to sleep in Aiden’s bed.
He knew his father had picked up a Sunday shift, so after he heard his car rumble out of the garage early this morning, Aiden slid down Sadie’s body and pressed one kiss to her inner thigh, then another, before feasting on her in the morning sunlight, her shouts of ecstasy wrapping around him like a warm blanket.
He’d felt her go rigid beneath him last night when he told her he loved her. He vowed not to say it again, not to crowd her. But dammit, part of him stung that they’d experienced something so incredible and still she resisted admitting what he knew she must feel. How could she not?
He’d felt the effing earth move after he’d rocked into her one final time. She was perfect. She was all he’d ever need. But. He’d play it cool. Convince her one orgasm at a time if he had to.
A challenge he was up for.
They picked up her car at the conference center and he followed her home and into her apartment, even though she hadn’t technically invited him in.
Sadie was thumbing through her phone as she opened her door. She pulled the keys from the lock. “Crickitt texted me last night to let me know she has my purse and ask if I was okay.” She grimaced. “She said Shane has your suit coat. Guess they know.”
He shouldn’t smile. But he did.
Sadie slapped his arm lightly. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.” She fidgeted with her key chain, studying him. “You have this, like, postcoital glow about you.”
“Me?” He snuggled her close, his hands finding her hips on their own. “You could power a sports stadium.” She shoved him but he could tell she was teasing, so he kept her close and lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her until she moaned low in her throat. “Do you want me to go home?” he asked, moving his lips to her neck.
“Um…”
He palmed her breast, his thumb unerring in its search for her nipple. He knew her body. After only one night. He knew it.
“You’re not playing fair,” she breathed, her fingers slipping into his hair. “Please grow your hair out,” she whispered before sliding her tongue into his ear.
He clasped on to her butt as he nipped her neck. “You like it long?”
A chuckle in her voice, she grasped on to him through his jeans. “And thick.”
He backed away so he could see her face. “You want some more, beautiful?” he asked, stroking her cheek. He did. God help him. Maybe he’d never get enough of Sadie. Sounded like the best life plan ever.
“If you can handle it.” She tried to smirk, but he thumbed her nipple and her lips dropped open into a pleased sigh.
Oh, he could handle it. Definitely. He kissed her hard, lifting her off her feet as he kicked her front door closed with the heel of his boot. Then he climbed the stairs for her bedroom and made it his mission to get her to scream so loudly the neighbors filed noise complaints.
* * *
The last two n
ights had been indulgent. Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, or Thanksgiving dinner.
Sadie knew she should stop, she just couldn’t convince her appetite otherwise. Same was true of the man she’d woken to sprawled across her mattress.
Every part of her was deliciously sore and humming, tingling. She was awash with sensitivities. Aiden barely touched her and she called his name. She’d be lucky if her neighbor Mrs. Norman didn’t file a noise complaint with the landlord.
The problem was, the sensitivity didn’t end at her body. Her emotions were running high, her heart weak and overflowing at the same time. Come Monday, Aiden had to work. So did Sadie, and she found herself looking forward to having her space back for a few minutes.
She couldn’t escape Aiden. He was in her bed, in her kitchen, on her sofa…and this morning he’d brought his sexy, scarred, tattooed body into the shower and turned her five-minute spritz into twenty minutes of slippery heaven.
She wasn’t complaining, but his constantly being around was making it hard for her to think a straight thought. She felt as if there was something that needed sorting. Something she couldn’t sort with him clogging the room with his infectious, dimpled smile.
He promised to return after seven and bring dinner, then kissed Sadie until she slumped against the kitchen counter. She couldn’t escape him. Which excited and terrified her at the same time. Sadie had to get her head around things, around where things were going, what this meant.
After work, she dropped her purse and keys onto the sofa and sat. She still didn’t know what she wanted more—for Aiden to come over and light her skin like a handful of sparklers, or stay away so she could wear frumpy pajamas and eat ice cream out of the container.
She was full and empty at the same time. Hot and cold.
She had to tell him how she felt.
Just as soon as she decided whether to keep him near or push him away.
* * *
“Take lots of pictures,” Aiden told Sonya Rollins and her husband as they left the store. They’d come in and bought matching T-shirts for their road trip to California.
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