He gave her nipple one final sharp suckle before removing his fingers from her altogether. He chuckled when she whined her disapproval.
He caught her eye and held her gaze as he brought his wet fingers to her lips. She sucked them into her mouth, moaning as she licked her own juices from his fingers.
Watching her luscious mouth, memories of how it had felt wrapped around his cock sent hot blood pounding through his loins. When she had cleaned his fingers thoroughly, he slid further down to nibble the undersides of her breasts. Her belly twitched beneath his wandering tongue, and when he plunged it into her naval, she squeaked with alarm.
“Aidan, please. I’m ticklish.”
He chuckled, storing that bit of information away for another time as he kissed his way to the triangle of hair between her thighs. He settled between her legs, forcing them even further apart. He buried his nose in her hair and breathed deeply of her fragrance, moaning his approval.
Naomi watched in fascination as Aidan studied her most intimate parts. He stroked his fingers over every moist, swollen fold, causing her to pant with excitement. He met her eye and grinned.
“You’re beautiful.”
When he kissed her, Naomi’s eyes closed on a moan of delight. His tongue was scalding against her flesh, rasping and probing, delving and suckling. She had never dreamed that a man could make love to her like this. Her world tilted on its axis as he mastered her with tongue, teeth, lips and fingers. It was all she could do to remain still and let him taste her.
He suckled her clit, and she groaned, her legs trembling from the effort of not arching her hips against his mouth. He speared her with two broad fingers, stroking her into a frenzy while he indulged his endless appetite for her tangy dew. When he sensed she couldn’t take any more stimulation, he pressed her most sensitive inner spot while he sharply suckled her clit. She screamed, arching her hips against his mouth and clenching her thighs as she shuddered.
He brought her gently down from her summit, licking her softly with his tongue and soothing her with his fingers. When she could finally open her eyes, he snared her gaze and grinned.
“Now we’re even, my beautiful Naomi. You taste every bit as delicious as you look.”
Naomi blushed but returned his grin as she waited for him to settle over her. He kissed her deeply, and she could smell and taste herself on him. It was intoxicating.
He reached down to guide himself to her entrance, and he thrust into her with one forceful stroke. She moaned and arched her hips to welcome him deeper. Their ride was leisurely and they took turns inciting each other to even more intense passion until they finally came together with guttural groans of satisfaction.
As Aidan held her, sated and sleeping in his arms, he knew he loved her. In a matter of days, she had captured him so completely, that he couldn’t imagine life without her as his wife. He had to find some way to win her for his own.
*****
It was almost noon by the time they roused. They ate a hurried meal, and Aidan went to work on the garden. Naomi finished the peaches and packed them into crates for him to carry home. She felt unsettled, knowing that Aidan was almost finished outside.
They had agreed that he would do more work around her place in exchange for her canning vegetables, but she didn’t know if he meant to start that arrangement immediately. He might not be planning to return the following day.
She had come here looking for solitude. It was somewhat disconcerting to realize that she wasn’t looking forward to a single day without Aidan’s presence. She would be wise not to become too dependent on his company.
By late afternoon, Aidan finished, and he called her outside to take a look. He had planted neat rows of all the vegetables and herbs, and he talked to her about how to maintain them and how to protect them from freezing in the event of an early frost.
Naomi hugged his arm against her breast and gave him a warm smile. “Oh Aidan, you have done a wonderful job. I can’t thank you enough for your help.”
He shrugged, feeling pleased by her praise. “You won’t have anything to harvest for a couple of months. Will you be alright to purchase supplies until then?”
She waved away his concern. “Of course. I told you already, I have money. I will buy anything I need until my garden comes in.”
Something about her flippant tone raised Aidan’s suspicions, and he eyed her carefully. “What about livestock? You must be planning to buy chickens and a cow, maybe a pig in the spring.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that yet,” Naomi said uncertainly. “Do you think I should?”
Aidan looked at her with utter amazement. “Unless you plan to buy milk and eggs all winter, you’ll have to, don’t you think?”
Naomi blushed and crossed her arms. “Don’t look at me like that,” she cried. “Running a farm is all new to me. I’m sure I would have figured that out on my own eventually.”
“Do you mean to say that you don’t know anything about how to run a farm?”
Faced with his disbelief, Naomi felt foolish. “No, I’m a city girl, born and bred. I’ve never done any farming. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn about it. I have studied books on the subject. I’m not stupid, you know.”
Aidan faced her with hands low on his hips and raised one brow. “You’re not stupid, but ignorant, certainly! This is not the city, Naomi. You can’t just purchase anything you need. You have to plan in advance to make sure you have the necessities to live. You can’t just pretend to be a farmer.” He took a deep breath and released it on a sigh, trying to calm his rising temper. “I’ll be back tomorrow with a cow and some chickens. Then I’ll have a good look around and see what needs to be done to get you ready for the coming winter.”
His patronizing tone made Naomi bristle with indignation. Memories flooded her consciousness of all the times other people had thought they knew what she needed better than she did, of all the times she had felt like an utter failure. She had come here to escape from all that, and she felt the beginning of tears prickling the backs of her eyes as she glared at Aidan. His disapproval cut her to the quick.
“Well, I might not be able to buy everything I need, but I could go into town myself to buy those animals. You don’t have to be bothered with that. I’m not helpless, you know.”
Aidan growled with frustration and crossed his arms. “I’m not going into town to buy them, Naomi. We raise the best livestock in the area right on our farm. I’ll pick out some prime animals and bring them to you.”
Naomi was not inclined to be impressed at that moment. She gave him a crisp, businesslike nod of approval. “In that case, I would be happy to purchase a cow and some chickens from you. Tell me how much it will cost, and I’ll give you the money now.”
“The cost of a few farm animals should be the least of your worries. We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Aidan said with an impatient sigh.
“We’ll figure it out now, or you can just forget it. I’m not accepting any more charity from you. Just because you gave me a few gifts doesn’t give you the right to boss me around.”
She would have whirled away from him, but Aidan caught her arm and pulled her around to face him. He scowled at her as a muscle twitched in his cheek.
He was furious that she had come to a farm all alone when she knew absolutely nothing about how to take care of herself. If he hadn’t met her by sheer chance, she would be in real trouble, facing a bitter winter without adequate food stores or fuel. She probably had no idea that in a few months, snow would be piled several feet deep around her cabin. And now, when he was offering to help, she got all snippety!
“The gifts weren’t charity. I gave them to you because I wanted to treat you to something nice.” He glanced briefly at her heaving bosom before meeting her gaze and raising one mocking brow. “I think we can both attest to the fact that I have already gotten more than my money’s worth for that mattress.”
Naomi gasped with indignation. First he ridiculed her for not k
nowing about farming, and now he was taunting her about giving herself to him. She slapped him hard across the face, leaving a bright red imprint of her hand on his cheek.
“How dare you! I am not some harlot who trades herself for a mattress! I don’t need your gifts, Aidan. As far as I’m concerned, you can take them all with you and good riddance! I’ll buy my own cow and my own chickens, and I don’t need any more help from you.”
She stomped into the cabin and slammed the door with a bang. Aidan stood, trembling with rage until the urge to follow her and turn her over his knee for a spanking had passed. Then, he hitched his horses, climbed onto his wagon, and urged the horses into a fast trot.
As soon as Naomi heard him leave, she sank onto the bed and wept bitter tears of hurt and anger. She replayed their conversation over and over in her mind. They had both lost their tempers and said hurtful things, and after a long time, she realized that Aidan had only been trying to help her. That realization made her sob even harder. She had been hoping for a reason to see him again, and now, she had likely pushed him away for good.
*****
It seemed the weather matched Aidan’s mood. By the time he reached home, a storm was brewing. He was lucky to reach the barn before it unleashed its fury. Sheets of icy rain poured from the heavens, and thunder and lightning punctuated the growing darkness. Aidan unhitched the horses and put them in their stalls for the night as he thought about Naomi.
He hoped she had enough firewood to last through the night. It promised to be a cold one. He wondered whether she was afraid of thunderstorms. He considered the mercurial nature of her moods and wondered about what had set her off. One minute, she had been grateful for his help, and the next minute, she was slapping his face.
“Women!” he muttered with a disgusted snort.
He stood in the barn doorway, staring out into the growing gloom, and let the occasional gusts of cold rain that hit him cool his temper. Their argument hadn’t been all her fault, he reluctantly mused. He had been rather condescending and judgmental. And that comment he had made about getting his money’s worth from the mattress had been purposefully hurtful. What had possessed him to make such a remark?
He gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. He had wanted to hurt her feelings because she had hurt his. When she had so casually dismissed his help, he had wanted to shake her. He needed her at some basic, primitive level. He couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life without her. Meanwhile, she seemed content to thank him for his efforts and send him on his way like some hired hand. It was as if what they had shared meant nothing to her.
Except he knew that it did. There was no way Naomi could fake the tender feelings she had shown during their lovemaking. She had given herself so generously to pleasure him, and he felt like the rudest jerk for insulting her. Now, thanks to his big mouth, she probably wouldn’t ever want to see him again. How the hell was he going to fix things?
Chapter Seven
Naomi lay huddled in her bed, miserable and alone. She had cried until she had no more tears, and she felt thoroughly spent. Her stomach was clenched in a tight knot. Even after Richard’s death, she had never felt so bereft, so hopeless, so empty.
Heavy rain pounded on the roof of the tiny cabin, and the walls shook with the frequent claps of booming thunder, but Naomi didn’t care. The entire structure could have come crashing in around her, and it would have seemed no more disastrous than her current state of affairs.
She loved Aidan. She barely knew him, and she certainly hadn’t been seeking him, but in her soul she recognized that he was the only man who could ever make her happy. He had unexpectedly come into her life and replaced all the hollowness and sadness in her heart. He had made her laugh again, more joyfully than she had ever laughed before. And now he was gone.
She heard the door rattle, but she attributed it to the strong gusts of wind. The pounding that followed made her start as she jumped up from the bed. She ran to the door and yelled to be heard over the storm outside.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Aidan.”
Heart pounding, Naomi threw open the bolt and opened the door wide. Aidan stood with his dripping hair plastered to his head and rivulets of rain running off his sleeves and hands. His brown eyes were unreadable as they searched her widened blue ones intently.
“What are you doing here at this hour?” she gasped. “It must be nearly midnight.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” he muttered. “Can I come in?”
Realizing that she had kept him standing in the cold rain, she pulled the door even wider and motioned him inside. She peered into the darkness outside but didn’t see a horse anywhere in sight.
“How did you get here?” she asked, closing the door and bolting it against the wind.
“I walked.” Seeing her confusion, he ran a hand through his hair, shaking drops of water onto the floor. “It’s only a mile or so from my house to yours.”
Her eyes widened further, as she took in his soaked clothes. “You walked a mile in this storm? Are you out of your mind?”
“Yes! No.” Aidan searched her eyes again, trying to gauge her mood as he groped for the right words to say. He finally settled on the naked truth. “Yes, I am out of mind. I’ve been worried sick about you. I couldn’t rest until I apologized for the things I said to you. I didn’t mean them, and I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
Pleasure flooded through Naomi as she stood staring at him. Even in his current condition, soaked and muddy, she had never seen anything so beautiful as the sight of him. She felt joyful tears begin to well in her eyes, and she smiled tentatively up at him.
“I’m sorry too,” she whispered. “I know you were only trying to be helpful.”
“So you forgive me?” he asked.
Naomi flew into his arms and pulled his head down for a kiss. She was only distantly aware of the chill from his wet clothes as he clasped her in a fierce embrace and ravished her mouth. The world around them was forgotten, as they struggled to get as close to each other as possible.
She pulled back, brushing her tears away self-consciously. More tears welled and spilled over her cheeks. “I’m so glad you came back,” she whispered.
Aidan’s heart clenched at the sight of her tears. “Don’t cry, Naomi.”
He kissed her again, tenderly tracing the path of her tears with his lips. Naomi sighed and pressed closer to him. Her lips met his, and their kisses became ravenous once again.
They undressed each other with fevered hands, and while Aidan carried her to her bed, Naomi lavished heated, open mouthed kisses along his throat and over his chest.
Their lovemaking was wild and impetuous, much like the storm that raged outside the cabin. Their hoarse screams were echoed by the thunder, and the relentless rhythm of their bodies straining and cleaving together was reminiscent of the steady rain pounding on the roof. When the tempest had finally run its course, they collapsed on the soft bed, lulled to sleep by the sound of the thunder retreating over the mountains.
It seemed like only moments later when Naomi awoke, dragged from peaceful slumber by the movement of Aidan rising from the bed. It was still dark outside. She sat up in bed, brushing her tangled hair back from her face. She frowned in confusion as he donned his sodden clothes, shivering from the predawn chill as he pulled his damp breeches up over his hips.
“What are you doing? What time is it?” Her voice was husky from sleep.
“I have to get home before my brothers wake up,” Aidan answered.
He tucked his shirt into his pants and yanked on his boots before bending over to give her a searching kiss. She threaded her fingers through his hair, clutching his face close to hers to prolong the kiss. When he drew back, he savored the view of her sitting naked in the middle of the bed with the blankets pooled around her waist. He lifted her hair and dropped it over her shoulders so he would have an unimpeded view of her nakedness.
“You’re so lovely,” he whispered reverently. “Let me l
ook at you. I want to carry the sight of you with me while I’m away from you today.”
Naomi leaned back on her arms, arching her back and thrusting her breasts up toward him. He took full advantage of her obliging generosity, eagerly assessing every lush curve of her plump, ripe breasts. Her pouting nipples were hardened from both arousal and cold. He cupped one breast and kneaded it in his palm, teasing the impudent tip with his thumb. He smiled when she shivered with need.
“Later, Naomi. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it will be late afternoon,” Aidan whispered.
“Hurry back. I’ll miss you,” she replied.
He gave her a quick kiss and another bold caress. Then, he was gone, slipping out into the predawn darkness. Naomi listened to his footsteps squishing through the mud until they had faded into the distance before she snuggled back under the covers. She stretched and sighed as she relived the moments of the previous night. Simply by appearing at her door, Aidan had made everything right in her world once again.
Naomi buried her face in his pillow and breathed deeply to enjoy his lingering scent. She definitely loved him. While the depth of feeling she had for him was surely a threat to her future happiness, she was determined to relish every moment of their time together. Sooner or later, she would be forced to let him go. In the meantime, she intended to live life to the fullest, with Aidan as her lover. With that decision firm in her mind, she fell asleep, dreaming of the hours she had spent in his arms.
*****
Aidan arrived home just after dawn, ate a quick breakfast, and threw himself into finishing his chores at his own farm. There was always work to be done on a farm, and some times of the year were busier than others. Late summer was one of the busiest times, with the harvest and making preparations for the coming winter.
Aidan definitely felt the pinch, between worrying about his own farm and now, the need to ensure Naomi’s farm was whipped into shape. Her farm had been sitting vacant since the former owner died the previous year. It was a small homestead, not nearly as big as the McKenzie farm. Still, there was a significant amount of work to be done.
Second Chances: Aidan's Bride (The McKenzie Series #1) Page 11