I grinned as I swooped down to pick up my jeans to pull the pack of condoms out of the pocket. Aria watched as I rolled one on.
Putting a knee on the bed, I climbed over her as I caressed my hand up her smooth leg, ripping the duvet aside to trail my fingertips across her silky inner thigh as she spread her legs to accommodate me. Hovering over her, I watched her face as I slid two fingers inside her wet heat. Her eyes lowered as she shifted her hips against my touch. Her lips parted with an excited gasp, making me thirsty for them. I kissed her. Deep, hungry, and she slid her arms around my back, drawing me closer.
Removing my fingers, I braced my hands on either side of her shoulders and nudged between her legs. Releasing her from the kiss, I stared into those gorgeous eyes filled with trust I did not take for granted, and I pushed inside her.
Aria brought her thighs up around my waist and slid her hands down my back to grip my arse as I thrust. She moaned, and the sound throbbed in my dick at the same time her fingers clenched into my arse cheeks.
I pulled my hips back, a teasingly slow withdrawal, and then groaned as her tight heat squeezed me when I pushed in.
“Yes,” Aria panted. “Yes. Only you feel like this.”
Satisfaction mingled with emotion, and even though every nerve ending was screaming at me to fuck her, I didn’t. I wanted to make love to her.
Gripping her thigh, I yanked her hips higher, changing the angle of my thrusts, as Aria released her hold on me and slid farther down the bed. “Fuck.” She panted as I dragged out of her painfully, pleasurably, slowly, until only my tip was inside. Her hands clenched into the sheets as she held my gaze. She had to see everything I felt. Had to know how much I loved her, adored her, but she didn’t look away. And that gave me hope. I found her clit with my thumb as I moved, and her eyes widened as she tilted her chin back and whimpered.
Fuck, yes.
I circled her clit harder.
“North.” She gripped my waist now, fingers biting into me. “North, please.”
Knowing I was at the breaking point, I increased my thrusts, fucking into her, her generous tits trembling with my every drive. Her whimpers grew into moans and needy pants, making me harder. So fucking hard.
“Am all I you need?” I braced over her, hips snapping as the desire to come overtook everything. “Because you’re all I need.”
“Yes!”
“I love you, Ari. I love you so fucking much,” I gasped, needing her to come because I was about to lose it.
Her nails dug into my back. “North … ahhhhh!” She threw her head back in a cry of pleasure as I felt her inner muscles throb around me as she came.
“Aria!” I roared as the power of it tore through me, my hips jerking against her as I ground my cock into her, wanting to feel every single lingering tug of her climax.
I fell over her, my lips against her damp skin as I breathed heavily into her neck and shuddered, my cock still pulsing.
Finally, I lifted my head to meet her stunned gaze. Tears filled her eyes as she clasped my face in her hands and kissed me gently, reverently. When she released me, it was to snuggle against my throat and wrap her arms around me.
Catching my breath, I held her tight and promised myself it was okay that she hadn’t told me she loved me back.
I could be patient.
Twenty-Eight
ARIA
It was unusual for me to be off the estate on a weekday at lunchtime, but here I was, attempting to have more of a life. A month ago, I’d reluctantly left North in London and flew back to the Highlands to have a serious chat with Lachlan about the hours I worked. My boss had never asked me to take on the overtime and responsibilities that I had, so he seemed relieved that I was creating boundaries for myself.
“We have a management team capable of running the estate at the weekend,” he’d reminded me. “That’s how the place ran before your arrival.”
I still worked longer hours than most during the week, but those extra hours created a guilt-free zone for me to leave early on Fridays to catch a flight to London. They’d just moved locations, though, so last night I’d arrived back in Inverness from visiting him in Berlin. We didn’t always get a lot of time together on those weekends, but I was used to hanging around a film set, having worked as my father’s PA when I was in college. So I was cool to watch North do his thing until I could get him all to myself. The days they didn’t need him—when they filmed elaborate stunts with the stuntmen—were my favorite.
We’d spent some glorious hours in bed. And in the shower. And up against the wall. Over a dining table … My skin heated just thinking about it.
“I think we’re ready to go at the end of the month. Do you think we’re ready?”
Realizing Sloane had directed a question to me, I blinked out of my aroused stupor. “Ready?”
We sat in Flora’s, a café on Castle Street, with Monroe having lunch. Brodan was taking care of their baby boy, Lennox, this afternoon so Roe could catch up with me and Sloane. Sloane was friends with both of us and that friendship had brought us together. Thankfully, Monroe had a sincerity and kindness I felt I could trust. North was teaching me to lower my barriers again to let good people in. It helped that I hadn’t had any more weekly reminders from Caitlyn that friends like her existed. Things had grown quiet on that front, and it was bliss.
“My bakery.” Sloane smirked at me. “Where were you just now?”
“Nowhere.” I took a quick sip of tea, not meeting her eyes.
She snorted. “Yeah, I’ve been to nowhere. Walker’s usually in nowhere. Naked.”
I rolled my eyes. “What were you asking me about the bakery?”
“That it should be ready to open by the end of the month.”
Considering she was so organized she was ready to go now, I thought it sounded more than doable and said so.
“Oh, I’m so nervous thinking about it.”
“People will flood to it, Sloane,” Monroe assured her. “And opening it for only a few days a week is so smart.”
“Yeah, I hope so.” Sloane eyed me suddenly. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you and nowhere. How was Berlin?”
My decision to date North was an enormous step for me, so we’d agreed to contain our relationship to just our friends and family. Obviously, I was on North’s set every weekend, so they all were aware, but the crew also knew better than to gossip about the cast. At least in any way that could reach the public. So I’d told my family （Allegra was happy for us, my dad was worried and wary, and Mamma kept badgering me about when she would meet North）， and Sloane, Monroe, and the Adairs, but no one else officially knew. Well, North had told Theo Cavendish. I still wasn’t sure about that guy, but North fully explained what happened with Preston in London, and I was glad Theo had the presence of mind to get North out of there. And he’d said nice things about me. So maybe there was a beating heart in the aristocrat’s chest, after all.
“It was great.” I bit my lip against a secret smile. “We saw little of the city, but it was great.”
“Oh, I know what great means.” Sloane wiggled her eyebrows comically. “So, is it getting serious?”
At her words, I heard North’s deep voice in my head.