“Come with me.”
He leads me by the hand out of the kitchen and down the hallway into his bedroom. While he goes into his closet and turns on the light, I stare at his bed, which consists of one pillow and a blanket on top of a mattress laid out right on the floor. The only other things in the room are a simple wood dresser on one wall and a bookcase stuffed with books on the other.
“Yeah, I know. Super deluxe. Here.”
He’s back, holding out a black sweatshirt so large, I could wear it to dinner with a belt and heels and be well dressed.
I take it from him and clutch it to my chest like a security blanket. The towel is still draped around my head and shoulders. I’m still shaking with cold.
I feel utterly ridiculous.
“Aidan?”
“Yes, Kayla?”
“I’m really sorry about this. I promise I’m not a giant basket case. I’m just a little one.”
Looking very serious, he strokes a strand of damp hair off my cheek. He murmurs, “You’re not anything but beautiful.” After a pause, he adds, “You don’t have to freak out about that, either. I don’t try to seduce traumatized women who run in from the rain.”
“Okay. Thanks for that. Um…do you possibly have a pair of sweatpants I could wear with this?”
“You’d be swimming in them.”
“I know, but…”
“But what?”
I take a deep breath and say it. “I’ll be extremely self-conscious if my coochie is hanging out.”
He blinks in confusion.
“I don’t have any underwear on.”
“Oh. Oh.”
“Yes. So.”
“Wait. You came over here with no underwear on?”
“I promise it wasn’t premeditated.”
When he lifts a brow, I sigh. “I got dressed in a panic. I didn’t have time for panties.”
“Or a bra, either,” he says, his voice lower.
I wince. “You noticed.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course I noticed.” He pauses. “I also noticed that your cheeks get really red when you’re embarrassed.”
I say drily, “Thanks for the info. Are you giving me sweats or not?”
“I don’t own a pair of sweatpants.”
“Oh.”
“I can put your jeans in the dryer, though.” When I don’t say anything, he adds, “Or we can just stand here and stare at each other. I’m good with that, too.”
“Why?”
After a beat, he says quietly, “I like looking at you.”
There’s a funny sensation inside my chest. Like a tightening but also a loosening at the same time. I’m pretty sure it means I’m about to do something I’ll regret.
I shrug my shoulders and let the towel drop to the floor. Then I pull my wet shirt over my head and stand naked from the waist up in front of Aidan.
His gaze drops to my chest. His lips part. His pupils dilate. He remains perfectly still as he gazes at my bare breasts with burning eyes.
I whisper, “I want you to do more than look.”
In a gruff voice, he replies, “Whatever you say, boss,” and grabs me.
11
His mouth is somehow both soft and hard. It becomes evident quickly that this man not only knows how to give an incredible, barely-there butterfly kiss, he also knows how to give a kiss that’s devouring.
And so. Damn. Good.
He holds me tightly in his arms as he takes my mouth and I shiver against him, skin on skin, my pulse flying. I’m not even sure if I’m holding myself up or he is. We kiss passionately until he moans into my mouth and pulls away, panting.
He cups my breasts in his big rough hands and bends down to kiss them.
When his hot mouth closes over a hard nipple, I gasp at the sensation. I gasp again when he sucks. When his teeth scrape over that nipple at the same time he tweaks the other one between two fingers, I moan and sag against him, digging my hands into his hair.
I don’t care if this is crazy. I don’t care if this is wrong. I don’t care about anything right now except losing myself in this beautiful beast for a while.
My fucked up life will be waiting for me right where I left it tomorrow.
Aidan picks me up. I wrap my legs around his waist and lower my head, hungry for his mouth. He gives it to me, thrusting his tongue between my lips and gripping my ass. We kiss as he turns and walks toward the bed and don’t stop kissing as he kneels on the mattress, lowers me down, and drops on top of me.
His weight. God, his weight is amazing. Michael weighed one-sixty-five after a big meal. Aidan must be well over two hundred pounds of pure muscle.