Terms of Agreement

41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Charlotte

‘ I should go.’

Aiden’s eyes widened. I wasn’t surprised. I mean, he was still inside me. Our chests were still heaving with exertion and my sweat-slicked body was still pressed into the mattress by his. I doubted either of us had expected those to be the first words to come out of my mouth. But they were. I watched his throat constrict as he swallowed, and I fought the impulse to press a kiss to the caramel-coloured column of his neck.

‘Uh, sure,’ Aiden said at last. ‘Let me just—’ and with far more finesse than I thought possible, he slipped out from between my legs and rolled over onto his side.

I shot him a polite smile, ignoring the sudden empty feeling in the pit of my stomach, and kept my body covered as I did a quick scan of the room to locate my clothes. Aiden, meanwhile, swung his long legs out of the bed and strode from the room, stopping only to pull something out of the chest of drawers on his way out.

Ouch. Yes, I was the one who’d broken the sex bubble, but watching him walk out the door without a backwards glance? That stung more than I thought it would. Gathering my clothes in my hands, I perched at the foot of the bed and began to get dressed. I know I was the one to say I should leave. But after we’d finished—both of us—and I was staring up at him, into the swirling depths of his eyes, I caught a sudden glimpse of what the rest of my weekend could look like—of what we could be like. And I panicked because that was not something either of us had signed up for. So, I thought it would be better to just rip off the proverbial Band-Aid and see myself out before I was lost to my daydreams.

I was just smoothing down the creases of my skirt when Aiden strolled back into the room wearing a pair of low-slung grey sweatpants.

‘Hey,’ he said, his mouth tipping upwards in an awkward smile as he ran his fingers through his hair. The movement left a few water droplets clinging to his mess of hair.

‘Hi.’ I waved an awkward hand in his direction.

‘So should we—’

‘How do you want to—’

We broke off, smiling at one another. He held out a hand, gesturing me to go first.

‘I was just going to ask,’ I started, stepping past him and into the short hallway as I made my way towards the front door, ‘how you wanted to organise things going forward?’ The apartment was silent behind me, and only the soft sound of Aiden’s footsteps gave any indication that he was following me.

‘You know,’ I continued, turning to face him when I reached the door. ‘Was this a one and done? If we want to do it again, how often? How do we let each other know when we want to? Do we organise beforehand or do we use some kind of sexy bat-signal? If the bat-signal, I guess we should agree on an emoji or something we could text over to each other.’

I snuck a peek at him through my lowered lashes. The soft, overhead lighting of the hallway highlighted the faint lines of his abs that my fingers longed to touch. ‘I know an eggplant is the most popular emoji for this kind of thing…’ I rambled on distractedly. ‘But I’ve never been a fan of eggplant and I am a fan of—’ I cut myself off mid-sentence, feeling the heat creep up my cheeks. ‘Anyway, a different emoji would have a better association with—’ Aiden swallowed the rest of my words before I even had a chance to list any alternatives. He pulled my body to his and melded his lips against mine.

His kiss was soft. Exploratory. Leaving room for me to meet him halfway, and I did. I slid my hands up his forearms, their muscles hard beneath my fingers, and I pressed onto my toes, thrusting my hands into his hair and holding his mouth to mine. One of his arms wrapped around my waist, drawing my body against his, and his free hand reached out to cup my chin as he searched my upturned face.

‘Five more minutes,’ he whispered against my lips, walking me backwards until my back was flush against the door. My gaze dipped to the narrow space between our bodies. I could see the outline of his thick erection through the soft material of his joggers. ‘Five more minutes,’ he repeated, closing the distance between us. ‘Please, Charlotte.’

I leaned into his touch, tilting my head back and peering at his face. My pulse quickened at the heat in his eyes, and I swallowed thickly, my mind at war with my newly awakened libido. But in the end, my libido won out and my lips stretched into a smile as I whispered a quiet ‘yes.’