Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
They entered their hotel room hand in hand, walking slowly. Now that tragedy had been averted, both of them were feeling the benefit of time finally being on their side.
As Aaron closed the door behind them and started across the room, Riley remained by the entrance. “Hey. Aren’t you forgetting something?”
He turned to look at her, confusion in his eyes. “I don’t think so.”
She gestured at the door behind her. “Has the passion already died, sugar? Where’s my hot sex against the door?”
He grinned, coming back to stand in front of her. “I thought you might prefer a shower first. We are sort of sticky.”
“True that.” She reached up and lightly ran her finger along the bruise darkening beneath his eye. “Does this hurt?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s?—”
“I love you.” She blurted the words, unable to hold them in any longer. “I really, really love you.”
He leaned closer to her, his face covered with the most genuine smile she’d ever seen. “I know that, Riley.”
“It’s just…I’ve never said those words to you and I wanted to.” Her comment sounded inane and she fought against the urge to roll her eyes at herself.
“I’m glad you wanted to say it. In fact, if you wanted to say it, oh…maybe fifty, sixty times a day for the next century or so, I wouldn’t complain.”
She huffed out a breathy laugh. “Not too greedy, are you, sugar?”
“With you, I’m the greediest man on earth. I want everything. Your heart, your body, your friendship, your soft cries as you come and as many babies as you’re willing to give me.”
“Eight.”
He looked at her quizzically. “Eight?”
“Thought maybe we could try to beat my folks’ record.”
Aaron tweaked her nipple through her T-shirt before engulfing the entire breast in his large palm. “It wouldn’t be a hardship to try.”
“Horny bastard.” Her teasing words ended with a slight squeak when Aaron cupped her mound with his other hand and rubbed hard.
He pushed her back against the door in a move she was beginning to crave more than Saturday nights. Leaning forward, he kissed her thoroughly and she wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him even closer. Sometimes she thought she could pull him completely inside her and it still wouldn’t be close enough.
For several moments, they kissed and touched. When Aaron pulled away, their shirts stuck together and they laughed.
“Shower,” she said. “We definitely need a shower. And I hate to break this to you, but I’m out of clean clothes. We may have to run out later for a little shopping. And for food. We didn’t get to eat again.”
Aaron nodded. “We’ll order room service. Less opportunity for mishaps.”
Taking her hand, he led her to the bathroom, where they took the longest hot shower in the history of indoor plumbing. It took three shampoos to get all the mashed potatoes out of her hair, but Riley didn’t mind since it was Aaron doing the scrubbing. His hands, lightly massaging her scalp, felt like heaven.
Walking back to the bedroom, they crawled beneath the sheets and cuddled. It seemed neither of them was in a hurry to rush the evening and for the first time since they’d eloped, Riley felt like she was on a real honeymoon. Lying in his arms and making plans for the future, Riley knew she’d been blessed in this marriage she didn’t even know she wanted. Hell, she still couldn’t even remember the wedding part. As soon as they got home, she was going to have to sit down and watch the DVD he’d bought.
“You know, this might sound silly, but there’s a part of me that sort of thinks my mom set this marriage up.”
“Your mom?” Aaron asked.
Sunday Collins had passed away from cancer when Riley was only ten years old, but her memories of her mother were solid in her mind. She recalled helping her in the restaurant kitchen, listening and watching as her mother shared all her secret recipes and tricks of the trade with her. Riley knew from a very young age that she wanted to be just like her mother when she grew up, knew she wanted to create masterpieces with food.
“She told me once she could see inside your heart.”
Aaron looked down at her. “You never told me that.”
Riley shrugged. She tried to discreetly brush away a tear, but Aaron grasped her wrist, pulled her hand away. “Let it fall.”
She looked at him, confused.
“You always stop the tears; always find a way to twist everything into a joke. Don’t do that this time.”
She blinked rapidly. He was right. Humor had always been her life preserver. Well, humor and Aaron.
She decided it was time to tell him the one thing she’d never told anyone.
“A few days before she died, my mom called me into her room. She was in a lot of pain at the time, but she didn’t want to take the drugs because they left her too out of it. She knew her time was limited and she was trying very hard to say all the things she wanted to say. I think she was trying to help me—help all of us—put our lives in some sort of order. There she was—seven kids between the ages of nine and eighteen—and she was dying.”
“That sounds like your mom. She was an amazing woman.”
Riley smiled. “She was the best.”
“You’re a lot like her.”
Riley shook her head at his words but he disregarded her dismissal.
“You are. You have her talent for cooking. You make magic in the kitchen. I think you both use food to show your love for your family and friends. You have her strength of will and you have her love for life. She’d be proud of the woman you’ve become, Riley.”
Every word he spoke felt like a gift and Riley held on to each of them tightly. “I hope so. The day she called me in, she said, ‘Hold on to Aaron. He’s your true friend and he loves you. I know he’ll keep you safe for me.’”
Aaron reared back, shock evident in his features. “How could she have known that? We were ten.”
Riley shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know she was right. You’ve never left my side, never failed to be there for me when I needed you. I love you so much.”
He kissed her as she gave in to the tears and, for several long moments, held her tightly, kissing, wiping the tears away until there weren’t any more.
“Aaron,” she whispered. “Will you make love to me?”
He tightened his grip around her shoulders briefly before turning and rising over her. She opened her legs and welcomed him in. As he slowly thrust inside her, she felt the rightness of it.
They came together, not in a flurry of passion and heat but with the same comforting, peaceful style they’d shared through years of friendship. Aaron kissed her as he gently rocked inside her. Their eyes met and held, neither of them willing to drop the connection. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She wanted to hold on to him with everything she had, everything that she was.
“You’re so soft,” Aaron whispered as he stroked the skin at her waist.
She smiled, moving her hands to his shoulders, squeezing the firm muscles she found there. “And you’re so hard.”
He rubbed his nose against hers and pushed into her deeper. “Are you complaining?”
“Hell no. Hard is good.” She thrust her hips upward to meet his next return and both of them gasped at the pleasure the movement produced. “Hard is really good.”
He kissed her for several moments. When he pulled away, she reached up to cup his cheek, his beloved face hovering just above hers. “I was the world’s biggest fool not to see what was standing right in front of me all this time. You’ve always been with me, watching over me, taking care of me. I honestly don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you, Aaron. Hell, I’m not sure I do deserve you, but I swear I have no intention of ever taking you for granted again.”
Aaron kissed her forehead and moved inside once more, before holding still within her. “You act like this is a one-sided deal. Riley, I can’t imagine my life without you. You make me a better person.”
She giggled, but he thrust inside once more, quickly turning her chuckle to a moan.
“I’m being serious,” he said.
She leaned up and nipped his chin lightly. “Sugar, no one’s ever accused me of making them a better person. In high school, I was voted ‘Person Most Likely to Share a Jail Cell’, remember?”
He laughed, the action rocking him even deeper and she gasped. She’d never had a full-blown conversation in the midst of sex, but with Aaron, it seemed so natural…and hot.
He ran his hand through her hair. “I remember,” he said. “But I’m standing by what I said, you’ve made my life better. Look at me, Riley. I’m not exactly the world’s most spontaneous person.”
She raised her eyebrows, her grin showing she agreed with his assessment.
“If not for you, I’d never have bought my motorcycle.”
She tightened her legs around his waist and pushed her hips toward him. “Mmm, have I told you lately how hot I think that bike is?”
He met her push with a quick, hard thrust of his own. “You’ve told me. Daily. You’re still not driving it.”
She stuck out her tongue. He bent forward and sucked it into his mouth, kissing her once more. She’d never been a huge fan of kissing, but Aaron was damn good at it.
He pulled back after several moments and she could see he wasn’t finished. “You were the one who convinced me to get my tattoo.”
Her hand instinctively went to his right shoulder blade, fingering the tiny Celtic knot she knew was there. Interwoven with the knot was the name of Aaron’s twin sister, Alise, who died in childbirth.
She stroked it gently and he moved into her once more. She’d asked him to make love to her, but this felt like so much more. While his body took hers, his words claimed her heart, her mind, her soul. He was inside every part of her, deeper than anyone had ever been and she felt like the most cherished person on earth.
“I’m not even sure I would have gone into the Police Academy if not for you. You make me laugh every day, Riley. I could have the shittiest day in history and you would still find a way to make everything okay. So enough of this I don’t deserve you garbage.”
Obviously he was finished trying to convince her with words. Before she could respond, he started moving, slowly at first, but soon his thrusts grew harder, faster, deeper. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, simply to find something to anchor her to this place, this time, this man.
Her climax hit her hard and fast, then lingered. “I love you,” she yelled as she came. It felt like Aaron absorbed her trembling with his own body as he took each pleasurable shiver and enhanced it.
“One more,” he demanded, the husky timber of his voice setting her off again.
“God, yes!” He drove her to the peak once more and they dove over the cliff together.
Lying on their backs, they were quiet for several moments, both of them obviously lost in thought. The silence was broken by Aaron’s stomach growling loudly.
“Guess man cannot live on sex alone,” she teased.
“God knows I’ve tried these past couple of days.”
“Are you sure you don’t wanna try the all-you-can-eat again? I’ll give you yellow.”
He groaned. “I don’t think I’m ever doing one of those buffet bars again.”
She laughed. “Never say never. Room service?”
He turned to face her and nodded. “Yep. I’ll call.” Moving forward, he placed a brief kiss on her lips.
“I love you, Aaron Dung,” she said.
Aaron chuckled. “I love you too, Metal Mouth.”