Chapter 11
Iwake up hard and comfortable, which is a dangerous combination, considering where I fell asleep last night.
For the first time since the rescue, my body didn’t hover on the edge of wakefulness, waiting for an attack. There were no nightmares, no restless tossing and turning, no jerking awake.
Just warmth, quiet, and him.
My Alpha.
I shift, and silky sheets slide over my bare body, the slight friction on my hard dick sending a zing of pleasure up my spine. Morning wood is normal, but is that all this is?
A deep breath draws Aaiden’s pheromones into my lungs, saturating me from the inside out, and my dick jumps in response. If I don’t shower this morning, everyone in Rockford Manor will know where I spent the night.
Soft, pre-dawn light filters through heavy curtains, casting the bedroom in gentle shadows, the elegant furniture taking on a dreamlike quality. I turn my head, pulse racing as I find Aaiden still beside me, his head resting on the pillow next to mine within arm’s reach.
His closed lashes paint deeper shadows across his cheekbones, and I drink in the image.
I’ve never seen Aaiden like this before.
Sleep softens the hard lines of his face.
The sharp angle of his jaw remains, but his lips part with each steady breath, and a lock of dark-brown hair falls across his forehead.
I roll onto my stomach in a careful, controlled movement, and the mattress barely dips beneath my weight as I inch closer to him. His chest rises and falls beneath the comforter, his breathing deep and even. The vein in his throat pulses with each heartbeat, hypnotic in its rhythm.
My nostrils flare as I breathe him in. Without his conscious control, his Alpha pheromones flow unchecked, filling the bedroom with raw power and masculine heat, and my dick hardens further.
I lean up over him, my nose hovering near his collarbone, tracing the invisible path of his scent. Here, beneath the artificial notes of expensive soap and cologne, is the pure essence of my Alpha.
A needy whine builds in my throat before I can stop it, and the high, desperate sound escapes before I choke it off.
I freeze, my heart hammering as I wait to see if I woke him.
His eyelids remain closed, his breathing unchanged.
Relief sweeps through me, glad I have more time to savor this rare chance to study him without his walls up.
Emboldened, I lean in again. My nose traces the line of his throat, breathing him in where his scent is richest. As if in response to my proximity, his pheromones thicken, and my head swims with them, thoughts growing hazy with need.
My dick throbs painfully now, fully hard and dripping pre-cum onto the sheets. This isn’t morning wood or a random reaction. This is Aaiden’s undeniable effect on me.
I lift the comforter slowly, revealing his bare chest. In the dim light, the contours of his muscles cast shallow shadows across his skin. My fingers twitch with the need to touch, to trace each ridge and valley.
My focus settles on the tattoo on his lower abdomen, the same mark every Rockford of this current generation carries somewhere on their body.
Interlocking gears and a clock stretch around the curve of his waist, the black ink stark on his skin.
I touch my own side, fingers brushing over unmarked flesh, imagining the buzz of the needle carving the same design into me.
What would it be like to bear his family’s mark? To belong not only to him, but to everything he represents?
The thought sends another pulse of heat through me, and my attention drifts lower.
The outline of his cock strains the thin fabric of his pajama pants, thick and heavy in sleep. As I watch, it twitches, growing firmer, and my rational mind switches off.
Blood rushes in my ears, drowning out reason, and I swing one leg over his hips to straddle him, my weight hovering above his body.
His heat radiates through the thin barrier of his pants, warming the insides of my thighs. My own dick hangs heavy between my legs, pointing toward his stomach as if magnetized. One small shift of my hips would bring us into contact.
“What are you planning to do to a sleeping person?”
My head jerks up to find Aaiden’s eyes now open and focused on me.
With a yelp of surprise, my body drops onto Aaiden with more force than intended.
Aaiden grunts beneath me, and his hand shoots to my hip, fingers digging into my flesh. The touch burns through me, but it lasts only seconds before he releases me with a muttered curse, his palm hovering above my skin without making contact again.
“I’m sorry,” I stammer, though I make no move to climb off him.
My thighs flex on either side of his hips, my dick brushing the dark hair of his happy trail while his hard cock nudges my inner thigh through the thin fabric of his sleep pants.
His brows arch. “Are you?”
The question catches me off guard. Am I sorry?
“Not about wanting this,” I admit, the undeniable proof of my desire throbbing between us. “But about not asking first.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw, and his hands remain flat on the mattress, not touching me, though the tendons in his forearms stand out as he restrains himself. “And what was your plan after you mounted me?”
Heat floods my face. “I didn’t get that far.”
Aaiden shifts beneath me, and the movement causes his cock to rub against my thigh. I bite back a whimper at the contact.
“I have a suggestion,” he rumbles, the sound vibrating through my bones. “Stay where you are and lie down.”
My breath catches. “What?”
“Think of it as exposure therapy. You need to get comfortable with my proximity. What better way than this?”
My heart pounds hard. “Just…lie on top of you?”
“Yes. Breathe me in. Let your body adjust to mine without pressure for more.” He folds his hands behind his head, leaving his muscular torso open for use. “If it becomes too much, you can move away at any time.”
I swallow hard and lower my chest to his. Electricity buzzes beneath my skin at the contact, but no panic rises. Instead, there’s only warmth and the strange sensation of rightness.
I turn my nose into the crook of his neck, where his scent is strongest. Each inhale floods my system with his pheromones, and my body relaxes into his strength even as my arousal builds.
“That’s it,” Aaiden murmurs, his breath stirring my hair. “Breathe me in.”
His chest rises and falls beneath mine, and I spread my fingers across his skin, greedy for every inch of contact. I can’t remember the last time I touched someone and felt their heartbeat alongside my own.
My palm slides over his shoulder and down his arm, memorizing the texture of him. I wiggle closer, burying my nose behind his ear, breathing him in.
Only after several minutes of this desperate clinging does my body remember its other hunger. My dick throbs insistently between us, smearing his stomach with pre-cum, but I’m almost reluctant to chase that pleasure when just touching him feels so achingly necessary.
Aaiden’s lips brush my hair. “Be still.”
The gentle Command sends a shiver down my spine. And I obey, for a time, but he was too ambiguous in his order, with no specificity on how long to stay still, and my body has other ideas.
After another minute, I find myself wiggling again, my control slipping with each breath of his intoxicating scent.
“Aaiden,” I whisper, my lips brushing his throat. “I can’t… I need…”
His knee slides up between my legs to nudge my balls, and my breath hitches. “Tell me what you need.”
“I don’t know,” I whine, shifting to grind against his muscular thigh. “Everything.”
“You’re not ready for everything,” he says, gentle but firm. “We take it one step at a time.”
I lift my head and find his eyes dark with desire. “I’m never going to be able to focus on the mission like this.”
His eyes caress over me. “Then take care of yourself. Like last night.”
My breath hitches. “Here? Now? On top of you?”
He arches a brow. “Why not?”
His erection nudging my thigh reminds me that I’m not alone in my arousal. My hand slides between our bodies, fingers wrapping around my own length. The first stroke pulls a gasp from my lips.
“That’s it,” Aaiden encourages. “Show me what you need.”
I stroke myself slowly, eyes locked with his as pleasure builds. His pheromones spike around us, responding to my arousal with his own, and his cock twitches against my thigh with each stroke of my hand.
“I can feel you,” I whisper, rubbing my thigh over his erection. “You’re so hard.”
His jaw tightens as his control strains. “Focus on yourself.”
“How can I?” I gasp, my strokes quickening, building pleasure, “when you’re right here, wanting this as much as I do?”
He doesn’t deny it as I work myself above him, tracking every flicker of pleasure that crosses my face.
“You should get off, too,” I suggest, breathless as my balls tighten. “For the mission. So you can concentrate.”
A dangerous smile curves his lips. “Is that what you want, Jade? To see me lose control?”
My hand moves faster, my release building with each stroke. The idea of Aaiden touching himself while watching me brings me right to the edge.
“Yes,” I moan. “Please.”
“Sit up,” Aaiden Commands, his voice flowing over me and turning my spine to liquid with submission. “Scoot back.”
His knee drops to the bed, giving me room to obey, and I shift down, balls dragging over his hard cock as I straighten to straddle his thighs.
My breath catches as Aaiden tugs down his sleep pants. His cock springs free, slapping onto his abdomen.
My mouth waters as I stare, unable to look away.
He’s magnificent, thick and long, the shaft straight and proud with a pronounced vein running along the underside.
The head flares wider than the shaft, flushed dark and glistening at the tip where pre-cum beads in the slit.
His balls hang heavy beneath, tight with arousal.
The sight stirs my hunger, and I lick my lips, imagining the weight of him on my tongue, the stretch of him inside me.