Chapter Ten
Aiden
THREE YEARS’ WORTH of pent-up lust and longing come flowing out as I scoop Seraphina into my arms and lay her out on the chaise longue. I cross to the wall and turn the terrace lights off. Security is tight, but I’m not risking someone lurking far off with a camera. Tonight is for Seraphina and me.
She watches me with wide eyes as I approach, her hair loose and flowing over her shoulders, her dress spread out around her like a flower in bloom.
Even in the dim light I can see that same blush creep up over her breasts, her throat.
I give in to the temptation and lower my head, lay my lips to the base of her throat.
“Aiden!”
The way she gasps my name is like music. I trail my mouth to her shoulder, gently graze my teeth over her skin before I move up to her jaw. I rub my lips over hers. She moves forward, tries to kiss me back. I pull back and smile slightly.
“Not yet, wildfire.”
Her eyes flare. “I like it when you call me that.”
“I liked it when you danced.” I move to the other side of her face, kiss her cheek. “Actually, I fucking loved it.”
She shudders, her body arching toward me.
“I was so nervous.”
“I couldn’t tell.” I kiss her other shoulder. “I’d noticed you when you first walked down to the lake.” I ease back, watch the moonlight dance across her face. “I wondered if it was you.”
Her shy smile steals my breath. “You did not.”
“Oh, but I did.” I reach up, stroke my fingers through the golden strands of her hair. It brushes across my skin like silk. “Something in the way you moved. The tilt of your head.” I fill my hand with her hair, pull her face toward mine. “I thought I was going insane.”
I kiss her again. God, I can’t get enough of her taste. Enough of the way she melts into me, kisses me back as if she wants me just as badly as I want her.
I reach down and grab the hem of her dress.
I undress her slowly, savoring the process, delaying the reveal.
When I finally pull the dress over her head, my breathing grows harsh as I gaze down at her rounded breasts, the slim curve of her waist. Moonlight paints her skin with a silvery glow as her nipples harden.
“Aiden?”
“Beautiful.” I look up at her, let her see the truth in my eyes. “Absolutely beautiful.”
I lean down and gently kiss the top of one breast. She gasps, then releases her breath in a shuddering rasp that shakes my control. I want to spread her thighs, slide off the tiny pair of black shorts molded to her hips, and bury myself inside her.
But I also want to go slow. From what she’s intimated, it’s been years since she’s taken a lover. A fact that makes the possessive streak I’ve developed grow even stronger.
I kiss the smooth skin just above her breasts.
Force myself to stay on my knees as she whimpers my name.
I’ve imagined her saying my name, just my name, for years.
Now she’s half-naked in my arms moaning it as I move my mouth down to her nipples.
I capture one in my mouth, groan as she buries her fingers in my hair and pulls me closer.
I finally release her only to trail my mouth across her skin and capture the other nipple.
Light grazes of my teeth, gentle sucks, slashes of my tongue, she responds to all of it.
Her hips are pressing against me, taunting me every time she presses against my cock.
I raise my head. “Do you know what I would have done to you if Dylan and Liam hadn’t been in the penthouse?” I grab her hips and yank her forward, thoroughly enjoying the way her eyes glaze over as I push my cock against her. “When you teased me?”
“Tell me.”
I slide one hand into her hair, curl one strand around my fingers. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell you.”
Seraphina, the woman I once thought of as mild-mannered, eases her hips back just enough to slide her hand between our bodies and lay her hand fully against my cock.
Oh, hell. Just the pressure of her hand on me has me feeling like I could come.
“I think you should.”
“God, you’re incredible.”
I kiss her, take full advantage when she opens her lips and invites me in. I can taste the champagne, taste her, as she kisses me back. When she starts to tug at my belt, I pull back, cradle her head in one hand as I gaze down at her.
“I would have spun you around, had you plant your hands on the glass, and lifted up that skirt so I could finally taste you.”
Her eyes darken. “I thought you didn’t like the dress.”
“I liked it.”
Too much. When I turned around after hanging up on Cassian and saw her standing there looking elegant and beautiful and bridal, for a single moment I wanted it to be real. Wanted her to be mine. But Seraphina belonging to me would require exactly what I can’t give: love, marriage, commitment.
So I’ll give her what I can. Pleasure, luxury, the kind of attention she deserves. And after our ten months are up, I’ll pull back, resume the relationship we had before. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do it, but I’ll do anything to keep Seraphina at the firm.
Including letting her go so she can find the happiness she deserves.
That selfish streak rears its head and growls at the thought of another man holding her the way I am.
Sliding his ring on her finger. I grab her left hand and bring it to my lips, greedy satisfaction curling through me as the emerald glints in the silver light.
I move my grip to her wrist, guide her hand until her palm is facing me.
“The first time I held your hand outside the store, I didn’t want to let go.” I lay my lips against her palm, kiss the skin. “Every time we touched during that damn photo shoot, I wanted more.”
“So did I.”
I slip my fingers into the waistband of her shorts and pull down. She arches up off the chaise so I can yank them off, leaving her clad in another scrap of lace. This one, however, is red. A vivid scarlet I can’t tear my eyes from.
“That day in the dressing room,” I say as I start to kiss my way down her stomach, “when the zipper was stuck and I saw the blue lace underneath, I wanted to watch the dress pool at your feet.”
“I wanted you to strip me naked.”
I look up, completely aroused and utterly enchanted by the now telltale blush creeping up her neck. I lay a finger at the top of her panties, run it over the lace.
“And then what?”
Her throat bobs as she swallows. “And then I wanted to undo each of the buttons on your shirt. Kiss your chest.”
I slowly run my finger down, tracing the gentle swell of her skin, every muscle in my body tightening when I encounter her wetness seeping through the cloth.
“Tell me more.”
I sound like an animal, raw and primal, as I stroke her. I drink in every whimper, every cry as I move up and down.
“I wanted to undo your belt. Slowly,” she adds on a breathless whisper. “Then I wanted to touch you.” She looks down, boldly meets my eyes. “I wanted to suck your cock.”
The thought of her kneeling before me, one hand wrapped around me as she took me in her mouth, makes me swell. Her confession rips away the last traces of control.
“Later.”
I grab her panties, yank them down and lower my head. The word slowly pounds through my brain, but I don’t listen. Can’t when I can smell her, feel her heat.
As soon as I place my mouth on her, as soon as I start to kiss and lick every inch of her skin that I can, she arches back and cries out, her body shuddering as her hands grasp at my hair, my head, the chair. Every sound she makes spurs me on as I use tongue and teeth to bring her pleasure.
“Aiden!”
God, she’s incredible. The way she lays herself bare to me, embraces the heat between us as she climbs higher, pressing her core against my mouth until she shatters again and collapses onto the chaise longue.
I stand, gazing down at her limp, nude body. I see now the subtle muscles in her arms from her dancing, appreciate the litheness of her limbs. She’s not just incredibly beautiful but strong, powerful.
I slowly lean down and gather her into my arms. Not the kind of powerful I’m used to where I can wield money and influence.
No, it’s the kind of power that comes from overcoming the impossible and choosing to live again, of surviving the worst humans have to offer and still having a kind word for everyone she interacts with.
Tenderness sprouts, slipping its roots into my chest as I cradle her against me. She murmurs my name, her head resting against my chest. An unfamiliar feeling and one I’ve never felt for a lover before.
Ten months, I remind myself as I lay her out on her bed. I know Seraphina on a far deeper level than any of my past lovers. She’s dedicated so much to the firm I created and is now giving up nearly a year of her life to help me. It’s understandable that I’m feeling something more.
Seraphina turns and looks at me, her eyes limpid as a lazy, satisfied smile spreads across her face.
I will let her go. But for right now, she’s mine.
Seraphina
Aiden stands at the foot of the bed, his eyes devouring every inch of my flushed skin. I’m still drifting down from my incredible high. I feel so wonderfully heavy as the last vestiges of my release twine through me.
But when Aiden starts to unbutton his shirt, I sit up.
“What are you doing?”
He arches a brow. “Making love to you.”
My chest tightens. I almost wish he would say something coarser, less romantic. Small phrases like that make it far too easy to slip into the fantasy and forget that whatever is happening between us has a very firm expiration date.
I push the invasive thoughts away and rise up on my knees. Pure feminine pride surges inside me as his hands still on the buttons. He sweeps me with a gaze so heated I wonder if I’m going to burn up on the spot.
“I want to undo your shirt.”
His entire body goes rigid, his eyes almost turning black. “Seraphina—”
“Let me.” I move across the bed and reach up. “Please.”