Chapter Fourteen
Every muscle in Aiden’s body seemed to be aching, and judging from the way that Lexa was moving when she got two Cokes from his fridge, she was experiencing the same thing.
They each had a variety of nicks, scrapes, and bruises as well when the impact from the blast had knocked them off their feet and hurled them to the ground. But all in all, they’d been damn lucky.
Orville hadn’t been.
Aiden had known that from the second of the explosion. Orville had been right on it. Hell, had probably stepped on it or triggered something that’d set it off. And it’d killed him.
Soon, his body, or what was left of it, would be on the way to the morgue, but for now, the county bomb squad was combing through the woods to make sure there were no more explosives that could end up killing or injuring the crime scene investigators and cops.
Shortly after Lexa and he had gotten out of those woods, Owen had ordered them to go to the hospital to be checked out. They had, and after all kinds of tests, they’d been medically cleared and given the suggestion of taking a long, hot soak and some over the counter pain meds. Since both his bath and the one in the guest suite had jetted tubs, they ended up back here at his place.
With full security engaged.
It still wasn’t clear if Chloe’s murderer was targeting them, but with this being the third time they were nearly killed, Aiden wasn’t taking any chances. Especially since it’d be night soon, and he didn’t want anyone trying to sneak up on them and launch a grenade or set off another round of heated-up bullets.
“I’m not sure if the caffeine will actually help,” Lexa said, setting one of the Cokes on the kitchen island next to where he was seated. “It might make us even more alert to the aches.”
That was likely true, but with both of them battling adrenaline crashes from hell, they needed the caffeine to help them focus on…well, a lot of shit. There were reports coming in about every half hour from the bomb squad as they cleared each area of the grid they’d marked off in the woods. More texts and calls from family and friends, making sure they were all right. They were.
Mostly.
Aiden looked at Lexa to make sure that mostly applied. At that exact second, she looked at him, and their gazes connected. There was a small, bandaged cut on her forehead, a bruise on her cheekbone, and a scratch on her neck.
“If I kissed you now, I’d have to be very careful,” he said. And as he’d hoped, that caused her to smile.
“Same for you.” Lexa motioned toward the fresh bandage over his stitches. “Is there a part of you that isn’t bruised, scraped or cut?” she asked.
“I think my left ass cheek is good. You?”
She smiled again, this time the humor actually making it to her eyes. But he saw something else still there. The heat.
Yep, even now.
Apparently, lust could create grand illusions about what was logistically possible. Of course, kissing, sex, and such were doable, but oh, there’d be some pain until the mindless need totally kicked in and took over.
“My right breast and navel came out unscathed,” Lexa let him know.
Even that notched up the heat some, and he got a flash of his tongue playing around with those particular parts of her body. Aiden might have moved in closer to give that a try, but his phone rang.
“It’s Owen,” Aiden grumbled when he checked the screen. His boss had lousy timing with some things, but this was no doubt important, and it put the lust stuff on hold.
Aiden set his Coke aside and answered the call, putting it on speaker. “How are you two doing?” their boss immediately wanted to know.
“Good,” they said in unison. “We’ll try to make it through the night without getting shot at and blown up,” Aiden added. “Any news on what caused that blast?”
“Apparently, a rather crudely made IED,” Owen replied. “One that could have been built from instructions gotten off the internet.”
“So, something Chloe could have likely made herself,” Lexa concluded.
“Probably, but there’s another possibility. The head of the bomb squad said he got a report of another one nearly identical to this one, and it was used to blow off the reinforced door of a warehouse where a couple of Hummers were being stored. The bomber was caught on a hidden surveillance camera and identified as Travis Walker. He’s still at large, but Chloe and he were once an item in high school and have remained friends over the years.”
“Hell,” Aiden spat out.
“Yeah, that was my reaction, too,” Owen went on. “Especially when I learned that Travis has bragged to friends about owning various kinds of explosives. He could have been the one who fired those two grenades.” He paused. “Could have also been the one to kill Chloe if something went south in their relationship.”
True. And Aiden didn’t have to ask if the cops were working hard to find him. They would be. Travis could hold a lot of answers about this investigation.
“As for the IED by Chloe’s car,” Owen went on a moment later, “Orville probably set it off by stepping on it.”
That’d been Aiden’s guess as well, and it twisted at him to know he hadn’t been able to stop it. That must have shown on his face because Lexa put her Coke on the counter, reached over and took hold of his left hand. She gave it a gentle squeeze.
And that helped far more than Aiden had even thought it would.
They were kindred spirits on this. Both had survived hell and back ordeals. Both were eaten away with guilt over not being able to save a man’s life.
“There’s more,” Owen said, yanking Aiden’s attention back to the call. “We finally have proof that Chloe had contact with her bio-mom. Lots of it, according to one of Chloe’s former coworkers. She’s been away on vacation so she wasn’t interviewed until about a half hour ago. But she verified that Chloe and Silby not only reconnected, but they also saw each other at least once a week.”
“Why keep that secret?” Aiden asked.
“According to the coworker, Chloe didn’t want to hurt her adoptive parents’ family, but apparently Silby and she got quite close. So close that Chloe was devastated when the woman was killed. Then, she was enraged when the drunk driver got off with a slap on the wrist.”
Well, that was a confirmed motive for Chloe wanting to get back at Wylie. And if Travis had indeed been the one to kill her from a soured relationship, that could mean the threats were over and that this investigation could come to an end once Travis was captured.
But that felt like wishful thinking on Aiden’s part.
“Gotta go,” Owen abruptly said. “I need to try to contact Miles again, and I want to find out if he had any contact with Chloe, Hudson or even Travis.” With that, he hung up.
Lexa still had hold of Aiden’s hand, and she gave it another squeeze before she started to pull back. He stopped her by easing his fingers around hers to keep her from moving away. Gently easing because there was the possibility she was in pain there, too.
If she was, she didn’t show it.
Just the opposite. Obviously, being careful about his stitched arm, she locked their fingers together and tugged him closer. Not that she had to tug too hard. Aiden was more than eager to go where she was leading him. And where she was leading him was right into her arms.
Yeah, there was some pain when his chest landed against her breasts, but as he’d thought, lust had a way of overriding that. Hell, overriding everything, including common sense. Because there was no way he should be launching into anything with Lexa when they still had so much on their plates.
But here they were.
Chest to breasts. Breath to breath. And a split-second later, mouth to mouth. Since he still had zero chance of resisting her, Aiden just went with it.
He sank right into that kiss. Right into Lexa, their bodies melting against each other. Pain vanished, and the heat came. Mercy, did it. After one taste of her, he was toast.
That taste and heat roared through him and instantly kicked up the need. Oh, he wanted her. Bad. And that want came through in the kiss. He made it long, deep, and hard, all the while drawing her closer and closer to him until they were fitted against each other like the perfect pieces of a sex puzzle.
Well, some parts weren’t linked that way yet, and his dick was anxious to remedy that.
Aiden slid his hand, again gently, over her back and down to her butt. He pressed her center to his. And damn near groaned out loud from the slam of pleasure. Thankfully, he kept that particular reaction in his head because a groan would have interrupted the kiss. He wanted this one to go for a long, long time.
Especially since he couldn’t let it escalate into sex.
Or rather he shouldn’t let things go that far.
Aiden silently repeated that to himself several times. But the warning wasn’t getting through to his dick.
Lexa eased her mouth from his, dropping back a couple of inches. Her breath was gusting now, causing her breasts to push rhythmically against her shirt. He could see the outline of her nipples, and her face was flushed with arousal. It was damn sexy, and Aiden had to fight not to launch back into another round.
“You’re more effective than painkillers,” she muttered through that gusting breath. And she laughed.
That was damn sexy, too, and despite, well, everything, he had to smile. Not just because of this heat that still teased around them. Nope. It was more than that. He had kissed her, had had completely raunchy thoughts about her, and hadn’t gotten a single flashback of the nightmare they’d shared three years ago.
Or of the most recent nightmares they’d experienced together.
That was progress. And Aiden was thankful for it. He was falling hard for Lexa, and he didn’t want their pasts or anything else getting in the way of that.
“Just how bad will we screw things up if this goes any further?” she asked.
Aiden wasn’t sure. Nor did he especially want to think about it. He only wanted to think of Lexa. Of this moment. But at least she was showing some restraint.
Or not.
He had to amend that when she reached out, took hold of the front of his shirt and hauled him back to her. Mouth to mouth. Body to body. Yeah, and injury to injury, too, but there was a hell of a lot more pleasure than there was pain.
Aiden tried to keep things gentle. He didn’t tighten his uninjured arm around her waist. Not too much anyway. Tried not to do anything that would cause her pain. But Lexa obviously had an opinion about that as well.
“Forget that I’m hurt,” she insisted, backing him out of the kitchen and toward the bedroom. “Kiss me the way I think you’ve been wanting to kiss me. Hard, deep, and holding nothing back. I wouldn’t even mind a love bite or two.”
Aiden obliged. He didn’t hold back. Not one bit. He kissed her as if the injuries didn’t exist. As if there were no consequences and no murder investigation. This was a battle now. One to hurl them toward that pleasure. That need.
That release.
Man, he needed that. He needed Lexa.
They kissed and staggered their way into his bedroom, somehow making it to the bed without falling on their asses on the floor. Instead, they fell on their asses on the bed.
Lexa immediately levered herself up and went after his zipper. Her motions were frantic and quick.
“I’m thinking sex now,” she said. “Something like the kiss. Fast and thorough. So please tell me you have a condom.”
Oh, man. He went as hard as stone, and he reached over to yank open the nightstand drawer. Aiden took out some condoms and tossed them on the bed.
Lexa unzipped him and shoved down his pants and boxers. His erection was there for her to see.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “That’s what I want.”
Then, they were definitely on the same page. For that anyway. Because Aiden wanted her to want that .
He helped her with his holster and boots, but Lexa was clearly on a mission to get him naked. And she managed it just fine. The pants and boxers came off. His tee as well that she eased over his stitched arm. She tossed the clothes on the floor and set his body on fire with some kisses to his chest.
To his stomach.
And, yeah, lower.
The woman was amazing at dealing out the sweet torture. But Aiden knew his body couldn’t take much of that, and he wanted them to finish this together. He also wanted her naked, and he did something about that. He rid her of her clothes, tossing them on the floor with his, and his reward for that was having a butt-naked Lexa in his bed.
He looked down to the center of her body. “That’s what I want,” he said, repeating her words.
“Then, take it,” she insisted.
Aiden kissed her mouth, hard. Her breasts, too. It’d been a while since he’d given a woman a love bite, but he put one on the top of her left breast. Then, her right one. Both earned high praise with some dirty talk and moans and Lexa. He would have attempted one lower if Lexa hadn’t latched onto his erection and had him seeing stars.
“We finish this now,” she said.
Again, he wasn’t about to refuse. He got the condom on, moved her legs apart and slipped inside her.
Oh, hell.
More stars. And he couldn’t catch his breath. The sensations slammed through him, as if all the nerves in his body were firing at the same time.
“We finish this now,” Lexa repeated.
He didn’t have a choice about that either. She lifted her hips, taking his fully inside her. Her head arched back. She moaned. Cursed. Mumbled something about hard sex .
Aiden gave her that, too. He had a hard grip on her hips, but she kept shoving herself against him. And her fingers dug into his arms. She met him thrust for thrust.
“We finish this now,” she whispered.
And he did. Aiden pushed into her one last time. She came in a flash, her muscles latching onto him and squeezing him to a climax.
We finish this now .
But Aiden had the feeling this finished nothing, that this was just the start.