Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Aaron
Sneaking upstairs with Paige while Noah sleeps makes me feel like a teenager again. Any minute now, we could get caught.
The risk of interruption makes every caress even hotter. The way she grabs me by the wrist, yanking me into the large bathroom. The way she tugs my shirt over my head, running her fingers over the long tattoo that reaches down my back.
If she noticed my scar last time, she said nothing. Today, she kisses it gently.
Then, she reaches into the shower and turns on the water. It drowns out any whisper of sound between us, both of us conscious to be as quiet as possible. Steam rises as the water falls.
“There’s only one way to get you cleaned up,” she whispers.
“I’ll need some help in here,” I say, leaning down to kiss her neck.
She lets out a little yelp when my teeth bite down on the tender muscle of her neck, but she doesn’t stop me when I pull the scrub top off. She helps me out of my jeans and then my boxers.
I haul her into the shower with me, both of us enjoying the all-consuming warmth of the water. It scalds us in the best way, turning her tender belly pink with heat. The warmth elevates every touch, sensations blending into one another until I can’t tell where one begins and the other ends.
“Are you going to be a good girl?” I ask quietly.
She shivers in response.
I lift her wet hair, watching how gravity tugs it down her back. The water runs in rivulets down to her ass, the perfect curve. I grab her by the ass and pull her into me. She gasps at the feel of my hard cock between her legs.
I tangle a hand in her hair and pull her head back, angling her face up toward mine. My kiss comes hot and hungry, lips moving over hers passionately. She opens her mouth to let me in, letting me trace patterns against her tongue with mine.
The kiss doesn’t stop until I feel the moan in her throat.
The sound does something to me, sending a pulse of heat through my body, stronger than before.
“I’m going to make sure you know you’re mine,” I inform her casually. “And you are not going to make a sound. Understood?”
“Noah—”
“Isn’t going to hear me fuck his mother in the shower,” I tell her authoritatively. “Because you’re going to be a good girl and be quiet.”
I kiss her roughly one more time, silencing any protest on her lips.
My fingers trail down to her hip, slowly inching toward the heat between her legs. When her knees give way, I use the moment to turn her around.
I clamp a hand over her mouth, keeping her from crying out. My other hand continues to work her swollen clit in slow circles. She bites down on my hand, but I don’t pull back.
“Bend over,” I command.
Her perfect ass, full and round, presses up against my hard length. I position myself against her entrance, groaning at how warm and wet she is, coupled with the water sluicing down our bodies.
“Remember,” I whisper. “Quiet.”
She nods and arches her back, grinding into me. I allow it, not giving in to what she wants until I’m ready.
Eventually, I can’t take the teasing any longer and push into her like she wants.
A cry chokes in her throat as I slide in, inch by inch. I take it slow this time, giving her time to stretch around me. By the time I’m deep inside her, I can feel her walls clench around me. She won’t last long, not like this.
I love knowing what I do to her. How she loses control.
I keep a hand over her mouth, the only guarantee I have that she will stay quiet while we’re in here. The door is locked, but the last thing I want is for Noah to interrupt this.
Not until I’m done with her.
With my free hand, I press down on her back to force her to arch deeper into me. And then, I thrust into her as hard and deep as I can. If she has trouble taking it, she stays quiet and doesn’t pull back.
“I’m going to take my hand off your mouth now,” I tell her. “I need both hands for what’s about to happen.”
Paige whimpers, but she doesn’t try to stop me. She looks at me over her shoulder, her teeth digging into her bottom lip until it turns white.
I grab her hips with one hand and put my other between her legs again.
When I push into her this time, she does cry out quietly.
Restraint keeps me from moaning loudly, even as the wave of pleasure begins in my balls and travels up my spine.
I tense every muscle in my body, trying to hold back a climax until I get her there first.
Not that I have to wait long.
I pull her up so that her back is flush against my chest. I palm her breasts in one hand, pinching her erect nipples, while the other hand continues stroking between her legs. At the hard pinch, she lets go and clenches around me.
I can’t wait for her to finish riding the wave before I have to pull out of her. She just feels so damn good with nothing between us.
We both stand in the shower, panting, hearts racing as we try to enjoy the moment. Paige spins around in my arms and kisses me, every one of her curves pressed against me.
Soft and sensual, she’s the opposite of me in every way. I have never craved something so foreign in my life. Not until now.
“Let me help you get cleaned up,” she says quietly.
She grabs the soap and a loofah, gently lathers up the red and orange marker down my arms, and watches as it rinses down the drain.
Paige has a surprising capacity to be both passionate during sex and tender when it ends. As she does with everyone else in her life, she takes care of me. And I let her do it, just for a moment, because it feels damn good to be under her care.
The shower takes long enough that we run out of hot water and have to get out, cold and dripping. She tosses me a towel from the tiny closet, but I stand on the mat, soaked. I take the towel from her and rub her dry.
I spend extra time squeezing the water from the ends of her hair, that long ginger mane I’ve always admired.
“You’re getting everything wet,” she points out finally when I don’t make any motion to dry myself off. Only then do I quickly towel off, wrap it around my waist, and head to her bedroom.
I have no intention of going anywhere tonight.
No intention of letting her sleep alone.
No intention of letting her drift off to sleep without knowing that I care about her. That she doesn’t have to be the one who takes care of everyone else for a change.
She watches me move around her bedroom, trying to find her coziest pajamas. When I come back with a silk tank top and shorts, she puts her arms up so that I can slip it over her head. She pulls a pair of matching silk panties from the dresser and lets me help her into them.
I sit on the edge of her bed and braid her long hair to keep it from tangling overnight.
“Where did you learn to do all of this?”
“How does anyone learn to take care of someone else?” I ask instead of answering.
She had to learn it from somewhere, too. I imagine her mother was the one who taught her to care for others. Her mother hovers over Noah as if he were made of glass.
“I don’t know,” she murmurs. “Maybe it just comes naturally to some of us.”
“Maybe it does.” I pause for a second, pushing her braid over her shoulder. “When you care for someone.”
“Let’s not—”
“Let me take care of you,” I cut her off before she tries to ruin the moment. “For once in your life, let go and let someone else do this for you.”
* * *
Paige
“Casually,” I say.
If Aaron thinks any particular way about my announcement, he doesn’t show it. His eyes never leave mine. His gaze never wavers. Instead, he does something that surprises me.
He rolls his eyes.
“Yeah,” he says with a shrug. “I really only want you for the sex, in case you didn’t notice.”
His answer is cheeky enough to disarm me instantly. All of the emotions that felt overwhelming a few minutes ago disappear with the sound of my surprised laughter.
Aaron puts a finger to his lips, reminding me that Noah is sleeping just a few feet away from us in his bedroom. But his lips curl into a smile that makes it hard to breathe.
“I like this version of you,” he murmurs.
“What version is that?”
He considers the answer for a moment, his deeper thoughts obvious in the furrow between his eyebrows. When his eyes sweep from the top of my wet hair to my bare feet, he finally decides: “Relaxed.”
The word suits me in this moment. It’s the most relaxed I’ve felt for months. Being a single mom weighs on me more than I care to admit, and my job only adds to the stress. I love this weightless feeling.
“Now, into bed with you,” Aaron announces quietly.
He pulls the covers back on the old mattress. Without a second thought, I shimmy under them and settle in. Aaron presses a kiss to my forehead.
My stomach drops at the prospect of him leaving. It feels like a goodbye kiss… until he burrows under the covers with me.
Words don’t fill the space between us as we lie there, my head on his chest and my fingers tracing the muscles in his bicep. Of their own accord, they move to the swirl of his tattoos. With his skin exposed, I can tell it’s a single, continuous tattoo rather than separate pieces.
“You’re wondering why I have such a large tattoo,” he says when my fingers pause on the scar on his side.
I nod, hoping that he’ll trust me with the story.
“It was bound to come out eventually,” he sighs, like it’s a story that he wishes he could forget.
I want to tell him that he doesn’t have to tell me, but I know I’d be lying. I’m desperate to know more about him.
“I didn’t have the easiest childhood,” he starts. “I fell in with the wrong crowd when I was a teenager. Just like every after-school special you’ve ever seen. The smoking, the fighting—it all started early, and no one really intervened.”
“Not your dad?” He seemed so proud of his dad earlier.
“It wasn’t as easy as that. He got involved when it counted,” he explains. “I managed to get involved in a fight club. Honest to God, there are real-life fight clubs in the city if you know where to look.”