Chapter 19
19
W hat. The. Hell?
When Aiden abruptly left the room, Petra had stared after him for ten seconds before giving chase.
If nothing else she needed to knock some sense into that fat head of his. The snowball was what came naturally.
“Where are you going? We were in the middle of a conversation,” she barked, her fingers tingling from the cold and wet.
“But you don’t want to spend your time with me,” he snapped back, “I’m getting out of your hair so you don’t have to.”
Her confusion deepened. “What are you talking about?”
“You just told me you don’t want to be engaged anymore.”
“What?” She hadn’t said that. Had she? She thought back… “You’re going to need to help me out here, because we seem to be in two different conversations.”
His eyes flashed with anger. “Maybe it’s a good thing your parents showed up unannounced. It’s clarified a lot. Number one, you didn’t want to tell them that we were engaged. You were horrified when Chance mentioned it. Once we were alone, you clearly said that you wanted to stop. That you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”
He’d lost his mind. Petra wrapped her arms around herself to try to keep out the cold, shaking her head in denial. “That’s not what I said. Or if that’s what I said, that’s not what I meant.”
“Extremely unhelpful,” Aiden snapped. He stomped in a circle for seconds before tipping his head toward the house. “Get inside. We can have this argument in front of the fire so you don’t freeze to death.”
They kicked off their shoes in silence, shuffling forward until they stood in front of the woodburning stove. As far apart from each other as they could be while still being enveloped by heat.
She took a deep breath then lifted her gaze to his. “I wasn’t embarrassed to have my parents hear Chance call you my fiancé. What I’m embarrassed about is that for days I’ve felt how wrong it is, this thing we’re doing.”
Aiden closed his eyes, frustration washing over his face. “This conversation isn’t getting any better.”
There was no way to do this without full-on embarrassing herself. So be it. “Fine, I’ll stop trying to say this in a way that gives you an out. When we first talked about fooling around, we said that if either of us wanted to stop, we were adults. We would just say we wanted to stop being friends with benefits.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “And that’s what you want?” Aiden asked quietly.
“I want to stop the fake part. I want to stop the pretending .” She closed her eyes, because looking at him while she blurted out everything was impossible. “We got shoved into this relationship through no decision of our own, but Aiden, I would’ve picked you. If we’d had the time to do things normally, we would’ve started dating.”
When she opened her eyes he was staring at her, jaw dropped, speechless.
She hurried forward, because if she didn’t say it now, she might lose her courage. “Part of what’s had me confused is that it has been fast. As if part of my brain has been making the same comments that Mom and Dad did about what happened with Curtis, but the comparison felt off kilter.” She took a deep breath and stepped toward him. She caught his cold hands in hers, holding them tightly. “Every time I looked at the calendar it seemed as if it was far too short of a time to care about you as much as I do. It should feel scary, like a reminder of Curtis and what went wrong, but it never did. When I think back to what I had with Curtis, and what I have with you—there is no comparison. You and I have grown so close, so fast, because we’ve been open and honest and ourselves—at least in private.”
Aiden’s mouth hung open. “You’re not trying to break up with me?”
“Of course not. I’m trying to tell you what I don’t like is the pretending .” She sucked in all of her bravery and finished her confession. “Because I haven’t been pretending. I care about you, Aiden. I like being with you. I like the things you do and who you are. I think we’re good together.”
The corner of his lips twitched. Then he tugged her toward him and wrapped his arms around her.
The hug felt amazing even if he was probably just getting ready to find some way to let her down easily. But when he tucked his strong fingers under her chin and tilted her face to his, no more anger or confusion or frustration covered his face. Just a one hundred percent Aiden smile full of amusement and mischief.
He leaned their foreheads together. “Thank God. That means I’m not the only one.”
Shock, sudden and deep. “Really?”
“Really, really ,” he confirmed. “Although I’ll admit that whole conversation we just had sucked. I had no idea what was going on for a big part of it. I don’t like being angry and sad and worried and devastated, especially when I had hoped this evening would finish with me telling the woman I care about deeply that we should consider being more to each other than pretend.”
Petra shook her head. “All that shouting and frustration was for nothing?”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Aiden curled his arm around her waist, connecting their torsos. “We haven’t had a fight before. That means we can have makeup sex.”
“Wasn’t really a fight,” Petra pointed out. “It was just me making things way too convoluted. I’m sorry.”
“I am too,” Aiden said. “That means we can have no more convoluted conversations sex, yes?”
She stroked her fingers up the side of his neck and into his hair, teasing as heat wrapped around them. “I have a feeling that no matter what we decide to call the conversation, there’s going to be sex involved at the end.”
He pressed a series of kisses along her jaw line to under her ear and spoke quietly. “I have no problem with that plan. As there’s no pretending involved.”
He nipped her neck, and in spite of the fire beside them, a shiver raced up her spine.
She cupped his face in her hands and stared into his blue eyes. “I’m sorry for making things confusing. Here is me being crystal clear. I’d like to go and have sex with you, because you’re an amazing guy, Aiden. You’re funny, smart, and the way you move with me turns me on.”
A gasp escaped as Aiden lifted her off her feet, carrying her down the hallway to their room.
He settled her on the bed, going to his knees on the carpet in front of her, pausing to stare into her eyes. “I know we probably don’t need this, but I did get you a birthday present or two. Hang on.”
“I don’t need anything—” Petra protested, but he’d already grabbed her decorative paper bag from beside the bed, dropping it into her lap.
“I want to use them,” he said, “So you have to unwrap them right this instant.”
She laughed as she dug into the bag and pulled out a tissue wrapped cylinder. She ripped away the paper and discovered a candle, this one labeled Netflix & Chill . “Oh my God.”
“They get better,” he said taking the unwrapped one from her and putting it to the side.
Petra dipped back into the bag. Wrapping paper flew, and her laughter grew louder as she read the labels on three more candles.
Thanks For All The Orgasms.
Light Me When You’re Horny .
Big Dick Energy Candle (when this candle is lit, give me that dick) . She dragged in air, her hand pressed to her stomach. She lifted the last one in the air, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Oh. My. God .”
Aiden smirked. “Truth in advertising,” he said as he nabbed each candle, lit it, and placed them around the room. Then he turned off the overhead lights and it was only candlelight as he came back to the bed and rolled her to the middle.
He wiped away her tears, staring at her face far too solemnly. “I know it’s been a roller coaster, but I do want to wish you happy birthday. I hope this coming year is full of things that make you smile and things that make you happy, but mostly I hope it’s full of real . No more pretending.”
He pressed their lips together, brief and gentle, not as if he were teasing but as if he were savouring every moment. Every touch.
He stripped away her blouse, kissing each bit of skin as he revealed it. Coming back between over and over to her lips. He caressed her breast followed by a kiss. Licked a line down her ribcage, and another kiss.
“Aiden.” She breathed his name, threading her fingers through his hair and tugging him back up when he lingered too long at her belly.
The kiss went deeper this time, more heated. Petra opened her legs and cradled him between them, naked from the waist up as his hands roamed over her, touching and caressing and teasing.
He nipped her lower lip, and when she gasped, he smiled down at her. “Stay right there,” he ordered.
This time when he worked his way down her body, unsnapping her pants and easing them and her underwear off her hips, he stayed down. Fleeting licks of his tongue against her skin, small bites to the inside of her thigh. He grasped her knees and separated them.
Another touch of his tongue, easing over her clit as his fingers stroked closer and closer to her sex. A gentle taunt in a way. And as he so often did, he’d pause right before he joined them. The tips of his fingers at her entrance, watching her face as he pressed in.
Then gentleness was gone, and he took control, driving her up hard and fast with his fingers and his mouth. Petra dug her heels into his back and held onto her thighs to keep from accidentally shifting him away from where she needed him most.
“ Aiden .” A request, a plea, a benediction as her orgasm rushed in, arching her back and driving her hips up to his mouth.
Outside the window, a bright flash of light exploded followed by a sharp rumble as the first firework went off.
Petra laughed, and the sound danced around the room, full of delight, and happiness, and everything she could’ve ever wished for her birthday.
Aiden hurriedly stripped away his clothes. He put on a condom faster than was probably wise, but sliding over a laughing Petra, naked skin to naked skin, had to happen as soon as possible.
Another firework went off, lighting the room with blues and greens. “Declan is going to give Tansy so much shit,” Petra whispered. “I don’t think horses like fireworks.”
“Not our problem right now,” Aiden pointed out. “There’s no one here but us, and there’s nothing I need except us. Except you .”
She nodded, pulling him closer to kiss him eagerly, breaking apart when her lungs demanded air. “I need you, too.”
He slid into her. The heat wrapped around his cock was so fucking good, but it was the way she looked at him that drove him higher. The way she lifted her right leg and angled her hips to take him in easier. Welcoming him into her body, pleasure streaking over her face as he cupped her breast and teased her nipple. Rocking his hips slowly as he brought her up again.
It had only been a short time, but long enough they knew what each other liked. She scratched her fingernails down his back, groaning as he nipped her earlobe and neck. She pushed up against him, increasing tempo, adjusting angle to bring him in deeper, harder.
Aiden clung to his control, sliding a hand over her belly to between her legs. “I want to take you with me.”
She nodded, eyes widening as she slowed the rocking motion. Made it easier for him to tease over her clit, drawing moisture from where their connection slid over and over again.
She took a deep breath, body tensing under him, and Aiden fluttered his fingers faster, pressing his cock deep in a smooth rhythm he hoped to maintain for long enough?—
“ Yes .” Petra arched, her sex fisting around him, and Aiden was gone. Lightning filled the room and streaked up his spine as he came, body shaking as he held himself high enough he didn’t crush her. They both spiraled into pleasure in the reflected golden lights of a thousand sparks that danced around the room in time with the flickering candles.
Five minutes later… Ten? Time had no meaning, Aiden decided.
They were still curled around each other, Aiden staring into her eyes. In spite of everything, he hesitated.
Actually asking her to get engaged right now seemed like a soon thing, not a now thing.
“We’re good?” he asked softly.
She snickered, wiggling her hips against him as her smile brightened with mischief. “If you couldn’t tell, that’s your loss, but yes, we’re very good on so many levels.” Petra took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I like you Aiden Skye. I like how you make me feel, and that’s not just a sexual comment. Although it’s totally a sexual comment,” she teased.
He stared down, the ache in his heart softening. “We’ve done things that made us happy over the past two months, but I think you’re right. The parts that were the best were the things that were truly us. And that’s not just a sexual comment for me either.”
She nodded, fingers slipping over his chest and shoulders in a smooth figure eight. As if she couldn’t bear to stop touching him. “I don’t think we truly lied to each other, except maybe lies of omission.”
“Then that’s the part we have to watch for going forward,” he suggested. “Petra, no one is a completely wide-open book to anyone else. We’ll always have some secrets or at least things we need to think about a whole lot before we talk them through. But for me, it always comes back to this—I like you as a person and I like who I am when I’m with you. That’s worth having some awkward conversations and getting past misunderstandings.”
Her lips quivered. “Dammit, Aiden. I do not want to become a watering can.”
“I wouldn’t mind avoiding that as well,” he teased, brushing his nose past hers and taking a deep breath. Just breathing the same air as her because he enjoyed it so very much.
They lay together, holding close as outside the fireworks continued to go off, and the musical sound of laughter carried all the way to the main house. Slowly it quieted.
Aiden was about to suggest they should get dressed when Petra rolled him to his back and crawled over him, mischief on her face as she pressed her hands to his chest and lowered her lashes. “We were terrible hosts, but I figure everybody’s heading home now. We may as well keep celebrating my birthday all on our lonesome.”
She rolled her shoulders, and his gaze dropped from her eyes to her amazing breasts. Amusement hummed from her as he slid his fingers over her hips. “That is the most brilliant idea?—”
A rapid knock sounded on the door. “Aiden. Sorry, bro. We need to talk right now.” Declan cleared his throat. “Petra. It’s important.”
Aiden sighed loud enough they probably heard it in Heart Falls. His brothers. “Really? It can’t wait until the morning?”
“Dammit, Aiden.” Declan’s voice held restrained panic. “Jinx is missing.”