Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
AIDAN
It’s almost nine o’clock when I finally leave Bones on Friday night.
Having a section of the back blocked off deterred most of the business, so I chose to close the doors again until all the updates are finished.
Alone in the quiet, I spent three hours sitting in the office staring at a wall, but I didn’t really come here to work.
I just needed to go somewhere that didn’t remind me of her.
The walk back to my house gives me time to reflect on just how bad I screwed up with Jo.
I might have fucked things up between us for good, but I don’t regret it.
I’m over the meaningless sex, and I need her to admit that she is too.
What Joanna and I have, whether it be a fated bond or not, it’s got so many strings I’m losing count.
I trek up the small hill that leads to the movie theater and see a car idling in the parking lot. The headlights are off, and all I can make out is a head of chestnut hair cast in shadow.
Joanna turns off her car when she sees me. I wait quietly with my hands in my pockets while she gets out.
She chews on her bottom lip and rubs her hands against the fabric of her jeans. “Hey.”
I smile sheepishly. “I didn’t think I’d see you for a while.”
Her hair is down, and she tucks some of it behind her ear.
“I wanted to apologize for what I said.” She shifts her weight back and forth on her feet.
I’ve never seen her this nervous. “I just…it’s a lot, you know?
I’m not used to dealing with stuff this big, and it’s hard. I still don’t understand it.”
“I know. You don’t have to apologize, Joanna.”
She scoffs and wipes her nose. “No nickname tonight?”
I tilt my head, confused. I hadn’t noticed the change.
“Never mind.” She starts to get back in her car. “I just wanted to say sorry in person. I’ll go.”
I place my hand on top of the car’s frame to stop her. “Where are you going?”
She looks up, my chest heaving inches from her face. “Home.”
Those brown eyes search mine, waiting for me to ask the question that’s on the tip of my tongue. “You don’t want to come inside?” I ask.
She presses her back to the car, trying to create space with what little I’ve given her. “I thought you’d be done with me.”
My chest aches as I look down at her, the tops of her lashes fanning across her cheeks.
She looks so sad, and despite any doubt from early today, I want to erase the frown on her face.
I want her to know that it’s going to be okay.
She can scream and kick and fight her way through this, but I’m not going anywhere.
This bond won’t let me.
I cup her jaw lightly, rubbing my thumb against her cheek as I lean in. “Do you trust me?”
A single tear falls from her cheek, and I wipe it away. She nods. I believe her, but I still don’t believe she trusts herself. It’s a small crack in her exterior, just an inch, but it’s enough.
My lips skim hers, and finally, that last bit of the wall she tried to erect between us crumbles away.
Joanna falls back onto my bed as I kiss her neck, her long, beautiful hair fanning around her.
We made it as far as the foyer before we started ridding one another of our clothes.
I was already shirtless before slamming the front door shut.
She straddled my waist, and I carried her up the stairs as she tossed her shirt and bra onto the steps, her mouth barely leaving my neck, my lips.
When I set her down in my bedroom, she shimmied out of her jeans as I unbuttoned my pants.
Small little giggles burst out of her when her jeans get stuck on her calves, and the sound shoots straight to my heart.
This soft, playful side of her is what I’ve wanted to see all along.
This, along with the juxtaposition of the sultry look of heat in her eyes, I’m wholly captured by her.
I don’t know the true meaning of love, but for her, I will die trying.
Being naked with Jo is heavenly—one less barrier I have to worry about getting in the way of her perfect body.
She sighs as I kiss my way down her chest and pinch both nipples.
Her back arches off the bed, but I press my palm to her stomach to flatten her.
The heel of my hand settles in the dip of her belly button as I continue to tease her breast. She squirms beneath me, my full erection pressing into her thigh, so close to where she’s desperate for it to be.
Together, we’re balancing on a razor’s edge, and every place our bodies connect feels like lightning striking my skin. My senses are heightened to the extreme, and I’m afraid I can’t hold back much longer.
Joanna wraps her legs around my waist and yanks me closer. I squeeze her waist then slide to the underside of both breasts and cup them gently.
“I can’t decide which part of your body is my favorite,” I confess in a deep murmur.
The only light in the house casts a subtle glow from the den to where we’ve secluded ourselves upstairs in the loft, and I can just see the confident grin she’s making. “Do you have to choose?”
I drop my head between her breasts and kiss the space there. “No,” I say as my lips drag against her skin. “I don’t suppose I do.” I summon the little strength I have and step away from the bed. “Come to the edge,” I instruct her.
Now in a sitting position, she wraps both arms around my neck and lets her thighs fall to either side of my hips.
“Stay just like that.” I bend my knees just enough to line up with her entrance then slide myself inside. She gasps. “Look at how well you take me.” Joanna lowers her head and watches as I slowly pull out and push back in. Her thighs fight to close. “Keep them open.”
With our foreheads locked together, I continue pumping into her at a deliriously slow pace.
She lets out several breathy sounds of pleasure, and all my restraint loosens.
I feel my fangs pierce through my gums, but I don’t pull away.
I keep hold of the connection we have, focusing fully on my instincts.
I’m not wild with bloodlust. I’m merely wild for her.
This is right. It’s meant to be this way. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.
I lift Joanna’s face by her chin so she can see my teeth. I’ll only do this if she asks me to.
Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t flinch. “Do it,” she dares. Or is it a plea? “Bite me.”
She brushes her hair away from her shoulder, perfectly exposing the side of her neck to me. That tortuous vein of hers pumps steadily beneath her skin, and it’s as if a tether is being pulled torturously taut between us.
It’s been guiding me all along, exactly where I was always meant to be.
I bury my face in her neck, feeling her silky skin and inhaling that sweet scent that’s uniquely hers, then I sink my canines into her at the same time as my thrust. She releases a shout into the ether, but it’s a cry of overwhelming ecstasy.
I know what she’s feeling, because I feel it too.
I was wrong. I never should have feared my desire for her. I realize now, with her hot blood coating my tongue, that something so trivial was never the drive behind my obsession.
It’s her. It’s just Jo.
I don’t swallow much, but the little blood I do consume soothes my throat.
Small trickles stain her skin, but I don’t feel tempted to take more.
I feel my connection to her on a biological level.
Our bodies are so intune with one another, I don’t need to see.
I don’t need to do anything. I just have to let go.
I stop pumping my hips and gaze up to the ceiling, panting open mouthed. I’m still inside her; I move us further on the bed so she’s lying down. Then I slam into her, lifting her leg over my shoulder to gain the perfect angle.
Joanna grips the back of my bicep. “Ohhhh, fuck.”
Every inch of my body feels like a live wire.
I’m sizzling with ecstasy, and there’s too much of it to release at once.
This isn’t enough. My arms slide under Jo’s shoulders and waist as I lift her off the bed.
She clings to me, her hair falling around both our faces.
Stepping backward blindly, I find the closest wall and turn to press her back against it.
This unyielding bond between us has given me the strength of a hundred men.
I feel as if I could move an entire fucking mountain.
I channel all my strength into pumping myself into Joanna’s tight heat while holding her steady.
There’s another peak on the horizon, and we’re seconds from cresting it.
“Do it again,” she pants.
I know what she wants. Just as I feel a tightening in my balls, I bite down on the top of Joanna’s right breast. It’s messier this time.
A stream of blood cascades between her breasts and down her stomach only to smear against mine.
I drink this time, slowly, not wanting to take too much, and Joanna moans and screams and calls my name to the heavens. “Aidan! Oh, fuck. Oh, god. Yesss!”
My grunts punctuate her cries. As I cum inside her, I lick a small patch of drying blood from her nipple. My last thrust is so hard it knocks the solitary piece of art in my bedroom from the wall.
After her muscles finally relax around me, I drop to my knees, sliding Joanna down the wall gently. We stay tangled in each other’s arms, covered in her sticky sweet blood.
Whatever this connection, this bond, is, I won’t severe it, because it’s tethered straight to my heart.