Chapter Sixteen
Aiden led the way up to the hotel room, ignoring Charlie’s questioning look. It was a terrible idea to stop before they got back to Boston. There were a thousand different tasks in need of doing.
But she was right—they’d almost died back there. He’d seen it in Alethea’s eyes. He’d hoped that Charlie had missed it, but he’d underestimated her yet again.
Fooling around in the backseat had just whetted his appetite.
He needed her, naked and in a bed, her skin against his the only feeling that would calm the racing of his heart.
The only stop he’d made on the way was to run into a convenience store and grab a box of condoms, because he would not deprive them again.
“Aiden, don’t you think this is a bad idea?”
“Yes.” He used the key to open the hotel door and then held it for her.
She sighed and walked into the room, amusement creeping into her blue eyes as she watched him throw the dead bolt and then search the room. Charlie propped her hands on her hips. “Are you expecting a murderer to be lying in wait?”
“We’re not in Boston. Even if we were, I’d still check.” Because she was there with him, and he’d done a shitty job of keeping her safe up to this point. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t promised her safety—that he’d initially planned to use her as ruthlessly as any tool.
Things had changed.
Satisfied that they were safe enough for the time being, he unbuttoned his shirt. “Strip.”
“Aiden…” She pressed her lips together and paused. “You need this.”
“I need you.” It was the truth. It wasn’t the sex that he craved to settle him. It was Charlie.
She shimmied out of her dress. He might live to be one hundred, but he’d never see a sight more breathtaking than Charlie standing before him in nothing but heels.
Her makeup was a little smudged from their time in the car, but it only added to the appeal.
She wasn’t some Photoshopped model. She was real.
Aiden finished undressing as she watched, never taking his gaze from her. “I misjudged Alethea.”
“I know.” She stepped forward and placed her hand on the center of his chest. Using just that touch, she guided him back to sit on the edge of the bed. “You thought you could manipulate her.”
He had manipulated her, but it had been a close call. “Do you know what they do to—”
“Aiden, stop.” She knelt between his knees and ran her hands up his thighs. “Beating yourself up isn’t going to do a single damn thing but ruin this blow job. You made a mistake. We got out alive. We’re here. We’re alive. We’re safe.”
That was the problem. He’d made a mistake. He’d gone in overconfident and—
His thoughts slammed to a halt as Charlie leaned over and took his cock into her mouth. She sucked him until he hit the back of her throat, then started the slow slide back up. As if she savored his taste.
She wrapped her hand around the base of his cock and licked around his head. Aiden cursed long and hard. “Come here.”
“Nope.” She used her free hand to cradle his balls. “There might not be some handy ropes lying around, but I’m collecting—with interest.”
He started to reach for her but ended up fisting the comforter of the bed and letting her work.
This is what he’d wanted when he booked the hotel room instead of driving back to the O’Malley house.
Charlie. Him. They had nowhere to be for the next few hours, and they wouldn’t be interrupted. There was no rush.
For her part, she seemed content to take her time—and drive him out of his goddamn mind in the process. As Aiden watched her suck him off, her bright red lips wrapped around his cock were almost enough to make him come from the sight alone. “Bright eyes, I need you.”
“You have me.” She rose and grabbed one of the condoms from where he’d tossed them on the bed. “Tonight. Right now. You have me. We got out, Aiden. We’re okay.” She rolled the condom onto him and then braced her hands on his shoulders. “How do you need me?”
The offer was just proof that she saw him better than most people.
She recognized that he needed to reassert the control Alethea had threatened.
Aiden pulled her down onto his lap and kissed her.
He’d intended it to be a silent thank-you, but the notion didn’t last past their first contact.
Charlie opened for him immediately, her tongue seeking his.
He lost himself in the feel and taste of her. Each second that passed settled the rattled feeling in his chest, until his frustration and fear over how shit had gone so south melted away.
And then there was only Charlie.
He drew back enough to say, “I should be asking how you need me.”
“Are you?”
He grinned. “No. I want you on your hands and knees on the bed.”
She climbed off him to obey. He stood, and his mouth went dry at the sight she offered. With her knees parted and the arch in her spine, he could actually see how wet she was. “You liked sucking my cock.” He shifted onto the bed, easing up behind her.
“So much so that I’m going to do it again at the earliest available opportunity.”
He chuckled. “I can’t argue with that.”
“Really? Because I thought I was going to have to follow through on my threat to tie you down to just get you to let me do it.” She hissed out a breath as he palmed her pussy. “You’re very cagey.”
“Are you into bondage, bright eyes?” He slipped one finger into her and, satisfied that she was more than ready, he brought his cock to her entrance. Aiden gripped her hips and worked into her with short, controlled thrusts, until he was sheathed to the hilt.
Charlie moaned. “I’m a control freak.”
“I noticed.” He’d also noticed that she enjoyed their games as much as he did. He pressed his hand against the small of her back and slid it up her spine, guiding her down until the top half of her body was flush against the bed. The position left her ass in the air and allowed him deeper yet.
Satisfied she would stay there, he pulled almost all the way out and then thrust deep. Charlie cried out. “Harder, Aiden!”
This time, he obeyed. Aiden followed her muffled commands, fucking her just the way she needed. She thrust back to meet every stroke. He wanted to maintain this feeling of perfection all night long, but Charlie felt too good. “Touch yourself,” he demanded.
She snaked one hand beneath herself, and her pussy clamped tight around him in response.
He kept up the angle that had her writhing on the bed, holding tight onto his control and keeping his own orgasm at bay.
She didn’t make him wait long. Charlie cried out his name over and over again, her shrieks barely muffled by the comforter.
It was too much. Aiden couldn’t hold out any longer. He tightened his grip on her hips and drove into her, chasing the pleasure her body offered him. He came with a curse, and it was like every muscle in his body dissipated.
He collapsed half on top of her. “Fuck, Charlie.”
“You just did.”
Aiden laughed hoarsely and gave her ass a light smack. “Mouthy.”
“Every damn day.” She rolled to face him and tucked in against his chest. When apparently that wasn’t close enough, she draped one long leg over his hip and hugged him. “I needed that.”
“Me too.” He held her close. The soft cadence of her breathing washed over him, erasing the last of his lingering unease. Tonight had been a closer call than he wanted to admit, which was bad enough.
Putting Charlie in that position despite her questioning the wisdom of it was inexcusable. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
“You had it under control.”
Not nearly as under control as he would have liked. He kissed the top of her head. “Next time your gut says it’s a bad situation, we’re out. No questions asked.”
She tensed. “That’s ridiculous.”
What the hell? He couldn’t see her face to gauge where her head was at, but her response didn’t make a damn bit of sense. “There’s nothing ridiculous about it. You knew it was a bad call. I didn’t listen to you, and we almost got into a conflict we might not have walked out of.”
“That was just common sense. You can’t trust my gut. I can’t trust my gut.”
Ah. Aiden forced his body to relax and waited for the tension to bleed out of his tone. “You couldn’t have known the other cops would turn on you.”
She jerked back from him. “I do not want to talk about it.”
“Charlie.” He let her go, because the alternative was to wrestle her to a standstill, but it made his chest ache to watch the distance between them open up. “You have to face it at some point. You couldn’t have known.”
“One, I don’t need the therapy session. Two, stop trying to distract yourself from your mistake by focusing on me.
Three, fuck off.” She scrubbed a hand over her face.
“Shit. Fuck. Goddamn it. Now I’m sorry. That was out of line.
But the point stands—my past is off-limits. Respect it or this ends now.”
Her obvious pain made him want to press her, but there was shit he didn’t want ripped open. And she was right—he’d latched on to her past to avoid thinking too hard about his present.
Aiden held out a hand. “Come back to me.”
“Not until you agree.”
He sighed. “I won’t talk about it tonight.”
“That’s a shitty-ass promise.” But she still crawled back into his arms. He barely had time to relax when she spoke again. “Keira is going to start taking Krav Maga lessons.”
“I’ll arrange to have an instructor brought to the house.
” His little sister knew how to shoot—he and Teague had made sure all their sisters did, even if Carrigan and Keira took to it better than Sloan.
They had men whose whole job was to keep them safe, but it was always possible that the time would come when they’d have to defend themselves.
He’d never considered some kind of martial arts. Aiden knew how to fight, but there was nothing formal about it. He was a goddamn brawler.
“Wrong. You’ll arrange to have Mark—or whoever—escort her to her classes several times a week.”