Chapter 53
Kiera
We left without a word.
Everyone else had joined in the dancing while we talked. And no one called out to us as Aiden grabbed my hand and tugged me away from the fire.
We ran through the snow back to our little lodge. My heart pounded as hard as if I’d raced a mile.
Aiden swept open the door flap and pulled me inside. His lips were on mine before I could catch my breath.
But I didn’t care. I wanted him to steal my breath, my heart, my body.
I wanted him to have every part of me.
We kissed with a desperation that knocked over the stool and made the lamp swing wildly. I nearly fell back on the bed, but Aiden caught me.
He hauled me upright and cupped my face in his hands. His tongue swept over my lips, then dove into my mouth.
I curled my tongue around his, and he groaned, long and deep, as we devoured each other. My belly fluttered, and I scraped my nails over his bare chest and back.
He tried to slow the kiss, to gentle it. I pulled away.
“No,” I said huskily. “I can’t go slow right now. I need . . . I need everything. Fast. Hard.”
“Gods, yes,” he growled.
He picked me up and tossed me on our bed. He yanked off my boots, then settled himself over me. His lips found mine once again, warm and needy. He dragged up my skirt, caressing my bare skin as he did so.
I whimpered into his mouth. Too slow, too slow. Please, Aiden.
He cupped me through my undershorts. I ground against his hand shamelessly, embers already smoldering in the pit of my stomach.
“What do you want, love?” he murmured as he kissed down my throat. “One finger, or two?”
“T-Two,” I stammered.
Aiden hummed in approval. “Greedy little thief.” He pulled my shorts aside and slid in one finger, then two.
I gasped and jerked.
He chuckled and curled his fingers, then started sliding them in and out. Over and over.
Gods, I was wound so tight. Every nerve ending on fire. I broke in moments with a loud cry.
He curled his fingers harder, pulsing with my inner walls.
Pleasure ricocheted through my bones, hummed through my veins, drenched his hand.
Then his fingers—along with my undershorts—disappeared as I lay gasping.
I heard a rustle, then felt something hard and warm press against me.
“Are you protected?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Do you still want hard and fast, beautiful?” he murmured against my lips.
I hooked my leg around his hip, my skirt falling back over my waist. I pulled him in for one kiss, then another, and another. Gods, he was so addictive.
“Love me like a summer storm,” I whispered. “Lightning and thunder so fierce you take my breath away.”
He thrust into me, hissing between his teeth as I gasped. “Keep your breath, Kiera. Keep it, so you can scream my name.”
I nearly came again on the spot. But then he thrust into me again and again. Hard and fast. Like lightning strikes. Each one sent a bolt into my core. He growled and kissed me. He nipped at one of my breasts through my shirt. I moaned at the pinch of delicious pain.
He pumped harder until I couldn’t keep up. Until the lightning struck closer and closer together, setting me ablaze.
“Aiden!” I cried out.
He answered me with a roar of his own, like thunder. He threw his head back, and his body stiffened, upright between my legs. The perfect vision of a man unraveling in ecstasy.
The sight made me fall in love with him all over again.
“I love you, Aiden,” I whispered, brushing my fingers over his taut stomach.
He looked down at me with something like adoration. It squeezed my heart. He kissed me, soft and slow. “And I love you, Kiera. Always.”
Always.
How long would “always” be with another battle on the horizon?
Aiden pulled out of me and lay on his side, playing with the ends of the scarf he’d given me. “Were you nervous about dancing tonight?”
I didn’t bother to adjust my skirts, merely rolling toward him. “Yes. But seeing you wiped it away. I couldn’t wait to get to you.”
He smiled and brushed my sweaty hair away from my cheeks. “And now I never want to let you go.”
Guilt nipped at my heart. “Aiden, I . . . I need to—”
He kissed away the words on my lips. “I know what you need to say, Kiera. But please . . . say it in the morning. I want my one night.”
My throat tightened, and I nodded.
“Good. I need to make up for months of wanting you. Wishing I could comfort you. Wishing I could forget everything else and just live in the feelings I had for you.”
He stood up and stripped off his unlaced pants. Then he turned the lamp to its brightest.
I blinked at the sudden light. And at the sight of him standing before me, naked, and with a wet, already-hardening cock.
“I didn’t get to really see you before,” he murmured. “I promised myself the next time we were together would be in a proper bed. But now that we’ve had that, I want to see you in the light, Kiera.”
Butterflies erupted in my stomach. I slowly rose, discarding my shirt as I did so.
His eyes darkened with hunger as he stared at my taut breasts. Instead of reaching for them, he loosened the scarf’s knot and used the ends to pull me closer to him.
He hummed, a deep, melodic sound. “Perfect.” He kissed his way from my mouth to each breast, dropping to his knees. His lips grazed my stomach as he pinched my skirt button open.
The heavy material fell to the floor. His fist kept my scarf—and me—in place. He swept his mouth over my center and licked away some of the moisture on my thighs.
I trembled, clutching his silky hair. Gods, the pure joy I felt with him. I’d thought perhaps nothing could surmount our time in The Hollow. But knowing he loved me, after everything we’d been through, filled me with a fierce hope I hadn’t allowed before.
Aiden rose, his lips dragging along my skin as if he couldn’t bear to part with it. His glowing eyes captured me in their depths. He pulled the scarf harder, yanking our bodies flush against each other, our arousal evident between us.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he murmured, echoing my words about the scarf. “And I’m going to savor every inch of you. I’m going to map every cry you make, so I know just how to elicit it again. I’m going to make you mine, Kiera.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, my heart full to bursting, my body on fire for him. “I’m already yours, Aiden.”
His eyes flared. Our mouths crashed together. This time, his hands wandered where they willed. Twisting in my hair. Brushing my hips and ribs. Circling my nipples. Clutching my ass.
I didn’t hold back either, marveling at every taut muscle, every inch of smooth and scarred skin, every place that made him gasp and groan—particularly when I wrapped my hands around his cock. He thrust against my fingers as if he couldn’t help himself.
I grinned and slid him into me like he belonged there.
He growled and grasped my knee, whirling me, until I was bent backward over the small table. The wood scraped my ass, but I didn’t care.
“So good. So fucking good,” I mumbled deliriously as he stroked into me.
I propped myself up, pushing my breasts forward. He immediately devoured one and then the other, never stopping his deep, pounding rhythm.
Gods, I’d never seen anything so erotic as Aiden bent over me, lost in his frantic desire for me. Wave after wave of pleasure rocked through me until they reached a cliff-shattering height.
I let out a ragged cry, the waves still pummeling me as mercilessly as he did.
“More, sweetheart, more. Take as much as you can,” he commanded gently.
His hazy green eyes soaked in every moment of my writhing until I started to calm and quiet. Then he picked up his pace, his brow taut. I lifted my legs over his shoulders, easing him farther in.
He swore and gripped my hips, slamming into me. His thumb circled my most sensitive flesh. I jerked under another shock of lightning just as he released with a long, agonized growl.
He leaned against the table, buried in me. Sweat dripped down his face that I brushed away with my thumbs.
“How’s your map looking?” I whispered.
He smiled and kissed my thumb. “Incomplete. I’ll need more than tonight. It must be perfect.”
I smiled back. “I hope it takes many, many nights then.”
He glowed with happiness.
I’d all but forgotten what I needed to tell him tomorrow. The contentment was too thick, too rich—it blocked out everything else.
Tonight, I was just a woman in love with a man who didn’t need to think about tomorrow.