Chapter 13 #2
With others, sex had just been something fun – an easy and relatively healthy way to relieve stress and distract himself from the darker things in life.
And it was something he very specifically kept separate and disentangled from the rest of his life.
But Mia was right there, and she knew everything – all of those darker, scarier things that took up his waking moments and tormented him when he should have been sleeping – and she was still there, feeling oh so perfect as she pressed against him and kissed him, weaving the fingers of one hand through his hair.
He’d intended to keep things sweet and gentle but Mia wrapped her spare hand around his neck, her fingers tightening to the perfect pressure that made him ache for even more.
After a few sweet kisses, she pressed against him more tightly and parted his lips with her tongue.
The taste of her was intoxicating and he suddenly couldn’t remember why he was holding back.
When she scraped her teeth over his lower lip before kissing him so hard that it almost hurt, his mind whited out and he snaked his spare arm around her back, dragging her up and tightly against him so he could lose himself, devouring her mouth.
She pulled back after a few seconds, her hand not releasing its grip while she looked at him, her eyes searching his face before she leaned into him again, this time kissing him sweetly and slowly, stealing his breath and senses.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, pinning her firmly against him and kissing her back – revelling in the taste and feel of her while he lost all track of time and quite possibly his mind.
When she eventually broke away from his lips, gasping, it was to stroke a gentle hand over his cheek and look him straight in the eye.
‘Aiden, I’ve really enjoyed this evening.
If you need to get back, I’ll understand, but if you can stay longer’ – she leaned over and turned off the projector they’d both been ignoring – ‘I really would love it.’
‘I can stay.’
‘Are you sure?’ She pulled away and stood up. ‘Because I can be persuasive, if I need to.’
‘Oh, I think I really want to see that.’
‘Funny… I thought you might.’ She slowly, teasingly drew up the supersoft jumper-dress she was wearing until he could see the lacy tops of her stockings.
She grinned at him – one of those looks that made his mouth go dry – and inched the dress higher, then higher, then dropped it on the floor, leaving just her creamy skin and black lace. ‘Well? Do you like?’
‘Princess,’ he breathed, ‘that is one hell of an argument.’
‘I thought so.’ She shrugged and gave a little shimmy, and the firelight flickered and stroked over her skin. ‘Are you coming upstairs?’
When she turned, he jumped up and caught her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and pulling her back against him. ‘You are stunning.’
Energy sparked from his fingers – and she gasped in surprise as it zapped across her skin. ‘What…?’
He stroked her hair away from her neck and marvelled at the flash of magic that lit up her skin where he touched her.
She whimpered again, melting against him.
‘It’s magic, Princess.’ He breathed the words against her skin, and she shivered.
‘I told you, you bring it out in me.’ He kissed her neck, running his lips and nose over her skin, loving the way it glowed and how she shivered again.
She pressed back against him, twisting so she could reach up to pull his lips down to hers, and he felt the energy zap back through him, lighting him up from his core.
Every nerve ending seemed to fire at once, deliciously demanding and pushing and tugging him into sensations that he’d never imagined before.
He could feel his hand on the bare skin of Mia’s waist like it was his own skin being touched, and the teasing, gentle stroke of his fingers on her body tickled his hip as well.
When he slid his hand into her bra, pebbling the sensitive skin there and leaving another trail of light, he felt the heat beneath his own shirt. And when she made that delicious whimpering-moan noise, he could almost taste the sound.
He dropped his free hand lower, tracing over the lace at her hip, and stroking a teasing finger along the edge of it as he felt his own muscles tighten in response to the needy pleasure she was feeling.
‘I don’t want to take you to bed,’ he murmured against her ear, his fingers stroking deeper and curling when he felt her body flutter against his touch and the heat tighten and coil deep inside himself.
‘I want you here. Now. You’re always beautiful, Princess, but this is spectacular.
You are spectacular.’ He felt, too, how his words warmed her in a different way to his touch.
‘In this firelight, and with whatever this is’ – he flicked his fingers, sending a flash of magic over her skin and making them both groan – ‘you’re beyond words.
A fantasy I never dared to dream would come to life. ’
She tangled her fingers in his hair to kiss him again, and he could have sworn he saw stars.
He wondered if it was the same for her, but he couldn’t even begin to know how to word that question – especially when his concentration was being so firmly destroyed.
Instead, he begged for the only thing he could think of wanting. ‘Let me have you here. Like this?’
He dipped his fingers lower, to where she was hottest and neediest, and the sensation nearly floored him – with her shiver going through them both.
He locked his arm back around her waist, having every intention of making her come apart there and then.
He nipped her neck, timing it with a flick of his fingers that made her knees quiver.
He tightened his grip on her as he did it again, and she flinched and purred in his arms. ‘Say yes, Mia.’
Say yes? She was having to fight to remember to breathe, let alone how to speak.
Every time he touched her, it was like sparks of electricity shooting through her, his magic lighting her up from the inside out and multiplying the intensity of every touch until even the smallest skim of his fingers was breathtaking.
‘Mia, is this too much?’ He hesitated. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
That thought helped her find her voice. ‘Never.’
He chuckled, sending sound vibrations that coiled with heat deep within her that grew again and again, flushing bright light and passion through her that left her gasping.
When Aiden inhaled, she felt her own lungs expand, and when he pulled her tighter against him, she felt his excitement tighten her lower stomach and make her hips jerk.
Her fingers twitched in his hair as he stroked her and her pleasure mixed with his, blurring together into something she’d never even dreamed of wanting to hope for.
Her senses heightened, growing until they overwhelmed her as they blended together and she could taste Aiden’s excitement and joy and see the heat of the fire bouncing over her skin to add another layer of exquisite sensation.
She could hear Aiden’s delicious touch as drumming beats and chimes that echoed through her, driving her higher and hotter, leaving trails of colour that bleached into white stars as she exploded into bliss.
She was vaguely aware of her legs giving way, her body folding into the pleasure, but it didn’t matter as she floated above the version of herself that Aiden held tightly, watching her with an odd mix of affection, pride and hunger as he murmured things she couldn’t hear.
When she dropped back into her still quivering body, he was sitting on the rug in front of the fire with her cradled against him, his fingers still drawing lines of fire and pleasure over her ribs and spine.
She wriggled awkwardly, trying to get her brain – and body – to function past the taste, feel and need for him long enough for her clumsy fingers to bare his skin. He helped, shucking off clothes quickly.
She didn’t speak – she wasn’t sure if she could – as she drew his lips to hers, kissing him like he was the air she needed to breathe. She wasn’t sure that he wasn’t.
She shifted without breaking that magical sweet, hot, tingling connection – forcing herself to her knees on shaking legs until she could straddle him.
Until she could sink down onto him, welcoming his aching, throbbing need into her warmth.
He broke the kiss then, groaning and pulling her more tightly against him, his arms a vice around her waist and back. ‘Mia…’
‘It’s OK. I’ve got you.’ She folded her arms and legs around him, and kissed him as she rocked with him, pulling him into his own sense-muddling, mind-stealing rainbow explosion.
Aiden cuddled Mia against him, and tucked the blanket from the sofa around her. He stroked his fingers through her hair, gently starting to untangle some of the knots he’d helped create.
‘That was… different.’
‘Yeah.’ She giggled. ‘Do you have any idea…?’
‘I think, somehow, my magic is reacting to you.’
‘But we’ve…’
She didn’t have to finish the sentence for him to know the thought. ‘Yeah, we have, but it’s the first time we’ve been together like this since you woke up to magic.’
‘Do you think it will be like this every time?’ She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to say yes or no.
‘I’m not sure, but would you be offended if I said I kind of hoped not? I mean, that was… beyond words… but I think if it was like that every time, you might actually wreck me.’
She giggled, and he felt the echoes of her amusement through his skin.
‘It’d be one helluva way to go, though.’
‘You didn’t tell me you’d had more artwork done.’ Her fingers lazily traced the patterns of his tattoos, over the patch that had finally stopped driving him mad with itching. ‘They’ve healed incredibly well.’
‘I haven’t had anything done. When would I have found time?’