Chapter 34 Annalise
Chapter thirty-four
Annalise
“Congratulations on completing your mission,” Captain Lin says at the end of our debrief.
“Yes, you made a very convincing couple and truly played to each other's strengths,” Major Halden adds. “We would like to put you back together in these roles for a future mission, if you both feel like you can continue to be a successful team?”
“Yes, Sir,” we answer in unison.
“Good. Congratulations, again. You were under a lot of pressure with that fire alarm, but you made it work like pros.”
“Thank you,” I say, shaking his hand before leaving the clearing.
As soon as Aiden and I are on our own, I grab his arm, bouncing up and down. “Ace, we did it! High marks all around and only a few critiques!”
“Of course we did, you were amazing.”
“WE were amazing! Ahh! I can’t wait to hear how Sasha’s and Matt’s debriefings go. I’m going to send them a quick text, and then we can head back to the room to talk. Is that ok?”
“Ana, relax. First, you don’t need to ask me about texting your friends.
We can wait here for them if that’s what you really want.
My only plan tonight is to be with you.” He gives me a gentle kiss.
“And second, I don’t want you to feel pressured about this talk.
We both have our own pasts. If you don’t feel comfortable telling me everything yet, then just tell me what you can. ”
Maybe it’s that he is willing to give me the time, but I find myself wanting to put it all out there. If he’s going to really be with me, I don’t want him to question why I flinch when men move too fast towards me, or for Sasha or Matt to make a comment and make him feel like an outsider.
“They can fill us in over breakfast; I’d really like to tell you tonight.”
He smiles as he puts me down. “Okay, Honey. We’ll talk tonight, but we need to stop by the dining hall to grab food to go. We haven’t eaten anything since the ice cream.”
I take a slow breath. The words feel like getting paper cuts repeatedly, on purpose, as they come out.
“My dad isn’t a good man. He drinks a lot and likes to hurt people.
Well, not people, me really. He’s actually the Sheriff back home.
” I want to stop there, but I told him I’d give him the full truth.
“One night he came after me when I had just gotten home from work. He had already been drinking his whiskey for a while, and when he noticed he had finished the bottle off, he accused me of taking it and used his fists to try to get it back.”
Aiden stays quiet, listening as he takes my hand.
“I was in pretty bad shape when Matt showed up. He tried to stop him, but my dad is a tank. He got some really bad hits in on Matt, and it took him a bit to get back up. When my dad came for me again, I accepted that he wasn’t going to stop.”
Aiden’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t look away.
“When I was on the verge of passing out from him strangling me, I reached for the only thing I could, and stopped him first,” I add softly. “He’s practically worshiped back home, so we knew there was no chance of us getting a fair trial if he was dead, so Mattey got me out.
“After a car chase and a brief swim in the river, we were arrested. Found out shortly after that he’d made it through surgery.
When it all went to court, he made up a story about catching us stealing and trying to elope.
Claimed the injuries I had were from the car accident and that he was the victim. ”
I feel like I’m going to throw up as he sits next to me, silently processing.
“Matt. How did he even know to come over?” He asks thoughtfully.
“Honestly, it was just the stars aligning,” I say, remembering Matt’s answer when I’d asked him the same question.
“We have a thing where I text him when I’m going to bed every night.
It’s a simple ‘home safe’ message, so he knows I don’t need his help bandaging me up or resetting bones, or whatever.
He didn’t know I had taken an extra personal training appointment that night, so when he saw the time and should have already gotten a message, his mind went to worst-case scenario, and he walked over.
He was about to cut between our houses to come to my bedroom window to check on me when he heard me screaming.
“He shouldn’t even be here, really. He saved me, but he wasn’t the one who attempted murder.”
Over the next few hours, I tell Aiden all about Matt and the role he’s always played in my life, about my mom leaving, and several examples of my dad's abuse.
I recount finding ways to hide the bruises every time I stepped out of the house, and the real reason I thought something was up with Greg.
I tell him about the final night at my dad’s, about jail and our sentencing, and even about the nightmares, night terrors, and dissociation responses—skipping the incident with Korr after Aiden had left the course, I don’t need him feeling guilty about something that he had no control over.
I cycle through almost every imaginable emotion as I bear my soul to him, and all the while he listens and holds me.
He goes through his own wave of emotions as he gently asks questions.
Some of the time he’s relaxed, some of it he’s pulling me into him as if I might disappear, and other times I think his jaw is clenched so tight that he’ll crack his teeth.
And now that I’ve said everything, he’s just lying here in my bed, holding me.
I wake up over an hour before my running alarm is set to go off, the glow of the moon providing the only light.
Aiden is still here, still holding me with his arm slung over my waist like it’s been there for years instead of hours.
For a couple of minutes, I just watch him.
The peace he finds in his sleep makes me envious, but as I lie here in the wake of all I exposed last night, his steady breath becomes an anchor for me.
Then his hand twitches, tightening around me. “You’re staring,” he murmurs, voice rough with sleep.
“No, I’m not,” I whisper back automatically.
His mouth curves into a sleepy smile without opening his eyes. “You definitely are, but it’s ok; I like staring at you too.”
I sigh, but it comes out as a laugh. “You were snoring. I was—making sure you weren’t choking to death.”
He finally opens one eye, mock-offended. “I don’t snore.”
“Oh, you totally do,” I tease, rolling onto my back. “Little huffing noises. Like a grumpy bear.”
He chuckles, the sound low and warm, “Well, you were talking to me in your sleep,” he pulls me back against him and rubs my stomach the same way he had on the beach, “calling me husband and asking what we are going to name our baby girl when she gets here.”
My face heats instantly. “Liar.”
“Swear on my life.” His grin widens as he nuzzles into my hair. “Cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Clearly, he had been having some wild dreams.
For a long, quiet moment, neither of us moves. The night before lingers in the air between us, the things I told him.
“You sure you’re okay after last night?” he asks softly.
I nod. “Honestly, it feels like a weight lifted off me. I’ve never told anyone all of it. Matt obviously knows most of it, but I didn’t always tell him when it was happening because I didn’t want him to feel bad for not being there.”
“You can always tell me,” He brushes his thumb over my hand. “I want to be your safe place, Ana.”
I smile into his chest. For the first morning in a long time, I don’t feel like I have to run to find a sliver of peace.
“Can we go back to sleep now, Honey? The sun isn’t even up yet.”
I should be nice and say yes. Cuddle up and go back to sleep, but since I’ll never be able to tell him how much I appreciate what he’s given me in the last twelve hours by merely listening, there is nothing more that I want than to show him, right now.
“Yeah, you can go back to sleep,” I say as I roll so I’m facing him, then I lightly trace each of his abs with the tip of my finger before moving slowly below his belly button until my hand disappears beneath his waistband to find his velvety cock.
“What are you doing, Ana?” He groans and slowly thrusts his rapidly hardening dick further into my hand.
“You’re tired, Ace. Go back to sleep,” I tease.
“You know that’s not going to happen. Now, take off my shirt so I can say good morning to your gorgeous nipples.”
It takes me a second to remember him pulling one of my oversized shirts off of me before taking his own off and helping me put it on.
“Only if you take off your underwear,” I bargain because, truthfully, trying to get them down without his help would be an awkward endeavor, sure to ruin the mood, and I took the opening when I saw it.
Sitting up on my knees, I let him watch me pull the shirt off, slowly revealing that I had taken off my sleep shorts when I’d gotten hot overnight.
“Gods damn me, you’re absolutely perfect.” He says as he traces my curves with his hands, and I kick one leg over him until I am straddling him, his dick standing at attention against my ass.
“Wait, where are the condoms?” I ask, ready to jump up and grab one really fast if they’re still in his pants pocket.
“No condom.”
“Aiden! You don’t have any?”
“Oh, I had some, but we’re not using them. I want to feel you bare.”
His free hand comes between us and starts rubbing my clit perfectly. I let out a moan and lose any chance I had at making an argument.
“I’m clean, and I’m on the pill, so we don’t have to worry about me getting pregnant,” I rush out, as the pleasure he’s giving me rocks my body.
“I wasn’t worried.”
Before I can process what he meant, he adds, “Now be a good girl and strangle my cock with that tight little cunt of yours.”
I test just how slowly I can lower myself down onto his hard length in defiance of his command. He seems to appreciate my own brand of torture, though, as he groans and reaches up to pinch my nipples.
Instantly, I’m spreading my legs a little wider, wanting to take him all in one go. When I’m fully seated, I have to pause to take a deep breath. I forgot how big he is, and it's only amplified at this angle.
“Yes, that’s it, Ana. You’re fucking perfect; you were made to take all of me.”
As the pressure settles, I begin rolling my hips, causing his eyes to roll into the back of his head in pleasure, and his breath comes even faster. I pick up my speed, grinding on him so hard that my clit rubs against him, causing me to cry out.
On my next grind, he grips my waist and thrusts up into me with the power of a battering ram; I scream.
“Shhhh.” His hand covers my mouth gently, “You’re going to wake our neighbors.”
“MY neighbors. And you made me!” I protest with the space he’s still giving me, but that seems to make him smile bigger.
“Yes. I. did.” Pure male satisfaction.
We’re both breathing hard as I put everything I have into riding him. The sense of power I feel with every sound he makes only fuels my movements. I lift partially off him, the feeling of his tip hitting my walls making me moan, before I drop back down onto him and roll against him.
“Fuuuck. Just like that,” he says before reaching up and pulling my ass toward him.
“You like that?” I tease and do it again and again.
“Yes. Oh Fuck. Yes, I love it.”
I’m like a woman possessed. I’ll do anything he asks to keep hearing the barely there restraint in his voice.
“Come down here.” He demands as he takes my nipple back into his mouth. He bites down so hard I must be bleeding, but then he instantly soothes it with his tongue and thrusts deep into me again.
Moaning, I pick up my pace, rolling down hard onto his cock.
I keep grinding on him as I feel him swell inside of me.
“Yes, Ana. Just like that. Don’t fucking stop, I’m going to fill you with so much of my come that it’ll be dripping down your leg the rest of the day.”
I repeat the motion and flex every pussy muscle around him that I can, as I rock faster and faster.
“Oh Fuck. Come with me. Come right. Fucking. Now.” He commands as he pulls me down and thrusts up at the same time. Burying my face in his chest, I try to muffle the scream that rips from my lips as my body obeys him.
I can feel our orgasms mixing and slowly dripping down my leg as his dick continues to pulsate inside me. Clinching around him, I milk out his release until I can’t hold myself up any longer and collapse onto his chest.
He chuckles beneath me, “If our neighbors weren’t already awake, they sure are now.”
“Shut up.” My blush thankfully is hidden by the color already there from the exertion and the lack of light. “Now we can go to sleep. If I don’t get a little more rest, there is no way I'm going to make it through Combat Class this morning.”
“Already so bossy,” he tsks with affection, and kisses my forehead.