“Only if you remember that I was incredibly intoxicated when I asked for it and you don’t hold it against me.”
“I’ll do my best to be a neutral party, but no promises.”
We walk hand-in-hand down the hallway, pausing briefly so Aiden can show off the picture from Maven’s state swim meet last year, where she won the one-hundred-meter freestyle. He’s so animated when he talks about her, with twinkling eyes and a full heart. It’s infectious, that love. It swallows you whole and reminds you of all the good left in the world. You don’t hear many people talk so emphatically and passionately about someone they care for these days. But Aiden? He gushes over his child’s achievements, so proud of everything she’s accomplished. It makes him even more attractive.
I take a seat on the stool again, and he scoops us out some ice cream. Mint chocolate chip, I notice, and I bite back a grin when he hands over my glass bowl.
“We both agree this is just for tonight. When you leave tomorrow, we won’t try to hunt the other down,” he starts. He eats a spoonful and winces, clearly experiencing a mild bout of brain freeze.
“Anything that happens in here, we keep to ourselves. Within reason, of course. I don’t know if your best friend is going to ask for details like mine, but no kink-shaming allowed after the fact. If we agree to something, we respect the privacy of the other when all is said and done.”
“Brilliant. You know how long it’s been for me since I’ve been with someone. If you feel comfortable—”
“Four years. No one since I’ve been divorced.”
A solar flare of possessiveness kindles behind Aiden’s eyes. “Fuck, Maggie. It might make me an asshole for being glad you’ve gone unsatisfied for so long, but it’s hot as fuck I’m going to be the first to touch you. Now—Expectations. Sex, obviously. I hate to make this sound so clerical when all I want to do is toss you on my bed, but I don’t want to do anything that crosses a firm boundary you have.”
I push my ice cream around with my spoon and hunch my shoulders. “I’m not sure I can tell you that.”
He pauses and peers at me. “Okay,” he says gently, waiting for more.
“It’s because I don’t know what firm boundaries I might have.”
SEVENTEEN
AIDEN
Shit.
Did I massively fuck up? Read into this way more than I should have? She was married, so I assumed she was experienced. Now I’m second-guessing everything.
AndMaggie. Her confidence wavers and the calm, cool demeanor splinters, an emotion akin to shame taking over. The swagger she had when she leapt into my arms is gone. She curls in on herself, and this is the farthest away she’s felt from me all day. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say or do. Apologize? Wait? Be the first to speak?
Fuck it. I don’t like seeing her like this. I’m going in.
“Hey.” I keep my voice soft and reach across the island to find her hand. I lace her fingers through mine and give her palm a squeeze. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” It’s curt, a sweeping dismissal. She’s obviouslynotokay, but I’m not going to push it. Her chin dips and her eyes dart away, focusing on the crumbs left behind from the number we did on the garlic bread. “It’s embarrassing to say.”
“There’s no judgment in this house. You’re allowed to like whatever you want.”
“It’s not that.” She scoots her chair closer to mine. I use my other hand to rub soothing circles on her knee, over the fabric of her dress. I hope it conveys some sort of assurance that she’s safe here. “Promise to not make fun of me?”
“I promise, sweetheart.”
“I was married for five years. Throughout my marriage, sex was only used to try and get pregnant. It was always planned, sticking to the same routine every time. He never made me come. He never went down on me. We never tried anything out of the box. There’s so much I think I might like, but I’m not sure.”
“He… he never made you come?” I ask through clenched teeth. “He just finished and that was that?”
Maggie nods. “Yeah. I’d suggest different positions I thought would be hot after reading them in my books, and he’d roll his eyes. He’d call them dirty or say he didn’t understand the point. Sex is sex, no matter how it’s done. Why bother being adventurous?”
My hand lifts, and I bring it to the curve of her cheek. It dances over to the plump lips covered in firehouse red, a darker, more sensual shade than this afternoon. “You bother being adventurous because what your woman wants, your woman gets. No questions asked. He never tasted you, Maggie? Never ate you out until you were begging to finish? Never wore your come on his mouth like a goddamn prize?”
Maggie’s breathing shifts. Pink blossoms on her chest, and her eyes glaze over. “No.”
“He never fucked you from behind and watched the way your perfect ass bounced as you sank onto his dick?”
“Never,” she whispers. Her thighs open, and the pink from her cheeks moves down to her chest.
