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.”
