AURELIA
Harrison and I were falling into an easy routine. After he’d plugged my espresso machine in and gave it a spot of pride next to his toaster on the counter in his kitchen, he hooked an arm around my hips and pulled me closer. He grinned and waved his free hand around the space.
“Welcome home, I guess.”
I laughed, my palms falling to his chest and my fingers scrunching the fabric of his shirt. “Wow. That was enthusiastic.”
“I’ll carry you over the threshold once we’re married. It seems a bit redundant to do it twice.” One of his hands moved to my hip and he gripped it tightly. “If we do stay in San Francisco, would you like to move in here?”
“I’ll stay anywhere with you.” Surprisingly, it wasn’t even a line, but I saw the teasing light in his eyes and I shook my head. “It’s true. This place is amazing and I love it. We can stay here, sell or rent out my apartment, but we can also find a different place. Somewhere that’s ours. It doesn’t really matter much to me.”
His gaze softened, his forehead lowering to mine. “Alright, then. We’ll stay here for now since your alien coffeemaker hasalready taken up residence, and we’ll look into moving once we decide where we’re going to be?”
I pushed up on my toes, smiling against his mouth before I kissed him. “That sounds like a plan, Mr. Westwood.”
Without hesitating, his arms closed around me and his lips slanted over mine, deepening the kiss in a way that made butterflies rear to life in my stomach. I held on to him, stroking his tongue with my own and moving with him when he started walking backward toward his couch.
He lowered me down when we reached it, but when he didn’t follow me, wrenching his mouth away from my own instead, my eyes flew open. I found him standing in front of me, playfulness combining with the heat in his gaze as it held mine.
“Do you know what I’ve been wanting to do since the very first time I had you here, when you were sitting in that exact spot and proposed to me?”
The memory made me smile, but the way he was looking at me sent anticipation coursing hot and heavy through my veins. “Let me guess. You wanted to bend me over the back of the couch?”
“Well, yeah, but only later. Give me a little bit of credit. I’m more creative than just that.”
“You are.” My breath caught in my throat as he lowered into a crouch, his hands moving to one of my feet and slowly sliding down the zipper of my boot. “What are you doing?”
“Taking off your shoes,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which I supposed it was.
“Okay, fine. Follow-up question. Why are you taking off my shoes?”
“To get you naked.” He glanced up at me as the first boot slid free. “Actually, I’m going to get a fire going first, though.”
A corner of his mouth tugged into a grin and he pulled my other boot off before he pushed himself back up to hisfeet. I noticed the tent behind his fly and my body’s response was immediate, heat pooling between my legs and my nipples stiffening to peaks.
Too slowly, as if he was dragging this out on purpose, he crossed over to the fireplace and lit the fire that had already been packed. After stoking it for a few minutes, he finally turned back to me, where I was already buzzing with that anticipation he’d left behind before he’d gone.
Instead of coming straight back though, he strode across to the main light switch for the room, flipping it and immediately sending us into darkness. Suddenly, the only light came from the fire and the ambient light shining in through the windows.
He’s recreating the scene from that night, I realized, my pulse skittering and then thumping at the thought.
I couldn’t deny that I’d thought about it that night too, however fleetingly. Kissing him. Fooling around with him. Right here on this couch, with the flickering flames as our only witness.
My tongue darted out to wet my lips and he caught it as he came back to me, a soft groan sliding out of him. He got on his knees, and without a word, he reached for the waistband of my jeans and flicked open the button, fingers hooking into it. I lifted my butt so he could pull the fabric free.
He unzipped the short zipper as soon as he had enough access to do it, then pulled my jeans and my panties clean off. Tossing them aside as if he truly didn’t care about designer labels or some sense of decorum, he reached for my sweater next, rising slightly. He pulled it off over my head. To his credit, his gaze was locked on mine as he rose up again, this time to unhook my bra.
I was completely naked in front of him, but for a moment, he didn’t move toward me. He sat back on his knees and admiredme instead, his lips legitimately parting as his jaw grew slack on his next inhale.
“Fuck, you’re stunning,” he murmured breathlessly, his gaze leaving mine to rake across my body. I felt the intensity of his eyes like a caress and I shivered underneath it. Harrison immediately looked back up at my face. “Too cold?”
I shook my head slowly, deciding to try to be as bold as I’d learned he was. “It’s not that.”
“Ah.” He moved closer to me then, big hands falling to my knees and spreading them. “Too horny. That works better for my plans than being too cold.”
He ran his fingers up my thighs, his eyes lowering to the most private part of me. “Do you have any idea how crazy it’s made me, thinking about you right here, just like this?”
Once again, I shook my head, unable to form words. His fingertips burned pathways into my skin, sliding higher with every pass he made over my thighs, but not going quite as far as I needed them to.
