He shook his head as he tried the door and sighed in relief when he found it unlocked. He pulled her inside, into the darkness, and shut it behind them. It was dark inside, but through the small windows a sliver of light from the house above, the moon above and the lamps on the path just a short few paces away gave itsomeillumination.
Enough to see the hesitation on her face. She looked around at the tools hanging from hooks, the narrow open space, the door behind him. Perhaps she should have been afraid to be in such a position.
She didn’t look like she was afraid. She licked her lips slowly and his cock began to ache.
“I didn’t like seeing you with him,” Clairemont whispered at last.
She caught her breath at that admission, her pupils dilating in the dim light and her chest rising with her reaction. She was surprised, but he could see there was some small part of her that liked this barbaric possessiveness.
“We—we ended our engagement months ago, Aiden,” she whispered, her voice catching slightly. “Whatever you think you saw, Stenfax is nothing but a friend to me. It isn’t like that between us.”
He moved toward her in the small room, close enough that he caught a whiff of her honeysuckle scent and felt the warmth of her body heat. “How is it?” he asked. “Between you and him?”
She blinked up at him. “It’s nothing,” she whispered.
“And how is it between you and me?”
She caught her breath, and then she lifted trembling hands to cup his cheeks. “Everything,” she murmured.
He crushed his mouth down to hers in response to that powerful declaration, and she didn’t resist. She opened to him, mewling out a soft sound of pleasure and surrender. Blood rushed in his ears, his heart pounded out of control, his hands shook as he dragged her against him so he could feel every inch of her body pressed to his.
He wanted her so much. He wanted to strip her bare and make love to her, to claim her. But he couldn’t do that. If he did that, he would utterly destroy her, and that was wrong.
But he had to do something to mark her as his. More than that to mark himself as hers. Something to give them both pleasure. Something neither of them would forget.
He pulled away from her mouth, panting as he looked around the tight space. Along one wall was a small portable bench, perhaps something the grounds staff sat on when working on maintenance. It wasn’t big, but it would do for what he desired.
He kissed her again, backing her toward the bench. When they reached it, he let her go.
“Sit down,” he said softly.
She blinked at him in confusion. “Wh-why?” she asked.
He smiled. “Because I want to touch you, Celia. I want to give you such pleasure. And it will be much easier to do that if you sit down.”
Celia was shaking as she slowly lowered herself onto the bench behind her. She looked up at Aiden, uncertain what to do. Uncertain what she wanted to do. When he’d come into the gazebo and interrupted her and Stenfax, she hadn’t been able to read him. He’d seemed angry with her, but now…
This was something entirely different.
He dropped to his knees on the dusty floor, and she gasped. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer verbally, but leaned in for another kiss. He’d kissed her before, but this time felt different. There was more purpose to it, more demand. Like he had been resisting before but now he couldn’t anymore.
And neither could she. When he said he wanted to pleasure her, she found it was all she wanted. She wouldn’t resist. She couldn’t.
He continued to kiss her even as his fingers glided along her collarbone, gently teasing the sensitive flesh there. His hands glided lower, lower, until he reached the neckline of her gown.
Only then did he pull back. “I won’t ruin you,” he whispered. “Will you trust me?”
She blinked. Ruin had been the last thing on her mind. If he was ultimately going to marry her, ruination didn’t matter. But she nodded. “Yes, I trust you, Aiden.”
His eyes fluttered shut with that statement, almost as if it pained him. But then he let the flat of his palm crest over her breast and gently began to massage.
She arched immediately. No one had ever touched her like this before. Oh, she’d felt an ache in her breasts, a tingling in her nipples, but this was different.Thiswas heavenly.
She let her head loll back and surrendered to the sensation as he massaged then flicked her nipple through the thin fabric of her ball gown.
“I wish I could undress you,” he growled as he leaned in to kiss her collarbone, “and take my time. But we’ll be missed soon, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t savor this more.”
