I struggled to stay in the moment and not freak out again. “I think I’d rather have the stew. We can make a salad and open a bottle of wine. What do you say?”
He patted my leg. “I’d say I’m lucky to be dating you.”
Chapter 26
Kurt parked the Jeep in my driveway, and I jumped out, numbly heading around the edge of the garage and toward the front porch. There was only a wisp of sound, and a male body slammed Kurt against the side of the garage. I screamed and scrambled into my purse for my gun before I recognized Aiden as the attacker. He held Kurt against the wall with an arm across his friend’s neck. “Go inside and lock the door. Your house is secure,” Aiden snapped.
I froze. The mask of civility had been stripped completely away from Aiden. His eyes blazed a furious blue, and every muscle in his body was rock solid and rigid.
“Now,” he barked.
I jumped and all but fled into my cottage to lock the door.
My whole body shaking now, I hitched inside my cottage. Okay. No way was Aiden killing Kurt. Probably. Either way, it was silent outside. Where had they gone? I risked a peek through the front window and didn’t see either man.
Fine. My suit was bugging me, so I went to my bedroom and changed into cutoff shorts and a white tank top. My feet were done after being in heels all day, even though they’d been fairly comfortable. So I walked barefoot back into the kitchen and pulled out one of the bags containing frozen Irish stew I’d made a week before. Then I heated up the oven, tossed a salad, and opened a bottle of Cabernet.
I was on my second glass, and the stew was nicely cooking when Aiden made his way inside by using his key. Leaning against the counter, my glass in my hand, I studied him. No bruises, no ripped clothing. Just pure pissed-off male. My heart rate that had finally calmed now shot into attack range again. “Is Kurt dead?” I quipped.
Aiden didn’t smile. His full lips didn’t even twitch.
I sighed. We hadn’t lived in each other’s space enough for me to know how to handle him in this kind of mood—in fact, I’d never seen him in this mood.
Yet, this was Aiden, and I was safe with him. Unlike Kurt. I hoped Kurt wasn’t bleeding in my petunias. “Are you hungry?” I asked.
Aiden’s eyes flared a rare indigo.
I swallowed, and my heart rate accelerated more with a sense of feminine anticipation I would never be able to describe to my sisters. There weren’t any decent descriptions.
So when he started moving toward me, all I could do was freeze on the spot. When he reached me, he shut off the oven, took my wine glass, and drank the entire volume down before setting it to the side.
My breath just gave up. Lungs done. Air over.
He reached for my nape, tangled his long fingers in my hair, and tilted my head to the side. Then he kissed me. I knew the correct term was ‘kiss,’ but it was so much more than that. Heat, fire, danger and more than a hint of anger consumed us both. He went deep and full, taking as much as giving.
I kissed him back, instantly drawn into his storm.
My tank and shorts flew across the room, and I ripped off his shirt before he helped me with his pants. He dropped to his knees and put his mouth on me, and I was already there. Fast and hard, climaxing and crying out his name. Then he was up and kissing me again, his hands on my butt.
It was fast and crazy and so exciting I could barely keep up. In fact, I wasn’t keeping up. He lifted me, and we made it to the sofa, where I found myself bent over, my hair falling over my face. Then he slowly pushed inside me, hard and full. I sucked in air.
Even though we were engulfed in whatever this was, he still went slow and was so damn careful not to hurt me. That, more than anything else, shot my need for him into the stratosphere.
Then he was inside, powering hungrily, fast and hard and nearly out of control.
I broke first, but he was close behind. We both shattered and shuddered, and he was breathing as heavily as I was. When I finally came down, he flipped me around and carried me into the bedroom. My back hit the bed and then he was on me again.
Moonlight cut inside through my sliding glass door, dancing over the impossibly hard angles of his rugged face and illuminating his eyes so I could see the different colors of blue, all glittering for me.
This time, I arched against him and cried out his name.
A while later, after one more time, he curled around me beneath the covers. His hand wandered idly along my arm as he spooned me, and I lazily watched the moonlight play across the lake. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He kissed the back of my head.
Realization tickled through me. Aiden kept fierce control on himself, and I’d never really seen his Irish temper. Oh, I guess I had, but he’d learned to manage it to an impressive degree. When he spoke softly, he was angry. Now, he wasn’t speaking at all. That meant he was beyond angry, and even though he was fantastic at expressing himself physically, and I mean out of this world at it, he wasn’t so great at the verbal process. I patted his hand. “Come on. I’m starving.”
“Go ahead. I’ll just wait for you here,” he murmured.
