by Reina Torres
She felt the warm comfort of Rook’s arm around her shoulders and felt his cheek against hers.
“You okay?”
“Holding it together.”
Hayden touched her arm and Aylin startled at the touch. “Sorry, sweetie.”
Aylin lifted her chin and sucked in a breath. “It’s... it’s okay.”
“Good,” Hayden’s smile lifted her spirits, “because there’s one more thing you need to see.” She held up a plastic evidence bag and set it in Aylin’s hand. “I can’t give this back to you yet, but I wanted you to know that we found it and once this is settled. It’ll be yours.”
Tears filled Aylin’s eyes as she looked down at the amethyst pendant separate from the broken golden chain.
“What’s that?”
Leaving it on her open palm, Aylin turned to Stillman. “Dad gave it to me last night to match the earrings he gave me for the wedding.” The tears fell hard and fast then. “I’m so glad you found it. I didn’t want to lose it.” She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat so she could breathe. “Thanks, Hayden.”
After she handed the evidence bag back to Hayden, she lifted her chin. “What’s next?”
The officer standing by the table with her fingerprint set up held out her hand. “I just need a few minutes.”
As the officer started to take her fingerprints, Aylin nodded and turned to look up at Rook. “If you want to leave, I can get a ride somewhere.”
Hayden looked at the clock. “Do you have to go for your shift?”
Panic.
Aylin felt panic.
So, she might never become a strong, independent woman. Great.
“I’m okay, Still. Go ahead. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about your shift.”
Stillman pulled her closer instead of letting her go. When he wrapped his arms around her, she realized that she’d been shaking like a leaf.
His embrace made her feel safe, comforted, and then she heard his voice as his lips pressed gently against her forehead, her whole heart filled with joy.
“I should have told you, but I forgot in the rush to get down here, I called Cowboy and he got one of the guys from another shift to do a double.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He shifted back a little, setting his hands on her shoulders, meeting her eyes with his own concerned gaze. “Of course, I did. You need me.”
“I could do this without you.”
“You could,” he acknowledged, “but you don’t need to.”
“Still-”
“Aylin-”
She shook her head at him, but she couldn’t help but smile at the way he’d come right back at her. “You’re a really good friend, Still.”
“Friend?” He looked over her shoulder at the officers and pulled her to the side, keeping his hands on her shoulders, and leaning closer until there were just a scant few inches between their noses. “Aylin Blaise, are you actually thinking we’ve ever been just friends?”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.” If Stillman didn’t want to kiss her so much, he’d just do it, but he really wanted to get into her head and figure out what she was thinking.
“I love you, Still. I know you don’t want that. I know you want me to… you know,” she tried to shrug off his hands, “I don’t know what you wanted me to do. You wanted me to go out with people and leave you behind and then you wanted to be around me, but not be close to me. So, you’re asking me what I think… I think… that I’m confused about what you want from me. You seem to be making the decisions without asking me. That’s what I think!”
If she wasn’t so riled up and likely to drop him to the ground with a well-placed and well-deserved knee to his nuts, he would have smiled. Aylin Blaise may only have her last name because of his Chief, but she was coming into it on her own.
Fiery.
And gorgeous.
He knew he had to come clean and there wasn’t a single second to waste.
“You know how guys don’t like to ask for directions?”
“Oh boy, yes.” The officer who’d taken care of Aylin’s fingerprints blushed and apologized. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear.”
And Hayden shrugged. “And I’m not talking about Boone, but the guys that I knew who didn’t even try to look at the instructions on furniture before trying to put it together?”
Aylin gestured at the ladies. “Okay. They’ve made your point, but I still don’t know-”
“I’m an idiot. A stupid fool.”
Hayden cough-covered a laugh. “Oh, this is getting good.”
Stillman ignored the officers, keeping his focus on Aylin. “I don’t know how you’re still talking to me, baby, but I’m thankful for the chance to tell you that I may be slow to the punch, but I love you, Aylin.”
He’d managed to stun her into silence.
“I love you. So, if you want me to walk away, I’m going to fight you on it. I wasted time pushing you away, so I’ve got time to make up for and that starts today.”
He watched her think and he was struck again with how much he loved to watch the wheels turn in her head. Her expressive eyes and the myriad of expressions that played across her features could keep him watching her all day long.
Smiling at her, he could only remind himself how close he’d come to losing moments just like this. “What’s going on in your head?”
Her eyes closed and then her lips curved in a smile.
When she opened her eyes again, her brown eyes were almost glimmering with humor. “Just thinking that you’re wrong. Again.”
He wasn’t surprised that she put it back in his face, but he was happy that she didn’t mind going toe to toe with him. He loved her fighting spirit. “Do tell.”
Aylin opened her mouth to speak, but then she turned to look at the two officers who were watching them with rapt attention.
“Maybe we should go and talk about this someplace else?”
He nodded. “Sure. That would be a good idea. Your place?”
“Oh my god, no! That place is like Grand Central Station! Not that I’ve been, but no, can we go back to yours?”
Stillman looked at Hayden. “Do you need her again?”
"Not today and as soon as we analyze the other set of fingerprints. When we identify them, I believe it would only be a short time until we’ll be able to get the arrest warrant for Sean. After that, you’ll hear from either our office or the district attorney, but we’ll be here for you no matter what.”
“Then, I’ll take Aylin back to my apartment so we can finish this conversation.”
He wasn’t sure what to expect when they got home because the look on her face, the strong tilt of her chin, the bright look in her eyes. Anticipation? Worry?
Stillman knew he couldn’t leave her to worry or feel uncertain about his feelings.
Touching her face with his hands, leaning in to lay his cheek against hers, Stillman told her the truth of his heart. “I want you to know this, Aylin. I love you in a way that I’ve never loved anyone else. When we get back to my apartment, I’m going to start showing you how much.”
The look in her eyes softened.
Her breathing slowed.
And her mouth, with her perfect lips, curved into the most beautiful of smiles.
“I’m hoping that will include chocolate at some point,” she told him, “but yes, we need to talk... alone.”
She tucked herself into his side and they walked out together.
She’d been floating since Still had said the words. Floated to his car and still managed to keep her borrowed shoes on. She was surprised that the seatbelt managed to hold her down. And when they reached his apartment, she wasn’t sure she’d even touched a step on the way up to the second floor.
And they’d done all of that in silence.
She, miraculously, hadn’t talked his ears off.
And he... well, he had a grin on his face that wasn’t much more than little curves at the corners of
his mouth, but she could see something in his expression.
Aylin just didn’t know what to call it, except to say that he looked... proud.
Once he closed the door behind them, he turned and wrapped her up in his arms. “What do you want first? Dinner? Foot rub?”
She laughed at the eager sound of his voice. “Dinner? It’s barely time for breakfast.”
“Okay,” he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose, “breakfast then. What do you want? Omelet? Eggs and bacon? Pancakes?”
She kicked the shoes off of her feet and lifted her hands until she could lay her hands on his chest. “Can you make all of that?”
He shrugged and his smile deepened. “I am handy around the kitchen.”
She moved her hands, sliding them down just a bit, feeling the warmth of his skin and the strength of his muscles under the t-shirt he was a wearing. “What other skills do you have, Still?”
Aylin felt a sudden hitch in his breath, and realized that her voice had deepened, softened with her emotions. Breathy, maybe... but maybe a little sultry too.
And she wanted to be that, for him.
She wanted him to feel that attraction for her... feel the need to be closer to her.
“Besides being my knight last night, I mean.”
He smiled and his hands found her hips, cradling them in his gentle grasp. “No shining armor,” he sighed, “just my workout gear.”
“Like I care,” she looked up into his eyes. “It’s your actions that make you a hero, but then again, those workout pants would be great for your superhero costume. I wouldn’t mind getting another look at you in them.”
She swore she could feel one single memory pass between them. Skin to skin, heart to heart, she knew that both of them were thinking about what happened the night before.
“You should know,” she lowered her eyelids until the room was lost in darkness, but she opened them back up against to look in his eyes so he could see that she was reaching down deep to tell him the truth, “I’m not a virgin.”
He nodded but kept quiet.
“And Sean thought that meant that I was easy. It wasn’t his fault entirely, I guess. He said that Wes told him we were sleeping together. So maybe that was the excuse that made him think I’d be open to... whatever he wanted from me in his car.
“Then he drugged my drink. I’m guessing he didn’t know that I’d get nauseous from it. Rhett told me about the side-effects that I’d been experiencing. It felt horrible while it was happening, but I think it’s what saved me.”
Aylin grew quiet, struggling to organize her thoughts and startled when Still brushed his knuckles over her cheek.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
Her smile lifted her own spirits. “I know, Still, but I want you to understand what I’m feeling.”
“Anything,” he assured her, “whatever you need from me.”
She rose up on the balls of her feet and pressed a line of kisses along his jaw. “I just need you like this. Don’t push me away, Still. Let me love you the way I think I’ve loved you since the night you saved my life.”
He walked her backward until she felt the cool tile of the kitchen under her feet and his hands found her waist and lifted her onto the edge of the table. She didn’t worry about sliding off with his hands settled on her hips and the way he stepped between her legs until she almost had them wrapped around his body.
She had to tip her head back a little to look up into his eyes, but it was worth that little effort to see the warmth of emotion in them.
Smiling, she let out a sigh. “This works for me too.”
She wasn’t joking. Having his body pressed so intimately against hers felt fantastic. He’d already seen her naked, helped her towel off after he warmed her in his tub, but the moment hadn’t felt sexual in its intimacy. Instead, she’d felt treasured and comforted.
And yet, just a few short hours later, she sat in his kitchen, wearing his clothes, and all she wanted to do was bare herself to him not just physically, but emotionally as well.
“Because if you want to push me away again. That’s not going to work.”
Stillman’s arms wrapped around her, hugging her close against his athletic body, and his hands cupped her backside and pulled her tight against his hips.
Oh.
The hard bulge pressed tight against her core stole her breath and her eyelids slid closed as she enjoyed the sensation.
And as his fingers bit into the curve of her ass, tugging her closer still, she felt heat flare between her legs and the tips of her breasts tighten into hard peaks.
Opening her eyes again, she saw his gaze dip down to her chest and she followed their path. The shirt she’d pulled on from his chest of drawers was an orange Longhorns shirt and the relatively bright color of the fabric made no secret of how tight her nipples had become.
And if the flex of sensation she had stirring between her thighs was any indication, Still saw them too.
“If you...”
Aylin watched him draw in a breath and saw the sunlight slanting in through the window burnishing his skin to a deep bronze. “If I... what?”
“I’m afraid to ask you.”
She could hear it in his voice, and she could understand the worry. If he was someone else, she might have felt differently, but Aylin was no stranger to the idea of taking hold of what you want.
Life was and always would be too uncertain to waste it on regrets.
“Ask about us?” She wondered aloud. “You don’t want to ask me if I’d want to wait to have you touch me... and touch you in return?”
He didn’t speak, but she saw the way his Adam’s Apple worked along the column of his throat.
Saw the darkening of his eyes as they lovingly traced over the way her nipples were outlined by the sunlight in his apartment.
And she felt the aching throb of his erection pressed tight between her legs.
“What if I told you that I didn’t want to wait, Still? What if I told you that I love you not just because you make me feel safe, but that you make my body hungry for your touch, ravenous even?
“Because before, when I lost my virginity, it was because I was stupid and acting out and struggling with who I was. With what I wanted out of life. It was painful and blissfully short, and I lied through my teeth because he looked as uncomfortable as I felt. I’m not that girl anymore. I’m a woman who is in love with a man who finally told her he feels the same way. You may be my hero twice over, Still, but I’m under no misconceptions about who you are or what you are to me. So, we can wait, or you can show me what it’s like to be loved, body and soul.”
Stillman leaned in and brought his lips within an inch of hers. He wanted to taste her lips, stroke her tongue with his, but there was something odd about that strange moment between them.
“On that first night when I brought you home and kissed you on your cheek, I knew I’d messed up. I knew the instant I saw the expression in your eyes that I had gone off on the wrong track. Since then I’ve felt like there were so many moments when we kissed. Every smile, every touch, every beautiful laugh that you shared with me.”
He saw her blink back tears as she lifted a hand to his cheek and stroked her fingertips over his skin.
“I know, I feel like we’ve kissed thousands of times and yet, here we are, wondering what to do next.” Her sigh tugged at his heartstrings and drew him ever closer.
“Then I’ll take the next step, Aylin. I’ll show you where those thousands of kisses have gotten us.”
The sensation of her lips against his felt like heaven. Soft and full, her lips pressed against his and as she drew in a breath, the air passed between them and they kissed and kissed again, sharing the very air they breathed.
Turning his head, the friction of their lips opened her mouth to him. Tongue against tongue, they stroked not only the building fever of arousal, but they felt the heady texture of need, rasping and raw.
Stillman wondered how the simple a
ct of kissing someone could feel so innocent one moment and so carnal the next.
And then it didn’t matter how... it just mattered that it was.
Her hands slipped under his shirt and her fingers stroked his abs, her fingertips catching on the ridges of his muscles. His hands combed through her curls and he felt his hands grasp a handful and wrap them around his fingers. He didn’t tug or pull, but the restless way she moved against him, leaning into his kisses created enough of a tangle to wring a gasp from her throat.
He released her hair, sliding his hands down to her shoulders, holding her steady and still until her head tipped back, revealing her neck to his hungry gaze. The natural golden-brown cast of her skin was always beautiful to him but seeing the flush of her arousal adding a tint of rose under it made the color all the more vibrant.
He couldn’t help the need he had to taste her skin, no more than he could stop the furious pounding of his pulse as he smelled his soap on her body. His lips found her pulse, his tongue traced it to the tender spot below her ear and it was her hand that clasped the back of his head and held him against her.
So many nights he’d lain awake tormented by the thought of her alone, or worse, being touched by someone else and yet that was what he’d fought for, thinking it was better.
And he was making himself a fool a thousand times over, because what could be better than the chance to feel her tremble against his lips.
“Yes...”
He heard her breathy moan and realized that he was the one drawing that sound from her throat. His hand, under her borrowed shirt, smoothing over her belly and then up over her ribs.
Aylin’s breath caught in her lungs as his hand cradled her breast, fitting the graceful curve of her flesh between his thumb and forefinger. He swept his thumb over the tip of her breast and nudged her nipple with the side of his finger.
“I’ve got to see you.”
He lifted the hem of the t-shirt and swept the hem of it over her head. She leaned back on the table, and the shirt caught at her elbows, but she didn’t move, didn’t lift up to discard it. No, she shook out her hair, creating a wild fall of her thick reddish-brown curls behind her shoulders. And the look she gave him would be burned into his memory for years to come. Innocent hunger with just a hint of her infectious humor met his eyes.
