by Anna Durand
His hands slid down to cover my behind. Long, powerful fingers massaged my flesh through my jeans, arousing a fire deep inside. He tugged me forward and upward, pressing the rigid line of his erection into my groin. My breaths quickened, and my head grew light, as if the oxygen content of the air had dropped and the only thing that could fill my lungs was his kiss. My gaze flew to his mouth and those luscious, parted lips.
My tongue sneaked out to glide across my lower lip.
Aidan growled low in his throat, so animalistic, so masculine and possessive. His hands gripped my ass more firmly and his fingers dug into my flesh. Not painful, the pressure whetted my appetite for more. Possessed by a compulsion to ravage his mouth, I moved to kiss him.
Clucking his tongue, he pulled his head back. "Not yet, my impatient angel. Ye cannae have me until I've had your pleasure."
An irritated little noise squeaked out of me. I flung my hands up to grasp his face, intent on dragging him in for a bone-melting kiss.
He captured my wrists in his hands, brought them behind my back, and secured them there with one hand. His free hand shifted in front of me, rushing down between our bodies, cupping my groin through my clothes, sliding lower until the heel of his hand rested on my mound and his long fingers stretched between my thighs, hot and strong against my throbbing core. I sucked in a sharp breath, desperate to rip my clothes off right here and now — or to let him do the ripping for me.
As he rubbed his fingers up and down my cleft, the friction of my panties on my bare, swollen flesh somehow intensified the glorious sensation. Oh God, yes. More of this, more of it now. I rocked my hips, urging him to rub harder, faster.
Chuckling, he stilled his fingers. "Easy. No need to rush."
"Why the hell not?"
He grazed his lips across mine, flicking his tongue out to tease the seam. Against my mouth, he murmured, "I want to drive you wild until you beg me to take you. And you will, that's a promise."
As if punctuating his vow, he scraped his fingers up and down my cleft three times in rapid succession. I whimpered, my knees threatening to buckle. He released my wrists to clamp his arm around my back, pinning me to his hard body and pinning his hand to my crotch. He rubbed and rubbed, fast and then slow, faster again until I clutched at his shoulders and threw my head back, lost to the bliss of his touch. The pleasure pulsated through me, stronger every second, driving me toward climax.
Just as I teetered on the brink, he removed his hand and stepped back. He took hold of my hips to keep me from tumbling to the ground.
I gaped at him, panting too hard to speak, on fire in the most intimate ways.
He turned me toward the view, his hands still on my hips, and backed me up toward the car. When my behind bumped the passenger door, he set my hands on the top of the door. "Hold on."
Before I could ask why, he knelt before me and ripped the zipper of my pants down. His fingers dived inside the waistband of my panties. He yanked both pants and panties down over my hips, all the way to my ankles. Exposed to the world, I beheld the man crouched at my feet.
Maybe I should've been nervous about his intentions. Maybe I should've worried about doing this outdoors, where anyone might stumble onto us in flagrante. He'd made sure no other cars were around, and this was a remote area. With Aidan, I never worried about my safety. He gave me a sense of security unlike any I'd known in my life, a sense that nothing bad could come of anything we did together. He would take care of me, no matter what.
A chill tingled over my scalp and down my spine. I trusted this man. Though I'd told him as much this morning, the import of my declaration hadn't hit me until this moment, with my backside squashed against the car and his head between my legs. I trusted him, really trusted him. After seven days together. Seven freaking days.
He picked up one of my feet, moving it to the side, spreading my legs.
The chill dissolved into the sparkling fire of my passion for him, erasing my worries, erasing every thought except my awareness of his hands on my skin and his sizzling appraisal of my body. I still pulsated with a thwarted release. Catching my breath had become impossible, and as I watched him part my folds with his fingers, I lost my breath.
How did he do this to me? How —
Aidan blew on my overheated flesh.
I whimpered, slumping against the car.
He thrust his tongue deep between my folds and dragged it up toward my clitoris. The instant before he would've contacted my rigid, aching nub, he withdrew his tongue.
My head fell back. "Please, Aidan."
That devious tongue of his skimmed along my outer folds — up one side, down the other — over and over until my knees went weak. He grasped my hips to hold me up, then rolled his gaze up to me. "Please what, mo chridhe?"
"Take me, Aidan, please."
He sealed his mouth over my clit and sucked hard.
The orgasm rocketed through me with an intensity that had my heart thudding and my knees buckling, my body held up solely by the car and Aidan.
He flipped me around and laid my hands on the top of the door again. "Are ye ready?"
Speechless, breathless, I nodded.
The zzzt of a zipper. A grunt. The crinkle of foil ripping. A heavy, relieved exhalation.
With both hands, he took hold of my hips once more. Tilted them up and back. Kissed my neck. And plowed into me in one long, powerful stroke. He froze there, clutching me to him.
"Okay?" he asked, his voice rough, almost hoarse.
"Uh-huh."
He drove into me again and again, flesh slapping against flesh, his balls slapping on my ass with each withdrawal and thrust of his velvety shaft. I threw my head back, my fingers clenched over the doorframe. He grunted every time he plunged inside me, driving harder and faster, lifting my hips into his thrusts with his fingers digging into me. My body tightened around his cock, gripping him like a vise as I came again, helpless to resist the onslaught of sensations. My fingers gripped the car so hard it hurt, but I could do nothing except ride the storm of pleasure, my sex clutching him with the same desperate need that pushed me to scream his name and buck my hips up to take him deeper inside me.
My cries echoed off the trees.
Aidan punched into me twice more until his own release had him shouting to the heavens, his entire body stiff as steel. He relaxed gradually, loosening his fingers on my hips, and leaned forward to seal his mouth over my ear. "Now that's how to enjoy the scenery."
"The scenery?" I said, breathless. "All you saw was my ass."
"And your sweet, pink flesh."
He tugged my underwear and pants back into place, zipping them up for me. I heard him doing the same, and I staggered in my attempt to turn toward him.
Aidan picked me up and deposited me on the passenger seat without bothering to open the door. He hooked my seatbelt in position, then strode around to the driver's side and vaulted over the door to land in his seat. With a flick of his wrist, he turned the key in the ignition.
My body thrummed like a guitar string, alive and satisfied from our surprise encounter.
Aidan navigated the car back onto the road.
"You really are sex incarnate," I said.
"I'm what?" he asked, with a hitch of laughter in his voice.
"When we first met, I decided you were sex incarnate. You radiate sensuality like it's a part of your essence."
He cast me a sidelong look, brows raised. "I've never been called sex incarnate before."
"Never? Haven't you done this sort of thing before? To other women, I mean."
"No. Only you."
The afterglow of total satiation seemed to heighten my senses, making me hyperaware of the wind buffeting my face, my hair whipping around my head, the scent of flowers and grass and leather. I glanced at Aidan, but his gaze never wavered from the road ahead. Even when I sneaked a hand out to squeeze his thigh, he smiled but maintained impeccable control as he steered the Mus
tang around a sharp curve.
I raked my nails up and down his thigh until he laid his hand over mine to still it. "Which part have you done only with me?"
"Most everything I've done with you is new for me."
"Why are you different with me than with those seven other women?"
"Because you are different. It was always casual before, but this time I want it to be more." He curled his fingers around mine on his thigh. "I want everything with you."
My mouth opened, but for the longest moment, I couldn't make any sound come out. "You know I can't give you what you want."
"I know you think you can't — or think you don't want to." He lifted my hand to his lips and peppered kisses over my knuckles, his expression going soft and… affectionate. "We could be happy together, I know we can. Please let yourself think about the possibility, instead of dismissing it out of hand."
Pulling in a deep breath, I exhaled it slowly. "I'll consider your request."
"That's all I ask."
He set my hand on my leg and withdrew his hand, leaving me bereft at the sudden loss of contact. I'd grown dangerously addicted to his touch, his kiss, his unbelievable talent for tempting into me doing things I shouldn't do. Worst of all, he was tempting me to break rule number two.
No love.
I let my gaze wander to his face. The sweet little smile on his lips. The faint lines around his eyes, lines of happiness. I relaxed into the soft leather of the seat, my head lolling to the side so I could gaze at him a little longer. His profile entranced me, and when he turned his head to smile at me, I smiled back. Feeling girlish. Frivolous. Ridiculously happy.
I swung my head to the front, fixated on the road ahead and the yellow line speeding past us.
Dear God. I was falling for him.
Chapter Twenty-One
On this morning, I sat at my desk in the corner of the living room, swiveling my chair side to side, struggling to concentrate on my job search as I scoured websites for any kind of openings. For the past three days, Aidan and I had explored the western U.P. during day trips in his rented Mustang. We visited waterfalls and inland lakes, Lake Superior beaches and state parks, historic copper mines and little museums in between finding remote places to drive each other mad with our shared ardor and fantastic orgasms. He made me come hard, yes. But he also made me laugh, made me feel appreciated and understood, and not once did he pester me to tell him why I wouldn't marry him.
Twice during our day trips, he received calls from Seona that left him agitated. I wouldn't tell him everything about me yet, so I couldn't ask for details about what hold she had on him. Why she was demanding money. Why he might give it to her, if he had the money.
When we'd reached the top of Brockway Mountain on the first day of our sojourns, Aidan had marveled at the panoramic view of the tip of the Keweenaw. Lake Superior stretched along one side of our view and the woods sloped down in front of us. Behind us, the shuttered gift shop stood silent and rather melancholy, but I couldn't stop smiling as I pointed out an ore boat on the lake and an eagle soaring above our heads.
Leaning against the concrete wall at the cliff's edge, Aidan had informed me that "this view is nice, but it can't compare to seeing Loch Leven from the top of Beinn a' Bheithir."
"You're not speaking American, are you?"
He winked and grinned. "Gaelic. It's the name of a mountain near Ballachulish."
"Do you climb mountains?"
"No, I —" He turned his face away from me, swallowing visibly. "Not anymore."
I took his hand to settle his arm over my shoulders. Tucked against his body, I slipped my arms around him. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
"Not your fault." He wrapped his arms around me, burrowing his face into my hair, drawing in a long breath as if the scent of my shampoo could sustain him. "Why marry a man you didn't love?"
"Why does Seona expect you to pay her off?" When he said nothing, I tilted my head up to look at him. "See, we both have secrets. I don't expect you to tell me all of yours."
"And I'd be a hypocrite if I expected you to answer my question. You're right. No more questions about your marriage." He kissed the top of my head and smiled. "Why don't we get back to our drive?"
Just like that, he'd morphed back into happy Aidan. Seeing him in pain, even for a few minutes, had set off a twinge in my chest that reminded me of my revelation in the car. I had to be wrong. I wasn't falling for this man I'd known for a week. Still, our acquaintance seemed to be turning into a whirlwind… romance.
Back in the present, my arms began to ache. I suddenly realized I'd been hovering my hands over the keyboard for so long my muscles had started to complain about it. Lowering my hands onto my lap, I stared at the computer screen. Since getting up at six thirty this morning, I'd found exactly zero postings for which I was qualified. Partly because my eyes kept swimming out of focus and my thoughts kept wandering.
Hard to focus when I kept thinking about Aidan.
We'd indulged in quite a few erotic encounters, in various spots along our journey. I'd learned I was as insatiable as he was — and that I loved trying new things with him. Nothing kinky, just scorching sex in every position imaginable, and in the upcoming days, maybe a few neither of us had thought of yet.
Rubbing my eyes, I groaned in frustration. Letting a hot guy drive me to distraction was idiotic. Time to suck it up, banish thoughts of him and especially thoughts of my confused feelings for him, and concentrate on the task at hand. Find a goddamn job. I'd neglected my job search for three days, too caught up in Aidan to think about anything else. I set my fingers on the keyboard and typed salient phrases into a job search site. Ten minutes later, I'd found one listing for a part-time, seasonal secretary — in remote Alaska. And it paid minimum wage. No stipend for moving expenses either.
My mind traveled back to Aidan. Those amazing lips. His skillful hands working my slick flesh. His cock filling me up and —
"What are you doing?"
I yelped and jerked, twisting my head around to find Aidan behind me, bending over with his head near mine. A faint smile curved his lips and that playful gleam twinkled in his eyes.
"Don't sneak up on me," I said, and lightly slapped his arm. "You scared me half to death."
"At least it was only halfway."
"Not funny." I grumbled out a sigh. "Why are you spying on me?"
"You seemed absorbed by whatever it is you're doing."
"And scaring the shit out of me sounded like a good plan?"
"Didn't mean to frighten you."
I swiveled my chair sideways to the desk, laying one arm on the desktop. He stayed right there, bent at the waist, his face a foot from mine and his smile turning wry.
"You can tell me," he said. "Whatever it is. I'm good at keeping secrets."
Gazing into those crystalline blue eyes, I was tempted to tell him everything. Keeping secrets gave me heartburn at best and turned me into a neurotic mess at worst. For five years, I'd concealed a big, damning secret. Sharing a non-secret — something I simply hadn't told him yet, something that couldn't get either of us thrown in jail — might ease a bit of the stress.
Aidan placed the pad of his thumb on my lower lip and pressed down. My lip popped free of my teeth. I sat up straighter, clearing my throat, surprised to discover I'd been biting my lip.
"Don't be anxious," he said. "I won't think less of you, no matter what it is."
I glanced at the computer, clicked a mouse button to bring up the job search screen, and faced him again. As I drummed my fingernails on the desktop, I realized I was biting my lip again and released it a second before his thumb would've touched my mouth. He withdrew his hand. I groaned in resignation. "I've been looking for a job. I'm unemployed and have been for months. My savings will run out very soon and I have zero prospects for employment."
One of his eyebrows hiked up. "That's your shameful secret?"
"It's not
a secret. I hadn't gotten around to telling you is all. 'I'm an unemployed pauper' isn't something I tell everyone I meet."
"You don't need to be ashamed of having no money."
"I'm not ashamed of being poor. Not being able to find a job, that's another thing altogether." I drummed my fingers on the desk. "I have a master's degree in library science, but I've never had a job that required it, even when I worked in a library. Today, I'm considering a part-time secretarial position in Alaska. It's nobody's fault, but it sucks and it's demoralizing. Not the kind of thing I'm dying to share with the world."
Aidan dropped into a crouch beside me. "I know how you feel."
"Guess you do."
"Why not ask your family for help? Surely, they'd be glad to step in."
"The man who balked at accepting his brother's help is encouraging me to accept the aid of my family."
"I'm twice a hypocrite, eh?" He shrugged and sighed. "Donnae mean to be. But you did trick me into taking Lachlan's charity, so…"
"I owe you a personal humiliation of my own?" I puckered my lips, struggling not to smile. "We sure have a strange relationship, don't we?"
"But it works for us, doesn't it?"
"Suppose it does."
He stared at me for a few seconds, the intensity of his gaze making my skin itch. Finally, he said, "You called this a relationship."
"No, I —" Oh damn. I had. "I meant in the general sense, not like we're in a relationship."
"Ah, of course." His gaze flicked to the computer screen and back to me. "The job search seems to be making you tense."
"Duh."
He rested a palm on my thigh, skating it up to the juncture of my hip. "I can ease that tension and make you very relaxed."
"Um…" Flashback alert. "Thanks, but I need to focus on my job search right now. I can't keep living here past next month unless I find work. You'd be better off hunting for a financially solvent American girl."
"Don't care about money." Aidan moved his hand to my inner thigh. "I'm bankrupt, remember? We have more in common than I knew."
