by Jill Sanders
Now he stood in front of her in nothing but a pair of blue boxer briefs and smiled at her from across the pool.
“Like what you see?” he asked her.
Since her mouth was still under the water, she simply nodded slowly.
Then she laughed as he ran to the edge of the pool and did a cannonball into the water. She was wiping the water from her eyes when warm hands circled her waist and pulled her under.
When they surfaced, his mouth covered hers as his hands roamed over her skin. She hadn’t realized the water had cooled off until her skin started to heat under his touch.
“I’m glad I decided to come up here for a swim,” he said against her skin.
“Me too.” She sighed and held onto those muscular arms of his. Feeling his pecs against her own chest had her body reacting and heating. Then her legs brushed up against his and lit even more fires in her. Wrapping her legs around him, she held on while he treaded water, keeping their heads above the surface.
“You know, I have some of my mom’s leftover lasagna at my place. You could always have dinner at my place?” he suggested.
“Deal,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve had cold turkey sandwiches for the past week. Anything is better than one more night of it.”
He chuckled, the sound reverberating.
“God, I want to kiss you again,” he said, pulling her closer.
“Me too.” She sighed and covered his lips with her own. “Aiden, take me back to your place,” she said when they surfaced from the kiss again.
“I thought you’d never ask.” He kicked off, sending them towards the stairs.
After drying off, under the very watchful gaze of Aiden, she pulled on the shorts and sweatshirt that she’d worn to the pool earlier. She followed him down the path towards the parking area and got in his truck when he opened the passenger side door for her.
It was a standard work truck and, when she glanced in the back seat, she noticed the box of tools on the floor.
“Sorry, work truck smell.” He shrugged.
“It smells good, like you.” She smiled. “Like tools and wood shavings.”
He chuckled. “Then you’ll love my place. When I left this morning, I didn’t know I was going to have company later.” He started driving.
“You should see my room. I share it with Hannah. She’s a typical type A personality and, well, I’m not.” She shrugged.
He chuckled. “Elle has talked about the five of you for years. I can’t remember a time she didn’t brag about her Wildflower friends.” He glanced at her.
“Elle saved all of us,” she admitted.
“Oh?” he asked as he parked in front of the trailer and shut off the truck.
“We were all lost and broken in our own ways.”
“That’s not how she tells it.” He turned to her and brushed his thumb down the side of her face. “The way she tells it, her friends are the ones who saved her. She’d been in a dark place. You know what happened to her mother?”
Aubrey nodded slightly. “Her father murdered her mother. We didn’t know about it for a few years after we met her.”
“She’d been bullied, that first year she moved in with Joe.” He shook his head and looked off into the darkness. “Kids can be so mean. I tried to stop most of it, but her self-esteem took a major hit. Then she met you four.” He smiled. “And she seemed to blossom.”
She thought of her own past and the horrors she’d come from. Still, everything she’d been through paled in comparison to what Elle had lived through. Knowing that your father had killed your mother out of rage must have been way worse than having a father who didn’t feel anything at all.
“Hungry?” Aiden asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“Starved.”
Chapter 4
Sitting across his kitchen table eating leftovers with Aubrey made the trailer feel more like a home. He’d moved into the place almost two weeks ago and had yet to have a single person over. Not even his best friend Brett had stopped by yet.
Then again, he’d been so busy working, he hadn’t had time to come up for air. Nor had he wanted to. Until he’d spotted Aubrey, that is.
Then it was all he could think of. Taking time with her. Being with her. His libido had kicked into full gear the moment she’d flirted back with him.
They talked about the plans for the camp as they ate. She mentioned school and the subject turned to what classes they’d taken.
He was interested in seeing some of the art that she mentioned she had done.
“I’d like to see some of the plans you’ve made up for the cabins. Elle mentioned you had a few already done?”
He nodded. “They’re over here.” He stood up, taking his beer with him, and moved over to his work area, which was basically the entire living room. He had a sofa and a flat-screen, but he also had a large desk and the computer system he worked on nightly.
She followed him over, taking her glass of wine with her.
He pulled out the printed plans that he’d submitted to the city just yesterday.
“These will be the first two we build. Of course, we won’t start until after we’ve finished with the old remodels.”
She glanced over the drawings, and he could see that she grew excited about them. “These are amazing. You designed them yourself?”
“Yeah.” He set his beer down and then took her glass of wine from her and set it down. She stepped easily into his arms. He allowed her to reach up and place her soft lips over his. Something told him that she wanted to drive and, the way she was making him feel, he figured he’d lean back and enjoy the ride.
When she pressed her body against his, a soft moan escaped her lips. A deeper one emanated from her when his hands reached under her shirt and played with her soft skin just above her jean shorts.
“I want to see you naked,” she said as she nibbled on his ear.
“God, yes,” he growled out, and he started backing her towards the bedroom.
He met her urgency, her passion, her fire with his own. His skin burned for her; his fingers itched to roam over that porcelain skin of hers.
She peeled off his shirt then tugged on the pants he’d pulled on after their swim.
“Here.” He pulled back from her and quickly removed his boots and jeans and tossed them over the chair in the corner of his bedroom. Thankfully, he’d taken a moment to tidy up that morning before heading into work.
Of course, he’d never imagined he’d invite someone back to his place that evening. Especially a sexy redhead that made his blood boil when she touched him.
Reaching out, he used a finger to nudge the shoulder of her sweatshirt down, exposing the soft skin. He unzipped the front and smiled when the sexy red bikini she’d been wearing in the pool was exposed.
“Sexy,” he said with a smile.
“Oh god,” she moaned and rolled her head slightly back as he removed the sweatshirt and reached for her shorts.
His hands brushed against her skin as he pulled the shorts from her hips. Standing back, he let his eyes roam over her slowly.
“How is it we haven’t met before this?” he asked her as she stepped back into his arms.
“Bad timing, I guess.” She smiled up at him.
“Lucky for me you showed up today.” He kissed her again and backed her to the edge of his bed.
“It wasn’t luck. I wanted to meet you. Wanted this.” She surprised him by tugging on his shorts and then quickly gripping him in her hands. “I don’t know about you, but it’s been far too long for me. I don’t think I want to go slow.” She practically purred against him.
For a split second he thought about Danelle, then Aubrey reached up and in one quick move sent her bikini top falling to the floor, and his mind quite literally went blank of anything but her.
She had to be the most perfect woman on the planet. With shaky hands, he reached up and cupped her. Her eyes turned an even lighter shade of blue, and his body responded to how soft she fe
lt under his fingertips.
“No, I doubt I could go slow now,” he said just before crushing her lips under his.
They fell backwards, their mouths never leaving one another as her swim bottoms were tugged from her legs.
He grabbed a small foil package from his nightstand and slid the protection on moments before she gripped his hips and wrapped her legs around him.
They moved together like they’d done it a million times before, as if being together was second nature.
“More,” he growled against her skin. He hoisted her hips as he pounded into her.
“Aiden,” she cried out as he felt her tense under him. Moments later, he followed her and felt his entire body release. He hadn’t realized how much of a need he’d built up since Danelle had left him. Not until he’d seen Aubrey walking towards him.
“I needed that.” Aubrey sighed as she ran her hands over his back.
“Ditto,” he said into her hair. “Thanks.”
He felt and heard her chuckle. “Any time.”
He leaned up and looked down at her. “You mean that?”
She smiled slowly. “Sure, why not? I mean, we both seemed to enjoy ourselves. I’ve got some free time and god knows I could use the release.”
He thought about it and then nodded. “Okay, I’ll take you up on that.”
Her smile slipped slightly. “The only request I have is that we keep things lighthearted and”—she bit her bottom lip— “keep this a secret. My friends… would try to make something more out of this than there should be.”
“Is that your way of telling me your heart is off the menu?” he asked.
She smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”
He thought for a moment. He still hadn’t healed from Danelle, so he figured that he had nothing to lose in a mutual physical relationship.
“So?” she asked after a moment. “How about it?”
“As I said, count me in.” He leaned down to an inch from her lips and waited. “But while you’re making demands, I’ve got my own.”
“Shoot,” she said, her eyes glued to his as her hands stilled on his cooled skin.
“We don’t see other people. If you get bored or want to move on, you tell me first. It makes things easier if it’s just between you and I.”
She smiled quickly. “I don’t see a string of men lining up—”
He kissed her before she could finish. “Deal?” he asked.
“Yes.” She sighed and pulled him back down to her.
This time, they slowed down and enjoyed exploring one another.
He wasn’t surprised that, after, she pulled on her clothes and requested he take her back to the main building. He knew that, if this was going to remain a secret, she had roommates to contend with.
“Drop me off here,” she said less than a quarter of a mile from the building. “I’ll walk from here.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I don’t want them to see you drop me off. They’re probably looking out for me already. I’ll have to tell them I went for a walk.”
He pulled over and spent a few moments kissing her again.
“When can I see you again?” she asked as she pulled away.
“I’m free most evenings,” he admitted. “Work in the cabins can’t go on after dark. At least until the electric gets fixed and turned back on. So I have to stop when the sun goes down.”
She cocked her head as if thinking it through. “I’ll see what I can do to get out to your place tomorrow night.”
He kissed her again. “Looking forward to it. You still plan on working on the second cabin tomorrow?”
Her smile grew. “Yes, I’m looking forward to it and to you again tomorrow night.” She jumped out of his truck.
He watched her disappear down the driveway until he knew she was in the building that housed the apartment the five friends shared on the top floor.
He didn’t think life could get any better. He had a dream job, his own place, and now he had a soft, gorgeous woman to look forward to enjoying, no strings attached.
* * *
Somehow, because he knew he was keeping his heart from her, he didn’t think twice about his life over the next year. Sure, there were times he wished they could share their relationship with their friends. Even if it was only during the times when the gang was all hanging out together, and he itched to hold her hand or kiss her in front of everyone. Like at the New Year’s party. Instead, he’d kept his word and his distance when the others were around.
To his knowledge, no one else in the group knew they were enjoying one another’s company every moment they could sneak away. Everything was going perfectly. Or so he thought.
Eleven months later, shortly before the camp opened its doors, he’d made the mistake of blurting out three words that had Aubrey pulling back.
It had been a rainy night about a month before the camp was set to open.
She and her friends had an interview that day with a local paper. He’d stood back and watched the five friends pose for pictures at the main gate of the campgrounds.
He’d painted the gates himself only a few weeks earlier. There were only a handful of things left to do around the grounds before they would be ready for guests. He and his team had started working on a couple of the new cabins and those wouldn’t be ready for a few more months. But they had finished ten new cabins in addition to refurbishing the twenty original ones.
He’d been in one of the new cabins when the downpour had started that day. He hadn’t expected Aubrey to come rushing in, soaking wet, a few minutes later.
She’d laughed about being soaked and had started slowly removing her clothes as he watched, and his mouth watered. How had he not realized sooner how perfect she was for him?
His heart jumped in his chest each time she laughed and looked at him with desire. He knew at that moment he’d never felt that way about someone before. Nor did he think he could ever feel that way about someone else.
“I thought I could make it out here to you before the rain started,” she said, moving slowly across the room towards him.
In the past twelve months that they’d been enjoying one another’s company, she had yet to stay one single night in his arms. He’d desperately wished she’d fall asleep with him, but so far, he hadn’t gotten that lucky.
She’d been so concerned about her friends finding out about them that he’d begun to wonder if there were other reasons that she wanted to keep their relationship a secret. It was strange, but he’d grown to trust her more than anyone else he’d ever dated. Not that he could call what was between them dating. After all, they only ate meals together when it was a group of people and, even then, they never sat together.
“I’m glad you made it.” He smiled as she pulled her wet camp T-shirt over her head. Then his mind went blank when he noticed the see-through cream-colored bra she was wearing. Her pink nipples poked out towards him, begging for his attention.
“My god,” he groaned as she reached for her jean shorts.
When she stood in front of him in nothing but the matching underwear set, he felt his entire body start to shake. At that moment, he knew he would never get enough of her and part of the locks he’d placed over his heart slipped away.
He should have pulled back then, but his dick was in control and, instead, he moved towards her as his hands itched to touch her soft perfect skin.
Bending his head down, he covered the material with his mouth and sucked her as her fingers dug into his hair, gripping him to her.
Pulling the silk aside, he took her in his mouth and enjoyed the moans and soft sounds he’d come to love over the past year. She tasted as fresh as she looked.
He and Danelle had never been this good together.
There wasn’t anything Aubrey didn’t allow him to try or do to her. At least anything he’d asked of her thus far. She’d been there, willing and eager and even at times with her own demands.
“Aiden,” she beg
ged as his hands moved lower over her hips.
“Tell me what you want,” he said, trailing his mouth over her as he removed the last barriers she wore.
“Lick me, kiss me, all over.” She arched against the kitchen countertop he’d been installing a small microwave under. There was a layer of dust on the surface but that didn’t stop him from hoisting her hips up and setting her on the edge so that he could kneel between her legs and lap at her soft skin.
Her taste was something that he would never forget, nor tire of. Shortly after they’d started their little game, he’d made sure to never leave the house without a pocketful of condoms.
Aubrey was more demanding than anyone he’d ever been with before, thankfully. He’d never imagined being with a woman who matched his own desires beat for beat.
When he felt and tasted her convulse against his mouth, he stood up, pulled himself free of his work jeans, and slid on the condom before returning to her. Her legs wrapped around his hips, and he moaned when his mouth found her nipple again as he slipped slowly into her.
“God, I love this,” he said against her skin. He hadn’t registered her stiffening at first, but after a moment, he realized she’d frozen completely.
Glancing up at her, he frowned when he noticed her go white.
“What?” He stilled. “What’s wrong?”
She nudged him back and jumped quickly down from the counter.
“I…” She shook her head. “I need to go.”
He watched in complete shock as she quickly dressed and rushed through the rain from the cabin and away from him.
It took him a few moments to realize his mistake. He thought about going after her, but then figured he’d give her some time to come to terms with how he felt.
He knew he’d promised her their feelings were off limits, but it had been over a full year. What was he supposed to do? Not have feelings for the woman he thought about more often than he thought about food or sleep?
The following week she avoided him and was damn good at it too. No matter where he went looking for her, she was always somewhere else. By the time the camp opened, he had still been unable to get her alone. Of course, his own schedule kept him busy enough that he didn’t have a moment to think, let alone much time to hunt her down.
