His to Cherish

by Stacey Lynn

  He shifted his weight, settling one thigh between mine, and pressed against me.

  I inhaled quickly and my body warmed in a completely pleasurable way.

  “Don’t have one,” he said, and leaned closer. “Never get them, although I suspect the coffee and pain meds you gave me last night helped. I also saw you cleaned my house.”

  I barely heard him. My brain went foggy as Aidan began trailing his lips down the side of my face, breathing lightly against the column of my throat.

  My fingers dug into his skin.

  “I didn’t want you to wake up and have to deal with it.”

  “Thank you,” he murmured, dragging his lips across my collarbone. His thigh pushed against my inner thighs, separating them, and I moaned. “You didn’t have to. I would have done it today, or soon. I hate that you saw me like that.”

  Oh God. His lips and the pressure at the apex of my thighs felt divine. I tried to resist the urge to press into him while he grazed my skin.

  “Aidan,” I said. “What’s going on?”

  A small chuckle vibrated against the center of my throat and he pulled back, eyes inches from mine. Our noses brushed as he grinned. “If you have to ask, I must be doing a shitty job of trying to seduce you.”

  My entire body shivered.

  I lifted my hand from his wrist and lightly scraped my palm against his unshaven cheek, pushed my fingers through his quickly drying hair.

  My breath stuttered in my chest, catching in my throat.

  “Why?” I asked, and watched him frown. “Why now?”

  He licked his lips, his tongue almost touching my lips as he did so, and I gasped.

  “Because I woke up with you in my bed, wearing my shirt, and as much as I’ve been trying to get that image out of my head for the last hour, I can’t.” He dropped his head, resting his forehead against my shoulder. My fingers continued playing in his hair until he raised his head—

  And proceeded to rock my world.

  “It’s been a long time for me. I don’t date often and I don’t do this. Last date I had was over six months ago,” he explained. I went to speak and found it difficult. The pressure he was applying with his thigh against me felt so good and perfect. “It’s probably going to suck for you, if you want this, but I don’t think I can leave a bed with you in it again without knowing what you feel like.” His eyes dropped to my lips, his hand moved to my hip, slowly shifting the hem of his T-shirt until his fingers were against my sensitive skin. “Or taste like.”

  I moaned. He had nothing to be concerned about. I could probably find my release based on his words and slight touch alone.

  “We should talk about last night.”

  “We can, later. It was fucked up and I’ve already told you I’m a mess, but I’m trying here, Chelsea. Trying to figure out my place in the world without my sidekick. It’s not always going to be pretty. But I’m fucking thankful you and David were here last night, even though I know I was hard on you yesterday morning.”

  And I gave in. My fingers tightened in his hair and I pulled him closer, his eyes flashing in aroused surprise as his lips pressed against mine and his tongue began seeking entrance into my mouth.

  Because I’d wanted him for years. Because I’d felt the attraction between us and he’d admitted it was there.

  I caved because I was a woman who wanted to be desired, and at that moment, Aidan desired me. Like he’d said the other night, we couldn’t make promises. We could only try. I knew I’d have to be patient. There’d be steps forward and leaps backward. I already knew that, given the kind of man Aidan was, it would be worth the roller coaster.

  “Aidan,” I whispered as he pulled back from a kiss that sent fire straight to my aroused and needy sex. “I want you.”

  His lips moved to my throat, my collarbone, and I shifted beneath him. His hand on my hips tightened as his fingers languidly moved against my quickly heated skin.

  God, he was so wrong. In no way was this going to suck for me.

  “Me, too, Chelsea,” he murmured. “I want you, too.”

  My eyes rolled back and I arched my hips, needing more than the pressure of his thighs and the teasing touch of his hands on me. I was so turned on, and it’d been so long since I’d had a man take the time to truly turn me on.

  He was driving me crazy.

  Slowly he shifted until he was on top of me, his hands braced next to my shoulders and his boxer-covered hips pressed and rolled into me.

  “Oh my…” God, but I couldn’t finish. His erection was thick and heavy as he rolled his hips, his eyes on me the entire time. He was impressive, I could tell, but what was more exciting, sexier than anything I’d ever witnessed, was the way his lust-filled eyes couldn’t stop focusing on me.

  “Sit up,” he murmured. He helped me up until I was sitting in front of him, my legs draped over his.

  His hands trembled and he bit his bottom lip, still looking at me with desire mixed with a pain in his eyes I feared would never fully disappear.

  He was nervous. It was the most endearing thing I had ever seen.

  I leaned forward, pressed my lips against his, and kissed him. My tongue slid against his lips and my hands framed his cheeks.

  “I’ve always thought you were the most attractive man I’ve ever met,” I whispered against his ear when I broke the kiss.

  “You’re beautiful,” he replied, and moved his hands to my T-shirt. His nerves dissipated in front of me as he ripped his shirt off of my body and over my head before he flung it to the side. Then his hand was back at my neck, pressing me powerfully back down to the mattress.

  The force of the move, the suddenness of it, made me feel his need for me practically rolling off his body.

  “God,” he groaned, “you’re so…perfect.”

  His lips pressed against mine and I opened for him. I inhaled the taste of him, his scent, as my fingers dug into his hair.

  His kiss was powerful. Seductive. Entrancing. I found myself getting lost in the promised pleasure of all that was him and his sure movements as I writhed against the thick bulge in his boxers.

  I slid my hands down his back to the fabric at his waist and began pushing them down his hips, revealing my desperation for him. I needed more. More contact. More of him.

  He continued torturing me, dragging out every movement with slow and wet kisses along my chest, his tongue licking and his mouth laving my nipples until they hardened, and every swipe of his tongue against me sent a fiery need to my core.

  “I want to make this good for you,” he whispered against my stomach as he continued moving lower.

  “You already are.” God, he was. He so was.

  His head raised and his eyes caught mine. I saw a glimmer of hope, of sparkling light, flash in them before his hand moved to the waistband of my own underwear.

  Lifting an eyebrow in question, I nodded my assent.

  Please.

  Take them off.

  Take me.

  Own me.

  I wanted to shout all of it as I squirmed beneath his tender touches while he stood for a moment, kicking off his boxers before joining me on the bed again.

  His erection jutted out thick and strong and powerful, just like the tortured man in front of me.

  I licked my lips, imagining how good it would feel when he was finally inside of me.

  “Keep staring at me like that and this will be over before it begins.”

  I smiled, all nerves gone. He couldn’t seem to pull his gaze off me and I didn’t want him to. Every look he gave me, every touch of his hands as they began to press against my most sensitive flesh, pushed me closer to finding my own release.

  “I could say the same to you,” I said, gasping as his thumb brushed over my clit.

  He laughed. It was quick and husky and over before it began, but damn it if it wasn’t the most beautiful sound I’d heard in months.

  “Aidan,” I whispered, my hands sliding across him to grip his waist. “I want yo
u.”

  He swallowed, his eyes roaming over my chest and body as if he couldn’t decide where to focus, and his cheeks flushed with desire. So damn sexy.

  “You, too.”

  I lost his gaze as his hands gripped my hips, pressing me firmly into the bed, and my hands flew to his hair, gripping it tightly in my fingertips when his tongue swiped against my needy center.

  I gasped while he teased and tasted me, seeming to feast on me, bringing me quickly to the brink of pleasure.

  My fingertips dug into his scalp, tugging his hair, pulling him closer, pushing him away, the overwhelming sensations too much for me as I continued writhing beneath him.

  I repeated his name, calling to him over and over again as everything inside me began to coil tight with impending release. Just as I was about to shatter beneath him into a million beautiful pieces, he pulled his mouth away and pressed his fingers inside me.

  He shifted up farther and his mouth fell against mine as he reached into the bedside table next to me, slowing the movement of his fingers as he pulled out a strip of condoms.

  I ripped them out of his hand, tore off a packet, and opened it.

  He shot me a grin at my frantic movement, making my swollen flesh clench around his fingers.

  “In a hurry?”

  My cheeks flushed. “I don’t want you to stop what you’re doing.” He pushed in and twisted. I forgot what I was doing as my body shook. “Oh God, Aidan.”

  “I love that sound,” he whispered, his voice rough and filled with the same need inside me. “Love the way you say my name like that. So damn sexy, Chelsea.”

  I mewled in frustration when he pulled his fingers from my body and took the condom out of my fingers.

  “You sure?”

  Yes! I wanted to scream, but was only able to nod.

  My gaze drifted down and I watched every precious moment of him rolling the condom slowly down his erection. I reached out, helping him, needing to feel him before he took my hand away and began to enter me.

  A low groan rumbled from my throat and my head pressed into the pillows beneath me.

  I’d never felt so full. Not in my entire life, and it wasn’t only because of the way he felt inside of me as he began to move. It was because of the way he looked at me—like I was a newfound treasure and he never wanted to let me go.

  His hips rolled and shifted, finding the perfect place to send my body shaking and finding its release almost immediately.

  I planted my feet on the bed next to his hips, opening my legs wider, taking him deeper, and let loose an animalistic groan.

  My chest arched into him and he dropped to his elbows next to me, his thrusts becoming fiercer and more frantic.

  “Aidan! Oh!” My hands dug into his shoulders right as fire coursed through my body.

  My hips shook and my orgasm hit me in a sudden rush, my body bucking wildly beneath him.

  “Oh my God.”

  “Fuck,” he groaned as his hand clamped around my breast. He stared at me, holding my gaze as his own orgasm hit—hips pumping into mine, hitting the end of me before he stilled, releasing inside of me.

  My body gave a final quiver as I watched him.

  “Hell,” he finally said, dropping his sweat-lined forehead to my shoulder.

  My hands wrapped around his lower back. His breath came as quick and irregularly as mine and I surrendered to the moment, enjoying the feel of the weight of his firm body surrounding me.

  There were no words to describe what I had just experienced, but as I was beginning to calm down enough to speak, nerves began creeping in.

  He seemed speechless, too, and neither of us spoke until he finally slid out of me and lifted me onto his lap, brushing my hair off my cheeks.

  Then he leaned down and tenderly dragged his lips against mine.

  There was a lightness in his features that hadn’t been there previously and I smiled against his lips. I had done that to him.

  I’d helped ease whatever pain he was feeling, and my heart fluttered happily when he returned my smile.

  “You’re incredible,” he whispered.

  “I think you get all the credit for that one.”

  He smiled this time, pressing his lips against mine again in a lingering kiss. When he finally pulled back, he pressed me to his side.

  “Let me get cleaned up. I’ll be right back.”

  I watched him head to the bathroom, a soft smile stretching my lips, unashamedly staring at the man who was absolutely beautiful…in or out of clothes.

  —

  I’d just gotten dressed when Aidan came out of the bathroom, naked as the day he was born. He dug through a dresser and pulled on a fresh pair of boxers.

  I watched, my jaw dropping while he dressed in front of me, and lust pooled in my mouth. Or maybe it was drool.

  I quickly swallowed it and turned away when the alarm on my phone beeped, signaling a text.

  “Oh no,” I gasped, blood draining from my cheeks as I saw Beth’s name.

  We’re at the hospital. Can you please come? Shane won’t talk to anyone.

  “What is it?” Aidan asked.

  He must have recognized my look of fear, because he took two quick, large steps and was in front of me, reaching for my phone.

  I yanked it to my chest.

  “Chelsea?” he asked, not taking his eyes off my phone.

  “Someone else had a problem with Derrick’s birthday last night,” I whispered, my voice gravelly and afraid. I had no idea what was wrong with Shane, but Beth wouldn’t have texted me if it wasn’t important.

  His jaw clenched and his eyes slowly lifted to mine.

  “Who?”

  But he knew. I could see it in his eyes.

  I swallowed the thick, scary words I didn’t want to say and inhaled a deep breath.

  “Shane’s in the hospital.” Tears pooled in my eyes before I finished the short sentence.

  It said everything and nothing.

  “Beth sent me a text,” I continued when I watched Aidan have the same frightened reaction. “She wants me to go see him.”

  Suddenly, I realized the time as my eyes flickered back to my phone.

  “Oh crap,” I said quickly, and started moving toward the door. In all the craziness of last night and this morning, I’d completely forgotten about work.

  “I’m going to be late,” I told Aidan when he followed me out of his room.

  He stood at the top of the stairs, staring at me as if things had just clicked into place for him.

  My fingers curled around my phone. Shit. I couldn’t go to work.

  Without thinking further, I called the school, and when the administrative line picked up, I explained what was going on. “Shane Johnson is in the hospital. His mother has requested I go see him. I’m so sorry, but I’ll need to take the day off.”

  “Shane Johnson,” Rebecca said. I could almost hear her gears working over the phone before she let out a quick gasp of shock.

  “Yes,” I whispered into the phone. “Rebecca, I have to go.”

  “I know.” Her voice mirrored mine. “Is there anyone I can call or anything I can do to help?”

  I ran my hand through my hair. It was tangled and oily and I needed to get home to shower first. Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to calm my racing heart. “No. I don’t know. I’ll keep you or his guidance counselor informed once I see Beth and know what’s going on.”

  “Okay,” she said, pausing for a moment. “I’ll let his teachers know he won’t be in today.”

  “Thank you.” I hung up and hurried down the stairs.

  I was at the bottom of the stairway when Aidan called my name.

  I turned to see his hardened jaw and the way he was glaring at the phone still in my hand. Gone was the beautiful morning we had shared. In its place was reality crashing down on both of us. We might have been able to ignore his pain and his loss for a brief moment while we clung to one another, but there was no hiding the fact that he was terrif
ied.

  He swallowed and shook his head. “I can’t go there.” His hands curled around the railing at the top of his stairs before he could bring his eyes to meet mine. “I know I should be there, talk to him, but I can’t go there.”

  I took a step up the stairs before stopping myself. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the way his sad eyes were once again making me yearn to hold him and make him feel better.

  But I couldn’t. Not this time. There were certain things Aidan was going to have to figure out himself, and being there for Shane was definitely one of them.

  —

  The hospital was loud with people rushing to get to where they needed to be. The horrible lighting and bright white corridors were sobering. I found the hallway where Beth had told me Shane was when I’d sent her a text telling her I was on my way.

  My hair was still wet and thrown into a ponytail. I didn’t have makeup on, and based on a quick glance at myself in the mirrored elevators on my way up, I hadn’t thrown on a matching outfit.

  I also barely noticed enough to care.

  Too many unknowns lay in front of me, but I still couldn’t erase Aidan’s pained expression from my eyes when I had told him goodbye.

  For a moment, in his bed and in his arms, I had somehow convinced myself that everything was going to be okay. That had been foolish and naïve, two things I generally wasn’t.

  But I didn’t have time to wonder what all that meant when I reached the door to the psych ward of the hospital.

  Inside room 221, I saw Beth sitting on a chair next to Shane’s bed.

  He had a plastic clip on his finger hooked to wires leading to a machine next to his bed. He was wearing a hospital gown, sheets covering him up to his waist.

  Besides the grayish tint to his skin, he looked completely healthy.

  I swallowed as I gripped the door handle and entered, still not entirely sure what I was about to face, or why Beth had called me.

  Chapter 14

  I entered the room hesitantly, but I might as well have announced my arrival with a blaring air horn.

  Two sets of eyes snapped in my direction and Beth jumped to her feet, rushed over, and threw her arms around me.