His to Cherish

by Stacey Lynn

  Though my entire body warmed, I shivered from head to toe.

  I bit my bottom lip, standing there dumbstruck in front of him, taking in every muscular line of his body.

  His eyes crinkled with humor and his lips pressed into a smirk. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

  “Yes.” I grinned, climbing onto my bed and tossing off my lightweight robe on the way to reveal my teal tank top and matching pajama shorts.

  “Did I ask you something?” His voice was slightly amused, and hearing it made me smile wider.

  “No, but you were going to ask me if I liked the view, and the answer is yes, I do.”

  He shook his head, something slightly larger than a smirk spread his lips wider, and my breath caught as he climbed into bed next to me.

  He adjusted the pillows behind his back and pulled me up so I was sitting up next to him, our backs propped against the headboard. His arm fell around my shoulders, pulling me to him.

  “Tell me about it.”

  I stalled, unsure of how to begin, when his hand squeezed my shoulder more firmly.

  As if he himself was uncertain, my heart began to beat faster when Aidan said, “I love that kid, Chelsea. I know he’s hurting and I know I can’t be the guy that he needs me to be for him right now, but I want to know. Honest.”

  “He overdosed on sleeping pills at a friend’s house last night.”

  He flinched and gripped me tighter. His fingers dug into my skin and caused a sting of pain. I doubted he realized how hard he was holding me, but I didn’t stop him.

  “I don’t think he meant to do it, Aidan,” I whispered, and slid my tongue along my bottom lip. I tried to find something more profound to say, but came up empty. “I think he’s scared and tired, and he doesn’t want to hurt, but I don’t think he wants to die.”

  “How do you know?” His voice cracked and my chest clenched in pain.

  “Because he told me,” I whispered after a pause.

  The boy needed help and Beth’s text was encouraging, so I believed he would get it. I wanted to believe that Shane would find someone he could talk to who was actually trained and professional enough to help him to rid himself of his guilt and his nightmares.

  Aidan’s head dipped and his temple pressed against the top of my head as he curled his arms around me, squeezing me tightly and fiercely.

  I melted into him, enjoying it despite the conversation.

  “Shit,” he whispered against my hair. “I didn’t realize.”

  I blinked back more freaking tears. “I know you didn’t.” I squeezed his hand that was gripping my shoulder with my own. He let go of me long enough to entwine our fingers, his arm still draped over my shoulder. It felt anything but casual, and I relaxed as the familiar touch of his skin on mine sent that now-common spark of interest into my veins.

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that today. And I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you.”

  I tightened my hold on his hand. “You can still be there for Shane.”

  He inhaled sharply. I squeezed my eyes closed to prepare for his rebuttal, but he surprised me.

  “Yeah.” He breathed the word out quietly. “I’ll think about it.”

  Several moments went by while we sat in silence, wrapped in each other’s arms, and the weight of the day began to evaporate along with the tenseness in my shoulders. Even in his grief, Aidan made me feel safe. His strength was amazing.

  Slowly, he shifted his weight, pulling me down with him until we were lying on my bed. I was on my back and Aidan was on his side, his head propped up by his hand, elbow on the pillow.

  His fingertip trailed down the tear tracks on my cheek and he leaned forward, brushing his lips against my skin.

  I felt his arousal at my hip and fought the urge to turn so I could feel him press against me in a much more preferable location.

  When he pulled away from me, his lips turned up. “This morning was amazing.”

  “I think so, too.” My agreement earned me a larger smile, almost a full one, and it made my own match his.

  “I like it when you smile.” I lifted my hand and traced his lips with my finger.

  He opened his mouth and teasingly bit down on the pad of my fingertip.

  “I like you,” he said. His lips fell to mine, and he kissed the shock away while heating me at the same time.

  I parted my lips, accepting him as his tongue licked and rolled with my own.

  I liked this man, too. A lot.

  I liked how he kissed, how every time he touched me, my body leaned in, needing more. I was like that now, arching into him, my hands roaming the skin on his back as I pulled him to me and pressed into him at the same time.

  He shifted, pulling me forward until I was draped over his body, my legs straddling his waist.

  I pushed up, breaking the kiss, and watched as his green eyes swirled with lust and unspoken thoughts. My own body was flaring wildly with need and something deeper—something more than just like.

  With one hand on his chest, my other one raised and pushed through his jet-black locks. His hair was soft and silky and the perfect length to hold on to.

  “I like you, too.”

  He paused for a moment before he rolled us over and began dragging down my shorts and underwear. I lay on the bed, watching his finely tuned, hardworking muscles bunch and flex, and I couldn’t help the shudder that rolled through me as he removed his boxers and his erection sprung free.

  I knew what he felt like inside of me. I knew what he felt like in my hand, so hot and heavy.

  I wanted to know what he tasted like.

  Before I could move, to reach for him and show him what I wanted, he leaned forward, wrapping an arm around my back, and flipped us over so I was once again on top of him. My knees spread farther apart, making room for him, and his erection slid through the crease of my backside.

  “Oh,” I gasped as I rocked against him.

  Aidan’s fingers dug into my hips and he pressed me against him, once…twice…slowly…each time watching the expression change on my face.

  “You like that?”

  Heat bloomed on my cheeks when the tip of him pressed against my anus. I shouldn’t. It was forbidden. Something I’d never considered before.

  But every time he rubbed against that spot, shivers danced down my spine and out to my hips, to my toes, and to my already hardened nipples.

  “I do,” I finally admitted, unable to look him in the eye.

  “Hey.” One of his hands slid to the side of my neck and his thumb grazed my jaw. “We’ll explore anything you want, at whatever time you want, but tonight I want something different from you.”

  “What?” I asked, skipping over the exploration part. That meant he was planning on sticking around for a while. The hope in that one statement made my heart skip a beat.

  “Condom,” he said, and pointed toward his jeans he’d tossed to the floor earlier.

  I pushed off him and quickly grabbed it out of the pocket of his pants and returned to the bed, throwing my knee over his hips and settling on him so I could watch him. He took the condom, eyes on me the entire time, while he began to cover the tip of his cock. I had to help him…touch him…feel him.

  My hand covered his as he rolled it down.

  Wetness seeped from my sex as his erection hardened in my hands. I stroked him once, then twice, teasing him like he’d done to me for so long just that morning.

  I felt like it’d been days ago.

  “Like this?” I asked when his hands went to his sides and he fisted the sheets beneath him. His hips rocked into me.

  “Fuck yes,” he groaned, his gaze focused on where I continued to slide my hand up and down the length of him. My other hand went to my clit where I rolled the bundle of nerves. I teased us both until I elicited the same desperate sound from myself as was coming from him every time I rolled my thumb over the head of his cock.

  “Aidan?”

  In a druglike
trance, he pulled his gaze off my hands and raised it up to me.

  “Yes?”

  “You said there was something else you wanted,” I reminded him.

  One of his hands released from my sheets and he stilled my movements with his hand at my hip.

  “Ride me.”

  I swallowed, desire pooled in my stomach.

  “Now.” He arched a brow, and damn it, he was so sexy. Gone were his nerves from earlier. Tonight he was completely confident. Commanding.

  My body shook as he held his hardness with one hand, waiting for me to sink down and cover him.

  I hovered over his erection and I began to slowly drop my body down until his dick slid inside me.

  “God,” I moaned. “So good.” I couldn’t help the noises that escaped my mouth as I took all of him. He was so deep, stretching me wide and filling me completely, yet my body seemed to tighten around him like a glove, needing more of him.

  “Hell.” He dropped his head back and gripped my hips, preventing me from rocking against him or raising back up. “Give me a second.”

  My hands dropped to his chest and I rubbed them over his pecs and his hair, loving the manly feel of him.

  “Chelsea,” he groaned, and stared directly at me. “Fuck me.”

  My hips shifted and I began to slowly rock back and forth, putting much-needed pressure against my clit. I alternated between rocking and lifting before dropping back down on him.

  I was driving myself crazy, my hair flying everywhere as I rocked against him with frantic movements.

  “Yes,” he growled, pulling me down on him. “Just like that. Hell.”

  Quickly, my orgasm began to climb and I reached for it, knowing that as my body was burning like a wildfire, I was going to explode any second and it was going to be incredible.

  I pressed against his chest, rising and dropping. Aidan’s face contorted in pain and pleasure, and I loved that he was holding back long enough to give this to me.

  “Aidan,” I whimpered, and he pulled me down toward him, one hand on my hip, the other holding the back of my head. His lips covered mine, and between the shift in friction against my clit and the way he tasted and devoured me with his tongue, I erupted in pleasurable trembles.

  I came hard and fast and Aidan was right there with me. His chest stiffened, his hips thrust upward powerfully, and he groaned into my mouth.

  We swallowed each other’s cries as our orgasms continued to take us over the edge of ecstasy.

  —

  My house was silent when I woke up. Too silent.

  There weren’t any quiet snores from Aidan next to me and I knew that he had already left.

  I prepared myself with a slow breath before I rolled over and opened my eyes to find my suspicions were true.

  He wasn’t next to me. He had already left—without telling me.

  I flipped to my back and threw my arm over my eyes trying to block out the early morning sunlight along with the memories of last night.

  “Crap.”

  I thought I had dealt with my insecurities after Cory left. It was easy to chalk him up to being a cheating bastard, and brush off the fact that there was something in our relationship that I lacked.

  Yet as I’d opened my heart to Aidan, those fears slithered in through a splinter in my defenses and grew larger every day.

  I wanted to be enough for someone, and was terrified I wouldn’t be.

  I’d never be enough. Not enough of a woman, not someone who could give a man a child. A boy to carry on their name.

  Not that Aidan would want that anyway, but finding out I couldn’t have children had broken something inside me.

  It made me feel like half a woman.

  And I wondered, as I crawled out of bed and got into the shower, my attitude morose as I dwelled on what I could never be—what I could never have—how long would it take for Aidan to realize the same thing?

  I moved sluggishly through my bedroom, getting dressed for work, when a quick peek at the clock told me I was running late. There was no way I’d have time to stop at Kate’s Kakes for my typical hit-and-run breakfast on the way to school.

  Which was fantastic.

  I shook my head and went to grab my purse in the kitchen. When I got there I stopped and blinked twice as I saw what was on the counter.

  Next to my purse was a familiar pink paper bag.

  I could smell coffee wafting from my coffeepot, but there was a better scent coming from the paper bag.

  I knew that beautiful aroma from a mile away.

  Cupcakes.

  My lips pulled into a small smile.

  Aidan had snuck out of my house early in the morning only to return with my favorite breakfast treat and left again.

  My heart gave a little flutter.

  I grabbed the bag and my purse and quickly poured a travel mug of coffee before rushing to my car to make it to school on time.

  I didn’t have time to open my treat from Kate’s Kakes until I was at my desk in the library with the first morning bell ringing through the school.

  When I did, I reached inside without looking and my fingers brushed against a piece of paper.

  I pulled it out, opened it, and immediately felt my cheeks turn the same shade of pink as the bag.

  Sorry to leave. Have something to take care of.

  You’re beautiful…in every way.

  See you later.

  A.

  The paper shook in my trembling fingers. Somehow, with a quickly scribbled note, Aidan had managed to quiet my earlier fears and concerns, and he wasn’t even in my presence.

  He was an incredible man.

  And for some reason, I felt as if he was becoming mine.

  Mine.

  I smiled, liking the way the word sounded rolling off my tongue as I repeated it quietly to myself.

  Upon grabbing my phone, I unlocked the screen and typed out a quick text.

  Thank you for the cupcake. I think you’re pretty great, too.

  After setting the phone down, I grabbed my breakfast—a double-chocolate fudge cupcake with light green frosting on top that swirled high.

  I ate the frosting first, licking it off my fingertips and the edges of my lips, and by the time kids began to enter the library, I was high on delicious sugar and chocolate, lost to the duties of the day, all my doubts forgotten.

  Hope took its place.

  Hope that I’d be okay.

  Hope that Aidan and Shane would find their way.

  Hope that Aidan and I would have a future.

  Because I wanted one with him—more than I’d ever wanted anything.

  Chapter 16

  I was sweating from my run and gasping for breath as I hit my front porch in the setting sun. Running with Camden was always fun, but there was something about the pavement pounding beneath my feet as I ran mile after mile alone in the fresh late spring weather. It gave me the freedom to clear my mind and was much better than being cooped up in my musty basement, using my treadmill during the harsh Michigan winters.

  I loved the burn of air in my overworked lungs and the way my muscles ached after pushing myself to run a road with hills instead of the flatness and help of a machine beneath my feet.

  I got lost in running. It was my place, where my mind could drift as I listened to music and processed everything going on in my world.

  Today my mind was spinning faster than a hamster’s exercise wheel.

  During my lunch break at school, I had called Beth to check on Shane in the hospital, only to hear that Aidan had stopped by and spoken with him earlier. I had been so surprised to learn that Aidan had left my house to go see him that I hadn’t even thought to ask what they’d talked about, although I was burning with curiosity.

  Regardless, after their conversation, Shane had agreed with his mom’s proposal to have him checked in for a thirty-day program in order to help him with his “issues,” as Beth described it. Apparently there was a lot more going on his life than just th
e loss of Derrick and his feelings of guilt.

  But I did hang up the phone smiling. Shane was getting help and I was thankful for it.

  A sense of tranquility overcame me as I stepped inside my house, still thinking of the conversation with Beth, the note and cupcake from Aidan this morning, and the events of last night.

  Aidan went to see Shane.

  I grinned and grabbed a bottle of water from my fridge, twisting off the top and guzzling half of it, my body screaming at me for hydration.

  He might not have gone to see Shane because of anything I said. It was more likely because Aidan was just a great a man—a kind and tender man—and he wanted to do the right thing for Shane.

  I took it as a sign that he was beginning to realize that there were other people hurting over Derrick’s death and he could lean on more people, as well as be there to help others through their mutual loss.

  But things were beginning to feel better for me than they had in a long time.

  My life felt good.

  So when my phone buzzed and I saw a text from Paige light up my phone, I didn’t have to debate my response.

  I’m at Fireside. Come eat with me.

  Me: Checking out the taken owner again? You know you’re friends with Trina, right?

  Paige: Don’t judge. She doesn’t care, and Lucas likes it when I ogle Declan. Always ends up good for Lucas in the end.

  Ew. TMI.

  I supposed I brought that one on myself, though, despite not really needing to think about what Paige and her husband did.

  Laughing, I typed out my response that I’d meet her there soon.

  Then I hurried to my bedroom to shower.

  —

  Every time I visited Fireside Grill, I felt like I’d stepped into a piece of Latham Hills’s history. The atmosphere was always warm and inviting, decorated with firefighting memorabilia that had been collected ever since this Detroit suburb had been established. The bonus to us women was the male firefighter photo spreads that lined the walls and decorated the tables. What woman didn’t love the fantasy of being saved from death by a sexy, ripped man in uniform?

  Women swooned over characters like that in romance novels all the time, and yet as I met Paige at the bar, the calendars and photos Trina had added last year to bring attention to Declan’s struggling restaurant didn’t grab my attention like they usually did.