Beth hugged the blanket around her. “So we’re going back out in the rain?”
Aidan frowned. His idea wasn’t too bright, was it? “Never mind. We’ll stay here, and I’ll run a warm bath for you.”
Beth’s eyes widened. He figured she was going to dispute his plan.
Instead, she replied with a timid, “All right. Thank you.”
Aidan slipped her shoes off her feet. Water poured onto the floor. He tossed the pumps aside and wrapped his hands around her toes. They felt ice cold.
After a gentle kiss to her forehead and a steadfast vow to take care of her, he headed into the bathroom and filled the tub. Thankfully, he’d scrubbed the bathroom as soon as he moved in, so it was clean for her. He didn’t have proper bath items—the kind he knew women typically used—and made a mental note to pick some up soon. Not that he was being presumptuous. He just wanted her to have everything she needed should another situation like this arise.
Aidan returned to the living room and led Beth into the bathroom with a subtle touch to her shoulder. She draped the blanket over the counter and stood before him, her hands clasped in front of her. He worked a miracle and didn’t look below her face. This was not the proper time for what he desired to happen between them.
“Okay, I’ll leave you to…” The thought of her undressing redirected his mind along a less than honorable route. “And, uh, I’ll find you something of mine to wear.”
“Thank you.” Beth took her lower lip between her teeth. The way she looked at him suggested she had something more to say.
“Is there anything else you need?”
Beth released her lip. “Um… can you unzip me?”
The request traveled on an express ticket from Aidan’s ears down to his groin. He scrounged up a reply. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”
Beth turned around. Aidan released a deep breath and stepped softly against her, appreciating the enchanting curve of her back and behind. He gathered her hair and brought it forward over one shoulder. Unable to help himself, he closed his eyes and bent down to kiss her nape. She shivered. He groaned and backed away.
Aidan gripped the zipper of her dress between his thumb and forefinger and lowered it to her waist slowly, revealing a pearl-colored silk slip underneath. He was half grateful and half disappointed she wore one.
Beth faced him and did something he couldn’t have predicted in a million years. She brought her hands up and slipped the dress off her shoulders. It fell to the floor at her feet in a plush puddle of cream taffeta, leaving her standing before him in only her slip, strapless brassiere, and he hoped for his sake, panties. The more layers covering her skin, the better for his resolve.
Or so he thought.
Beth’s slip was low enough in the front to reveal the swell of her cleavage and a hint of her bra. It draped over her breasts and hugged her trim waist and hips, falling to mid-calf—a sultry display of silk against skin, elegance against beauty.
Aidan’s arousal struck him so hard it was as though it arrived on the tail of a lightning bolt. Using every scrap of sense he had left, he made the agonizing move of turning his back on her so she could finish undressing and bathe in peace.
“Aidan?”
He closed his eyes and tilted his face toward the ceiling. With the exhale of a long and uneven breath, he grappled for the strength to remain a gentleman and depart from the bathroom no matter what.
“Yeah?”
“Please don’t go yet.”
Aidan’s tenacity vanished. He turned around. The look in Beth’s eyes showed she wanted him here as much as he didn’t want to leave. He approached her slowly and discovered she was no longer shaking. He touched a tender hand to her cheek. She was no longer cold.
Aidan bathed in her vanilla scent, which was extra potent from the rain. Her lips were just an impulse away, but he wasn’t about to be reckless with her. Not with Beth. Not his fragile little dove.
“You’re so beautiful.” The compliment slipped from his lips in a reverent whisper.
Aidan dipped his head and swept his arms around her waist. Beth closed her eyes in silent offering. Ever so slowly, he brought their lips together, his hands traveling down her sides to her hips.
Beth whimpered and returned the kiss, weaving her fingers into his damp hair, tugging, swirling, and scratching. Aidan took that as a green light to go further. With a gentle nudge, his tongue entered her mouth. He was greeted with generous sucking and moaning.
“Oh, Aidan.” Beth dragged her hands down his back, pawing at him in a desperate fashion. “I want… I want…”
He pulled back slightly. “What is it, baby?”
“Can you… touch my breasts?” Her voice was quiet but assertive.
Aidan’s eyes flashed to hers. Had he misheard her? Was his mind trying to trick him into thinking she had sanctioned the act he’d longed to perform since he discovered her at his front door?
When he realized she had, in fact, made the request, he grew concerned over where things might lead should he agree to it, and if he’d have the ability to stop himself before they got carried away.
Beth’s face creased in confusion. “Do you not want to?”
“I do.” His voice was hoarse all of a sudden. “You have no idea how much.”
“Then touch me, Aidan… as you wish.”
Aidan swallowed hard, his eyes the setting for a battle between reason and desire. “If you knew half of the things going through my mind right now, you wouldn’t say that.”
Beth took his hands and squeezed gently. “Please, I need you.”
He frowned. “That’s what frightens me.”
Her lips formed a pout. “I frighten you?”
“It’s not you, Beth,” he said, gazing into brown eyes that were so honest, so dependent, so warm. “It’s what I could do to you that scares me.”
Beth kissed his lips tenderly. Then she said the three magic words that restored his confidence. “I trust you.”
The yearning in her voice set Aidan’s blood aflame. He preferred not to do this in the bathroom, but she might get the wrong idea if he asked her to move into his bedroom.
With his hands on her hips, he leaned in and kissed her carefully, unsure of how she would respond. His worry disappeared when Beth wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with tongue and fervor, her body uniting with his.
Aidan’s heart pumped fast as he pressed light kisses to her lips, her cheeks, and her throat, enjoying how receptive she was to his touch.
His hands came to rest below her breasts.
“Beth, you need to tell me where exactly you want me to go from here. What you want me to do. I won’t act upon my own desires. I won’t make assumptions.” His eyes brewed fear and vulnerability. “I can’t—not with you.”
A crimson flush blossomed from her cheeks to her chest. “Can you touch me underneath my clothes?”
Aidan cleared his throat. “Would you like to remove your slip or me?”
“You.” That blush of hers deepened. “But I’d like to remove my brassiere, if you don’t mind.”
Aidan nodded.
Watching her face for signs of uneasiness, he lifted his hands to her shoulders and drifted them down her arms, taking with him the thin straps of her slip. The silk fell away, catching at her hips, leaving her covered from the waist down.
Aidan took a step back as Beth undid the clasp of her brassiere in the back. Like her dress, that, too, fell from her body to the floor. The wonder and worship etched in his face as he admired her bare breasts for the first time was like that on a poet in the presence of his muse. He could’ve wept at the sight of her.
“I hope they please you.”
Aidan shifted his gaze back to Beth’s face. The uncertainty in her eyes was like a dagger to his heart. It made him want to tell her adamantly and often how beautiful she was, how there would never be another woman for him.
“You’re perfect.” Aidan reunited their lips, settling his hands on her hi
ps and touching the silk that gathered there softly. When he felt her relax, he brushed them up along her stomach and traced her ribcage, pausing briefly as he neared his destination.
With a reverent sweep of his hands, he moved up over her breasts. Beth gasped and arched her back, pushing herself into his palms, hijacking his original plan of taking things slow.
Aidan closed his eyes as he massaged her, reveling in the feel of her soft flesh and tight nipples in his eager yet tender hands. Beth fueled his arousal by undulating against him. Her fingernails dug into his back as she hung onto him. He took her nipples between his forefingers and thumbs and rubbed gently. Her lips fell from his. Her body trembled.
“Oh, that feels so good,” she murmured.
Aidan shuddered as her hands floated from his shoulders down to his chest and stomach, stopping just above his jeans. Then, in an instant, her palm pressed to his erection over the denim.
Aidan groaned and flexed his hips forward as Beth moved her hand along the length of him. Base to tip, up and down… stroking, pushing… harder… faster…
A familiar sensation gripped him and began building.
Building…
With a sharp intake of breath, Aidan tore his lips from hers and launched backward, colliding with the wall.
Beth scrambled to pull the straps of her slip over her shoulders. “Oh, gosh, did I hurt you? I’m so sorry!”
Aidan rested the back of his head against the wall and closed his eyes. At the recollection of her touch, his erection twitched, as if protesting his decision to stop her so close to his release.
“No, baby,” he said through ragged breaths. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“Tell me how to pleasure you that way,” she begged. “I was told it can be very stimulating for a man if done right, and I want nothing more than to please you.”
Aidan cracked open his eyelids and regarded her curiously. Who had schooled her on that information? “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do that just because someone told you it’s what you should do.”
Beth took an imploring step toward him. “At least tell me what I did wrong. I obviously made some sort of mistake…”
Aidan shook his head. “You did nothing wrong.”
She looked at him as if he’d sprouted two heads. “Then why did you stop me?”
Abandoning etiquette, he spoke the truth bluntly. “Because I was going to finish.”
The smile that crossed her face was brighter than the sun. “You mean, like, an orgasm?”
Aidan couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yes, an orgasm.”
“But isn’t that a good thing?”
He suppressed a groan. She had no idea.
“Yeah, but now’s not the right time.” He cringed. Were those words really coming from his mouth? And he thought stopping them in her bedroom on Thanksgiving had been difficult.
“I want you to have an orgasm.” There was a pleading tone in her voice.
Aidan shook his head again. “It’s not right when I can’t reciprocate.”
“What do you mean? You were touching my breasts…” Beth’s face reddened. “Oh, I see.” She lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry. I want you to know, though, I’m working on becoming more comfortable with you touching me… down there.”
“Beth, you have nothing to apologize for, and you gotta stop asking if you please me, or what you can do to please me.”
She frowned. “I just don’t want to disappoint you.”
“What we did right now was fantastic, and I’d be more than willing to touch you like that again. But I can’t let you continue to touch me how you were because of where it would lead. It wouldn’t be fair—not until I can give you the same in return.”
“I really would be fine with you having an orgasm and not me.”
Aidan’s lips formed a tight line. “That’s never gonna happen, baby. I can tell you that with absolute certainty.”
“But doesn’t it… hurt?” She peered at him timidly. “Connie said when a man gets close and the girl stops…”
Aidan threw out a string of expletives in his mind, all of them aimed at the blond actress in question. He should’ve known Connie was Beth’s sex education teacher.
“No, it’s not uncomfortable,” he said, knowing the lie was for her own good.
Beth sighed. “All right, if you’re sure… then I guess this would be an appropriate time for us to stop.”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Aidan grabbed a large towel from the rack on the wall and draped it over her so she was covered up properly. It quelled only some of his desire to strip off her slip again and take her up on her offer to finish what she started. He brought his hands to her shoulders and placed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll redraw your bath.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Aidan refilled the tub with warm water and left the bathroom after telling Beth to take her time. His arousal still hadn’t waned by that point, and her soaking naked in a tub under his roof meant it wasn’t going away any time soon.
Aidan’s first stop was his bedroom, where he searched for something she could put on afterward. He rummaged through his pants selection and found only jeans and dress trousers that wouldn’t fit her. He decided on a navy blue T-shirt that was too big for him and would cover her properly, as well as a pair of black socks to warm her feet.
He returned to the bathroom.
“Beth?” he called against the closed door.
“Yes?” She sounded content and relaxed, suggesting she was already in the tub.
“I brought some clothes for you.”
“All right. Thank you.”
The urge to take a peek at her overwhelmed him as he pushed the door ajar and stuck his hand inside to hang the shirt and socks on the doorknob. When he was done, he all but slammed it shut, wishing he could bolt the thing, too, for good measure.
Slumped against the wall in the hallway, Aidan dragged both hands through his hair and exhaled a deep breath, embroiled in a vicious fight to calm his urges and make it through the rest of the evening without continuing from where they left off. The first step in sticking with this resolve led him away from the bathroom.
Upon his reentry into the living room, his gaze dropped to his matchbook and crumpled package of Winstons resting on the coffee table. Beth wasn’t a fan of smoking, but he was desperate for a cigarette—or ten—and made a beeline toward them. Perhaps it would help calm him down.
Not wanting to step outside in case she needed him, he walked over to the window in the living room that faced the residence next door and opened it, welcoming the fresh, damp air into his house. He sat lengthwise on the windowsill with his knees bent in front of him and peered outside as he brought a cigarette to his lips. The wind had died down and the rain had faded to a fine mist. Dense clouds rushed across the sky.
Aidan struck a match on his jeans and lit up. On his first drag, he leaned his head back against the window frame and closed his eyes, enjoying the atypical weather and the smoke that snaked into his lungs.
Thoughts of Beth wet and naked were never far from his mind.
With a pensive sigh, he propped up his forearms on his thighs and hung his hands in the space between, studying the smoke that curled up from the tip of his cigarette and drifted out the window. He thought about his upcoming race in Santa Barbara and sharing a hotel with Beth while savoring each drag on his cigarette and sticking his hand outside every now and then to tap his ashes to the ground.
He paused with the cigarette halfway to his lips when he heard the bathroom door open.
“Aidan?”
At the sound of Beth’s voice, he tossed his cigarette outside and hopped off the ledge, planting his bare feet on the floor. With more force than necessary, he shut the window and then made a hurried journey to the bathroom.
Beth stood in the doorway with wet hair, pink cheeks, and a bashful smile, her splendor magnified by the dark T-shirt she wore, which draped her in a baggy fashion and fell to her mid-thi
gh. His T-shirt.
Aidan trailed his gaze down her body to her bare legs. He gulped. He’d been foolish to hope that one cigarette would be enough to curb his arousal.
“Is there somewhere I can hang my clothes to dry?” Beth held the items out in front of her. “I placed the towel on the rack in the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure what to do with these.”
Aidan’s eyes bounced back to her face. “I have some hangers in my room that the previous owner left behind. I’ll get ’em and hang your stuff over the bathtub.”
Beth blushed. “Um… I can hang them up if you give me the hangers.”
“I don’t mind doing it.” Aidan extended his arms toward her.
She gifted him with a shy smile. “I appreciate the offer, but I should probably hang up my clothes myself, since they include my… you know… more intimate apparel.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.” Now it was his turn to blush. “I’ll get the hangers.”
Aidan retreated to his bedroom, trying not to entertain thoughts about how Beth was naked under his T-shirt, and returned with several hangers. He waited outside the bathroom while she hung up her clothes.
“So, what would you like to do?” he asked when she joined him in the hallway. “I’m sorry I don’t have much here. No television set or radio yet. I could set up the record player if you want…”
Beth’s face brightened. “I forgot about the pie!” She took his hand and led him into the living room. “That’s why I walked over here in the first place, so I could give it to you before we went out for the evening. I know how much you enjoyed it on Thanksgiving and thought it would be the perfect housewarming gift.”
She picked up the pie from the couch and removed the wrapping. After ensuring the rain hadn’t spoiled it, she tossed him an eager smile. “How about we eat it for dinner?”
Aidan arched his eyebrows in amusement. “Dessert for dinner?”
Beth giggled. “Yes, it’ll be fun. Don’t you think?”
Aidan agreed only after she politely declined his offer to pick up proper dinner food and bring it back to the house to cook. He followed her into the kitchen and watched her heat up the pie, unable to erase the grin off his face at the reality that she was here, in his house, and looking so comfortable.
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