“Did you make all this yourself? Are you a chef?”
Aidan cracked a smile. “No. I’m afraid I’m rather useless in a kitchen.”
Mary’s eyes flashed. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”
He growled in the back of his throat and pinned her with a look that brought his earlier comment about dessert to the forefront of her mind.
“Well,” she said, squirming on her chair, “this was really wonderful, but honestly, if you had brought any one of these you would have ‘passed’ in my book. Please don’t feel like you have to spend a lot of money to impress me, Aidan. As wonderful as this is, it’s too much.”
Aidan opened his mouth to say something, then reached for his glass of water and took a drink instead. “That’s okay,” he said finally. “It didn’t cost that much.”
“Employee discount, huh?”
He smiled enigmatically in response. “So,” he said, changing the subject before she could ask him what exactly he did for the Goddess. “How long have you been a sub?”
“A what?”
“A sub. A sexual submissive. I have to say, I never would have guessed.”
“Um, I’m not a submissive.”
Aidan looked up sharply. “You’re not? But you were perfect.”
Part of her wanted to preen; another part wanted to crawl under a rock. A submissive? Her? As in BSDM and Fifty Shades and all that? Yeah, she’d secretly read plenty of erotic novels that featured that kind of stuff, maybe even fantasized late at night sometimes, but her actual sexual experience (this afternoon notwithstanding) had been about as vanilla as it got. Did he really think she made a habit of this sort of thing?
Then again, why wouldn’t he think that? She’d literally begged him to have sex with her, without birth control or a condom, screaming for more as he used his belt like a whip on her ass. Afterwards, she’d dropped to her knees and sucked him clean. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she’d nearly melted in his arms when he’d been playing back there.
Suddenly, she didn’t feel so good.
*
Aidan watched the color drain from her face, saw the dawning shame in her eyes, and knew. “Christ. You never did anything like that before, did you?”
She shook her head, her eyes suspiciously moist. “No.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck! How did he keep screwing this up? She had known exactly what to do, how to behave, and what to say with only the slightest direction. What was he supposed to have thought?
Then again, if she really had never done anything like that before, had never assumed the role with anyone else, then that meant she was only like that for him. Both his heart and his cock swelled at the thought.
“Did you like it?” he asked softly.
Mary sniffled; she refused to look him in the eye.
“Mary, answer me.” It was the same command he had given before, but in a different context. This time there would be no punishment. “Did you like it?” He hoped to God she said yes, but if she didn’t he would find some way to go without, because there was no way he was letting her go now. Not after this afternoon.
“Yes,” she whispered through her tears. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you must think -”
He was kneeling beside her in a heartbeat, pulling her into his arms. “I think,” he said softly, but firmly, “that you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. And that what happened between us was fierce and powerful and so beautiful that I can’t even comprehend it any other way.”
She buried her face in his neck and inhaled deeply. “Yeah?”
“Yes,” he said, stroking her hair, kissing the top of her head. “God, yes, Mary. But if it’s not what you want, we’ll find another way. One you’re more comfortable with.”
*
Warmth flooded her at his words. They were exactly what she needed to hear. This afternoon had been wonderful – impulsive and wild and electric – but it was all new territory for her. The one thing she was certain of was that she didn’t want this man to walk away and not look back because she was afraid to explore the possibilities. His willingness to offer alternatives suggested that maybe he wasn’t keen on walking away yet, either.
Before she could respond, a knock at the back door broke into their little world. Max went over to the door and sniffed. His soft growls told Mary exactly who was there.
“Malcolm.” The way she spoke the name was a low rumble that sounded suspiciously like Max’s.
“Uh-oh. Reinforcements,” Aidan quipped. He didn’t look any more pleased with the interruption than she did.
“Ugh! And they wonder why I put blinds on that side of the house!” she muttered, hastily wiping at her eyes as she got up to answer the door. Aidan stood, but made no move to leave the room.