Chapter FOURTEEN
Aidan tried shaking himself out of his dream. Once again, his nights were filled with Emma. His days were consumed by the growing ache of his feelings and now he was even tormented in his dreams. Tonight was physically painful as he could actually feel her lips on him, moving him in and out of her warm mouth.
He groaned. “Emma,” he murmured. God, he wanted her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and bury himself deep inside. He wanted to hear her cry out his name again like she had before. “Emma, I need you.”
“I’m here, baby, and I want nothing more than to make love to you.”
His eyes flew open. He realized he wasn’t alone in the bed. This was no dream Emma. She was real and was straddling him while she worked her lips and tongue over his erection. “No, wait,” he croaked. When she licked and then sucked one of his balls into her mouth, he threw his head back against the pillow. F*ck, it had been so long. His hips moved involuntarily, bucking his length farther into her mouth.
No, no, no. He couldn’t do this. Their relationship started on sex, and he wasn’t about to let it restart that way. It was about love this time—pure and beautiful love. He pushed himself into a sitting position. “No, Emma, don’t,” he said.
Her eyes glanced from his cock up to his eyes in surprise. He shook his head. “I don’t want you to do this.”
She pulled away so violently he winced as her teeth scraped along his length. He tried to grab her shoulders, but she stumbled off him so fast that he couldn’t. She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door.
He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. Why did he seem to have a gift for completely and totally f*cking things up every single time he was around her? He threw back the sheet and hurried over to the bathroom. He could hear her crying. When he reached for the doorknob, he found it locked. “Em, I’m sorry. You misunderstood me, I swear.”
At his words, she cried harder. Aidan banged his fist so hard into the wood his hand screamed in agony. “Dammit, Emma, would you please open the door and let me explain?”
“How could I possibly misunderstand you? You said you didn’t want to sleep with me!” she screeched in between the sobs that drove spikes into Aidan’s heart.
Growling with frustration, Aidan kicked the door. “Em, has there ever been a time in our relationship when I didn’t want you? You’ve always kept me at half-mast just being in the same room.”
Her crying grew louder, and he could hear her fumbling under the counter for what he assumed was more toilet paper. He was correct when he heard her blow her nose loudly.
Raking his hands through his disheveled bed hair, he shook his head maniacally. He knew he had to do something and do it fast. He was losing her to Pesh, and in her fragile physical and mental condition, this was enough to drive her over the edge. He sighed. “So are you really going to make me do it this way—in my boxers with a hard-on from your delicious mouth while you’re crying in the bathroom?”
“Please…just leave me alone.”
“No, I will NOT leave you alone. I want to be with you, Em. I want to be with you every f*cking moment of every f*cking day!” As his heart began beating rapidly, he took in a few ragged breaths. This was it. Now or never.
“And you know why? Because I love you! Did you hear that? I love you, Emma Harrison! I love you with everything in me. If I was honest with myself, I’ve probably loved you since that first night at O’Malley’s. I just couldn’t say it until now.”
Silence echoed back at him. “Trust me. It’s not that I didn’t want you to keep sucking me off. It’s that I didn’t want us to do anything else sexual until I told you how I felt about you. Even though the doctors say we can, I don’t want to f*ck you or have sex with you. I want to make love to you, Em.” He stared at the closed door. Why wasn’t she saying anything? Why hadn’t she thrown the door open and rushed into his arms? Wasn’t he saying what she wanted to hear?
Aidan didn’t know what else to do, so he just kept speaking from his heart. “Everything has been so crazy with Pop and you and that damned Alpesh trying to steal you away and making me crazy with jealousy. I’m so f*cking sorry I didn’t tell you I loved you that day on the dock. Even before you told me, I knew how I felt, and it scared the shit out of me. I felt more for you in that instant than I did for Amy in the four years we were together.”
When she still didn’t say anything, his throat burned as tears flooded his eyes. Dammit, he never wanted to cry in front of her. He rested his forehead against the door. “Please, Em. I love you so much it hurts. I ache for you in my soul. Please…I can’t live without you. I want to be with you every minute of every day. I want to marry you and make a life with you. I want to raise Noah and be a family together. Please…please say you want to be with me forever.”
When the door flew open, Aidan had to brace his arms against the frame not to fall forward. Emma stood before him, wide-eyed, open mouthed, and with mascara blackened tears streaming down her cheeks. She took a tentative step toward him. “Say it again,” she finally whispered.
A sob choked off in his throat. “I love you.”
“Oh, Aidan,” Emma replied. She cupped his face in her hands, brushing away the tears that had fallen down his cheeks with her thumbs. She brought her lips to his and gave him a tender kiss. When she pulled away, her expression was a mixture of happiness and regret. “I’m so sorry for tonight and for hurting you with Pesh. Deep down, I never, ever stopped loving you, and you were right when you said our feelings had grown in the last two weeks. It was just…I was angry and bitter and broken hearted over what you did. But even though I wanted to hate you, I never could. And once again you were right because I thought I could make my feelings for you go away by trying to start something up with Pesh, but I couldn’t.” She gripped the sides of his face in her hands. “I swear to you that my heart will always belong to you.”
He shook his head with disgust. “You never should have had to wait, Em. Part of me wanted you and Pesh to end up together. I knew he could give you everything I should have without question, and his love wouldn’t be tainted by cheating.”
Emma brought her finger to his lips to quiet him. “Stop beating yourself up. You made a mistake, and now it’s forgiven.”
Aidan sucked in a breath. “Really?”
“Oh yes.” She gave him a lingering kiss before pulling away. “And I should have never gone out with Pesh tonight or had him over. Not only was it disrespectful and hurtful to you, it was stupid of me to try to tempt fate. Besides, he could never give me what you have. You made my dreams come true by giving me Noah. The fact that I fell in love with you exceeded anything I could have ever imagined. And now that I know you love me back—” A sob cut off her voice.
Aidan tenderly swept the tears from her cheeks. He couldn’t bear seeing her cry, especially since everything was finally right between them. “I’m serious about marrying you, Em. But I want to propose to you the right way—not half-naked and sporting wood. I want to ask Earl for his permission, and I want to get down on one knee and put a ring on your finger. You deserve that, and I want you to have it.”
Her green eyes widened. “Really?”
He bobbed his head. “I swear.”
“Oh God, you make me so, so happy!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. Rocking her back and forth, he squeezed her tight. “I love you, I love you, I love,” she murmured into his ear.
“I love you, too,” he replied.
She squirmed against him, and when he eased up on his embrace, she stared up at him with a combative mixture of both love and lust in her eyes. “Make love me to Aidan,” she pleaded.
“Is that what you want? Because there’s nothing else in the world I would rather do.”
Grinding her pelvis against his, she said, “I want you more than anything in the world.”
Aidan’s hand went to the zipper on her back. He slid it down agonizingly slow. Emma wiggled, trying to hurry out of the dress. “Why are you taking so long?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t realize you wanted to be naked so much.”
Her green eyes blazed up at him. “I want to be as close to you as I can. I need to feel your skin on mine. Then I’ll know this is all real…we’ll be full circle to where we started from.”
With a groan, Aidan jerked the straps of her dress off, letting it puddle to the floor. He unhooked her bra and whisked it away. As his hungry gaze took in her breasts, he licked his lips in anticipation. “Is it just me or—”
She rolled her eyes. “Way to ruin a moment.”
Aidan chuckled. “Sorry, but I couldn’t help noticing that they’re…bigger.”
“Yes, and they’ll probably grow even more. Don’t you remember I told you they would?”
“It must’ve slipped my mind.” With a smirk, he said, “Trust me, I’m not complaining.”
She grinned. “I didn’t think you would.”
He kissed along her cheek and nibbled her neck as his hands cupped and kneaded her ample breasts. His lips came back to hers as he caressed her flesh until her heaving breaths came harsh against his lips. He broke their kiss to suckle one of her nipples. She tugged the strands of his hair as he swirled his tongue over the sensitive bud. When he grazed it with his teeth, she cried out, arching into his mouth.
Once he had worked one nipple into a hardened peak, he kissed his way over to the other. All the while, Emma began to grind herself against his erection. “I want you now, Aidan. Please,” she panted.
“It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” he murmured against her breast.
“Oh, yes,” she cried, thrusting her hips against his hand as it dipped below her waist.
His thumbs slid inside the waistband of her panties and then pulled them down her thighs. When they dangled at her knees, she kicked them off. Her fingers then went to his boxer shorts to slide them off his hips.
Standing naked together, they gazed into each other’s eyes. “I think we can skip most of the foreplay, don’t you?”
“Mmm, hmm,” Emma murmured sliding her hands up Aidan’s bare chest.
He eased himself down on the side of the bed. Taking Emma’s hand, he tugged her to him. She kept her eyes locked on his as she rose up to straddle him. When the warmth between her legs covered his cock, he moaned. “Wrap your legs around me tight, Babe.”
Emma quickly obliged, and then Aidan pushed them back to the center of the bed. Then his hand delved between her legs, causing her to whimper. As he thrust a finger into her core, he felt her walls clench around him. “I just wanted to make sure you were ready for me.”
“I’m always ready for you, my love,” she whispered.
He brought both of his hands to her waist and gently raised her up. He then guided his erection between her wet folds. As Emma slowly slid down on him, Aidan feathered tender kisses along her collarbone. After he was all the way in, he shuddered with pleasure. “Oh God, I’ve missed the feel of you.”
When he lifted his head, she smiled down at him. “I’ve missed every glorious inch of you, too.”
He laughed. “There you go stroking my ego.”
“I think we fit together perfectly.” She gazed down to her expanding belly. “Well, except for that getting in the way.”
Aidan pushed the long strands of auburn hair out of her face. “Don’t ever think Noah’s in the way. He will always be the string that ties us together. He’s our love growing inside you. He may not be the reason why I fell in love with you, but he’s the reason why I got another chance at life.” He gave her a deep, lingering kiss. “You saved me, Emma.”
Tears sparkled in her green eyes, and her chest rose and fell in harsh breaths like she was trying to keep her emotions from spiraling out-of-control. “Oh Aidan.” She cupped his face in her hands. “I love you so much,” she murmured against his lips.
Pressed chest to chest, Emma began to lift her hips as Aidan raised his. She panted in his ear as the slow, languid strokes took him deeper and deeper. Wrapped together, they kept their eyes on each other. They were a tangle of arms and legs—but they were one.