One night. He could do that, couldn’t he? Then he could get this need for her out of his system and focus on winning the tournament to free her from any danger. His job would be done, his debt paid to Jax, and he could move on to continue his daily penance and meaningless existence.
But right now he wanted to feel alive again, if only for a night in the arms of the woman who’d had his balls on lockdown for months. She was the reason no one else even appealed to him anymore. He needed her, just this once. But he wouldn’t do it without an understanding between them.
“Kat, can I be honest with you?”
“Haven’t you been so far?”
Not answering that one was better than an outright lie, right? Aiden was aware of the fine line he was walking. There was little between them that was honest from his end. But at least in this one thing, he’d be telling her the truth. Now he just had to do it without sounding crude or disrespectful, which would be a challenge. He was no smooth-talking Romeo.
Meeting her expectant gaze, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for the possibility of getting slapped. “I wanna be with you tonight.”
“As in, with me with me?”
“Yeah,” he said, amusement lifting a corner of his mouth. “With you with you. It’s been a really long time since I wanted someone as much as I want you.”
“Really?” she asked breathlessly.
“You sound surprised.”
She offered a weak shrug and suddenly found interest in the floorboards. “You seem like you’d be more into exciting, exotic-looking women. Like one of those sexy, new-age pin-up girls with the flawless skin and beautiful tattoos.”
He almost laughed until he realized she was serious. She had no idea what she did to him. Grabbing one of her hands still resting on his shoulder, he slowly dragged it over his chest and down his stomach until it finally reached his stiff erection straining against the restrictive boxer briefs under his shorts.
Aiden groaned as he molded her hand over his cock. The feel of her gripping him nearly redefined the word “premature.” She drew in a quick breath and raised her eyes to his. Her cheeks filling with a pretty shade of pink did crazy things to his insides. The more her innocence showed through, the more he wanted her.
He couldn’t make sense of it. She was right. Typically he went for the larger-than-life women who treated every day like it was their own personal thrill ride. Kat was something else entirely. Worldly beyond her years, yet somehow more innocent than she should be.
“This is how into you I am, sweetheart. Believe me when I tell you I couldn’t fake this kind of interest,” he assured her.
“Guess I was right after all,” she said.
“About what?”
“Earlier in the garage. I believe my exact words were, ‘It’s so big I can barely close my fingers around it.’”
He let out a strangled chuckle. The woman he thought didn’t have a teasing bone in her body picked now of all times to prove him wrong. Then again, maybe she wasn’t trying to be funny because she effectively cut off his laughter when she gave his cock a light squeeze. A low growl emanated from deep in his chest. If he didn’t fuck her soon, he’d explode.
“I want you, Kat. Wicked bad. But I don’t have anything more to offer you than one night. That’s me being honest. So if you wanna give me the red light now, I’ll understand, but you gotta let me know while I still have use of some of my brain.”
“Green.”
He furrowed his brow in confusion. “What’s green?”
Her shy smile revealed so much. “I’m giving you the green light.”
Images of all the things he planned to do to her in the next several hours flashed behind his eyes. Anticipation like nothing he’d ever had made his balls draw up tight with a delicious pleasure/pain.
Dipping his head, he closed the space between his lips and hers—finally he’d kiss her, taste her—but at the last second she dropped her head back with a sigh and offered up her throat instead. He growled his complaint and intended on rectifying the missed opportunity when her sweet lilac scent drew him in like a bear to honey. Okay, he’d kiss her later. He wasn’t too hard to please. At the moment, he was just plain hard.
“I want you so bad right now I can’t fucking think straight,” he rasped under her jaw. Latching onto the sensitive place below her ear, he tasted inch after inch of her skin as fallen wisps of her hair tickled his face. Fingernails bit into his shoulders where she gripped him, the slight pain igniting sparks of pleasure that raced down his spine. He kissed lower to the hollow of her throat, then down between her collarbones, until further efforts were thwarted by the damned cotton of her shirt.