Her nails dig into my back and I thrust forward in response. Her neck arches and opens enough for me to bury my face as I rock in and out of her in a slow and deliberate rhythm. Entranced by every sound she makes I lean to one elbow to watch as her body writhes and rolls with every stroke.
Hungry for more, I reach behind her knee with one arm and her back with the other rolling us so that she’s on top, her ankles still locked behind my legs. Cocking my knees, she pushes up and—“Fuuuck, you’re gonna wreck me.”
She bites her lip and with her body towering over mine she grinds her hips against me. I slide my hands up to cup her breasts and toy with them until she throws her head back with a breathless gasp. Her pace quickens.
“Yeah, baby. Don’t stop.”
She doesn’t.
“Gorgeous.” My teeth grind together to hold back my impending orgasm.
“Aden.” Her voice hitches on a quick breath and I know she’s close.
“Right here.” I grip her hips and hold her down while rolling in time with her, and that’s it.
Her fingers dig into my pecs and she cries out my name.
“Dammit, fuck.” I spit through my teeth as an orgasm bigger and more intense than I’ve ever felt shreds through me. My toes curl, my thighs constrict and bolts of pleasure shoot up my spine. My head gets light and I continue to move with her as every touch seems to extend the ecstasy.
She drops down on top of me, giving me all her weight, and I wrap her in my arms and try to get my head out of the clouds and back on stable ground.
“I’ve . . . that’s never happened to me before.”
I run my fingers up and down her back, her skin sticky from exertion and her sweet scent settles my soul. “It was new for me too.”
A long and drawn-out sigh falls from her lips and she wiggles to free her ankles from her panties before pushing off of me and dropping to my side.
I trash the condom, then pull her to me, thinking it’s been years since I’ve felt this sated, this totally and completely satisfied. Not just sexually, but down to my bones. She tames the monster inside.
She traces a pattern on my abdomen. “Aden?”
“Hm.”
“That woman, the one who was with you . . .”
I pinch my eyes closed.
“Was she the owner of the earring?”
“Yes.”
Her tiny frame seems to get even smaller at my side. I roll her over and position myself between her thighs, pinning her hips with mine. Cupping her face between my hands I lock eyes with hers. “One thing I will never do is lie to you, freckles.”
Her gaze drops to my chin.
“Look at me.”
Reluctantly, she does.
“Sydney is a waitress at the Office. Yes, it was her earring and yes, in the past, she and I have hooked up, but I haven’t even entertained the idea of Syd since you.”
“But tonight, she—”
“She knew Jenkins, hell, everyone in that bar knew him. We were all hurting, she brought up the idea of coming back to the boat but I told her no.” I drop a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I told her about you, fuck . . . I couldn’t shut up about you.”
Her expression turns sour. “You didn’t hurt her feelings, did you?”
The corner of my mouth ticks up. “I don’t know many women who would genuinely be concerned about another woman’s feelings.”
She shrugs. “Well . . . that’s because until now, you never knew me.”
I groan and bury my nose into her neck. “Fuck, you’re something else.”
“Thank you for not sending me home.”
Afraid I’m crushing her, I drop to my back and pull her to my side. “Sorry for bein’ a dick.”
“You were drunk and grieving.”
“Still am.”
She tilts her head up to look at me. “Which one? Drunk or grieving?”
I search my feelings for a split second, not wanting to lie. “Maybe a little-a-both.”
Snuggling back into me, she kisses my chest. “Understandable. You feel like talking about it?”
Sex then talk?
I’ve never confided in a woman I’ve slept with.
But everything about this is different. Everything about Celia is different.
What that all means, I have no fucking clue.
NINETEEN
SAWYER
We stayed naked and twisted together for the next day.
I waited for him to tell me I should leave, expected at any minute he’d remind me that we swore we wouldn’t spend the night together. He never did. Instead, he held me to him tighter than he ever has without even the whisper of a night terror. I suppose that might be because we seldom slept for any substantial period of time.
Between dozing off to rest we ate and showered, but everything would lead us back to the bed. I checked my phone to make sure my family wasn’t trying to reach me and Aden would peek at his every now and then, but everything else we ignored.
In those glorious hours we focused on nothing but each other.
There were quiet times where we’d talk about Jenkins. Aden would tell me stories that would have me laughing hard enough to draw tears, and he shared with me that the old man had a fractured relationship with his family. He hadn’t spoken to his children in a long time and didn’t expect to be missed once he passed on.
When our conversation would become too much Aden would get quiet and I would do my best to distract him, which was always easy seeing as we wore little to no clothes.
I had moments in the dark of night when his breathing would even out that I thought to tell him about Celia, but lost my nerve knowing the truth would burst the delicate bubble we’d created. I’m here because Aden needs me, but acting as some kind of salve to his pain is a double-edged sword because every second that passes with him is one more that I fall deeper in love.
I’ve made my mental lists. All the reasons we won’t work, the obvious being that he doesn’t even know who I really am. There’s the geography, we live in two different states. I’d never expect him to give up the boat and his fishing to be with me. But when I start to convince myself to get up and walk away he’ll smile at me, or touch me in a way that erases all rational thought.
I may not need him.
He may be the worst possible person for me.
But I want him in a way I can’t even begin to understand.
And it goes well beyond what he can do with my body that makes everything outside of us seem insignificant. It’s the way he makes me feel like I’m the only woman in the world. He responds to every word I say, every sound that slips unabashed from my lips, as if I’m giving him a secret he’s been desperate to discover. When we’re together it’s as if I’m the air and he’s begging for his next breath.
I’ve played second string to my twin sister my entire life. She was the funny one, the talented one, popular, artistic, smart, and sexy. I was average, awkward, ordinary, and even though I got decent grades that’s where my credentials ended.
But Aden erases all that. To him I’m everything I’m not and so much more.
Especially now, in these moments, when he’s looking down at me, his big hands framing my face as he moves inside me, his eyebrows dropped low in concentration like I’m speaking to him in a special language only he can understand. Whatever he hears makes the corner of his mouth tick up.
I wrap my legs around his hips and kiss him so deeply he moans and—barks?