Dangerous Protector (Red Stone Security #14)(23)

Aaron pulled open the door and smiled when he saw his mom and dad bundled up in their winter coats. They were earlier than they needed to be, which…was nice. He wondered if his mom had planned that. The Red Stone driver wouldn’t be here for another hour. Which would give him much wanted alone time with Tegan.

Dillon jumped into his dad’s arms as Aaron hugged his mom. “Thanks for keeping him tonight.” They’d agreed to take him so he and Tegan could attend the Christmas party.

Part of him didn’t want to go—he’d rather stay here with no one but Tegan for company—but he figured she could use some time away from her voluntary lockdown. She was so positive about everything, never complaining. He wanted to give this to her.

“We should be thanking you,” his mom said, kissing him on the cheek. Her gaze strayed past him to Tegan, who he heard entering the foyer. “You look stunning, dear.”

“Thank you,” she murmured.

Aaron turned around and got the full view of her—and forgot to breathe. He’d only seen her back so far but this…

Her blue eyes seemed bigger, brighter tonight. Her makeup was darker, smoky, and he realized her dress was a dark blue, not black. It shimmered when she moved toward him. She had an almost hesitant smile on her face.

He tried not to stare, but he swept his gaze over her, taking in everything. Her heels were strappy, lacing around her ankles and sexy as f*ck. He imagined her wearing nothing but them, digging the spikes into his back as he buried his face between her legs. And the pain would be worth it to taste her, pleasure her. All the tension from the last couple of days coiled tight in his belly as he watched her. He was so damn hungry for her. He was vaguely aware of the others talking but he just stared at Tegan until he felt a sharp nudge against his rib cage from his mom.

“You look beautiful,” he rasped out, knowing he needed to say something.

Tegan smiled, her shoulders seeming to lose their tension at his words. As if she could doubt how incredible she was. She was a goddess.

“Well, we’re going to get out of your hair,” his mother said, already snapping the leash onto Kali’s collar. “I don’t want you to be late.”

Oh yeah, she’d definitely come early for a reason. Aaron could hear it in the tone of her voice.

“And it’s hot cocoa time!” Dillon was jumping up and down by the open front door as his dad helped Dillon into his jacket.

Aaron smiled at his son’s excitement. “I’ll have my phone on me and—”

“I know all that,” his mom said, waving a hand in the air. “We’ve done this a thousand times. We’re watching a Christmas movie tonight and having popcorn and hot cocoa. We’ll be fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He knew they would be okay, but it was still habit to go over everything with them.

Once Dillon had hugged both him and Tegan and they were gone, he shut the door behind them, glad to be alone with her. Guilt slid through him because he loved his son more than anything, but he craved some alone time with Tegan. Desperately.

If he had anything to say about it, the walls she’d put up between them were coming down tonight. “You really are beautiful.” The words came out raspier than before. He couldn’t stop staring at her, wanting her. He tried to shove back his impatience that things between them were moving so slow.

Her cheeks flushed pink. “You said cocktail party-type dress so…I thought this would work.”

It worked all right. Too well.

He took a step closer to her, wanting to touch her. They’d almost kissed in Carlito’s office and it was all he’d been able to think about the past two days. He’d been trying to keep himself on lockdown for her because it had been clear she was keeping a stupid wall between them. For so damn long it had felt as if he was existing in a haze. He’d been living a celibate existence that would have been foreign to him before five years ago. Now all his control and patience were on a wire’s edge. “I want to kiss you right now.”

Her eyes widened at his blunt statement. “Aaron, you can’t…just say that.”

“Yes I can.” He covered the rest of the short distance between them, his shoes quiet against the wood floor. He didn’t reach out and touch her even though his entire body ached with the need to do just that. “I want to taste all of you. Shove that pretty dress up to your waist and bury my face between your legs. I want to make you come so hard you can barely walk afterward.”

Her eyes grew even wider, her breathing shaky and erratic as she stared at him, her mouth parting just a fraction. There was a slight gloss to her pink lips.

“Nothing to say to that?” he murmured. His libido revved to life whenever he was around her. He wanted nothing more than to devour Tegan. He wasn’t holding back anything now. He’d realized that by playing it passive, by not being more direct with her, he was cheating them both out of something that could be amazing. He knew he could get burned by her, but he was done with living like a monk. She’d woken something up inside him and he wasn’t going to run from it. She made him feel alive again in the most primal way.

Her eyes were dilated as she swallowed hard, watching him with a mix of emotions. One of them was fear. He knew she wasn’t afraid of him so maybe it was just what was between them.

“Just think about my words all night while we’re at the party. It’s what I’m going to be thinking about doing to you. What I think about all the damn time—what I thought about this morning while I jerked off in the shower.” He knew he was pushing her and didn’t care. Those walls had to come down.