Duty(47)

Lance nods and waits while I fold it into thirds and lay it on the floor for him to use as a cushion. Within fifteen minutes, his head is drooping, and just as my kitchen clock beeps eight o'clock, he's snoring on my green girl, his head nestled in his arms. “Is he going to be okay?”

Lindsey nods, smiling wistfully at her son. “He's fine. He loves sleeping on his stomach, and if he doesn't need to pee, he'll be good like that all night.”

“Good,” I say softly. “He's had a busy day. Let him sleep.”

Lindsey nods and turns to me, laying an arm over the couch so that we're nearly touching hands. “Every day you've spent with him has been amazing.”

I nod and reach out, closing the distance between our hands and touching her fingers. She doesn't pull away, but she smiles instead. “This was the best Saturday I've had in years.”

“Me too,” she says. “Aaron, last time . . . well, never mind. I've been thinking, and I'm not saying we can do this right away, but I've been thinking about telling Lance about his father.”

I nod but don't smile. “So you want Lance to know . . . what, that I'm his father? That we used to see each other?”

Lindsey nods, but I see the indecision in her eyes. “Aaron, what else can I tell Lance? That you and I—”

I lean forward, cutting off her words. My lips crash against hers, and she doesn't resist at all. In that moment, I know for certain that rules be damned, I have to have her in my life. She's too important to me. My lips find her neck, pulling her close, her body against mine the way I've dreamed for too long, for so many lonely nights. When I reach her ear, I kiss her earlobe like I used to, and she moans lightly in my ear. “I’ve had too many empty, sleepless nights. I've missed you. I don't care about rank. I don't care about the rules anymore. I want to be more than just Lance's father.”





Chapter 16





Lindsey





Aaron's looking into my eyes, and I'm still breathless from the kiss we just shared. My heart's racing, and more than anything, my body is crying out. His kiss was water in the desert, and when he looks at me, I know exactly what to do.

I stand up, leading Aaron toward the back of his house. We reach his bedroom, and I close the door behind us, turning to him and putting my arms around his neck. “Four years . . .”

He nods, kissing me again, and the years evaporate in the heat of his hands on my body and the feel of his lips on mine again. We stand there, kissing and reacquainting ourselves with our bodies, for what feels like an hour, just moving slowly and dancing to invisible music that only we can hear. His hands run up and down my back, and when he lifts the hem of my smock, I'm more than ready for it, lifting my arms above my head and letting him pull it off. He looks stunned, seeing me in just my bra and shorts, and I feel the spinning in my mind settle just a little, the warmth still in my belly. I still want him, I still need this, but I don't need to lose my mind over it . . . yet.

“Like what you see?” I tease, lifting my breasts. “Little bigger than last time. Everything is, actually.”

“Everything is perfect,” Aaron replies, pulling his shirt up. He drops it to the floor, and it's my turn to go dry mouthed as he stands in front of me in just his shorts. He's not as lithe as he was before, and all of that extra weight has gone into muscle on his upper body, along with something that he didn't have four years ago. I reach up and trace the design on his chest across all the ripples in muscle. Another time, I’d love to trace it with my tongue, but not right now. I need something else.

I literally leap into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist. I expect that he's going to take me to the bed, but instead, he pushes me against the wall, effortlessly pinning me there while we kiss and grind against each other. His cock is straining at his shorts, rubbing between my legs and sending tingles from my clit throughout my body.

It's been so long, even since I touched myself, that my body's overwhelmed in what feels like seconds. Suddenly, with no warning at all, I'm on the edge of coming, my hands digging into Aaron's back as I gasp and moan, my eyes fluttering closed, it feels so good. “Aaron . . .”

“I have you,” Aaron whispers, letting me ride out the sensations. I can't believe it, coming so quickly when I haven't even gotten his shorts off, sandwiched between him and the wall, but I've needed this for years. When I come down, I'm gasping and laughing at the same time, and he looks at me with concern. “You okay?”

“No,” I playfully answer, smiling. “I'm not going to be okay until you give me what I’ve been longing for.”

He turns and carries me to the bed, laying me down carefully, not because he's afraid of breaking me, but because his bed's too narrow to just fling ourselves on it. We start kissing again, and I can feel the tension in his body as he pushes his shorts down and off while I fumble with the snap on my own, wishing I'd worn something more athletic. Finally, with a chuckle, I shake my head, pushing him off. “You're going to have to get a bigger bed.”

“Yeah, well . . . next time?” he says hopefully, and I nod, sliding off the bed and taking off my bra and shorts. He lays on his back, his cock bobbing in the air, and I smile, looking down at it. “Yeah, it's been a long time. If I last five minutes, I'm going to be surprised.”