Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(70)

“Aiden, did you love her once?”

He shook his head. “Honey, it’s impossible to explain what happened back then. It had a lot to do with being a young man barely off a long assignment on a ship, getting mixed up with someone I didn’t know and should have been trying to avoid. Needless to say, we realized the mistake and made a mutual decision to end it quickly before it got worse.”

She smiled patiently. “You don’t really know me, either,” she pointed out.

“Yes, I do. I know your family, what you do for a living, how helpless you are on a bike or in a bear scare.” He tightened his arms.

“I’m good on a bike,” she argued, but as she said that she leaned toward him, helpless in his arms, inviting his lips. “That’s not a lot to base an opinion on.”

“It’s out of my hands, honey. I can’t stop it. I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. I’d do anything to make you mine. Anything.”

She leaned against him. “It’s not really morning and you’ve been up all night. It might be easier to talk about this after a little sleep.”

“Sleep?” he asked, his lips against hers. “I want to be inside you.”

She felt her heart begin to race immediately. “I’ve always been so practical,” she said. “This whole summer thing with you has changed me into a different kind of woman. I should wait until I completely understand this situation with your ex, but I can’t. I can’t and I don’t care.”

She took him by the hand and gently led him to her bedroom.

He slowly undressed her and got rid of his own clothes quickly. Erin fell beneath him, complete putty in his hands, in his arms. He kissed her with slow, deliberate, hot passion and began to unlock all the secrets of her body—secrets they’d found together so recently. He wound sweet pleasure around her and everywhere his fingers went, every time his tongue touched her, she would shudder in anticipation. This had never happened to her with anyone before and she had been thoroughly convinced it never would. But there was something about the way they came together that released the most amazing sensations and she couldn’t summon caution. Now that she’d found it, she couldn’t imagine ever living without this.

“Like that,” he said softly, hoarsely. “Move like that, just a little. Gently. Slowly. Take your time….” And he rocked inside her, filling her, teasing her, the build of orgasm already so familiar to her, something she needed from him so desperately. And then he said, “Tell me when you’re so close you want to cry.”

“God,” she whispered, feeling those inevitable tears of longing rise to her eyes, holding him so fiercely she wondered she didn’t break him. “Please, Aiden,” she whispered. “Now. Now. Now.”

“Hang on just a little longer….”

“Now,” she whispered. “Please, now…”

She heard his deep moan just as he pulled out just a bit. Then he said, “Come for me now, baby.” And he drove himself into her, hard, fast, deep. Again and again and again, until she cried out, cried his name, came apart over and over and over. “Like that,” he said. “Just like that. Lose control. Just like that…” And he joined her, letting it all go in a blast so powerful that it left him shaking.

He held her for a long time, keeping his weight from crushing her. Their lips met in a series of short, sweet kisses while they calmed. “You feel a little too good,” he whispered. “I might’ve forgotten something….”

“I realized that too late,” she said.

“You’re not on the pill, are you?”

“Why would I be?” she countered. “There hasn’t been anyone.”

“It’s okay, honey. We can get ahead of it. That’s something we should talk about anyway. Being together, staying together, maybe having children together.”

“I thought that ship had sailed,” she said. “I’m already thirty-six….”

“Me, too. And there’s still plenty of time.”

She laughed in spite of herself. “That was really the lamest marriage proposal I’ve ever had. Also, the first. Can this possibly wait till morning? I mean, later morning?”

“As long as you tell me one thing,” Aiden said. “Tell me if you care about me half as much as I care about you.”

She touched his cheek with her palm. “Probably twice as much,” she whispered. “I love you. I think it’s crazy, but I’m in love with you….”

He let out his breath as if he’d been holding it. “Then we can manage anything.”

A few hours later, Aiden rolled over to an empty bed and the smell of coffee. He sat up, found his boxers on the floor and dragged them on. He ran a hand through his hair and followed the smell. He found Erin sitting on the leather sofa in the great room, a cup of coffee on a tray on the leather ottoman beside her, a sheaf of papers in her hand. She looked up as he entered. The expression on her face was troubled.

“Aiden, how could you not know this wasn’t a final decree?” she asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. The lawyer said it was all I needed, that it was done, she was blessedly gone and I was in residency, working a hundred and twenty hours a week. I was sleep deprived and…” He groaned. “Y’know, it never crossed my mind to have a second lawyer check my first lawyer’s work. Besides, the check cleared…”