This is pure, raw need. This is hard and fast, and when he grabs my hips, stilling me, and pounds into me frantically, it’s almost brutal. There’s nothing romantic or flowery about the way our skin slaps together, and my cries are swallowed by his rough kisses and nibbles at my lips.
There’s nothing beautiful about this, except everything that shouldn’t be.
I explode with a loud moan and my teeth sinking into his shoulder. He roars his own release, slamming into me one last time. He drops his hips to the bed, lowering mine with his, still buried deep inside me.
I press my face into his neck and tightly wrap my arms around him. His own hands stroke across my back, fingers splayed, one at the small of my back and the other resting between my shoulder blades.
Aaron kisses along my shoulder, each kiss softer than the last. Each kiss holding the feelings neither of us displayed just a moment ago.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t plan to do that.”
“Shh,” he says into my hair. “You needed to let go. I was here. I don’t begrudge you that.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Goddamn him for being so wonderful and understanding and him.
“My day was awful, and I just… I don’t know.”
“You needed control back.”
I nod and sit up. I brush my thumb over his cheek and along his jaw, my eyes following the path of it. Guilt eats at me inside, but I batter it down. I kiss him once and get off him, heading into the bathroom to clean up. Aaron follows me in.
“Have you eaten tonight?”
I shake my head and throw my panties in the laundry basket. “No. I’m starving.”
“I brought takeout, but it’s probably cold by now.” He shoots a wickedly sexy smirk my way, and my cheeks flush a little. “Blushing?”
I duck into my lingerie room and slip on another pair of panties before deciding to answer that. “You, Mr. Stone, are the only man in existence who can make me blush.”
“I happen to enjoy making you blush very much, Miss Black. I’ll strive to do it more often.”
I roll my eyes and grab the cartons sitting on the kitchen side. “Baby, you can pin me against a wall and describe to me in explicit detail all the things you’d like to do to me with your tongue and your c**k and I still wouldn’t blush. I said you can make me blush, but I didn’t say it was easy.”
I set the timer on the microwave oven at the same time Aaron wraps his arms around me.
“Baby,” he murmurs. “I have a soft spot for that.”
“Even though I only said it originally to annoy you?”
“Yes.” He turns my face to the side and brushes his lips against the corner of my mouth. “Do you usually dine in your lingerie?”
“Quite often.” I spin and run my finger down the middle of his stomach. “Would you prefer I put some clothes on?”
“Don’t even think about it.”
I smile and turn back to the oven at its ping. Aaron sits down, and I set the Chinese food between us.
“So. London,” I say after a few minutes.
Aaron nods. “You’ll come with me?”
“Since you’re asking, I suppose so.”
His eyes light up. “If I had known asking would make you so agreeable, I would have tried it before.”
“We both forget to ask sometimes.”
“I like your demanding. A lot.”
I throw a shrimp at him. “Watch it, baby. I’m more demanding than you know.”
Aaron raises his eyebrows and leans forward on his elbows, his eyes hot and his voice silky smooth. “I’m ready for anything you demand of me, Dayton. Anything.”
Chapter Eleven
Aaron gently shakes me awake, his breath cascading over my cheek. “Dayton, sweetheart? We’re in London.”
“Stupid time difference,” I mumble, rubbing my eyes and sitting up.
He chuckles. “Come on. Dinner then you can go back to sleep.”
“What? What time is it here?”
“It’s around six p.m.”
I blink at him, sitting up, and shake my head. I’m not even going to try and work that out. I grab my jacket, and he guides me out of the plane.
“On the bright side, you don’t have to meet my cousin until tomorrow. Tyler is always a delight.” His tone is dry, but there’s an obvious fondness there.
“You didn’t mention your cousin.”
“I didn’t mention London until my father reminded me three days ago. What makes you think I’d remember to inform you that we’re staying with my cousin for ten days?”
I smack him lightly in the chest. “We definitely have to work on the conversational part of our relationship.”
Yes, we do, don’t we, Dayton?
Aaron laughs and wraps an arm around my waist. We’re expedited through customs and swept straight into a waiting car. I stifle a yawn as I slide across the back seat and press myself against the window.
I’ve never been to London, and it isn’t a place I ever envisioned myself visiting. After my parents died, I never imagined I’d fly again, but I have. I’ve conquered that fear, and now here I am. In London. With Aaron.
Nothing should surprise me anymore, but it does. At every turn.
“Where does he live?”
“Tyler stays in my aunt and uncle’s house in Belgravia. They primarily spend their time in the US, so the house as good as belongs to him. It was passed to Aunt Kate from her parents as part of their restaurant business. She and Uncle Todd spent a couple of years in the US expanding the business when we were young and decided to move back when Ty and Tessa were older. Ty stays in Belgravia rent-free.”
“Nice,” I mutter. “Won’t he take over the business, like you did with Stone?”
Aaron shakes his head. “He made it clear very early that it isn’t something he’s interested in. He’s happier being a photographer and working for me. Ty’s never been business-minded like me and his sister. Tessa manages the UK business and will eventually take over the US side, too.”
I nod slowly. “Did you always know you’d take Stone over?”
“There was never any question. I inherited ten percent when I graduated from Columbia, and obviously the rest became mine a few weeks ago.”
“I didn’t know you went to Columbia.”
“You never asked.”
“When have I had time to ask you?” I turn to him and raise an eyebrow. “Really, Aaron.”