Cassie stirred at the feel of warm lips on her neck. She hummed as they slid across her heated skin. A hand gripped her hip, tugging her back into a hard body. A body she knew so well. A body that, even in the dead of night and half-asleep, she recognized.
“Aidan,” she breathed.
His lips moved down her shoulder, leaving a trail of fire. Burning her skin. “Cassie.”
Even her name on his lips… It made her heart roar for him. It made her want to get completely and utterly lost. To leave the world and exist only for him.
She shifted her head to the side, giving him easier access.
The hand on her hip slid to her belly, then slipped inside her panties.
Her breath caught and her back arched. When he eased a finger across her slit, she cried out, grinding back against him. Everything he was, was everything she wanted. Everything she’d always wanted.
He stroked her clit. There was no urgency to the way he touched her. The way his lips kissed and cherished her skin. He touched her like he had all the time in the world. Like they had a lifetime.
She reached behind her. She needed to touch him. Make him feel even a little of what she felt. He was naked, his skin hot. She wrapped her fingers around him and stroked his length.
He growled, low and deep, his teeth nuzzling her skin.
God, this was her place. The place where she wanted to bury herself alive. This vulnerable, bare moment of time with the man she’d loved for as long as she could remember.
Slowly, he turned her onto her back, then his weight pressed her to the mattress. She could only just see him in the dim light of the room, but there was something shining in his eyes. Some deep emotion.
And…fear?
She stroked a line down the side of his face. “Are you okay?”
“We got Damien out. He’s in a hospital in Utah, with several of Shaw’s men standing guard. Tomorrow, we’ll arrange to have him transported to the Cradle Mountain Hospital so he can be near you, and we’ll take over protection detail.”
Hospital. Her heart squeezed at the thought. Wetness filled her eyes, but she forced the tears back. “We need to call Dean.”
“I already did it on the way to the hospital.”
God, she was grateful for this man.
“Thank you. For everything.” She cupped his cheek, trying to memorize every inch of his face. “But you didn’t answer my question. Are you okay?”
His breath was a warm whisp across her skin. There was another flash in his eyes. This time, she recognized it right away. Definitely fear. Maybe a bit of pain. “He’s in a bad way, Cass. Those assholes beat him. If Damien hadn’t called us when he did, that could have been you—”
She put her fingers over his lips. “It wasn’t.”
He kissed her fingers before taking her hand in his own. “I should have come for you. I should have swallowed the fear that I’d find you happy without me. I should have forced myself to go to you and ask the question I was too cowardly to ask.”
“And I should have gone to you,” she whispered. “I should have found a way. Trusted you to do what I’ve been trying to do. We both made mistakes.”
“Never again.” His words sounded like a whispered vow. A promise to both himself and her.
“Never again,” she echoed.
He lowered his head and kissed her. Like his touches, the kiss was slow and gentle, but she felt the desperation and intensity behind it. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, tingling spread to every single part of her.
She groaned low in her throat, reveling in the feel of his hard, naked body against her. Those lips trailed down her jawline and neck, while his hands slipped beneath her. She arched and he removed her bra. The second her breasts were free, his lips closed around a hard nipple, and he sucked.
Her breaths turned shallow, and her heart stuttered in her chest, no longer her own.
Him. Her heart beat for him.
He switched to her other breast. She threaded her fingers through his hair, wanting to keep him right where he was forever.
While his lips remained on her breast, his hands went to her panties and pushed them down her thighs. She used her legs and feet to wriggle out of them. Then she felt all of him against all of her. And it was healing. What they had was so much more than physical. It was like their spirits knew each other. Needed each other.
Featherlight kisses made their way back up her chest as he nestled between her thighs. His weight was like an anchor. She exhaled a heavy breath when she felt him at her entrance.
He cupped her cheek and lowered his head. She looked into his eyes. The eyes of the man who owned her.
“God, I love you, Cassie.”
She covered his hand with hers and turned her head to kiss his palm. “I love you too, Aidan. My love for you runs so deep that it’s a vital part of me. Without it, I’m nothing.”
“You’re everything,” he whispered.
Then, his head and his hips lowered together, and he slid into her.
She moaned, long and deep. He filled her so completely. When he was inside her, he made her feel whole. Like everything was exactly the way it was meant to be.
He didn’t move right away, instead pressing another line of kisses down her jaw. She held his head close, running her fingers through his hair, knowing no moment could ever match this one.
Finally, he raised his hips before thrusting slowly. Her whimper cut through the quiet.
“I love that sound,” he whispered.
He thrust again. Another whimper. She wrapped her legs around him, and every time he brought himself back to her, she held him tighter.
That wisp of fear inside her, the one she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding onto, telling her that history could repeat itself and they could be torn apart again, suddenly settled. She let go of it, all of it, and just allowed herself to be with Aidan.
He nibbled on her neck, and his fingers found her nipple. He rolled her sensitive peak between his finger and thumb.
Her inhale was a sharp gasp. “Aidan!”
“Come for me, honey.”
More thrusts, harder now, combined with suckling at her neck. Finally, she bowed off the bed and broke. She let the storm of sensations wash through her as she drowned in all that was Aidan.
Even as her body pulsed, he kept thrusting, until finally his body tightened and he growled. His mouth crashed back to hers as he shattered inside her.
She clenched her legs around him, holding him, never wanting to let go.
A beat of silence passed, then he pressed a kiss to her lips and rolled to the side. When he slid out of her, she wanted to cry at the loss. But then he pulled her close. She lay her head on his chest and let the steady thump of his heart lull her to sleep, knowing she was safe.
Aidan held Cassie close. The realization that he hadn’t worn a condom probably should have made him nervous. But he wasn’t. Cassie was his forever. He wanted to marry her. See her stomach swell with their kids.
He pulled her closer.
He’d been fine all night, until they’d brought Damien to the hospital. Then it had hit him. That could have been her. Christ, it could have been worse for her. If Damien had never called Blue Halo, if Aidan and his men hadn’t been at the ball, he might have lost her forever. He might have never gotten his second chance.
He closed his eyes and let the strong beat of her heart calm the turmoil inside him.
He should have gone to her sooner. He should have swallowed his pride and fear and damn well gone to her a year ago, the second he was rescued. Yes, she’d made mistakes too, but he could forgive her. He couldn’t forgive himself so easily.
He stroked her side. This woman was his world. Hell, she was more than his world, she was his everything. They had the kind of love that people wrote stories about. The kind that you didn’t find twice. And tonight, he’d finally realized just how close he’d come to losing her.
God, a world without Cassie was like a world without air to breathe. A world without light and laughter. It was a world that didn’t make sense. One he didn’t want to live in.
“I’m not losing you, Cass…ever,” he whispered. “I can’t.”
