Kissing Cassie was like fire. It was an explosion of desperate hunger. An obliteration of the world around him.
He grabbed her hips and tugged her body tighter against his. But she never felt close enough. When he slipped a hand beneath her shirt, and she gasped, he eased his tongue inside her mouth.
Christ, the woman tasted good. His. She tasted like she was his.
She kissed him back with the same need. As if the chance of separating meant they’d never find their way back to each other again. But then, he’d always needed her as much as she needed him. The inability to get enough of each other had been a frequent and welcome problem.
Those hands of hers, the ones that had been moving across his chest and tormenting him, ran up his shoulders, leaving a trail of fire.
He lowered his other hand to her ass and lifted her, then he swung them around, pressing her against the closest wall. Her sweet moan punctured his heart. It made him want to take her. Reclaim her as his.
He grazed a hand up her side beneath the sweater. No bra. Fuck, that made him harder. He cupped the small weight of her breast. Another hum from her throat, accompanied by another rippling of his chest.
He swiped a thumb over her hard peak, reveling in the shudder that rocked her spine. He swiped again. Same thing. She was so damn responsive to every little touch, just like he remembered.
He tugged his mouth free of hers and moved down her cheek before settling on her neck and sucking. Her head tossed to the side, giving him more access. With a hard, impatient yank, he tore the sweater over her head.
As if she needed to feel skin on skin as badly as he did, she grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled. He helped, and when he finally pressed against her bare breasts, blood roared between his ears.
Cassie. His Cassie.
He reached down and slipped his hand inside her panties. Then he strummed a finger across her clit. Her cry pierced the room, and her nails scratched his back.
He stroked again. The next sound was a whimper, and when he slipped a finger inside her, all her muscles tensed.
“You’re so damn beautiful, Cass.”
How had he survived these last few years, knowing this existed but was out of his reach?
“Aidan…” Her breathlessness as she said his name haunted him.
He trailed a line of wet kisses down her chest until he landed on her breast. Then he closed his lips around her sweet nipple and rolled his tongue over her.
She groaned and hummed, circling her hips against his finger and pressing her chest into his mouth.
He pushed a second finger inside, stretching her.
“Aidan!” Desperation. It fucking coated her voice. Those damn nails scraped down his skin. “I need you!”
And she’d have him. But first, he needed to feel her come apart in his arms.
In slow, deep motions, he thrust his fingers in and out, his tongue continuing to work her hard nipple. He absorbed every tremor until, finally, she came around his fingers. She screamed as her body pulsed.
He lifted his head and watched the array of emotions flicker across her face.
Perfect. She was perfect. And he wanted more. More of her. More of them. More of everything.
He captured her sounds with his mouth, his fingers still pumping inside her, and she kept grinding against his hand until the tremors finally stopped. Then he strode into the bedroom and lowered her to her feet, her harsh breathing and their pumping hearts the only sounds in the room.
Cassie’s body rippled from the power of what Aidan had done to her. She was hot and tingly, and every part of her was in overdrive. Yet she wanted more. And she just knew nothing would ever be enough with him.
Slowly, she reached for his jeans, and with trembling fingers, she undid the buckle and pulled down the zipper. Then, with both hands, she pushed down his jeans and briefs.
Her breath caught at the sight of him, just as long and thick as she remembered. He stepped out of his jeans, and her gaze caught on a couple of scars on his stomach. Scars she remembered from his time serving. This body of his… She remembered it so well. Better than her own.
She stepped forward and lowered her head. Gently, she pressed a kiss to the first scar. Then the next.
It was on the third kiss when she reached down and stroked his length.
He sucked in a sharp breath. She’d always loved what her touch did to him. Loved that she could bring such a powerful man to his knees. His muscles tensed and clenched beneath her lips as she continued to graze and caress him. He grabbed her hips in a firm hold, and his chest moved rapidly as he began to suck in quick breaths.
She couldn’t stop. She tightened her fingers around him, and a low growl rippled from his depths. A growl that made her heart flutter and her stomach fizz with little dips.
She moved her hand up and down his length, remembering everything he liked, rewarded with more primal sounds. He grew thicker in her hold, the fingers on her hips digging into her flesh.
She’d barely started exploring him when one strong hand gripped her wrist, halting her. Then his mouth crashed to hers again. Tasting. Sucking. Taking.
She pressed her hands to his chest, pushing him back onto the bed, then removed her leggings so that she stood in front of him wearing only black panties.
His eyes turned the darkest brown she’d ever seen. The way he looked at her…it was possessive. Like she belonged to him, and he to her, and that was simply how it would always be. Which was true. The man had owned her heart since the first day they’d met.
Her belly quivered at the way Aidan’s eyes never left hers, even as she slid her panties down her thighs.
God, he looked big. All of him. Like a big, bronzed soldier. Her soldier. Slowly, she crawled up his body.
“This is a terrible idea,” she whispered. But there was no conviction in her words. “I should keep my distance from you. Keep my focus on shutting down Paragons of Hope.” But even as she said it, she knew the words were a waste of air. The man had already stolen her focus. One touch and she was lost.
He reached up to thrum her pebbled nipple again. Her eyes shuttered and a breathless moan escaped her throat.
“You and me are always a good idea, Cass. No one could ever love you like I love you.”
Her brows tugged together. His words were like a fist around her heart, squeezing and forcing it to contract.
His other hand slid up her thigh. Her breath caught.
He swiped her clit. “Our love for each other is the same.”
It was. Her love for him was so strong that losing him had almost meant losing herself.
“And I’m here,” he whispered, almost reading her mind.
Here. The man she loved, the man she’d lost for a while, was here with her after years of forced absence.
“Take me.”
At his whispered words, she lowered her head and kissed him. Her body dropped with her head, her chest against his, her core against his hardness. The need inside her was hot and aggressive, demanding she have him.
There was no hesitation in the way he kissed her back. In the way his fingers threaded through her hair, tugging her closer. His tongue tangled with hers, demanded more.
He flipped them over, and suddenly he was everywhere. His body surrounded her, making her feel small and fragile as he began a slow grind. Oh, God. She needed him inside her now. It was to the point she felt like she might die if she didn’t.
“Aidan, now.” As an extra nudge, she wrapped a leg around his hip, tugging him closer.
There. He was right there at her entrance.
One of those deep growls slipped from his lips. Then he abruptly rose. When he disappeared to a corner of the room, she could have cried. There was a crinkling sound. A second later, he was back on top of her.
When she felt him at her entrance once again, she touched his cheek. “I missed you.”
The words were inadequate. What she’d felt was a deep ache inside her. One she’d managed to convince herself she could live with.
Not anymore.
His hand went to her thigh, lifting it to once again curve around his hip. “Never again will we go so long apart, Cass. Never.”
Slowly, he sank all the way inside her, stretching her insides. Pleasure engulfed her.
“Never again,” he whispered once he was seated all the way in.
She wanted to cry, and not just because he felt so damn good. But because this was Aidan, and his words held all the promise her heart and soul needed to hear.
He pulled out and eased back inside. Her fingers bit into his skin, and her whimper was silenced by his mouth against hers. He thrust in and out of her in deep succession, filling her so completely.
Soon, she began lifting her hips, meeting him thrust for thrust, tugging him back to her with her leg around his hip. Her limbs shook, her stomach molten.
With each thrust, her breasts bounced and grazed against his chest. God, she wouldn’t last much longer. He reached between them and ran a thumb over her clit. She jolted against the sensation. Her entire body was alight, his hardness driving so deep, she swore she could feel him everywhere.
Her head tipped back, her eyes scrunching closed. “Aidan…” She didn’t know if she’d whispered or cried his name. She could barely hear a thing through the blood rushing between her ears.
He nibbled behind her ear before whispering, “Come for me, Cassie.”
Her back arched and she broke into a million tiny pieces. Pleasure pulsed throughout her body. He was still pumping, and she was still throbbing, when she opened her eyes to see a nearly pained look on his face.
She reached up and palmed his cheek, then she pulled his head down and kissed him, tangling her tongue with his. Finally, he broke. A growl rippled from him, but his lips never left her own.
He pulsed inside her. And when he finally tore his lips away, he pressed his head into the crook of her neck.
Her eyes closed again, and for a moment, she wondered how the hell she was supposed to leave this man, even for a week, and return to a life she’d built without him in it.
