The Spanish Love Deception: Chapter 24

The experience of waking up next to Aaron that following morning had absolutely nothing to do with the two other times I had opened my eyes to find him lying in the same bed.

For one, we were naked. Something I thought I could quickly get used to. Effortlessly.

Then, there was this teeny-tiny thing that separated this morning from the previous ones. A technicality really. And that was the beaming grin already on my face. It was stupidly wide, and I was afraid I might have slept with it. Ridiculous, I knew. But who had the time to be embarrassed when Aaron Blackford was right there, all big and naked and ready to be eaten?

Not me.

And not when something definitely not tiny was throbbing against my thigh.

Aaron grunted, shifting and pushing that pulsating part of his body into me.

Ah, hello, new favorite limb.

“Morning,” he rasped. His voice was thick with sleep, begging me to snuggle into him.

“Mmm,” I managed to answer.

It was terribly rude of me, but I was busy with more important stuff. Like learning every inch of his chest with my hands. Or the abs that topped his stomach. And that narrow trail of dark hair. Yes, I needed to get well acquainted with that too.

“Your parents are picking us up soon,” he told me almost breathlessly.

“Yep.” I was aware. “But one hour is sixty minutes, and if we manage to pack our suitcases in five and shower in … three? That leaves us with fifty-two whole minutes.” Time I was planning to spend learning more of Aaron’s body. “One can do many things with so many minutes. It’s all about time management.”

My fingers continued their pathway down, down, down. Finally closing around his length. Aaron pushed his hips up into my palm.

“Baby.” The word sounded strangled. But I continued palming his hardness up and down. “Do you want to kill me?”

He kept asking me that as if I had the answer.

“No?” I rasped, my focus completely gone. “Yes?”

His hips thrust into my hand again.

“What was the question?”

Aaron groaned, and his hand came to rest on the small of my back, pulling me to his side—hard—making me straddle his hip. Unconsciously, instinctively, I rocked against him, looking for release. Just like Aaron was doing into my hand.

At that moment, I was starting to consider the possibility of forgetting about my suitcase, my parents, our flights back, work, life, and basically anything outside this bed. Anything that wasn’t Aaron. I simply didn’t care enough.

And the next thing I knew, we were up in the air. Well, I was.

With my body in his arms, Aaron crossed the distance to the en suite bathroom in a few long strides. He turned the shower on without placing me on the floor.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but fifty-two minutes is not nearly enough time for what I want to do to you. So, we’ll need to multitask,” he explained, placing me under the stream of hot water. His eyes roamed up and down my body, hunger obscuring the blue in them.

“Time management and multitasking,” I told him, watching him step inside the shower with me. “You have an impressive résumé, Mr. Blackford.”

His hands came to rest on my hips. The grip of his fingers demanding. Desperate. “And I don’t shy away from a challenge. Please add that in there too.” His body pressed mine against the cold and smooth tiles. “I’ll just have to make you come with my tongue while we shower.” My new favorite word peeked out, traveling along his lower lip.

Hot fucking damn.

“And maybe again while we pack. All of it under fifty-two minutes. But I’m pretty sure I’ll manage.”

Oh boy. And did he ever.

Against all odds, we had made it on time.

Turned out that Aaron’s soft skills were really that impressive.

My parents drove us to the airport with more than enough extra time to have breakfast in the terminal before boarding.

Once in the plane, Aaron’s arm draped around my shoulders, and I snuggled right into his side. My head rested into the crook of his neck, his delicious scent engulfing me and causing a multitude of happy sighs to leave my lips. The feeling of this new sense of normalcy that had been born between us calmed me enough to knock me out, even before takeoff.

It wasn’t until we touched American ground that a familiar alarm went off in my head. The conversation. If I were smart, I would have used that large amount of time we had been confined in the same space to have one. We needed to draw lines, to define and box whatever this thing between us was. To … decide what to do about it. Because while I wouldn’t normally feel that kind of pressure, Aaron wasn’t just anybody. He wasn’t a man I had started casually dating or one I had had a night of amazing, mind-blowing sex with. He was Aaron. My Aaron. My work colleague. Soon, my boss. And that screamed to take a different approach to this. Whatever he wanted it to be. Whatever we wanted to make it.

But for that, we needed to talk.

His hand came to rest at the small of my back, his thumb brushing a circle over my T-shirt. I looked up at him, finding his gaze already on me. Damn, those eyes of his were quickly becoming my favorite thing in the world. Even more so than triple-chocolate brownies.

We had just crossed the Arrivals gate, so we found ourselves in the middle of the terminal. On New York soil. Only a few feet from what awaited us outside the airport. Whatever that was.

“Lina,” he said softly.

Judging by the way he had uttered my name, the weight with which he had said it, I knew he was going to tell me something important. But that simple word—my name, not Catalina, but Lina—from his lips did things to me. To my chest, to my head.

“I love hearing that. My name.” My confession left my lips quietly, as if it were meant to be just a thought. “You don’t call me Lina nearly enough.”

Aaron looked into my eyes for a long moment, not speaking. Not acknowledging my fleeting comment. It wasn’t until I thought he wasn’t going to say anything at all—that we would walk out of that airport in silence and continue our merry separate ways—that he spoke, “Come home with me. To my place.”

Caught off guard, I blinked. In stunned silence, I thought about how I would love nothing more than to spend more time with him. To get lost in him for a little longer before having to go back to real life. Before we had to talk, have that conversation that would consolidate—or not—every single thing that had changed between us.

A conversation I feared more and more with every passing minute.

I wanted to take the leap. Badly. But my experience told me otherwise, warning me of not making the same mistake twice.

And I knew deep in my bones that recovering from that—from losing Aaron, or from possibly dilapidating years of hard work under dirty and unfair accusations, if history was to repeat itself—would not be easy. It would be the hardest thing I’d have to do in my life. I already knew.

As all that swirled in my head, I watched something that looked a lot like trepidation, fear, dance in Aaron’s features.

“Come with me, Lina.”

My eyelids shut briefly.

“I’ll feed you, make sure we stay awake so the jet lag doesn’t last for the rest of the week. Tomorrow, early in the morning, we’ll drive to your apartment, so you can grab whatever you need, and then we’ll head to work.” He paused. “Together.”

It sounded like a dream.

Just like him. He had to be if he thought he had to convince me to go with him anywhere. I wanted to, so badly. I’d follow him anywhere if he asked. But …

But … there was always a but, wasn’t there?

“Aaron,” I breathed, “I’m going to be very honest with you.” I owed him—and me and us—at least that. “I’m … scared. Terrified. You are going to be promoted. To my division leader. And that’s going to change things.”

I inhaled through my nose, averting my gaze to his chest. There was too much in his eyes. They distracted me, stole away my sanity.

“We are not in Spain any longer. This is real life. And this”—I waved a hand between us—“is going to complicate things.” Or perhaps it was the other way around—him being promoted to a position above me would complicate whatever this could be.

He snatched my hand and brought it to his chest. So warm and firm, so full of all the things I wanted but was terrified to reach for. “We’ll talk about it. Later, once we have cleaned up and I have you comfortable and relaxed.” His other hand came to my chin, tilting my head back so he could peer into my eyes. “And tomorrow, we’ll talk to HR. We will ask Sharon, if that gives you any peace of mind.”

Why? Why, world? Why did he have to be so thoughtful? So fucking perfect?

“But before doing that, you’ll have to give us a chance.” It was his turn for a shaky breath to leave his lips. “Do you trust me?”

My hand, which still rested over his chest, right above his heart, fisted the fabric of his shirt. Unable to do anything else but hold on to him. “Take me home, Aaron Blackford.”

Staring at the screen of my phone, I deliberated for the hundredth time if I should reply to the message with the truth.

She’s gonna flip. She’s going to kick my ass so hard that she’ll send me right back to Spain.

Lifting my gaze off the screen and looking at my reflection in the mirror—Aaron’s bathroom mirror—I didn’t like what I saw. It had nothing to do with the bags under my eyes or the messy knot that had been promoted to chaotic probably somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean. What bothered me wasn’t something I could point out with a finger or fix with a shower, a few hours of sleep, and a brush.

Turning away, I leaned on the edge of the impressive and enticing bathtub. Large enough to accommodate two Aarons, just like everything else in his apartment. Spacious and luxurious in a very sober and tasteful way. It suited him so perfectly.

I peered down at my phone again to reread her message.

Just as I finally worked up the courage to answer, three dots started dancing on the screen.

I could picture my friend batting her eyelashes at me. Rosie had never drilled me so hard for a story.

Taking a deep breath, I typed my answer.

Those three dots bounced back to life on the screen. She typed and typed and typed. For a stupidly large amount of time. I frowned at my phone, bracing myself.

A strangled sound climbed up my throat. That’s all she was typing?

I chuckled under my breath. Had I been that blind?

And so, so much more, I was about to type. But my thumbs froze above the screen. Ugh. Then, they worked at breakneck speed.

It was, and I wasn’t just talking about the way my body seemed to come alive under his touch. Hell, that was the smallest part of all of this.

I could almost feel the hug that would have followed that.

This wasn’t a conversation we should be having via text anyway.

A knock came from the door.

“Baby?” said a deep voice from the other side. The word traveled right to the center of my chest. “I’m going to start thinking that you are hiding from me.”

God, I sucked so much.

Aaron continued, “Come out, and let’s go get something to eat. You pick.”

My jet-lagged stomach grumbled at the thought. “Even fish tacos?”

“Especially fish tacos.”

Dammit. He was really going after my heart.

“Okay, one minute!” I called as I typed another message to Rosie.

With that thought—no, with that hope because that was exactly what I felt as I read my friend’s message, foolish hope—I left my luscious and tiled hiding spot and went hunting for Aaron.

I found him standing in his living room, looking out the industrial-style windows facing the waterfront.

Aaron’s apartment was in Dumbo, an area of Brooklyn I wasn’t all that familiar with but I was starting to love more and more. The place was incredible. Spacious and stark, elegant but simple.

Walking up to him, I peered out the massive windows myself. “These views of the East River are breathtaking.”

“I’m very lucky to be able to afford all this,” he said, and he sounded thoughtful. More than he usually did.

Turning and angling my body in his direction, I laid my back on the windows and faced him. How could I tell him that this view—him—was just as beautiful? One simply didn’t say stuff like that. So, I limited myself to look and soak it all up.

Aaron stared into the distance, the sunlight coming through the glass of the windows and kissing his skin. His blue eyes glinting under the light.

But there was something on his mind. I could tell.

“Is everything all right?” I reached out and placed my hand on his arm.

Only then did he look at me. “Come here.” In a swift motion, he had me tucked against his chest. He squeezed me, swaying us. “Better. Now, everything is much better.”

I couldn’t disagree with him. Anything that involved being in Aaron’s arms was far better than anything that didn’t. I let him tug a happy sigh out of me, and I relished in the way he hummed when I squeezed him right back.

When he finally released me, his gaze wandered out of the window again, but this time, it did with a small smile on his face.

Baby steps.

My eyes somehow ended on an industrial-style console that perfectly complemented the vibe of the windows—and the rest of the place. The only items on its surface were a framed photo and what looked like a textbook.

Feeling curious about who was in that photo, I walked up to it and picked it up. A woman. A beautiful, blue-eyed woman with raven hair and a smile I was starting to need to breathe a little easier. My heart warmed.

I felt his arm come around my shoulders, and then a kiss was brushed against my hair.

Letting my body fall into him, I asked, “What was your mom’s name?”

“Dorothea.” I felt his voice rumbling in his chest, right against my back. “She used to complain about it constantly. She made everybody call her Thea.”

“Tell me more about her, about your family.”

He released a breath, and it hit my hair with a puff. “It was her grandmother’s name. ‘A pretentious old lady’s name,’ my mom would say. Her side of the family was very wealthy but always unfortunate when it came to their health. They called it a curse.” He paused, sounding a little lost in his memories. “When I was a kid, my mom was the only living member left, so I never met my grandparents. And when my mom passed away, the last one of the Abbots became me. So, I inherited everything. That’s how I can afford this place.”

“That makes sense,” I murmured. I considered myself lucky to work for a company like InTech. For having a good wage coming in every month. But this place belonged to a whole different kind of life. One where studio apartments could fit in bathrooms. “So, you don’t really need to work a nine-to-five job.”

“No, but I love what I do. Even if some might call me a workaholic cyborg.”

I snickered. “Oops, I deserved that.”

I didn’t think anyone at the office knew about this. Aaron had always been so … private. But the fact that he didn’t need to work and yet worked harder than the vast majority of us was commendable. It made me love him—

Whoa. I shook my head.

“I have always admired you, you know? As much as I’ve bugged you for being so pragmatic and hardheaded, I have always, always admired you.”

“I …” He trailed off, sounding at a loss for a moment. “Thank you, baby.”

My lips curled up as I put the frame back on top of the console. “Your mom was beautiful. I can see where you got your looks from.”

Aaron chuckled softly. “You think I’m beautiful?”

“Of course. You are more than just beautiful. Don’t sound so shocked. You know you are.”

“I do, but I never thought you were all that attracted to me. Not for the first few months at least.”

I snorted. If he only knew. Then, I thought about how he had phrased it. “What gave it away? What changed after that time that made you realize I was not made of steel, Mr. Oblivious?”

His hold on me grew a little tighter, and then he exhaled. “Remember that colloquium InTech hosted for high schoolers a few months after I started? We realized there weren’t enough chairs when the kids started filing in. I saw you sneaking out, and somehow, I knew where you were going.”

I remembered that day. Jerkface Gerald had miscounted the number of attendants. “Folding chairs.”

“Yes, you shot out of there to fetch the folding chairs we kept in storage.”

Aaron had appeared out of thin air that day, exactly how he always did. Then, he had given me shit about wanting to carry the chairs on my own, that it wasn’t my job to do that.

“So, what gave it away? Was it how I almost smacked you with a chair for being an overbearing jackass?”

“It was how you shivered when I came behind you to help you with one that had been stuck to a shelf. You know, right before you pulled again and went toppling down to the floor.”

Oh. Oh yeah. I remembered that precise moment exactly.

I had felt his body behind me. His arms came around me without touching me, and I stared—and shivered and flushed and gotten all worked up—at how they flexed under his dress shirt as he tried to disentangle that damn chair. It had been like a slap on the face, how hot and bothered that left me.

“That gave it away. I just knew that the red spreading through your neck and cheeks had nothing to do with you calling me a stubborn, heartless robot.”

“Did it …” I trailed off, unease growing in my stomach. “Did it ever bother you, everything I called you? Everything I said when we butted heads?”

My heart raced, as I feared his answer.

“No,” he said simply. “At that point, I took anything you were willing to give me, Catalina.”

Something staggered in my chest.

“The story I told your sister about how we met? I was only speaking the truth.”

My eyelids fluttered shut, and I thanked the heavens I was currently leaning on Aaron, that he was holding me against his chest, because I would have tumbled to the floor otherwise.

“By the time I realized how much of an idiot I had been by pushing you away, you already hated me.”

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “I heard you talk to Jeff. Accidentally.” That knot wouldn’t go away, squeezing my throat tight. “You said you’d work with anybody else, anybody but me. And I felt as if you had just pushed me aside. Deemed worthless as a professional because you didn’t like me. Because I had crossed some line I hadn’t known existed. I … how could I look at you and not think about it after that? I blacklisted you.”

“And I deserved it.” Aaron turned me around delicately, flushing our chests together very slowly. He looked down at me. “I meant what I said. When you brought that welcome gift to my office, something tore inside of me. You … distracted me. You stole my focus, Lina. Like nothing I had ever experienced before. So, I panicked. I refused to let that happen. When Jeff suggested I work closely with you, I convinced him that it would be a bad idea. I convinced myself of that too.

“But then I got to know you.” Aaron looked down at me intently, something weighing behind his eyes, pushing me—pushing us—closer and closer to an emotion that took more and more room in my chest with every second I spent looking into his eyes. “I watched you work, laugh, be this bright and kind woman that you are. And the crack that had opened that first day widened. It only kept growing. Making me realize how much of a fool I had been. By the time I knew I didn’t want to push you away anymore, that I couldn’t do it, it was too late. So, I took whatever you had for me even if that was hatred, antagonism, your obvious dislike, anything if that gave me a few minutes with you every day. If that put me on your mind, even for a little while.”

“Aaron …” I trailed off, everything inside of my chest, my head, my memory stirring into a loud and raging thunderstorm. “All this time.”

“I know.”

I watched his jaw twitch, his features hardening impossibly.

“You let me antagonize you. All this time, you sat there and let me do that.” My voice shook with emotion. With the loss of a time that we could have had. But it also shook with the lie that hid in my own words.

Had I really hated him at all? It didn’t seem possible at this point. Hadn’t I done the same and convinced myself of that because he had hurt me?

“Why?” The question left my lips in a whisper, for him but also for myself.

“Because it was all you were willing to give me. And I’d rather have you hating me than not have you at all.”

My body trembled; it shuddered under the weight of his words. With the truth underneath the ones rising to my lips.

Love. It had to be love—the uproar causing havoc in my chest. Realization grew in me as quickly as lightning hit the ground.

“I didn’t hate you,” I breathed. “As much as I wanted to, I don’t think I ever did. I was just … hurt. Perhaps because I had always wanted you to like me, and you made me believe you didn’t.”

Something flashed across Aaron’s face. The space between our mouths crackling with electricity and an emotion I had never, ever felt before.

“I want your heart, Catalina.” Both of his hands rose to my shoulders, trailing up my neck and cupping my face. “I want it for myself, just how I have given you mine.”

It’s yours, you beautiful and blind man, I wanted to tell him. Take it. I don’t want it anymore, I wanted to scream at him and anyone that would listen.

But I didn’t. I didn’t think one could be petrified by pure, sheer joy. It never seemed a possibility. Yet there I was, standing in front of him, just as he laid his heart in my hands, and all I could do was stare at him with a thousand unsaid words waiting on the tip of my tongue.

So, I showed him. My hands reached for his face, just as he had been doing, and I brought him to my lips. I told him with a kiss that I was his. Gave myself to him with those lips that didn’t seem capable of articulating any words.

Aaron lifted me off the floor and took me in his arms with a tenderness, a reverence that left me breathless, just how I imagined him doing with my heart. My legs went around his hips as his lips parted mine, his tongue taking, governing mine.

With long strides, he crossed the open space in his loft, carrying me in his arms as neither of us came out to breathe. He placed me on the countertop of the kitchen. The cool granite caressing the part of the backs of my thighs that weren’t covered by my shorts.

Aaron’s mouth dragged down my neck, his teeth scraping my skin, finally catching on the neckline of my tank top and pulling it down until revealing my bra. He grunted, and I felt the noise reverberate against my skin.

Hands on my hips shoved me against him with roughness, leaving me right on the edge of the counter. God, he was unleashed. My man was ravenous as he pulled at my top, briskly tugging it down to my waist, and then popped open my shorts, almost bursting the zipper. He didn’t care, didn’t seem to realize he had come undone.

I did that. I cracked him open at the seams.

The same kind of urgency hummed under my skin, under my fingertips, as I pulled at his T-shirt. In a swift motion, it lay on the floor. The warm, sizzling skin of his bare chest came against mine, his hips nestling between my legs, as those strong arms fused me against him, merged me with him.

I whimpered, the rest of my sanity leaving me with the sound.

Wanting the rest of his clothes gone, I tugged at his jeans. Desperately. Just as I arched my back, looking for the friction I ached—no, died—for, Aaron pushed his hardness into me, pleasure shooting through my body, even with the barrier of our pants and underwear.

I felt him hot and thick as he rocked against my center, and that alone made my eyelids flutter, my toes curl, and my world explode. He moved again, creating more friction between us, and I saw myself coming if he did that one more time.

“Again,” I told him, begged him.

Aaron’s hands palmed my ass, thrusting me against him. Then pushing into me harder, ripping a chain of moans out of me. Hustling me closer to the edge.

“God, I haven’t even touched you, baby,” he rasped into my mouth. Then, he took my lower lip between his teeth as he kept moving against me. “Haven’t even been inside you yet.”

His hands took control of my useless body, mercilessly rocking me against him, and my head fell back, a prayer on my lips.

“Come,” he grunted into my ear, our hips moving against each other’s. Fucking each other with our jeans still on. “Come, so I can fuck you better.”

That—that—toppled me over. No, it bulldozed into me. My mind left my body, leaving me behind as I burst into pure, boundless sensation. Not even Aaron’s name left my lips even if I wanted to scream it until my voice grew raw. I was spent, rendered empty. Weightless.

His arms went around my back, and in a heartbeat, I was standing on wobbly legs. My back came against his front, immediately feeling him hot and throbbing with need. The sensation—the knowledge of having the power to do that to him—bringing me back to life.

In another heartbeat, he brought my shorts and underwear down my legs, helping me step out and shoving them aside.

I felt the warmth of his chest on my back, and then his fingers closed around my wrists. “Hands on the counter,” he demanded, guiding my palms to the surface. Then, he widened my stance with his knee, right as he brushed openmouthed kisses down my spine. His hands grabbed on to my hips, one of them trailing down my bare backside. “I should take you to my bed.” He kneaded my ass, and then his palm traveled to my thigh. “I should lay you there and fuck you deep and slow.”

Whimpering, I pushed into his hips. He grunted and then reared back. I heard him unzip his pants. Then, I felt his hard length against my ass. He moved up and down, and I could tell he had just pulled himself out of his jeans, hadn’t even bothered to push them down or take them off.

Madness. It drove me fucking crazy.

“You know the times I have jerked off to the thought of you on your hands? On your elbows?” He passed his shaft along my ass, making me moan in need. “Or bent over my knee after getting all mouthy with me?”

Another moan, this one soaked with agony. Just like I was at the image of bringing his words to life.

“Oh,” he whispered. Then, his voice lowered. “Sounds like you’d love that as much as me.”

One of the drawers opened and closed, and then a foil was ripped open. “This time, I’m prepared. Have a whole box right there. It has been there for months.”

“Aaron,” I begged him. I wanted him now, or I would combust into a cloud of dust. “I need you.” I looked over my shoulder, eyes ablaze. And saw a feral expression on his face. “Now.” It was my turn to grunt.

The back of his hand delicately caressed my jaw, and then his palm fell on my back. He pushed me onto the counter. “Grab on to the edge,” he growled. “I’m going to take you fast and hard, baby.”

With a deep thrust, he was seated inside of me. I whimpered, feeling wonderfully, heavenly full, and before I could ask for more, for all that he had promised, Aaron pushed out and thrust in again. We both moaned.

One of his hands came around me and landed on the counter, the other one fisting my hair. I’d dissolve. If I didn’t come soon, I’d disappear under his weight, under the rippling pleasure pooling down my belly.

“More,” I managed to say.

And the rhythm of his thrusts increased, pushing me into the granite surface, his grunts falling into my neck.

Fingers gripped my hip. “I can give you more.”

That hand lifted off my skin and fell back with a tight slap on my bare ass. A moan like no other moan to ever leave my lips emerged from my mouth.

“I can give you my all.” Another soft smack. Pushing me down, down, down.

“Yes,” I whimpered.

True to his word, he gave me everything. He thrust his cock into me uncontrollably, the sound of his hips against my ass encompassing our pants.

“Come with me.” His front fell on top of my back, deliciously caging me. Burying me with him. His fingers now rubbing my clit, accompanying his thrusts. “I want to feel you coming on my cock as I go off.”

One more frantic, desperate thrust. That was all it took for both of us to detonate into bliss. Groans equally powerful left both our mouths, our names blessing each other’s lips with them.

Aaron’s hands came around my middle, holding on to me more than holding me to him. Then, he brought us upward, slipping out of me. I turned around in his arms and leaned my chin on his chest, and he brushed a kiss on my forehead. Another one on my lips. Then another one on my nose.

“You feel and taste like you are mine.”

I looked up, right into his eyes. “I am.”

Just two words, two simple words that were used so often in casual conversation that they shouldn’t have held much meaning. But they did. Those two ordinary words uttered in that precise moment mattered. I knew because Aaron’s face lit up with them. Breaking into the most beautiful smile to date. Burning down the last of my defenses. And as I stared into the blue of his eyes, I watched those walls of mine collapse as if I hadn’t spent all this time building them up.

“I am,” I repeated, crushing the last of the remnants of the wreckage with my hands.

Aaron kissed me again, sealing those two words with his lips. Adding a few more of his own. “I’m going to prove to you that you are.”

This time around, instead of having the tacos to go, we devoured them right on the spot. Post-sex hunger did these things to you.

“Seriously,” I said, inserting a finger in my mouth and savoring the sauce sticking to it. “I’m just saying that if vampires are going to make a comeback, the least they can do is sparkle.” Finding Aaron’s gaze on my mouth, I let my hand hover in the air and felt the light blush covering my cheeks. “Are you listening, Blackford?”

His eyes bounced up and then down again. “Yes, vampires. Sparkles.”

I frowned. “Something in my mouth?” God knew that with my record, I had probably been talking with a chunk of fish or cilantro hanging off my mouth.

Aaron dipped his head, his mouth landing on the corner of my lips. Then, I felt his tongue peek out and wipe that spot clean.

“Not anymore.”

My panties might have just dropped to the floor, but at least my lips were clean—and tingly—as a whistle.

“Thanks,” I muttered. Willing my blood to start circulating normally again. I wiped the rest of the sticky sauce off my hands with a napkin. “I still can’t believe you’d be a vampire over a werewolf, by the way.”

Something else I couldn’t believe either? Aaron had had that conversation with me without batting an eyelash. Not only that, but he had seemed to know a fair bit about paranormal creatures. And I had questions.

Aaron retrieved the paper from my grip and threw it in a trash can that stood next to the food truck. “They are immortal,” he said as if there were no other point to be made.

“But you are so … werewolfish.”

True to my accusations, those blue eyes glinted with a hungry edge. “Am I?”

“Yes. First off, you are big and hot and—”

“Oh, I’m already loving this.” One of his arms curled around me, tugging me to his side. “Please continue.”

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” I grabbed his hand, lifting it in the air in front of us. “See? These are like paws. And when I say hot, I mean, temperature-wise, like …” I trailed off. Only thinking about phallic-shaped hot stuff. Dios, had all the sex killed off that many of my brain cells? “Your skin feels hot to the touch, yeah. Like a … a heated, weighted blanket.” I turned, watching him frown. “I say it as a compliment. I mean it in a I’d love to get under you and snuggle right now way.”

That frown disappeared. “I can live with that.” His head dipped, and he placed a kiss on top of my hair. “What else?”

“You are loyal.”

He hummed in agreement.

“Also private. You keep to yourself. And even if people think that you are cold and unfriendly, it’s just that you have a stoic approach to most things. You watch everything so that you can anticipate every single thing that comes your way, which, honestly, it’s really impressive but very annoying too.” I peeked at him over my shoulder, finding him looking at me strangely. “What?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head, getting rid of whatever it had been that was making him look all dazed. I watched him compose himself. “You are forgetting something.”

My eyebrows rose. “And what’s that?”

“I bite,” he said before grazing his teeth over my shoulder. Then, he nibbled on the sensitive skin where my shoulder met my neck.

Giggling like a madwoman, I let my body burrow into his embrace. But just as I was doing so, someone caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was someone from work. One of the guys on Gerald’s team, if that glimpse of blond hair and slender shoulders was enough to tell him apart.

Apprehension sank deep in my belly, killing my fit of carefree giggles.

Aaron didn’t seem to notice the shift in me, and if he did, he didn’t say anything.

“Let’s go home. I have a weighted-blanket reputation to uphold.”

True to his word, Aaron had curled his body around mine in that gigantic and dreamy sofa that was planted in the middle of his loft. It had probably been the mixture of exhaustion, jet lag, and warmth coming off his body, but as much as I had tried to fight it, I had passed out under two minutes flat after returning to his apartment.

Looking down, I caught a glimpse of a big and hefty hand trailing up my stomach. We were lying on our sides, and judging by the silence around us, the TV was no longer on. Aaron had probably turned it off as soon as I drifted off.

Long fingers splayed along my front, reaching the underside of my breasts. Shifting under the sensation traveling down my body, I burrowed myself further into him.

A grunt fell in my neck. “It’s dark outside.”

My gaze traveled to the massive windows that faced the waterfront, as if I had needed confirmation that night had fallen. “We fell asleep,” I said, returning my eyes to those five fingers on my stomach, my toes already curling with anticipation. “I thought you wanted us to fight jet lag together, mister.”

“I did, for a while.” Aaron chuckled, and I felt the sound in my back. My lips bent up as my mind pictured his beautiful face smiling. “But you are so fucking soft, curled up against me.” His hand trailed up and then down, and then I was pulled against him. “I couldn’t help myself. You made me lose perspective.”

I turned in his embrace, rolling so I could face him. His hand fell on my lower back, the change of positions making my mouth almost come into contact with his neck. I looked up into his eyes.

“Excuse you. Are you putting this on me?”

“Never.” He tugged me closer again, our fronts flush together.

My eyes fluttered closed, and a content sigh left my lips. “Would you take me to bed, Aaron Blackford?”

He never uttered his answer. Instead, he peeled himself off the sofa with me in his arms. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I giggled at the sudden enthusiasm. With long and quick strides, he carried me across his apartment, passing the marble kitchen island and then making his way down the wide and uncluttered hallway and straight into the master bedroom. His bedroom. A shot of something sultry curled its way along my body. I was about to sleep next to Aaron—in his bed, wrapped in his soft and lush linens, my head on the plush pillows where his head had rested many times.

And just when I was ready to be dropped in that king-size mattress that looked like a dream, I was carried into the en suite bathroom instead.

My eyes took in our reflection in the mirror, not expecting how much I would love what I saw. Me, hands clasped behind his neck. Me, in his arms. Me, cheeks flushed and a dazed expression on my face because it was him holding me. Me, happy.

Aaron attempted to place me on the black-and-white tiled floor.

“Nuh-uh.” I shook my head, holding on to his neck a little closer and keeping my legs around his waist. “I like it up here.”

“Yeah?” His voice was coated with humor but also with something thick and glossy.

I tightened my grip on him.

“That much?”

“Yep,” I admitted into his neck. “I think you can carry me everywhere from now on. Walking on my own is not going to cut it anymore.”

His palms rearranged me around him, shifting me to his side. He dropped a kiss on my temple. “And I think I could get used to that very quickly.” He reached for my toiletry bag, opened it, and extracted my toothbrush. Handing it over to me with a small smile, he then repeated the process with his own toothbrush. “Teeth first, then bed.”

With a nod, we did exactly that. We brushed our teeth as we looked at each other in the mirror, all the while with me hanging off his side like a clingy and needy spider monkey. Not that I cared. I’d do this every single night to come. Once we were done, he carried me to bed.

“Aaron,” I whispered after he tucked me under his light comforter. We were facing each other, my hands were below my cheek, and only our feet were touching. “I’m glad you came with me to Spain.” I heard him release a shaky breath as my own words seeped in, although they didn’t really do justice to how I actually felt. “Not because our plan worked. I’m actually happy that you were there with me. I’m … more than happy. I don’t think I told you, so I wanted to let you know.”

His hand cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing my jaw and lips.

“Are you glad too, Aaron?” I asked him as I covered his palm with mine.

“I don’t think I can put into words just how much.” He brought my hand to his mouth and skimmed his lips over the back of it. “And it’s not only because I somehow managed to get you exactly where you are.”

“Right into your bed?” I inched closer, my thighs now brushing his.

He tugged at my hand some more, encouraging me to move even closer. “Yes. But right here with me too. Exactly where I have always wanted you.”

I hummed, sparks of happiness flaring up in my chest. “They loved you, you know?” I moved my head into the space between the underside of his jaw and his collarbone. “I mean, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it’s kind of hard not to.”

I placed a kiss on his skin, wondering how I had not realized this myself a long time ago. How … loyal and caring and soft he was beneath all that frowning and scowling. Although maybe I had. Maybe that would explain why I had been so hurt over him brushing me aside. Over him not wanting anything to do with me. Over him not letting me in. I shook my head. It didn’t matter. Not now.

“My mom has never talked so highly about someone. Isabel told me she wouldn’t shut up about you. Aaron speaks Spanish so well. Aaron is so tall and handsome. Aaron has the bluest eyes I have ever seen. Have you seen Aaron smiling at our Lina like that? He came all the way from America to meet us. And she wasn’t the only one. I was scared Abuela would try to steal you away from me, I swear. She was so … enamored; it kind of got a little awkward at some point.” I laughed lightly at the memory. “Do you think I’ll have to fight my own grandmother over you?”

Expecting him to chuckle, I was shocked when a deep sigh left him instead.

I looked up at him, not able to discern much in the dark. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, baby.” His voice was coated with a kind of emotion I didn’t quite understand.

I tugged at the fabric of his shirt, encouraging him to tell me.

He sighed again. “It’s just that … I’ve never had that. Not ever. Your family is so …”

“Messy? Loud? Kind of overstepping all the time?”

“They are but in the best kind of way.” He paused, his hand coming to the back of my head. Long fingers brushed my hair down. “The closest I’ve ever come to that was when it was the three of us, and somehow, I forgot what it was like.”

My chest hurt at hearing that, and I came even closer to him, wishing I could take all that pain away from him. Wishing I could breathe a little warmth into him.

“Your family loves you, and that’s a kind of bond you can’t force. It’s a kind of love one doesn’t find anywhere else. It can be overwhelming, but that’s only because it’s always honest. And being part of that, even if only for a few days, meant … the world. More than you could ever know.” His lips fell on my hair with a fierceness that hadn’t been there before. “I wasn’t pretending, Catalina. Not for a minute. It was all real for me. That’s why it meant so much.”

“Aaron,” I breathed, not really knowing what to say. How to explain the uprising inside of me.

“So, it’s me, the one who’s glad. The one who’s fucking relieved you took me and not someone else with you. I’m the one who’s thankful.”

I swallowed, trying my best to push back the unfiltered joy threatening to flood my system and rob me of my next breath. “You don’t ever have to thank me for something like that, Aaron. You never have to.”

His chin fell on top of my head, and I felt his exhale on my hair. “I do, baby. I do.”