Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,53

there were no words. No thoughts. Just the slick grind of their bodies, and the distant sound of her moans; Aidan’s hands, gripping her hips, and the tender way he kissed her, even as their bodies found a fevered pace. This time, the pleasure rose slowly, thick in her spine, until Stella was almost mindless, teetering on the edge.

“Please,” she begged, keening in his arms, although what she needed, she didn’t know. “Please…”

Aidan answered her with his body, with every new deep slide, until there was no holding back; no pretense of control. She was frenzied, arching against him, demanding everything he had to give until finally, release crashed through her in a torrential wave. She cried out, holding onto him for dear life as Aidan groaned her name and shuddered in her arms.

And Stella had never felt so free.

13

They lay there for a while in the dark, intertwined, as Stella felt her heartbeat slow, and Aidan’s breathing gradually evened beside her. The hot, craving rush that consumed her had subsided, replaced with something lighter; effervescent in her veins. She felt almost giddy, drunk with the buzz of endorphins.

She couldn’t believe that had really happened. That she’d been so fearless.

That it had felt so damn good.

“I’m hungry,” she decided, sitting up, restless.

Aidan let out an exhausted-sounding laugh. “Didn’t I just see you eat an extraordinary amount of cake?” he asked through a yawn.

“That was hours ago! And someone helped me work up an appetite,” she added, giving him a kiss on the shoulder.

The broad, tanned, delicious shoulder.

Stella had been dreaming about touching Aidan like this for weeks, and now that she had the privilege, she couldn’t keep her hands off him. But her stomach was rumbling; her appreciation of his body would just have to wait. She slid out of bed, and hunted for something to wear.

“Robe,” Aidan yawned again. “Bathroom.”

“Thanks!”

Stella danced barefoot the short distance to the massive en-suite bathroom—Jesus. She took in the expanse of marble tile, and was that…? Yup, a quadruple-jetted walk-in shower, complete with a dizzying array of massage settings.

“I am definitely taking a shower in that thing,” she said, emerging with the impossibly-soft robe. She belted it around her waist, loving the plush feel against her still-sensitive skin. “You could fit an army in there!”

“How about just two?” Aidan suggested, with that wolfish grin she knew now meant very, very good things.

“You’re on.”

He slid out of bed and casually scooped some pajama pants from the closet, before following her down the hall to the kitchen. Stella flung open the refrigerator—and stopped.

“Mineral water? Salad?” she asked, disappointed. “Where’s the decent junk food or day-old Chinese?

“I like to eat healthy,” he said with a shrug.

“We are definitely going to have to work on that,” she informed him, leaning up on her tiptoes to steal a kiss. She felt him smile against her lips, before he pulled away and joined her hunt for a snack.

“Would these work?” he asked, finding an unopened bag of chips in the pantry. The package was a lurid neon green, advertising some kind of unholy ‘cool ranch/hot wings’ combination flavor.

“I’ll take ‘em!”

Stella collapsed onto the overstuffed couch by the back windows, and tore into the bag. The chips were coated in some kind of orange powder, radioactively salty, and she crunched merrily as Aidan made himself comfortable beside her. He swung her legs into his lap, and shook his head, smiling. “Those look disgusting,” he said.

“Disgustingly delicious,” she corrected him. “Here, try.”

He took a chip and bit into it. “That’s foul,” he said… And then took another.

“Right?” She munched for a moment, feeling the happy buzz of afterglow dialed all the way up with whatever flavors and additives were in the snack. “So, what’s your guilty pleasure?” she asked, giving Aidan a speculative look.

“I can think of one thing…” He slid his hands higher up her legs, grinning.

“I meant food!” Stella laughed, batting his hands away. “Come on, there must be something. You know, the one thing you’d eat straight out of the refrigerator at 2 A.M.”

Aidan thought for a moment. “I never really had a sweet tooth, but… barbeque,” he said finally. “Point me to some great ribs, and I’ll fight you for them.”

“Really?” she said, studying him. She would have imagined something far fancier than that, but it was turning out, Aidan was full of hidden surprises. “Well then, there’s a great hole-in-the-wall place near Falmouth,” she suggested. “It’s a bit of a drive, but worth making a trip for.