Page 62 of Sanctuary

When I finally feel better—well enough to ease out of his arms—I can’t help but kiss him, responding to the force of feeling in my heart.

The kisses last a long time and turn into more. He rolls me over onto my back. I wrap my legs around him. It’s not long before he’s hard. He adjusts so he can slide himself inside me. We rock together as we kiss, and I hold onto him with my arms and legs and mouth and pussy.

He sustains the slow, steady thrusting until my body starts to respond. I gasp and tighten beneath him. Our lips break apart, but our faces are so close I can feel his breath.

“Yes, sweetheart,” he murmurs. “You can come. I want you to feel good.”

I whimper as my body starts shaking.

“Let go, love. I’ve got you.”

I cry out as I fall into climax. His motion finally accelerates. It doesn’t take him long to work up to his own release.

He finds my mouth as we lie tangled up together afterwards. He caresses my lips with his tongue.

And I realize, for the first time, I wasn’t afraid he would stop before I found my pleasure. He wasn’t going to take away what I need.

I trusted him to be there to the end.

I didn’t beg him not to stop.

We agreed to have a slow morning the next day because our next destination is only six hours away. I’ve been excited about sleeping in for at least a couple of hours after dawn. It will be almost like a vacation indulgence.

So when I wake up to the feel of the mattress shifting at Aidan getting out of bed and squint through my eyelids to see that it’s still dark outside, I grumble wordlessly and flop over onto my back.

He leans over to kiss me lightly. “Go back to sleep, love.”

“What y’doin’?”

“I’m doing a quick message run. Helping out here since they let us spend the night.”

The pang in my chest is both guilt that I didn’t think about doing that before and appreciation that Aidan did. I fight through lingering sleep to smile up at him. “Okay. Give me just a minute to wake up, and I’ll come too.”

“No need.” He sits on the edge of the bed beside me. He’s wearing nothing but his underwear, which he pulled on after his post-sex cleanup. “You keep sleeping. I’ll be there and back in a couple of hours.”

“But you didn’t get to sleep in.”

“I don’t care that much about sleeping in.” He strokes my right cheekbone with his thumb. “You enjoy it, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have an easy morning. I won’t be long.”

“Are you sure? I’m supposed to be helping you.”

“You’ve helped me plenty. You’ve helped me more than you’ll ever know.” He leans down to kiss me again. “Get some more sleep, love.”

“Okay. Thank you. Be careful.” I snuggle down into the blankets.

He stands up, looking down on me for a little too long. My eyes are closed again, but I can feel him watching me. Then he gets dressed with quick efficiency and leaves the room.

I open my eyes when I hear the door click. He’s such a sweetie for letting me have a morning to sleep in because he knows I enjoy it. And for asking the folks here if there’s anything we can do for them since they’ve let us spend the night.

Thinking back, I try to remember when he even had the chance to ask about it. I was with him most of the time. Then I shrug away the question since it doesn’t matter.

He must have done it when I didn’t notice. He’s sneaky that way.

A giddy thrill runs through me, and I’m almost embarrassed by it. I pull the covers up over my head in an instinctive gesture that makes me feel like a little girl.

I try to go back to sleep since Aidan has gone out of his way to give me this chance, but my mind is whirling now. I’m picturing him going off by himself on a cold morning. All alone. Like he used to be.

And I suddenly hate that idea. Yes, he’s doing something nice for me, but we’re supposed to do jobs together. There’s no reason why he needs to do this alone today. I’m awake, and I already kind of miss him.

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