Page 30 of Forever Theirs

“You’re not leaving until you talk to me. Help me understand what the hell just happened.”

“Last night, when Miles took me home after the bar, he mentioned that you two… well, thought I was attractive, and—fuck, that sounds ridiculous now that I say it out loud. I must have misheard him.”

His hard body pressed against my back, crowding me to the door until my chest and hips were sealed to the solid wood. With a slight tug, the hair still piled on top of my head came tumbling down to my shoulders before gentle fingers swept it off my neck.

“You misinterpreted nothing, sweetheart.” My breath caught in my throat at his words and the brush of his lips against my ear. “We both find you fucking gorgeous inside and out and would love the chance to explore this—whatever this connection is between the three of us—further. But I’m trying to be a nice guy here and take into consideration that your whole life was just disrupted and not assume everything you ask revolves around me, Miles, and how we want you so fucking bad that you were all we thought about all damn day.”

“Oh.” I licked my lips, heart racing. “That’s… yeah, wow, that is considerate of you. But Iwasasking about you two and me. After thinking about it last night repeatedly?—”

“I love the idea of you thinking about us while you were in bed, sweetheart.” His voice was a soft purr that had my breaths coming in short pants.

Focus, Aspen.

“And after all that thinking, I’m confused. Add in the fact that I get all—” I blew out a raspberry. “—flustered at the idea of you two and me, and it makes this all feel unreal. Which is why I asked, why me? Why me, Aiden? Why in the hell would you and Miles want someone like me?”

“Why would wenotwant you, Aspen?” His chest pressed harder against my back, but I didn’t feel crowded in a bad way. The brush of his lips along the exposed skin of my neck had me shivering.

With a groan, Aiden’s searing body heat disappeared, and a gentle tug peeled me off the door. Once again interlocking our fingers, he guided me to the couch, urging me back into the same spot I had sat in seconds ago.

Both of us settled back on the comfortable cushions, him right beside me this time instead of so far away, and I loosed a breath, hoping to calm my erratic pulse. Adjusting along the smooth leather to face him head-on, I studied his handsome face, memorizing every inch.

He had a youthful look about him with his floppy hair and easy smile. Straight nose, high cheekbones with soft cheeks covered in light scruff that wasn’t there yesterday. Aiden was handsome yet beautiful. A desperate urge to trace the lines of his face with my finger had me tucking both hands beneath my thighs.

“What?” he asked, leaning back with a worried expression. “Damnit. I’m sorry if I overstepped just now,” he said in a rush. “I just didn’t want you to leave, not in an ‘I’m holding you captive and never letting you go, keeping you in our nonexistent basement’ type of way.” Both my brows flew up over my forehead. “Shit, that sounded bad. I just meant I didn’t want you to leave upset and without me understanding why. You’re unique, Aspen. More so than anyone we’ve ever met.” I waited for him to explain, knowing it could go either way, good or bad. “And we, Miles and I both, are different with you.” He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “You want to know why you, but I can’t explain the why because I don’t even know what it is specifically that draws Miles and me to you like moths to a flame. Last night, I saw my best friend, who I would give my life for, smiling and laughing more in a few hours than in the entire past year. I caught him watching you, forgetting about his past with you in the room. I see him finally having an outlet for that overprotective energy that thrums under his skin and is as much a part of him as anything else.”

“And you?” I asked hesitantly.

“And me…” He licked his lips. “How honest do you want me to be here, sweetheart?”

“Brutal,” I blurted.

“I see someone I want to laugh with, who I could see in my arms in front of the fire one day but out hiking and not showering for days the next. Someone whose every inch of skin I want to explore, just to turn around and do it all over again. I want to know what you feel like when I’m deep inside you and hear the way you scream while I devour your mouth while my best friend eats your sweet cunt like the starving man I know he is for you.”

Sweat beaded along my forehead, and my chest rose and fell with every labored breath.

Holy hotness.

Did he really just say that out loud?

“But I’m getting ahead of myself,” he said, shaking his head. With a deep, chest-rattling groan, Aiden lifted off the couch an inch to adjust himself. “Sorry. Ever since I saw you on the docks yesterday, I’ve… thought about you.”

“Yeah?”

“But I will not sit here, focused on what my dick wants, and ignore what you’ve been through recently. So tell me, Aspen. How are you doing? Forget about the Miles-and-me situation we dumped on you because we’re greedy bastards. How are you coping?”

I stared at his face, unblinking so long that his features went blurry.

How could I think about any of that after his hot-as-sin declaration? All my brain cells, every thought was locked on his words. But the longer I took to respond, the more I considered what he was asking, which slowly eased the burning heat that scorched through me just seconds ago. Blowing out a slow breath, I allowed my lids to close as I searched, excavating the feelings buried beneath the simmering desire, wanting to answer his genuine question truthfully.

“I’m…” I licked my lips. “Free. Am I worried about the future and what I’ll do after all this? Yes, but also no. I’m distracted here, where the future and what’s next aren’t hovering over me like a dark cloud. If anything, the last twenty-four hours have proven that back in Seattle I was simply surviving. I didn’t have any real friends. I wasn’t happy. James constantly led me on because he always needed something from me?—”

“I hope I get a chance to kick that fucker’s ass someday,” Aiden growled.

“Get in line. But here, right now, I’m happy. Maybe a little relieved that everything that has weighed on me the last few years isn’t there anymore. I hated my job in the end, but I didn’t understand how much until I left. Everything revolved around James, making sure I got the perfect shot of him, not the perfect shot for the actual article or of the landscape, which is what I love. It wasn’t about what I enjoyed, capturing the beauty only nature can offer. Those shots that take your breath away and pull you into the moment even if you weren’t there. That was taken from me toward the end, and now that I realize it… I’m pissed. I’m so fucking mad at myself for allowing him to use and manipulate me, and for being so damn lazy that I didn’t even fight it.” Shaking my head, I looked down at my clasped hands. “I’m not where I expected to be at this stage in my life, and now I’m wondering if what I wanted out of life is something that will ever happen or if I need to adjust my expectations.”

Aiden scooted closer until our thighs met. I sighed at the contact. Somehow, the simple touch had my muscles relaxing. “Where did you expect to be in life?”

“Happy,” I whispered. “Secure in a relationship I could depend on.” Hot tears filled my lower lids. “I’m so tired of doing it all on my own, you know? Of handling everything that comes my way, of it all falling on my shoulders day in and day out. I want to be with someone I can depend on to share that crippling weight of always thinking of finances, my safety, and everything else involved with living.” A single tear leaked from the corner of my eye.

---