Page 37 of Townshipped
He smiles. Then he leans in and kisses me softly. When he pulls back, he looks in my eyes and my heart is reflected in his gaze.
“Can you sleep now?” he asks.
“Maybe,” I tell him.
No way. Are you kidding me?
The last thing I am going to be able to do is sleep.
“You?”
“Maybe,” he says, filling his cup with water. “I’ll have a little tea first.”
For the first time since I arrived here, I feel awkward and uncertain. Well, maybe it’s not the first time, but this level of awkwardness makes all others seem null and void. I’m not sure what to do with my hands, my eyes, or my breath, which is still panting like a Siberian husky in the tundra after a long Iditarod race thanks to Aiden’s extremely deft skills at kissing the bejeepers out of me.
I stand quietly sipping my tepid drink while Aiden heats his mug of water.
He turns to me. “Are you sure you’re okay? I …”
“I’m sure,” I tell him, placing my palm on his forearm and immediately regretting the contact. How am I going to live in the same house with him after that kiss?
He puts his hand over mine. Then he lifts his hand, loops it behind me and pulls me into his arms.
He murmurs his thoughts into my hair as we embrace. “The last thing I want to do is take advantage of you. We don’t know what your life was. I’m not a man to encroach on someone else’s relationship. If you have a husband …”
“I don’t,” I say with confidence I didn’t anticipate.
“Are you sure?”
“I am almost positive.”
“We don’t know, though,” Aiden says. “And until we do …”
“Right,” I say, nudging away from him.
His grasp around me tightens. He won’t let me escape this moment. He’s deciding for the both of us.
“If you belong to someone else, I’ll regret that kiss. And I never want to regret kissing you. We’ll wait. But I don’t regret that kiss right now. Not even a little.”
“I want more,” I tell him, immediately feeling the blush rise across my neck and up my cheeks.
“I want a whole lot more,” he tells me. “And I’m a patient man.”
“I, apparently, am an impatient woman,” I say.
Aiden’s laughter rumbles through his chest. The chest my cheek is resting on. I pop back and he doesn’t detain me this time.
“I think I could sleep now,” I say.
I won’t. But I need to try—I need to put some space between me and this man who has lived up to everything I think I ever wanted and more.
14
AIDEN
Iwake early. Correction. I never slept after that kiss. That kiss. I’ve kissed plenty of women in my life. I had a long-term girlfriend. I’ve dated throughout the past few years since we broke up, though it’s been quite a while since my last date.
No kiss has ever been like the one I shared with Em last night in my kitchen. It would help if she kissed like a grandma, or a llama. Yes. I have a vague and unwelcome knowledge of how llamas kiss. No. I didn’t volunteer to have the crazy beast shove her tongue at me.
