She set her hands on the front desk and studied me unabashedly.
I held out my hand. “You must be Eloise. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m taking your class today,” she informed me. “Decided it was worth skipping a day of school and driving back into town.”
With a grin, I handed her a form. “You here to form your own opinion?”
“Aiden assures me you are a glorious human being, so I’m inclined to believe him.” But she smiled. “But yes, I’m here to make up my own mind about you.”
I stood, started wrapping my hands. “Well, Eloise, by the time you finish here, you will either hate me or love me. There’s not usually much middle ground with me.” I tilted my head toward his office. “He know you’re here?”
“Nope. My brothers bet me ten bucks I couldn’t get him to take class at the same time as me, especially if you’re teaching.”
“I’ll throw in twenty that I can get him to join.”
She laughed. “I don’t think I’d take a bet against you, Isabel Ward.”
“I’ll go talk to him while you fill that out.” I walked into Aiden’s office and knocked softly before I walked in. He was reading some articles about weight training, and on his face were those sexy as hell glasses. “I think you should take my class today.”
He spun in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yeah? Why’s that.”
I approached slowly, finishing up the second wrap with a tight yank to the velcro strap at the end. “Maybe I want to torture you a little.”
Aiden widened his legs so I could step between them, sliding his hands up my thighs until he bracketed my hips with his fingers. “You torture me just by walking around here.”
Bracing a hand on the top of his chair, I leaned down to give him a kiss. He cupped the back of my neck and slicked his tongue against mine with a contented hum.
“Okay,” he said against my lips. “I’ll take your class.”
I smiled.
“On one condition,” he added.
“What’s that?”
His eyes held mine steadily. “I want you to come over tonight after Anya goes to bed.”
My eyebrows popped up. “Really?”
Aiden stood from the chair and held my face in his hands. “I miss holding you while I sleep. As fun as office sex is, or in your cramped-ass bed in your apartment, I want to know what it feels like to climb into my bed with you right where I’ve imagined you.”
I let out a deep breath. He kissed my forehead, but let me think.
“You’re not worried Anya will wake up?”
He shook his head. “She hasn’t woken up in the middle of the night in weeks, and the last few times, she always calls for me. As long as we set an alarm, she won’t have any idea.”
I nodded, excitement building as I imagined it. “Deal.”
“You gonna go easy on me in class?”
Up on my tiptoes, I tugged on his earlobe with my teeth, relished in how he tightened his grip when I did. Into his ear, I whispered, “You fucking wish.”
His eyes promised retribution a million times over the next hour and a half. When he saw his sister, when I unleashed all my inner dominatrix on him and had his chest heaving and soaked in sweat by the time I brought the class to cool-down. I probably brought it a touch too far when I got down in front of him and told him to lower his ass another inch in the plank he was holding.
And because Anya was dropped off just before we finished, there would be no desk sex for him to give me payback.
But he held onto it. All evening.
With the skies dark, and my backpack hooked onto my shoulders, I knocked gently. He ripped the door open, and without a word in greeting, he dipped, scooping me up over his shoulder.
“Aiden,” I laughed breathlessly. “Put me down.”
“Trust me, you don’t want that.” He strode to his bedroom.
“I don’t?”
“Nope, because once your feet hit the ground, you are going to pay for that.”
I grinned, hair hanging down toward the ground as he shut the door behind us. He tossed me, and I bounced off the mattress with a laugh.
And oh, did he get payback.
My clothes, practically torn from my body, ended in a heap on the floor next to his. And he proceeded to torture me, bringing me to the edge but never quite letting me go all the way, over and over, until I was shaking.
Aiden kept me on my stomach, forced me to hold onto the comforter.
By the time he put us out of our misery, I was mindless, arching my hips to seek the explosive end to an entire day of white-knuckled anticipation. He covered me with his big body, holding me into place, moving so slowly that I almost wept.
He held still, dragging his lips over my cheek, only stopping when his mouth was over my ear.
“I love you,” he whispered.
Slow was over.
Gentle was gone.
In its place was fierce and brutal. It took no more than five seconds, the bruising strength of his hands holding mine down, and I was flung helplessly to a place I didn’t actually know existed. He came there with me.
My spine practically cracked from the heat he pulled from inside me, and I managed to hold my sounds into the pillow by my face.
We laid boneless and limp for about ten minutes, just trying to catch our breath.
I wasn’t sure how I ever felt complete before this man, before this love.
He watched me pull on my sleep tank and shorts with heavy-lidded eyes, opening his arms for me to climb into bed next to him.
“This is what I needed,” he said into the top of my head. “Thank you.”
I sighed. “Thank you.”
His chest shook with laughter.
We talked for a while, and as I started drifting off, his finger traced the bottom edge of my lip.
I hummed. “That’s nice.”
“You said that,” he added quietly. “The night you were here.”
Opening my eyes, I studied him in the dark room. “Did I?”
Aiden nodded.
“I’m glad I got a chance to say it again.” I yawned.
“Isabel,” he said, nudging me back awake.
“Hmmm?”
“You know you’re going to have to marry me, right?”
Eyes still closed, my mouth curled into a smile. “As proposals go, I give that a four.”
He laughed quietly. “Just making a general statement. You’ve ruined me from sleeping alone.”
“Good.” I turned to my side, and he folded his body around mine, burying his nose in the back of my neck. “Because yeah, I’m going to have to marry you, Aiden Hennessy.”
We slept like that, soundly and deeply, until I felt a light stroke on my arm.
When I blinked, I saw a small body standing on my side of the bed. My stomach seized instantly at how she might react.
Anya grinned down at me. “I knew it was you,” she whispered.
I sat up, glanced over at a still-sleeping Aiden, sprawled on his back with a hand laying on his chest.
My heart raced as I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and she climbed up into my lap.
“You knew it, huh?” I asked her quietly.
Anya nodded, playing with the end of my braid where it hung over my shoulder.