Before I could delve into that, Aaron’s large body shifted, and my back was against a hard surface. My hand traveled across it absently. The wardrobe. He was caging me against what felt like the wardrobe door, and I didn’t know how we had ended up there. Not really. But he was pressing deliciously into me, sheltering me from the world around us. Like the human-sized shield he had shown me he could be for me. Rooting me to the ground and sending my senses flying all at once. So, I didn’t care. Instead, my body craved more contact. It throbbed for more.
“If I were yours, I would not be capable of functioning without touching you.” His words made something in my chest constrict. “I couldn’t go a few minutes without doing this,” he added, squeezing my waist with his hand and slipping his thumb below my sleeping shirt, robbing me of the following breath. “Or something like this.” Aaron stepped further into me, pressing his hips against mine.
A helpless whimper left me.
The runaway thumb that had snuck below the fabric of my shirt trailed a few inches up my side, rumpling my shirt on its way.
A very shaky exhale escaped my lips. I couldn’t do much more than that, hardly breathing, barely surviving until the next touch. Every nerve in my body felt like it was about to be lit on fire. My blood boiled, burning every vessel and organ in its path. Everything burned.
I thought a new whimper had escaped away from me because I was rewarded with another openmouthed kiss. This time on my temple. Then, Aaron’s lips traveled down the side of my face, the air leaving them warm and enticing.
His mouth stopped at my eyelids, still shut, and he held his lips above them for a second. It wasn’t a kiss; it was more of a featherlight touch. And, God, that soft brush of his lips alone was so sweet, so fucking tender that it made me want to weep.
He continued down, stopping at my nose and repeating the soft caress.
Then, he did it to my right cheek. My left cheek. My chin.
Aaron left soft kisses everywhere he stopped, turning me inside out.
Pure, unfiltered need pulsated through my body with every inch of skin his lips traveled. And when they reached the corner of my mouth, I felt like I would detonate like a bomb if he didn’t touch me there too. If he didn’t brush his lips over mine and kiss me.
I felt the large and masculine body that pressed against me sigh. His lips hovering above mine.
Breaking my restraint, my hand lifted and landed on his upper arm, which I discovered was braced against the wardrobe surface, right next to my head. Barely able to take ahold of his flexed biceps, I wrapped my fingers as well as I could around the hot and tense skin. Everything strained and tightened under my touch. And I wondered if he was holding himself back, holding back from wrapping both arms around me and lifting me in the air. Perhaps pressing me harder into his body. Or doing more than just leaving featherlight kisses and soft brushes of his fingers.
Unsure if what he needed was my encouragement, I increased the pressure of my hold on his arm. My nails dug into his skin.
A deep and throaty sound left Aaron’s mouth, landing right between my legs. Just where all the ever-growing need had gathered.
I latched on to his arm harder, my body arching into him unconsciously, barely able to contain myself any longer. I was very close to begging, and I would if I had to. In response, Aaron came a little closer. Pressed against me a little harder.
I could feel him throbbing against my belly.
“Lina.” My name left his lips like a soft prayer. Or a warning. I wasn’t sure. “I’m going to kiss you.”
His words fell on my lips, close, so close. So, I was left with no option but to increase the pressure of my fingers around his arm, so I wouldn’t dissolve right there. To slip away and disappear before I could touch him. And I wanted to so badly. His neck, his lips, his jaw, the little wrinkle between his brows—everything. I wanted to slip my fingers through his raven hair and run them down his chest, all the way to his thick thighs.
I wanted Aaron to deliver his promise. I wanted him to kiss me.
Another brief touch of his lips, this time against mine. Soft, full, sweet, just like honey running down my mouth. I wanted—no, I needed—more.
“Please, Aar—”
A door slamming shut somewhere in the apartment startled the plea out of my lips. Aaron’s mouth pulled back from mine before I even properly tasted him, my eyes falling back open.
I was welcomed by the image of a man on the brink of losing control. His gaze was hazy, clouded by the same need that was pumping through my bloodstream.
Aaron’s forehead fell on mine. I watched his chest heave, hauling air in and out of his lungs with effort. Just like mine was doing. And we remained in silence for a long moment, surrounded by only the sound of our wild and unrestrained breathing.
“You called me Lina.” Out of everything that had just happened, that was what my foggy brain decided to go with. “You never do. You only have once.”
Still resting on my forehead, Aaron’s head shook against mine. Very briefly. Then, a breathy laugh reached my ears. It made me smile.
But that part of my brain that was supposed to work out all the rational reasoning came back to life, wiping that smile off my face.
Holy shit. We almost kissed.
Aaron had warned me he’d kiss me, and then he almost had. The man whose arms and body were currently caging me against a wardrobe had tortured me with his fingertips, his mouth, and then he had almost kissed me. Right after he called me Lina. But—