I reluctantly got up and followed him into the shower. Unfortunately, all my attempts at convincing Aiden to go down on me were met with laughter.
“You’re insane. Turn around and spread ‘em. And don’t get any ideas. I’m just washing you.”
“With your tongue?” I asked hopefully as I complied with his demands.
Aiden chuckled and smacked me lightly on the ass, but after a moment of scrubbing my back, he leaned his head next to mine and rumbled sexily in my ear. “I love this side of you.”
“What side? My backside?” I asked, knowing full well what he meant.
“No. Your carefree, playful side. It suits you. Makes me happy to see you so relaxed.”
I turned around and put my arms around his neck, pulling him closer until our soap-slicked bodies were sliding together. “You make me feel relaxed. You make me feel safe, Aiden.”
His eyes closed in relief, and I could feel his entire body relax against mine. “Good,” he murmured before opening his eyes and locking them with mine again. “Want you to always feel safe.”
I felt the side of my lip quirk up as bubbles of happiness popped in my belly. “Then I guess you’d better stick around, huh?”
After we showered, Aiden threw together some sandwiches while I packed a small cooler bag with some beer and water. We took our goodies out to the beach and spread out a huge blanket over the packed sand. There was a cool breeze coming off the water, but the sun was bright in the spring sky and its warm rays made it bearable.
As we ate our late lunch side by side on the blanket, I caught Aiden staring off across the water with a divot of stress between his eyes. I suspected where his thoughts were, but as much as I wanted to help him with the emotions he was still dealing with so many years after his younger brother’s death, I was reluctant to ruin the calm we’d managed to find with one another. So I searched for a safe topic I figured could get him to relax again and get out of his head.
“So… Bennett sure is cute,” I began.
His head snapped around to look at me in surprise. “What?”
“Your friend, Bennett. Lucky’s dad. What’s his story?”
“He’s not cute,” he growled, his brow furrowing just a little. I fought back the shot of giddiness that went through me at his blatant show of jealousy. It was fucking adorable. I’d wanted to find a way to get him out of his head and I’d definitely found it.
“He is. He’s sooo cute. Do you think he’s good in bed?” I looked up to the sky, hoping I projected a dreamy look on my face. “I’ll bet he’s really good in bed. Wonder if he’d ever top.”
“Fuck you. No, he wouldn’t. Besides. He’s taken. He’s in love with Xander and they’re good together.”
“Damn,” I sighed dramatically. “Figures.”
He slapped his sandwich back down on the paper towel and pointed a finger at me before freezing in his tracks. “Wait.”
I couldn’t hold back a snort as his face went through a myriad of emotions as he realized I’d been teasing him. He finally rubbed his face with his hands before pulling them back to reveal a sheepish expression.
“Sorry,” he said. “You were kidding, right?”
I nodded and leaned up onto my hands and knees to rub noses with him. “I was trying to distract you from whatever it was that put you in a funk a minute ago,” I admitted softly. “Where did you go?”
His hands came up to cup my face and his eyes softened as he gazed at me. My stomach flipped around. The man was fucking beautiful and he was looking at me like I was the center of the universe. I could get used to being on the receiving end of that look.
“Wherever it was,” he murmured, “I’m back now. With you.”
“Good.” I kissed him gently for a minute before sitting back and picking my sandwich back up. “But I really do want to know how you two met.”
Aiden smiled before picking his own sandwich up. “It’s a funny story, actually.”
I popped open the bag of chips we’d brought and shoved a couple in my mouth as he began. In the time we’d been sitting there, not even a lone dog walker had appeared. Aiden had told me how sleepy the area was in the off-season, but I hadn’t realized how true that was until I realized we’d been there almost an entire day already and not seen a single other human being.
“Bennett and I met in college. I roomed with a guy named Joey who was head over heels in love with a guy named Mouse.”
“Mouse?” I asked around a sip of my beer. “That was the guy’s name?”
“No, but I can never remember what his name was and I always want to call him Mouse. Anyway, Joey and Mouse were the kind of guys who loved hysterical, dramatic histrionics for some reason. They’d get into these huge fights, usually over stupid shit, and then make up in fantastically rabid sex sessions. Which was all well and good if you didn’t happen to share a room with one of them.”