“What can I say?” She gave a halfhearted shrug. “No one’s perfect, certainly not me.”
“Now that I don’t agree with. You are Cora, and there is nothing more perfect than that.” He grasped her chin, angling it so her gaze was level with his. “I love you.”
“I never doubted you did—I only doubted that you’d accept it.” Her eyes shined with tears at his latter admission before she blatted her lashes. “And you’re right—I’m pretty great.”
He laughed, inclining his head in agreement. Hearing her sass meant so much more than amusement. It meant one truth—Cora wasn’t good unless she had him, exactly as he had felt these weeks without her.
Now that he’d come back into her life, she was better. Such a simple thing, but it held a world of meaning to a Dom. His submissive had dropped without him. He’d never let her fall again.
While it pleased him she was so accepting of this, he couldn’t misread her anymore
. “For how you left me at the cemetery and the reaction you gave under my touch in our last scene, I wasn’t expecting this to go over this well.”
She smiled gently, leaning up toward him. “You’re finally saying the right things. You’re touching me the right way.” Something so sweet and pure sped through the air between them as she added, “I love you, Aidan. Yes, these weeks have been hell and horrible, but I’m done feeling bad. This … you… it makes me happy. It’s what I wanted. It’s as simple as that.”
He could listen and observe her for hours, and he would admire her strength in the years ahead of them. Tonight he took his second chance at love and he wouldn’t look back. He arched an arched eyebrow and smiled. “Simple just took a little bit though, didn’t it?”
Cora winked. “A bit.” She sat back on her legs, looking at the picture of Lily in her lap. Her brows drew together as she slid her finger over the photo. Then she lifted her head, regarding him intensely. “What do you plan to do with all this?”
Good question. Easy answer. “I plan to get rid of it.”
Cora’s eyes narrowed before she stood with the picture frame in her hands. With sure and steady steps, she approached the fireplace next to Aidan and placed the picture on the mantel. When she turned to him, she smiled softly. “I don’t want you to forget her, Aidan.”
Without thought he stood and gathered her in his arms. Cora melted against him and he squeezed his arms around her. With her close, his world aligned. She rested her head against his chest. “If I was jealous of her, you’d have to be jealous of Porter.”
How could Aidan hold any jealousy of her relationship with Porter? Hell, Porter and Kyler had been her lifeline while Aidan got his head on straight. They had kept his plans a secret all because he asked them to. But they had also taken care of Cora until Aidan was ready to step in and claim the woman who belonged to him.
How could he come between friendships like that?
Leaning away from her, Aidan tangled his hands into her hair she’d cut shorter. “Porter doesn’t get what I have. There is no reason to be jealous.”
The side of her mouth arched ever so slightly. “What do you get?”
“I have a woman who loved me at my worst.” He pressed his hand against her lower back, tugging her tight against his rock-hard cock. “Now I can love her at my best. Neither Porter nor you has ever seen how happy I plan to keep you.”
“Oh, really?” She smirked, her eyes dancing. “Color me intrigued.”
His cock twitched at her wicked grin. “Words are no longer necessary. Action will prove it all.” He dropped his gaze to hers, and she shivered in his arms. “Go into the bedroom and get naked. Tonight things will change, for you and me, Cora Adams. Rules need to be defined.”
She trembled at his low voice that he always took on in his dominant role, even if she waggled her eyebrows. “Sounds serious.”
“I take ownership of what is mine very seriously,” he murmured, playfully, as raw, pulsating emotions were held behind those words.
Cora squirmed against him and rubbed herself against his erection. “Is that what I am now, your property?”
He tightened his hands into fists in her hair. “You are so much more, luv.” He tugged on the silky strands, pinning her to him, and her pupils dilated. “You are the woman I love. You’re my submissive.” When her eyes widened and blazed with heat, he said, “A submissive who I gave an order to. Where are you, Cora?”
“With you, sir,” she rasped.
He smiled at the flush of her cheeks and her mouth begging for his kiss. “Where should you be?”
She arched into his hold with hooded lids. “In the bedroom and naked.”
He arched an eyebrow, drawing in her scent that thickened the air. Energy pulsated around him like it always did with Cora. Under his stare, she offered a look so needy it raised a desire in him to increase it.
She blinked rapidly, stepping out of his hold and shaking her head. “Right.” She turned, searching out for the bedroom. He heard her voice carry down the hallway as she said, “Bedroom. Naked. Yes, sir.”
Chapter Twenty-seven