“Oh.” My lips curled up, interested in the direction the conversation was taking. “You want me to teach you all the dirty words?”
I looked up at him and wiggled my eyebrows. Aaron gave me a lopsided smile that would have made my panties drop to the floor had they been resting on my hips.
“Well, you are in luck; I’m a wonderful teacher.”
“And I’m a highly dedicated student.” He winked. And that goddamn wink disrupted the beating of my heart. “Although I might get a little distracted every now and then.”
“I see.” I placed my index finger against his chest, watching Aaron’s eyes dive down quickly before returning to my face. “Maybe you need the right kind of motivation to keep your attention on the subject.”
I trailed that finger up, traveling across his pec and then up his neck, following the line of his jaw until reaching his lips. They parted with a shallow breath.
“This …” I pushed myself up and kissed his lips gently. “This is a six-letter word in Spanish. Labios. Tus labios. Your lips.”
The only answer he gave me was taking my mouth in his again. As if the only way he’d learn the word was tasting it.
“And this,” I said before parting his lips and making the kiss deeper, our tongues dancing together, “is another six-letter word. Lengua—tongue.”
“I think I really like that one.” Aaron’s head dipped low, his new favorite word reaching my breast. “And this? What do you call this?” he said, grazing his mouth over the peak.
A giggle that soon turned into a moan left my mouth before I was able to answer. “That’s a five-letter word. Pezón. Nipple.”
Aaron hummed while his lips traveled up my chest, placing soft kisses on his way.
“So, we have worked on six- and five-letter words.” He placed more of those pecks on my skin. “Just for the sake of sticking to your method, we should go over four-letter words. Would you teach me one?” Aaron’s wish fell against my skin.
A four-letter word. It shouldn’t have been complicated. There were probably thousands of four-letter words in my mother tongue. But my mind was a treacherous thing, and it betrayed me. Often. And the only word I could think of was a very particular one. One that, despite not being too long, was powerful enough to change things. To change people’s lives. To move mountains and start wars.
It was a big word that I had promised myself I wouldn’t give anybody without being sure I meant it with every single molecule in my body. Without being sure I was safe.
My silence seemed to give Aaron the perfect opportunity to keep exploring my skin. His mouth causing my heart to pound against my chest.
“I don’t know,” I murmured distractedly. Scared and turned on too.
More kisses were brushed against my skin, making me fight to catch my breath.
“It’s okay,” he said like he really meant it. “We can break the rules. That’s the magic in being us, the ones making them.”
He took my mouth keenly, getting me out of my head for a blissful moment. And when we came up for air, his head dipped one more time, placing an openmouthed kiss above my heart. “Corazón,” he said softly, so softly that the word seeped into my blood, mixing with my own so it would never be able to leave. “Heart. That’s your heart. Seven letters.”
Looking into his eyes for a long moment, I swore I could see in them everything he wasn’t voicing. I’ll make it mine. And everything I wasn’t brave enough to say. Take it.
When Aaron finally spoke, it sounded like a promise. “I’ll earn my four-letter word.”
And there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he would. But at what cost?
Chapter Twenty-Four
The experience of waking up next to Aaron that following morning had absolutely nothing to do with the two other times I had opened my eyes to find him lying in the same bed.
For one, we were naked. Something I thought I could quickly get used to. Effortlessly.
Then, there was this teeny-tiny thing that separated this morning from the previous ones. A technicality really. And that was the beaming grin already on my face. It was stupidly wide, and I was afraid I might have slept with it. Ridiculous, I knew. But who had the time to be embarrassed when Aaron Blackford was right there, all big and naked and ready to be eaten?
Not me.
And not when something definitely not tiny was throbbing against my thigh.
Aaron grunted, shifting and pushing that pulsating part of his body into me.