Page 27 of Forfeits

“Should we take two cars, or…”

“Actually, we can walk. I live across from the Museum of Nature.”

“Oh!”

“Yeah, it’s a great old building, but it’s a walk-up and I’m on the fourth floor. Do you think you can make it?”

“Very funny. How out of shape do I look?”

Aiden gave me a hungry glance. “You look fucking fantastic. But let’s see how hard you’re breathing when we get to my apartment.”

* * * *

The stairs to Aiden’s apartment were a workout, but that wasn’t the only reason I was breathing hard when we made it to the top floor.

“You’re as out of breath as I am,” I pointed out.

“It’s not from the stairs,” he said, keying the door and pushing it open. It made a creak that echoed off the plastered walls of the high-ceilinged hallway.

“Come in.” He flipped the light switch. Old wood floors, polished to a shine, and a hall closet in front of me, opened up into a central hallway with two doors off the left and what looked like a living area at the far end.

The door swung shut with a loud bang that echoed in the old building. Aiden locked the deadbolt.

“What a cool—”

He grabbed my shirt and pulled me against him.

“Whoa.” My breath caught in my throat as our bodies collided and my gaze landed on a pair of dark brown eyes.

“I need to kiss you…if that’s okay,” he whispered, his mouth inches from mine, the smell of coffee and vanilla wafting up my nose. “Please let it be okay…”

“God, yes.”

He cupped the back of my head as our mouths met in a searching, scorching kiss that made my toes curl.

Aiden gave a little groan as he parted his lips and accepted my searching tongue, our hands grasping at each other as he turned me around and guided me through a nearby doorway.

“This is my bedroom,” Aiden gasped in between kisses.

“Convenient,” I whispered. “Right beside the front door…”

He inhaled a shuddering breath. “Goddamn it, you’re gorgeous.”

“You’re gorgeous,” I countered, reaching for the buttons on Aiden’s shirt. Then I paused and pulled back. “Are we doing this?” I asked, breathless with need and excitement. Please say yes.

“I really want to,” Aiden murmured, pulling my shirttails out of my pants.

“Good. Good,” I said, kissing him again, breathing in the scent of his clean body and oozing testosterone. “Fuck, I need this…so bad.”

He kissed me harder, then pulled back and got to work on his own clothes, stripping off his shirt and pushing down his jeans as I stood there, open-mouthed and enthralled. It felt like I was in some kind of movie as I watched him reveal himself.

When he was stripped to a pair of navy boxer briefs that made his erection pretty obvious, he grabbed my shirt and pulled me into another kiss.

“Strip, Fletcher.”

It didn’t take me long to get down to my white boxer briefs.

“Okay. Now what?”

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