Page 49 of An Adventure For Aster

16

AS CLOSE TO PERFECT

Raine’s mouth opened and Aster’s did the same, his tongue moving and both of them making out like long lost lovers seeing each other for the first time in ten years.

It was probably silly on her part that she asked him to say she was right again. It didn’t have anything to do with those words as much as his inflection around them.

In her mind, she’d hoped it was him saying he loved her.

She didn’t care about whether he knew the exact day they started dating. Or little things like that.

She was more interested in the fact he was a great boyfriend like she’d said.

He did the right things.

He had the characteristics that she looked for in a man.

No one was perfect, least of all her.

But she felt what they had right now was as close to perfect as it could get.

“Can we have sex right here on the couch?” she asked.

“We can have it anywhere you want,” he said. “You never have to ask.”

No one could see them. Her living room faced out toward trees in the back, but her couch was away from the glass doors that were between the kitchen and the room they were in. The only windows on this side of the apartment. It was dark out too.

Maybe she was sick of being the good girl that everyone assumed she was as an elementary school teacher.

She just wanted to be herself and be free to enjoy her life without looking over her shoulder and waiting for some kind of judgment based on her job or who her parents were.

Her lips were leaving light kisses on his cheek, his neck, over to his ear and she was finding the freedom to just be in the moment.

She didn’t think he’d be the type that liked gentle tender sex and wasn’t sure why she was doing what she was.

It had more to do with the fact she just couldn’t get enough of him.

She wanted them to spend the night together and knew he had to work tomorrow. He wouldn’t want to worry about leaving her in his place and this was easier even if he didn’t fit as well in her bed.

Maybe it was selfish on her part so they’d sleep close together and almost hug. He’d put his arm around her and pull her close and she felt so safe and secure with him.

She wasn’t sure she’d felt that with another man in her life and just wanted more of it.

Her hands went for the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up and over his head, her fingers trailing over his scars, then her mouth following.

The thought of what he went through and that she might not have ever met him if that hadn’t happened was conflicting to her.

She didn’t like to know he was in pain and understood how Daphne could be worried.

“I love touching you,” she said. “Does it bother you when I touch your scars? Does it hurt?”

“I don’t feel anything,” he said.

“But does it bother you?” she asked. “You didn’t answer that part.”

“Nothing you do to me bothers me,” he said. “Or I should say it’d bother me more if you didn’t touch or look at it. But I’d understand if it turned you off.”

She smiled and fought back the tears from gathering in her eyes.

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