Page 76 of Between the Lines

“Don’t thank me for that, Chaos.”

“Why not?”

He leans forward, shifting his balance on the couch. Closing the distance. “Because I wanted to. Because I’ve wanted to kiss you every day since you moved in here.”

I wet my lips. They feel dry, parched, like I haven’t been drinking nonstop for the past half hour. “Oh.”

“I thought that was obvious, Chaos.” He’s closer now, his large body stretched out beside me, his button-down shirt indecently rumpled and undone. A thick lock of his black hair breaks formation and falls down his square forehead. “My question, Charlotte. It’s a pretty easy one. Do you want me, too?”

My head feels like it’s spinning, and I’m not sure if it’s the wine or because of Aiden.

“I shouldn’t.” It’s the most honest thing I’ve said tonight.

“Tell me you haven’t thought about the night we shared,” he says. His voice is low. “Tell me it meant nothing to you. That you haven’t replayed it, longed for it again. Tell me you don’t want me. That I’m alone in feeling like this.”

The air in this room is too thin, the temperature too high. He’s breaching the casual distance we’ve established. We can flirt, sure. But never more than that. Could never openly acknowledge what’s been coursing through my body every time I’m around him.

I shake my head. “I can’t tell you that. But neither can I tell you… that it’s not true.”

He closes his eyes. “It’s all I’ve been able to think about. Even when I believed you’d given me a fake number, and I was trying to rack my brain why you might not have felt what I had. I’ve tortured myself with thoughts of how I could have pleased you better.”

“You pleased me plenty.” My cheeks are flaming. “That wasn’t… I can’t believe you thought that.”

“What was I supposed to think, Chaos?” His hand lands on my calf. Long fingers curving, gliding toward the crook of my knee. “I thought of the way you sounded, your little moans. Considered… Didshe fake it?Her orgasm?”

I shake my head. “Of course I didn’t.”

His lips lift in the corners. “No. You didn’t, sweetheart. I knew it back then and I know it now. It was only that slip of paper of yours that made me have doubts.”

“I enjoyed myself,” I say. “That was the whole problem, Aiden. I enjoyed myself, and then Ihatedit when you didn’t call.”

“I did. But it wasn’t you who answered.”

“What would you have said? If it had been me?”

Aiden’s smile turns into something devilish. The sight makes my stomach tighten. “Good morning, Charlotte.” Over my sweatpants, his hand starts tracing circles along the outside of my thigh. “Slept well?”

“Yes. Even if someone kept me awake too long.”

He chuckles. “That’s not nice. I hope you told him off.”

“I didn’t. I got him off instead,” I murmur.

A surprised grin flashes across his face. “Did you? And how about you? Did you… get off?”

“Yes. You were attentive.”

“Mm-hmm.” His hand slides over my hip, finding the curve of my ass. Brushing over the swell and up toward my lower back in a slow, firm sweep. “Let me pick you up after lunch.”

I stretch out my legs. They land across his lap, and his free hand joins his first. It strokes up my hip and rubs small circles along my waist. The touches are light. Innocent. But they make me feel feverish. “Where are we going?”

“A lazy hike. A swim in the gorge. Dinner at the lodge. Another overnight at the resort.” Aiden leans in closer, his face only inches from mine. “I want to find out how you taste.”

I find his chest. Spread my fingers out over the firm flesh. He’s warm, even through the cotton of his button-down. “This is a terrible idea, Aiden.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“The absolute worst one we’ve ever had,” I say. But my hand slides up his neck, my fingers brushing back and forth over the stubble at his jaw.He’s so handsome.I’ve thought that since the first moment I met him. Too handsome for me by far, but somehow he’s here, and it’s me he wants.

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