Page 102 of No Promises, No Lies

“Good. That’s good. Deep breaths, Rory,” he encourages and the ice quiets again.“Now crawl.” I start forward. “Slowly, slowly.” His voice rises in pitch when the entire area groans under my movements.

I let out a slow breath before I put one palm forward and push myself with the opposite leg, movinginchesat a time, painfully slow.

All the while, Aidan paces the safe zone like some kind of caged animal.

I’m about ten feet away when my skate lands a little too heavy behind me and a shudder rings out in a ripple beneath me. I only have one second, which I used to find Aidan’s eyes before I feel the bottom give out from under me and I scream. But the six-foot-three defenseman dives forward, his hand wrapping around mine and hauling me towards him. I fall hard against his chest and he pushes us both back from the icy edge, putting a safe amount of distance between the two of us and the dark water visible now through the wide, gaping hole. All that’s left of the ice that seconds ago I was lying on.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I breathe out, absorbing his warmth. I lay on his chest panting, struggling to catch my breath. The relief I feel in his arms.Safe. I can’t bear to let go of it yet and so I cling to him. He lets me. Running his hand down my hair, gently caressing the strands to calm me. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

I don’t miss the way his own hands shake.

“I don’t want to let you go,” he admits, and I still. His heart beat in my ear while I listen to his words. “I know we said this was temporary—a paper marriage. And we would play pretend just until the dust settles… I can’t do anything more to convince you that you’re safer with me.”

I push myself up so I can see his face, pale even in the rising golden sun.

“I won’t let anyone touch you, not your family, not the Italians and not the Irish.” He’d stand up to his own family—for me?“I promised to protect you until my last breath, and I’ll uphold that promise.”His face drops and he speaks the next fewwords as if against his will. “Even if it’s me you wish to run from, if you want to go… Rory, I won’t stop you. I’ll take you anywhere you want, anywhere, just — tell me.” Aidan’s arms tighten around me before letting go entirely.Releasing me. “Even if—even if I don’t want you to go…”

My resolve crumbles the longer I stare into his eyes. At the raw, unfiltered emotion I see staring back. Everything Aidan hides from the rest of the world. I have no words—my thoughts are still a tangled mess, so instead I lean forward, pressing my lips to his in a kiss that’s both soft and fierce, pouring into it everything I can’t put into words. I feel the ever present tension in my body melt away when one of his hands finds my hips, pulling me closer, his other hand gently cupping my face.

Both of us are breathless by the time we pull apart. I look up at him from beneath my lashes. “So don’t.”

He stares down at me, searching my face before his lips crash down on mine again. He flips us and the cold ice at my back is a sharp contrast to the heat at my front as Aidan claims my lips as his. His kiss is raw and desperate. I realize I’m as lost in this as he is, and whatever happens next, we’re in it together. Our skates tangle up beneath us.

I let myself fall, and Aidan swept in and caught me. In him I feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. Safety, warmth,love.

“I’m done running.” I pull away just long enough to utter the words before he presses another hungry kiss to my lips.

“Good. But I’m not done chasing you.”

61

TRUST. ME.

AIDAN

Iscoop my wife into my arms and carry her off the ice, trying not to think about how I could have lost her—was seconds away from losing her.

My Wife.

She keeps her head pressed up against my chest and her arms wrapped around my neck as I carry her all the way to my second-floor bedroom and deposit her onto my bed.

The sight of my angel, stretched out across my bed in hockey skates, nearly does me in. The only thing hotter might be if I ever found her wearing my jersey—and nothing else.

A slow, predatory grin spreads across my face, and she narrows her eyes at me.

I pick up her skate and she goes to jerk her leg back, but I hold tight—loosening the laces. “Careful now. Wouldn’t want to cut me with that blade.” I peel the first one off, tossing it over my shoulder.

Her smile is dark when her eyes drop to the long smooth scar that runs the length of my forearm.“No promises.”

I peel off the second skate, clicking my tongue. Taking her chin in my hand, I tilt it up, “No lies.”

There’s a flash of vulnerability in her eyes. I push her gently back down on the bed until I’m kneeling over her, trailing feather light kisses down her neck as I slowly strip her clothes, tracing my fingers across bare skin as I work. Rory’s breath quickens, eyes closed. She arches her back, searching for more contact—searching forme. When she’s fully naked, my mouth hovers over her ear,“Do you trust me?”

She tenses, blue eyes flying open.

Her response is instant, my finger setting her nerves on fire, and she squirms beneath me, letting out a quiet whimper. I lean back in so my voice is low in her ear, “I said,Rory, do you trust me?” My fingers stop, just above and to the right of her hipbone, moving in slow, light circles. She bites her lip, deciding.

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