Page 26 of Finding Happily Ever After

“I’m glad you did.” Aiden shifted so he could reach out and brush a strand of hair from her cheek. “Even if you did beat me to it, again.”

She shook her head and dipped her chin to her chest. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize.” He caught her chin in his fingers and lifted it gently. “Not for going after what you want.” He smiled and worked hard to control his breathing. His heart raced, his blood pumping hard with everythinghewanted. “It’s really sexy.”

She blushed a little and tried to look away, but he held her chin so she looked directly into his eyes. “It is, Natalie.Youare.”

“I’ve never been called that before.”

Aiden didn’t bother trying to hide his surprise. “What? That’s insane.” It was. It was beyond insane. Natalie was without a doubt the sexiest woman he’d ever laid eyes on. And that kiss?Damn.That kiss was fire. If they connected on every level the way they connected with a simple kiss…

With his hand still on her cheek, Aiden stepped closer until he could feel the puff of air of her exhale on his lips. Her tongue darted out again, a trait he was coming to find incredibly sexy…and harder and harder to resist.

And he couldn’t resist. He pulled her close, one hand on the flat of her back, the other cupping her face gently, his thumb stroking her soft skin as his lips explored hers. She closed her eyes and sighed as they deepened the kiss.

Where the first kiss was a little tentative and unsure, the second one was nothing of the sort. Her body moved closer to his until her breasts were pressed up against his chest. Electrical shots fired through him, and Aiden worked hard to stay in control despite the fact that his erection was hard and pulsing between his legs. He forced himself to pull away from her—not because he wanted to, but exactly the opposite. If he didn’t put distance between the two of them, their relationship might start moving faster than he intended it to. And he needed her to understand that he wasn’t looking for that. Well, notonlythat. He wanted more with her. It was still so new, and probably way too early to even think about it, but Aiden couldn’t help it. When it came to Natalie, she made him want things he didn’t think he’d ever want again.

And he didn’t want to screw that up.

As soon as there was a bit of space between them, Aiden swallowed hard and turned back to the espresso machine. “I think I promised you a coffee.”

Coffee.

Coffee?

How the hell was she supposed to focus on a coffee when he’d just kissed her like that? And she’d kissedhimlike that?

The memory of how she’d just done it—pushed her nerves aside and gone for it—thrilled her. But not nearly as much as the way her entire body thrilled when his lips touched hers. When he pulled her close and his tongue—

“I think it was alife-changingcoffee you promised me.” She grinned in an effort to act as casually as possible despite the fact that she was feeling anything but. Her body was charged in a major way, as if she could be set off with just one touch.

A full-body shiver ran through her, and Natalie was glad that Aiden wasn’t looking at her. Would he be able to tell that she was so completely affected by his kiss? That she could barely stand there without her knees buckling? That formulating words after having her world tilted that way was one of the hardest things she’d ever done? Would he be able to tell that she had absolutelynoidea what she was doing?

Her first kiss. Her firstrealkiss, because kissing Brandon Ryan when he was such a complete and total douchebag didn’t count. She could rewrite her history however she wanted to, she decided. Yes. Aiden had been her first real, adult kiss. And damn, it had been absolutely every single thing she ever could have imagined and so much more.

Was it normal to feel your insides liquify like that?

Was it normal for your toes to curl and feel both nothing and everything all at once?

Natalie had no idea, and she didn’t care, because normal or not, it had been amazing. And she wanted to do it again.

But did he?

She watched Aiden, who was intently focused on the elaborate espresso machine. He was prattling on about coffee beans and water temperature and a bunch of other things that didn’t seem to make much sense to Natalie, but still, she made an effort to focus.

Was he trying to distract her? Was the kiss no good for him? Did he know that she had zero experience? Had it been terrible?

She needed to get out of her head.

“Don’t forget the cups.” Natalie moved across the kitchen, fully aware of their proximity once again. She held the cups out.

Aiden turned away from the machine and a smile slipped over his face. They were so close, only the two ceramic cups between them. “Thank you.” The words came out gruff and low, and as he took the cups from her hands, he leaned in and pressed one soft, sweet kiss on her lips as if it were the most natural thing in the world for them to be together in the kitchen.

Natalie froze. The feeling of his lips on hers lingered as he once more turned to the machine to make them their life-changing coffees.

But her life had already changed. And it had nothing to do with coffee.

It took another few minutes for Aiden to wrestle the machine into submission and produce two steaming cups of cappuccino. He put them both on a small tray with little spoons and a bowl of sugar—just in case it was too strong—and they moved into the living room.

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