Page 47 of His to Cherish

My bare feet padded across the distressed floor until I was standing in front of him.

His eyes widened when I stopped and looked at the hand around his beer, the other loose at his side.

I did what I’d wanted to do for weeks. I rolled onto my toes, needing the height to get close to him, and my hands moved up his arms until they were at his shoulders.

Then I wrapped my arms around him, pushed forward, and entangled my fingers behind his neck.

My head fell to his chest. I felt his breath catch and he stiffened for a moment before he seemed to give in. The arm at his side wrapped around my lower back. His other hand left his beer on the counter and wrapped around the back of my shoulders, and his head fell to the top of mine.

I squeezed.

He squeezed me harder.

Then I did what I’dreallybeen dying to do: I unclasped my hands until I was slowly running my fingers through his hair.

He shifted, somehow giving me a better angle to be able to run my fingers gently along his neck and through the back of his hair. His thick beard scraped across my forehead.

Shivers danced down my arms and my spine like happy little leprechauns, celebrating finding the pot of gold.

It felt so wonderful. He felt perfect.

And he let me hold him until I let go. He held on for a moment more before I pulled back. When he was still close, my hands still on the back of his neck, I leaned up as far as I could and brushed my lips against his cheek.

“I am sorry,” I whispered softly. He tensed, but I keep going. “He was a great kid. One of the best, and I miss him. The kids at school miss him, and we’ll all miss him for a long, long time.”

His arms left my back and my shoulders, and his hands moved to my neck.

I swallowed, startled by the strength I knew he carried in his hands. Not that he’d hurt me, but he pressed me back until I was on my heels and his eyes stared into mine.

They bored into me like he was trying to find a hidden message, a secret, but I wasn’t holding anything back from Aidan. I didn’t want to. I wanted him to see all of me, and, when he was ready, I wanted him to want me.

Speckled honey dotted the brightest green eyes I’d ever seen and I stayed still, my breath coming in short pants.

Then he leaned forward and my breath stopped.

Softly and slowly, his thumbs tightened under my jaw, and his lips moved closer.

His tongue darted out, licking his lips, while he kept his eyes wide open, fixed on me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

I could only hope that he did what I thought he was going to do.

It wasn’t nearly enough, but I took it.

Because when his slightly wet lips gently brushed against mine just once before he pulled back, I swore I could taste the hint of forever in his barely there kiss.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.

I silently commanded my heart to resume beating before I passed out in his arms in my kitchen.

Thankfully my heart listened. The beat returned at an increased speed and Aidan let me go.

I stood there for a moment, watched him return to his beer and take another long swallow, and then I willed my feet to move to the stove, where his noodles were most likely burning to the bottom of the pot.

—

I was quite possibly the most comfortable I had ever been in my life.

One of Aidan’s muscled arms was under my neck and wrapped around my back, and he was holding me so my front was pressed to his side, my head resting on his shoulder. My hands were clasped together and beneath my cheek, even though I really wanted to let one of them drape across the naked abs I’d been staring at for the last ten minutes.

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