Page 54 of Liberating Love

Aiden stands in the center of the little bathroom with a small smile on his face and glances at the candles. “What’s this?” Everly is more than likely asleep already, but his whisper is a clue that he’s had the time he needs with her and is ready to decompress.

Standing up straight, I take the two steps that separate us and rub my hands from his shoulders down his arms to his hands and hold them in mine. “You never changed out of your uniform. I forget how sexy you are in it.” Aiden snickers as he rolls his eyes, so I tighten my grip on his hands. “I mean it, Freckles. You’re a beautiful man, and in your uniform—” I growl, wrapping my arms around his waist to draw him closer while diving down to nuzzle into his neck, gnawing at the skin there playfully.

It’s hard to take Aiden’s half-hearted protests seriously when his hands clench onto my elbows and his lower body sags into me. “What’s gotten into you?” he asks through a chuckle.

I lean back up so I can see the green twinkling in his eyes in the candlelight. “You’ve been strutting around all official-looking all night and it’s hot.”

He snorts. “You’re being ridiculous. It’s not like you’ve never seen me in it before.”

“True, but we’re not usually alone. It’s kinda hot for a guy like me to have his own man in uniform now.”

The hint of a smile I’d been able to draw from Aiden falls from his face. “A guy like you? If you’re referring to being an ex-con, then stop it. That’s not who you are. You’re the guy who drops everything at a moment’s notice to just show up. You’re the guy who bends over backwards for his family and friends. You’ve made my mom love you”—he sucks in sharp breath—“and you’ve made me love you.”

I’ve heard people say that it feels as if everything stops during pivotal moments in your life, but they’re wrong. With his confession, my universe aligns and the world rights itself under my feet. My heart beats stronger, my vision sharpens, and the rapid staccato of his heart becomes the only sound that matters. Before he can doubt himself, I press my forehead to his. “I love you, too, Freckles. So damn much.”

A self-conscious laugh escapes Aiden’s mouth in a puff of air. “I can’t believe I said that.”

“I’m happy you did. I’ve been waiting to say it so I wouldn’t scare you off, but now that you said it first, I’ll never have to worry that you felt pressured to tell me.”

Even from this close, the tears in Aiden’s eyes are visible. He tilts his head up to press our lips together, then speaks against them, “Thank you for waiting… for me. For pushing patiently.”

I chuckle. “I guess I have been a little pushy.”

“Perfectly pushy.” As he seals his lips back to mine, I take over, pulling him up into my arms like a ragdoll and deepening the kiss. As we write the words of our love onto each other’s tongues, an idea I’ve been toying with solidifies in my mind. Aiden worries about our age difference and I do have more life under my belt, but I have something that I can give him freely that he’ll know he’s the only one I’ve ever wanted this way—allowed to touch me out of true love and desire.

“Wait here.” Dragging my lips from his is about impossible, but this night will only get better.

“What are you doing?” he asks as he reluctantly lets me slip out of his embrace.

“I’m going to run you a nice hot bath so you can relax, then I’m going to slide my hands over every soapy-slick ounce of you, and then we’re going to go back to your room where I’m going to suck my marks into your luscious flesh until you’re a quivering mass of flesh before you make love to me.”

Holding in a laugh at the confusion flitting across his face, I turn and start the water. The tub is almost filled and I’ve stripped Aiden’s clothes off piece by piece as he stood still as a statue. If not for his cheeks filling with color and his cock standing at attention before me, I’d be scared my words broke him. “Do you mean…” he finally begins haltingly, hesitantly.

“Mhmm,” I moan against his belly where I’m making good on my promise to mark him.

“Really?” he asks, wonder entering his tone.

Pulling off his skin with a pop, I caress across the tip of his hard length with my chin while gazing intently into his eyes. “Is that okay?”

A low husky groan rips out of him, and then he side-steps around where I’m kneeling before him and vaults right into the tub, splashing water all over and almost hitting his head on the shower wall on the other side in his haste.

“Slow down. We have all night.”

Aiden gasps. “Not to take a bath we don’t. We need to get in my room.”

Knee-walking to the side of the tub, I pick up the body wash and squirt a dollop in my palm. “But this is supposed to be romantic, I want to bathe you and—”

He silences me with a press of his lips. “Delaney, I appreciate that, but you love me and I love you and today was shit and stressful and horrible, and all I want to do is crawl into bed with you. I will never take your love for granted, because I’ve seen it in your eyes, and I tried to deny it, but I think I’ve known for a while that you love me. But this, to let me take you that way, when it’s your idea, when the only other time was because…” A bright, glorious smile lights up his face. “This is a gift I want to treasure now.”

“But I—”

“Please.”

The softly spoken word chases away my doubts that I’m not taking care of him by not completing my original plan of pampering him. “Okay.” Together we make short work of cleaning and drying him off, blowing out the candles, and running for his room.

His steps falter inside the doorway. “Oh, Delaney. It’s perfect.”

Before waiting for him in the hall, I had shut off the lights in here, too, lit the three pillar candles, turned down the sheets, laid out condoms and lube on one of the pillows on the bed, and set lotion on the bedside table. “Originally I was going to give you a massage, but I guess that’s out for tonight.”

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