Page 16 of Liberating Love

My head falls onto the door as I pant, worn out beyond belief. Delaney doesn’t even release my hands as we catch our breath, his forehead rested on the back of my neck, and I find that I don’t mind. In fact, I’m still squeezing his hands so hard, I’ll be surprised if I haven’t broken any of his fingers.

Several minutes pass before he kisses my shoulder a few times and nuzzles into my neck as he releases my hands. He surprises me by wrapping his arms around my chest and holding me tight, his breath hot on my skin. I don’t know what to do, but his warm body feels nice, so I find myself leaning back into him even while resting my forehead on my folded arms.

As his hands slowly run over my abs, he presses another few kisses to my neck and shoulder, then slowly pulls out. I can’t help the wince— he really pounded me, just how I like it—but he doesn’t miss it.

“You okay?” His voice is soft and close to my ear.

I nod.

“Aiden, I need your words.”

With a roll of my eyes, I say, “I’m perfect.”

He leans in to kiss my neck and mutters with amusement in his voice, “Yeah, you are.”

I snort and shake my head as he walks into the kitchen, presumably to throw away the condom. In the few seconds he’s gone, it hits me what I just did. I slept with Delaney. Again.

With Jameson and Jovany’sdad.

I groan and push off the door enough to scrub my hands over my face. What the hell was I thinking? Why did I do that again?

Turning at the sound of footsteps, I see Delaney in all his muscled, toned, stunning-skinned beauty, and I know the answer to my questions. Delaney is a hot, possiblythehottest man I’ve ever seen, certainly the hottest one that I’ve ever slept with. He’s fucking irresistible—obviously, from my current state.

When my eyes finally make their way to his face, I find him smirking at me, and my cheeks burn. Well, clearly he caught me. That’s not mortifying or anything. Rolling my eyes at myself, I turn away from him in search of my clothes.

Delaney walks over, puts two fingers under my chin, and presses a smiling kiss to my lips before backing away. For some reason, that just makes my cheeks blush even more.Good god, man, why are you so flustered right now?

I’d never been so happy to find my pants in my life, and I slide them on immediately.

My cheeks are still flaming, which is stupid since I have more clothes on now than I had a few seconds ago. But I’m frazzled. Why the hell did I do that? Why didn’t I just go home? I could’ve called an Uber as soon as I realized what he wanted. What the hell was I thinking?

As I shrug my t-shirt back on, I check that my phone and wallet are in my pocket, and I can’t even look at him as I mutter, “I’ll, uh, see you later.” I cringe because that was… I dunno, rude? But how else am I supposed to bow out?

“Stay,” Delaney says, his deep voice quiet.

“Wh-what?”

“Stay the night.”

That makes me turn my gaze to him. Is he crazy? “Are you crazy?” As soon as the words pop out, I cringe, but luckily, he only smiles at me, like he finds me amusing or something. I clear my throat and say, “I can’t stay with you, Delaney. That’s not… that’s not what this is.”

“Why?”

My eyes widen as I freeze in place for a moment before coming to my senses. “I have to get home. My mother’s expecting me.” That’s true, but saying that to him makes me feel like I’m a kid still living with my parent instead of her living with me, so I find myself adding, “She’ll worry, and I still have to make her dinner and make sure she takes her meds.” I cringe because I didn’t mean to say that. That’s too much, too personal. Nothing he needs to know about.

His brow furrows—from confusion or concern, I can’t tell—but he nods and says, “Let me drive you home, then.”

“You don’t have to. I’ll get an Uber—”

“Nonsense. Let me grab my coat and keys.”

“Really, you—”

“Aiden,” he cuts me off with a hand on my forearm. “You helped me out today, it’s the least I can do.”

That kinda takes the wind out of my sails, and some of my tension leaves me. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

He shoots me a grin, and once he has his keys, we head out. The drive to my house is a little awkward, mostly on my part because he keeps trying to talk to me, and I’m having trouble responding. My internal freak-out is sorta overtaking my ability to speak. It’s weird as hell having a hook-up drive me home. Hook-up… somehow that doesn’t seem to fit Delaney. I push that thought away because there’sno wayI can go down that road. How does he seem so calm about this when I’m over here about to explode in a ball of anxiety?

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