Page 56 of Northern Stars

He lowered himself to kneel before me as if he was in a state of worship. That was exactly what he did, too. He worshipped every single inch of my body, running his hands over them, telling me why he loved my stomach, why he craved my thighs, why my face was what he dreamed up whenever he was lonely, how my body was a temple, and how if he could, he’d pray to said temple for the remainder of his life.

When we covered all my insecurities, he laid me in my bed. My heart pounded as I kissed him long and hard. The tabloids, the strangers, the kids at school—they all began to fade from my mind. At that moment, it was just him and me. At that moment, all I wanted, all I ever wanted, was for Aiden to stay with me.

As we kissed, I removed his shirt. His pants came off next. As his body pressed against mine, he paused and locked his blue eyes with my brown. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

“Scared,” I confessed.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Me too. We don’t have to do this, Hails. We can wait and do other things, or we can just go to sleep and I can hold you.”

I shook my head. “No. I just… just be scared with me, okay? We’ll be scared and nervous together.”

“Okay. Yes?” he asked against my lips for what was to come next.

I nodded my head and held him closer. “Yes.”

Once he had his permission, I was swept away in his embrace. It was a first for us both. Every time he touched me, I became tethered to his soul. Every emotion rushed through me as I made love to my best friend for the first time ever.

Fear.

Excitement.

Pain.

Bliss.

Happiness.

So much happiness.

I cried because it felt so right. He felt so good. He felt… like mine.

I made love to him after he soothed every insecurity and shut off the outside noise for a little while. How could I not? He was my haven in a very hard world.

That night, I gave him every piece of me, and he gave me even more of himself.

18

Aiden

Lose your V card.

That went over well… again, and again, and again. Still, even though Hailee and I were doing well together, I worried about her.

Since everything went down with the tabloids over the past few weeks, she’d been saying she was fine, but I had a hard time believing her. My overprotective nature with Hailee was surreal. Whenever I had to leave town for work, I felt as if I was leaving her to be an open target for the jerks at school. She seemed to be taking it the best she possibly could, though.

Each day, it seemed that we were falling more and more into one another.

We had routines that we did together. Since I was getting in shape for an upcoming role opportunity, I was in the gym each morning, and Hailee started joining me each day. She’d look good as hell working out, and half the time, I wasn’t hitting my goals because I was too focused on her hitting her own.

For the most part, we fell into our relationship with nothing but ease. The only drama that seemed to come toward us was from others who had no business being involved in our business. People didn’t stop bullying Hailee, though. She told me it didn’t bother her, but I could tell it did.

I became hyper-focused on her and everything she did. Every day during lunch, she’d make small comments about counting calories or how wild it was that something had so many grams of carbohydrates in it. After lunch each day, I’d walk her to her next class, but I noticed after leaving her, she’d go around the corner to the bathroom instead of going into her class.

At the gym, she pushed herself too hard to the point of concern.

“We should get going so we can get ready for school,” I told her one morning. We both were dripping in sweat, and I was beyond exhausted. Hailee went ten times harder than I had that morning.

“Let’s get in a fast run on the treadmill before we head out.”

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