Page 87 of No More Heartbreakers

“Heidi, oh God, I’m not going to be able to hold on,” he moaned.

Listening to him and looking down at his abdomen, at his hip as he pumped steadily, working deeper into me, his muscles moving powerfully under the tanned, smooth skin, the sweet pressure built again, rising so quickly it stole my breath.

When Aric dropped to one elbow and lowered his mouth to my breast, I arched upward to push the aching tip further into his mouth.

It took only one swirling ice-cream-cone lick and the tension exploded, the pleasure overwhelming in its intensity. My legs locked, my body coming up off the bed and slamming into him.

There may have been screaming.

Aric caught and muffled the sounds with his mouth, kissing me and somehow smiling at the same time. Then he lifted his head and thrust upward in one last powerful drive and every muscle in his body went rigid.

He made possibly the most erotic sound ever produced by a human being, sort of a repressed roar, held his position for a few seconds, and his body went slack, collapsing over me. He was propped on his elbows, but just barely.

He let his head drop over my shoulder and planted a kiss behind my ear, breathing hard.

“That. Was. Incredible,” he whispered.

Incredibledidn’t even begin to cover it for me. Aric had just made an irrefutable case that I’d want and need him not just for now—but forever.

TWENTY-TWO

Declaration

Aric rolled off me and pulled me to his side.

Dropping a kiss on top of my head, he let out a long, satisfied breath and tightened his hold, as if afraid I might bolt from the bed and escape.

He needn’t have worried. I had no desire to be anywhere else.

We lay together in the dim lamplight, my head in the crook of his shoulder, my arm wrapped around his waist, one leg tucked between his.

My body weighed four hundred pounds as I sank into him and the mattress, wearing the deeply satisfied smile of someone who’s just experienced hands-down the best sex of her life.

I’d onlythoughtJason had known what he was doing.

My bad.

After a few minutes, Aric’s breath grew slow and even. I lifted my head to see if he was sleeping. His face was still flushed and severely beautiful.

His eyes opened. He gave me a slightly drunken looking smile. “Finally,” he breathed.

“What? Did I take too long?”

“No.” He laughed, stroking my hair with one hand. “Hardly. It’s that—I’ve been picturing this moment with you since the night we met. This moment and all the ones leading up to it, starting from about, oh, forty minutes ago.”

Aric played gently with my fingers on his chest, while the other hand sifted through my hair. “Thank God you finally came around. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out.”

I lay my head down again, listening to his heart and the rhythm of his breathing as it deepened and stretched out in the quiet room. I’d actually started to doze when I heard his whisper.

“I love you, Heidi.”

I froze.Oh my God. Oh sugar.I forced my muscles to relax again.

“You don’t have to say that, you know. You already got lucky,” I whispered back, trying to turn it into a joke.

Aric lifted up onto one elbow and looked down into my eyes. “I know,” he said, still completely serious.

He glided a fingertip lightly down my cheek and jaw to my chin. “I’m sorry if you’re not ready to hear it yet, but it would still be true whether I said it or not. And I wanted to say it.”

---