Page 126 of The Piece You Stole

“This is about your pleasure, Saige. And that means I want all your senses and all your thoughts focused inward. I don’t want you distracted.”

“Seeing wouldn’t be a distraction,” I lie.

He takes his hand away from the towel, leaving it right where it is. And then he waits.

I wait a little longer, too, just to make sure he’s being serious. But when he doesn’t move again, I meet his gaze. “I want to try,” I say, my voice quiet.

He smiles as he nods. “And I want to make you feel nothing but pleasure. The moment that changes, we stop and I leave.”

“Even though this is your room?” I ask.

“Even though,” he admits so seriously that there’s no doubt in my mind he would give me his room if I told him to leave.

My eyes flutter shut, and I let the darkness steal away the possibility of seeing Aden naked.

A soft thump echoes. Just soft enough, it can only be one thing hitting the ground. His towel.

Just a peek. He won’t even notice.

My eyelids flutter.

“No peeking,” Aden warns, a smile in his voice. Hearing it eases a tiny part of me that warns me nothing good can come from making myself vulnerable like this.

A whisper of a touch brushes my right ankle. I jump and nearly wrench my eyes open.

He said I could trust him, but I always trust the wrong people. What if I’m wrong about Aden, too?

Panic creeps through my mind, stiffening every muscle in my body. “I don’t think I can do this,” I say with a tremble in my voice.

Aden’s fingers glide up my right leg. “You don’t have todoanything, Saige.”

He’s moving closer. The mattress springs beside my hip, and I know he’s peering into my face. “Let me give this to you. Something good, something just for you.”

His breath kisses my lips.

I can’t keep my eyes closed, so I flutter them open and peer into his hazel gaze. I wait for him to punish me for breaking the rule, brace myself for it. But he never does. Just smiles down at me.

“See, no hard rules here.”

“I shouldn’t want this.” It hadn’t been what I’d intended to say, but maybe it’s how I truly feel.

I shouldn't want another man to touch me for the rest of my life.

With one rule already broken in record time, I figure why not break another? I lift my hand to touch his stubbled jaw.

He doesn’t remind me of the rules. Does nothing but remain prone, bent over me, as if waiting for me to decide what to say or do.

“But I do. Want this.” I flick my gaze from his lips, back to his eyes. “With you. And I don’t know why.”

He slides his finger along my jaw and down over my throat.

It’s incredible how one touch, one stroke can send such an icy chill through me. Shame comes next, jagged and abrupt, when I think of all the scars he can’t help but notice. How can a man like Aden want anything to do with a girl like me? I pull my hands from his face and move to get up.

But he curves a warm hand around my hip, halting me. "You're beautiful, Saige," he says, a catch in his voice that makes me want to cry. “Every inch of you is beautiful.” His fingers graze my jaw. “Never forget that.”

“I’m just me.”

“You,” he says with added emphasis. “Are special.Youare not just you.”

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