Page 39 of Falling for Leanne

“I’m so sorry. To lose your mom and then take over caring for your sister when you were still a kid yourself—” I broke off.

“He wasn’t much good anyway, and when he gave in to the drinking, it was like he just gave up. When I was a senior in high school, he got behind the wheel when he was drunk and luckily, he didn’t hurt anyone else when he got in the accident that killed him,” Aaron shook his head ruefully. “It surprised me that it hit Cory as hard as it did. I hardly missed a beat, but to her, that was her last parent, her last link to a normal life. Even though it hadn’t been normal for a long time, ever since Mom got sick. She had a really hard time for a while.”

“I’m glad she had you to help her through it,” I said, taking his hand.

“I wish I’d done better by her then, but I’ve learned a lot since I was a teenager. I was too strict with her for a long time, and then she stayed with some cousins a lot of the time while I was in college. When I graduated and got a job and started my master’s she moved back in with me full time—she was a junior in high school by then. She wasn’t used to having me around to answer to all the time, and I gave her more freedom than I should have. She was out with her boyfriend a lot. I didn’t like him, but I figured that was because she was my little sister and I’d think no guy was ever good enough for her. Down the line, it was clear that I should’ve listened to my gut on that one.”

“He was bad news?”

“Controlling, emotionally abusive—then physically abusive. She got out two years ago with my help. She’s safe now, and she’s got her life on track. He had such a hold on her, and we’re just so lucky we got her out alive. When she left him the last time, she was—he’d had her on a diet, that was one of the things he controlled. She was down to like 110, and she’s five-eight, looked like she could blow over—hair falling out in clumps, all of it. She cried all the time, kept apologizing to me like she’d let me down, and that was when she talked at all. She’d go days without saying a word at first. She’d learned the hard way not to speak up. It’s been a long road.”

Aaron scrubbed his hands over his face. “Biggest regret of my life. It wouldn’t matter what I did, building a gym, winning awards, supporting charities. If it meant Cory was safe, I’d give it all up in a heartbeat and never look back.”

The way he talked about his sister tore me up inside. I was even more sure than ever that he was one in a million, the kind of man you could look for your whole life and never find.

“You’re one of the good guys, Aaron Parks,” I said softly. Then I took his hand again and squeezed, then held it in both of mine, picked it up and kissed the knuckles just once. “She’s okay. You took care of her. What matters is she knew she could come to you, and you’d keep her safe. Think about how young you were when you took over as her parent—when I was sixteen, I got in trouble for putting pink streaks in my hair in the bathroom without permission. That’s the kind of good judgment teenagers have. And you were taking care of a whole fifth grader at that age!” I said. “You are such an amazing man, Aaron. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

“I think you’re giving me too much credit. Maybe you’re flattering me because you want an excuse to hold my hand,” he teased. “Since I answered a personal question about my parents—and told you all about my sister—can I ask you one? What happened with your mom?” he inquired.

I took a big breath.

“I never talk about that. If it was anybody else but you, I’d change the subject. But I know I can trust you, and I think I want you to know. I don’t really know what happened with my mom, to tell you the truth. She left us, left me for the last time when I was seven. She’d taken off before, for a week or two, but she’d come back.”

“Did you know where she went?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No, there was never any warning, she’d just be gone. I’d be so sad and confused, even when she came back. She had long red hair, and she drank Diet Coke and she listened to a lot of Michael Jackson. It’s probably why I don’t like his music, I never have. What I remember is that she was always more interested in something else—her hair, a magazine, a phone call—anything but me. That’s what it seemed like.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. Aaron reached over and brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I don’t understand how anyone could leave you,” he said.

Looking up, I met his eyes. The closeness I felt with him, the intimacy of the things we’d shared with each other in the last couple of hours—it was overwhelming. So was the urge to reach for him. I stood up and pushed my hair back behind my ears, trying to act normal, not get overly emotional and start kissing him or something.

Aaron saved me the trouble. Before I knew it, his arms were around me. He’d pulled me hard into his chest, my head bent back over his arm, his mouth on mine. The hot thrill of his kiss was all-consuming. My fingers sifted through his hair, holding on to him as his tongue slid into my mouth. I whimpered when he covered my breast with his big hand. When I arched into his touch, he pinched my nipple lightly, sending a jab of desire straight down my body, making me instantly wet. We kissed, a long, sensual dance of tongues and lips and teeth. At last, he slid an arm around my waist and sat back on his chair, drawing me into his lap.

I planted my knees on either side of his thighs and rose up. His hands swept up under my shirt, making long, hot strokes up and down my skin. My hands on his shoulders, I met his gaze, breathless and needy.

“Please, Aaron,” I said, “just this once. There’s no one here to know.”

His mouth on my nipple, licking and sucking, gave me my answer. When his palms slid up my thighs, I was happy that I’d changed out of my workout stuff and into a sundress for our meeting. There were no shorts to wrestle off in an awkward position. Just the skirt to push up. In seconds, his finger had drawn aside my panties and sunk into my slippery folds with a groan. I bent and kissed his mouth. With a swift jerk of his hand, he’d torn my panties off. I tossed my head back and laughed at the abandon, the wild romance of the moment. Reaching between us, I grabbed the waistband of his running shorts, and he lifted his hips so I could tug them down out of the way. My dress still on, skirt pooling over his lap, I positioned myself over him.

Aaron took charge, his big hands gripping my bare hips beneath my dress. He drew me forward and down so quickly that I had to steady myself by grabbing the top of the chair he sat in. In the space between two heartbeats, he was within me.

His hot, velvety cock, hard as steel, buried in my yielding flesh. He held me against him, an arm going around me while the other hand guided my movements, helping me pick up his desperate rhythm. My forehead tipped against his, our breath coming hard and fast as I rocked on top of him. Aaron filled me so completely, stretching me to my limits, making me feel wild and protected at once.

Aaron hitched his hips upward, thrusting and rocking in just the right way, striking a secret place inside me that made my vision blur, my breath break as I held on to him for dear life. He wrapped me in his arms, anchoring me against his strong, unyielding body as he drove into me again and again. My head fell back, and I rode him, my pelvis jerking forward instinctively to make the sensation more intense until I screamed his name while he thrust himself inside me to the hilt and called out my name in passion.

He gave me such exhilaration as I came apart in his arms, our steamy, swift coupling leaving us both filmed in sweat and grinning as I collapsed onto his chest. My whole body tingled and trembled with the aftermath of such ecstasy. His mouth was on my cheekbone and my forehead, my jaw, my lips. He gave me the sweetest, sexiest kisses as I slowly came back down from my peak. I started to slide off of his lap, self-conscious, when he held me there stubbornly.

“No, don’t move. I like you where you’re at,” he said, his voice low and rough. He nuzzled my neck in a sensitive spot that made me feel another rush of arousal already.

“What are we doing, Aaron?” I asked, voicing the concern I’d been trying not to mention.

“We’re playing with fire, Lee. But we won’t get burned. Not if I have anything to say about it,” he said, kissing my lips in a slow, tender slide until I sighed, replete with pleasure, and then he parted my lips and French kissed me so thoroughly that I swear I felt it right down to my bones.

“I know we can’t—” I said, breathless, trying to be responsible.

“Not right now. When the semester is over, we can. We’ll be careful until then. It’s only a few more weeks. It’ll be torture, but you’re worth the wait. That is, if you want to be with me,” he said.

“If? If I want to be with you? Aaron,” I laughed. “As if there were any way Iwouldn’twant to be with you. You’re all I’ve wanted ever since the day I looked you up on LinkedIn because I didn’t know who my new professor was.”

---