The Spanish Love Deception: A Novel

Ignited. That was exactly how I felt.

It was what Aaron had done to me. He had lit me up. Unraveled something that, I realized now, had been humming beneath my skin for a long time.

Everything rioting deep inside of me hadn’t been shaped out of just a few moments or an impossibly loud physical connection. What caused this uprising had already been there, buried. I had kept it submerged under the weight of buts, fears, and doubts. Pushed down by my own stubbornness too. But now that it had burst out, resurfacing and streaming out of me, mixed with need and want and something that was exhilarating and absolutely terrifying, I knew that I had reached a point of no return. I wouldn’t be able to push it down, shove it aside, or ignore it any longer.

And I didn’t think I wanted to.

Not after having a taste of what could be mine. And I wasn’t talking just about Aaron’s lips. For the first time since we had landed in Spain, every touch, look, smile, or word was real. After that kiss, every time Aaron grazed my arm with the back of his hand, it was because he wanted to. Every time he brushed a kiss on my shoulder, it was because he wasn’t capable of helping himself. And every time he gathered me close and whispered something in my ear, it wasn’t because my family was looking and we had a role to play. It was because he wanted me to hear how beautiful he thought I looked and how lucky he felt to have me in his arms.

We danced for hours, this time with nothing hanging over our heads, and I kissed that smile that was only for me. More than once. I simply couldn’t help myself.

Tonight, I had decided I’d stay in our bubble and deal with what awaited in New York when we got there. Tonight was ours.

Aaron closed the door of the room behind him, and I couldn’t help but stare at him from my position at the end of the bed. We had just gotten to the apartment, and I had decided to give a rest to my wobbly legs and hurting feet while he fetched some water from the kitchen.

One of his arms was behind his back, making me tilt my head with curiosity. He smiled, and when he revealed what was in his hand, I almost screamed at him to stop going after my poor, weak heart. Because it wouldn’t survive.

A doughnut, glazed and filled with chocolate cream. They had served them as a snack late in the night. And I had probably eaten more than I should have.

“Aaron Blackford,” I said, feeling as if something were being squashed in the middle of my chest. “Did you smuggle doughnuts out of the wedding in your pocket?”

His smile turned into a grin. A bashfully, unassumingly handsome grin. And my poor heart squeezed some more. “I knew you’d be hungry.”

“I am,” I admitted, my voice sounding all wrong. “Thank you.”

He strode across the room and placed the doughnut on a napkin on top of the dresser. I took the chance to tell my heart to chill the hell out before it was too late and we both went down.

Aaron turned, as if he knew I needed one more minute to gather myself. But instead of doing that, I gawked at his back. Watched how he shed himself of his suit jacket and delicately placed it on the only chair in the room. Dangerous thoughts started piling up in my head, traveling to the bottom of my stomach. When Aaron finally faced me, just as he was undoing the knot of his tie, those dangerous, reckless thoughts were probably displayed all over my face.

Our gazes connected, and an uncontrollable blush rose up my neck, reaching my cheeks. Ironic, how I had been devouring his lips hours ago, and now, a simple look turned me inside out.

Restless and flushed, I averted my gaze and leaned, reaching for my right foot. My fingers were clumsy as they worked at the strap of the beautiful yet painful high-heeled shoe. Exhaling with frustration, I fumbled with the thin band tied around my ankle for an embarrassing amount of time.

I sensed Aaron coming closer, right to where I was, sitting on the bed as I unsuccessfully tried to untie the clasps of my right heel. If he found my predicament funny or ridiculous, he didn’t say. Instead, he knelt on the floor in front of me and placed his palm over my hands, bringing my attempts to a halt.

“Let me,” he said. “Please.”

I did. I was beginning to understand that I’d let him do about anything if he asked.

Aaron’s strong fingers unclasped the fine straps and slowly slipped the shoe off. Killing me with a tenderness I would never—not in a lifetime—have enough of. His hand captured my foot, placing it on top of his thigh. Only that gesture, the contact of my sole on his leg, had the power to undo me.

And it did. It cracked me wide open as Aaron’s fingers slid to my ankle, kneading and easing the tension away as they went, robbing me of my breath.

Those hands. What those hands could do to me if the simplicity of what he was doing sent bolts of electricity up my legs, straight to that neglected point low in my belly.

The enemy that my own mind could sometimes be decided that this was a good moment to remind me that it had been a long time since I had been intimate with someone. And Aaron … well, one just needed to take a look at him to know that he probably had more experience than me. Anybody would. I had barely dated after Daniel and—

“Relax.” A deep voice jerked me back to the moment. Aaron’s fingers were still delicately rubbing my right ankle, softening the stiff muscles. “I don’t expect a single thing from you tonight, Catalina.” He looked up at me, our gazes meeting. There was only earnestness in the blue of his eyes. “Earlier, when I kissed you, I let myself get carried away. Came on a little too strong, and I apologize.”

My lips parted, but nothing came out.

“You have to say something, baby. You are very quiet, and that’s starting to freak me out.”

Baby. That baby did things to me. I liked it. Far too much.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” I tried really hard to swallow all those stupid insecurities. “So, don’t apologize, please.” I looked into his eyes. “You were perfect. You … really are.”

That last part left my lips as nothing more than a whisper.

The blue in Aaron’s eyes simmered, darkened with determination. It did for a moment that stretched and stretched until he cleared his throat and resumed his work.

Turning to my other foot, he repeated the process, leaving the left stiletto where the other one rested on the floor. He massaged my left heel, his fingertips making their way up my ankle too. And only after he finished kneading the muscles and tendons there, he spoke, “All set. Let’s get you out of that dress, and you’ll be ready for bed.”

And that was what did it.

His unassuming words, the tenderness with which he had bared my feet and the way he looked up at me from his position on the floor, as if his only goal here was making sure I was cared for. All of it broke something inside of me.

I swore I even heard the cracking sound, slicing the silence in the room in two.

“No.”

His back straightened, his gaze rising until eye-level with me.

“Then, tell me.” His jaw hardened. “Tell me what you want.”

Instead of voicing it, I reached out and placed my hand on the nape of his neck. I pulled, attempting to bring him closer. And Aaron let me, allowing me to show him where I needed him. Our faces were mere inches away. My memory of the taste of his lips was almost too powerful for me to resist him any longer.

Still on his knees, Aaron inched closer. Placing his torso between my thighs and his hands on each of my sides. Right next to my hips.

“What else?”

I could hear the need in his voice. I could almost taste it.

Unable to stop myself, my fingertips pulled at the strands of raven hair at his neck. You, I told him with that tug, incapable to articulate a word.

“I need to hear you say it,” he breathed into my lips. Not closing the gap, still not sealing it.

My other hand landed on his upper arm, and I noticed immediately how those toned muscles bunched beneath the fabric of his shirt, constrained. As if he was physically stopping himself from coming closer. My gaze traveled down his arm, all the way to his hand, discovering he was fisting the comforter right beside my hip.

“Tell me what you want,” he repeated, his voice almost breaking.

“You,” I rasped out, a dam breaking. “I want anything you’re willing to give me.” I needed him to inch closer, to eat the space between us and make it disappear. To come on top of me until blurring the outlines of our bodies. “It’s you I want.”

Never in my life had I imagined breathless words like mine would be the key to something so powerful. A growl escaped Aaron’s body, his eyes turning feral. Hunger like I had never witnessed—not even earlier, when we had kissed—burrowed itself in Aaron’s features, giving way to a pained expression.

“I’ll give you the world,” he said against my mouth. “The moon. The fucking stars. Anything you ask, it’s yours. I’m yours.”

And then my world exploded. Aaron’s mouth was against mine, nothing soft about the branding contact. He parted my lips, his tongue plunging inside, while his hands slowly trailed up my back.

He pulled me to him, leaving my ass resting on the edge of the bed. My legs went around his waist, a little too high to make the contact I craved the most—that I knew would make me see those stars he had just promised me.

My head spun out of control, the feel of his strong body between my thighs overwhelming, intoxicating, provoking. I wanted to stay right here forever—with Aaron on his knees and my body wrapped around him. With his lips against mine. His hands in my hair.

No. I wanted more than that, but I needed all these clothes to go away first.

Aaron pulled me closer into his chest, making my body churn, looking for the friction I ached for.

Without breaking the kiss or his hold on my body, he stood up on strong legs, taking me up with him. Holding my legs around his waist, he positioned me exactly where I was coming out of my skin for him to be, sending a twirl of pleasure through every cell in my body at the maddening sensation of having his hardness nestled between my thighs. The warmth of his hands on my ass seeped through the clothing of my dress, the heat of his length throbbing against my center. Hot, so hot that my skin burned.

In two strides, Aaron had me against the wall. He rocked against my center, just once, and it ripped a pained whimper out of me.

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he gritted out against my lips, his body stiff and rocklike beneath my hands. “Tell me what’s okay for me to do.”

Pushing his hips into me to hold me against the wall and bringing to my sight a starry sky of delirium, he dragged his hands up my sides. Stopping when he reached the swell of my breasts, his long fingers grazed the thin cloth covering them.

“Does this feel good, baby?” he rasped.

Nodding my head, I arched my back, pushing them against his hands. Hands that didn’t waste a second in accepting my offering. Aaron kneaded my breasts leisurely, his thumb grazing over the fabric that covered my nipples. That urge of shredding my dress off my body returned with a vengeance. And I had to physically fight my hands from exposing my skin, so he’d touch me. Not the stupid gown. Me, me. Just me.

As if he had just read my mind, Aaron’s hands flew to my shoulders. He took ahold of the straps of my dress, playing delicately with the fine material before asking, “Can I bring these down?”

His watchfulness, his never-ending diligence at making sure I was comfortable, kept tearing at something inside my chest—something I was afraid that once brought down, wouldn’t crystallize back into the same ever again.

“Yes,” I told him. Hearing the urgency in my voice.

Catching me completely off guard, instead of bringing the straps down, Aaron’s hands slid to my waist, dislodging me from his body. He deposited me on the floor, and my fingertips drifted from his neck to his chest at the difference in height.

Frowning at the loss, I looked up. Aaron’s soft chuckle and radiant smile barely registered when those two large palms that rested on my hips turned me around. Briskly.

My hands fell flat on the wall.

His breath caressed the back of my neck, launching a riot of shivers to gallop down my body. Strong fingers reached for the zipper of my dress, just above the small of my back. He brought it down, my underwear peeking out, if I recalled correctly how low that zipper went.

I felt myself swallow, just as I heard a strangled sound leaving Aaron.

His fingers slowly trailed up my spine, a flock of tingles taking flight. When he reached the straps at my shoulders, he pulled them down. The dress slid down my body and pooled on the floor, leaving me in nothing but my panties. And, God, I had never been happier about wearing a dress with a built-in bra.

Looking over my shoulder at him, I found a troubled expression marring his handsome face. Unconsciously, my body tried to turn, but Aaron’s arms came around me. One hand landed on my stomach while the other went to my hip. He pulled me into him, the heat of his whole body on my bare back, overrunning my senses.

His chin dipped, falling on my shoulder. “Give me a minute,” he breathed into my ear.

After a few seconds of neither of us moving an inch, just taking it all in, I felt his lips on my neck.

“I’m trying to take this slow, Lina. I swear I am,” he continued, his hand drifting up my stomach. His thumb grazed the skin of my breast. “But you are driving me right out of my mind.”

That fingertip brushed over my nipple, eliciting a deep moan out of me. Earning me one of his in return. The hand that rested on my hip slid down to my thigh, close to the edge of my panties. Just a few inches from the point where all this heat running through my body gathered.

“I’m dying to learn every inch of skin on your body.” He took my nipple between his index and thumb and pulled softly.

I whimpered, demolished. Devastated.

“To memorize you.” His voice danced with the same desperation rushing down my belly. “Do you want that?”

“Yes.” My voice sounded brittle, just as much as my sanity if he denied me. “I need you to touch me.”

Aaron grumbled, his chest rumbling with the sound. My hands flew back, landing on his shoulders and arching my body for his taking.

His arm pulled me closer, my backside flush against him.

He rocked his hips, and then his hand trailed up and down my thigh. “Open up for me,” he demanded into my neck while pushing my legs open with his knee from behind, widening my stance so it granted him easier access. “Let’s finally see how wet you are.”

His fingers snuck under the edge of my panties, grazing the hair and skin there and making my legs wobble at the pleasure of the powerful contact. Aaron’s hold on my hip tightened, pulling my back against his hard length, and I felt it pulsating against my skin, even through the fabric of his pants. Continuing his path, his fingers finally reached my wet folds, pressing for just an instant and then gliding down slowly.

My lips parted as a moan climbed out of my body. I hadn’t been this wet or turned on in my entire life.

“Fuck.” Aaron’s curse wasn’t more than a rasp. “Is this all for me?”

If I’d managed to whimper an affirmative reply, I couldn’t know. I just guessed that whatever my answer had been, it satisfied Aaron. Because his fingers moved up and down my folds, coating everything in my pleasure, turning my blood into molten lava.

“If I slide my fingers inside your pussy, I’m going to lose control,” he told me in a deep and inky voice. A warning, a promise. “Is that something you are ready for?” His thumb started circling my clit, almost bringing me to my knees.

My back arched. “Aaron.”

His voice lowered even further. “That’s not an answer, baby.” His fingers increased their pace, making me light-headed. “Do you want me to get you off and hold you until you fall asleep?” His other hand rose to my breast, teasing my nipple. “Or do you want me to claim it with my cock?”

So commanding and yet so fucking thoughtful. Cherishing me, ravishing me. He was everything I needed. Everything my body craved and my heart had been missing.

For what I would soon learn was the last time tonight, I told him what he’d demanded to hear. The truth that I had kept under key deep inside. “I’m ready, Aaron.” I brought my hand to his, which was partly covered by my panties. “Take me. All of me.” I tightened my hold on him and pressed both our hands against my center. “Claim me.”

Aaron didn’t lose any time. One of his fingers slid inside me in one swift motion, a moan forming in the depths of my chest at the blissful invasion.

God. It had been so long since nothing but my own fingers had been there.

“You are drenched, baby. All for me.” Aaron kept thrusting inside, adding a second finger and bringing bright little spots to the backs of my eyes. “All of you, mine.”

Something started unraveling, cracking me wide open. Tilting my body toward the edge. “Aaron. This … this is too much.”

Panting. I was panting as I lost control over my own body.

“It’s not too much. This is what real feels like,” he murmured against my neck as his other hand grazed one of my breasts.

I was so close to toppling over. A million different sorts of sensations cascaded down my body, spreading from every point where Aaron was touching me. Tattooing my skin. The way he thrust his fingers inside of me. Or how he played with the tips of my breasts. The rocking of his hips against my backside, in sync with the plunging of his hand. It was all too much. Too much.

“That’s it. I can feel your pussy gripping my fingers.” His words pushed me a little closer to the edge. Every single second of this blissful torture blinding me with more pleasure. “Ride them, baby. Come on them.”

And I did. Oh God, I did. I tipped over the edge. My head went spinning; my limbs were robbed of all strength. And while I moaned and whimpered senseless words mixed with Aaron’s name, his fingers kept driving inside of me. Dragging it out, walking me through it, until eventually slowing down and coming to a stop over my still-pulsating center.

After what could have been a couple of seconds or a few minutes, Aaron extricated his fingers from me. Tipping my head to the side, I looked up because I wanted to see his face. His handsome face and ocean-blue eyes. I found him gazing down at me with a smile that was new. It was one that I had never seen. One mixed with hunger and need and something else. Something more powerful than all that.

As I eyed him, probably with a spent and blissful look on my face, I watched how he lifted the fingers that had been inside of me moments ago and introduced them inside his mouth. His eyes closed, and his face contorted into an expression I would never forget. An expression that would be branded in my mind for the rest of my goddamn life and that would haunt me in the wet dreams I’d start having now.

Aaron grunted, opening his eyes back and finding mine. “I could come only with your taste. With you in my arms like this.”

So primal, so basic, so hot.

I couldn’t begin to articulate an answer, to move. He must have seen that because one of his arms went below my legs and the other one around my back. Picking me up from the floor, he carried me to the bed and placed me on the top of the velvety linen.

Aaron stood to one side of the bed, his fingers flying at the buttons of his shirt.

One of them unclasped, his chest peeking out of the fabric. My hands itched to touch him. That was what tore through my absorption. I wouldn’t let him get that away from me. I wanted the privilege of undressing him. Crawling across the bed as my gaze zeroed in on that next button, I made my way to him. Straightening on my knees when I reached him.

“I want to do this.” My hands replaced his, taking infinite pleasure in every little button that came undone under my fingers. One by one, I worked down his torso. Feeling how Aaron’s chest swayed up and down, his breath coming in and out heavily. When I was done, I shed him of his shirt, discarding it to the floor.

If I had thought his chest was flawless the day I had seen it for the first time, now—with everything else, with every powerful emotion humming under my skin—it was simply heavenly. My palms landed on the taut skin, and I was catapulted straight into heaven.

My fingertips memorized every mount and valley, every inch of skin that seemed to have been sculpted in stone. Tight, smooth, glorious.

All of him for me.

Grazing my nails down his chest, I reached his stomach. Aaron shivered under my touch. Not satisfied, I slid my fingers further down, following the thin line of dark hair. Enthralled, my gaze devoured every one of my motions. God, there wasn’t enough time in a lifetime for me to get tired of this sight. Of him under my hands.

Reaching the button of his pants, I looked up. Just in time to watch Aaron’s jaw bunching, the blue in his eyes glazing. My fingertips brushed lower, feeling him thick and hot through the dark fabric of his suit. He grunted, pushing his hips up into my hands.

My knees wobbled under my weight, my head lighter as I grazed my palm over him.

Aaron’s head dipped, his lips falling on my temple, brushing a kiss there. His hands came up and landed on top of mine. Fumbling with the button together, we undid it. Next was the zipper, and I …

Hesitated. Froze.

Even if I felt like I would implode if I didn’t bring that zipper down, I hesitated. My fingers shook with the thought.

We are doing this. And fuck … this feels like more than sex. It feels like so much more.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Aaron whispered against my temple.

Looking up, I searched his face. How could I tell him that all my bravado had somehow died? That my hands shook with need but that I realized I didn’t really know what I was doing? What we were doing?

Aaron released a breath, his jaw setting with decision. Something clicked behind his eyes.

He took both my hands in his and placed them above his chest. “My heart is beating a million miles an hour too. Do you feel that?”

I nodded my head, some of my fear dissipating.

Then, he brought my hands against his hard length. “Do you feel this too, Lina? Do you feel how hard I am in my pants?” He punctuated both his questions by thrusting his hips into my palms.

I exhaled through my nose at the throbbing contact.

“Yes. It’s all because of you. It’s you who makes my cock this hard. And it’s you who makes my heart want to plunder out of my chest with a brief touch or a simple look. But it’s nothing to be scared of. We are in this together, remember?”

His words fueled something inside of me, unearthing the need from beneath my sudden insecurities. My doubts. My fears.

I dipped my head, placing a kiss above his heart. “We are.” Then, my hand moved over the fabric of his pants, palming his length. Very slowly.

Aaron groaned, and I felt his lips falling on my temple again. He placed an encouraging kiss there. “Take me out.”

I obliged. I was at his mercy. I’d do anything if he asked. So, I unzipped his pants, zeroing in on the bulge contained in his boxers. Following his demand, I slid down both his pants and underwear. Just enough so his length sprang free. My fingers circled him, giving him one single stroke.

A strangled sound emerged from Aaron’s body. “Jesus, that feels so good.”

Stroking him once again, I relished in the feel of his cock between my fingers, smooth and hard, throbbing under my touch. I wondered how it’d feel under my tongue. Following my hasty impulse, I leaned down, hearing Aaron’s gasp at my sudden change in position. I placed my lips on his shaft, circling him then with my mouth, making contact with my tongue.

God. All the blood in my body pooled down in my center, my need pulsating and piercing every one of my senses.

Taking hold of my hair, Aaron pulled delicately. “Baby.” He tugged at my hair again. This time, his hips reared back, just enough to make me stop. “I want this—I do—but I’m not going to come in your mouth tonight.”

Moving his hands to my shoulders, he pulled me up. In a deliriously swift move, he had me on my back. In another one, he got rid of his pants and boxers.

Aaron is naked.

Every single thing about him was solid and delectable. Big. Powerful. Perfect.

And all for me.

My breath hitched at the thought.

Hungry blue eyes, which I would gladly get lost in, swiped up and down my body as I lay on the bed. Just as I wanted to learn by heart the lines delineating his flexed arms and chest, memorize that jutting thickness that had me licking my lips, commit to memory those powerful thighs that had always driven me crazy. I wanted to tattoo all of it in my mind. Keep it forever.

Aaron walked to his toiletry bag, which rested atop the small dresser in front of the bed, and grabbed a foil package.

Walking up to the bed, he let the condom fall on top of the covers, right beside me. I followed all his movements, enthralled, unable to move myself.

Looking down at me with burning intensity, Aaron brought his hand to his length and pumped his hardness. One hard pump.

“I don’t know how I’m going to take this slow,” he rasped, giving his cock another rough and hard thrust with his fist.

“Then, don’t,” I begged, eating up the image before me. Stopping myself from pouncing on him. “Don’t take it slow. I want all of you. All around me. Inside of me. Everywhere.”

Before my own words registered, Aaron was on top of me, his mouth devouring mine. Devouring me. His hips between my open legs, which I had wrapped around his waist. His pulsating thickness nestled against me.

“These need to come off. Now,” Aaron grated in my ear as his fingers fumbled with the flimsy fabric of my panties.

Next thing I knew, they were on the floor, and Aaron was settled between my thighs once more, nothing between us. Right where I needed him. Where he seemed to belong. He went on his knees, granting me the view of his large and hard body.

The pace of my breath increased. My blood swirled.

Reaching for the condom, he ripped open the foil and rolled it down his length, his eyes remaining on mine.

“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, lying right there. All for me.” His gaze softened, reaching into my heart and pulling something out, leaving a little hole behind. One that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to fill again.

Aaron bent down, his lips falling somewhere beside my hip, grazing the skin all the way to the junction of my thighs. He placed a kiss there. Then another one. And another one. He grunted and then dipped lower, as if he couldn’t help himself, his tongue delving into my center.

The contact was brief, but it sent my senses flying, a moan breaking out of me.

Pleasure erupted out of that point. Spreading out like electricity, snapping every nerve ending in my body.

Aaron’s reaction was immediate, his whole body coming alive, bustling. His lips made its way up my body, leaving a trail of charring kisses. Brushing soft kisses along my jaw, neck, and shoulders. And when his weight finally settled over me, I could only reach for his face with my hands. Bringing him to my mouth, I kissed him. Slowly but intently. Leaving both of us panting.

“Aaron,” I whispered between heavy breaths, “is this real?” I couldn’t believe it; it felt like a dream. Like I would wake up at any moment.

Aaron looked into my eyes, probably peeking into a place deep within me. One that I didn’t have access to myself. But in return, he granted me that access himself. Everything we felt, all that had been buried and denied, surfaced. Bared. We were stripped of all pretenses before the other. Exposed.

“This is as real as it gets. As anything will ever be.” He brushed a kiss against the corner of my lips.

His words, the raw openness in the blue of his gaze, the heat of his body, the way it wrapped around me … all of it made my heart burst. Made every cell in my body shake violently and blow up into a million fragments.

Aaron must have felt the same because our bodies emerged from the fog and went into a frenzy. His fingers and tongue outlined my body. Lips, neck, collarbone, breasts. Everything burned under Aaron’s lips. His hips rocked against my core, pushing his length between my legs, the tip sliding down with every sway of his body until reaching my entrance.

When he lifted his mouth from my seared skin, his gaze returned to my eyes. Asking permission without words.

“Yes. Yes.” I accompanied my answer with a push of my hips into him. “Please,” I breathed, pushing again. Feeling how his cock slid inside me just a sliver. Not enough.

Placing a kiss on my collarbone, Aaron finally pressed into me. One slow and deep thrust, filling me completely and sending my head, my body, my soul to a whole new galaxy.

“God,” I whimpered, blissfully full.

Aaron’s grunt fell against my temple. “Oh fuck, baby.” His hips rocked, retreating and sliding back in with more force now, eliciting a cry of pleasure from me. His mouth nuzzled my neck. “That sound, Catalina.” He thrust in again. “It’s going to be my end.” Another one followed.

My hands flew to his hair, pulling it with my fingers, goading him to lose the remains of his restraint.

And he did. With another grunt, Aaron thrust into me harder, pushing my whole body up. I moaned, certain I’d drown in the waves of pleasure rocking my body.

“Grab on to the headboard,” Aaron growled, taking hold of my wrists and bringing them up himself.

I obeyed, closing my fists around the bars, hoping they’d resist our attack.

“I need this,” I whimpered. “Need more.”

Aaron rocked into me as he braced himself on the headboard. His pace gave away all remnants of control. “You need me,” he grunted, thrusting into me even faster.

My back arched in return.

“You don’t need this.” He plunged into me hard. Then, he did it again. Harder. “It’s me you need.”

God, didn’t he know—wasn’t it painfully obvious—that I did?

Another brisk thrust. “Say it.”

“Yes,” I moaned, my body losing all its strength under the waves of pleasure. “You, Aaron. I need you.”

That last word broke the thin grasp of sanity he had seemed to be holding on to. And his thrusts lost all sense of rhythm. They came harder, faster, deeper. All of it at once. Aaron rocked into me with abandon. Our flesh clashed together while I remained holding on to the headboard and watched his body move above me. His cock slid in and out of me, the muscles of his abs flexing. His rounded shoulders bunched. All of it jamming me closer and closer to the edge.

“I want to feel you milking me, baby,” Aaron said before stealing my mouth. One of his hands flew to my breasts, closing over my rosy peak. “Come for me,” he demanded in a husky voice. “Come on my cock.”

His words, his feral rhythm, his body pinning mine—all of it made my eyelids flutter shut. My body burned. Blazed with every thrust.

A desperate plea escaped my lips. “Aaron.”

“Look at me. I want you to look at me.”

He lifted my weight, placing me against his chest. He moved me, burrowing himself into me from below, lifting and pressing me into him. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I felt the high coming alive. I tugged at his hair. Hard.

Aaron pulled both my arms behind my back, securing my wrists with one hand. My back arched.

“Look at you, at my mercy.” He increased the rhythm of my hips, of the way he jerked me onto his cock. “Just where I’ve wanted you all this time.”

One deep and hard thrust after, Aaron’s jaw tightened at the same time his other hand reached between us, his fingers landing above the spot where we were connected. Circling, rubbing. And before I could do anything about it, I was sent flying. Right at the same time as I felt Aaron pulsating his release inside of me.

My name left him in an animalistic growl. Pure, unadulterated bliss shocked me as the motion of his hips continued, his thrusts growing slower, riding us both through the climax. His arms tightened around me, his face burrowed in my neck, the outline of our bodies a blur until his hips came to a stop.

We remained right there, suspended in time. The beating of our hearts against each other’s skin and the soothing rhythm of his pulse under my touch.

Eventually, Aaron pulled out of me and laid us on our side, his arms still wrapped around me. He nestled me against his chest, and I knew I was ruined for any other embrace. Nothing else could ever compare.

He brushed a kiss against my hair. Then one against my temple, leaving his lips there for a long moment. “Was that too much?”

I turned my face into his chest and placed my lips above his heart. “No, never.” And I meant it. “I …” I trailed off, my voice turning into a whisper. “I liked how you lost control. I liked it a lot.”

“Careful.” I felt his hand on my hair, his palm brushing down the tousled locks. “If you get any more perfect, I’m going to believe you were made just for me.”

My lips curled up in a giddy smile with the thought, and I had to press my mouth into his chest, so I wouldn’t say what was on my mind. Keep me. It’s the least you can do if I was.

After a few minutes, Aaron shifted. My arms locked tighter around his neck. “I need to take care of the condom, baby.”

He tried pushing away, but I refused to let him go. His chuckle came light and sunny and just like a blow to the chest. It distracted me enough for him to slip out.

I whimpered, disappointed and cold. I guessed I was a greedy woman when it came to cuddles.

Or perhaps it was when it came to him.

“I’ll be back before you blink, promise.”

Luckily for him, he was. And the sight he treated me to as he strolled, flawlessly naked, across the room helped his case. Once back on the bed, he wrapped himself around me, tucking me to his side. He pulled the light comforter over us and hummed with deep, sultry content.

Yep, I thought. Same here.

“See?” he said against my hair. “Not even a full minute.”

I sighed into his chest. “I’m needy, okay?” I admitted, unashamed. “And I’m not talking just snuggles needy. I’m spider-monkey needy.” I made my point, throwing my leg over his and my arm over his chest, tangling our bodies in a way that I guessed wasn’t anywhere close to being cute.

Somehow, even with my face buried in his neck, I knew he was smiling. Then, his chest rumbled, confirming that he wasn’t just doing that.

“Are you laughing at my misfortune?”

“I wouldn’t dare. Just enjoying you being all greedy with me, spider monkey.” His palm trailed down my spine, stopping at my backside. He squeezed. “But if you don’t behave, we will never manage to get any sleep tonight. And as devastating as it is, I only had that condom.”

My grip on him loosened a little, “Did you … expect this to happen?” I asked, thinking of him slipping a condom in his luggage. A rush of anticipation rose beneath my skin.

“No,” he answered softly. His fingers making their way up my back. “But I’m not going to lie to you; a big part of me hoped it would, and maybe that’s why I left it in. It had been in there forever anyway, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’m happy you did,” I told him truthfully, and his hand came to rest at the nape of my neck. His fingers slipped in, tangling with my hair. “It’s too bad you didn’t think of throwing in more.”

The sound that came out of Aaron’s throat gave me life. “Oh yeah?”

Instead of answering what I hoped was a rhetorical question—because how could I not mourn the loss of more mind-blowing sex like that?—a different question popped up in my mind.

“Can I ask you something?” I ventured, leaning back so I could look at his face.

Aaron’s head tilted back too, finding my eyes. “You can ask me anything.”

“How in the world is your Spanish so good?”

His lips tugged up sheepishly.

“Seriously,” I continued, grilling him for an answer. “I had no idea you spoke a word of Spanish. You never told me you were so good at it.” I watched his eyes sparkle at the compliment. I liked putting that there. Just as much as I liked making him smile. “To think that you might have understood all the names I called you.”

He sighed, his cheeks turning a little pink. “I really didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said everything had to go absolutely perfect.”

I searched his face for the meaning behind that. “So, you just … what? Started a crash course before flying here?”

It had been a joke, but Aaron shrugged his shoulders.

Understanding sank in slowly. “Oh my God, you did,” I said under my breath. For me. He did that for me.

“It’s not like I had never learned Spanish before. I did, in school.” He reached for my hair again, playing absently with a strand, curling it around his index finger. “And now, there’s an app for anything. I learned enough to make a good impression. I still have a long way to go.”

Something must have been plastered all over my face—something I hoped wasn’t the adoration I felt for him in that precise moment—because Aaron’s eyes seemed oddly interested in studying me.

Then, he brought me even closer to his chest, tucked me securely against him, and placed a kiss on my shoulder. I melted into that brush of his lips like butter left under the sun.

“I bet I’m still missing all the interesting vocabulary,” he added, sounding thoughtful. He brushed another kiss on my shoulder. “The best words.”

“Oh.” My lips curled up, interested in the direction the conversation was taking. “You want me to teach you all the dirty words?”

I looked up at him and wiggled my eyebrows. Aaron gave me a lopsided smile that would have made my panties drop to the floor had they been resting on my hips.

“Well, you are in luck; I’m a wonderful teacher.”

“And I’m a highly dedicated student.” He winked. And that goddamn wink disrupted the beating of my heart. “Although I might get a little distracted every now and then.”

“I see.” I placed my index finger against his chest, watching Aaron’s eyes dive down quickly before returning to my face. “Maybe you need the right kind of motivation to keep your attention on the subject.”

I trailed that finger up, traveling across his pec and then up his neck, following the line of his jaw until reaching his lips. They parted with a shallow breath.

“This …” I pushed myself up and kissed his lips gently. “This is a six-letter word in Spanish. Labios. Tus labios. Your lips.”

The only answer he gave me was taking my mouth in his again. As if the only way he’d learn the word was tasting it.

“And this,” I said before parting his lips and making the kiss deeper, our tongues dancing together, “is another six-letter word. Lengua—tongue.”

“I think I really like that one.” Aaron’s head dipped low, his new favorite word reaching my breast. “And this? What do you call this?” he said, grazing his mouth over the peak.

A giggle that soon turned into a moan left my mouth before I was able to answer. “That’s a five-letter word. Pezón. Nipple.”

Aaron hummed while his lips traveled up my chest, placing soft kisses on his way.

“So, we have worked on six- and five-letter words.” He placed more of those pecks on my skin. “Just for the sake of sticking to your method, we should go over four-letter words. Would you teach me one?” Aaron’s wish fell against my skin.

A four-letter word. It shouldn’t have been complicated. There were probably thousands of four-letter words in my mother tongue. But my mind was a treacherous thing, and it betrayed me. Often. And the only word I could think of was a very particular one. One that, despite not being too long, was powerful enough to change things. To change people’s lives. To move mountains and start wars.

It was a big word that I had promised myself I wouldn’t give anybody without being sure I meant it with every single molecule in my body. Without being sure I was safe.

My silence seemed to give Aaron the perfect opportunity to keep exploring my skin. His mouth causing my heart to pound against my chest.

“I don’t know,” I murmured distractedly. Scared and turned on too.

More kisses were brushed against my skin, making me fight to catch my breath.

“It’s okay,” he said like he really meant it. “We can break the rules. That’s the magic in being us, the ones making them.”

He took my mouth keenly, getting me out of my head for a blissful moment. And when we came up for air, his head dipped one more time, placing an openmouthed kiss above my heart. “Corazón,” he said softly, so softly that the word seeped into my blood, mixing with my own so it would never be able to leave. “Heart. That’s your heart. Seven letters.”

Looking into his eyes for a long moment, I swore I could see in them everything he wasn’t voicing. I’ll make it mine. And everything I wasn’t brave enough to say. Take it.

When Aaron finally spoke, it sounded like a promise. “I’ll earn my four-letter word.”

And there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he would. But at what cost?