The Best Kept Secrets...

Chapter Eight

Jillian glanced across the table at Aidan. It was day three and still hard to believe that he was in Laramie, that he had come to give her a kick-start in her studying. Day one had been frustrating. He’d pushed her beyond what she thought she was ready for. But going to dinner with him that night had smoothed her ruffled feathers.

Dinner had been fun. She’d discovered he enjoyed eating his steaks medium rare and he loved baked potatoes loaded with sour cream, bacon bits and cheddar cheese. He also loved unsweetened tea and when it came to anything with chocolate, he could overdose if he wasn’t careful.

He was also a great conversationalist. He engaged her in discussions about everything—but he deemed the topic of medical school to be off-limits. They talked about the economy, recent elections, movies they had enjoyed, and about Adrian’s plans to travel the world a few years after getting his PhD in engineering.

And Aidan got her talking. She told him about Ivy, who she thought was the roommate from heaven; about Jillian’s decision two years ago to move out of the dorm; and about her first experience with a pushy car salesman. She told him about all the places she wanted to visit one day and that the one thing she wanted to do and hadn’t done yet was go on a cruise.

It occurred to her later that it had been the first time she and Aidan had shared a meal together alone, and she had enjoyed it. It had made her even more aware of him as a man. She’d had the time to look beyond his handsome features and she’d discovered he was a thoughtful and kind person. He had been pleasant, treating everyone with respect, including the waitress and servers. And each time he smiled at her, her stomach clenched. Then he would take a sip of his drink, and she would actually envy his straw.

After dinner they returned to her apartment. He made her promise that she would only review what they’d covered that day and not stay up past nine, then he left. But not before taking her into his arms and giving her a kiss that rendered her weak and senseless—to the point where she was tempted to ask him to stay longer. But she fought back the temptation. Knowing she would see him again the next day had made falling asleep quick and easy. For the first time in a long time, she had slept through the night, though he’d dominated her dreams.

He arrived early the next morning with breakfast, which she appreciated. Then it was back to studying again. The second day had been more intense than the first. Knowing they couldn’t cover every aspect of the study guide in one week, he had encouraged her to hit the areas she felt were her weakest. He gave her hints on how to handle multiple-choice questions and introduced her to key words to use when completing her essays.

For dinner they had gone to the Wild Duck. She had been eager to introduce him to her favorite place. A dinner of hamburgers, French fries and milk shakes had been wonderful. Afterward they went to Harold’s Game Hall to shoot pool, something she had learned to do in high school.

When he’d brought her home, like the night before, he took her in his arms and kissed her before he left, giving her the same instructions about reviewing what they’d covered that morning and getting eight hours of sleep. Again, she’d slept like a baby with him dominating her dreams.

She enjoyed having him as a study coach. Most of the time she stayed focused. But there were a few times when she felt heat simmering between them, something both of them tried to ignore. They managed it most of the time but today was harder than the two days before.

Aidan was tense. She could tell. He had arrived that morning, like yesterday, with breakfast in hand. Since he believed she should study on a full stomach and not try eating while studying, they had taken their meal outside to her patio. It had been pleasant, but more than once she’d caught him staring at her with a look in his eyes that she felt in the pit of her stomach.

He wasn’t as talkative today as he’d been the past two days, and, taking a cue from his mood, she hadn’t said much, either. On those occasions when their hands had accidentally touched while he’d been handing her papers or turning a page, she wasn’t sure who sizzled more, her or him.

That’s why she’d made up her mind about how today would end. She wanted him and he wanted her and there was no reason for them to suffer with their desires any longer. She’d fallen in love with him. After this time together, she could admit that now. That little crush she’d had on him for years had become something more. Something deeper and more profound.

The thought of Pam and Dillon finding out was still an issue that plagued her. However, since Aidan didn’t feel the same way about her that she felt about him, she was certain she would be able to convince him to keep whatever they did a secret. He was doing that now anyway. He’d told her that neither Pam nor Dillon knew where he was spending this week. That meant Jillian and Aidan were already keeping secrets from their family, and she would continue to do so if it meant spending more time with him.

That night they went to a restaurant she had never visited because of its pricey menu. The signature dishes had been delicious and the service excellent. But the restaurant’s setting spoke of not only elegance but also romance. Rustic wood ceilings with high beams, a huge brick fireplace and a natural stone floor. Beautiful candles adorned the tables and even in the dim light, each time she glanced over at Aidan he was looking back at her.

Getting through dinner hadn’t been easy. They conversed but not as much as they had the previous two nights. Was she imagining things or did his voice sound deeper, huskier than usual? His smiles weren’t full ones but half smiles, and just as sexy.

Like he’d done the previous two nights, he walked through her apartment, checking to make sure everything was okay. Then he gave her orders to only review what she’d studied that morning and get into bed before nine because at least eight hours of sleep were essential.

And then, as had become his habit, he pulled her into his arms to kiss her goodbye. This was what she had anticipated all day. She was ready for Aidan’s kiss. Standing on tiptoe she tilted her open mouth toward him, her tongue ready. He closed his full mouth over hers and their tongues tangled, almost bringing her to her knees.

The kiss lasted for a long, delectable moment. It was different than any they’d shared before and she’d known it the moment their mouths fused. It was hot, heavy and hungry. He wasn’t letting up or backing down—and neither was she.

Jillian felt herself being lifted off her feet and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist while he continued to ravish her mouth in a way that overwhelmed her and overloaded her senses. His hunger was sexual and greedy. She could tell he was fighting hard to hold it together, to stay in control, to keep his sanity in check. But she wasn’t. In fact, she was deliberately trying to tempt him every way that she could.

She felt the wall at her back and knew he’d maneuvered them over to it. He broke off the kiss and stared at her, impaling her with the flaming fire in his eyes. “Tell me to stop, Jillian,” he said. “Because if you don’t do it now, I won’t be able to stop later. I want to tongue you all over. Lick every inch of your body. Taste you. Make love to you. Hard. Long. Deep. So tell me to stop now.”

Her pulse jumped. Every single cell in her body sizzled with his words. Hot sparks of passion glowed in his gaze and when a powerful burst of primal need slammed through her she didn’t want to escape.

“Tell me to stop.”

His plea made the already hot sexual tension between them blaze, and she knew of only one way to put out the fire.

“Stop, Aidan!”

His body went still. The only thing that moved was the pulse throbbing in his throat. He held her gaze and she was convinced she could hear blood rushing through both of their veins.

When she felt him about to untangle her legs from around his waist and lower her feet to the floor, she said, “Stop talking and do all those things you claim you’re going to do.”

She saw the impact of her words reflected in his eyes. While he seemed incapable of speaking, she released her arms from around his neck and tugged at his shirt, working her hands beneath to touch his bare chest. She heard the groan from deep in his throat.

“If you don’t take me, Aidan Westmoreland, then I’ll be forced to take you.”

* * *

That was the last thing Aidan had expected her to say. But hearing her say it intensified the throbbing need within him. His crotch pounded fiercely and he knew of only one way to remedy that. But first...

He lowered her to her feet as a smile tugged at his lips. Only for a moment, he gazed down at her shirt, noticing the curve of her breasts beneath the cotton. In an instant, he tugged the shirt over her head and tossed it aside.

He drew in a deep breath when his eyes settled on her chest, specifically her skin-tone colored bra. Eager beyond belief, he touched her breasts through the lace material. When his fingers released the front clasp, causing the twin globes to spring free, the breath was snatched from his lungs.

Mercy. He eased the bra straps from her shoulders to remove it completely from her body and his mouth watered. Her breasts were one area that he hadn’t tasted yet, and he planned on remedying that soon.

Deciding he wanted to see more naked flesh, he lowered to his knees and slid his fingers beneath the elastic waistband of her skirt to ease it down her legs. She stepped out of it and he tossed it aside to join her shirt and bra. His gaze raked the full length of her body, now only covered by a pair of light blue bikini panties. His hands actually trembled when he ran them down her legs. He felt as if he were unveiling a precious treasure.

She stepped out of them as she’d done her skirt and she stood in front of him totally naked. He leaned back on his haunches while his gaze raked her up and down, coming back to her center. He was tempted to start right there, but he knew if he did that, he wouldn’t get to taste her breasts this time, either, and he refused to miss the chance again.

Standing back on his feet, Aidan leaned and lowered his head. He captured a nipple between his lips, loving how the tip hardened in his mouth as his tongue traced circles around the rigid bud. She purred his name as she cradled the back of his head to hold his mouth right there.

He continued to taste her breasts, leaving one and moving to the other, enjoying every single lick and suck. Her moans fueled his desire to possess her. To make love to her. And what he loved more than anything else was the sound of her moaning his name.

Aidan eased his lips from her breasts and moved his mouth slowly downward, tasting her skin. As he crouched, his mouth traced a greedy path over her stomach, loving the way her muscles tightened beneath his lips.

A slow throbbing ache took hold of his erection as he eased down to his knees. This was what he’d gone to bed craving ever since he’d first tasted her between her thighs. He’d fallen asleep several nights licking his lips at the memory. Her feminine scent was unique, so irresistibly Jillian, that his tongue thickened in anticipation.

Knowing she watched him, he ran his hands up and down the insides of her legs, massaged her thighs and caressed the area between them. His name was a whisper on her lips when he slid a finger inside of her. He loved the feel of her juices wetting him. He stroked her.

Hungry for her taste, he withdrew his finger and licked it. He smiled before using his hands to spread her feminine core to ready her for an open-mouth kiss.

* * *

Jillian released a deep, toe-curling moan the moment Aidan latched his hot tongue onto her. She grabbed his head to push him away, but he held tight to her legs while his tongue went deep, thrusting hard. Then she pressed herself toward his mouth.

She closed her eyes and chanted his name as spasms ripped through her, making her thighs tremble. He refused to let go, refused to lift his mouth, as sensations overtook her. Her body throbbed in unexpected places as an orgasm shook her.

When the last spasm speared through her, she felt herself being lifted into strong arms. When she opened her eyes, Aidan was entering her bedroom. He placed her on the bed, leaned down and kissed her, sending rekindled desire spiking through her.

When he ended the kiss and eased off the bed, she watched as he quickly removed his clothes. She could only lie there and admire his nakedness. He was a fine specimen of a man, both in and out of clothes. Just as he’d appeared in her dreams. Thick thighs, muscular legs and a huge erection nested in a patch of thick, curly black hair.

How will I handle that? she asked herself when he pulled a condom packet from his wallet and quickly sheathed himself. He took his time and she figured it was because he knew she was watching his every move with keen interest.

“You have done this before, right?” he asked her.

“What? Put on a condom? No. One wouldn’t fit me.”

He grinned over at her. “Funny. You know what I’m asking.”

Yes, she knew what he was asking. “Um, sort of.”

He lifted a brow. “Sort of?”

She shrugged slightly. “I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said softly. “Technically not. But...”

“But what?”

“I was in high school and neither of us knew what we were doing. That was my one and only time.”

He just stood there totally naked staring at her. She wondered why he wasn’t saying anything. What was he thinking? As if he’d read her mind, he slowly moved toward her, placed his knee on the bed and leaned toward her. “What you missed out on before, you will definitely get tonight. And, Jillian?”

She swallowed. He’d spoken with absolute certainty and all she could do was stare back at him. “Yes?”

“This will not be your only time with me.”

Her body reacted to his words and liquid heat traveled through her body. He hadn’t spoken any words of love but he’d let her know this wasn’t a one-time deal with them.

She didn’t have time to dwell on what he’d said. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She closed her eyes and let herself be liquefied by the kiss. Like all the other times he’d used his expertise to make everything around her fade into oblivion, the kiss was the only thing her mind and body could comprehend. His hands were all over her, touching her everywhere. She released a deep moan when she felt his knees spreading her legs.

“Open your eyes and look at me, Jillian.”

She slowly opened her eyes to look up at the man whose body was poised above hers. He lifted her hips and his enlarged sex slid between her wet feminine folds. He thrust forward and her body stretched to accommodate his size. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around him and when he began to move, she did so, as well.

She continued to hold his gaze while he thrust in and out of her. Over and over he would take her to the edge just to snatch her back. Her inner muscles clamped down on him, squeezing and tightening around him.

As she felt new spasms rip through her, he threw his head back and let out a roar that shook the room. She was glad most of her neighbors had gone away for spring break; otherwise they would know what she was doing tonight.

But right now, all she cared about was the man she loved, and how he was making her feel things she’d never felt before.

He kissed her again. Their tongues dueled in another erotic kiss and she couldn’t help but remember the words he’d spoken earlier.

This will not be your only time with me.

She knew men said words they didn’t mean to women they were about to sleep with, and she had no reason to believe it was any different with Aidan.

Besides, considering that she needed to stay focused on her studies, it was a good thing he wasn’t serious.

* * *

Aidan wtched the naked woman sleeping in his arms and let out a frustrated sigh. This was not supposed to happen.

He wasn’t talking about making love because there was no way such a thing could have been avoided. The sexual tension between them had been on overload since the day he’d arrived at her apartment and neither of them could have lasted another day.

What was not supposed to happen was feeling all these unexpected emotions. They had wrapped around his mind and wouldn’t let go. And what bothered him more than anything else was that he knew he was not confusing his emotions with what had definitely been off-the-charts sex. If he hadn’t known before that there was a difference in what he felt for Jillian, he definitely knew it now.

He had fallen in love with her.

When? How? Why? He wasn’t sure. All he knew, without a doubt, was that it had happened. The promise of great sex hadn’t made him take a week’s vacation and travel more than fifteen hundred miles across five states to spend time with her. Sex hadn’t made him become her personal test coach, suffering the pains of being close to her while maintaining boundaries and limits. And sex definitely had nothing to do with the way he felt right now and how it was nearly impossible for him to think straight.

When she purred softly in her sleep and then wiggled her backside snugly against his groin he closed his eyes and groaned. It had been great sex but it had been more than that. She had reached a part of him no woman had reached before.

He’d realized it before they’d made love. He’d known it the minute she told him she’d only made love once before. As far as he was concerned that one time didn’t count because the guy had definitely done a piss-poor job. The only orgasm she’d ever experienced had been with Aidan.

But in the days he’d spent studying with her he’d gotten to know a lot about her. She was a fighter, determined to reach whatever goals she established for herself. And she was thoughtful enough to care that Pam not bear the burden of the cost of sending Jillian to medical school. She was even willing to sell her family home.

And he liked being with her, which posed a problem since they lived more than a thousand miles apart. He’d heard long-distance affairs could sometimes be brutal. But he and Jillian could make it work if they wanted to do so. He knew how he felt about her but he had no idea how she felt about him. As far as he knew, she wasn’t operating on emotion but out of a sense of curiosity. She’d said as much.

However, the biggest problem of all, one he knew would pose the most challenge to the possibility of anything ever developing between them was her insistence on Pam and Dillon not knowing about them.

Aidan didn’t feel the same way and now that he loved her, he really didn’t want to keep it a secret. He knew Dillon well enough to know that if Aidan were to go to his cousin and come clean, tell Dillon Aidan had fallen in love with Jillian, Dillon would be okay with it. Although Aidan couldn’t say with certainty how Pam would feel, he’d always considered her a fair person. He believed she would eventually give her blessing...but only if she thought Jillian was truly in love with him and that he would make Jillian happy.

There were so many unknowns. The one thing he did know was that he and Jillian had to talk. He’d given her fair warning that what they’d shared would not be one and done. There was no way he would allow her to believe that her involvement with him meant nothing, that she was just another woman to him. She was more than that and he wanted her to know it.

She stirred, shifted in bed and then slowly opened her eyes to stare at him. She blinked a few times as if bringing him into focus—or as if she was trying to figure out if he was really here in her bed.

Aidan let her know she wasn’t seeing things. “Good morning.” He gently caressed her cheek before glancing over at the digital clock on her nightstand. “You woke up early. It’s barely six o’clock.”

“A habit I can’t break,” she said, still staring at him. “You didn’t leave.”

“Was I supposed to?”

She shrugged bare shoulders. “I thought that’s the way it worked.”

She had a lot to learn about him. He wouldn’t claim he’d never left a woman’s bed in the middle of the night, but Jillian was different.

“Not for us, Jillian.” He paused. “We need to talk.”

She broke eye contact as she pulled up in bed, holding the covers in place to shield her nakedness. Aidan thought the gesture amusing considering all they’d done last night. “I know what you’re going to say, Aidan. Although I’ve never heard it before, Ivy has and she told me how this plays out.”

She’d made him curious. “And how does it play out?”

“The guy lets the woman know it was just a one-night stand. Nothing personal and definitely nothing serious.”

He hadn’t used that particular line before, but he’d used similar ones. He decided not to tell her that. “You weren’t a one-night stand, Jillian.”

She nodded. “I do recall you mentioning that last night wouldn’t be your only time with me.”

He tightened his arms around her. “And why do you think I said that?”

“Because you’re a man and most men enjoy sex.”

He smiled. “A lot of women enjoy it, as well. Didn’t you?”

“Yes. There’s no need to lie about it. I definitely enjoyed it.”

A grin tugged at Aidan’s lips. His ego appreciated her honesty. “I enjoyed it, as well.” He kissed her, needing the taste of her.

It was a brief kiss and when he lifted his lips from hers, she seemed stunned by what he’d done. He found that strange considering the number of times they had kissed before.

“So, if you don’t want to say last night was a one-night stand, what is it you want to talk about?” she asked.

He decided to be just as honest as she had been, and got straight to the point. “I want to talk about me. And you. Together.”

She raised a brow. “Together?”

“Yes. I’ve fallen in love with you.”