Page 12 of Resolve
“Aiden!” I lunge, throwing my arm around him and burying my face against his chest. I sob with relief and clutch at his back. He smells like saltwater rather than cinnamon, and the pain doubles as the full memory resurfaces. Of his blood on my hands when I’d held him. And how still he’d been. Even as much as I’d yelled and tried to get him to open his eyes, he hadn’t. And I’d thought... I really thought...
And then he was gone, ripped from my arms in an instant.
“You’re here. You’re really here.”
“Careful,” he warns, his knuckle angling my tear-streaked face tohis. “It almost sounds as though you have feelings for me.”
I grab the back of his head and force his lips to mine before he says anything else stupid. My kiss is hard and demanding, needing to feel him and have that physical connection to prove that this isn’t some dream. He survived. He’s here. I push my tongue past his lips, taking him with unhinged desperation until the pain in my chest slowly ebbs.
More.
Molding myself to his body, I absorb his warmth and further proof of his life, stroking my hands over the hard muscles of his arms and back. My nails break skin in my avarice, and the next second, his hand circles my throat, and he slams me to my back. Before he can say anything about it, I yell at him, “How can you say that?! I fucking love you, Aiden! And seeing you like that...losing you...” The stupid tears are back, clogging my throat with a vulnerability that makes my chest burn for him and Jack to witness.
“Say it again,” he commands, his dark stare intense, pinning me in place just as much as his hand.
My lungs deflate, realizing the one time I’d ever admitted how I felt about him was after he’d thrown himself between me and half a dozen bullets and he’d been unconscious. I draw a steadying breath, then lock my gaze with his.
“I love you.”
His eyes shutter closed, some emotion crossing his features too quickly for me to identify before his forehead touches mine.
“Aiden?”
“You never cease to amaze me.” He withdraws, pulling me upright by one arm while Jack helps with the other.
“She doesn’t realize how special she is,” Jack adds as they adjustme between them on our knees.
“We’ll have to show her then, won’t we?”
My heart hammers in my chest, the air in the room suddenly feeling charged with an energy that buzzes through my veins. That heats my blood and makes my pulse race.
I press my hand to Aiden’s chest. “Wait. You’re still healing—”
“It’s been days since the cliff,” Jackson informs me as he draws me back against him.
“You were too out of it to remember being up before,” Aiden adds, pinching my chin and angling my face to his. “And I’m not so tired that I can’t pleasure the woman I love.” He slips his hand into my hair and pulls me into a kiss.
I’m still reeling from their words. The immediate counter I want to say is trapped in my throat, forced back as Aiden deepens the kiss. As Jack sucks on my neck from behind. My core pulses with every swipe of tongue. Every suck, every nibble that sets my blood on fire. I run my hands over Aiden’s smooth and bullet-free chest, rub the stubble along his jaw and then grip his hair in one hand and reach for Jack’s with the other. The words I want to say melt away beneath their touch.
Aiden’s alive.
Jackson saved him. Saved me. I owe them everything.
“What about Dane? And Kellan?”
Jack trails his hands up my thighs, catching the hem of my shirt and lifting it upward. I oblige, knowing he wouldn’t be continuing this if something was wrong. “Both safe. Here.”
I cup his face, turning my head to see him over my shoulder. “Thank you, Jack. Thank you,” I breathe, pulling him until our lips meet. My hand slides to his nape, tugging him closer as I willinglydrown in him. None of us would be here now if not for him. He’s keeping his promise to me, protecting my wishes.
Aiden descends on my breast, swirling his tongue around my nipple. I moan into Jackson as an electric current of pleasure shoots through my body. My aching cunt pulses with the need to be touched. I reach between my legs on autopilot to ease that desire when Aiden snatches my wrist.
He tsks, his breath chilling the slickness covering my nipple and inducing a full-blown shudder. “That’s mine.”
“Ours,” Jackson corrects, then dips a finger into my wet and needy cunt. I gasp at the brief contact before he’s spreading my arousal to my clit in slow circles.
Aiden captures my other wrist and guides them over my head, forcing my back to arch. “Do I need to restrain these, or can you hold them here?”
“Yes,” I pant in desperate agreement, my hips twitching and rocking into Jackson’s touch when he sinks two fingers inside and grinds his palm against my clit.
