Page 95 of Fractured Fate

She rolled onto her stomach and shoved the covers off. Sunlight beat down on her naked body while she buried her face in a pillow that smelled of orange Creamsicle ice cream, replaying last night’s events in her mind.

She slept with Aiden. Not only in the literal sense, but also in the spread-her-legs-and-beg-for-a-thorough-dicking sense.

Not that she begged with her words, but she clearly remembered her lower half trying to attach itself to his before their clothes ever came off.

At first, she only intended to check on him after he jolted awake from a nightmare. It was only one of two times she’d witnessed him wake up frightened. What she didn’t intend, or expect, was for him to roll over on top of her and turn her into a needy mess with a single kiss.

What was it about kissing him that caused her to cease all rational thought?

He wasn’t always gentle, either.

He handled her one minute like she was the most fragile piece of glass, deserving of complete care, the next using her like he wanted to devour her very being.

The experience left her feeling a little shaken.

She eased herself up from the bed and walked on unstable legs to the bathroom.

Her core ached, but in a good way.

Aiden wasn’t little, in all the ways that counted—it was like she could still feel him inside her. The aching reminder of the hard and rough treatment of her vagina made her shiver. Was it too soon for a repeat?

No, Charlotte. One time is one too many.

Once she finished peeing, she walked back into her room, determined to get clothes and take a shower to wash away the dried cum on her legs.

The sight that greeted her in the mirrored closet door stole her breath.

A dark, angry hickey in shades of purple and red formed a ring on the side of her breast, marring her otherwise unblemished skin. Another further down her body beneath her navel and above her pubic bone had mottled yellow around it. It looked like a cluster of bites and places where he’d sucked her skin.

Her eyes trailed over her hips, noting the finger-shaped bruising that darkened where his fingertips would have buried themselves in her flesh. A delicious shudder passed through her as she felt his phantom touch when she traced her fingers over the markings.

She had never surrendered herself to someone so completely. Let someone mark her. When her ex-boyfriend had wanted to put a hickey on her, she told him if he ever wanted to kiss her again, he would think twice.

Her eyes moved up to her neck.

A large bruise was forming on the side that she would need to cover with makeup when she went to visit her advisor, and maybe once she returned home, if it still lingered. She didn’t need her mothers asking questions.

She squinted and leaned in to examine the mark on her neck. Is that dried blood? There weren’t any bite marks to show he broke the skin, but a hickey could break skin. She learned that from one of the other servers at the diner.

She slid open the closet and stepped inside, grabbing a pair of dark-wash denim shorts and a short-sleeved floral blouse with a peplum bodice. Stepping out to grab a pair of panties and bra from her drawers, she froze when Aiden came her way from the kitchen.

Her body temperature rose as his eyes did a slow descent, inspecting his handiwork. When his heated gaze reached her thighs, where the sticky evidence lay drying on her skin, his nostrils flared, and his eyes turned outright molten.

“I’m on the shot,” she blurted.

His gaze flew up to hers, surprise coloring his features. All signs of a possible round two evaporated.

“I’m on birth control,” she said, slowing her words. “You don’t have to worry.” Her hands tightened around the clothes she held. “And um. I’m clean,” she added, looking away from him. “I haven’t gotten tested, but I haven’t had sex since high school. I got tested back then after my ex and I split up. So, yeah. Clean.”

She hadn’t slept with her ex without a condom. Aiden was the first to go bare, but she still made sure she hadn’t caught anything. While she didn’t think her ex would cheat, it didn’t mean he hadn’t caught it before her. He wasn’t a virgin when he took her virginity.

The feel of fingers clasping her chin and turning her face caught her off guard.

Aiden looked down into her eyes. “How are you feeling?”

Of all the things she expected, concern for her feelings wasn’t it. Maybe anger they hadn’t used a condom. Awkwardness that she still had his cum on her legs. But concern about her well-being? He kept surprising her.

“I’m okay. Sore.” When his lips flattened and turned down at the corners, she quickly added, “Good sore, I promise.”