I trusted him. And I wanted him.
So I followed him.
Even when I realized he was leading me towards his bed, I still followed him.
He tore off his shirt and reached out for me. His strong hand wrapped around my wrist.
The spell broke.
I yelped, instinctually pulling back, but I’d miscalculated. Expecting to meet resistance, I pulled too hard, so when he released me immediately, I fell backwards onto the bed.
Shame flooded through me. I rolled away and pulled my knees to my chest. “I’m sorry.” I couldn’t look at him. Whether he was angry or hurt or worried, none of that was what I wanted from him. “I’m sorry.” I turned my face into the pillow.
After a long moment, his gentle, soothing hand brushed my cheek, and I hated how I couldn’t stop myself from flinching again. “Aria?”
“What?” I wished I’d never called him. I wished I’d stayed in the car and let the snow pile up around me, hiding me forever.
“You’re shaking.”
I rolled onto my back and forced myself to look up at him - to meet his eyes and smile. “I’m not.”
Derek leaned over me. He brushed his finger down my cheek and then tilted my chin upward, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Tell me.”
His face was so close. And even thought he was holding me so tenderly, his fingers just brushing against my jaw, I could still feel the strength that hummed under his skin. He was gorgeous, and powerful… too powerful.
“Baby.” His dark eyes darted between mine, searching my face for the answers my lips couldn’t form. “Tell me, what is it? Do you need me to stop, Aria?” He pulled back and clambered off the bed. “I’ll stop. Right now.”
The second he pulled back, the second he withdrew his warmth and nearness, my whole body shuddered in an involuntary chill. “No,” I moaned. I shook my head and stared at his confused, worried face, willing myself to summon the words for how I was feeling right now. “No, I want you,” I promised. “Come back.”
He was clearly still confused, but he did what I asked, sitting carefully at the edge of the bed.
I pulled myself to my hands and knees and knelt next to him. Neither one of us reached for the other. He was waiting for me to tell him what had happened, and I was waiting to figure it out first.
Hesitantly, I lifted my hand and pressed it over his heart.
His muscles flexed under my hand, and I gasped, fascinated by the interplay of smooth skin and strong physique. To have all that power under my hands, at the mercy of my touch…
And then it hit me. “I know what I need.”
“Anything,” he breathed, lifting my hand from his heart to his lips and pressing a rough kiss over my knuckles.
I took a deep breath. “I need… you have to let me be on top.”
For a moment he was stone-faced. I held my breath, suddenly aware of how new this was. Would he be insulted? What if he didn’t like to do it that way? Would he scoff and brush me off? Would he laugh and call me ridiculous?
Would he get angry?
“Derek?” I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice. “Say something.”
His whole face relaxed and he broke out into a wide, beaming smile before kissing me so softly and sweetly that my fears melted away. “I’m not gonna say ‘is that all,’” he murmured, pressing kisses down my cheek and up my jawline to the sensitive place under my ear. “Because even an idiot like me can see that it’s a lot for you to say that. So I’m just going to tell you how happy you just made me.”
I shivered and giggled as his breath caressed the shell of my ear. “I made you happy?”
“Lying back and looking up at this beautiful body?” His warm hands slid downward, delving closer and closer to the place I craved him most. “Just worshipping you while you do all the work? Baby, that sounds pretty incredible to me.”
“Wait, what do you mean, while I do all the work?” I protested, socking him in the chest.
He laughed, then wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to his chest. I squealed as he fell onto his back with me pressed along the top of him. “Oh, I guess I can do some work too,” he mock-relented. “But I do need you to do one thing for me before I can get started.”
I tilted my face up to his. His arms were around me, but I was above him and that made all the difference. “What’s that?” I asked, nipping his bottom lip between my teeth.
He hissed, and then groaned as I pulled at it slightly. “Shibbonmafass,” he slurred.
I released him. “What was that?”
He grunted and licked his lip, before smiling. “Sit on my face.”
“What?”
“You can hold me down. You can trap me between those gorgeous thighs of yours. You can grind yourself against me until my tongue is numb and my jaw is fucking aching. You can drown me in your juices and I’ll die a happy man, because if that’s what it takes for you to understand what this is for me, than so be it.”
His dirty, profane words were at odds with his sincere expression. I shivered, caught trembling between desire and vulnerabilty. “What is it for you?”
He slid further down until he was flat on his back. “I’m at you’re mercy just as much as you are at mine.”
I gasped.
He smiled and tapped his lips. “Now hop on.”