“Oh god,” she moaned and rolled her head slightly back as he removed the sweatshirt and reached for her shorts.
His hands brushed against her skin as he pulled the shorts from her hips. Standing back, he let his eyes roam over her slowly.
“How is it we haven’t met before this?” he asked her as she stepped back into his arms.
“Bad timing, I guess.” She smiled up at him.
“Lucky for me you showed up today.” He kissed her again and backed her to the edge of his bed.
“It wasn’t luck. I wanted to meet you. Wanted this.” She surprised him by tugging on his shorts and then quickly gripping him in her hands. “I don’t know about you, but it’s been far too long for me. I don’t think I want to go slow.” She practically purred against him.
For a split second he thought about Danelle, then Aubrey reached up and in one quick move sent her bikini top falling to the floor, and his mind quite literally went blank of anything but her.
She had to be the most perfect woman on the planet. With shaky hands, he reached up and cupped her. Her eyes turned an even lighter shade of blue, and his body responded to how soft she felt under his fingertips.
“No, I doubt I could go slow now,” he said just before crushing her lips under his.
They fell backwards, their mouths never leaving one another as her swim bottoms were tugged from her legs.
He grabbed a small foil package from his nightstand and slid the protection on moments before she gripped his hips and wrapped her legs around him.
They moved together like they’d done it a million times before, as if being together was second nature.
“More,” he growled against her skin. He hoisted her hips as he pounded into her.
“Aiden,” she cried out as he felt her tense under him. Moments later, he followed her and felt his entire body release. He hadn’t realized how much of a need he’d built up since Danelle had left him. Not until he’d seen Aubrey walking towards him.
“I needed that.” Aubrey sighed as she ran her hands over his back.
“Ditto,” he said into her hair. “Thanks.”
He felt and heard her chuckle. “Any time.”
He leaned up and looked down at her. “You mean that?”
She smiled slowly. “Sure, why not? I mean, we both seemed to enjoy ourselves. I’ve got some free time and god knows I could use the release.”
He thought about it and then nodded. “Okay, I’ll take you up on that.”
Her smile slipped slightly. “The only request I have is that we keep things lighthearted and”—she bit her bottom lip— “keep this a secret. My friends… would try to make something more out of this than there should be.”
“Is that your way of telling me your heart is off the menu?” he asked.
She smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”
He thought for a moment. He still hadn’t healed from Danelle, so he figured that he had nothing to lose in a mutual physical relationship.
“So?” she asked after a moment. “How about it?”
“As I said, count me in.” He leaned down to an inch from her lips and waited. “But while you’re making demands, I’ve got my own.”
“Shoot,” she said, her eyes glued to his as her hands stilled on his cooled skin.
“We don’t see other people. If you get bored or want to move on, you tell me first. It makes things easier if it’s just between you and I.”
She smiled quickly. “I don’t see a string of men lining up—”
He kissed her before she could finish. “Deal?” he asked.
“Yes.” She sighed and pulled him back down to her.
This time, they slowed down and enjoyed exploring one another.
He wasn’t surprised that, after, she pulled on her clothes and requested he take her back to the main building. He knew that, if this was going to remain a secret, she had roommates to contend with.
“Drop me off here,” she said less than a quarter of a mile from the building. “I’ll walk from here.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I don’t want them to see you drop me off. They’re probably looking out for me already. I’ll have to tell them I went for a walk.”
He pulled over and spent a few moments kissing her again.
“When can I see you again?” she asked as she pulled away.
“I’m free most evenings,” he admitted. “Work in the cabins can’t go on after dark. At least until the electric gets fixed and turned back on. So I have to stop when the sun goes down.”
She cocked her head as if thinking it through. “I’ll see what I can do to get out to your place tomorrow night.”
He kissed her again. “Looking forward to it. You still plan on working on the second cabin tomorrow?”
Her smile grew. “Yes, I’m looking forward to it and to you again tomorrow night.” She jumped out of his truck.
He watched her disappear down the driveway until he knew she was in the building that housed the apartment the five friends shared on the top floor.
He didn’t think life could get any better. He had a dream job, his own place, and now he had a soft, gorgeous woman to look forward to enjoying, no strings attached.
Somehow, because he knew he was keeping his heart from her, he didn’t think twice about his life over the next year. Sure, there were times he wished they could share their relationship with their friends. Even if it was only during the times when the gang was all hanging out together, and he itched to hold her hand or kiss her in front of everyone. Like at the New Year’s party. Instead, he’d kept his word and his distance when the others were around.
To his knowledge, no one else in the group knew they were enjoying one another’s company every moment they could sneak away. Everything was going perfectly. Or so he thought.
Eleven months later, shortly before the camp opened its doors, he’d made the mistake of blurting out three words that had Aubrey pulling back.
It had been a rainy night about a month before the camp was set to open.
She and her friends had an interview that day with a local paper. He’d stood back and watched the five friends pose for pictures at the main gate of the campgrounds.
He’d painted the gates himself only a few weeks earlier. There were only a handful of things left to do around the grounds before they would be ready for guests. He and his team had started working on a couple of the new cabins and those wouldn’t be ready for a few more months. But they had finished ten new cabins in addition to refurbishing the twenty original ones.
He’d been in one of the new cabins when the downpour had started that day. He hadn’t expected Aubrey to come rushing in, soaking wet, a few minutes later.
She’d laughed about being soaked and had started slowly removing her clothes as he watched, and his mouth watered. How had he not realized sooner how perfect she was for him?
His heart jumped in his chest each time she laughed and looked at him with desire. He knew at that moment he’d never felt that way about someone before. Nor did he think he could ever feel that way about someone else.
“I thought I could make it out here to you before the rain started,” she said, moving slowly across the room towards him.