“What if it doesn’t work?” I asked.
“Maybe it won’t,” Aiden said. “That's just life, babe.”
I got bolder.
“You're hiding something,” I said.
“Yeah,” Aiden replied, “I am.”
I stiffened at his bluntness.
“Well
, that scares me.”
“I've got my share of secrets, Chloe.” He sat up a little and propped himself up on his elbow. “Everyone does. Someday I might share some of them with you. You've got yours as well, and I hope someday you'll trust me enough to tell me what they are. In the meantime, we learn.”
“Learn what?”
“About each other. About what we like and don’t like.”
“What if we don’t like each other?” I asked. “What if I can’t handle your secrets? What then?”
“I suppose then we’d go our separate ways,” he said. “That’s possible with any relationship—you have to know that.”
I did, of course. I nodded as I traced the edge of his bicep with my fingertip.
“I don’t want that to happen,” I said quietly.
“I don’t either,” he agreed. “I really like you, and I hope you feel at least some of that for me.”
“I do,” I whispered quietly without meeting his eyes. I focused on the words scrawled across his clavicle and up around his shoulder: “Blood. Sweat. Tears.”
“I don’t like this shit,” Aiden said as he brushed more tears off my cheeks. “I don’t like you being so upset, especially not after what I consider to be some of the best sex of my life.”
“It was?” I looked up at him.
“For me it was,” he said. “You don’t agree?”
“It was for me, too,” I said. “It’s never…well, never been like that.”
“How so?” His grin was back, and it made me smile, too.
“Um…fast…a little rough…all that dirty talk.” I blushed.
He laughed.
“I can’t help myself,” he said. “I especially can’t help myself with a girl who’s so fucking hot, all flushed and breathing heavy before we even got started. I’m surprised I didn’t come on the third stroke.”
Giggles erupted from my throat.
“I wasn’t sure you were ever going to stop!”
He rested his hand on my waist, ran it down to my thigh, and then back again.
“Was it too much?” he asked.
I shook my head.