Page 138 of Beneath the Quiet

Ishould be nervous, I really should.

“You’re very quiet.”

I glance at Aidan as we drive back to Lynch Farm. “I think I’m blissed out, to be honest.”

He chuckles and reaches across our seat to catch my hand in his. “Blissed out, eh?”

“Yes. From all the orgasms.”

“Is that what women call it?”

“I don’t know about other women, but that’s what I call it.”

He squeezes my hand. “Makes me happy.”

The soft timbre of his voice sends my heart jumping in my chest. I’m going to take the biggest leap of faith tonight, and I need to do it now while we’re alone.

“It’s more than that, though.” I take a deep breath, watching his profile carefully. “Being with you has calmed me, somehow. That even though you know exactly how to set my pulse racing and do it a lot, you also know how to quiet my mind. I feel that I can be myself with you.”

“You can.” He takes his eyes off the road to look at me. “I swear you can.”

“I’ve not had that with anyone before, Aidan. Most of my life, I’ve never been enough to someone. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.”

He jerks the wheel to the side and stops the car, making me brace my feet to the floor. He puts the gear in park and reaches across our seats, unbuckling my seatbelt and pulling me close to his chest. His nostrils flare, and I arch into his possessive embrace, needing to get as close to him as I can get.

“What did I tell you before?”

“I know, and I heard you.”

“Then when are you going to start believing it, Mae?”

“I’m trying.” I rest my hands on his chest and search his eyes, needing him to see it from my perspective. “But you have to understand that it’s going to take me some time to get it.”

He shakes his head and then kisses my forehead. “Get it through that thick skull of yours.”

I let out a laugh at the manly annoyance that vibrates onto my skin. When his arms squeeze around me, I know he’s not really mad at me. I flick the button on his shirt, my eyes catching on the sun-kissed skin at his throat.

“Anyway, before you started manhandling me…”

“I don’t manhandle you.”

“Hush.” I put my hand up to cover his mouth. “I just want you to know that…I mean, since the lines have already been crossed between us more than once, it seems only fair that I tell you that…”

“Tell me what?”

“That I might have started developing some very non-friendly feelings towards you, even when I said I wouldn’t. Despite all my best intentions, I care deeply for you, Aidan.”

His gaze turns so soft that my breath hitches. “Are you sure?” he whispers, his voice a mere rasp.

“I’m sure. I want this…whatever it is…with you.”

Slowly, I remove my hand from his mouth, and as his lips stretch wide, dimples on full display, warmth spreads in my chest.

“Are you saying you’re sweet on me, Mae?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t know, but I more than like you, and…”

He bends his head, burying his face in my neck, breathing me in. “And what? Tell me.”