An approving hum left Aaron. That sound alone did crazy, dangerous things to my belly.

“You want my touch then.”

I did. Oh God, did I ever. But—

“Good.”

His fingers trickled down my throat, reaching the neckline of my sleeping T-shirt, liquefying every rational thought. But there was a warning in my head somewhere, something I should be remembering.

“Aaron,” I whispered.

The contact of his skin against mine was so gentle, so impossibly delicate, and yet it had the power to make me lose my mind. To ignite something in me. Just how he had proven ever since the fundraiser.

“Aaron,” I repeated.

His fingers halted, lifting off my skin right above my collarbone. I felt the loss of his touch immediately.

“What are we doing?” I asked, sounding desperate to my own ears. I released all the air in my lungs very slowly, grieving the way I had felt a heartbeat ago. But this was important. I had to say something to feel safer. To make sense of this. Otherwise, I’d sink under my own weight. I knew I would. “Is this … still pretending?” I swallowed. I hated my own words, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Is this just for practice?”

A loud voice in my head yelled at me to shut up. Not to ruin the moment and to let myself take as much as Aaron was willing to give me. But the truth was that I was terrified. Deep in my bones, I was shaking. Beneath all the ways my body kept reacting to every touch and word and craving more and more all the ones to come, it festered fear.

I felt Aaron’s sigh on my skin, and I was tempted to reach out and latch on to him before he stepped away. I had probably ruined everything.

But he didn’t.

“Would that make you feel better? I’ll pretend a little longer, if that’s what you need.”

“Yes.” The word left my lips in a rush.

I knew I’d come to regret saying that, probably sooner than later. This was a dangerous game. But in that moment, the only thing that seemed to matter was the safe bubble I had created around us. The lifeline I had begged him to throw me, and I was holding on to for dear life. If I inspected Aaron’s words too closely, I’d open my eyes, my brain would start functioning again, and our mouths would be busy talking.

His lips fell on my skin once more, resuming where they had stopped. His mouth skimmed along my jaw, and my heart seemed to come back alive in my chest, making me realize I hadn’t really noticed how it had ceased to beat without his touch.

“I don’t think I’d be able to deny you a single thing if you asked, Catalina.”

He followed that with one openmouthed kiss against the side of my neck, almost ripping a whimper out of me.

My eyelids must have fluttered because Aaron said, “No. Don’t open them yet.”

And I didn’t. I couldn’t. Aaron was in absolute control of my body now.

“Good girl. Keep them closed.” He brushed another openmouthed kiss as a reward. “We’ll play this game a little longer.”

My stomach plummeted to my feet in response.

“For practice purposes,” he said, and the hand that was cupping my head started trailing down, down, down over my clothes, stopping on my waist and leaving a burning path behind. It sent my head spinning. “I can show you exactly what it would be like.”

I felt him fisting the fabric of my shirt, as if he was stopping himself from doing more. Then releasing it and returning his palm to my waist.

“If you were really mine, I’d do this all the time.” His long fingers draped around my hip and pushed me against him from the waist down. Hot—he felt so hot and hard, branding my skin, even with layers of fabric separating us.

“If you were mine, you’d crave this.” He then closed the rest of the distance that separated us very slowly. Bringing our bodies flush together with such softness and at such a painful pace that I praised and cursed him at the same time. “You’d welcome this. You would want it.”

And wasn’t I doing all those things?

Before I could delve into that, Aaron’s large body shifted, and my back was against a hard surface. My hand traveled across it absently. The wardrobe. He was caging me against what felt like the wardrobe door, and I didn’t know how we had ended up there. Not really. But he was pressing deliciously into me, sheltering me from the world around us. Like the human-sized shield he had shown me he could be for me. Rooting me to the ground and sending my senses flying all at once. So, I didn’t care. Instead, my body craved more contact. It throbbed for more.

“If I were yours, I would not be capable of functioning without touching you.” His words made something in my chest constrict. “I couldn’t go a few minutes without doing this,” he added, squeezing my waist with his hand and slipping his thumb below my sleeping shirt, robbing me of the following breath. “Or something like this.” Aaron stepped further into me, pressing his hips against mine.

A helpless whimper left me.

The runaway thumb that had snuck below the fabric of my shirt trailed a few inches up my side, rumpling my shirt on its way.

A very shaky exhale escaped my lips. I couldn’t do much more than that, hardly breathing, barely surviving until the next touch. Every nerve in my body felt like it was about to be lit on fire. My blood boiled, burning every vessel and organ in its path. Everything burned.

I thought a new whimper had escaped away from me because I was rewarded with another openmouthed kiss. This time on my temple. Then, Aaron’s lips traveled down the side of my face, the air leaving them warm and enticing.

His mouth stopped at my eyelids, still shut, and he held his lips above them for a second. It wasn’t a kiss; it was more of a featherlight touch. And, God, that soft brush of his lips alone was so sweet, so fucking tender that it made me want to weep.

He continued down, stopping at my nose and repeating the soft caress.

Then, he did it to my right cheek. My left cheek. My chin.

Aaron left soft kisses everywhere he stopped, turning me inside out.

Pure, unfiltered need pulsated through my body with every inch of skin his lips traveled. And when they reached the corner of my mouth, I felt like I would detonate like a bomb if he didn’t touch me there too. If he didn’t brush his lips over mine and kiss me.

I felt the large and masculine body that pressed against me sigh. His lips hovering above mine.

Breaking my restraint, my hand lifted and landed on his upper arm, which I discovered was braced against the wardrobe surface, right next to my head. Barely able to take ahold of his flexed biceps, I wrapped my fingers as well as I could around the hot and tense skin. Everything strained and tightened under my touch. And I wondered if he was holding himself back, holding back from wrapping both arms around me and lifting me in the air. Perhaps pressing me harder into his body. Or doing more than just leaving featherlight kisses and soft brushes of his fingers.

Unsure if what he needed was my encouragement, I increased the pressure of my hold on his arm. My nails dug into his skin.

A deep and throaty sound left Aaron’s mouth, landing right between my legs. Just where all the ever-growing need had gathered.

I latched on to his arm harder, my body arching into him unconsciously, barely able to contain myself any longer. I was very close to begging, and I would if I had to. In response, Aaron came a little closer. Pressed against me a little harder.

I could feel him throbbing against my belly.

“Lina.” My name left his lips like a soft prayer. Or a warning. I wasn’t sure. “I’m going to kiss you.”

His words fell on my lips, close, so close. So, I was left with no option but to increase the pressure of my fingers around his arm, so I wouldn’t dissolve right there. To slip away and disappear before I could touch him. And I wanted to so badly. His neck, his lips, his jaw, the little wrinkle between his brows—everything. I wanted to slip my fingers through his raven hair and run them down his chest, all the way to his thick thighs.