Blaze - Part Five
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here. The episode below is NSFW and contains mature content.
Home, I think to myself, curling my arms a little tighter around Aiden.
We’re together, secure in the warm glow of a successful rescue. Kasey stopped in an hour or two after we got back to let me know that the people we rescued are going to be alright, barring any unexpected complications. They’ll be shaken up, of course, and they’ll need time to recover. But they’ll be okay.
Aiden didn’t wake up to hear any of this, but somehow I think he knows.
He’s sleeping deeply, without murmuring or moving around like he does sometimes. I’m hoping that means he’s having peaceful dreams, or else none at all.
His arms are my refuge, the place where I can go to rest in his steady, quiet strength, his unwavering warmth. The place where I can always breathe freely. I hope that my arms feel the same way to him. I hope that even in his sleep, I can transmit him deep calm, warmth, the sense of having a soft place to land.
He’s doing that for me right now, even though he’s knocked out. I can’t believe that just a few hours ago I was a stammering, terrified mess. My racing, thundering heartbeat is quiet now. My fragged nerves are untangled, the knots worked out by the cozy heat of Aiden’s bare body. He’s sleeping with his head on my chest, and the heavy weight of him feels good, so fucking good.
My gaze wanders over to the windows, the deep blue night sky beyond.
Strange, how Aiden makes the whole world seem more beautiful to me.
The moonlight spilling in through the window, the soft stirring of the wind in the leaves of the tree branch that reaches into our bedroom. The muffled spark and crackle of the low-burning fire in the wood stove, down to glowing red embers.
All of it is more beautiful, more special, purely because Aiden is in the room with me.
I press a kiss onto the top of his head, sinking my nose into soft chestnut messiness.
I have a kind of wanderlust for Aiden. Something I’ve never experienced with anyone else. A sense that I could travel all the different lands of his body endlessly, the whole universe of him, falling in love with everything. Here, I could wander forever, never stopping anywhere permanently, because there’s always more to find and fall in love with, always more…
Right now I’m camped out on the curve of Aiden’s left shoulder blade. Over and over again, I’m very slowly trailing my fingertips over it. Following its graceful, natural arch. Savoring the toasty warmth and satin softness of his bronze skin. Feeling it rise and fall with his breaths.
At this particular moment, I would rather give up anything other than my access to just this one shoulder blade, the gentle hollow beneath it, the subtle slope of it. Anything. It makes no sense, but it’s the truth.
Aiden shifts very slightly in his sleep, his body dragging against mine before he goes still again.
It suddenly dawns on me that Aiden and I are going into three days and three nights. Three days, three nights of teasing and tormenting each other, working the tension up into an electrical storm, letting it climb higher and burn hotter - with no release.
Oh, god. We’ll both have to resist again, tomorrow. Go to work, then go to the Ghost Office. We won’t be alone together until after nightfall. It’s going to be another day without an opportunity. It’ll be… day four.
“Cool,” I whisper quietly, staring up at the ceiling. “Cool, cool cool cool cool…”
It’s to the point that just thinking about this is drawing the fever back over my body. I feel so unbelievably open and sensitive to every sensation that reaches me.
The gentle breeze from the window feels like Aiden caressing my face. The sudden spike of color rising in my cheeks feels as hot as bonfire heat. The magnetism of Aiden’s body feels like a powerful, physical current that I couldn’t break out of even if I wanted to. I’m helplessly hooked on it. It's stirring up a fiery restlessness that runs all over me and all through me, that I can almost feel sparking and snapping in the air around us.
All of my nerves are peaked, on tiptoe, waiting with bated breath. And they have been for days.
Aiden stirs in his sleep again. I lift my hands so he can move freely. Sometimes he’ll rearrange us both without waking up, and I always like how that leaves us, so I let him.
This time he takes me - his huge hands nearly spanning my waist - and gently rolls me over onto my stomach. He settles himself down half on top of me, nestling his knee into the back of mine. The heat of him seeps into me, his heart beats against the back of my ribs, his breath breaks against the nape of my neck, and -
“Oh.” I let out a soft, whispering laugh, feeling the state he’s in. “Having nice dreams, huh?”
“Jamie,” he sighs softly.
I stop still, caught by surprise. Aiden’s voice is all husky, growling, rough and raw around the edges. My breath catches, my body responding to hearing his voice like that instantly and powerfully. That rich purr only comes out in specific situations.
“Aiden?” The blush in my cheeks deepens. “Are you awake?”
No answer.
“Oh my god,” I whisper helplessly, holding a tight fistful of the bedding.
He’s even teasing me in his sleep, now. And he doesn’t even know he’s doing it.
I bite the inside of my cheek very hard. It hurts, but not enough to distract me, not at all.
Unable to resist, I arch my back, lift my hips, and rub myself against Aiden. A tiny movement, but right at the place where I know it’ll have the strongest effect.
Aiden makes a soft sound in his sleep - the tiniest, sharp little intake of breath - then presses himself against me, sinking me deeper into the bedding. Fitted together the way we are, I feel the response from his body, the subtle tremor.
I tighten my grasp on the blankets, then swallow hard, aching and helpless, pinned there and unable to do anything.
All I can do is try to get some sleep, but at the moment that’s a tall order. I can barely make myself hold still, even when Aiden eventually rolls off of me and turns on his side. Whenever I do manage to fall asleep, I descend into sweet, sexy dreams, then wake up again with a jolt, panting. Over and over and over again, until I glance at the window and see that the sky has turned the pale blue color of dawn.
I should feel exhausted, but I’m still wide awake.
I run an anguished hand through my hair, then slip out of bed, pull on my wool knit shorts and one of Aiden’s sweaters. I pick up my phone, then stare down at the notifications in confusion.
There’s an email from Gabby, sent last night.
Reminder about our meeting with the university people, first thing tomorrow morning! I know you have it on your calendar but after the busy wedding weekend I thought I’d just make sure you didn’t forget. This is the only time they can do it, so don’t be late!😊
I reread the email in total bafflement before I realize that I picked up Aiden’s phone, not mine. He mentioned to me that he had an early meeting this morning, but I completely forgot about it.
Meetings, work, the real world - it all feels so far away when I’m cozied up with my Companion Plant in our bedroom.
I find my phone, then pad downstairs quietly. I let myself out into the back garden and begin to pace, my bare feet crunching on the cold, damp green grass.
Birds start to rouse themselves and cheep softly as the sky slowly grows brighter. The air is chilly, but that’s fine. I’m trying to calm down, to get some of the scorching heat out of my cheeks.
The restlessness in me is mounting to something almost beyond my control.
I stop and look down at my phone, hoping for a good distraction. I’ve got a few notifications, but my eyes hone in on one from Aiden. He left me a voicemail yesterday while he was at work, right after I visited him on my break. I haven’t listened to it yet. I only noticed it when we were already back together again for the night, and he didn’t bring it up, so I assumed it was about something we’d since discussed in person.
But I want to hear his voice, so I press play and put my phone to my ear, hugging myself in the cold dawn.
I freeze to the spot as soon as Aiden starts speaking into my ear.
“Hey, Little Demon,” he purrs quietly, the deep rumble of his voice teasing and playful. “It’s about… twenty minutes after you left. I can’t stop thinking about you, no matter how fuckin’ hard I try.”
He breathes out a soft, unwound, intimate laugh.
“So I thought I’d call you and tell you what I want to do to you, as soon as I get you alone.”
I stand there with my fingers pressed over my mouth and my eyes very wide, listening to the voicemail in frozen silence. A deep, blazing blush spreads through my cheeks and across my nose, my toes curling on the grass. My breath stops in my chest.
“To be continued tonight,” Aiden finishes, the rich bass of his voice hiding nothing about his intentions. “Can’t wait to get home. I love you.”
My phone goes quiet, but I stand there for a long time, unmoving. Then I slowly lower my phone and turn to look up at our bedroom windows.
The desire in me is storming at hurricane force.
Oh, my god. If I had listened to this voicemail when I’d gotten it, I would have been at work. Helpless to do anything about anything for the remaining hours until Aiden and I were alone together. Aiden did that on purpose. I know he did that on purpose, knowing exactly what it would do to me.
Was that payback for how much I’ve been teasing him? Or - is he curious about how far we can push each other before we literally can’t help ourselves?
Was he trying to make me break first?
A competitive fire lights up in my heart, courses through my veins. Probably the only thing that could make me resist Aiden any longer.
If he was trying to make me break first, well - two can play at that game.
I stand there with my whole body charged up, thinking fast. I check the time on my phone. There’s about an hour before Aiden needs to start getting ready for work, if he’s not going to miss that meeting. And it sounds like it’s something Gabby considers important, so I know he won’t.
I have one hour.
I go back inside and directly to our bedroom.
Aiden isn’t sleeping as peacefully as he was before. He’s kicked off the blankets, his chestnut hair in a messy tumble on the pillow. His eyebrows are slightly knitted, one hand reached out to my side of the bed.
He must sense that I’m not there, and it’s starting to wake him up, which means - he’s all recharged from yesterday’s rescue.
I let my eyes wander over the bedroom, searching for ideas. They stop on the two navy blue ties laid out on the dresser. The ones we forgot to wear with our suits for the wedding.
I take off Aiden’s sweater and toss it aside, so that I’m only in my shorts, which sit low on my hip bones. I snag one of the ties - mine - from the dresser, then stop before the bed, looking down at Aiden.
Before I can move, he takes a deep breath. His hand feels around on my side of the bed for a second, comes up empty. He rubs his face drowsily, then sits up on one elbow. His blue eyes slowly flutter open.
He goes very still when he sees me standing there looking at him. His gaze roves over me, very fast, then darts back up to meet mine.
“Hey,” he rumbles after a moment, his deep voice rough with sleep. “What-?”
He cuts himself off, watching as I sink to my knees on the bed and come towards him.
In the utter silence and stillness of our bedroom, I place myself on Aiden, spread my hands on either side of his neck, and stare right down into his eyes. He gazes up at me in the dusky light, blinking hard and fast. His breathing is picking up, his pupils overtaking the blue in his rapt eyes.
He puts his hands to my thighs, gives them a hard squeeze through the soft wool, his thumbs stroking my hip bones.
He looks very awake now. But I want to be sure he’s just as awake as I am.
I drop my mouth to the graceful slope of muscle where his shoulder meets his neck. I brush a feather-light, grazing, lingering little kiss onto it. Then I sink my teeth into it deeply, hard enough to leave a mark. As hard as I know he can take it, which also happens to be exactly as hard as he likes it.
Aiden takes in a sharp, stuttering gasp, his hands tightening their grasp on me. A shudder runs down the entire length of his body, like he’s one of the shivering, wind-tumbled leaves in the garden.
I draw back to look down at him. The fire in his blue eyes is burning hot as immolation, and a searing scarlet blush is deepening across his nose and cheeks.
I come dangerously close to abandoning myself to his arms. I just barely manage to hold myself back.
Aiden leans up, already starting to pant, his mouth seeking mine. I press a finger over his lips, and he stops, caught by surprise.
I use that finger to push him flat onto his back, then slowly drag the tip of it over his soft lips. Aiden stares up at me, his chest rising and falling heavily, his eyes glittering with desire.
I push my fingertip against his lips, sinking in some pressure. His mouth opens for me, and I bow my face over his, then stop just short of kissing him. So close that he’s already closed his eyes, waiting.
“You like a challenge, don’t you, Callahan?” I whisper, our parted lips brushing together with every word.
Aiden’s eyes flutter open again as I draw back. He blinks in surprise, then stares at me as I pick up the tie from where I’d dropped it on the bed.
I knot it tightly to the headboard, then hold out a hand to Aiden. He stares at me for another moment, then puts his hands in mine.
He doesn’t resist as I push them up over his head and bind him so that the insides of his wrists are together, his fingers in the blankets, his elbows spread open.
He watches me the whole time, the fire in his eyes now burning hot enough that I almost expect it to put off sparks.
I make sure that the knot around his hands is tight, but not complicated.
“Call that a challenge, Keane?” Aiden rumbles, as I drop back down onto his lap. “All I’d have to do to get free is move my hands. You didn’t even double-knot it.”
“Exactly.” I drag my knuckles over his rich stubble, then take his jaw in my hand. “You could undo the knot, but you’re not allowed to undo the knot. Even a little, even by accident. So you better keep your hands very, very still.”
I feel the instant spike of heat that moves through Aiden’s body, the stumble of his pulse.
“Think you can do that?” I murmur, stroking his iron-hard jawline with my thumb.
“Yeah,” he breathes, looking up at me with eager eyes, his pupils fully blown out.
I smile at him, then surge forward and kiss him. A hard, intense, deep kiss, forceful and fiery. I bury my tongue in his mouth and sink my weight into him.
A spasm of pleasure makes Aiden’s body tremble beneath me, his every muscle taut and rigid, the heat flowing from him turning up in temperature. A thin, hoarse sound escapes from his mouth into mine.
I make the kiss last, fusing our mouths together, tasting his tongue until I’m on the verge of losing control, myself - then break it off.
Aiden is panting hard when I sit back. He closes his eyes, his cheeks burning hot enough to scald, his chest rising and falling fast with his heavy breaths.
But the knot is still tight around his wrists. He’s gripping the headboard now, holding on tightly.
I get off of him and climb out of the bed. He watches as I slip out of my wool shorts and toss them aside. His ocean eyes are blazing with naked hunger as they roam over me - starving. He’s looking at me like he could devour me with his gaze alone.
His fingers twitch when my shorts land softly on the floor, but he manages to keep his hands still. I can tell that he’s sinking a huge amount of effort into not moving, into not reaching for me.
I get back into bed slowly, back onto Aiden even more slowly. With his arms like this, his biceps are exposed, turned out to me. I graze my fingertips over them very lightly. Aiden swallows, another little tremor moving through him.
I set to work on really, truly driving Aiden crazy.
I let my kisses fall all over him, my open mouth on his throat, his collarbones, his chest, his lower stomach, those divots of muscle at his hips. I let my hand go everywhere, following the responses I get back, every shudder and jolt and throb of Aiden’s body.
I sink tenderness, love, and fire into every touch. I kiss Aiden so deeply that eventually he leaves his mouth open for me, waiting for me to come back so he can have more. His feet are flexing and unflexing, his heels digging into the bed.
I take my time, going achingly slow, but never letting up. An unbroken chain of sensation, each one leading right into the next. I don’t pause the movements of my fingers when I bend to whisper in Aiden’s ear.
My hands and mouth know him so well that I can follow his rhythm. I keep him as close to the edge as possible, the place where the slightest push would make him snap and lose control. I keep going like I could keep him going forever, swimming endlessly in this, licking and nibbling him, placing lingering, sucking little kisses up the inside of his thighs…
Going no further, doing nothing more than that. But that doesn’t seem to matter.
Aiden looks like he’s struggling hard not to start writhing beneath me. His velvet skin is burning hot everywhere I touch it, slick from my tongue. His cheeks are on fire. Soft, gasped curses fall from his lips, every now and then a shuddering moan. His breaths are ragged, his body trembling, arching towards my mouth. His hazy eyes are watching everything I do, everything.
I breathe oxygen into the flames until I see Aiden’s fingers starting to twitch, until I know he’s going to lose control of himself, until I sense him getting close to a breaking point - then ease up, fall back. Over and over.
I know that even with how hard Aiden is fighting against himself, he’s not going to be able to just lay here and take it any longer. He badly wants more, but I want him needing more -
A bolt of Heliomancer lightning flashes over us.
“Jamie,” Aiden moans, his breathless voice raw with desire, his every panted word hoarse and tortured. “Can’t - I can’t - I have to-”
But just as his hands start to move against the knot, his phone alarm goes off.
Timed it perfectly, I think hazily to myself, realizing that I was just about to cave, too.
Aiden’s eyes blink open. He turns his head to glance at his phone, then turns sharply back to look at me as I climb off of him.
“Oh, right,” I say, all innocent, trying to pretend I’m not in the exact same kind of frenzy he is. “You’ve got that important meeting this morning, don’t you?”
“What - I - n- it’s-” Aiden stares up at me, mounting desperation in his eyes. “But-”
“Let’s see… how did you do?”
I lean up to look at the tie. Aiden did his best to keep still, but the knot came undone. Just barely.
I stare at it, break into a little smirk, then bend to kiss Aiden’s mouth.
“To be continued tonight,” I murmur, then slip out of the bed and head for the shower.
I lean against the shower wall beneath the hot water, trying to catch my breath. I’m just as worked up as Aiden, maybe even more, and he literally couldn’t even touch me.
A few minutes pass before I calm down enough to open my eyes. I find Aiden leaning against the bathroom doorway in his sweatpants, his arms crossed, his smoldering blue eyes watching me through the glass.
“That was your response to my voicemail, wasn’t it?”
I give Aiden a little smile over my shoulder, and he huffs out a soft laugh, nods like he knew it. Competitive fire flares up in his gaze.
He slowly pushes himself upright, crosses to the shower, and opens the door.
I blink in surprise as Aiden takes me firmly by my jaw. He leans into the shower and locks me into a rough, hungry kiss that briefly whites out my mind. I start to melt towards Aiden, but he breaks it off before I can get any closer.
“You’re going down, Keane,” he rumbles, dragging the tip of his nose over mine. “It’s my turn, next.”
He brushes one more kiss onto my mouth, then leaves me alone in the shower to think about that.
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