“Oh.” I stared down the hall, anticipating walking in there with him. My pulse raced. Up until this point I hadn’t been nervous about having sex with Aidan because in our little prelude, it hadn’t even crossed my mind to care. We were so caught up in each other.

But now I felt little nervous butterflies join the ones that fluttered around with anticipation. From what I could deduce, Aidan Lennox had been around. Even without the twelve more years of sexual experience than I had, he’d still be more sexually experienced. I’d only ever slept with Jim, and I never got the impression Jim was dissatisfied. Yet that was different, because Jim was in love with me. What if I wasn’t enough for a guy like Aidan? What if I didn’t know enough?

“Wine?” Aidan suddenly asked.

My gaze flew to his and I could see his brow was a little furrowed, as if he was wondering what I was thinking. “Wine?”

“Would you like a glass of wine?”

How did I tell him I wasn’t a wine kind of gal?

“No to the wine?”

“Do you have beer instead?”

Aidan grinned and started toward the kitchen. I hurried after him and he glanced over his shoulder at me while he pulled two bottles out of his fridge, popped them open, and handed me one. The cold bottle made me shiver. Or it could have been the heat in Aidan’s eyes that had never really eased from the second he’d let me in the door.

“I’m not sophisticated,” I blurted out before I could think about what I was revealing. “I’m from a tiny town, I didn’t go to college, I married at eighteen, we lived a simple life, I still live a simple life, and I’ve never been anywhere else but Indiana and Scotland.” I let out a shaky breath. “And I drink beer.”

I could tell Aidan was trying not to laugh and I didn’t get what was funny until he said, “You’re fucking perfect.”

Jim had thought so too. “No one’s perfect.”

“You are to me.”

“Such a sweet talker.”

“Only with you.”

And I think I believed him. “Why?” I wasn’t looking for compliments, I merely wanted to understand. “I’m not filled with false modesty, Aidan. I really have no clue what Jim saw in me. I know I’m not ugly, but it was like he got struck by a thunderbolt when we met. And then he never stopped loving me. But why? Because he didn’t really know me. I sometimes think he loved a version of me he’d made up in his head. And now you. You say you want me too.” I gestured to all that was him. “You’ve seen you, right?”

This time he did grin. “Have you always been this funny?”

“I’m being serious.”

At my tone, his amusement fled. “I’m not Jim. Did you have this connection with him?”

I shook my head sadly.

“Then there’s the difference. What I feel is sparked by what you feel, and vice versa. No one can explain attraction, Nora. It’s there or it isn’t. As for Jim … I’ll never really know what made him fall for you but I can guess. You have a wise, soulful quality, as if you’ve seen more than most your age. It gives you a maturity I’ve rarely encountered in someone as young as you. And yet whatever that is, it’s mixed with innocence and vulnerability that I don’t think you even realize is there. And you’re petite, Pixie,” his gaze dragged down my body hungrily, “feminine in every way. That fragility, along with your appearance … well, it makes a certain kind of man want to protect you—it brings out the caveman in him.”

I raised an eyebrow, having never regarded myself in that way before. I didn’t feel fragile. Vulnerable, yes, sometimes, but not fragile. The thought that men somehow saw me as weak, irked. It more than irked that Aidan might be attracted to me because he thought I needed his protection. “Are you that kind of man?”

“I’m not going to lie—it definitely caught my attention when I first saw you. But as I’ve gotten to know you? No, that’s not the appeal. I’ve never been interested in dating someone your age. I like my women smart, mature, and intelligent as well as sexy. You’re all those things. And anyone who really knows you realizes quickly that you don’t need anyone to protect you. You just need someone to listen. To see who you really are.”

And he was so right. I thought of my parents and how I spoke and they never really listened, and how Jim was the same. How Seonaid tried but Jim always got in the way.

Aidan was the first person I’d met since Mel who really listened. He was the first person since Mel who I wanted to give all of my thoughts to. Like he’d given his secret thoughts to me.

“I think that’s what you need too.”

“Exactly.”

I took a swig of my beer because I felt too much and I was scared it was all about to come spewing out. My eyes flew around the room, looking for a distraction, and it caught on the piano. Walking around the kitchen counter, I made my way over to it. I reached out to touch its shiny black lacquered surface and then pulled my hand back.

“Do you play?” Aidan asked as he followed me over.

I shook my head and looked up at him. “Will you play something for me?”

He reached for my beer and I gave it up, bemused. Aidan walked back over to the kitchen counter and put them down, and I felt the tension emanating off him as he strode back to me.

Suddenly, I was in his arms and his hands were smoothing down my back and over my ass, pulling me into him. “Later,” he promised. “Right now, I’d rather play you.”

My heart rate took off as I clutched him, my whole body swelling into him with need. “What about our drinks and not jumping on me like a sex-starved teenager?”

“Here’s something you should know about me, Pixie.” He bent his head to brush his mouth over mine, just a whisper, a tease. “I can be a selfish fuck when I want something.”

My hands slid around his neck. “As long as you’re not a selfish fuck, I don’t care.”

His body shook with laughter and his arms tightened around me. “Have I told you lately how much I like you?”

I grinned back. “I like you too.”

“And I’m definitely not a selfish fuck,” he growled. He kissed me hard and then pulled back. “I promised my head between your legs and I meant it.”

A strong ripple of desire flooded my belly, making me wet. “Aidan,” I breathed, holding on tighter, fearing my legs wouldn’t keep me standing much longer.

He groaned and kissed me, lifting me easily into his arms so I could wrap my legs around his thighs. Kissing me voraciously, he began walking us blindly toward the back of the apartment. Any nervousness I’d felt was, like last time, obliterated by my body’s craving for him.

“Oh my God.”

The strange, feminine voice filled with shock drew us apart near the kitchen, our heads flying toward the apartment door. It was now open and a beautiful, tall, curvaceous blond was gaping at us in stunned silence as she held a key in one hand and grocery bag in the other.

“Laine.” Aidan slowly dropped me to the floor but I kept clinging to him, confused by the sudden appearance of this gorgeous creature. Who the hell was she?

She wore a casual navy and white maxi dress that hugged her generous curves and flat sandals with little crystals decorating the straps; her long blond hair fell around her shoulders in silky, tousled waves, and her makeup was done to perfection. She really was quite something to look at.

And she obviously had a key to Aidan’s apartment.

At that realization, I tried to pull away but he held on.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Laine closed the door behind her, having apparently gathered her wits after walking in on us. “I wanted to see you and I brought dinner. I’m sorry.” She stopped in front of us, giving me a small, apologetic smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I didn’t think you’d have company. You said in your text that Sylvie was with her dad tonight.” After lowering the grocery bag to the floor, she reached out a hand to me and Aidan finally let me go so I could accept it. “I’m Laine, Aidan’s best friend.”