Muscle for Hire(66)

He stopped when she stiffened the second his hand closed over the doorknob.

Not again. Not again.

Aslin turned to her, slowly, his fingers never releasing hers. “What’s wrong?”

She drew a deep breath, fighting to keep her heart under control. “I…” She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say she was apprehensive.

Scared.

Studying her for a silent minute, his body as still as hers, he finally released his grip on the doorknob and turned to face her fully. “Perhaps room service is a better idea.”

Prickling anger sliced through her. Anger at her woeful state. Anger at the unknown person who’d made her this way. Anger at her inability to deal with it. She drove her nails into her palms and ground her teeth. “You think I’m scared? That I can’t walk through the door?”

Aslin shook his head, closing the small distance between them with a single step before framing her jaw with his hands. “I think you’ve forgotten what I once was. A soldier. I’ve been in more than one explosion, Hemsworth. I was in a Pinzgauer in Afghanistan that hit a mine and flipped three times, almost killing us all in the process. I know about PTS. It took me for sodding ever to climb back into a truck after that without breaking out in a sweat and having heart palpitations. But I did. And I know you will open a door. You’re too strong, too stubborn not to.” He stroked his thumb over her bottom lip, his gaze holding hers. “But until you’re ready, I’m not remotely interested in what’s on the other side of that door.”

A choking lump filled Rowan’s throat and she sucked in a soft breath, her chest aching. “I feel so…so…”

“Shhh,” he whispered, a gentle smile playing with the corner of his mouth. “It’s not important right now.”

Rowan frowned, wishing to fuck she could stop shaking. Oh God, where did this wonderful man come from? And how was she so lucky he fell in love with her? “What is important?”

His smile grew into a slow grin and he lowered his head closer to hers. “Making love to you. Stripping you out of these sexy-arse shorts and boots and making love to you. Not doors and whether they are opened or not. Doors and what’s on the other side have no bearing on what really matters—us. Understand?”

He kissed her before she could respond. A little harder this time, but not much.

Not enough for Rowan. She slid her palms up his chest, tangled her fingers in his hair and parted her lips to his mouth, deepening the kiss.

A low growl rumbled in Aslin’s chest. He stole his hands around her waist, bunching the material of her shirt at the small of her back. He swiped his tongue over hers, once, twice, and then he pulled away and stared down into her upturned face, his breath shaky. “Gentle, love. You’ll hurt your—”

“Fuck gentle.” She fisted her hands tighter in his hair and pressed her hips to his. “I’m done with gentle. I want you inside me. And I don’t want you to hold back. Understand, soldier boy?”

Aslin claimed her lips again, and this time there was nothing tender about the kiss. He feasted on her mouth, his tongue wild as it mated with hers. She groaned, the pleasure of his touch already a salve to the minute pain in her lip. She dragged her hands down over his shoulders, across the broad expanse of his chest. His pec muscles coiled beneath her palms, a reflex action that flooded her pussy with eager moisture. She dragged her thumbs over his nipples, loving the way he groaned in response. He swirled his tongue over hers, smoothed his hands down to her butt. With steady pressure, he began walking, guiding her backward as he continued to worship her lips with his kiss.

Four steps later, Rowan’s calves bumped the edge of bed.

She knew what Aslin was going to do without needing to ask. His lips moved from hers, trailing a path of wicked kisses down her throat as he slowly lowered her back to the mattress. A small part of her wanted to demand he throw her on the bed, the way he would if she wasn’t still recovering, another more rational part loved that he didn’t. He was giving her what she wanted and still caring for her. There was nothing better, more perfect than that.

As soon as her back rested on the bed, he captured her breasts with his mouth and hands. He suckled on one erect nipple through the cotton of her shirt as his fingers pinched and rolled the other. She moaned, her eyes fluttering closed at the pleasure radiating through her.

Overwhelming her.

“More, Aslin,” she murmured. “I need more.”

He complied. Before the plea finished falling from her lips, he’d nudged the hemline of her shirt high with a firm hand, his kiss exploring the flat plane of her belly he’d revealed. She hitched in a breath and pushed her hips upward.