He slowly entered her again, and she gasped with pleasure, thrashing beneath him and running her hands over his back. He loved her with slow deliberation, maintaining control, trying to increase her pleasure as she moved beneath him and her need and desire built. Her pulse roared in her ears as his mouth covered hers again in another hungry kiss that increased her need.
Caught in a compelling desire that drove her beyond thought to just react to every stroke and touch and kiss from him, she tugged him closer, moving faster beneath him.
Beaded in sweat, he rocked with her until she reached a pinnacle and burst over it, rapture pouring over her while she moved wildly. When his control ended, he thrust deeply and fast.
Arching against him, she shuddered with another climax. Letting go, she slowed as ecstasy enveloped her.
“Aaron, love,” she cried, without realizing what she had said.
Aaron groaned and finally slowed, his weight coming down partially on her. He turned his head to kiss her lightly.
While each gasped for breath, they lay wrapped in each other’s arms. Gradually, their breathing slowed until it was deep and regular. He rolled to his side, keeping her with him.
She opened her eyes to look at him and he kissed her lightly again.
“I don’t want to let go of you,” he whispered.
“I don’t want you to,” she answered, trailing her fingers over his chest, feeling rock-solid muscles. She kept her mind closed to everything except the present moment and enjoying being in his arms and having made love with him.
“Stella, if you would marry me, we could have this all the time,” he whispered, toying with a lock of her long hair.
She didn’t feel like talking and she didn’t care to argue, so she kept quiet, still stroking him.
They held each other in a silence that was comfortable for her. She suspected it was for him, too. She knew he wasn’t asleep because he continued to play with strands of her hair. He had to know she was awake, because she still ran her fingers lightly over him, touching, caressing, loving him.
“Before I commit to marriage, I will have to be deeply in love and so will you. If that happens, we’ll both know it and the rest of the world will know it. We’re not at that point. We’re not in love with each other,” she said, the words sounding bleak to her.
“I still say it could come in marriage.”
“I don’t want to take that chance,” she whispered, hoping she wasn’t throwing away her future and her baby’s future in a few glib sentences that were easy to say when she was being held close to his heart.
“Think about it. We’re good together, Stella.”
She raised herself slightly on her elbow, propping her head on her hand, and looked down at him. “You think about it. Do you want a marriage without love?”
Again, she got that look from him as if he had closed a door between them. She felt as if he had just gone away from her, almost as if he had left the room even though he was still right here beside her. An ache came to her heart. Aaron had closed himself off. There was a part of his life he wouldn’t share, and with time it could become a wedge between them.
She thought about asking him what made him withdraw into a shell, but she suspected that would only make him do so more and make things worse.