“Aggie.”
The sound of her name ripped her from the dream, and she woke with a scream on her lips. Her head was pounding with a vicious headache, her body was drenched in sweat and shaking violently. “Just a dream,” she murmured. “Just a dream.”
Nick said the same words, “Just a dream, Aggie. You're safe.”
Conscious of her surroundings once more, she saw that Nick had pulled the car over to the side of the road. His handsome face was creased in concern, and he reached for her, undoing her seatbelt and easing her over the center console and into his lap. She felt like she was losing it, like she was suffering some sort of delayed reaction to the trauma of her assault. It had been four days, but she seemed to be getting worse not better.
“I'm so sorry, Aggie,” he whispered into her hair as he held her close against him. “I'm so sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she asked, confused. “You didn’t have anything to do with me getting attacked. Yousavedme.”
“We have to talk, there’s something I need to explain to you.”
“Okay.” She rested her head on his shoulder. When he put the car back in gear and returned his hands to the steering wheel, she said, “You can't drive with me on your lap.”
“My house is only two streets over and I don’t want to let you go.”
“You’ll get a ticket if you get caught,” she protested half-heartedly, staying on Nick’s lap was staying exactly where she wanted to be.
“Don’t you worry about that.”
“It’s not safe,” she said, but he had already started driving, so she just burrowed in against him and tried to get warm.
They were at his house in no time. Nick parked in his driveway and climbed out of the car with her in his arms. He carried her inside, juggling her from arm to arm to get the door unlocked and opened. He set her down in his living room and sat beside her on the couch. From the way he looked at her, Aggie knew that he wanted to talk, tell her whatever it is he’d mentioned earlier. But right now, she didn’t want to talk, she didn’t want to think, she just wanted to feel. She wanted to let go, to be free, free from fear and free from anxiety. She wanted that sense of peace back, the sense of peace she had felt last night as she lay in Nick’s arms. Only this time she wanted to be closer to him. She wanted their bodies to be physically joined together.
“Aggie, I …”
She broke him off by pressing her mouth to his, her hands fumbling with the buttons of his shirt.
Grabbing hold of her wrists, he pinned them against his chest. “Aggie, wait,” he said breathlessly.
Pausing only momentarily, she tilted her head and eyed him with an arched brow. “You don’t want to?”
Unable to hide the hunger in his eyes, he nodded slowly. “Oh, I want to, but we need to talk first.”
“No. No talking. I love you, you love me. Ineedthis. I needyou. Please.” She kissed him again, deeper this time, more passionately.
Nick groaned, muttered something she didn’t catch, then released her wrists and picked her up again. Aggie wrapped her legs around his waist and continued to kiss him, her hands twisted into his hair and held his face to hers. He was already hard, his length pressed against her core as though it too wished there weren’t layers of clothing between them.
She didn’t remember how they got to his room, she was consumed with the need to have Nick inside her. To have him become part of her.
In his bedroom, he let her feet slide to the ground, his fingers trailed up her arms, over her shoulders, and around to the back of her neck, leaving a trail of tingling fire everywhere they touched.
“Are you sure?” He paused, giving her the chance to back out if she wanted to. But she didn’t want to.
“Do you love me?” She asked the only question that mattered, the only question to which an answer could change her mind and make her want to stop this before it went any further.
His dark blue eyes stared straight into hers. “Yes. I never expected to fall in love with you. But yes.”
Aggie smiled, feeling peace begin to trickle back inside her, clearing away the cobwebs of fear. Nick and Nick alone could do this for her. “Then I'm sure.”
At her words, he undid her zip and then slowly slid her dress down her body. His eyes grew wide with appreciation as he took in the sight of her. Before she could remove his clothes, he had her lying on her back on his bed. His mouth never left hers as one hand moved to her breast, fondling it as the fingers of his other hand tickled the sensitive skin of her stomach as they dropped down beneath the waistband of her underwear.
Aggie moaned contentedly into his mouth as one of his fingers swirled around her little bundle of nerves. Her body was already weeping for him, and he slipped a finger easily inside her.
“More,” she begged. She liked sex and had had her share of partners, although she considered it to be a fairly modest number, but never before had her body burned like this. Every inch of her felt hypersensitive, every touch exaggerated, every feeling amplified.
Nick obliged and added another finger, and then another, stretching her, preparing her to take him. His thumb rubbed a steady rhythm on her hard little bud, slow at first then increasing in speed.