He was one to talk. The sight of him sprawled beneath her, the muscles in his arms corded with the effort of keeping her balanced, the unadulterated hunger and desire etched on his face …

And just like that, the pressure inside her built and then exploded. As he followed her over she fell forward onto his chest again, burrowing into him. Murmuring her name in that husky voice she loved, he hugged her in close and they drifted back to sleep together.

Lily woke up with a smile on her face. It’d been a week since Aidan had shown up at her place injured, and she’d woken up with a smile every single day since.

She was alone in her bed now, but Aidan hadn’t been gone all that long, and he’d left her boneless and satisfied as always.

She stretched, feeling her muscles ache in the best of ways after the night before, when he’d brought her fantasy to life showing up with ropes and some very … naughty uses of them.

And then he’d made her write a list of more fantasies, which had brought out that wicked, badass smile of his and a promise to make every one of them come true.

She reached for her charging phone on the nightstand and checked her email out of habit. But the truth was, she’d stopped worrying about the lack of hits on her resume awhile ago. She was actually loving being back in Cedar Ridge. She wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but it led her to the reason she felt happy.

Aidan.

In spite of her initial hesitancy, she’d taken him into her bed and it had forever changed what he meant to her.

Whatever that was.

But it wasn’t a mystery how he felt about her. She thought of how he looked at her, how he always seemed to be looking at her as if he couldn’t help himself. How he was there whenever she needed him.

And then there’d been the “I love you.” Hard to discount that. Aidan never said something he didn’t mean.

Never.

Her heart rolled over in her chest, exposing its tender underside as it tended to do in all matters Aidan, leaving her … vulnerable.

And both giddy and terrified at the same time.

She needed to relax. Some people did that with yoga, or meditation, or even a trip to the spa. Lily was starting to learn, or maybe it was her remembering, that she felt most at peace on the mountain. She put on her hiking clothes and, as she had every day since getting the package, added Ashley’s scarf. Today there was a wind that made her glad for the added protection.