“It’s not that you’re too heavy. It’s just this is harder than I thought it would be in the water.”

“Aw, but you’re my hero now for sure!” She then brought her lips to his cheek. She kissed a trail down to his jaw before nipping and licking her way over to his lips. She moved her h*ps against his groin.

“Damn, Em,” he murmured gripping his hands tighter against her ass.

“Am I getting you worked up?”

“Oh hell yes.”

“Good.” She thrust her tongue into his mouth, seeking out his warmth. She let his dance teasingly over hers. Then like a flick of a switch, they turned from teasing each other to ravaging each other’s mouths.

Once Aidan stepped out on shore, he held Emma tight as he sank to his knees, causing her to squeal as she was pitched back. “You okay?” he asked. She glanced up at him. The full moon cast a halo around his head, making him appear momentarily angelic.

“I’m fine now.” She widened her legs to allow him to ease between them. “Make love to me, Aidan.”

He stared intently into her eyes, and she knew the fact she had used the term making love had not been lost on him. “Whatever you want, babe,” he replied with his usual cocky smirk.

When he thrust into her, she cried out and gripped his shoulders tight. He moved slowly, tenderly within her. His tongue mirrored the movements of his languorous strokes while his hands cupped one of her br**sts, bringing the nipple to a hardened peak.

Just as she was so close to coming, he changed his pace and began rocking harder and harder against her, causing the sand and twigs beneath her to dig into her back. He shook her in his arms. “No, not like that. Be gentle with me, Aidan,” she murmured.

Slowly she was sucked out of making love on the shore and back into Aidan’s bedroom. Someone was shaking her. No, Aidan was shaking her.

“Em, wake up.”

Her eyelids fluttered open to stare up at his concerned face. “What happened?”

His hand left her shoulder to cup her cheek. “You were moaning. I think you were having a nightmare or something.”

“No, I was about to come,” she mumbled drowsily.

“Excuse me?”

Suddenly she was wide awake. Her hands flew to cover her face that burned with mortification. “Oh God.”

Aidan chuckled beside her. “Em, you naughty girl. Were you moaning because you were having a sex dream?”

Ignoring him, she rolled over to her side. She fluffed the pillow and flopped back down.

“Wait a minute. When you said, ‘Be gentle with me Aidan’, that wasn’t about me waking you, was it?”

“I’m going back to sleep now.”

He nudged her shoulder playfully. “Oh come on, Emma. Admit it. You were dreaming about ha**ng s*x with me.” His voice vibrated with pleasure. “I must’ve been good if you were about to come.”

She snorted exasperatedly. “I’m surprised you’re even asking about how good you were. Don’t you always think you’re amazing?”

His hand snaked around her shoulder, rolling her back over. With one arm on the other side of her head, she was pinned beneath him and forced to face him. “You’re the only woman in the world I want to be amazing in bed for or to give mind-blowing, multiple orgasms to.” He shook his head. “No one else, I swear.”

Staring into his eyes, she brushed the back of her hand over the stubble on his cheek. “You need to shave,” she murmured.

Aidan arched his eyebrows. “You don’t want me to grow it out? Maybe have a goatee or a beard?”

“No, I like it just the way it is.”

“Then I’ll shave. For you.”

Overwhelmed by her burning feelings for him and still reeling from her sex dream, Emma leaned up and brought her lips to his. Aidan immediately froze, and she felt like she was kissing a marble statue. When her mouth opened to slide her tongue against his lips, he slowly started to thaw. Her hand that had been caressing his cheek slipped into his hair. She ran her fingers through the silky strands, tugging and pulling as she went just like her teeth did to his bottom lip.

Aidan gave a low moan in the back of his throat as he thrust his tongue into her mouth. God, she had missed the feel of his mouth on hers—his tongue dancing tantalizingly along hers. Desire pooled below her waist, and she knew she wanted him more than ever before.

He moved his hand from her shoulder to her breast, kneading and cupping the sensitive flesh through her nightgown. She widened her legs, allowing his h*ps to dip between them.

But when he started to lift the hem of her nightgown, Emma’s eyes flew open as reality, rather than a dream, crashed over her. “Wait, Aidan no!”

He pulled his head from her neck to stare at her with eyes hazy and drunk with desire. “Please tell me this isn’t because you don’t want to do this, but it’s because we’ve both just realized the doctor said not to?”

She nodded. “I’m not even supposed to have an orgasm because it can cause contractions.”

He smirked at her. “Then it was a good thing I woke you from the sex dream, huh?”

Blushing, she gave a half-laugh. “I guess so.” As he pulled himself off of her, she said, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We both got carried away.” He smiled as he snuggled against her. “Besides, it may not be as physically gratifying just to hold you all night, but there’s nothing I’d rather do.”

Emma groaned. “Why do you have to say things like that?”

“What?”

She lowered her gaze. “You keep saying and doing all these amazing things. It confuses me.”

“You want me to be an ass**le or something?”

“No, of course not.”

“Oh I get it. You want me to be the old, self-centered Aidan, so it’s easier for you not to feel what you do.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But don’t you want me to change?”

“I fell in love with the old Aidan, remember?”

He growled in frustration. “But don’t you want me to be a better man for you and for Noah?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then let me say and do what I want.”

“Fine.”

They lay in silence a few moments. “You’re really never going to forgive me, are you?” Aidan asked.

“Wait, where did that come from?”

He rose up into a sitting position. “Everything I’ve done for you in the past eight days, everything I’ve said, all the apologies, trying to make it right…it hasn’t meant shit to you, has it?”