Almost at 4K and I am so grateful for the support on the last chapter! Votes and comments will always result in quicker, more frequent updates 💞 happy reading :)
[Note to re-readers:
23/09/2019 : this kiss scene has been heavily edited. I've wanted to change the published version for a while because I re-wrote it a long time ago. In the original scene I wrote, I was still getting the hang of their relationship/chemistry, and how I like to portray and detail Aidley's 'romantic' moments. I want to rework most of this book (it is a first draft) but for now I'll only be doing certain scenes/moments until I have more time on my hands.]
As always, don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoy! It's a free way to make me smile and show your support!
Thank you for reading!
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This was Marley's first kiss.
After Aiden pulled her to his chest, her heart was singing when pressed his lips against hers.
The next few beautiful, heart-stopping seconds were frozen in time. Neither moved in the moment after their lips touched. The feelings were indescribable. Marley was lost in them, lost in everything she felt like she'd been waiting for since the day she met him. This was everything he had ever made her feel, all at once. Heat. Pain. Hope. Hopeless. Faith. Happiness beyond happiness. Love. She wondered if he felt it too. She wondered if his world was falling apart, too.
Aiden's responding groan to their colliding energy was as encouraging as it was maddening. Beautiful as it was torturous.
He pressed her body against the gazebo with his, and shifted his lips against her own. Marley's eyes fluttered at the sweet friction, at the absolute bliss, her hands curling around the bars of the railing behind her when Aiden tightened his grip on her hips.
She hesitantly shifted her lips against his in an attempt to create a rhythm between them even with her lack of experience. It was so hard to think anything coherent. It was so hard to try to mimic his own skill when she was lost in the sparks. The love. But at her awakening, at her response, he truly came alive for her, his lips parted over her own, cupping her chin for deeper access. Kissing her soft, slow, before the yearning became deeper, more rushed, more eternal.
The fire between them was unreal. Marley was still trying to process the fact that this beautifully broken human loved her back, let alone this kiss. Let alone this intimacy that she could feel everywhere. In every move he made he radiated how eager he was for her, how much he wanted this as much as she did, and that only made her more confident, more hopeful.
"Christ, Marley," Aiden breathed in awe against her already swollen, tingling lips as he pressed his forehead against hers, pulling away for air as their chests heaved with heavy pants.
Marley blinked dumbly, stars in her vision and her blood racing hot and fast in her veins; she was speechless. For the first time in all her life, her overactive mind had stilled. She couldn't think. Couldn't speak for what was thrumming between them. No language alive or dead had a hope of translating this passion into a coherent thought, their passion.
Aiden's hands lifted from her waist but his body was pressed against hers enough that he could still keep her legs from giving out. They would have. Nothing in her was in working order right now. It all had stopped. Her heart. Her breath. Now both working in overtime to compensate for Aiden Matthews and his lips more electric than a live wire.
While they caught their breath, Aiden's hands circled her wrists still squeezing the railing for dear life. It was her anchor that wasn't him.
Her eyes flickered to his hold on her wrists before they locked on his blue ones, darker than she's ever seen them with a more knee-buckling, hooded gaze than ever. Aiden was focused so intensely on her parted, tingling lips like they'd changed him the way his changed her. It evoked a heated shiver down her spine, it intensified the flush across her skin.
She could only watch Aiden wrap her arms around his neck, his eyes never once leaving her mouth, before he was closing their distance all over again. Marley had no complaints. Neither needed to speak on it further. They didn't need words anymore. They found something deeper.
Aiden cupped her cheeks, his thumbs caressing sensually as he massaged her lips with his. Roughly and languidly. Expertly. Her lack of experience didn't stop him from making every second perfection, from tilting her jaw up with a confident touch.
Marley parted their lips to breathe again with all the reluctance in the world. Oxygen seemed like a waste of time now. Meaningless with his lips and his hands and his sounds were home and peace and everything she spent her life searching for.
Aiden pressed his thumb to the seam of her parted lips while she took heaving breaths, head spinning. The touch reached her everywhere. A low rumble left his chest before he was releasing her lip, leaning in to press his warm cheek to hers. "Do you have any idea," Aiden breathed huskily into her ear, his teeth grazing her lobe. Marley bit her lip against a gasp at the new feeling, "how long I've wanted to kiss you?"
"How long I've wanted to..." Aiden trailed off, his head dipping, his nose brushing lightly against her jawline. She tilted her head backwards as a helpless invitation, her hair falling away and exposing the olive tone skin of her smooth neck, "do this?"
Her breathing hitched, a gasp managing to escape her lips when she felt his press delicately right beneath her earlobe, applying the slightest bit of pressure.
Testing the waters. Making sure she was comfortable.
But at this point, she was so high on him, so in love, all she could think to want was more. More, more. More of this bliss. Her fingers sank into his hair, squeezing tightly. The action was instinct. She decided she loved how it felt, deciding Aiden liked it too when he smiled into her skin.
"This means the world to me. Never doubt that. I love you, spitfire," Aiden spoke into the skin of her throat, his teeth leaving goosebumps in their wake, his words soft and adoring, "I've always been in love with you."
She trembled in his hold at this soft, loving side of him only she gets to see. Only for her. Marley felt like she was experiencing a sensory overload — from physical to emotional and it was so overwhelming. Mostly because this wasn't...ordinary. Which she shouldn't have expected in the first place. From how intense her feelings are, how much of an affect he always has on her.
Nothing about Marley and Aiden has ever been ordinary.
Marley tugged on his hair, hard this time. It was a meaningful action. It was purpose-driven. She wanted him to kiss her again. In every kiss could taste everything authentically Aiden, his minty, pine scent wrapped around her like a warm blanket. His aftershave a smooth fruit. She could feel everything that she hadn't allowed herself to until tonight, and she was already so terribly addicted.
Aiden let her guide him away from her throat and back until they were face to face, not allowing her to want for long. Their next kisses were savouring. Aiden kissed her like he was memorizing her lips. It was so sweet it hurt her heart in a way that didn't feel broken. It felt like a healing.
Aiden's lips parted again, spearmint breath brushing over her mouth, but this time, something foreign, damp, a current, slipped along the seam of her lips. She wasn't sure what to do.
After another few seconds, Aiden paused their kiss to breathe against her lips, his voice sinfully throaty, and everything that hit her along the bottom of her spine, "Open up for me, spitfire."
"I-I-" she stuttered uselessly.
"Your lips." Aiden exhaled. It sounded like a beg and that twisted a knot in her stomach. He nuzzled his nose against hers in an unexpected act of gentle affection, "Part. Your. Lips."
She took a deep breath, her eyes half-shut when she tugged his hair again with a small nod to say she understood. Aiden's mouth was back on hers in the next second, but she froze when she felt what she knew was his tongue. She was awkward at the foreign, though not unpleasant feeling. Aiden sensed that she was nervous, pulling away to lock eyes with her.
"Do you want me to teach you? Or do you want to stop here?" He asked her seriously, his hold on her waist loosening.
Marley inhaled sharply. Air. She needed air. She processed his words, but any indecision flew out the window when she took in his swollen, reddened lips. All she could comprehend right now was how unbelievable they felt against her own. All she knew was that she felt brave. All she knew was that she wanted more of him.
"Teach me," she whispered shakily.
He leaned in once again at her permission, but the desire for slow was gone. Now that she was more confident, now that she knew how amazing it felt, Marley was the one to lose it this time — throwing every ounce of love and affection she had for him into the kiss.
His fingers gripped her chin to still her after a few moments, "Slow, baby." Aiden locked eyes with hers to establish his words. She blushed a bit in embarrassment at her eagerness, but his lips touched hers before she could overthink any further. He knows her so unbearably well.
Marley parted her lips when his tongue pushed against the seam of them after a few moments of soft, sweet kisses, the spearmint in his breath lighting up her taste buds in a strange familiarity. As if a part of her in her bones knew she was waiting for him. Marley was no longer nervous, only anticipatory of what was next, her hands kneading his hair, lifted on her tip toes. They belonged together. Gods, did they ever belong together.
Aiden slowly invaded her mouth and allowed her to adapt to the new feeling, to the new slow burn. His right hand left her face to hold the small of her back, a sensual, breathtaking journey down her body as if he knew her as much as she was foreign. The fabric of her two piece dress was thin. So thin she could feel the roughness on his fingertips, the warmth of his palms.
Gaining a rhythm was a slow climb, but once Marley was over the learning curve there was nothing left but bliss and hunger for the closest thing to heaven. Her fingers slid through Aiden's dark brown hair with none of the apprehensions she held minutes ago, tugging while she arched into his body for as much of his closeness as she could possibly get. Aiden's burning hands were everywhere — as if he'd been waiting to touch her his whole life.
He explored, he followed the dip in her hips and the curve of her spine. He left behind longing, love, nerves with new life and new feeling. He left behind spiritual devotion. He left behind wordless language. When she let out a soft sound into his open mouth, his intertwining groan was deeper, more sensual while his hands slid up her back to mould them together further, tangling in her hair.
The kiss heightened at the pace of Marley's comfortability. Aiden's mouth became as harsh as he was soft in the beginning, taking everything she had to give, not letting up again.
When her hands fluttered to cup his jaw he gripped her wrists without parting their lips once. They hit the gazebo wall above her head. He held them there, strong and certain. The air left her at the authoritative action, at the possession. While she caught her lost breath he kissed her neck brazenly, relentlessly. His control of the moment was absolute, caging her against the rest of the world. Against time. Against place. All Marley could do was rest her head against his forearm, eyes closed, lips parted, quaking every time his tongue darted out daringly, massaging her hot skin with excruciating relentlessness while the heat built in her racing heart and her lower stomach.
Aiden released her wrists and rested her hands on his chest when he coaxed her mouth open again, wasting no time in resuming what Marley was beginning to learn was an inflamed fight for dominance he merely humours the game of, before he inevitably wins like they both know he will. But it's the push and pull that's alluring, the back and forth that reels Marley into a space-time warp where only she and Aiden exist.
Their heated breath were in soft pants, and Marley's lips were beginning to tingle with a slight ache, but she never wanted to let him go. Not now. Not ever. Not when-
"Speaking on behalf of everyone who knows you guys: it's about goddamn time."
Aiden pulled away at the speed of light. Marley let out a loud shriek at the words that weren't hers or Aiden's. She was gasping for air and trembling, her lips aching and her hands pressed against the front of his chest in an act to separate them.
But it was all too late.
Because they were just interrupted — from the most passionate damn kiss in the whole world — by the one person in the said whole damn world, that would never let either of them live it down.
Leo Kahn.
"Beautiful form you two." he slow clapped from where he was leaned against the doorway to the house, green eyes twinkling teasingly "Nice rhythm. Excellent tongue action."
"Oh, gods," Marley whispered, mortified as she hid her head in her hands.
"Why don't you fuck off right now, man?" he replied stiffly, still sounding breathless.
She placed a hand on his arm, knowing it was a severe lapse in judgement on her part to start making out with him in the middle of the freaking open, at someone else's house — during a party of dozens of wandering teenagers.
"Give me a minute," she breathed out, "I'll be right there."
"Marley-"
"I said I'll be right there, okay? Take Leo inside. You can wait right at the doors."
He spent a few of her heaving pants studying her eyes, making sure she was alright. He saw something that reassured him enough to nod and pull away. As soon as he turned, she slumped against the gazebo, her lips tingling and throbbing, her body humming with energy.
She watched him lock a hand around his best friends' arm, yanking him behind him with a stiff back. Leo shot her a wink before he was tossed into the house, Aiden closing the door behind him.
Her smile at their friendship turned into one of glee at everything that happened with Aiden.
"I love you, my Spitfire."
She felt like her life had new meaning. Everything was brighter and more real and incredible. She turned away from the door, leaning her forearms in the same place in the gazebo she was before they had started to confess their love for each other.
Trying to remember what it was like to not be loved by him, kissed by him, for Aiden not to know how she felt.
Boring, inexperienced, naive, silly Marley Hoover had managed to get someone like Aiden Matthews crazy about her. Her! How on earth he found her blubbering, blushing, stuttering, awkward and broken mess love worthy was beyond her, when he could have any girl. And hell would any girl be lucky.
But she felt like asking too many questions would jinx it. And she wouldn't dream of jinxing this.
But look at the secrets, Marley. All of them.
Your father. Your mother. Your brother. Mr. Richardson. Your actual first kiss. Why you sleep in a closet. Everything.
But he loves you now, and he'll love you anyway.
She pressed her fingers to her lips, they were still tingling and swollen. She loved it.
But what if-
No!
When he-
No!
But he'll-
No!
She ran her hands through her hair to fix it, forcing her old toxic thought patterns to shove off and not ruin this for her. If she let them in, she'd be a crying, stuttering mess on the gazebo, convinced she made a huge mistake.
Marley wouldn't let her mind ruin this for her. Not this time.
She took a deep breath and allowed Aiden's love for her to warm up all of her cold places inside. Turning on her heel, she walked back to the glass doors.
"Marley?"
She paused, stopping mid-step at the choked sob from behind her. Whirling around at the speed of light, she blinked rapidly to try and see who was stumbling from the side of the house and towards the lit garden.
She was limping on her right leg, her blue dress torn in three places. Marley choked on air when her face came into view, black streaks of eye makeup down her cheeks, mixing with tears. Her arms wrapped around herself, sobbing and in hysterics. She had a few bruises on her legs and a deep gash on the right side of her forehead.
"Marley. I need your help!" She sobbed, her body trembling as she glanced behind her like she was chased.
Marley didn't hesitate to get to the familiar girl as fast as she could, shoving herself through the prickly thorn bushes, wincing at the pain in her calves.
The girl was swaying on her feet and collapsed into Marley's arms as soon as she could.
"Elena, shh. It's okay." she reassured shakily, "But we need to get you back to the house okay?"
Her stomach was twisting uncomfortably at their vulnerability. Elena was a drunk deadweight and Marley was defenceless because of that. She searched around the empty darkness fearfully as she adjusted Elena over her shoulder, trying to walk them as fast as she could. If Aiden was looking...
"Marley is that you?"
She jumped out of her skin, exhaling loudly in relief at the familiar voice.
"Alec! Thank gods. Please help me. Elena, she's hurt, and she passed out. I can't carry her."
She watched Alec come out from the side of the house, with his shirt wrinkled and a...black eye?
"What happened to you?" She asked the redhead with concern, studying the dark spot circling his right eye and watching him give her a reassuring smile.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." he promised, "Just some asshole locals."
"Do you know them? Should you-"
"No!" He rushed out quickly, coming up to Elena's other side and putting her arm over his shoulders as Marley did with her opposite arm, "I handled it. Where are we taking her?"
She pursed her lips but didn't push the matter further, more worried about getting Elena inside than having a conversation in the middle of a field at midnight.
"There's a door right beyond these hedges-"
"Marley?! Marley! Mar-"
"Aiden!" She hissed-shouted, "I'm right here stop yelling!"
She watched his head of messy dark hair pop out from the edge of the gazebo, his glowing blue eyes adjusting to the night to see what was going on.
"What the fuck?" Leo came up beside him seconds later, the two of them glancing at Alec and Elena with shock and confusion.
She grunted with the ache of Elena's body weight she was supporting.
"Can you guys come help or fucking stand there?" Alec grunted, adjusting his hold on an unconscious Elena.
The two of them finally scrambled to help, being smarter than her and walking around the bushes to the path, instead of cutting up their calves as she had done.
"I left you alone for like two minutes, Spitfir-what happened to her?" He demanded, his eyes zeroing in on Elena's battered, dishevelled state.
"I don't know." Marley replied shakily, feeling a cold chill in her bones as Aiden passed Elena off to Leo to carry bridal style with little effort, "She was stumbling from the backyard hysterical and crying."
Aiden was instantly wrapping an arm around her waist, hugging her against his side in comfort. She snuggled into his hold, no longer having any reason to be discreet about it.
"Now how do you fit into all this?" He asked Alec, who was walking closely behind Leo.
"Some of the locals were being assholes, and that was that. I wandered away from the main party to cool off. I found Marley struggling to hold Elena up. Offered to help. And now we're here."
"I'm glad you're both okay." Marley reassured, but she wanted to shake Elena awake and ask her what happened to her.
"Was she-" Marley cut herself off, her voice breaking off in pain as her eyes fell on her muddy, bare feet. There was a story here, a big one.
Something happened, and it wasn't good. How bad it was, only Elena could say.
"Shh, calm down, okay? We'll figure it out. I'm here. You're safe, and now so is she." Aiden's lips pressed against her temple and it succeeded in relaxing her enough for her to take deeper breaths.
Alec rushed around Leo to open the patio door. Right before they stepped over the threshold, Marley didn't ignore the urge to turn around and take one last look at the beautiful little garden. Aiden's head lowered and she could feel his blue eyes on the side of her head.
"We'll come back," he promised her huskily, his spearmint exhales on her bare neck making her shiver, what happened less than 10 minutes ago flashing back in her mind.
She dared herself to lock eyes with him, her breathing hitched at the intentions she could see in their swirling depths.
He inhaled sharply before turning away and resuming their pace inside, his jaw ticking, "I wish we didn't, but right now we have bigger issues."
Marley circled her arms around his muscular torso in a hug and rested her head against his chest, feeling like a baby koala. His dizzying combination of soap and cologne was the best scent in the world. He brushed his hand along her hair, placing a kiss on top of her head, "So going to get this whole situation handled and then I'm throwing you over my shoulder and making a mess of this hair again."
Her whole face turned a critical red as she released him, "Aiden!" She smacked his arm. He laughed in response, grabbing the hand that she lightly hit him with to intertwine their fingers and place a kiss on the back of it.
When the glass door to the library illuminated the darkened hallway that came into view, Marley watched Dalton look over at Elena with wide eyes, before his lips were moving as he stepped aside.
They picked up their pace to catch up, but Marley had a thought that made her dig her heels into the floor and halt him in his tracks.
"Wait, Aiden. Until we..." she kept her gaze locked on the floor as he separated them to stand in front of her, "talk, can we not...can nobody else know about...this right now?"
"Talk about what?"
Marley's head shot up to meet his eyes, her heart dropping to the floor.
He saw the hurt in her eyes in that next second, because he was instantly bringing her into his body by her hips. His eyes bored into hers with fierceness and certainty. "What would there be to talk about? You love me. I love you, and I'm not letting you go, I'm never letting you go, especially not after..." his lips upturned in the most breathtaking, elated grin. "literally the best kiss I've ever had by a fucking landslide. I mean, I knew it was going to be mind-blowing with you but God, you're addictive, spitfire."
She knew her blush was betraying her again, her stomach doing acrobats at the fact that she was given the title of favourite kiss by Aiden freaking Matthews, who has kissed more girls than she ever wants to know or think about.
All along, his history never mattered. Not when the other girls never got what she now has — his heart.
But out of nowhere, a wave of shame distracted her. She was...embarrassed.
This was her first kiss. He must be lying.
"You...that was my first...you don't have to lie for my sake." she whispered, twiddling her fingers, "I know I'm probably not a good kisser."
When he laughed she narrowed her hazel eyes at his teeth-bearing grin. Aiden is happy right now, outrageously happy — which usually made her into a puddle of feels. But that handsomeness decreases fractionally when his smile is there to make fun of her.
"With Aiden Matthews, it's impossible to be a bad kisser," he teased.
Oh. The oh so famous Aiden Matthews. How had his still thriving reputation evaded her mind for this long? The butterflies in her stomach turned to thorns before she could blink again, tugging herself away from him, "We should go in there."
"Hey, don't go. Don't-" he cut himself off to curl a hand around her wrist, yanking her back into his hold. She knew struggling would be fruitless, so she kept her eyes on their shoes, inches apart from each other.
"I was kidding, baby. Everything with you was...I was trying to make you feel better...look at me."
She bit down on her lower lip, twitching with anxiousness. Here it was — cold, hard, reality.
This wasn't a guy. This was Aiden Matthews. He wouldn't settle down, not even for her.
"Marley-" when his fingers made contact with the underside of her chin, she tried to push herself away.
"I can't," she whispered, her palms pressing against the middle of his chest and shoving.
He didn't allow her to move her chin away. He pressed a thumb and forefinger around each side and tilted until she was looking into his eyes. Her struggling froze when she saw what was in their depths. Devotion.
Her hands stilled, but she didn't move them, dumbly watching him look over her like he was seeing her for the very first time.
"I'm going to do this right, for once in my life," he spoke determinedly, "I'm going to attempt at not being an asshole who doesn't come close to deserving you. So instead of doing this in a random hallway at a party, I'm going to plan a moment to ask you to be my girlfriend and it's going to be romantic and you're going to say yes and it's going to be great but..."
His first girlfriend. Her. Oh, gods. Emotional overload. All systems malfunctioning. Reboot required.
"As far as right now I consider myself taken and so should you," he continued. "For the sake of the other guys' life and wellbeing."
His last words, very typical Aiden Matthews words, lightened the atmosphere and made her roll her eyes.
"Yup. Still a caveman." she sighed, but jumped when she felt his warm thumb slide across her swollen lower lip.
Hazel on blue. Everything has changed between them now. It wasn't on edge, wondering. It was knowing how damn good it felt, and wanting it every second.
Marley was about ten of those seconds away from throwing her arms around his neck for round two.
Five seconds.
"These lips are mine," Aiden murmured longingly, his voice deepening.
Marley's lips parted. He pressed his palms against the wall on either side of her head, trapping her and hovering over her, his handsome face inching closer and closer.
One second.
"Hey sex animals, you coming?" Marley quickly pulled away, both their heads shooting to the door to see Leo with that cocky smirk back on his face.
Aiden growled under his breath, storming past her before she could stop him, "For the second fucking time you can't just leave us the hell alone?"
"Aiden!" She warned, dashing behind him as fast as she could, watching Leo disappear behind the door at the speed of light.
Leo's laughter set Aiden off more as he burst into the room.
Marley stepped in behind him, taking a quick scan of the room. The only people in the room now besides Alec, Leo, Elena, and Aiden, were Celeste, Dalton, Gabby, Bree, and Jason. They watched the scene with wide eyes.
"Aiden! Stop it!" She focused back on the matter at hand, watching him try and circle the desk fast enough to get a hold of his best friend, who was laughing maniacally.
"Chill man, you two were at it for like twenty minutes before I walked out."
"How long were you fucking watching?"
Marley's eyes widened. Her cheeks burned at the idea of Leo staring through the glass while they...she crossed her arms while the humiliation washed over her.
"Wait, what did we miss?" It was Gabby who spoke up because she was watching her best friend's flustered state with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Leo, I swear to god-
"They made out at the gazebo. Weeks of unbearable sexual tension and my best friend finally growing a pair....it was fucking awesome."
***
A/N
Not to toot my own horn on this chapter ... but BEEP MOTHAFUCKIN BEEP
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An actual live viewing of Leo watching Marley and Aiden at the gazebo 😂😭
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Would you expect anything less than that first kiss from Aiden Matthews? 😂👏 hope 40 chapters was worth the wait!
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