Leo

I respond to Aria removing my pants and boxer briefs with an explosion of activity, flinging her shirt over her head, pulling her off the mattress enough to remove her underwear and bra. And when I see her sprawled out naked on the bed, laying beside me with her dark hair fanned out across the pillow and her cheeks still a flushed shade of pink, I have to remove my shirt.

Aria grins, trailing her lips from my lower abdomen up to my torso to my chest, and then takes her sweet time across my jaw. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I'm telling myself I should have shaved before coming here but Aria doesn't seem to mind. She kisses the corner of my mouth before our lips connect again.

As we're kissing, I run my hands smooth over her hips in long, sweeping strokes. I map her curves, her stomach, the arch of her back. I gently squeeze her biceps, murmuring against her lips how remarkable she looks. She smiles, hardening the kiss one last time before she breaks away to catch her breath. Her chest is heaving. So is mine. But that doesn't stop me from moving my mouth from her lips to her jaw, down her neck and across the collarbone. I'm hesitant, worried that I'm doing this incorrectly. Part of me wishes Aria would show me what she wants as she did minutes ago. However, the other part of me, the brave one that tends to find its way to the surface whenever she's around, enjoys the idea of exploring with no boundaries. I kiss the curve of her breast, the tip, and the valley between, extracting soft gasps from between her lips.

With the little space we have on this bed, Aria shifts her weight halfway off of me and reaches for the nightstand, grabbing the condom I brought. My cheeks begin to heat when I think back to the reason why I got it. I can't believe I actually took advice from Mom and the other two, but they had a valid point. Better safe than sorry.

Eyes filled with fascination and anticipation, I watch as Aria rips open the foil packet with her teeth and removes the condom from it, tossing the wrapper to the floor with our forgotten clothes. She briefly eyes me before rolling the condom onto me. A shiver goes down my spine as she touches me.

When she's finished, Aria pins my hands above my head as she straddles me, the outline of the muscles in her biceps glistening with sweat and shadows in the glow from the window. Our gazes are locked, heated, and I'm entirely aware of her bare thighs being pressed against my hips, of the electricity between us. Of how close she is to me.

When she leans down, she brushes her lips against mine, her hair acting as a curtain around us. I instantly melt into her, parting my lips when she strokes the seam with her tongue. She's smaller than me, height-wise, but the rest of her is muscle and strength. I can feel it in the way she touches me.

"I like this," she murmurs. "Lying horizontal and naked, with you."

Sometimes, I don't know where she comes up with these sentences, but that's what I love about her. She's unpredictable and always has the ability to surprise me. I chuckle, amused by her words, but really wishing she would just shut up and kiss me again.

When my eyes flick up to Aria's, I notice something peculiar about her. She looks...nervous. Which is surprising because I thought she had experience in this kind of stuff. And, as if she can read the question in my eyes, she sighs and rests her palm on my chest. "Leo...I need to tell you something."

A million different scenarios go through my head, some concerning me more than others, but I manage to keep my face neutral. "Yeah?"

"I've never done this before," she sighs, looking faintly distraught. "I tell people all the time, even myself, that I have just to make myself feel better about my lack of relationships in the past. It's also difficult to avoid it when people express their opinions about me online and create rumours. I know I shouldn't be succumbing to something like that, I should be standing up for myself. But I get tired of it. I get tired of arguing. You know what I mean?"

Without any hesitation, I nod. When I was a little boy, before I started grade school, I would sometimes go to work with Mom and spend the day with her there. There were countless times I experienced my mom standing up for herself and trying to prove, to customers, that she was just as good a mechanic as any of the men who worked there. She eventually gave up on that, though, telling me that once someone has their mind set on something, it's nearly impossible to change. All my mom could do was excel at her job and prove those men wrong. It didn't mean she accepted their opinions. She just had better things to waste her time on.

Just like Aria.

As unfair as it is for her private life to be criticized and judged day-by-day, as unfair as it is for her to not be able to defend herself without giving the public fuel, I think she's stuck in the same situation my mom was.

I hate it.

That being said, despite the fact that she goes along with it, Aria is still forcing people to listen to her voice. She plays hockey, a sport that's been dominated by the male population for years, and she's working to make women receive equal pay and just as much television time. She's a spitfire. She knows what she wants and how to get it. And I admire her for everything she does. More than she could possibly imagine. I'll never know what it's like to have the entire world against my gender, but I can't imagine it's easy.

However, instead of saying all these things, of telling her what she already knows, I smile up at her. "Do you know how much pressure you just took off of me?"

She playfully slaps my chest. "Don't joke around about this. It's serious shit, Leo. If neither of us knows what to do, how are we supposed to make this enjoyable?"

Now that she's not pinning me down with her undeniable strength, I'm able to move my hands, which I guide to her thighs and rest there. I tug her flush against my body, our lips inches apart. "We figure it out," I whisper, aware of how close we are in proximity to each other. It's painful, how much I want her. And, if I'm being entirely honest, slightly embarrassing that she can tell exactly that. I press my lips to hers. "It's like jumping off the cliff; we take a deep breath and just do it."

Aria's smile is small but it's full of confidence and contentedness. "Okay," she replies.

"Do you want to do this?" I ask.

Her smile quickly shifts into a look. Especially when she cocks an eyebrow. "Leo, I just taught you how to properly touch me and allowed you to strip me down naked. What do you think the answer to your question is?"

"I know," I shrug. "I'm just making sure. I don't want you feeling pressured or anything like that. Consent is important."

Aria wrinkles her nose, an amused smile on her face. "That sounds like something your mom would say."

"No," I reply, shaking my head. "It's a concept every man should respect."

Pulling her bottom lip between her teeth, Aria stares at me. It's difficult for me to read the look in her eyes because a thousand emotions flitter through them, but any difficulty fades to the wayside when she presses her palms flat against my chest and properly straddles me again. My breath catches in my throat. I'm nervous, worried that I'm going to screw up and cause her to regret making this decision. But when Aria lowers herself onto me, pressing her lips into a flat line as she fights the pain, I'm disconnected from my train of thought.

I can't even begin to describe how it feels to be inside her, to be creating this...this...connection with the woman I never meant to fall for. This beautiful, strong woman who nearly ran me over with her car that rainy day. This woman I inevitably love.

I close my eyes and press my head back against the pillow, groaning as she continues to pace herself. I want her to move faster. I want to flip us over so I can take the lead. But what I want doesn't matter at this moment. Aria has control and it's going to stay that way. The way she feels matters a helluva lot more than the way I feel.

When the pain had abated and we're skin-on-skin, she leans down and brings our lips together in a passionate kiss. As we kiss, Aria sets the pace, rocking her hips against mine, moving her body up and down. I do my best to keep the rhythm and match her pace, driving my own hips forward whenever she comes down. At one point, sweat begins to bead along my hairline, and Aria's arms begin to shake as she holds herself up, palms resting on my shoulders. I take that as my cue to omit her having to balance her weight; I pull her down so our chests are pressed together. The motion also causes a shift in our positioning, creating a wave of a new sensation for each of us. There's wondrous fullness, and the more we experiment, the more we begin to moan in unison, the faster we begin to move.

Aria whispers how much she loves me. I clutch her tight with both hands, one tangled in her hair and the other resting on her lower back, feeling her muscles contract and relax with every movement. Each thrust and retreat pushes us closer to the edge.

And when we both fall over that edge, when we're both lost in an infinite state of bliss, we snuggle close to each other, her flushed body atop mine. I press my lips to her forehead, trying to even out my breathing. I hadn't guessed what to expect, but I never expected to feel like this. So relaxed, so content, so...perfect.

Aria sighs against my skin. "That was amazing," she murmurs, tracing my chest with the tips of her fingers.

I slide my hands up and down her back, loving the feel of her soft, heated skin. I wish we could stay like this for hours upon hours, close and together. But I know we need to rearrange a few things before we do so. That being said, I'm sure a couple more moments like this aren't going to hurt us.

"It was," I reply. "I know that sounds like a stupid response, but I don't know what else to say."

Aria laughs, pressing her face closer to my chest. "I hope you know this means you're stuck with me for a long, long time now."

"Damn," I drawl. "I had no intention of staying with you whatsoever, Aria."

"You know," she says, propping herself up on her elbow. "You can be an ass sometimes."

I cock an eyebrow, vaguely aware that I am acting a little cocky at the moment. "Is that so?"

"Yes," she replies, tracing my bottom lip with her thumb. "But your honesty and loyalty and kindness overpower that. I find it hard to believe that girls weren't throwing themselves at you back in New Brunswick. That you didn't have a girlfriend."

I reach up, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Plenty of girls flirted with me," I whisper. "But none of those girls were you."

Aria stares down at me with such a content look I almost don't know how to handle it. Thankfully, I don't need to do or say anything more because she kisses me again, cupping my face and pressing her chest against mine.

And I don't know how this night could get any better.