Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Fat ass.
Disgusting.
He’s cheating on her.
Did you see the size of her thighs?
It was the world that created a new set of insecurities within me, and I hated that they were silencing out my own inner voice. Their voices were growing louder and louder as mine became muted.
Aiden grimaced. “Okay. What are they?”
“What are what?”
“What are your insecurities?”
“Huh?”
“Your insecurities, what are they?”
I covered my stomach with my arms. There’s one. A woman online said I should’ve been embarrassed about my gut. “I’m not going to tell you that.”
He grew closer, making my heart rate increase. He placed a hand against my leg, sending a wave of sensation through my whole body. He wouldn’t break his eye contact either as he spoke to me. “I want to know each insecurity they created, so I can tell you why they are all wrong.”
“Aiden, I’m not going to—”
He took my hands into his. His warmth soothed me. “Tell me one insecurity, and we’ll go from there,” he requested. My lips parted as he stole my next breath. My thighs began to tingle from the smallest touch he gave me. “Now, Hails. Tell me now.”
I went to argue, but before I could, he leaned in, brushed his mouth against mine, and nibbled on my bottom lip before gently biting it. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
Butterflies. “I do.”
“Okay. Then take off your clothes.”
The way he ordered me… the way his blue eyes stared straight into my soul…I had no choice but to give him the information he demanded.
“Can we turn off the lights?” I asked.
“Absolutely not. We are going to starve out every single insecurity with the lights on. So”—he gestured toward me—“remove the clothes.”
With a pool of nerves in my stomach, I removed my pajamas. I stood in front of Aiden, baring not only my body but my soul in a way, too. Standing in front of him like that made me feel a heavy level of embarrassment. That was until I met his stare. It was filled with nothing but admiration.
How did he do that?
How did he look at me and somehow make me want to love myself a little more, too? How did one look from Aiden silence out a million comments from strangers?
And I am in love with you…
“Where do I start?” I asked him.
“Wherever you want. I’m here, and I’m listening.”
“My cheeks. They talked about how chubby they are.”
He took my hands into his. He brought me close to him, then caressed my cheek with the back of his hand. “I love your high cheeks and how you have three freckles on your left and seven on your right. I love how they rise so high when you smile and how the left one has a small dimple that appears ever so slightly when you laugh.” He kissed them, the left cheek three times for each freckle and the right seven times.
His kisses felt like a calming balm he laid against my soul.
“What’s next?” he asked.
I shut my eyes, feeling trembles growing. Not from fears, though, from the odd sense of comfort he was delivering to me.
“My arms,” I told him. “They said they are ugly and fat and only used for stuffing my face.”
He moved to my arms and began massaging them with his fingers, then he placed his arms around my lower back, pulling me into a hug. I hugged him back without any thought, and he sighed with relief as he whispered against my ear. “These arms are my favorite things in the world when they’re wrapped around me. They make me feel safe.” He then made sure to kiss every single inch of both.
The butterflies intensified with every touch he gave me.
I rubbed my hands against my stomach. “They talked about the size of my stomach. And my thighs. The roundness of my face.”
He lowered himself to kneel before me as if he was in a state of worship. That was exactly what he did, too. He worshipped every single inch of my body, running his hands over them, telling me why he loved my stomach, why he craved my thighs, why my face was what he dreamed up whenever he was lonely, how my body was a temple, and how if he could, he’d pray to said temple for the remainder of his life.
When we covered all my insecurities, he laid me in my bed. My heart pounded as I kissed him long and hard. The tabloids, the strangers, the kids at school—they all began to fade from my mind. At that moment, it was just him and me. At that moment, all I wanted, all I ever wanted, was for Aiden to stay with me.
As we kissed, I removed his shirt. His pants came off next. As his body pressed against mine, he paused and locked his blue eyes with my brown. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”