My Husband Chose His Ex I Became His Regret novel Chapter 84

Chapter 84

Chapter 84

Lila

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The ride back to shore is quiet, but not empty. His hand stays wrapped around mine the entire time, fingers laced tightly through mine like he’s afraid the ocean itself might try to pull me away from him. Every now and then his thumb brushes over the inside of my wrist again, and every single time he does it something deep in my chest aches and heals at once.

Aidan helps me onto the wooden path leading toward our villa, one hand steady at my waist even though I do not need help. I realize he touches me constantly now. A hand at the small of my back. Fingers against my neck. My thigh. My wrist. Like loving me has become instinctive to him. Reflex.

The warm Maldivian air wraps around us. Salt. Jasmine. Ocean.

I am still thinking about the way he kissed my ears while I yapped about the book I read..

With desire, utmost desire.

Inside, the villa glows amber in the low light. The curtains move softly with the breeze coming through the open balcony doors. Somewhere outside, waves break against the stilts beneath us in slow rhythmic sounds.

Aidan closes the door behind us.

Then immediately opens it again.

The tiny gesture breaks something open inside me so suddenly I almost cannot breathe.

No trapping.

No locking away.

No control

Just choice.

Always choice.

I stare at him, and he must see something happen on my face because his expression changes instantly. Softer. Careful.

“Lila?”

My throat tightens.

I walk toward him before I can think too hard about it. My hands slide up his chest, over the soft linen shirt warm from the sun, until I am holding his face between my palms.

God, I love this man.

I love him enough that it scares me.

Chapter 84

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His jaw roughens beneath my fingertips, and I stroke my thumb across his cheek while I look at him properly. At the tiny crease between his brows. At the eyes that always look at me like I am something worth protecting.

Something worth choosing.

Over and over.

“Aidan,” I whisper.

His hands settle on my waist immediately, grounding and possessive all at once. “What is it?”

I shake my head once because I cannot fit all of it into words quickly enough.

Everything I feel for him feels too large for words..

So instead I lean forward and kiss him.

And he kisses me back like he has been starving.

The sound that leaves him when my mouth touches his nearly undoes me.

His grip tightens on my waist, pulling me flush against him, and suddenly there is no space left between us at all. My heart stumbles hard in my chest when his tongue brushes mine, slow at first, then deeper when I clutch at his shirt and kiss him harder.

“A little warning,” he murmurs against my mouth, breathless.

Laugh softly, the sound disappearing into another kiss.

“I don’t think I can be normal about you anymore.”

His forehead drops against mine, and for one suspended second he just breathes me in.

“You think I ever was?”

I smile then really smile and his entire expression changes when he sees it. Like sunlight breaking open.

“There she is,” he whispers.

The words hit somewhere painfully tender inside me.

There she is.

Like he has been waiting for me.

Like he knew I was buried under all the fear and grief and carefulness long before I did.

Emotion climbs suddenly into my throat so fast it hurts.

“I love you,” I say before I can stop myself.

Everything stills.

Chapter 84

Even the ocean feels quieter.

Aidan stares at me like the words physically struck him.

I feel his heartbeat jump beneath my palms.

Then his eyes close.

Just briefly.

Like the weight of hearing it almost overwhelms him.

When he looks at me again there is something raw in his expression I have never seen before.

“Say it again.”

My chest squeezes painfully.

“I love you,” I whisper.

His mouth crashes back into mine.

Not frantic.

Certain.

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His hands slide into my hair as he kisses me deep and slow and devastating, and I feel the exact moment his restraint snaps.

“Christ, Lila,” he breathes against my lips. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

I kiss him again because I cannot seem to stop touching him now.

He walks me backward carefully, never breaking the kiss, until the backs of my knees hit the mattress and I fall onto the bed with a startled laugh.

Aidan comes down over me instantly, bracing himself on one arm so he does not crush me, looking down at me like I am something holy.

The sight of him like this, flushed, messy-haired, completely wrecked for me, makes heat curl low in my

stomach.

His fingers brush hair away from my face.

“So beautiful,” he says quietly, like it slips out accidentally.

No performance. No charm.

Just truth.

I feel suddenly shy under the weight of it.

His gaze softens immediately when I look away.

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“Hey.” He kisses the corner of my mouth gently. “Look at me.”

I do.

Always.

“You never have to hide from me again,” he says softly. “Not your grief. Not your fear. Not the ugly parts you think make you hard to love.”

Emotion floods my chest so hard it almost hurts.

“You make it sound easy.”

“Everything is easy with you.”

God.

God.

My eyes burn unexpectedly.

He notices instantly.

“Aww, sweetheart…”

“Do not sweetheart me,” I laugh shakily, wiping at my eyes.

His expression melts completely.

“You are crying because I love you?”

“You are very overwhelming.”

Aidan grins suddenly, warm and boyish and unbearably beautiful. “Good.”

I laugh again, and he kisses me through it, smiling against my mouth while his hands slide slowly over my body like he is memorizing me.

Every inch.

Every reaction.

Every breath.

The room grows hotter around us. Clothes disappear somewhere onto the floor. The ceiling fan turns lazily overhead while the ocean wind slips through the curtains and across our skin.

And through all of it he keeps talking to me.

“You are so loved.”

A kiss against my throat.

“So adored.”

Chapter 84

Another against my shoulder.

“So unbelievably mine.”

The last words send heat rushing through me so suddenly I gasp.

His eyes darken instantly at the sound.

“There you are,” he murmurs again.

I tug him down to kiss me harder.

The world narrows after that.

To his mouth.

His hands.

The deep rough sound of my name leaving his throat like it means something sacred.

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I have never been touched like this before. Like I am cherished. Like my pleasure matters. Like being close to me is not obligation or possession or performance but worship.

At some point I bury my face against his neck just to survive the intensity of it.

He laughs softly against my skin and holds me tighter.

“I know,” he whispers. “I know, baby.”

Later, long after the room falls quiet again, we lie tangled together beneath the sheets with the balcony doors still open to the sea.

My leg drapes over his.

His fingers trace lazy circles against my bare spine.

I should be asleep.

Instead I lie there listening to his heartbeat beneath my ear and thinking about how close I once came to never having this.

Never having him.

The thought makes me hold him tighter unconsciously,

Aidan notices immediately.

“What happened?” he murmurs sleepily.

“Nothing.”