If Cade could manage to pull himself together, he might be able to get through this. If he could avoid Warren, maybe he could get by. He needed to find the armor Aiden had been working so hard to strip away from him, and he needed to wrap it around himself and weld it back together so he couldactas if he were under control.
Seven days. Two of them were mostly spent traveling, so that meant only five at the cottage. Five days near Warren. It would be hell, but if the alternative was a lifetime without Aiden, then Cade had to try.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cade spentthe rest of the evening avoiding Warren. And since Warren seemed to be spending most of his time around Aiden, that meant Cade was on his own. An hour earlier he would have said that being adrift in a party full of strangers would be a nightmare, but compared to spending time with Warren, it wasn’t all that bad. He mostly just kept moving. And one advantage of having a party in the middle of nowhere was that you could sneak off into the woods when you needed some space.
Of course, the woods themselves were a bit creepy for a city boy. They were dark and full of strange sounds, and he felt like he was being watched by something that didn’t wish him well. But he’d rather be stared at by a mysterious forest creature than by Warren, so he kept walking. He found a rough path leading up a hill, and followed it because he had nothing else to do. He brushed past a big cedar tree, turned a corner, and found himself standing in a little clearing with a small building on the far side. Bigger than a garden shed, smaller than a garage….
“The fort,” a quiet voice said from behind him, and Cade turned to see Aiden not far away.
“Were you following me?”
“A bit, yeah. I mean, I was keeping an eye on you.” Aiden shrugged, and Cade was too tired to resent being babysat. He could understand why Aiden might have been a little concerned about him. “And then you came up this way, and I thought—perfect! We’ll go to the fort.”
“Why is that perfect?”
“Because you need some quiet time. Right? And it’s okay if I’m physically with you as long as I don’t bug you all the time. Right?” They’d worked out some basic ground rules for an extrovert living with an introvert, and Aiden had clearly taken them seriously. Too bad he didn’t know quite how drastically the ground had shifted.
Still, spending time in the fort would be better than going back to the cottage. Except that Warren had been keeping close to Aiden all night. He would have noticed when Aiden left the party. “Did anyone follow you?”
Aiden squinted at him and stepped closer, a playful grin on his lips. “Why? You think we need a little privacy for something?” He tucked his fingers into the waistband of Cade’s jeans, confident and easy, like he knew right where his hands belonged. He tugged gently, enough to give Cade a signal without actually throwing him off balance, and Cade obligingly shuffled forward. He slid his hands under the loose hem of Aiden’s shirt and up to find the warm skin of his lean belly. The contact was comforting, and Cade wanted more of it.
“You don’t have to be anyone but who you are,” Aiden whispered to him, kissing his ear gently. “I loveyou. I love it that you don’t want to be the center of attention.” He nipped Cade’s jawline, and Cade could feel his lips curl as he added, “It leaves more room in the spotlight for me.”
Cade sighed. Yeah, a couple hours ago that was all he would have been unhappy about. A couple hours ago, Aiden’s words and kisses would have solved all his problems. But now? Cade tilted his head and found Aiden’s mouth, and kissed him hard and deep. Now Cade just wanted to forget about it all and lose himself in Aiden.
He pushed forward and Aiden pushed back, matching his strength. Aiden’s body was so wonderfully familiar, and the thought of losing it made Cade desperate. He grabbed Aiden’s hand and looked around. There was no sign of anyone on the path behind Aiden, but they were still too exposed where they were. Where could they go? Not back to the house. Not into the fort—Aiden had talked about meeting Sarah there, and Cade didn’t want to be interrupted.
Luckily, Aiden seemed to know what Cade was looking for, and he was more familiar with the terrain. “Along here,” he whispered, and he led the way through a thicket of cedars, then edged along a narrow path at the base of a rock face. He stopped when they reached an area of level forest soil where the rocky cliff sheltered them on one side and the forest wrapped around them on the other. Then he smiled and leaned back against the cliff, yanking off his shirt before pulling Cade in tight against him.
Cade went willingly. He braced his hands on the rock so Aiden was trapped within his arms and took a moment to appreciate the view,Aiden’s smooth skin glowing against the rough black stone. “I love you,” he said with as much conviction as he could find. No matter what happened, that much was true, and he had to hope Aiden remembered it.
Aiden smiled and laced his fingers together behind Cade’s neck. “I know,” he said. “And you came here because I wanted you to. I know you’re not having funyet, but—”
Cade stopped the words with a kiss. He couldn’t listen to Aiden make promises about the coming week, not when Aiden didn’t know how disastrously wrong things might be about to go. And Aiden didn’t object to Cade’s distraction technique. He rocked his hips forward, then pulled them back and set up a tantalizing rhythm of friction and pressure. He kept it up until they were both gasping with need, until their cocks were straining against denim and their hands were almost too clumsy to be useful. Only then did he sink to his knees and fumble with Cade’s fly. Cade dug his fingers into the moss of the rock face as he felt the cool air, followed quickly by the warmth of Aiden’s hungry mouth. Then Aiden gripped Cade’s half-uncovered ass and pulled him forward, and Cade needed no other encouragement. He managed to go a bit slow with the first thrust, letting Aiden fix the angle, but that was all the self-control Cade could find. Harder the next time his hips rocked, harder still the next, driving deeper into the soft, accepting warmth of Aiden’s mouth. He felt the vibrations of Aiden’s satisfied humming, the warm pressure of his tongue, and that was all it took. Cade came with a shout that echoed off the cliff inches from his face and rolled out into the endless forest surrounding them.
He slumped forward, leaning against the cool stone as he recovered. When he looked down, Aiden was crouched with his back against the rock, looking almost as satisfied as if he’d come himself. “You’re beautiful,” Aiden said gently.
“Only to you.”
Aiden straightened and gave Cade a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth. “No. To everyone. But you’remostbeautiful like this, and I’m the only one who gets to see you this way, so, yeah, you’remostbeautiful to me.”
“I’m starting to feel like a princess.”
“No way, man.I’mthe princess here! You can be the handsome knight, if you want.”
“More like the ragged peasant.” But Cade didn’t want to think about any of that. He shifted so he was off to the side a little—Aiden’s back flat against the cliff, Cade’s shoulder braced on it. Then he kissed Aiden and reached for the button of his jeans. “You want my mouth?”
“Kissing me,” Aiden ordered. Cade wasn’t surprised. They’d spent enough time together to have figured out a few favorites, and he knew Aiden liked getting off like this, with slow, deep kisses that never stopped, even as Cade’s hand brought him over the edge. Cade absolutely wasn’t complaining. He had no problem giving blowjobs, but if he had his choice, he’d always want a close-up view of Aiden’s face when he came.
And he’d always want to be kissing Aiden in the moments leading up to it. He wrapped his fingers tight around Aiden’s exposed cock and felt his gasp, and he could practically taste the growing desperation in Aiden’s twining, searching tongue. Aiden’s hips set their own rhythm and Cade worked to match it with his hand, his lips, and the pressure of his body. When Aiden broke his lips away from Cade’s and threw his head back, Cade’s hand was there to catch him and protect his skull from the hard rock. When Aiden’s body spasmed and his knees threatened to buckle, Cade’s shoulder caught under his armpit to hold him up. And when Aiden groaned and came, thick spurts landing on the dark forest soil, Cade’s eyes captured the expression on his face and recorded it for future reference, in case he never got to see anything so perfect again.
They kissed gently while Aiden recovered. They laughed a little as Cade tried to wipe his hand off on the moss and then grabbed a handful of Aiden’s underwear instead. And then they kissed some more.
This was what Cade could lose. This closeness, this passion, this love. He could lose perfect, shining Aiden, the man who’d brought light into Cade’s dark life. If Aiden was gone, the blackness would be even more intense than it had been before. Because before, Cade hadn’t known how good things could be. He’d thought he was doing okay. He was making enough money to get by, he was getting good grades. He’d thought that was all there was supposed to be. But now? The idea of a life without Aiden was ugly and terrifying and all too possible.
But Cade wouldn’t let it happen. He’d bluff his way through the week, because he had to. He’d stay away from Warren, he’d smile and act happy for five more days, and then he’d escape. He’d do it because he had to. Because anything else was simply unthinkable.
