I do as we finish the delicious meal he made, and I attempt to keep all the hearts and flowers he’s blooming within me inside my body.
When we finish eating, Cade clears the plates before I get a chance to stand. He carries the candles to join the others on the counter. He cleans off the entire table before reclaiming his chair, which he shoves backwards a couple feet.
“Come here.”
It’s strangely effortless to obey this man’s commands, but I do, positioning myself between him and the table. My hands remain loose by my sides, but in no way am I not nervous. With Cade, he’s so hard to predict.
He tilts his head upwards, caching my gaze. “It might sound sappy an’ shit, but when you walked into the visitation room the first time, you took my breath away. I knew immediately what I wanted in life. And as much as I’ve already claimed you, I’m no rapist, Aspen. If you want nothing to do with me, I’ll walk out of your life right now, but just know, I’ll always be around. I’ll always be watching and protecting you from afar. Not even one hair on your pretty little head will be touched without me knowing. I also want you to know that everything I wrote in my letters was the truth. No matter what you learned last night and how much it changed things, you’re whom I’ve trusted from the beginning.”
He's giving me an out. After days of drama since his return, it’s all I’ve claimed to want, but did I really? Or was it more of wanting to pretend I did? Like when I wrote my goodbye letter—it felt like distance was wise, not because I truly wanted it.
“I believe you. I want you with me, not from afar. As insane as it is, I want to give us a shot. We might not even work out, but don’t walk away from me. Maybe this makes me as crazy as you so obviously are.” Because he’s a man of action, I step between his legs, take his face in mine, and press my lips to his, granting him permission.
Though he hardly waits for permission as he hooks his arm beneath my ass and lifts me onto the table. He steps between my legs and practically bends me backwards in his rush to rip my clothes off.
First my shirt, then my jeans. He unhooks my bra and tosses it to the side before my breasts are in his hands, thumb andindex fingers pinching my nipples until I cry out, breathless from how he’s going zero to sixty in a matter of seconds.
“The prettiest noises from the prettiest girl.”
God, this man…
He nips from my mouth to my neck, spending extra time at my breasts, before lifting me off the table to peel my jeans down my legs. He rips my panties, leaving me bare and seated on the edge of the table.
Then he reclaims his seat, pulls it closer to the table, grasps my thighs to yank them apart…andeats.
His tongue slips inside, as claiming as his fingertips that bruise my thighs. He drags me until my ass is barely on the edge of the table, and I’m suspended by his hands, left to his mercy.
Probably exactly how he planned for me to be.
“Ca-de.” His name is broken into two syllables and dragged through the fire he’s building inside me. A fire that’s burned through all doubt and hesitation.
He tilts my hips to gain a better angle, and his tongue slides out of me to circle my clit instead as fingers replace where his tongue was. Two, which he curls into the most sensitive part of my interior walls. His ministrations cause my head to drop back, my body arching into him, artfully playing until I’m nothing but…
Nothing buthis.
He growls something against my pussy. Something possessive that sounds like “mine,” and something else complimentary—words my body understands but the blood pounding in my ears and rushing through the rest of me doesn’t make out.
The building orgasm feels like more after his speech. Like it’s the official agreement to accept him—us—as insane as all that may be. When I should be running from this man, my fingers slide between his hair and grip his head into place. He rewardsme with teeth scraping over me as his fingers pound faster and harder, my body stretched and tense to the point of no return, to the point that when he lashes his tongue against me one instance more, my thighs clamp his head and hand to keep him in place while I ride the wave of his version of insanity.
He lifts his head—lips coated in me—and he spends a considerable time licking them clean. A sensation felt as if he was licking me directly again and I’m enthralled by it, unable to look away.
Slowly, as if scared I’ll bolt, he stands, cups my cheek, and brings my face to his for a kiss different than anything he’s given before. Rather than possession or starvation, it’s almost gentle—thoughgentleandCadedon’t go together. A slow build that stokes the flame within my heart, ensuring it can’t be blown out—that it’ll be ignited all for him.
He kisses me with an unnamed emotion. With a desperation and a plea to not leave him. A breathless kind as his mouth parts beneath mine and his tongue finds me, claiming every part of me.
The kind of kiss that does inexplicable things to my own feelings. Until denying the fact that I’ll speak those three little words in a matter of a few months would be a lie.
He ends the kiss as slowly and gently as he began it, tilting his head until our lips break apart but his forehead rests on mine. A warm exhale that tastes like wine blows over my face as his thumbs trace my cheekbones around my eyes and to the edge of my chin.
“You once brought me a box of chocolates. They were delicious, but fuck, if I wanted to throw you right there on the table and taste you instead. Chocolate has nothing on you. But it wasn’t only dreams of licking your pussy that got me through the nights. It was feeling you tight around my cock.” He releasesmy face to reach for his belt. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
SEVENTEEN
CADE
She obeys so perfectly.Turns and presents me her ass without question before twisting her arms behind her back, placing them in the exact position I need them. I strip my belt from my waist and loop the leather around her wrists, securing her tight enough to hold her without causing lasting pain.
“Lily. Short for calla lily. That’s your safe word if you want out of these.”
