“Is it true?”
I laughed. “Does it matter?”
He looked at me like it mattered more than anything, and in an instant my smile fell flat. It was the look he gave me when he was upset about his dad and going to meet my family. Ididn’t know that Cage. I didn’t even recognize him.
I said goodbye with a single, slow nod and turned, walking back to my car. As I fastened my seatbelt, a jarring bang to my hood brought my head up with a snap. Cage stood with his hands pressed to the hood, eyes locked to mine. Dropping his chin to his chest he just stood there and I waited. The occasional glimpse of his demons broke my heart.
A good minute later my door opened. I inched my eyes up to his, hoping I’d see my Cage again. He leaned in and unfasten my seatbelt, then took my hand and helped me out. After closing the door, he inched closer until my back pressed against it. I’m sure there were the right words to say, but I wasn’t sure what they were. I refused to apologize for anything. I’d done nothing wrong. But I loved the man before me more than life itself so… yeah, I waited for him to give me something I could work with, something I could help mend.
He threaded his hands in my hair and released a painful sigh as he leaned forward. His lips brushed along my lips like a soft breeze, skimming along my cheek. He breathed me in, burying his nose in my hair, his lips at my ear. My skin bloomed with a million tingly goose bumps.
“No,” he whispered. “It doesn’t matter.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
LOVE
“I’ll tellyou about the photos if you tell me about the condom.” Lying on my side, ghosting my fingers over his face, I took a hundred mental pictures of him. That’s what my mind did when the vision before me felt like a dream. Cage Monaghan naked in bed, sheets draped low on his waist, one leg kicked out on top of the bedding wasthedream.
“Condom? He peeked open one eye.
“Two weeks ago you were hell bent on getting me pregnant, but tonight you wore a condom.”
He closed his eye again and smirked, but said nothing.
“You find a different baby mama?”
“Nope. She’s still in bed with me. The kitchen was impulsive. You said it yourself.”
“A mistake?”
He sighed. I could feel his exhaustion. It probably wasn’t fair to ask him to mentally process anything at that point. “Nothing about usisoreverwill be a mistake.”
I nodded slowly to myself, keeping my fingers drifting over his face, neck, and down to his chest. I loved feeling him as much as he loved my touch. “I didn’t know it was a nude photoshoot.”
My hand paused as his body stiffened beneath it.
“I could have said no. I didn’t. The magazine is notpornographic. It’s about the power of humanity, technology, changing the world. Thaddeus has taken away my disability. He’s changing the world, he’s changing lives, and I’m the face that represents that right now. Even if Lake Jones doesn’t matter to the world, my story does. It matters for every person born with a physical disability, for every soldier wounded in battle, every victim of a life-changing car accident. The only thing that sets me apart from anyone else in my proverbial shoes is opportunity. Thaddeus wants to give every physically-challenged person that opportunity.”
Cage opened his eyes and shifted to his side, facing me with his head propped up on one arm. “What do Thad’s inventions have to do with your nude body?”
“My body is just that… a body. It doesn’t define what I can do in life. I’m not ashamed of how I look, not anymore. We can’t change the world until we change how the world views body image and disabilities.” I flipped the sheets off me, exposing my naked body to him. “What do you see?”
His eyes roved along my body, eventually settling on my eyes. “You know what I see.”
“I do, but I want you to say it.”
“I see you.”
“How much of me?”
“All of you.”
I nodded. “And that’s why I love you, but most people see only one thing… they see that part of me that they believe is missing. They see everything they think I can’t do, can’t be, can’t have, can’t achieve.”
His hand slid along my cheek as his thumb brushed my lower lip. “What does Lake Jones want to do?” he whispered as my temperature rose a few degrees.
My tongue teased the tip of his thumb. “You.”
