I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t. Tell me.”
“Nope. You’ll eventually remember.” He laughed a little. “I’m actually glad you don’t remember. It will make a bigger impact when you finally do.”
“You cannot be serious. You’re not going to tell me.”
“Nope.” He sat on the edge of the bed, bringing his clean, soapy scent with him. I crossed my legs under the sheet, hoping to ease the miserable ache that developed from his close proximity. “Can I see your leg?”
“Um…” I rubbed my lips together. I didn’t see that request coming. “Sure.” I flipped the sheet off and uncrossed my legs. I wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed. I’d learned very early on to not hide it. That was me, all of me, one hundred percent complete.
“May I?” His hand hovered over the end of my leg.
I nodded.
Cage brushed the pads of his fingers along my leg, making the occasional glance up to my eyes.
“Does it freak you out?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nothing about you freaks me out… well, barging in on me in the shower freaked me out a little.” His hand moved up my leg.
I tracked its path, part of me begged him to keep moving north and the other one percent thought he should stop. I considered that one percent a glitch that would work its way to the other ninety-nine percent if he just kept going.
“I didn’t see anything. It was too steamy.”
Lie. Lie. Lie. Why had it become so addictive?
Cage smirked, meeting my eyes. “You saw nothing?”
CAGE
What are you doing?I chanted over and over in my head. I lied. She freaked the living hell out of me and it had nothing to do with her leg. It was the feelings—the goddamn girly-type feelings that I had around her. I couldn’t control the things I said or the way I felt any more than I could control my growing erection.
Sure, I wanted to touch her leg as a gesture that it didn’t bother me, but I really just wanted to touch her. My hand moved up her leg on its own accord. Lake sucked in a quick breath. I paused, but her expressive, blue eyes told me to keep going.
That was my defense. Her eyes said yes. And her nipples? They gave me a standing ovation. My God, could her light blue T-shirt have been any tighter? Any thinner? The shortsthough, they were tiny and with her leg bent I could see her white panties, and I swear they looked wet. I was painfully hard. The room felt over one hundred degrees, and every three seconds I had to gulp down copious amounts of saliva because I craved her so fucking bad.
She wet her lips again and again and again. Each time I wanted to lean in and do it for her. I moved my hand up a little more. Lake sucked in another quick breath, but those eyes still pleaded for me to keep going. I wanted, Ineededto know if her panties were in fact wet, and I needed to know just how wet I made her. I’d gone rogue, leaving my responsibilities behind and likely my starting position as well—all for a girl.
The only sounds in the room were the echoes of the city outside, my constant swallowing, and her puffy breaths that escaped every time her pink tongue darted out to wet those lips I wanted to taste again.
Another inch or two, my hand worked its way up her leg until my thumb rested on her inner thigh a half inch from those white,wetpanties. She didn’t say anything. Why didn’t she tell me to stop or grab my hand? Why didn’t I stop on my own? I wanted to kiss her, but my desire to watch her react to my touch won.
“Lake, tell me to stop.”
She just stared at me, lips parted.
“Lake, tell me this is too fast. Tell me what’s going on between us is crazy because…” My eyes flitted between hers and my hand high on her leg.
“Because…” she whispered “…it feels like we’ve known each other forever. Like thatoneday three years ago held the significance of every day before it. Because on theoneday you needed to feel a connection to life again, I showed up at yourdoor. I was your connection.”
She did. She knocked on my door when the pain, anger, and loss were just too much. I was so mad at my dad for leaving me, for giving up, for dying. Nothing in my world made sense until I opened the door that day, then magically, everything made sense.
“Yes,” I whispered.
Lake nodded. “I know because you were mine too. You confirmed what I’d been trying to convince myself of for the previous year—not one single yesterday mattered.”
LAKE
I wantedhim to touch me, but more than that, I wanted him to know I felt everything he felt the day we met. Those feelings never went away for me; they became the standard to which I compared all other feelings. Sure, I wanted sex—hell, I was desperate for it—but I wanted more than sex with Cage.
