“I don’t care,” she says and again, I’m flung back in time again to that hotel room where this English rose surprised me by blooming under my touch. Little did I know then that she would make me grow and blossom too.
“Roll over onto your left side,” I say, and she does so very obediently. That display of trust has my core tightening with desire once more.
I slip an arm under her body and grab her breast. It’s so full and round and heavy andfuck, I could play with her tits every day for the rest of my fucking life and still never be bored. My other arm, I wrap around her body and cover her cunt.
“Tell me if it’s too much,” I say as I slide three fingers inside Cassie.
“Oh, God, yes!” She bucks back into me, her soft backside pressing against me.
“Fuck, Cassie, yes,” I groan into her neck as I start to fuck her again.
She takes my three fingers so beautifully. I want to tell her so, but I’m so scared if I open my mouth again something else will come out.
“Oh, Pia, please…” She sighs. “Pia.”
“Cassie,” I whisper, and I swallow the words that want to come after. I can’t … I can’t…
“Pia, nobody else makes me feel this way,” she says in a gasping rush as she fucks my hand back. “Nobody.”
“I know,” I say, and I kiss her throat, graze my teeth along her creamy white skin, loving the red tracks I leave behind.
“Pia, I want to tell you. I need you to know that?—”
And that does it. That snaps whatever threadbare elastic I had tied around my last resolve. Cassie Everard does not get to say it first.
“Cassie, I love you,” I blurt.
She stills. So do I, my fingers deep inside her.
It’s terrifying and devastating and wonderful. I have never felt so afraid and so fucking alive.
“I do,” I admit, because if I’m going to crash and burn in this moment, I may as well do it in a spectacular fashion. “And I can’t stop.”
“I…” Cassie moves so quickly, rolling over in my arms, that I don’t register my fingers are out of her cunt until she’s facing me. Her hands cup my cheeks, and she smiles right into my eyes as she speaks. “I love you too, Pia. So thoroughly. So encompassingly. I love you with all that I am today and all I will be tomorrow.”
It’s a waste of time fighting the tears that are filling my eyes, so I don’t. I let them fall as I kiss her deeply. Instinctively, she opens her legs for me, and I push three fingers inside her again, my palm covering her clit. We alternate between kissing and whispering “I love you” to each other while I fuck her, and when she finally climaxes, I feel it vibrate through my own body.
And then, when I’m sure her orgasm is over, I gather her in my arms and hold her tight as I cry and smile and wonder what the fuck we’re going to do now.
CHAPTER 40
CASSIE
Jon Davies is a handsome man, and he knows it. In this respect, he reminds me of Stephan. But that is where the comparisons end. Jon has kind eyes. Jon listens to others. Jon asks questions and seems interested in my answers. Jon teases Pia with the perfect balance of camaraderie and affection. Jon offers compliments and help and jokes in equal measure.
I relax in Jon’s company. IenjoyJon’s company.
“Eleven years I’ve known you, Pia, and you’ve never once cooked for me,” he says as he places his knife and fork together. He reaches for his glass of water and finishes that too.
“What can I say?” Pia grabs his plate before standing. “I don’t love you as much as I love Cassie.”
My face becomes a furnace at the word love. Not because I’m embarrassed – oh, far from it – but because I’m still not used to hearing Pia say that she loves me. And that is ridiculous because she has been saying it on repeat for the last five days.
“Oh, you made her blush.” Jon nods at me but is smiling at Pia, who is now scooping up my plate.
“I know,” she says and then kisses the top of my head before scooping my plate up. “That’s why I said it.”
I try to cover up some of the pink in my face by taking a sip of white wine, a crisp Californian Pinot Gris. It paired perfectly with Pia’s baked salmon and Swedish potato salad.
