Chapter Sixteen
Cassiesurfacedslowly,sensationscoming first.One leg was hooked over Nash’s hip and the other had gone numb under his weight.They were lying on their sides, facing each other, breath mingling.His heavy arm was locked tight around her waist and—
He was still inside her—just barely, slipping a little more with every heavy breath.
Afternoon light slanted through the window, dense and gold, striping shadows across his cheekbones.He still slept the same, with his mouth parted and that small furrow between his brows like he was working on an engine even in his dreams.
The last time she’d looked this closely, he’d been twenty-three.Young and beautiful and full of promise.
That boy was long gone.
He was just as devastating—maybe more so—the time carving lines around his eyes and leaving scars she didn’t recognize.Tattoos covering where bare skin used to be.He was heavier now, more solid.All man and muscle, hardened by years—but somehow, impossibly, exactly the same.
Caught in that old, familiar pull, Cassie found herself tracing a finger softly along his collarbone, just as she used to.When she too had fewer scars.
God…how many times had they gone at each other before passing out from exhaustion?Three…three and a half…and all of it without a condom, no less.She was on birth control, thank god, but pregnancy was the bare minimum of her concerns, because lord only knew who—and how many—Nash had taken to bed over the years.
She should be furious—at him, and at herself.She should be shoving him off, untangling her damn leg, rolling away, putting as much distance as possible between them before he opened his eyes and saw her lying here like some starry-eyed fool…like he wasn’t the same damn man who’d broken her clean in two and walked away without a backward glance.
Only…she couldn’t seem to find the will to move.Worse, she was loath to stop touching him.Her fingertips kept wandering, tiptoeing from his collarbone to his neck.From his neck to his lips—the bottom one still swollen from where she’d bitten him.
The memory tore through her—her straddling his thighs earlier, furiously riding him; his hand at her throat, hers fisted in his hair, the metallic tang of his blood on her tongue, and how he’d only laughed, gripped her hips, and driven into her harder.
Well, she thought, that tight, breathless flutter climbing her throat.She was already fucked—and once more wasn’t going to kill her.
The emotional fallout might, but she could spiral about that later—preferably from another state.Because right now—
Biting down on her bottom lip, she rolled her hips, the shift pulling him deeper.Feeling him swell and harden, her body responded, clenching around him.Nash groaned in his sleep, his arm loosening at her waist, his hand sliding down over the curve of her ass.Gripping a handful of her, his hips suddenly punched forward.
Cassie gasped—just as Nash’s eyes flipped open.
For a suspended moment they only stared—his eyes dark, his expression sharp, like maybe he’d been awake this entire time.
“Still like it first thing,” he murmured, lips curling.
Cassie, who absolutely did not want to hear any of his arrogance right now, narrowed her eyes, grabbed his beard, and yanked him into a kiss.
As their tongues tangled, Nash shifted his weight, rolling her onto her back beneath him with a slow, deliberate grind that had her clutching his shoulders, trying to urge him faster.Only instead, his hand clamped on her hip, the other fisted in her hair, gripping tight and holding her still.
“You are so…fucking wet,” he growled against her mouth, licking her tongue with his, kissing her the way he was fucking her—long, claiming slides, retreating slow through the wet, hot drag of her body before driving back in again.Then harder.Clapping their bodies together with bottomed-out thrusts that made her vision splinter.And harder still, until Cassie couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe—could only hold on while her world narrowed to the press of his chest, the heat of his mouth, and the ruthless, unrelenting way he was very quickly taking her apart.
Nash collapsed beside her, chest heaving, while Cassie stared at the ceiling, body trembling with the pulsating remnants of her waning orgasm.
“Still come when I tell ya.”
Cassie’s head snapped to him, the haze in her brain disappearing in an instant.Lying on his side, one arm tucked under his head, he was half smirking, half looking at her like he was about to pounce.
“You didn’t tell me anything,” she snapped.
“Didn’t I?”
She glared at him.“Don’t start with me.”
Nash’s smirk deepened.“Just keep on finishin’ you?”
Cassie’s pulse kicked.His goddamn tone, the lazy dare in it—a look that sent her thighs softening, and a rush of warmth rushing straight to her core.
Before Nash could get another smug breath past those dangerous lips, she rolled over top of him, planting her palms on his chest and settled back on his hips.His hands flew to her waist, eyes darkening as his gaze raked over her naked body.
