I propped the phone carefully against the lamp on my nightstand, adjusting until I sat facing him and leaned against my pillows, swallowed by his hoodie and the soft golden glow of my twinkle lights we were now head on and he could see all of me.
“There,” I said, my voice unsteady. “How’s that?”
His eyes moved over the screen slowly, and even through FaceTime I felt the path of that look like touch.
“Perfect,” he said. “Take my hoodie off, Pip.”
Holy fuck.
My fingers curled in the hem of his hoodie. Cade watched the movement, and his voice softened into something controlled and devastating. “Slow.”
The word slid through me.
I pulled the hem up a little, not enough to expose everything, just enough that the cold air moved over the tops of my thighs and made me shiver. His gaze tracked it, jaw tight, breathing heavier now. He was not smiling anymore.
“Fuck,” he murmured.
I nearly lost my nerve right there.
That was the problem and the truth and the thing I was finally too tired to keep shoving into places I wouldn’t touch. I wanted Cade Mercer. I wanted his eyes on me. I wanted the sound of his voice in my dark room. I wanted to know what it felt like to choose something because it made me feel alive instead of because fear had trained me to survive without wanting too much.
My hand trembled at the edge of the hoodie and Cade saw it instantly.
“You can stop,” he said.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to. In all transparency, I haven’t done this before.”
“I got you, Pip.”
That was all I needed as I lifted the hoodie over my head and tossed it to the side of my bed and looked at him.
“Your nipples are hard already so pink and delicate. Play with them for me.”
My whole body reacted to the command before I even moved. Heat rushed through me, shame flickering for half a second out of habit before want burned through it. There was nothing shameful in the way Cade watched me. Nothing mocking. Nothing careless. His attention felt heavy and reverent and hungry in a way that made my chest ache.
I followed his command with my eyes locked on his face because I needed to see him seeing me. I cupped my breasts and pinched my nipples between my fingers.
Cade’s expression changed the second he realized I was actually doing it. The last of his calm cracked, his lips parting around a rough breath while his eyes stayed fixed on mine like he was afraid to blink and miss something.
“There you go,” he said, voice low enough to make my spine arch before I could stop it. “That’s it. Imagine I’m there and it’s my mouth on your pretty tits. I would lick them and bite them until you begged me to touch you.”
My breath broke and his eyes flared when I started scissoring my legs needing more to ease the fire, molten fire he started in my core.
“Again,” he said.
I did.
And this time, I did not look away.
The room around me blurred into rain and gold light and there was only Cade, his voice, the heat in my skin, and the terrifying relief of not pretending I didn’t want him.
“You’re quiet,” he murmured.
“I’m trying not to die.”
His smile flashed, brief and devastating. “Dramatic.”
“You caused this.”
