The One and Only: A Single Mom Second Chance Romance (Heart of Hope)

by Ajme Williams

  I could see Cade’s regret at his own behavior. When we were growing up, he had never been the type to let other people tell him what to do. I guess I’d really underestimated his desire to please his parents.

  Cade smiled. “But enough about my woes. You know plenty about them. Tell me more about your plans for your business. You were always ambitious. I loved that about you.”

  I blushed and explained what I wanted to do for my business, how I wanted to break into the upper crust of the society and start planning events of true elegance. Cade listened attentively, making a few little jokes here and there, winking at me over his glass whenever he took a sip of water.

  This was the Cade that I’d known. This was the one who’d gotten me to fall in love with himself. My heart was in such danger right now, I knew it, but I couldn’t stop myself.

  After we finished eating, Cade insisted on paying the bill. “This is my treat, consider it an apology as you won’t be planning a wedding for us anytime soon.”

  I tried to protest, but he’d already handed his card over to the server. The band was playing, and Cade leapt to his feet, holding out his hand. “C’mon, it’s been forever since we danced.”

  “I’m still no good at it,” I warned him. I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet.

  “You were amazing at it,” Cade replied, pulling me into his arms and leading me. “You just needed a good leader, and you followed beautifully.”

  Cade certainly knew how to dance. His mother had insisted on dance classes, so that he could do well at fancy events for his father, and those lessons had paid off. When we were teenagers, Cade had joked that he’d gone along with it since he’d figured that it was a good way to impress girls. I’d told him that it certainly impressed me.

  I hadn’t done a lot of dancing after that.

  Remembering those times, and feeling his body against mine, his arms around me…it was easy to get turned on. But I shouldn’t. Going out for food and a talk about old times with him was one thing, but this was quite another. He was leaving tomorrow after all, or at least that was what I assumed. With no wedding, there was no reason for him to stay in Detroit.

  Except…didn’t that make it even better? He was leaving. I could be with him, give into my desire for him, have him—I shuddered as I thought it, fuck me—and there would be no reason for him to know about Drew or anything else. I could finally give into my passion and find out just how good of a lover he’d become in the last ten years, without worrying about the consequences.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Cade murmured. His hand slid down from the small of my back to my ass, squeezing. I shivered.

  I’m thinking about getting you out of my system once and for all, I thought. “Just thinking about…nothing.”

  “Nothing?” Cade’s lips caressed my ear. “The way you’re trembling doesn’t feel like nothing.”

  He slid his knee between my legs to turn me, and I whimpered. Cade chuckled. “Careful. I might want to devour you here and now. I’m ready for dessert.”

  “Do it,” I whispered, wet and hot with desire and feeling reckless.

  Cade immediately put a hand in my hair and kissed me deeply. I kissed him back, not holding myself back for once, indulging in my every desire. Cade moaned into my mouth as he felt me engage with him and I felt triumphant at knowing that I could get him to lose control like this.

  Della, and every other beautiful, rich woman like her, wasn’t wanted by Cade. He wanted me. And that set my blood on fire like nothing else.

  “Get a room!” someone yelled. I broke the kiss, panting, out of breath and dizzy with it.

  Cade laughed and took my hand, pulling me out of the pub. “Time to go,” he said, his eyes dancing with mirth.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “We’re going to follow that kind gentleman’s advice,” Cade replied, leading me out of the pub and to his car. “I’m getting a room for us.”

  I knew this was the moment that I should probably stop things. As much fun as spending time with Cade was, as much as I loved flirting with him, sleeping with him was probably a bad idea.

  But I wanted him. I hadn’t had fun, hadn’t done whatever I wanted since my son had been born. It was the role of a parent to put their child and their responsibilities first. And I’d had to focus on my career, my business. There’d been no time to have a fling, if I’d even wanted one.

  And maybe…this would be the way to get Cade out of my system, once and for all. It was clear that I was still pining for him, still wanted him. If I could have one good fuck with him, then perhaps I could finally move on.

  This was the moment of no return, but I didn’t want to return. I wanted to keep going with this. I wanted to indulge myself in Cade.

  I let him lead me to the hotel, where he’d booked us a room. He made sure to pick a suite for us, and I couldn’t help but feel that that was sweet of him—if a bit unnecessary. After all, I had no intention of really taking in the room’s décor or amenities.

  Cade unlocked the door with the room key and stepped inside. I could feel the hum of arousal and anticipation between us like it was a live creature.

  Cade closed the door behind me, and immediately pressed me up against it. I gasped, the heat of the moment making me breathless, as his body pressed against mine. I moaned, already feeling frantic with desire. I hadn’t been with anyone in nearly ten years. That itself was enough to have me feeling desperate. But to be with Cade, the last man to make me feel this crazy with desire, the man I’d been pining for even as I’d refused to admit to myself that it was nothing.…

  “God, you’re temptation itself,” Cade murmured. His hands fell to my hips, squeezing, and that was the only warning I got before he was kissing me like his life depended on it.

  I moaned again, wrapping my arms around him. It was just like the last time in the dressing room, invisible ropes snapping inside of us, unable to hold back, like we were teenagers all over again. I clawed at his clothes, wanting him to get naked, wanting to feel his hot, firm body against mine, with nothing getting in between us. Cade slid his tongue into my mouth, and I sucked on his lips greedily, making desperate little noises, unable to help myself. I felt wanton and naughty in a way that I normally wasn’t, almost like I was a whole other person when I was with him.

  Cade’s hands were everywhere, all over me, squeezing, teasing, like he wanted to touch me everywhere all at once and was limited only by the laws of physics. Then, without warning, he grabbed my hands and pinned them above my head with one hand as the other slid between my legs.

  Oh, God. He shoved my underwear aside and dragged a finger along my skin, near my pussy. I panted, my head falling back against the door, my thighs shaking. He was so strong, keeping me held up and pinned, holding both my wrists with one hand and fingering me with the other.

  He kissed me deeply the entire time so that I gasped into his mouth, dizzy with desire, kissed and held and touched, unable to do anything except take the pleasure that he was giving.

  “You’re so hot,” he moaned, sliding a finger inside of me. “So goddamn tight. I wanted you the second I saw you in your office. You got fucking hotter with the years. Fuck, kitten.…”

  Kitten. I moaned and pushed back onto his fingers. “Cade….”

  “You gonna be my good little kitten? Hmm?” he teased me, stroking me with another finger. His thumb rubbed concentrated circles around my clit, and I moaned again as he kept talking, his sinful voice and those sensuous words drawing me ever closer towards ecstasy.

  “Are you going to come for me?” he asked. “Get yourself all wet and loose and open for me, so that I can fuck you like you deserve to be fucked?”

  “C-Cade!” I cried out, writhing helplessly against his fingers. Oh, God. Oh God….

  I was going to come, just like he’d said. I was so close. I couldn’t wait to have him inside of me, fucking me, but this was so good, he was fingering me so well, playing me like a goddamn
fiddle….

  I felt like everything in me was melting into him, his hands and his body pinning me to the door, the only things keeping me in solid form. I had forgotten that I could feel this good, that I could be this turned on. It was almost like having sex for the first time, except that Cade knew my body so well—even after all these years, he knew exactly how to touch me, how to make me scream—

  And scream I did, when I came, my body shuddering wildly. It felt like I was breathing fire. My legs shook and I gasped, sucking air back into my lungs. If only his fingers felt this good, I couldn’t imagine how good his cock would feel….

  Cade kissed me passionately, and I could feel how hard he was through his slacks. “You’re so goddamn hot for me, kitten,” he purred. “Naughty girl, wearing these outfits to drive me wild. You want me to fuck you? Get you purring like a good little kitten?”

  God, yes, I did. “Please,” I whispered, pressing myself against him and stroking his front, feeling his hard cock grinding against me. He was so big. I couldn’t wait to have him inside me.

  I kissed him, and Cade finally let go of my wrists. I wrapped my arms around him to hold him close. It was still frantic and passionate, like neither of us could wait for long after all these years apart, and then having spent the past week or so thinking that we couldn’t have each other. I didn’t want to wait another second, I wanted to have him fucking me at last.

  Cade tugged me along with him as he took a step back towards the bed, the both of us clawing at each other’s clothes. If we just stepped back from one another and took our time to undress properly we could get on with things, but I couldn’t stop kissing him and it felt like Cade felt the same. I just couldn’t handle being separated from him. I couldn’t pull back.

  We crashed together onto the bed, ripping at one another’s clothes, until through a combination of willpower and franticness we managed to strip completely naked. Cade pulled back, staring down at me, and he had a look on his face that I couldn’t even describe.

  “You really are gorgeous,” he murmured, and I felt my breath catch.

  Then he kissed me again, before I could reply, and I was lost all over again.

  17

  Cade

  I felt like I was going out of my mind, desperate beyond belief to have Laura at last. She was so goddamn sexy, I had to get my hands on her. I fingered her against the door just to get to see her orgasm after almost ten years. I was glad to see that this was still the fastest way to get her wet and ready for me. I liked watching her orgasm, I liked watching her face go slack with pleasure and her body seize up. To know that I was the one who did that to her, me and nobody else…it was truly intoxicating.

  And she just turned into putty in my hands. I absolutely loved it! It felt like no time had passed—but at the same time, I was painfully aware of how much time had passed since I’d last had her. It made me that much more crazier about her. I wanted to dive into her and never emerge again, like she was the ocean and I was a diver who never wanted to return to land.

  She was gorgeous like this, spread out like a feast just for me. I had never felt even a smidgen of this about Della or any other woman. It felt like I’d been hit over the head with a jackhammer.

  I finished ripping my clothes off and couldn’t help but smirk at the gasp that escaped from Laura. I won’t lie—I wanted to impress her just as much as she’d impressed me. Laura was no longer a teenager but a gorgeous, confident woman. I wanted to show her that I wasn’t the dumb kid that she remembered either. I’d grown up and put on some muscle, and I was ready to use my strength to rock her world.

  Laura slid her hands over my body as we kissed, and I could feel her wetness as my cock grazed against her, with both of us being pressed together tight against the door. I was so goddamn hard, I wanted to slide into her immediately. I squeezed her hips and spread her legs, my fingers digging into her thick, beautiful thighs.

  “You ready?” I whispered, my lips grazing hers.

  “Please, Cade,” she gasped in response, grinding up against me. “I want you so badly, please….”

  I grinned savagely, kissed her, and slid my cock inside her.

  Laura moaned, and I reveled in it, in her. Fuck, she was so tight and hot, it was a massive turn on for me. It had been so long since I’d had sex that I had to wait a minute and catch my breath so that I wouldn’t just thrust twice and be finished. No way I was going to disappoint her like that. I wanted to fuck her hard and give her every reason to remember this for the rest of her life.

  This was going to be the start of the rest of our lives, and I wanted it to begin with a bang.

  Once I got my body under control, so that I wouldn’t blow my load immediately, I slid out of her and then back in with one long, hard thrust.

  Laura gasped and moaned, her nails raking down my shoulders and back. She was fucking perfect. It was better than ever before; better than any time we’d had together when we’d been teens. I couldn’t keep a slow pace, thrusting into her over and over, hard and fast and a little rough, but Laura only screamed in pleasure. She kept encouraging me with her moans and her broken gasps of please and more.

  In a way, it felt like the continuation of the dressing room, the two of us ready to fuck right then and there, uncaring for finesse. She was so goddamn wet that I couldn’t help but keep fucking her as fast as I could, her wetness lubricating my cock, making my body go wild. Her cries and whimpers, her hands and her sweet, tight body kept egging me on.

  There was no way that I could let her go after this. This was even better than I’d remembered, better than I could have ever imagined.

  I shifted angles, trying to find the one that, if I remembered correctly, would send Laura straight into an orgasm. I knew I’d found the right angle when she screamed and clamped her hands down on me, getting even tighter than before, and she cried out my name as her back arched in the stimulus.

  It was delicious. She was delicious, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. There was no way I was going to last long, and I kept going at that angle, determined to get her to come a second time before I could finish.

  Laura squeezed herself around my cock, like she was trying to pull my cock deeper into her, and came in a flood, clawing at my shoulders. It was the hottest goddamn thing and I came helplessly, spilling inside her and gasping for breath.

  I rolled to the side so that I wouldn’t crush her, my limbs giving out. That had been as frantic and sexy as I’d ever known it would be, and I couldn’t wait to do more of it now that we’d taken the edge off, couldn’t wait to take my time with her.

  For a moment we lay there, in each other’s arms, and I felt content and free for the first time in…years. Since the last time I’d seen her, I wanted to hold her like this forever.

  While it was tempting to do that, I thought that we should clean up a little. We had this amazing hotel room, and we should make use of it. I could pull her into the shower, we could have some slow, steamy shower sex, get all cleaned up, order some late-night room service….

  The point was, I finally had this amazing woman back in my arms, and I was never going to let her go. Not this time. I’d made a mistake once when I’d been young, a dumb teenager, and I hadn’t known how to do better and to stand up to my parents. But now I did, and I was going to do things right this time.

  I was tired of hoping that someone else would replace Laura. I was tired of hoping that I would find what I had with her somewhere else. She was what I needed. She was what I’d always needed.

  Before I could suggest anything, though, a shower or otherwise, Laura got up and started putting her clothes back on?

  I sat up. “Wouldn’t you like to stay the night?”

  Perhaps she thought that she wasn’t allowed, or that I wouldn’t want her to stay the night. Nothing could be farther than the truth.

  Laura shook her head, not even looking at me. “I can’t, I’ve got to get home.”

  A flash of jealousy hit me. Did she h
ave someone else? But no, Laura would never cheat on someone and she’d never mentioned a significant other. Then why was she leaving? Disappointment sat heavily in my gut. “You sure you can’t stay?”

  Laura finally looked over at me and smiled. “I’m glad that you’re free to make your own path in life, even if I am a bit disappointed to lose such a valuable client. This was fun. But I do have to go.”

  I pasted on a smile, my stomach churning. Why did this feel like goodbye? Surely it couldn’t be. “Well, when can I see you again?”

  Laura looked genuinely surprised, and she paused. “Aren’t you going back to D.C.?”

  “I could…hang around town for a bit, maybe. If I had a good reason to.” I smiled at her and stood up, ready to pull her back into my arms, but Laura took a step away from me.

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She gave me a smile, one that was tinged with sadness. “I’m glad that we were able to reconnect, but I’ve got to go.” She kissed me on the cheek. “I hope you find a way to be happy without letting your parents dictate everything in your life. You deserve it.”

  She let herself out.

  I stared after her, then fell back against the mattress, confused and disappointed. My stomach twisted into knots and my heart ached.

  What had gone wrong?

  18

  Laura

  I’d been trying to forget my night with Cade for an entire week.

  He haunted my thoughts more now than before. I’d hoped that sleeping with him now, as consenting adults who knew the circumstances, would get him out of my system. That I would be able to forget him after the final hurrah. If we’d never slept together and had just left it at flirting and the impromptu make-outs, I might have spent time wondering about what might have been and pining over him. But now I knew, and the sex had been amazing, and it was time to move on, so why couldn’t I?

  The same reason you never seriously dated anyone else for nearly a decade, the voice in the back of my head replied.