“The siren is off,” she said against my damp mouth.
Don’t care. I kissed her but she pulled away again.
“This is unethical,” she argued, and I hoped to hell she was kidding. “You’re my patient.”
“I’m, um, im…patient,” I corrected. Welcome back, speech problem.
“I should probably go.” And then she scrambled off my lap.
Tasha
I maneuvered off Cade’s lap, bumping the part of him that had grown larger since he’d pressed his lips to mine. Not only larger, but harder.
Lord have mercy. What was he hiding behind his jeans? I wanted to find out. Which was exactly why I should grab my backpack and hightail it home.
“You have a little problem,” I couldn’t help teasing as I stood. I had a little problem too. My inner bad girl had taken the controls. She was encouraging me toward Cade even as I took a defiant step away from him.
I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to strip him naked and lick every inch of his fantastic body. The house was ours. The storm was over.
And those kisses…
Gah. Those kisses could really scramble a girl’s brains.
“Little?” His eyebrows pulled into a frown as he stood. “M-more like huge. Huge problem.” He held his hands apart as if illustrating the size of a bass he’d caught on a fishing trip.
Sexual frustration had crept in, and with it his stutter. Before, I thought maybe his tongue needed a workout. But now I was questioning my theory. I was hooked onto the control thing again. Did he feel out of control right now? What if I gave in? Let him take charge?
Of me.
My neck heated before that warmth climbed to my cheeks. The idea of him in control was incredibly erotic. But it shouldn’t be. Not after Tony had governed way too much control over me.
Sex therapy! my seductress within shouted.
She was not helping.
I opened my mouth to tell him I was going to leave, again, but before I could, his hand looped around my wrist.
“Wuh-we have work.”
“You want to work?”
He nodded, keeping a hold on my wrist. Then, as if in answer to my silent prayer, he lowered his lips to kiss my neck. Oh, that felt nice. As he tongued the soft flesh behind my ear, his fingers wandered to the gold chain around my neck.
His eyebrows rose in question.
“My mom bought it for me,” I said. “It’s a good story.”
“T-tell me.” He closed his eyes, pained. When he reopened them, his gaze snapped to my mouth. I couldn’t leave. Not when he was being this brave. This vulnerable.
“Come on.” I clasped his hand. “Let’s grab our beers and I’ll tell it to you.”
Upstairs, he opened the front door and we stepped onto the porch for a brief inventory of the damage. A few large branches had been downed from the oak tree out front. The backyard proved similar. Smaller branches and leaves were strewn about, and one of the chairs from the patio set had been knocked over. No other damage done.
I thought back to the kiss with Cade and wondered if I could describe that as “damage.”
Knowing he’d worry, and not wanting to be interrupted, I sent a quick text to my dad to let him know I was okay. I added a tidbit about how I was studying at the campus library. Just in case.
Beers in hand, Cade and I walked out to the garage and then up to his room. He sat on his love seat and I lowered myself next to him. After a nervous sip of my beer, I winced. It was warm. Other than the introductory sip I’d taken before we ran for cover, I hadn’t had another taste.
Cade leaned over the scant space between us to press his lips to my neck. A light, open-mouthed kiss against my now speeding pulse that ended way too soon. When I tilted my head to accept more of those kisses, he pulled away.
His smile was predatory even as he held himself in check. “T-tell me.”
My fingers went to the turtle pendant as I spoke. “When my parents were still together, we took a family vacation to the Bahamas. The last vacation we went on as a family, actually. My mom and I swam with the sea turtles. It was my favorite thing ever.” I smiled at the memory. Dad had been off somewhere working, his cell phone glued to his ear, but Mom and I had explored. It was fun to hang out with her. “They have these large, soulful eyes and massive shells, and yet they are ridiculously graceful. On land they are painfully slow but in the water, they glide like dancers.”
For a moment I worried I’d killed the mood by waxing poetic about aquatic reptiles, but a glance at Cade showed he wasn’t bored. His lips were curved into an amused smile.
“My mom and I visited the island gift store and she bought me this necklace. That Christmas, my parents told me they were splitting up. I blamed my mom at the time and chose to stay with my dad. She forgave me, of course, but I still feel bad about it.”
Sympathy flitted across his face so briefly if I would’ve blinked, I’d have missed it. He knew what it was like for a family to be ripped apart.
“Things will be better for you and Joyce and your dad eventually. Healing takes time.” I brushed the hair off his forehead, loving how vulnerable and open he was in this moment. His gaze intensified when I traced his cheek with my fingers, ran them over his full bottom lip. I couldn’t resist him when he was staring at me rapt, potent male lust simmering in his eyes.
I pressed a delicate kiss onto his mouth, but he took over. He slid his fingers into my hair as his tongue plunged into my mouth. Warmth slicked through me on contact. I gripped his shirt in one hand and tilted my head, kissing him deeply as I moaned into his mouth. Lust zapped me like a live wire.
He moved his hands along my ribs before experimenting with cupping my breast. When he pulled his mouth from mine, I sucked in a sharp breath and tried to remind myself not to go too fast too soon. Then his lips suctioned, warm and wet, on my neck and every thought zoomed from my head. Only when his fingers touched the bare skin beneath the hem of my shirt did I come to my senses.
Breathing like I’d run around the block, I held his hand firmly at my waist. I gave him a shaky smile, letting him know I was okay, but…was I?
“Sorry,” I said.
Cade shook his head, the gesture meant as an apology, and then put his hands behind his back to demonstrate how harmless he was. When he leaned in, his breath feathering over my lips, I let him kiss me again.
For the next twenty minutes or so we kissed instead of talking or doing speech therapy. He kept his hands to himself.
I lied and told myself I respected his self-control.
Chapter Twelve
Cade
The Camaro was running like a dream. With everything in working order under the hood, I could start on the outside. Repair those rust spots, give her a new paint job, and then the fun part. The chrome and leather interior. Fuzzy dice dangling from the rearview and maybe even a chain-link steering wheel.
I gunned the engine, tooling around town with the top down, killing time before Tasha stopped by the house for our session. I planned on distracting her with more kissing today if she allowed. Distracting myself with it.
I liked her a whole hell of a lot. I liked kissing her more. After our make-out sesh ended with me sporting a massive boner, she tried to apologize again. I pressed a finger to her lips. She didn’t have to apologize for anything. Especially since she’d let me continue kissing her after I’d taken things a bit too far. I could control myself around her. Not fun, but I could. But I noticed her fists clenching uselessly on the couch like she’d wanted to let her hands roam too. She could touch me anywhere she wanted—everywhere she wanted.
Damn. At the traffic light, I adjusted the hard-on stirring in my pants Nothing made Tasha more irresistible than when she was having trouble resisting me.
The traffic light turned green and I hesitated, a car horn behind me reminding me it was time to go. Against what was probably my better judgement, I turned left toward the business district. My shoulders stiffened as I hung a right at
the four-way stop on Poplar and I felt sweat prickle my armpits when I turned left on Claire. I parked across the street from the building I once believed would be mine.
Well, ours. In our freshman year, Miller, Brian, Carey, and I had sat in the empty bank parking lot toasting with a bottle of whiskey wrapped in a liquor-store paper bag. We were celebrating our plan. Too early, as it’d turned out. Our plan had been to live there while we finished school and then set up shop. “Work your life and live your work” was our motto.
Resting my wrist on the steering wheel, I imagined my name on one of the office doors inside. I wanted that. Or the idea of it, anyway. Now I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Guess it didn’t matter. I was currently stuck with what I didn’t want.
That’s bullshit.
Yeah. It was. If I had something I didn’t want, changing it was as simple, and as difficult, as changing it. My former nurses were understandably frustrated with me. One by one they’d informed me that if I didn’t start speaking, I might never regain the ability. If they could see me now, I thought with a crooked smile. I spoke more than I had all year with Tasha. She made me want to try. Granted, because I could impress her, but motivation was motivation.
The front door to the office building swung aside and I sank down in the seat, hoping my friends didn’t spot me even though the car’s top was down. Hand partially hiding my face, I was glad my Camaro was a junker. Once I had her polished to a fine shine she’d be harder to overlook.
Carey walked outside, Miller behind him. Brian followed, pausing to prop open the door. The three of them then walked to a large moving truck parked in the alley and unloaded a massive desk. I heard them laughing as they maneuvered it through the doorway and disappeared into the darkness inside.
Envy, or maybe good old-fashioned bitterness leaked into my bloodstream.
Other boxes, flat packs, leaned against the interior of the truck. Likely more office accessories, these with some assembly required. The three of them couldn’t put together a LEGO set, so I wondered how the hell they planned on erecting office furniture. I could. With one hand tied behind my back.
Or both.
The thought made me think of kissing Tasha with my hands behind my back. Thinking of kissing Tasha was better than the hollow, pitching feeling in my stomach as I watched my former friends take over “our” future office. Lately she was the only person who was able to erase the constricting feeling in my chest.
I raced home, needing to see her soon.
Tasha
Cade’s tongue stroked mine with confidence. He’d resisted my other therapy exercises, but he was eager to kiss me.
When I arrived, I’d expected to climb the stairs and knock. Instead, he met me in the garage and led me by the hand to his room. A second later, my back was being pressed against the closed door, my arms lifted overhead, and he was kissing me for all he was worth.
Since then he’d let my arms go, and they were now looped around his neck. A few minutes of hot-and-heavy kissing had me tilting my pelvis into his. He didn’t argue, grinding his thick erection against my belly.
His hands were locked firmly around my ribs, waiting for permission before touching me higher. His throat moved as he swallowed, and then he was leading me to his bed. He sat on the edge slowly, rubbing his palms against his thighs. An invitation.
I perched on his lap, and his arms came around me, scooping me against him and holding me there. He felt nice. Smelled better. It’d only been a day and already I’d missed him so much.
His feet were planted on the floor, his back straight. I appreciated him easing me along. After I thought about what had happened the last time we were together, it seemed inevitable. It was like Cade and I had been dating since the night of the accident. I hadn’t dated anyone else, and neither had he. Sure, most of our dates were scheduled, wordless sessions, but we were proving how fun wordless could be.
He kissed me softer this time, as his fingers tickled along the bottom of my shirt and my heart stuttered in my chest.
He pulled away to make a clear-spoken request. “Let me touch you.”
I wanted him to touch me, even though my nerves jangled. “Okay.”
His hand slipped beneath my shirt and flattened on the small of my back. His touch was firm and warm, tentative at first. I tugged his neck and explored his mouth boldly, giving him permission to go forward.
He didn’t hesitate, sliding his hand along my stomach and stopping at the bottom edge of my bra. I pulled my mouth from his to suck in a much-needed breath. We watched each other for a languid moment before he kissed my neck again. I promptly forgot why I was hesitating. Some misguided do-gooder complex? The idea of being a bad girl and ruining my track record? He tugged on my earlobe with his teeth, and I wiggled in his lap, encountering his rigid length against my hip. He grunted and brushed his thumb over my bra.
When he rolled my shirt over my stomach, I shoved it down and halted his hand. Feeling was one thing. Seeing was another.
He clamped his other palm at the back of my neck and leveled me with a glare, his brow furrowing.
He seemed more intense than usual, so I decided to lighten the mood. “Are you mad because I won’t let you take off my bra?”
His gaze darted away, his mind elsewhere.
“Something else?” I pressed.
His mouth pulled into a frown.
“You’re going to have to tell me. I can’t read your caveman facial expressions.”
When he said nothing, I used his tactics against him. Tilting his head to one side, I set my lips to his neck. As I sucked his taut flesh along the thick column of his throat, his hands wound into fists around my T-shirt.
He liked being kissed on the neck, a prospect I found enthralling. I liked teasing him, liked driving him wild. I dragged my teeth along his throat and then licked his salty, pine-scented skin. I finished with a suckle to his earlobe followed by, “Talk to me.”
When I pulled my face from his neck, I was met with glittering, lust-filled eyes. His nostrils flared, his erection pulsing between us.
“Tell me why you’re upset and I’ll let you take my shirt off,” I blurted without thinking. Heart hammering, I added, “Trust me when I say that is a very big deal for me.”
“I…” He hesitated, but I didn’t think it was because he needed to. He was choosing his words carefully. “Saw old friends,” he finished, his tone flat.
“Friends…who aren’t friends any longer?” I assumed.
“Yeah.” He pushed a hand through his hair, and some of the heat left his eyes. I mentally kicked myself for breaking our delicious stride.
After a deliberate pause, he spoke again, slowly and concisely. “The law firm we were going to start together…they leased it. Without me.”
I stroked his hair back into place, understanding. They’d moved on without Cade. He’d been left behind. “Do you want to go back to college?”
“No.” His face pinched, then he shrugged. “I don’t nuh-know.”
I understood the feeling.
“It falls under the ‘be careful what you wish for’ column, doesn’t it?” I asked, settling into his protective warmth. “Tony and I used to talk about moving in together and getting married after graduation. I don’t even think I wanted to marry him. I was going through the motions.”
But there wasn’t any “think” about it, I realized. As I sat on Cade’s lap, my fingers in his hair, my eyes on his, I knew. I hadn’t wanted to move in with Tony. Or marry him. Even if he hadn’t been unfaithful, I didn’t feel half the attraction for him that I felt for Cade.
Cade’s hands stroked my bare back, but not in a sexual way, just touching me while I talked. I liked these private, quiet, close moments with him.
“I go with the flow too much,” I admitted. “I probably shouldn’t, considering—what are you doing?”
His hands had begun rolling my T-shirt. “Deal’s a deal.”
“Yes, but uh, there are rules.” Self-conscious
ly, I laughed. “Turn off the light first.”
His expression went from intense to confused. “Why?”
Because Tony, in addition to being a jerk, was also a perfectionist. There was never a time I took my clothes off in his presence when he didn’t point out one flaw or another. He often suggested how I could improve. At the time I told myself that athletic bodies were his thing and he was an authority in that realm. Now I knew he was just being a demeaning asshole.
I couldn’t tell Cade that. Talk about killing the mood.
“T-Tasha.” Cade tapped my forehead with his index finger.
He rarely said my name. The T gave him trouble. But I liked hearing him try.
“Yes?” I guessed the forehead tap was because he’d watched my thoughts wander out of this room.
“L-leaving the light on.”
“Then I’m leaving my shirt on.” I smiled sweetly. “Deal’s a deal.”
Darkness swept into his eyes, telling me he wasn’t going to stop trying to convince me otherwise. My heart fluttered. I wanted to let go with him. I wanted to tell him yes, but I also didn’t want him to see my imperfections.
“Take it off.” He brushed my lips with the pad of his thumb. Chills sprang to my arms and the back of my neck at the command. His mouth came closer to mine and my nipples tightened.
I licked my lips, nervous now. “I have a better idea.”
All I had to do was distract him. And I could easily guess what he’d like. I wanted to taste him, and it would be a convenient distraction from the whole light-on-light-off argument.
“How about I kiss you again?” I purred against his mouth. “This time below the waist.”
Cade
Yes, yes, yes.
Her mouth moved to my throat and her hands went to my shirt.
Wait. No.
The rational, cock-blocking part of my brain pushed a thought to the front that I didn’t like at all. She’s distracting you.
The last girl I slept with was a college sophomore studying to be a criminal defense lawyer. She was…not good in bed. Since the accident had taken my speech, my confidence, and my mobility for a short time, I hadn’t slept with anyone else. It’d been several months since I’d had a girl in my bed, a hell of a lot longer since I’d had one willing to suck my dick. Six months, maybe eight. God. Had it been eight? And now Tasha, who had the most magical mouth to ever touch mine, was offering.
Craving Caden (Lost Boys Book 2) Page 9
