We hang out for another hour and have a good time just enjoying our friends before we decide to head back to my place and enjoy ourselves.
That dirty grin of mine blooms wide as a summer sky as soon as I land us on the porch.
“Give me a second to put Buddy away.”
“Wait.” Cassidy pulls me back. “I don’t want you to put him away”—she swallows hard—“just yet.”
I cock my head in hopes I understand what she’s trying to say. To have Cassidy give it another go with Buddy would mean the world to me. As soon as she said yes, I knew Buddy was New York bound no matter how much it would crush me.
“I want a do-over. You know, if I’m here to stay, and so is he, we might as well try to get along.” She shudders as if it took everything in her to get those words out, and I know it did.
“You sure? We don’t need to do it tonight.”
“Actually”—she holds her ring out a moment—“tonight’s the perfect night for new beginnings.”
“Sounds good to me.” I head inside first, grab Buddy by the collar, and take a seat on the couch. “Coast is clear!” Buddy looks up at me with his ears peaked, panting in anticipation of what’s to come.
Cassidy steps inside, wide-eyed and apprehensive, as Buddy stands to greet her.
“Sit,” I say sternly, and he promptly complies. “Good boy. Now, let’s try this again. Buddy—this is Cassidy. You may never, ever jump on her again.” I offer up a lopsided grin to the woman I love. “He’s a sucker for pretty girls.”
“Sounds just like his daddy.” Cassidy comes over and sits on the other side of me, and Buddy tucks his head in her direction just aching for some attention.
“Look at you.” She reaches forward with trepidation, and her hand lands cautiously behind his ears as if she were petting a cactus. “Look at you. You just want some lovin’. You really are just like your daddy.”
I place my hand over hers as she relaxes, offering up a gentle scratch behind his ears.
“How am I doing?” she pants out the words, struggling to control her breathing.
“You’re doing great.”
“Maybe tomorrow I can graduate to a walk around the block. With you holding the leash, of course. Both mine and his.” She titters out a laugh. “I’m teasing. We both know I’m in charge of the leashes in this house.” She gives a little wink.
“As it should be.”
Cassidy helps me walk him to his room. Baby steps she calls it. I call it the best-case scenario for my furry little friend, and my heart.
“Oh, wow”—she leans past me, inspecting the tiny canine suite—“you have an honest to goodness bed in there for him.”
“Someone’s got to take care of the old guy. As soon as Piper moved into your dorm, Buddy scored a room of his own. Someone had to make use of that bed.”
We share a warm laugh as I reel her in, walking backward to the next room where I plan on making good use of my own bed tonight as well.
Cassidy and I take our time with one another as if this one night had the ability to stretch out for an entire millennium. I make love to every last inch of her—her hands, her feet, those arms that hold me with such affection, the legs that love to wrap themselves around my body. I dive my lust down onto that sweet spot that stays wet for me until she claws at my back with approval. My mouth finds a home over the softest part of her body, burying my face between her tits, never wanting to come up for air. Cassidy and I roll over the sheets like tigers, pouring out our desire on one another until we lie spent in one another’s arms.
In the morning, I make breakfast this time—a tower of pancakes not nearly as impressive as the ones she’s made.
I still have one more surprise for Cassidy. Before she hits the shower, she said she had one for me, too.
“Okay, you can come in now!” she calls from the bathroom.
The door is open just enough, and I nudge it the rest of the way. There she is, wrapped in a towel, water still beading on her shoulders.
Cassidy has her head turned to the left, a maneuver I haven’t witnessed in a while.
“I wanted you to see me.” She blinks back tears. “All of me. I don’t go showing this to a lot of people, but you’re probably the only person I really don’t mind. I know you won’t judge me, that you’ll love me just the same, but”—she blows out a quick breath as if gathering courage for what comes next—“you think you’re ready to see it? See the real me—what lies beneath?”
“Yes.” I pick up her hands. “Of course.”
Slowly, she turns, exposing a bright shock of red stained across her tangled flesh. The ridges, the rope-like veining, the melded skin that’s been shredded, then put back together—every last bit of it is singed with deep shades of crimson.
“Is this what you want to wake up to for the next fifty years?”
“Yes.” A smile tugs on my lips, and I give it. “I still see you. I see the real you that lies beneath.” My fingers touch over her scar before I lean in and kiss her there—gently, my lips lingering over the rawest part of this beautiful girl, and I love her just like that. Cassidy exhales as if that singular act were enough to take away an ounce of her pain. “Nothing has changed. You are so damn beautiful my heart aches because it can never be full enough of the love it has for you.” I pull back and bear hard into her eyes as if to drive the point home. “You don’t ever have to hide from me. This is your home, too. I promise, I love you just the way you are—perfect in every single way.”
Cassidy blinks down at the floor. “I don’t know how you say that with so much conviction, but I thank you for that.” Her arms swim over my back as she lays her scar onto my bare chest, and it feels as if that last wall has finally crumbled. It feels nurturing, healing. Cassidy wears her wound, her heartbreak on the outside, and I wore mine on the inside. And by some miracle, we managed to free and heal each other.
She sniffs back tears. “Now, what’s this surprise you got for me?”
“Come here.” I walk us back a few steps and pull out a small gift bag from the hall closet. “I saw this, and I knew just who to give it to.”
She gives the bag a little shake. “Let me guess. A jar full of stars? You city boys really do take gift giving to a whole new level.”
I can’t help but laugh. Cassidy has a way with words, with her voice that brings unstoppable joy. “On second thought, try not to get your hopes up.”
Cassidy pulls the gift straight out of the tiny brown bag and holds it between us as she gasps.
“A snow globe with a unicorn in it!” she marvels, staring down at the glittering watery world. “And there’s a city behind it! This is so perfect. I can’t believe you found this! It looks exactly like the one my grandmother used to have—minus the mythological pony. Talk about a miracle.”
“I thought so. Especially since I found my unicorn, and she was you.”
“Thank you. I couldn’t be happier.” She gives the globe a quick shake, and the translucent glittery magic explodes in the miniature world. “And thank you for being my unicorn.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
My lips land over hers, and we share a kiss that stretches straight into the future—and the future begins right now.
I knew Cassidy was the one the moment I laid eyes on her.
Sometimes, when it’s right, you simply just know.
A Note from the Author
Look for Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses 9), Rex and Scarlett’s story available for PREORDER NOW!
Thank you for reading Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses 8). If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review at your point of purchase. Even a sentence or two makes a difference to an author. Thank you so very much in advance! Your effort is very much appreciated.
Books by Addison Moore
Look for Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses 9), Rex and Scarlett’s story available for PREORDER NOW!
Romance
3:AM Kisses (3:AM Kisses 1)
&nbs
p; Winter Kisses (3:AM Kisses 2)
Sugar Kisses (3:AM Kisses 3)
Whiskey Kisses (3:AM Kisses 4)
Rock Candy Kisses (3:AM Kisses 5)
Velvet Kisses (3:AM Kisses 6)
Wild Kisses (3:AM Kisses 7)
Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses 8)
Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses 9)
Burning Through Gravity (Burning Through Gravity 1)
A Thousand Starry Nights (Burning Through Gravity 2)
Fire in an Amber Sky (Burning Through Gravity 3)
Beautiful Oblivion (Beautiful Oblivion 1)
Beautiful Illusions (Beautiful Oblivion 2)
Beautiful Elixir (Beautiful Oblivion 3)
The Solitude of Passion
Someone to Love (Someone to Love 1)
Someone Like You (Someone to Love 2)
Someone For Me (Someone to Love 3)
Young Adult Romance
Melt With You (A Totally ’80s Romance 1)
Tainted Love (A Totally ’80s Romance 2)
Hold Me Now (A Totally ’80s Romance 3)
Parnormal Romance
(Celestra Book World in Order)
Ethereal (Celestra Series Book 1)
Tremble (Celestra Series Book 2)
Burn (Celestra Series Book 3)
Wicked (Celestra Series Book 4)
Vex (Celestra Series Book 5)
Expel (Celestra Series Book 6)
Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7)
Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 7.5)
Elysian (Celestra Series Book 8)
Perfect Love (A Celestra Novella)
Ephemeral (The Countenance Trilogy 1)
Evanescent (The Countenance Trilogy 2)
Entropy (The Countenance Trilogy 3)
Ethereal Knights (Celestra Knights)
Season of the Witch (A Celestra Companion)
Celestra Forever After (Celestra Forever After 1)
The Dragon and the Rose (Celestra Forever After 2)
The Serpentine Butterfly (Celestra Forever After 3)
Crown of Ashes (Celestra Forever After 4) Soon!
Acknowledgments
A special thank you to my street team angels and the Reader Corner angels as well! Without your support and generosity, I could never do what I do. You mean the world to me.
Lisa Markson, thank you for always having my back. I appreciate the time you take to go through my novels. I’m so thrilled to have you as a friend!
Dear, sweet Tabby Coots, thank you for your fabulous assistance. As always, you are an angel in the truest sense! A million thank yous!
Kaila Eileen Turingan-Ramos, a very HUGE thank you for your remarkable abilities—which border on supernatural. Thank you for the time you invest in raking through my books, and, more so, thank you for being a great friend!
Kathryn Jacoby, there is no one quite like you! My heart could never extend the right words to properly say how thankful I am to you for everything you do, so I’ll leave it with two simple words, thank you!
Paige Maroney Smith, I am constantly blown away by your ability to sweep through and make my books sparkle and shine. You are one in a million, and I thank God from the bottom of my heart that you’re willing to put up with my madness. Ready for another book?
And last, but never least, thank you to Him who sits on the throne. Worthy is the Lamb! Glory and honor and power are yours. I owe you everything.
About the Author
Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children, and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading. Addison’s Celestra Series has been optioned for film by 20th Century Fox.
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