by Vivien Dean
Maybe it was time for everybody to stop fighting, period.
“Okay,” he said, rising to his feet. “I think it’s time to call it a night.”
Ava turned surprised doe eyes toward him, watching as Cash held out his hand to Maddy. “Really?” She slid off Gino’s lap, but instead of moving back to her seat, Ava curled against his beefy side as if it was the most natural thing in the world. After only a moment’s hesitation, the bouncer’s arm came down to rest gently across her shoulders.
“No reason you two can’t keep on playing, though,” Cash said. “I’m just feeling a bit knackered myself. Getting shot can take a lot out of a bloke.”
“Wimp.” A yawn immediately took Ava by surprise, and she blushed before averting her eyes.
“Then color me wimpy too,” Maddy said. “I think sleep sounds too good to pass up right now.” Casually, she picked up her hose from where Cash had left them draped over the chair and strolled languorously toward her bedroom, hips swaying gently beneath her skirt, the stockings dragging along the floor behind her. When she reached the door, Maddy stopped, hesitated, and then half-turned to gaze back at him. “Aren’t you coming to bed, Cash?”
The invitation was unexpected. Her inebriation had faded over the course of playing cards, and in spite of her game of footsy, he’d been unsure whether their détente would hold. Narrowing his eyes, Cash tried to read the soft planes of her face, searching for some hidden meaning behind her words that he might be missing, but all he saw was the same glow that had lit her the previous night, when the barriers had been temporarily taken down and she’d allowed him a few glorious moments inside.
“What about our guests?” he asked.
Maddy glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “Somehow, I don’t think they’ll mind.”
Looking back at the couch, Cash was greeted by the sleeping forms of Ava and Gino, her cheek resting against his burly chest, his on the top of her head. He chuckled. Sometimes, it really could be that simple.
Maddy waited as he turned off all but one of the lights and then sauntered over to stand at her side. She lifted a hand to ghost over his sore arm. “How does it feel?” When her eyes lifted to his, the last vestiges of light reflected in the blue, and all Cash could think was that he had never seen anything so beautiful.
“Absolutely right as rain,” he murmured. Taking her small hand in his, he pushed open the bedroom door and led her inside.
Chapter Sixteen
The click of the closing door resonated through the dusky bedroom, driving Maddy to let go of Cash’s hand and wander toward the open drapes. She stood in front of the window, gazing out over the twinkling lights of New York City, and listened as Cash came up behind her.
“My flat back home doesn’t have a view like this,” he murmured.
“Neither does mine.” The heat of his body filtered through her clothes, and unconsciously, Maddy leaned back, closing the gap between them to feel his hips and chest against her. “You really think we’re going to be able to get out of here?”
Slowly, his arms circled her waist, hesitant and unsure. She knew why that was. In spite of his bravado, Cash was still nervous about pushing her away, fearful that his attempts to resolve the tension between them hadn’t been enough. It was a depth of concern she would never have credited him with before, but if there was one thing Maddy was learning, it was that there was a hell of a lot more to Cash Vinci than she had ever thought.
“I trust Kate,” he replied. “She won’t stop until she finds us.”
“Kate. That’s your sister, right?”
“Yeah.” Carefully, his hands guided her around, forcing Maddy to face him. “But I don’t want to talk about her.”
Her mouth went dry at the naked hunger reflected in his eyes. “What…do you want to talk about, then?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned down and kissed her.
Her head spun. Part of it was the lingering effects of the alcohol, but a bigger, more potent part was the instantaneous reaction of her flesh to his, his mouth deliberate and firm as he probed past her defenses.
Automatically, she lifted her arms to curl them around his neck, pressing their bodies even closer together. She’d ached for him to touch her all night. From the moment he’d uttered that amazing toast through the delicious stripping of her stockings, all Maddy could think of was how his skin had been so hot against hers, how firm his hands had been. She wanted it back. She wanted more.
She whimpered when he broke away from the kiss. “Don’t stop.”
Cash swallowed, and his breathing evened out. “I wasn’t going to take advantage of you when you were drunk the other night, and I’m not going to do it now.” His hands settled on her hips, but when he tried to push her away, Maddy clung furiously to his neck.
“You’re not taking advantage,” she argued.
“I am. And…” He lifted his gaze to stare out over her head, the moonlight casting the angles of his face in harsh shadows. “I don’t want this until I know it’s you doing the asking, not the alcohol.”
“I’m not drunk.” Reluctantly, Maddy let go, edging away to better see the emotions playing across his face. When he lifted a brow in silent disagreement, she straightened her shoulders and held her ground. “I’m not,” she repeated. “I’ll cop to being tipsy, but I’m not nearly as blotto as I was the other night.” She couldn’t control her giggle. “We’ve been here too long. I’m picking up the lingo already.”
“You’re proving my point, you know that, right?”
Though it took a concerted effort, Maddy wiped the smile from her face. “Trust me, Cash. My head’s clear enough to know what I’m doing here.”
“Do you? Do you really?” His long fingers raked through his hair, and he backed away from her. “I don’t do things by halves. If we take this extra step, everything changes. There’s no going back, pretending we didn’t do it. I won’t… I can’t—”
“Everything’s already changed. If you don’t see that, maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.” She didn’t move—couldn’t move—could only watch him with her heart thumping in her throat. She felt ridiculous about her jealousy over a relationship that had never even happened. Even though he was a flirt all too aware of his own appeal, if Maddy was being honest with herself, she had never seen him treat a woman with anything but respect. He loved women. Of course, women also loved him—
She shook herself as her train of thought began to derail again. Everything Cash had said and done all night was proof to the contrary.
“Trust me,” Maddy said again. Tentatively, she took a step forward.
“Wait.”
The velvet rumble of his voice held such a note of command that it was impossible for Maddy not to obey, stopping in her tracks while her pulse hammered out of her control.
“I’ve seen the guys you go out with,” Cash said. “I know you have certain…expectations. If that’s what you want here tonight, this stops now. I’ll walk out of here and spend the night in my bed alone.”
She was missing a step in his logic, and shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
He exhaled loudly, turning away to start pacing around the room. “You’re a strong woman, Maddy. But when it comes to relationships, you like safe. You like control. You pick blokes who can’t handle your passion, and then you get hurt. Really hurt. I’ve seen you on too many mornings after not to see what it does to you. And I’m not going to be that guy.”
“Cash—”
“There’s more.” His pacing brought him back in front of her, and before she could stop him, Cash had scooped her up, crushed her to his chest, his mouth bruising hers in a ferocious attack that had nothing to do with gentility, little connection to rational thought. His hard cock poked into her stomach, testimony to how great his desire was. But when she squirmed against it, he dropped her back to her feet.
“I’ve never wanted a woman like I want you,” he rasped. “And I’ve wanted you
too long for this to be all raindrops on roses. Not that I can’t do the soft touch, because it certainly has its time and place, but if you think that I can pull that off tonight, after how amazing last night was, after how long I’ve dreamt of you…” Though she could see how he trembled, he reached out and caressed the line of her jaw, so tenderly she wondered yet again about the dichotomy of this man.
“If this happens,” Cash continued, “don’t expect that I’ll be able to hold back. I have a tendency to take control in bed anyway, but you…the way you fight back…” His long fingers slid around her neck to cup the back of her head, holding her still while he leaned down and ghosted his lips over hers.
“I don’t want you to hold back,” she murmured against his mouth. “Then it wouldn’t be the real you in my bed.”
She felt the hitch of his breath, hot as it flowed across her cheek. Taking a risk, she dipped a hand between them to find the waistband of his trousers, fumbling a bit as she tried to undo the button without looking.
“You first this time,” he said.
Releasing his hold on her nape, he slid his hands down her shoulders, over the soft silk of her blouse until he stopped at the open neckline. There were no niceties, no stumbles. With a quick, sharp jerk, he ripped the front open, sending buttons scattering into the darkness as he pushed it off her arms.
Maddy gasped, but Cash wasn’t done. His fingertips skimmed along her bare waist, reaching behind to find the clasp of her skirt, and just as swiftly as he’d torn the blouse, he split the skirt so that it fluttered in two pieces around her feet.
“I’ve seen your wardrobe,” he said with a half-smile. “These will hardly be missed.”
In spite of his injured shoulder, he lifted her back up into his arms, guiding her legs to wrap around his waist as his mouth attacked the slope of her neck. He dragged his teeth roughly across Maddy’s skin, alerting every nerve ending to his demanding presence, and his hands slipped inside the back of her panties to cup her ass. When his fingers brushed against her outer lips, Maddy bucked against him, feeling the hard outline of his cock teasing her through his clothing.
“Are we going to make it to the bed?” she asked, her voice a serrated whisper.
He answered by shoving aside the lace that covered her breast, latching his mouth to the soft flesh as he nipped at the pebbled tip.
The room spun around her as Cash carried her back to the bed without breaking the seal he had on her skin. His hands disappeared from her bottom as he dropped her to the firm mattress, but he tempered that frustration by tugging at her satin panties, sliding them down her legs and then tossing them away.
If she had thought their first sexual encounter was exhilarating, it was nothing compared to the fervor that made her cling to Cash’s shoulders as he slid her up the bed. Everywhere he touched, she shivered. Everywhere his mouth skimmed across her skin, she burned. She writhed against the soft blankets as he kissed and stroked every curve he found, every valley he explored.
Her eyelids were heavy when his weight suddenly disappeared, and she lifted them with difficulty to see him standing by the bed, outlined against the window. “What are you doing?” She propped herself up on her elbows. “Come back.”
“I told you I’m not doing this halfway.” Toeing off his shoes, Cash worked quickly over the buttons of his shirt, exposing his muscled chest when he let it drop to the floor. Her mouth watered as her gaze followed his hands to his waistband, memories of his gorgeous cock, dripping as she sucked it in, flooding her mind.
When he was naked, she lay down again, expecting him to climb back onto the bed. But he didn’t. His hand curled around his hard shaft, pumping it once then twice as he watched her through hooded eyes.
“Tell me what you want,” he said.
“You,” she replied without hesitation. “Here. With me. In me.”
“Why?”
The question startled her. What did he mean? Hadn’t they gotten past the doubts?
“Because we’re so good together.” It was the most honest thing she could think of. “Because you give my life color.”
Her answer seemed to satisfy whatever need he had, and he returned to the bed, crawling up her length on his knees and knuckles as his cock dragged along her leg. She shivered at the tease, flesh erupting in goose bumps in its wake, but when she tried to wrap her arms around his shoulders, Cash stopped her.
“No,” he said, taking her wrists in his hands. “We’re doing this my way.”
Maddy’s eyes widened as he twisted her arms firmly above her head, pinning her to the mattress. The stretch pulled the skin along her sides, puckered her nipples from the added sensation, and she held her breath as he positioned himself between her legs.
Their eyes met. The tip of his cock slid along her wet folds, tantalizingly near, yet so impossibly far. He seemed to be waiting for something, holding back when he had claimed he wouldn’t be capable of doing so, but it took gazing into the green depths of his eyes to remember what exactly he had said to her.
Though she couldn’t move her upper body, her hips and legs still had their mobility. Deliberately, Maddy burrowed her feet beneath his calves, digging her toes into his lean muscles. “I asked for the real you,” she said, putting as much disdain into her voice as she could muster, “but if this is your idea of not holding back—”
His mouth slammed down to hers, the force catching her lip on his teeth, at the same time he thrust past her defenses, burying his cock deep inside her pussy. She screamed with pleasure into his mouth, arching up to grind her clit against the coarse hair at the base of his shaft, but Cash swallowed it down, kept it contained while he began a steady rhythm of in and out within her slick depths.
Her legs spread, emerging from where she’d been pinned beneath him so her ankles could hook around his thighs. Maddy writhed under his expert touch, his free hand slipping between their bodies to find her breast, and when his fingers caught her hard nipple and pinched, she couldn’t help the moans escaping her throat, sparks shooting through her veins straight to her pussy.
Cash growled when she bit into his lip, the slight taste of blood mingling with their desire. Pulling up, he stared down at her with darkened eyes, no break in his rhythm affecting his shift in position. The hand at her breast softened, cupping the soft flesh, and his tongue darted out to run over the spot she had caught with her teeth.
“I dreamed sometimes,” he said. “About you. About what this would be like.”
“I know.” A smile curved her mouth. “Black leather bustier, right?”
Cash chuckled at the reminder. “Once or twice. Sometimes it was just tying you to one of the work tables and giving you a tongue bath.”
The image made her shiver. “Aaron might have something to say about that.”
Mentioning another man’s name, even if it was their boss’, was the wrong thing to do. Something hard glinted in Cash’s eye, and his mouth thinned to a determined line. “When we’re here, there isn’t anybody else. It’s just you and me, Maddy. I don’t share. I won’t. Not you.”
The need to assure him overwhelmed her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Lifting her head against the impossible strength of his grip, she kissed him as firmly as she could, tongue swiping across his full lower lip before he opened his mouth and let her in. He pressed her back down into the mattress, his strokes becoming increasingly insistent, but when he unexpectedly let go of her wrists, Maddy hesitated.
“Touch me,” Cash ordered.
It was what she had wanted since they’d walked into the room. Pushing past the red haze that seemed to be slowing her movements, Maddy raked her nails up his arms, to his shoulders, careful to avoid his injury from the previous night as she found the nape of his neck. He shuddered, trembled, moaned as he returned to her mouth.
“You wondrous woman,” he whispered.
There was no time to respond before he was kissing her again. Chest to chest, she drove her heels into his ass in order to s
pur him even faster, sweat-slick skin sliding against skin, riding the waves of pleasure as they threatened to crescendo within her flesh. When the first orgasm hit, Maddy clamped down on his thrusts, inner muscles rippling along his cock while her fingers clawed at his back. She tore away from his mouth, her throat working in desperation to say what she needed, but it wasn’t until she began to crest downward again that she found the breath to speak.
“Harder.”
It detonated his strokes, heavy balls slapping audibly against her ass, kindling his control as he pushed deeper and rougher than he had before. Maddy felt the explosion approaching, the litany of praises tumbling from Cash’s lips only one indication. But it took pressing her mouth to his ear, whispering intimacies she would never dare in the light of day, to push him over the edge.
His body went rigid with the first shot. Though his strokes didn’t stop, they became erratic, every muscle convulsing from the force of coming, and Cash sank on top of her, his weight bearing her down as he attacked her lips one last time. The fervor slowed as the orgasm faded, just as his kiss did, until all that was left was a sucking need, gentle and tender in its exploration.
“God, Maddy…” he said, pushing himself up so that he could stare down at her. His eyes were filled with wonder, and with a shuddering breath, Cash lowered his head until his brow rested on hers. “You’re so much bloody better than any dream.”
All evidence of her intoxication was now gone. Her mind was clear, sharp, and for the first time in ages, Maddy felt like she finally understood. “Just remember. No going back.”
She felt the soft exhale as he chuckled, and his mouth dipped to brush across hers. “Never dream of it.” Rolling off her and onto his back, he pulled Maddy to stretch out on top, his hand splayed possessively across the upper swell of her bottom. “Now, where were we?”
