by Vivien Dean
Which he had. And Mack was in the hospital as a result.
Her steps were heavy as she walked down the hallway toward the apartment door. When she tested the knob and found it locked, her heart sank. I’m not going to let him do this to me. She summoned her strength while she fumbled for her keys. He’s the one who said things were going to change. I’m not going to let him run away just because we’ve hit a bump in the road.
Tentatively, she pushed open the door. The living room was pitch black, with only slivers of moonlight filtering through the drawn curtains. The stillness was even more disconcerting, and for a brief moment, she wondered if he was home.
“Cash?”
Silence echoed back.
Stepping inside, Maddy chewed at her lower lip while her gaze swept over the shadowed corners of the room. When she saw his jacket slung over the back of the couch, she felt like sighing in relief, but her dread returned almost as quickly. He was here, but he wasn’t answering her. Could he really be that angry?
The door to her bedroom stood open. Though they had left in a hurry, she could’ve sworn that she had closed it. Carefully, she let her feet carry her closer, tilting her head in order to gain a better look inside, and saw more moonlight slicing across the floor. Now, she knew the curtains had been closed. They had never opened them, unwilling to let daylight intrude on their day in bed.
Cash was in there.
He stood before the window, forehead leaning against the glass, forearm pressed to the pane over his head, and stared out at the twinkling lights of the city. The muscles on his bare back stood out in chiaroscuro relief, the pale luminance of the night sky causing his skin to glow as if from some inner light, but the angle cast his face in shadows, the only indication of his mood the soft set of his mouth.
There was no tension in his body, no anger, and when he spoke, the hypnotic rumble of his voice seemed surprisingly serene. “It all looks so peaceful up here, doesn’t it? If I miss anything about this place when we go, it’s going to be this view.”
She didn’t know what to make of his mood. She had been all set for a fight, but there was nothing adversarial about the man standing in front of her. In fact, by the looks of his shirt and shoes scattered haphazardly around the room, he looked like he had merely been waiting for her to come home.
“You don’t really want to talk about the view, do you?” Maddy challenged.
“You have something else in mind? We’re high enough, we could probably risk putting on a show without getting caught out.” This time, she saw him smile, though he didn’t stop staring out the window. “Maybe.”
Though her body tingled at the voyeuristic prospect, her desire was superceded by her rising annoyance. Dropping her coat to a nearby chair, she marched forward and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn away from the glass and look at her directly. Cash used her momentum to pull her closer, lowering his mouth in a kiss as hungry as the one he’d given her at the club.
This one wasn’t as driven as the previous, though. This one was slow and seductive, his tongue teasing along the seam of her lips until she had no choice but to part them, then probing and searching with deliberate need until the room was spinning around her. Her head buzzed while she fought for some measure of control, but when his hand skated up her back to find the first hooks keeping her gown up, she tore away, gasping.
“What’s with the Jekyll and Hyde?” she panted. “And don’t try telling me you weren’t pissed back at the club. I know you, Cash. Gino told me how livid you were when he found you with Mack. And now you expect me to think that everything is just fine?”
Standing in profile, with half of his face still in shadow, did nothing to conceal his amusement. “I talked to Kate,” he said in explanation, then chuckled at her obvious confusion. “She called me as soon as you stormed out of whatever meeting you two were in. She wanted to give me the heads up about what I missed.”
Well, that certainly accounted for his lack of questions about his sister’s non-appearance. “But…Mack,” she struggled. “You wouldn’t even talk about what happened with him.”
His lips thinned, some of his lighter mood fading. “And what would you have me say? He tried to buy you, Maddy. He offered me cash on the spot to back off.”
“I know. And I know it made you angry—”
“Show me a man who would have taken the money, and I’ll show you a man who doesn’t know what love really is.” His gaze shifted back to the window, his eyes taking on a faraway look. “It was instinct. I cast the spell without even thinking that I couldn’t.”
But she only scarcely heard his casual mention of his magic. She was caught on the utterance of a certain four-letter word. One she had been contemplating all night, but hadn’t thought he would clarify so soon.
“What…did you say?” Maddy whispered.
Taking her hand, Cash entwined their fingers together, stroking the side of her hand as he pulled her toward the glass. “Kate made a few things clear to me,” he said, positioning Maddy so her back was to him, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. “She’s got this way of simplifying life that has saved my skin more than once.”
The window was cool, but she was more aware of his heat seeping into her from behind. When she felt his lips trail along her bare shoulder, Maddy shivered, grabbing his hands to pull him even tighter against her.
“You and I have never had a relationship built on restraint,” he murmured. “So I decided it was pointless for me to start that now, simply because I finally realized that I love you.”
Though every brush of his mouth made her knees tremble, weakening her defenses in echoing increments, Maddy kept her voice steady as she spoke. “And you had to talk to your sister in order to decide how you feel about me?”
“No. I knew that already. Kate just reminded me that life’s too short not to grab chances when you can.”
One arm slipped from where he held her, returning to the dress hooks to begin nimbly undoing them. “There’s more,” Cash confessed. In his obvious pleasure at this newfound understanding, his warm breath molded over her bare skin, making her own breath quicken with anticipation. “You have no idea how liberating it was to feel my magic again. I felt like myself for the first time in years, Maddy. No pretense. Nothing holding me back from what I wanted. How can I not be happy? I’ve got you, and I’ve got my life back. There’s nothing more I need.”
He made it sound so simple, and she supposed, in his mind, it was. Hers was refusing to work properly, drowning in the growing sensations of his fingertips as her back was slowly bared to his touch. “Don’t think…this gets you off…from talking about what happened,” Maddy managed to say. “And there’s still…”
It was cut off with a sigh as her dress pooled around her legs, Cash’s mouth descending the length of her spine as he sank to his knees behind her. She had to press her palms to the cold glass to retain her balance, but all she felt was the burning trail of his tongue, his strong fingers sliding around to cup her small breasts. When he nipped along the elastic band of her panties, Maddy’s breath caught in anticipation, her nerves pulsing while she waited for what would come next.
“I’ll bet you’re wet already.” Cash slid his hands down her stomach, one dipping beneath her underwear to cup her mound. “Is it because of me? Or do you just like the idea of showing the world how beautiful you are when you come?”
Her back arched when a finger probed past her outer lips, brushing across the tip of her clit to glide through her slick juices. As her sensitive nipples came into contact with the cool glass, Maddy gasped and closed her eyes, focusing on the warring temperatures along her flesh, trying to decide which she loved more, the chill along her breasts or the fire of Cash’s mouth hovering in the small of her back.
His finger disappeared from her depths, only to reappear at her hips. Tugging down her panties, Cash skimmed his hands along the outside of her legs, then grasped her ankles one at a time in order to lift her feet and get rid of
the garment. He pushed the dress on the floor out of the way at the same time, leaving Maddy completely unencumbered, panting as she waited for Cash to resume touching her.
“Would you let me fuck you like this?” he asked, his voice a husky rumble. “I want the world to know what you do to me, Maddy. I want them all to see how bloody glorious you really are.”
He stood then, his long length stretching behind her. One arm circled her waist, while the other undid his pants, the fabric rustling as he pushed them down and kicked them away. When his hard cock sprang free, she glanced back to see him grasp it at the base, guiding it lower so that the glistening tip traced the crease of her ass. Maddy’s mouth went dry.
“What is it you want?” Feeling daring, she pressed backward, trapping his long shaft between their hips, using the window for balance.
With a growl, Cash lifted her into the air so his cock could slide between her thighs, his hard chest pinning her to the cool glass. “Just you.” He nibbled along her shoulder as he rubbed his erection along her pussy, coating it with her wetness. “You’re mine. Nobody’s going to change that. Certainly not some prissy little git with more money than honor.”
In spite of the fire dancing along her skin where he touched her, Maddy smiled. “Now you know how I felt about that bitch who shot you.”
His body stilled at her words, his cock poised at her opening. It was excruciating waiting for him to move, but Maddy held her breath, knowing it would be worth it when he did.
“Do you…?” But Cash didn’t finish the question. Every passing second made her wonder why he was suddenly so cautious.
Then she remembered what she’d said, and understood the implication of what it would mean to him.
“I could,” she admitted. “I think part of me already does, otherwise I wouldn’t have been so hurt thinking of you with another woman.”
His arm tightened almost painfully around her stomach, and Cash buried his face in her neck. “Never,” he murmured. “I think I’m going to have my hands full just with you anyway.”
His playful tone made her giggle, but it was quickly sucked away when Cash lowered her onto his cock. There was no warning, no hesitation, no lingering to make it last. Just one long thrust until he was buried inside her.
“Brace yourself against the window,” Cash said. “And don’t you dare close your eyes again.”
Flattening her palms on the glass, Maddy shuddered as his other hand slithered around her hip to flick across her clit. “Harder,” she breathed, and the single word elicited a chuckle from Cash.
“Soon enough.” Slowly, he moved his hips, stroking in and out of her pussy with an even rhythm. “Tell me something first. What do you see?”
Maddy blinked. Though her eyes had been open, she hadn’t been paying attention to the vista before her, blind to the sparkles of red and yellow as the streets of Manhattan came to life below them. But that wasn’t the first thing she saw.
“Us,” Maddy whispered. “Our reflections.”
They were faint, but they were there, shimmery outlines of her curves and his angular lines as their bodies undulated against the glass. Cash’s face was in shadow, making it impossible to read his thoughts, but the deliberate thrusts of his cock, the maddening tempo of his finger against her clit, told her all she needed to know.
He leaned forward, and the reflection sharpened. “I see you,” he said against her skin. His mouth moved along her neck, drawing patterns of fire with every kiss, every caress. “Everywhere I turn, there you are. Everywhere I am, I imagine you with me. My only regret is that I waited so long to tell you.”
Words failed her, but she had no time for them anyway. He pinched her clit, firing an unexpected orgasm straight through her pussy. Maddy twisted in his arms, shuddering when her breasts dragged along the window, falling within the cascade as it surged through her flesh, and when her eyes momentarily fluttered shut, she felt the unmistakable pang of Cash’s teeth sinking into her shoulder.
“I told you not to close your eyes,” he warned when they shot open again.
His strokes quickened, and his finger resumed its rhythm on her now-sensitive clit. As Cash’s mouth soothed the mark he had left on her skin, Maddy’s hands scrambled along the smooth glass, trying to gain some sort of hold as every thrust slid her body up and down its cool surface. She could have sworn she felt the panes vibrate at the same tempo as her body, adding their crescendos to hers to propel her higher and higher, faster and faster, until the neon was a blur in the streets below. She settled for clinging precariously to the window by the tips of her fingers.
All it took to come a second time was a simple request from Cash.
The soft command whispered right in her ear triggered a wave of fresh ripples through Maddy’s body, driving her to release her hold on the glass and clutch at the powerful arm around her waist. Her nails dug into his flesh, followed immediately by a sharp hiss at her ear.
“That’s my girl.”
His thrusts became almost violent, and his ragged breathing gave away how close he was to coming himself. Reaching up, she curled her fingers into his nape, holding him tight as words she didn’t realize she had escaped her lips.
He shouted when he came, keeping her still while his cock twitched and jerked inside her. Though her skin was already slick with sweat, Maddy welcomed the added sensations, squeezing around his shaft as one last shudder wracked his lean frame.
“I want to kiss you,” she said, craning her neck to look back at him. “Please?”
She’d assumed he would just lean down, but instead, Cash backed the pair of them away from the window, lifting her off his semi-hard length so she could twist around in his arms. Immediately, their mouths met, slow and hungry even in the aftermath of their passion. When she wrapped her legs around his hips, his cock jumped when it grazed across her pussy, and Cash broke free from the kiss to gaze down at her with heavy eyes.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice filled with awe. “Life doesn’t get much better than this.”
Maddy shut him up with one more kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As she finished dishing the eggs and bacon onto plates, Maddy listened to the murmurs of Cash and Kate’s voices in the living room, rhythms so familiar that the words blended until they were indistinguishable. He had been grumpy when the knock had come at their door before the sun was barely over the horizon, but seeing his sister up close and personal had dispelled Cash’s sour mood, scooping Kate into his arms and twirling her around the room before dropping her back to her feet.
Maddy had retreated to the kitchen as quickly as she could, wanting him to have his reunion in peace. She only wished she could hear exactly what they were talking about.
“—think about it?” Kate was saying when Maddy emerged with the loaded plates.
Cash shrugged then spotted Maddy. Rising to his feet, he crossed to meet her, taking the food from her hands and carrying it back to the coffee table. “I probably wouldn’t have tried if I’d been thinking about it.” He grabbed a piece of bacon before settling back into the corner of the couch. “Wanker brassed me off. I just wanted to hurt him.”
“What are we talking about?” Maddy asked. Sitting down next to Cash, she caught Kate’s amused smirk when he promptly tucked Maddy against his side, but chose to let it slide. She was already fairly sure she had the family approval. She’d witnessed Kate the night before dealing with others at the club and comparatively speaking, the older woman had practically laid out the red carpet for Maddy.
“Cash’s magic.” Kate’s eyes flickered to her brother. “How much does she know?”
“I told her about Dubai.” His long fingers absently stroked Maddy’s arm. “You can say anything you want in front of her. I’m not keeping any more secrets.”
That seemed to satisfy Kate. “Have you tried to cast any more spells?” she asked, picking up her breakfast. “If it isn’t repeatable, maybe there’s a situational explanation.”
&n
bsp; Swallowing the bacon he’d been chewing, Cash muttered something under his breath, waving his hand at the plate still on the coffee table. Maddy’s eyes widened when the dish started to float, and when she shifted to stare back at him in disbelief, he merely shrugged.
“Don’t be too impressed,” he said. “That’s one of the first spells we get taught.”
“How can you suddenly have your powers back, though?” Maddy asked.
“That’s the million-dollar question.” He reached for another piece of bacon as the plate drifted back down to the table. “Any answers, Kate?”
“It’s got to be because it’s a different dimension,” she replied. “I set the parameters of my dampening spell to protect you in our world. I never thought you’d start hopping between dimensions, especially if you didn’t have access to your powers.”
“Okay, time out.” Though she didn’t want to pull away, such close proximity to Cash was wreaking havoc on Maddy’s thought processes, and she straightened so she could look at both of them at the same time. “Dampening spell?”
“Cash had a lot of enemies after Dubai,” Kate said.
“I tried going back to England, but then they started dragging my family into it.” Cash’s eyes were solemn. “The last thing I wanted was for someone else I loved to get hurt, so I decided to start over someplace else.”
“The problem with that…” It was Kate’s turn again. Maddy was glad she had moved back to see both of them or she would have been doing her best tennis-watching impression to keep up. “…is that magic always leaves a signature, even when you’re not using it. His enemies could always find Cash as long as he had access to his powers. So I masked them.”
“Which pretty much put them out of my reach,” Cash finished. “I moved to New York because I figured if there was anyplace I could get lost, it was there.” His hand found her folded knee and rested there. “The rest, you know.”
