I watched her face. She was still a little bleary, but she stood stable enough, so I quickly stripped out of my cargo shorts and boxers. It was a little tough to maneuver them around the raging erection I was sporting, but I managed it in record time anyway. Finally, I reached into the shower and turned on the water, checking that the temperature was perfect before I stepped in and then pulled Cat in after me.
She had come fully back to life at this point and immediately started kissing me, pouring every ounce of passion she was feeling into her kiss. Her small hands moved down my chest before I felt her fingers wrap firmly around my dick. I swallowed a moan when she began to stroke my shaft, and she stood on tiptoe to continue pressing her mouth against mine. Again, I put an arm around her waist to steady her. I was afraid she would lose her balance on the shower’s slick tile floor.
Damn, her hand felt so good moving up and down my cock. I was so rock hard and throbbing that I was worried I was going to blow my load right then. But I knew I couldn’t do that. I wanted to draw this out and enjoy it. I had no idea what the next few days would bring us. That was all a big unknown to both Cat and me. But I did know the look Cat had had in her eyes when she’d said that she needed me, and if this was going to be our last chance to have sex for a while, I wanted to damn well make sure it lasted as long as possible.
I was about to grab Cat’s wrist and stop her movements so I could slow things down when she surprised the hell out me and grabbed the washcloth bar on the side of the shower to steady herself. Then she dropped to her knees in front of me before taking my hard length in her mouth. I felt the warm pulsing of her tongue as it swirled around my cock. When I looked down at her, she looked up at me. Fuck, it was the most erotic sight I had ever seen—Cat’s beautiful eyes looking up at me, the water streaming over her naked body as she worked that lush, sensuous mouth over my steel hard shaft.
I groaned and smoothed her wet hair back away from her forehead, guiding her head as she moved her mouth up and down my shaft. Her hands slid up my wet legs and around to my ass, gripping it firmly as she pumped my cock in and out of that gorgeous mouth of hers. The hot water streaming over our bodies as we touched in the shower intensified the sensations we were giving each other. In fact, the sensations I was feeling at that moment were so fucking intense that I thought I might not be able to hold back my orgasm any longer if she kept moving her mouth and her tongue in that hot rhythm. I could feel my balls tightening as mind-numbing pleasure built up in me like a pressure cooker ready to explode.
Grabbing her beneath her arms, I lifted her and set her to the side so I could open the glass shower door and lean out of the shower to see if I could spot my cargo shorts. Thank God they were within reach so I didn’t have to climb out of the shower. My brain had been so fogged with lust when I had first stripped them off that I hadn’t thought about getting the condom out of the pocket before I’d tossed them aside. That needed to be quickly remedied, so I grabbed my shorts now and fished my condom out of the back pocket.
Once I had it in my hand, I unwrapped it and slipped it onto me as quickly as I could. Cat helped. Apparently, she was just as eager to move this encounter forward as I was. For all my good intentions of wanting to draw this out as long as possible—and I did, in fact, plan to continue with that after I was inside her. Don’t get me wrong—I just couldn’t wait one more second to bury my throbbing cock in her wet, tight pussy.
Knowing exactly what I wanted, I spun Cat around so that she was facing the tile wall and her back was to me. Then I roughly pulled her hips towards me. With one hand, I pushed her shoulders forward a little bit while still gripping her waist so that she maintained perfect balance. She realized, immediately, what I was trying to do and her body responded. She reached her hands up and braced herself against the shower wall, at the same time spreading her feet a little wider for stability and balance and tilting her ass up in the air so that her luscious pussy was in the ideal position for me to thrust myself into her from behind.
The sight of her firm, rounded ass glistening as water dripped down sent a surge of lust so hot that it almost consumed me. Need rioted through me as my fingers dug into her hip. I bent my knees and spent a fraction of a second positioning my cock in her opening before I drove into her as hard as I could. She threw her head back and cried out as her body clenched around me, squeezing my shaft like a vise.
Moving both hands so that my fingers wrapped almost completely around her waist so I could control both of our movements, I clenched my thighs and began to pound into her as hard as I could, as fast as I could.
I heard her whimper and realized that my primal response to her might be too much. I forced myself to still as I asked her, “Is this too hard for you, baby?”
She looked back at me, disbelief written all over her face, before pressing her ass harder against me. As her fingers clutched the tile wall, she moaned, “No, Jace. It’s perfect. It feels so good.”
A renewed wave of desire, of needing to not only make love to Cat, but also to possess her body, whipped through me with tornado force. My hands clung to her slippery, wet hips as I worked to keep a solid grip on them. Moving my hips in a steady rhythm, I pushed myself into her over and over again, the sensations getting more intense and pleasurable with every stroke. I knew that I needed only one last thing to put me over the edge.
Leaning down over her so that my chest was pressed up against her back and my lips were just millimeters from her ear, I whispered intently, “I want you to come again, baby. Come on my cock. I want to feel you.”
While the command left my mouth, I slipped one of my hands down her belly, spread her wet folds apart, and began moving my middle finger in circles over her clit while I kept driving myself deep inside her. The second Cat heard the words and felt my fingers, she started spasming uncontrollably in another orgasm—just like I had hoped that she would. The feeling of her pussy walls squeezing my dick in climax was all I needed to drive me over the cliff, and I came hard, white-hot bursts of pleasure exploding through me as she cried out in ecstasy.
After we came down from our climaxes, when we were both spent, I pulled out of her and she turned around to face me. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her tightly against my body and kissed her softly, enjoying how it felt to hold her as the soothing, hot water streamed over us. Between the steam, the heat of the water, and the physical exhaustion from the sexual experience we’d just had, I felt a little drowsy—groggy, even. I kind of liked it, though. I knew that this moment was the definition of happiness. That I could enjoy staying there in that fog of contentment forever. From the way Cat leaned happily against me, I thought she might be feeling the same way.
Finally, she drew back a little and smiled sheepishly. “I guess we should probably wash up and shampoo our hair and…you know…actually take a shower.”
I returned the smile, hoping the sadness I suddenly felt didn’t bleed into my voice. “Back to reality.”
She nodded as a cloud fell over her beautiful face. Then she leaned into me, her head resting on my chest as her arms encircled me in a tight embrace, as if I were her lifeline. I rubbed my hand from the base of her neck down to the base of her spine and back up as I kissed her on the top of the head.
Then, after a few minutes of holding each other in silence, she quietly repeated, “Back to reality.”
Chapter 6
Jace
As I sat on the edge of Cat’s bed and watched her sitting across the room at her vanity table, my heart was breaking into a million pieces. I could see her reflection in the mirror as she ran a brush through her long, chestnut-brown hair. She seemed almost robotic in her movements.
From the time we’d come out of the shower to get dressed, Cat had withdrawn completely. She was barely speaking, only answering me in one-word responses. At first, I had thought that she was just tired. I mean, between the pressures of finals last week, all the drama with Natalya’s attempted suicide yesterday, and hearing the news of her mo
m’s accident, which was topped off by the ten-hour drive, it would have made sense that she was running on fumes.
But then I saw that it was more than that—more than just exhaustion pulling her into herself. It was more like a detached, automatic response. I recognized the blank look I saw in her eyes because I’d seen it staring back at me from the mirror every time I’d been placed in a new foster or group home growing up. It was borne out of pure instinct.
During my years in the Marines, I’d seen that look in countless soldiers’ eyes. Before missions. During missions. After missions.
A mind is a powerful thing. Self-preservation at its finest. Show no fear. Show no vulnerability. Show no emotion. It was the body’s subconscious way of protecting a soul from unspeakable things. It was an instinctual way to survive hell on Earth.
Seeing that empty expression in Cat’s eyes was killing me. I knew from experience that that empty numb state was not a conscious mode you ‘decided’ to go into. Cat looked like that because her mind had trained itself to shut down, made that its default.
I felt totally helpless, and that made me want to hurt someone, anyone who had put that hollow, lifeless emptiness in her gaze. My chest ached like someone had my heart in their hands and was squeezing the life out of me. Adrenaline raced through me, and I fought the darkness that was closing in on me.
I raked my hands over my face in a weak attempt to calm down. Trying to distract myself from the internal battle my sub-conscious and conscious was waging over how I could possibly stay here and not give into the darkness, I shifted my gaze away from Cat, turning to the left. I watched waves crashing, the sun just a tiny orange sliver at the ocean’s edge. The sight did little to calm down the storm that was brewing inside of me. Even with the serene, picturesque view, this place felt claustrophobic, like a prison.
When I’d first stepped into Cat’s room, I’d been so blown away by the view that I hadn’t really looked around the rest of the room. Then, before I’d gotten a chance to, we’d moved into the bathroom and I’d been distracted by an entirely different view. But now, as I’d been sitting here watching Cat get ready, I’d noticed that this room was decorated like it could be in the pages of one of the design magazines Elijah’s wife, Annabelle, always had laying around, but there was no personality in it. No touches of Cat.
Hell, even when I’d been shuffled around between shitty group homes and shittier foster homes, even though it wasn’t much, you could still get a sense of a kid, of their personality, by looking at their bunk. But looking around at the desk that was immaculate, a bookcase that was filled with encyclopedias and other large, leather-bound reference books, a door that led to a walk-in closet, and a vanity, which Cat was sitting at beside the door, there was nothing. No hint of personality. Even the reading chair that sat across from that wall and large ottoman that sat in front of it beside the large, four-poster, queen-sized bed with a lavender comforter, which I sat on now, was blank and non-descript in its simplicity. The room did have a breathtaking view of the ocean, and it had more square footage than rooms I’d shared with at least ten other kids or soldiers, but it was cold.
This room was devoid of life. It was sterile. Impersonal. Not warm and welcoming like Cat.
Just as I was about to ask Cat if she had any pictures of her from when she was growing up to try to get some glimpse into why her eyes were void of any emotion and her room void of any life, I heard the bedroom door slam open with a crash, and without thinking, I was up on my feet and across the room in two steps, blocking Cat from the intrusion. My conscious brain did not have time to compute what was going on, I just reacted. I didn’t know who had burst in and I didn’t know why. Hell, in that moment, I couldn’t have told you what day it was or what city we were in. I’d simply heard a loud and aggressive noise and my entire brain had telescoped down to two critical thoughts, which flashed insistently like bright-red neon signs.
The first was, Danger, and the immediate follow-up was, Protect Cat.
There was nothing for me at that instant but those two realities. Something was a threat, and Cat needed to be protected from that threat. My vision blurred and the only thing I saw was Cat standing in front of me, peering past my shoulder.
“Oh, darling, it’s so wonderful to see you!”
Oh, shit. I knew that voice. I’d heard it many times before, although never in real life. I’d only ever heard it projected from a movie screen, but there was no mistaking the speaker. It was Angelica James, Cat’s famous mother.
For some reason, her voice, the voice that I’d heard a million times before and had always associated with glamour and perfection, now sounded like nails on a chalkboard and made my skin crawl.
Turning around, I kept myself positioned between Cat and her mom as I spoke in as nonchalant a voice as I could manage. “Hello, Ms. James. Nice to meet you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cat move around me. Her voice also sounded casual as she spoke, but it was a false casual.
“Hi, Mom. It’s great to see you. We’re just getting dressed to come down for dinner. Can you give us a few minutes?” Her voice was firm and calm, as if she were addressing a stubborn child.
Our state of undress hadn’t even registered on my radar. Glancing down, I realized I was just in a pair of jeans that I hadn’t even buttoned yet. Cat was wearing a tank top and a pair of boy shorts that were sexier than any G-string I’d ever seen.
Angelica completely ignored Cat’s request, floating over to her and wrapping her up in a theatrical embrace. “Oh, sweetheart, I’ve missed you so terribly! I hate that you had to leave school to come deal with this unpleasantness. But it is what it is. Come downstairs now, please. There’s someone I need you to meet.”
I didn’t mean to, but I felt myself staring. Angelica James was beautiful, no one could argue otherwise. She and Cat had different coloring, Angelica’s hair was blonde in contrast to Cat’s chestnut brown, her eyes were light blue as opposed to Cat’s brown eyes, her skin was fair like a porcelain doll and Cat’s held a sun-kissed olive tone. But, there were definitely similarities. Cat had her mother’s high cheekbones, large almond shaped eyes, and full lips. In fact, they were practically mirror images of each other except for their height, Angelica stood several inches taller than Cat, and coloring.
It was kind of surreal having someone I’d seen so many times in the movies standing right in front of me and somehow seeming less approachable and unreachable than when her image was on a huge movie screen.
“Okay. We’ll be right down.” Cat continued to maintain that even tone of voice. She stood tall with a dignified grace, her spine ramrod straight. “Jace and I just need to get dressed first.”
Angelica eyes cut sharply to mine as she let an exaggerated surprise overcome her face at a clearly calculated pace. Damn, I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought she was a good actress.
My mind was reeling at how in God’s name a woman this false, this phony, created someone as beautiful and real as Cat?
“Jace? Oh, my, is this the Jace I’ve heard so much about? Oh, Kitty Cat, he is quite a delicious specimen! How in the world did you ever snag him?”
My eyebrows shot up. Her words felt like cold water being dumped on me. I mean, from what Cat had told me, I shouldn’t have been surprised that her mother would say those things, but still. It wasn’t just the words themselves which, although horrible, could have been played off as a lighthearted joke, which I was sure was what Angelica would have claimed if anyone called her on it. But the sharp edge of steel underneath them told a different story. She had meant it. She, Cat’s own mother, was actually telling Cat to her face that she wasn’t good enough for me.
I was about to set her straight—at least on that. “Your daughter is the most—”
Angelica interrupted me, continuing on with her monologue as if I hadn’t said a word. “Well, I guess it’s true what they say. Some guys like the nerdy type. The whole buttoned-down-librarian-with-glasses fetish thin
g must carry more weight than I’d thought. I’d be careful though, Cat. It’s usually a phase or a novelty. Guys who look like Jace…” She stepped closer and trailed a long, red fingernail down my bicep. I immediately jerked my arm away like she’d burned it, but she continued as if nothing had happened. “Well, let’s just say when they settle down, it’s usually with someone a little more in their league, so to speak.”
I looked at Cat, half expecting her mouth to be hanging open in shock, but the expression I saw on her face was nowhere even close to surprise. If I’d thought my heart was broken before, now it was annihilated. While Cat was able to keep her features neutral, her eyes were a different story. They were resigned, defeated, and hollow. Although she was still standing up straight and dignified, her shoulders had slumped just a little. She was deflated.
My gaze cut back to the woman that had caused Cat to be in that state. As Angelica stared at her daughter, I saw a flash of triumph in her eyes that told me she’d seen the same thing I had.
Anger poured through me like a flash flood. Fisting my hands at my sides, I tried to calm the rage roaring through me. I had never in my life been tempted to hit a woman, and I’d been dealing with Natalya for the last fifteen years, but right now, I had to forcibly pin my arms against my ribs, fighting against every impulse in my body. Logically, I knew that violence was not the answer. Unfortunately, I’d been trained, from the time I was a child, to act on instinct, and that behavior had only been reinforced during my time in the military.
Cat’s mother shook her head in disbelief as she said, “I guess even the ugly duckling gets a man, even if she never quite turned into the swan I’d hoped she would.” Angelica shrugged with studied nonchalance. “It’s still so disappointing, but what can I do. Just a little piece of friendly advice: don’t get too attached. There’s no way this lasts once the thrill of whatever fetish you fit into wears off. Anyway, put on some clothes and try to find something flattering.” Angelica shook her head, clearly trying to communicate utter and total disappointment, even making several tsking sounds before continuing, “It appears you’ve already put on the freshman fifteen. Then come downstairs. I need you to meet someone. Oh, and Jace can come, too.”
One Day His (The Someday Series Book 2) Page 5
