by Mona Kasten
“Kaden.” I sighed his name, again and again.
His tongue glided in teasing, circling movements. He grasped my thighs and held me tight. I arched my back, almost desperately, as his kisses became even hotter, even more intense.
And then he stopped. I groaned in frustration and was about to protest when he began to spread a trail of hot kisses from the inside of my thighs to my belly, my breasts, up to my forehead.
“You’re driving me crazy,” I whispered into his lips and felt how his stomach muscles twitched at my touch. I let my hands roam over his skin, exploring his body, and wrapped my legs around his hips.
Kaden let out a deep, guttural cry as I pressed against him and began to move my hips.
“You’re wearing too much.”
Before I could blink, Kaden had rolled off me and pulled off his boxer shorts. My eyes wandered over his naked body, his muscles, his tattoos, farther down … He reached out to his nightstand to find a condom, and I watched him as he slipped it on.
Then his body was back over mine, and Kaden stroked my cheeks. “We can stop any time,” he murmured. “Any time. Okay?”
I nodded and placed my hands on his shoulders, to pull him back down toward me.
“I have to hear you say it, Allie.” I felt him trembling above me.
“Okay, Kaden,” I whispered and looked at him. “I want you. I want you so badly, it hurts. Please, please come here.”
He shifted his weight and lowered himself onto me. He kissed me passionately and at the same time I felt him at my opening. I spread my legs even farther apart and gasped as he began to push into me.
He paused for a second. “Is it okay?”
I nodded, and because I was afraid this answer might not be enough, I raised one leg over his hip to pull him deeper inside.
“Oh, God,” Kaden groaned next to my ear. “Oh, God, Allie.”
And then he pushed all the way in.
I gasped and dug my fingers into Kaden’s arms. He withdrew from me slightly, only to push back a second later.
My desire spread so hot and quick that it felt as if my whole body was on fire. I wished this could have been my first time, and consoled myself with the fact that at least in one sense it was a first—I’d never opened myself so much to anyone, never given so much of myself.
His motions were still slow and controlled. But I didn’t want him to hold back: I wanted him to let go. So I whispered onto his lips: “I won’t break, Kaden. Take me harder.”
As if he’d been waiting for these words, a groan broke from his chest and he thrust harder, faster. Deeper. I moaned, dragged my fingernails over his back and pressed against him.
“You feel … unbelievable,” Kaden cried and pressed his mouth against my throat. His hand reached for mine and held it over my head on the mattress. Our fingers tangled together as Kaden penetrated deeper into me.
“Kaden!” I groaned as my orgasm shook my body. Kaden’s hips ground against mine, now without any rhythm or subtlety. Each impact sent another wave rolling through me.
Kaden moaned my name and released his hand from mine to embrace me. He buried his face in my neck and pushed one last time before a shudder ran through his body and his hips began to twitch.
It took a while before my pulse had calmed. I felt Kaden’s heart beating against mine and closed my eyes. I didn’t know how much time had passed. At some point, Kaden rolled off me and lay down alongside me. Leaning on an elbow, he looked into my eyes. Then he leaned over me and kissed me.
“That was … amazing,” I whispered hoarsely and stroked his chest, his shoulders, his arms.
“And how.” He kissed me again, slow and deep, and promised me so much more than just a physical connection. Now it was all too much; I couldn’t handle the emotions. And then it happened.
I had to cry.
Kaden caressed my face, kissed my tears away, and with his powerful presence drove out my dark memories to make room for new ones.
Chapter 27
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was Kaden’s smell. The second was the fact that Kaden hadn’t let go of me the whole night. He lay behind me, his arm over my belly, his face on my shoulder, and our legs were so tangled with each other and the blanket that I couldn’t move. I closed my eyes and savored his peaceful, rhythmic breathing against my neck.
Kaden White was a cuddler. Who would’ve thought?
A flutter spread in my chest, and I smiled into my pillow. This felt so right. And it wasn’t just about the sex—which had shaken my world—but mainly about the fact that we’d dropped our defenses. We connected. Kaden knew everything about me and still wanted me. A little voice in my head warned me to be careful, but I ignored it.
“Your thoughts are so loud that I can’t sleep anymore,” mumbled Kaden behind me. “Cut it out.”
I giggled into the pillow.
He pulled me even closer. His fingers covered my ribs, and he pressed his lips behind my ear. I trembled.
“I have a weakness for your laugh,” he sighed as he buried his nose in my hair. “To be frank, I have a weakness for pretty much everything about you.”
I laughed again. “Same here. You’re pretty tolerable yourself.”
In one second he had me on my back and was straddling me.
“I’m pretty tolerable?” He raised an eyebrow. His eyes sparked playfully.
I shook my head. “On a scale of one to ten you’re a solid seven.”
“Seven?” he repeated in shock.
I had to laugh out loud at his dumbfounded expression.
“Oh, Bubbles. That was a mistake,” he growled, grabbing my hands and holding them up over my head. Then he placed his face right in front of mine. I stopped laughing and looked at him. He rubbed his nose against mine and let his lips wander over my face, resting against my neck. His stubble scratched my skin, driving me crazy in a good way, and my body reacted. Now it was Kaden who was laughing.
“So let’s turn the seven into a ten,” he growled.
And that’s how we spent the next few hours.
Kaden and I were inseparable the entire day, from our morning in bed to our shared shower, getting the entire bathroom wet, and then our cozy afternoon on the couch, watching the latest episodes of our favorite series.
Now I was leaning on Kaden, wearing one of his T-shirts. His chin rested on my head, and once in a while, I would tip my head back against his shoulder to look into his shining eyes.
Oh man. It had really happened.
The doorbell interrupted my reverie. It must be our food. Kaden jumped up, grabbed his wallet from the table and went to the door.
I heard him open it. But instead of the usual exchange (“Hello” … “That’ll be such-and-such dollars” … “Here’s something extra for you” … “Enjoy”), there was silence. I stretched out across the back of the couch, but could only see Kaden leaning against the doorframe.
“Hey,” he said. “You want to come in?”
“Do I want to come in?” a voice huffed.
Alarmed, I sat up straight. It was Dawn. And she sounded pretty angry. “You stupid jerk! This is for Allie. And for Spencer’s black eye.”
Kaden gasped in surprise as Dawn suddenly groaned in pain. I was on my feet and dove toward the door.
What I saw made my mouth hang open.
Kaden was holding his chin and staring at Dawn, who was shifting her weight and clutching one hand with the other. Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Dawn?” I asked in shock, and she looked past Kaden at me.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said, staring at my naked legs and Kaden’s T-shirt. Then she looked me in the eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s complicated?” I sighed, looking at Kaden’s reddened chin from close up. He was still staring at Dawn, stunned.
“You hit me,” he said, as if it had just registered.
“And probably broke my hand at the same time,” my friend blurted out, examining her fist. It was already swollen and the first two knuckles were red. I grimaced. That had to hurt.
“She hit me,” Kaden repeated, looking at me. If I hadn’t been worried about Dawn, I would have laughed at his shocked expression. “I think she hurt herself more than she hurt you,” I said, going over to Dawn. With an arm over her shoulder, I drew her into the apartment. “Let’s put some ice on that.”
“I was just so angry, because he’d treated you like shit and then you didn’t call, and I thought … forget it. Anyway he deserved it,” she hissed and at the same time grimaced in pain. A tear dropped from the corner of her eye. Dawn wiped it away with her good hand.
I dashed to the fridge and grabbed a bag of frozen tortellini, wrapped a dishtowel around it, and went back to Dawn, who was standing—confused—in the middle of our living room, as if she didn’t dare to sit down.
She looked me up and down. “Are you okay?” she whispered. Typical. She’d probably broken her fingers, but she was asking how I felt.
“Fabulous,” I said and noticed how this blissful smile was stealing over my face, kind of inappropriate at the moment. But I couldn’t stop it. Damned hormones.
“So he was nice to you after the two of you disappeared yesterday?” she probed.
“Yes. Very nice. He always claims to be an asshole, but in reality—”
“I can hear you—I’m right here,” Kaden snapped.
I ignored him and put the cool towel carefully on Dawn’s hand. She winced.
“You should go to the hospital,” I murmured.
“Let me see,” Kaden said, coming over. He took Dawn’s hand and examined it tenderly.
“That looks pretty nasty.” He raised his head and looked at me. “You’re right, she needs an X-ray.”
The three of us made our way to the hospital. In the emergency room, we filled out the forms for Dawn. The waiting room was packed, and it was hard for me to sit around like this. We waited and waited and watched—as her fingers kept swelling like balloons until she couldn’t move her forefinger and middle finger at all.
“It’s going to be okay,” I repeated for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Dawn and Kaden looked at each other across me.
“She’s just saying that to keep herself calm,” whispered Kaden too loudly.
“Yes, and she’s saying it because she feels guilty.” Dawn nodded in agreement. “After all, it was thanks to your fight with each other that I hit you. Well, that was at least sixty percent of the reason.”
“And the other forty percent was for Spencer?”
She nodded. “Someone had to avenge his swollen face.”
“That’s so honorable of you,” I said and grabbed her intact hand. We intertwined our fingers. Dawn was the best girlfriend I’d ever had. And even if I wanted to shake her for having hurt herself for my sake, we both knew very well that I would have done the same for her.
“If your ex crosses my path, I’ll give him what for, too,” I promised her.
She grimaced. “That would be great, but let Kaden show you first how it’s done. Otherwise you’ll end up like me.”
“Ms. Edwards?” a nurse called from across the room. “Please come into treatment room three.”
Dawn and I both stood.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Dawn said with a glance at Kaden.
“Cut it out. Of course I’m coming with you,” I said, and then turned to Kaden, considering whether to kiss him goodbye. But he made the decision for me. He grabbed my hand and murmured—his lips on mine—“I’ll wait here for you.” Then he kissed me, swift but firm. My face glowed as I followed Dawn out of the waiting room.
In the hallway, she dug the fingers of her healthy hand into my arm. “He kissed you.”
“And that’s not the only thing he’s done with me,” I whispered in her ear.
Dawn turned bright red, then laughed out loud.
The X-rays showed that no bones were broken. Her pointer was just bruised, and that would heal quickly. But her middle finger was in worse shape: A small fracture had formed in the bone, causing pain and swelling. She’d have to wear a splint for two weeks, take painkillers, and avoid using her fingers until her follow-up appointment in three weeks.
When we left the treatment room, Dawn placed her head on my shoulder. “Please don’t tell Spencer about this. That would be embarrassing.”
“My lips are sealed,” I promised her with a laugh, and even gave the gesture that went along with the saying. But Dawn wasn’t looking at me anymore. Instead she stared into the waiting room at Spencer, sitting there next to Kaden. Kaden said something, Spencer laughed and patted him on the back. His right eye looked bad: blue and purple and nearly swollen shut.
Why was he here? Had Kaden called him?
As if he’d read my mind, Kaden looked up. He began to smile but stopped when he saw the bandage on Dawn’s hand.
We went over to them. Dawn was shifting her weight from one foot to the other. I’d never seen her embarrassed.
“The way the two of us look,” she murmured, raising up her bandaged arm. “Like a gang of thugs.”
Spencer grinned. With his swollen eye he did look pretty scary. “An unsuccessful gang of thugs. And Allie is our boss or something like that. She’s the only one who’s come away unscathed.”
“Spencer,” growled Kaden.
“Of course I could help out with that and give you a few black and blue marks, so you could feel like you belong. What do you think?”
Kaden’s fist went into his arm.
“Oh, come on, dude! Do you have to?” Spencer groaned and rubbed the spot.
“Yes,” we chimed in together.
Then we all burst out laughing.
Chapter 28
My eyelids kept drooping shut. I was bored to death. Our instructor was anything but motivated and just read aloud some random historical facts from a packaged presentation. Film and TV was normally one of my favorite classes, but today it was monotonous beyond compare.
Kaden, sitting a few rows behind me, seemed to feel the same. Whenever I stole a glance at him, he was playing with his cell phone or gazing at the ceiling of the stuffy classroom. I tried not to be caught staring at him, but it wasn’t easy. Especially since I knew how it felt to have his muscular arms wrapped around my naked body.
When I left the room after class, Kaden was right behind me. He reached for my hand and entwined his fingers with mine. He had done this a lot in the last few days. He touched me whenever he had a chance, no matter who was close enough to see us.
I liked it. A lot.
“I want you. Now,” he whispered, as we walked together outside. He brushed his lips against mine.
We had arrived in the parking lot. Students were streaming past us on their way to lunch.
“Come here,” murmured Kaden, pushing me right into his Jeep. Then he kissed me full on.
“Kaden,” I said, struggling to speak. “We’re in public.”
He mumbled into my mouth. “You should be glad you got out of that classroom alive.”
I smiled and pushed him back. His eyes were dark, and he could hardly control his heavy breathing. Over the last few days I’d learned a lot about him, especially that he was always ready for anything.
“Want to go on a hike?” I whispered.
He grumbled.
“I have to work on an essay later, but I would love to go to the mountain,” I suggested, surprising myself a little with how seductive my voice sounded. “And there are other things we can do after that.”
Kaden didn’t need to be told twice. In the blink of an eye he had off-loaded me to the passenger seat and s
tarted up the engine. But in the end we didn’t manage to bring this plan to fruition. We didn’t go for a hike. We didn’t even leave the Jeep. Instead we parked at the edge of the mountain, the only car visible for miles. I’d planned to give him a quick kiss, but somehow I ended up straddling his lap.
I clung to his shoulders as he plunged his hand up my sweatshirt and under the shirt beneath it.
“I thought we wanted to hike,” I sighed as we kissed.
“You wanted to hike,” he corrected me and moved his hips until his erection pressed against my pants. I pushed into him. “I just wanted you.”
I looked into his warm eyes.
“You have me,” I whispered, stroking his stubbly cheeks. “You have every last bit of me.”
“Come here,” he whispered, his voice gruff.
“I’m already here.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Kaden ran his hands over my waist and farther down, until he reached the edge of my pants. The elastic band made them great for hiking—and easy for Kaden to pull off.
I fiddled with Kaden’s belt and gave a triumphant cry when it came free, followed by his pants and boxers, pushed down as low as necessary. Breathless, Kaden laughed and reached down to help me. Then he kissed me again, with hunger and passion.
“Come here,” he murmured again. How he’d managed to pull on a condom I didn’t know—or care. I groaned as he pulled me onto his lap and then entered me.
For a moment we looked at each other, panting. Then Kaden held my waist. I lifted my pelvis, then sank back down. Again and again and again. Kaden helped me find our rhythm, although I could tell how hard it was for him to let me be in charge.
Our eyes locked as we moved together, each setting the other’s body on fire. We rocked faster, with more desperation, and our gasping filled the car.
Kaden groaned my name. And then he touched the spot that drove me crazy. I came soon afterward, calling his name, and Kaden followed suit. Exhausted, I collapsed against him and smiled into the crook of his neck.
“I like that much better,” murmured Kaden.
