Sometimes It Lasts(Sea Breeze #5)(55)

“The picture of me touching the girls breast. I was looking for my phone. My roommate had taken it and I was stuck at a party I didn’t want to be at. Very few girls had on tops and I wanted the hell out. They wouldn’t go away and take no for an answer. I shoved her back and I was reaching for her shoulder when she moved so that I’d grab something else. The picture of me getting in a car with a girl was the only ride I could get home that night. I had no battery in my phone because, once again, my roommate had taken it. I was miles away from any store and it was late. That was just a ride home. The kiss was set up. I arrived at a team party at a bar. I sat down by myself on the couch to watch television, and she came up and laid one on me. I pushed her off and stormed out of there to call you. You didn’t answer. I went inside to get a beer and play pool and the beer I took had been drugged. Fifteen minutes after I went back in that bar, I don’t remember one f**king thing. Not one. And I never slept with that girl. It was also a setup. She was helping Ace set me up. That photo was taken by Ace. They wanted me to believe I had f**ked her. Not once, Eva. Not f**king once have I wanted anyone but you since the moment I walked onto that porch out there and laid eyes on you. It’s been you ever since.”

I stood there, unable to find words. For six months I’d thought he had cheated on me. Betrayed me. For six months I had lived with the pain of not being enough.

“I should have fought for you. I should have fought for us. But I didn’t. I f**king didn’t, and I will never forgive myself for it.” Cage dropped his hand from my waist and stepped back. Then he turned and walked out the door.

My shattered heart slowly began to reform. Each moment that I’d thought he had wanted someone else melted away. Every tear I’d cried over not being enough to hold him dried up. I shoved off from the counter and went after him. He was walking across the yard, headed to the barn, when I hit the first step.

“Cage! Wait!” I cried, and started running down the rest of the steps.

He turned around and saw me then started walking back to me in long strides. “Don’t run, baby, you could fall,” he said, looking concerned.

I just laughed. He was my Cage. He was back. My nightmare was over. He grabbed me around the waist, but I flung myself into his arms. “I love you. I love you so much. I should have listened to you. I was so emotional and I wasn’t myself. But you deserved more from me. You deserved to be heard and I wouldn’t give you the chance.” I held him tightly knowing nothing I said could make the fact I hadn’t trusted him better.

Cage’s arms tightened around me and I felt him shudder underneath me. I cried harder. The boy who hadn’t been loved and had been left by everyone had trusted me with his heart and I’d let him down. I would never do it again. Ever. If he was going to give me the chance, then I would spend my life proving it.

I ran my hand over his head and threaded my fingers through his hair. He had bent down and buried his head in the crook of my neck and wasn’t moving. He just held me silently. “I love you so much. I never stopped,” I told him again.

Slowly he lifted his head and looked down at me. “You’re my world,” he said simply.

CAGE

Eva wasn’t loosening her hold on me, and I was good with that. We’d stand here like that all damn day if she wanted to. “I’m not engaged to Jeremy anymore,” she said against my chest. I smiled. I had forgotten that she didn’t know I knew she wasn’t engaged anymore.

“I know,” I replied.

She frowned and gazed up at me. “You do?”

I pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, he called me. Let me know.”

Her frown deepened. “I was going to break it off. He just beat me to it. I don’t want you to think I wanted to marry him.”

My smile only got bigger. I took a small taste of her bottom lip with my tongue. “I know,” I whispered before she slipped her tongue into my mouth and I entered the sweet warmth I’d missed.

Her body molded against me. Feeling the small swell of her stomach pressed against me made the possessive beast inside me come to life. That was mine, and I wasn’t f**king letting it go again. She couldn’t force me to leave her side with a damn gun pointed at my head.

Her hands slid under my shirt and went straight for my ni**les. The woman was obsessed. I kissed a path from her mouth to her ear. “You start playing with my ni**les, baby, and I get to play with yours.”

She arched her neck, and I took it as an invitation to continue kissing and licking my way down to her neckline. She started pressing her br**sts toward me and kissing any skin she could find, including my biceps. “Cage,” she said, sounding desperate.

“Yeah, baby?” I asked as I eased my hands under her shirt so I could finally get my hands full of her br**sts. They were different and I wanted to get my hands on them.

“I need you to touch my boobs,” she said in a throaty plea.

“Yeah, I need that too,” I replied, unable to keep the smile out of my voice.

“And I need you to make love to me,” she finished.

I cupped her ass and picked her up. She wrapped her arms and legs around me and kept kissing me. I was going to take her inside or to the barn—I wasn’t sure which was closest.

“No. Here. I can’t wait,” she said, tugging on my shirt as her legs slid back down my body.