Broken(35)

“There’s where you’re wrong goddammit! You’re going to stand there and listen to me. You at least owe me that, after all, you had your say and never gave me mine.”

“You said you wanted us to be cordial,” she squeaked. A desperate gleam entered her eyes and Jocelyn began to shake as she looked from left to right as if she was looking for someone to come to her rescue.

“Scared, Jocelyn? You should be. There was a time when I wouldn’t have dreamed of harming one hair on that gorgeous head of yours but lately I’ve been having fantasies about wringing your pretty little neck.”

A large tear drop tumbled from the corner of her eye, ran down her cheek and plopped onto her collar bone. There was a time when seeing her cry would have tore at his heart and it annoyed the hell out of him that nothing had changed. He was sure she was doing it on purpose to manipulate him. “Save your tears for one of the other saps willing to fall for your tricks.”

“Cade,” she croaked. “I’m sorry, I…I…hurt you…but you…have to let me go,” Jocelyn gasped the words out as if she was having trouble breathing.

He was beyond caring about her obvious panic. “What’s the matter, darling? Can dish it out but can’t take it? So tell me, what kind of man does a sophisticated lady like yourself go for? Do those other men fulfill you better than I did? Can they make you come with just their fingers and tongue the way I could? Do they know the spots to touch or how to get your * so wet you gush?”

“Stop!” she screamed.

“Perhaps you’ve acquired some skills in the city you could teach a country boy like me,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken.

Jocelyn began to struggle in earnest, but Cade was beyond the point of caring. All he could focus on was his desire to hurt her like she had hurt him.

Cade lowered his head and smashed his lips against hers. He wanted to punish her for every single night he’d lain awake wondering what he could have done differently to make her stay, or how he’d compared every woman he’d had to her. To transfer to her, the gut-wrenching ache he still lived with. Though he’d tried to deny this woman didn’t affect him, he was lying to himself.

Jocelyn still had the power to bring him to his knees with a simple blink of an eyelash. What started as his need to punish her became so much more. His cock jumped to life and he ground his hardness against her thigh. Shoving his tongue past her slightly parted lips, he nearly exploded right then and there to be reacquainted with the sweet taste of her.

His hands slid down her back to cup the soft swell of her bottom, bringing his pelvis against hers. He was on fire for her, yet, something wasn’t quite right. Something was different. What was it? She still smelled like sweet jasmine, and tasted like wild honey and a unique flavor all her own. Her body was as soft as he remembered, a little thinner but basically the same.

Suddenly, it hit him. She wasn’t responding. Instead, she stood frozen within the circle of his arms. His dick went limp in an instant and he broke away from her with a shove, sending her stumbling back.

Jocelyn barely avoided landing on her butt. Instead of yelling at or hitting him as he surely deserved, she stared at him wide-eyed and open mouthed, her fists clenched tightly against her chest and her body trembling.

Cade felt lower than a snake’s belly. He’d never in his life manhandled a woman. Raised to protect those weaker and smaller than himself, a wave of disgust tore through him the likes of nothing he’d ever experienced. Jocelyn didn’t deserve this, despite the suffering he believed she’d caused.