Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance(64)

The door bursts open behind me. I turn and see Cade standing there, hands fisted at his sides, in unbuttoned jeans and still no goddamn shirt, which is really just the cruelest kind of joke. His shoulders take up almost the entire doorframe, and his expression is one I recognize as his angry scowl.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he barks out.

I sniff and look away because he’s intimidating right now. “Making sure things don’t get too complicated for you. Obviously.”

“Woman.” He always sounds so snarky when he calls me woman. “Are you insane? You think I went three years without laying my hand on a single person to break my streak with one as exceptional as you and then let you just walk away?”

Three years?

“I—”

“No.” He holds up a hand. “I’m going to talk. And you’re going to close your mouth and listen.

Because if you’d let me finish what I was saying out there, you wouldn’t have spent a single moment in here thinking I don’t want to complicate things with you. I said I promised myself I wouldn’t complicate this with you. You’re young, you’re restless, and I’m truthfully too fucking jealous to do anything casual with you.” He runs a hand through his hair, giving the ends a frustrated little tug. “I’ve watched you with my son. I’ve watched you, period. I’ve longed for you. I went crazy tonight thinking of you out with Lance. I know in my bones that I won’t want to let you go at the end of the summer, but I’ll take what I can get. Because you’re too fucking special to pass up. Fuck my promises, that’s what I was going to say.”

My throat tightens as he stares down at that brass line separating my space from his. Arbitrary and yet, symbolic. Like when we cross that line we’re not going back.

“I . . .”

He holds a hand up again. “No. I don’t want to talk anymore. Unless it’s to hear you explain why you think I’d let you suck me off and then not return the favor. What kind of assholes you been dating, Red?”

My lips roll together as I watch him cross that line into my space.

It feels like our space.

“Now, get on your back. I want to watch you squirm while I taste you for the first time.”





22

Cade

“S o you’re allowed to talk, but I’m not?” Her arms cross over her chest, but there’s a small smile on her face. That’s the look I like, not the stricken one she walked away with moments ago.

For a girl with so much attitude, she has a serious case of self-doubt on her hands. One I intend to clear up for her.

“I love listening to you talk, Red.” I prowl into her room, not missing the way she’s squeezing her thighs together. I smirk because I know she got off on giving that blow job. Best blow job of my life because no girl has ever been that into giving one. “But when you say things that aren’t true, I get pissed off. Things you make up in your pretty head and toss around in there long enough that you believe them.”

She steps backward, eyes flaring as I follow her into the room. “You think you don’t do that too?”

I ignore her question. I do that too. The difference is I realize I’m doing it. “You have no idea how special you are. How insane you make me feel. How I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

She rolls her eyes at me, and I point at her. “That right there. Don’t do it. The only appropriate response is, Thank you.”

Her legs bump into the bed, and she drops to sit, biting at her lip in the most distracting way. I step between her legs, sighing at the nearness and the heat of her body against mine. After so long, it feels so fucking good to be this close to someone.

Especially to her.

“Let me hear it, baby. Say thank you.”

She clears her throat, eyes darting away. “Thank you.”

“Good girl.” I grip her chin and turn her face up to me. “That’s what you’re going to say to me all night. Every time I tell you something good. Are we clear?”

A shiver runs over her, even as I see that spark of defiance in her eye. The one I admire. I want to turn that spark into a whole damn fire so this girl goes out and does what she wants with her life.

“Fine.”

I let a smile touch my lips as I stare down at her. “Good.”

“Why are you smiling? It’s creepy. You never smile.”

I shake my head at her. “I smile. You just miss them because it’s when I’m staring at your ass. And I’m smiling now because I’m really looking forward to this.”

One of her shapely brows arches, and her glare moves down my torso to my crotch. “Yeah. I can see that.”

“I think you meant thank you. ” Sliding my hand along her cheek and into her hair at the base of her

neck, I crouch down and kiss her, tipping her head up to me. A deep rumble emanates from my chest when I feel how soft she is in my hands. How willing. How eager.

Her plush lips are supple beneath mine, and her warm hands are tentative as she brings them back to my torso and starts exploring.

Gooseflesh erupts over my skin everywhere she moves them, and I revel in her touch. In the years I’ve spent abstinent, I didn’t imagine it ever feeling this electric, this deeply necessary—natural, like I don’t even have to try with her. There’s just this spark. One we can’t see, but it’s been burning between us from day one.