Paradise Found: Cain (Paradise #2)(67)

I slowed to her pace and drew back with a weary smile. My eyes remained closed, attempting to hold the mirage of her, before she disappeared again, because I was firmly convinced that was what would happen. I was hallucinating the words that drifted near the horizon.

“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, a bit of edge to her tone.

My eyes popped open and I took in her somber face. She looked irritated with a touch of fear in her eyes.

“You’re staying married to me?” I questioned, pleasure filled my voice.

“Cain, this isn’t the time or the…” I cut her off again. I wanted to draw her out of her worry into my contentment. Like sucking the venom out of a bite wound, I wanted to take the poison from her mind and let her feel the euphoria inside me. She was still my wife. She was staying my wife.

My lips held fast to hers, nibbling, then consuming whenever she’d attempt to speak. She’d follow my lead, tangle with my tongue, but the moment she pulled back I latched on. My teeth scrapped playfully over her tender mouth, dragging her lips back to mine. She giggled against me and my smile broke the connection.

“What?” I teased.

“I’m trying to talk to you,” she said, attempting to be serious, but the curve of her lips told me she liked mine on hers.

“There’s nothing to talk about. You’re coming home with me, where you belong.” I smiled, before growing serious. “It isn’t safe if Atom is this close. In Preston.” I took a deep breath. “I think he’s the one who trashed your apartment, all those months ago, and I don’t like you being there unprotected.”

“Why did he do it?” Liquidy blue eyes tore my heart in two.

“Because he knew you were someone important, he just hadn’t figured out why. He wouldn’t have come after you, otherwise.”

“Did he ever go after Malinda?”

My shoulders sagged.

“No,” I shook my head, wondering if I’d ever be able to let go of my sins. Would she ever forgive me?

“Why?” she asked so innocently.

“Because I didn’t …” I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t tell her how I felt. Not like this. “Malinda wasn’t anyone special to me.” That was the truth. Malinda was a means to an end, as I was to her. She fulfilled the need when it grew to be too much, and I had to have a different kind of release than a hot shower and my own palm.

She nodded knowingly, but she didn’t know. The sad expression on her face proved it. She couldn’t know the depth of my feelings for her. I loved her.

“You can’t keep taking me in,” she whispered. “Like a lost puppy or something.”

“I’m not,” my voice croaked. “I’m not taking you in. I’m keeping you safe. A woman should be taken care of, Sofie, treasured, especially by her husband. I’ll have to have a little talk with him.” I winked.

This made her laugh a little, if only half-heartedly.

“I think it’s safest if you come home. To the house,” I clarified. “I can both be vigilant about watching over you, and watching out for Atom, until I figure out why he’s here.”

Sofie nodded again, slower this time, and while my heart flipped inside me, I sensed she wasn’t as pleased about the arrangement as me.




She allowed me time to shower and dress, before we drove to her apartment for a few of her things. I didn’t want it to be awkward when we got to the house but it was. We seemed to bump into each other and smile, like teenagers with a crush. Hell, I felt like a damn teenager, and I wasn’t even this jittery as one. I was confident and cocky, but this girl, she stripped me. She owned me. My whole body vibrated with need to be in her, and I didn’t know what to do about it. She didn’t seem real to me unless we were connected in the best way two people can be.

We had a quiet dinner, where she told me about school, and then she left me to grade some papers for her TA position. She studied really hard, training her mind almost as much as I trained my body. I liked to watch her work, imagining the knowledge seeping into her brain. She was going to make a great doctor, one day. She had this soothing tone and patience to her, like she could solve all your problems. It was one of the things that captivated me about her. She could be my salvation.

At midnight, I decided she needed sleep. She’d slept on my floor the night before and left early this morning. My father’s threat, and my demands to return home, had taken over her mind. I could tell she was no longer reading papers, but staring at them.

“Come to bed,” I said, without realizing how it sounded. Her eyes opened wide and she bit her lip, as she stared at me.

“I mean … you should sleep.” I slipped my hands in my jeans to disguise the problem I’d been battling ever since our kiss. The idea of her in my bed was too much for me. If she were there, there would be no control. I’d lose the fight. She’d be mine again in the most biblical of terms.

She nodded, then led the way up the stairs but paused in the hallway. Our room was on the right, but her old room was to the left. I’d carried her things there out of respect. I didn’t want to push her. Her crestfallen face quickly recovered as she turned into her old room.

“Thank you for doing this again. Taking me in. It’s got to be getting old,” she said, beginning to unpack some things from her bag, keeping her back to me.