by Erin Wright
Her laughter died away completely then. He was being serious. There was nothing playful or funny about him in that moment. He was in desperate need…of her.
Sucking in a breath for courage, she ran her hand over his abs, following his happy trail, wrapping her fingers around the heat of him. She began stroking him up and down, the rhythm familiar from eons of ancestors doing just the same thing, and then she bent over and wrapped her lips around his dick.
He was scrabbling at the sheets, groaning with pain and want and need, but she was oblivious to it all as she ran her mouth up and down and around, dipping and swirling with her tongue, tasting and probing and trying anything that seemed like a good idea. She was busy running her tongue across the slit and around the head, wondering what would happen if she tried using her teeth to lightly graze the sides of his dick, when his words finally broke through the haze of desire that was swirling around her.
“Please Cady please Cady please Cady,” he was chanting, another prayer but this time to her, pleading for her…
She swung her right leg over his body and then began slowly, ever-so-slowly, lowering herself down on top of him, pausing to let her body expand to take in his girth, until she was seated completely against him, her warmth, his warmth, melding together, and finally he was moving again – rocking his hips against her while wrapping his fingers around her thighs, lifting and dropping her body, their pants and screams rending the air as Cady threw back her head and screamed with pleasure, the world contracting to the point between her legs, nothing else existing, explosions and flying apart and coming together until finally, her body collapsed forward, the rigidity gone, sprawled across him, a giant pillow under her as she slept.
Chapter 21
Gage
November, 2019
Gage had never been one to struggle with self-control. His mom had tried telling him one time that not everyone was as tightly wound as he was – she’d been trying to tell him to give Chris a break but had been couching the argument in vague terms, as if she really could be talking about anyone at all – but his legendary self-control was being tested to its absolute limits by a certain Cady Walcott.
He couldn’t blame her – she wasn’t trying to be temptation on a stick – but that didn’t make it any easier, honestly. Watching her relax around him, around everyone, slowly gaining confidence, losing her instinctive, protective layer and revealing the soft, gooey Cady underneath…it was heaven.
Or hell.
He hadn’t quite decided which, yet.
He was falling in love with her more every day, but was forcing himself to take it slow, not say anything, not scare her into running the other direction. He couldn’t risk their relationship now. Not after it’d taken so long just to get to this point.
He found himself relying on Sugar more than ever, even hiring a second teenager to come in after school to get caught up on the tasks she usually took care of during the day, so she could do his job and he could be next door, helping Cady put the finishing touches on the Smoothie Queen. The electrical wiring was up to code; the aisles between the shelves on the right-hand side of the store were wide and accommodating; the tables on the left-hand side of the store sturdy but cute, giving the store the welcoming vibe Cady was striving so hard for.
She had a few overhead lights but had paid for outlets to be placed everywhere, making it possible to light the store via lamps without also creating a trip hazard in the process. The hodgepodge of lamps that Cady had bought from Second Time Around were especially useful in creating that eclectic yet homey feel.
After the delivery men brought in the shelving boxes a few weeks earlier, Gage had spent his two days off that week doing nothing but assembling shelves. He’d been surprised at first when he realized how short they were. Unlike a normal store where the shelves were 12-ft tall, these shelves were so short, even Cady could see over them without a problem.
Even Cady can see over them…
Which was when he’d realized, of course, why it was that the shelves were so short. No man was going to be able to sneak up on her without her seeing him coming.
She was also careful not to create any dead ends, where a man could corner her. Every aisle, every table, every corner of the store had an escape route built in.
As he saw it, she had a healthy fear of what could happen. Not an irrational fear that overpowered her and kept her from living her life, but a healthy fear that kept her aware of her surroundings at all times.
He was damn proud of her – every week, changing and growing and expanding just a little more.
He’d never lived in another person’s pocket like this. Even when he was at the bakery, working away in the kitchen, it seemed like there was the constant excuse available for him to go to the smoothie shop, or for her to go to the bakery. Taste testing. Pricing discussions. Supplier debates. Buy new appliances and walk-in coolers with all of the latest features, or used with a much more affordable price tag? She understood what it was like to be a small business owner, unlike any other woman he’d ever tried to date. She didn’t make him feel guilty for staying late and doing inventory; quite often, she’d join in and help.
The crossing back and forth between stores was getting to be obnoxious, though. Whether they went through the front doors or the back doors, it was still a walk around the wall in the middle – a solid wall without the smallest connection in it to the other side.
Much like our relationship was in the beginning. Solid, impenetrable, not a crack or a bit of wiggle room in sight. She stayed on that side; I stayed on this side. But now…
Gage pulled a large cake sheet pan forward, the peanut butter bars cooled enough to cut, and began slicing them into 3" squares for the display case out front. He took a corner piece and slipped it onto a napkin. He’d go over and visit Cady with a cup of coffee and the peanut butter bar. See how she was doing. Take a peek at the other side of the wall. Do some mental measurements. Decide if he was brave enough to pull this off.
With a wave to Sugar, he headed out the front door and over to the still-closed Smoothie Queen. Another two weeks, and Cady would be open for business; she was opening the week before Thanksgiving. It was crazy how quickly her self-imposed deadline had snuck up on them.
But all of this meant that it was now or never to make this happen.
Chapter 22
Cady
Life, Cady decided, was pretty damn awesome.
This wasn’t a normal state of being for her. Well, at least not since that had happened. And especially not since her parents had died.
Previous to that, she’d been a positive person. Or she thought she had been. It was hard to remember that far back, really.
And then, it was the Dark Times, and she’d been miserable and scared and oh-so-afraid all the time, and she hadn’t been able to believe that life would get any better. Life would always be that awful.
Always.
But Gage Dyer came into her life and had changed everything for her. No longer afraid of shadows. No longer afraid of planes, although she still didn’t want to fly on one. She was happy to never step onto a plane for the rest of her life.
But at least she didn’t cower and cry every time a crop duster flew overhead, which was a hell of an improvement.
She wanted to tell Gage how much she loved him; she felt the words on her lips almost constantly, but she was afraid. What if he didn’t feel the same way? What if she was a fun companion for him – compatible in and out of bed – but he wanted nothing more than that?
Afraid to lose what they had, Cady swallowed her words of love and tried to show it through her actions instead. He’d changed her life – he was her life – and she told him this with every look, every back rub, every graze of her hand across his chest.
“We have got to do girls’ weekends more often,” Sugar said, laughing as she piled out of Emma’s car, leaning back in to retrieve Rose. The 8-month-old was bundled up against the frigid air of the November day but
she didn’t seem to mind. She grinned up at her momma, showing off her bottom teeth – the only ones that’d come in so far – and waved her pudgy hands in the air. “The men in our lives can survive without us for three days.”
“In your lives, maybe,” Emma grumbled good-naturedly under her breath. “I don’t have a man in my life to miss me. Other than my boss, and quite frankly, we need the weekends as breathers so we don’t kill each other.”
“Well, thanks for taking off during the week,” Cady said. “I know it was a lot to talk your boss into letting you have Wednesday through Friday off, but with everything I still have left to get ready for the grand opening, nothing else would’ve worked.”
They headed for the front door of the Smoothie Queen where they would try out Cady’s newest creation – blueberries and pineapple, which she knew sounded disgusting but had promised everyone that it tasted marvelous – and then Emma had to head back to Denver.
Cady inwardly sighed at the thought of Emma leaving again. She’d never had friends like Sugar and Emma before, and although Sugar was fun when Emma wasn’t there, it was like she completed the circuit or something, making life even more amazing when the three of them were together.
Life was just better with the Dyers around.
“Do you ever hear from Nicholas?” Sugar asked Emma as Cady fumbled with her keys for the front door. “Is he still in the Marines?”
“Nicholas?” Cady echoed. “Who’s Nicholas?” She finally got the deadbolt to slide back and she pushed into the store, holding the door open for Emma and Sugar to pass through. “How have I not heard about a hot Marine before this?”
But both Emma and Sugar were just standing there with gleeful looks on their faces, looking meaningfully at Cady as if she was supposed to be excited about something. Even Rose was getting in on the scene, waving her slobbery fist in the air and screeching happily.
“Why are you guys staring at me like that?” Cady asked slowly, a tingle going up her spine. Something was going on here, and she couldn’t tell what, and the way they were acting made it seem like it’d be good, but—
“Because they keep expecting you to notice that I’m standing right here,” Gage said out of the darkness, leaning against the wall that separated their businesses.
Cady yelped and jumped at least a foot in the air, staring through the dim evening light, trying to read the look on Gage’s face. “Gage!” she squeaked, her hand over her heart. “Oh heavens. You scared the shit outta me. Why are you standing here in the dark? You should turn on—” she reached over and flicked on one of the table lamps on top of a shelving unit and turned back to Gage, “the lighhhtttssss…”
She sounded a bit like a toy running out of battery – a rundown talking doll – but she couldn’t make herself care in that moment. Her brain was too stunned as she tried to take in what she was seeing.
It was Gage standing there all right, but he wasn’t in front of the wall between the bakery and the smoothie shop. He was in front of the glass door between the bakery and the smoothie shop.
“Where…what…” She was sputtering like an engine running out of gas. “Where did the door come from?!” she finally got out. She was crossing to it, pushing at it and letting it swing open into the bakery, looking for all the world like it’d always been there.
Except it hadn’t. It wasn’t like she would’ve missed seeing a glass-and-aluminum door between their businesses all this time.
“Surprise,” Gage said softly, and even through the haze of shock, she could sense the nervousness in his voice. “It locks from both sides. I can install curtains if you’d like, blocking the view. We can lock it and pretend this never happened. I wanted to surprise you – a present for your grand opening on Monday. But if you hate it, I can make it go—”
“Hate it?” Cady whispered, still pushing at the door and watching it swing. “Hate it?! I love it.” She turned to Gage and threw her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his hips and kissing him enthusiastically. His hands slipped under her ass and he supported her there as if she weighed nothing more than a small sack of sugar.
A tiny part of Cady’s brain registered words and sounds and then it was just her and Gage in the store, kissing as if they’d never kissed before.
No, Cady decided, better than that. Kissing as if they knew each other intimately. Kissing as if they’d been apart for ages but now were ready to become one. Right then, right there, against the wall right next to the swinging door, Gage was going to take her and…
Barking. Loud barking. What was that noise? Gage was kissing down the side of her neck as she practically melted into the wall, her head tilted to the side to give him better access, her ankles hooked at the small of Gage’s back, but still, there was barking.
Finally, she forced her eyes open and she saw Cream Puffs dancing around their feet, barking excitedly, thrilled that Cady was gone from her three-day weekend with Sugar and Emma and quite ready for some attention. Like, now.
“I need…” Cady moaned, pushing at Gage’s shoulders. She let her ankles unlock and she slid down the front of him, every delicious inch pressing against her body on the descent.
“I need—” Gage said, his voice husky with that need, but Cady pushed lightly at his shoulders again.
“Cream Puffs hasn’t seen me in three days,” she said, dropping to her knees and letting the teenage dog bathe her face in kisses. “She misses me.”
“I haven’t seen you in three days either,” Gage grumbled good-naturedly, and then pushed the door open between the two businesses again, clearly ready for more praise on the topic now that it was obvious they weren’t going to make passionate love against the wall of the smoothie shop. “I really wanted to ask you before I did this, but I couldn’t figure out how and still have it be a surprise. Asking ‘Can I do this?’ tends to take away the surprise factor.”
Cady snorted with laughter against Cream Puffs’ neck. “Just a bit,” she murmured.
“So I decided to make it mostly reversible. In case you hated it. Like I said, a lock on either side plus curtains would pretty much turn this into a no-go. It wasn’t hard to convince Sugar and Emma to take you out for some girls’ time together—”
“Oooohhhhh…” Cady breathed, the pieces all falling into place. Their insistence that they had to take these three days off, even though it was just days before the grand opening. Their insistence that Cady make them the blueberry and pineapple smoothie once they got back, even though Cady had thought they’d both just want to go home and relax.
“They didn’t want to try my smoothie after all!” she said, half indignant, looking around and realizing that they were both gone. She vaguely remembered the noises and the words while she’d had her legs wrapped around Gage, and guessed that it was them saying goodbye.
Or telling them to get a room.
Probably both, honestly.
“They just wanted to be here when you saw the door,” Gage agreed. “Emma was absolutely insistent. Said she wouldn’t leave for Denver until she saw your face.”
Finally having given Cream Puffs enough love – at least for the moment – Cady stood and walked back to the door, the dog trailing in her wake. “So you just cut through the cinder block wall?” she asked, looking at the carefully crafted door frame. If Gage ever decided to give up making cakes, he could do handyman work instead. She’d never met such a meticulous worker before, other than her own father, of course.
“Just? Just?!” he repeated, mock outraged by the word. “I busted through concrete for you. Not every girl can say that her boyfriend broke through a concrete wall for her.”
She laughed as she grinned up at him. “It is a very romantic story,” she whispered as she stood up on her tiptoes, sliding her arms around his neck. “I shall be sure to give it its full due when I retell it, I promise.”
As she kissed him again, and he pressed her against the wall of the shop again, and began making his way down her neck again, she dec
ided that actually, life was even better than “pretty damn awesome.” Perhaps “really damn awesome” was more appropriate. Or “stupendously damn awesome.”
Whatever way she cut it, though, “awesome” was definitely true.
Chapter 23
Cady
Exhaustion. Had she ever been this tired before in her life? Those dark days where she hadn’t gotten out of bed for weeks at a time except to go pee…she’d been exhausted then.
But that had been a different type of exhaustion. Today…this came from hard work. From pushing herself to the limits and succeeding, not laying in bed and wishing the world would just leave her the hell alone already.
No, this was a very different kind of exhaustion indeed. This exhaustion felt good. Accomplished.
Gage had already left for the day – headed back to his place to start on dinner while she cleaned up her store. It was the end of her first full week of being an open and operating business owner and it had gone pretty damn well if she did say so herself. There’d been learning curves galore – overfilling of the blender; under-ordering of the frozen strawberries – but no one had died, and she figured that was an achievement in and of itself.
It was true that she was making smoothies and selling health food which didn’t tend to kill people off, but still…
She’d take the win.
She locked the back door of the Smoothie Queen, able to do it even in the dark without having to flick on the flashlight app on her phone. She wasn’t sure what this said about her – she was so comfortable leaving work after dark, was she turning into a workaholic? – but at least it meant that she wasn’t liable to trip and hurt herself—
“You bitch,” a malevolent voice growled in her ear as a gloved hand slid around her face and another around her waist. “Staying late, with him?”