“I should've been the one to do it. Not her.” He pulled his hand away and turned until his back was to me. “That's the kind of man I am, Aubree. A coward. That's why you should leave now and never look back.”
I sat up on my knees, letting the blanket fall off my shoulders. I wrapped my arms around him from behind, the feel of his bare skin against mine sending a shiver through me. I pressed my lips against the side of his neck.
“I know what kind of man you are, Cade. You saved me, and not just from Steven or from Jason. You saved me from myself.” I spread my hands out on his chest, one over his heart. “You showed me who I could be.”
“Aubree, I–”
I ran my hand down his flat stomach, not stopping until I was cupping him through his jeans. He'd gone soft while we talked, but I heard his breathing hitch when I squeezed him. “No,” I said firmly. “No more putting yourself down.” I flexed the hand on his chest, letting my nails dig into his skin. “I want you. I need you.” I put my mouth against his ear and spoke in a low, sultry voice. “Fuck me.”
Chapter 7
Cade spun toward me and I gasped at the heat in his eyes. He scooped me up and stood as I threw my arms around his neck. Before I could make a sound, his mouth covered mine. I parted my lips, my tongue running out to meet his. I played with the curls at the base of his neck, lightly tugging at them until he growled. His teeth scraped at my bottom lip and I moaned. It still amazed me that I had spent years with Ronald and he'd never once done this to me, and Cade had known almost from moment one what I liked. Being with someone who used to be a professional was definitely going to have its advantages.
He carried me to the bed in the corner and laid me down. It was darker back here, the lights from the photo shoot offering barely enough to see by. It was perfect lighting, softening everything but the way his eyes were blazing. I flushed, warmth spreading across my skin.
He stood next to the bed and stripped off his jeans, revealing a pair of snug black boxer briefs. He kicked the jeans aside and smiled down at me as he hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his underwear. Anticipation coiled in my stomach. I wondered if I'd ever get tired of this, of the slow reveal of each inch of tanned, muscular flesh. In the time it had taken him to walk me to the bed and take off his clothes, his cock had started to swell. My mouth watered at the memory of how he'd felt sliding between my lips, across my tongue.
“I said that I felt like you trusted me.” Cade reached over to a battered stack of drawers and opened the top one. “Am I right?”
I nodded, wondering where he was going with this. Wherever it was, I was positive I was going to like it. “I trust you.”
The smile that spread across his face was equal parts seductive and pleased. He pulled a strip of fabric from the drawer. By the wicked glint in his eyes, I could tell he was either going to blindfold me or tie me up. I was hoping for the latter, my heart skipping a beat as I thought about how it would feel, my hands restrained, unable to move.
“Do you remember your safe words?” he asked. “There are some things I want to do with you... to you, and I don't want to freak you out.”
I stretched my arms above my head, hoping he'd understand that I wasn't just agreeing to do what he wanted… I wanted it too. “I remember them.” I stretched my body out, my breasts pushing against the bra until my nipples almost popped free. “Do what you want to me. For me. With me.”
“Fuck, Aubree,” he groaned. “Do you have any idea how hot you are?”
I grinned at him. “Very. Or so I've been told.”
He knelt on the bed next to me and leaned close. His cock brushed against my ribcage, drawing my attention for a moment. Then his hands were at my wrists. He crossed them, one over the other, and then wrapped the strip of cloth around them. It wasn't tight, but I could tell it would limit my movement. I couldn't see what he was doing, but when he sat back, I gave a tug and confirmed my hands had been tied to something.
“Here.”
Something soft slid into my palm. I wrapped my fingers around it.
“Two quick pulls and it'll release your hands.”
I nodded to show I understood, then moaned as his hands ran across my ribcage and up to cup my breasts. The little push he gave them caused the material to slip down enough to expose my nipples. The cool air caressed the already hard points, raising goose bumps along my skin.
Cade's fingers teased at my nipples, eliciting little gasps of pleasure from me as he tugged and rolled until I began to squirm. When he released them, he leaned back and reached for one of the drawers next to his bed.
“I once told you that I wanted to use nipple clamps on you,” Cade said. “But when I lived here, I couldn't afford any of the toys I have now.” He held up two wooden clothespins. “These, however, can work in a pinch.” He smirked at his play on words.
Shit.
He moved until he was straddling me, a knee on either side of my waist. I stared up at him, appreciating the magnificent picture he made above me, choosing to focus on him instead of the medieval torture device he held in his hands.
The first clothespin clamped down on my nipple and I sucked in a breath as the pain caused me to arch and twist on the bed. It wasn't too dissimilar from his fingers twisting me when it came to pain level, but it felt very different otherwise; a harsh persistence that finally faded into numbness. I bit my lip as Cade held the other one close to me, teasing me, threatening me with its presence. Finally, it was attached and my breath hissed through my lips as the pinch seared through me.
“Feel it,” he whispered as his fingers traced around my breast. “Accept the pain, don’t fight it. It’s only reminding you that you’re alive. Welcome it.”
One part of me wanted to twist his balls in my hands and ask him to embrace the pain. Now, I understood why he’d tied me up. Another part, though, felt the pain morph into something deeply sensual. My body was on high alert. I could feel everything.
He slid down my body, using his knees to push my legs apart until he was laying between them.
“I think I'll want you to wear these out in public some time.” Cade ran his finger down the length of my slit. “We'll go someplace nice and I'll take you right there, slide inside you while people are all around us.”
I made a noise as his finger dipped between my folds. It circled my entrance, then moved up to move around my clit, never quite touching it.
“I can imagine it,” he said. “The sounds you'd try to keep in.” His finger slid inside me and my body jerked, still sensitive from the previous play. “The way your pussy would grip me.”
My back arched as he ran his tongue over my sensitive flesh. I tugged at the restraints, wanting to bury my hands in his hair and press his face against me. Still, I didn't even consider freeing myself. There was something to be said for relinquishing control.
“Would I be able to make you lose control?” He added a second finger. “Make you forget everything but the sensation of me inside you? Filling you, pressing against all those places inside of you that make you scream my name.”
He curled his fingers and rubbed against my g-spot. I cried out, my hips bucking up. He chuckled as he put a hand on my stomach, pushing me back down against the mattress. His tongue flicked the top of my clit and I swore. The restraints tightened around my wrists, sending a twinge of pain along muscles that were starting to burn. The sensations mingled with the dull ache in my nipples. Then there was the pleasure coursing up through me from his fingers and his mouth on my clit. I closed my eyes, unable to process all of the varying forms of stimulation.
I hovered on the edge of an orgasm and then the hand on my stomach slid up to my breasts. He flicked one of the clothespins, sending a jolt of pain down through me.
“Fuck!”
A second flick knocked it off and I whimpered as the blood rushed back into my nipple. It hurt in that pins and needles way, like when a foot or hand fell asleep but more intensely. I barely had time to adjust before the sec
ond one was knocked off and Cade's fingers were massaging the swollen flesh. I didn't know if his touch made it worse or better, but then his lips closed around my clit and he started to suck.
I yelled his name as I came, waves of pleasure washing over me. Even while I was coming, his fingers slid out of me and then I felt one, slick with my own juices, rub against my asshole. The suction on my clit increased as he pushed his finger inside. My body convulsed, not knowing where to go or what to do. Pain and pleasure exploded and a second orgasm hit me hard enough to knock the wind out of me.
When I recovered enough to start dragging in deep breaths, Cade was leaning over me and untying my hands. He sat back on his knees as he began to massage my wrists and hands.
“That wasn't too much?”
I could hear the concern in his voice but couldn't manage more than a weak shake of my head. I felt similar to how it had been after the first time he'd spanked me, like I'd finally found someone who got it, who understood a side of me I hadn't really understood myself.
“Good,” he said. “Because we're not done.”
He helped me roll over and I winced as my sore nipples rubbed against the blanket. A definite downside to the things I liked was how uncomfortable certain parts of the anatomy got as the endorphins faded.
“One day,” he said. “I'm going to put you in this position and fuck your ass.” His hand ran down my spine and over the swell of my buttocks. “Not tonight though.” I heard a condom wrapper being opened. “I'm so hard, I wouldn't last more than thirty seconds inside your ass, and when I do it, I want you to enjoy it.”
If someone had asked me a few months ago about having anything in my ass, I would've turned red and sputtered something about how I didn't think so. Now, my world was being expanded and Cade's words were making me even wetter.
“Do you have any shoulder issues?”
The question startled me. “No, why?”
“Because if you did, this wouldn't be a good idea.”
Cade took my arms and brought them behind my back. My wrists crossed at the base of my spine and I felt the strip of fabric wrapping around them again.
“It's not tied,” he explained. “But it will hold. Say yellow if it's too much.”
“I will,” I promised.
I wasn't sure I understood why he thought this might be too much, but then his hands were on my hips, raising me onto my knees. I turned my head as my upper body remained on the bed. When I felt a hand curl around the tie linking my wrists together, I realized what he was going to do.
He yanked me up by my wrists as he snapped his hips forward and buried himself inside me with one thrust. My mouth opened but no sound came out. I couldn't think, couldn't breathe. And then he was pounding into me, each stroke harder than the last as he used my arms for leverage.
I wasn't sure when I started talking, but I became aware that words were mixed with the moans of pleasure. Cade. Fuck. Yes. More. Harder. There didn't really seem to be any sort of order, but they all boiled down to one thing. Every cell in my body was on fire and I never wanted it to stop.
“Come for me, Aubree,” Cade said, his voice breathless. “I want you to come from just my cock.”
If it happened it would be for the first time, but I was so worked up from everything that had come before that I could feel myself getting closer to the edge. The muscles in my arms were quivering, burning. My shoulders begged for relief. My throat was sore. My nipples ached and my pussy was feeling every thrust. I was aware of every inch as he moved inside me, rubbing against my walls, stretching me to the limit.
“Come, Aubree.”
I could feel Cade fighting against his body to maintain control. I could feel him thicken inside me.
“Please, baby.”
I didn't know if it was the 'please' or the 'baby' that got me, but everything coiled together inside me burst at his words. Every muscle tensed and Cade pulled back hard enough on my arms that it was almost too painful. I rode the sensation, letting the waves take me where they would, into the light and the dark, hovering at the edge of consciousness.
“Fuck, yes!” I groaned as my body went limp.
Cade let my front half slump onto the bed as he slammed into me, grinding against me as he came, roaring out his release. He stilled for a minute, his fingers digging into my hips as his cock throbbed inside me. Then he was easing out and lowering me to the blanket. I whimpered as he withdrew, my muscles still spasming as electrical impulses fired from overloaded nerves.
I closed my eyes, hearing Cade moving around before he settled behind me. He wrapped the blanket around us and pulled me against him. I could feel his heartbeat against my back and pulled his arm more tightly around me.
“Thank you,” Cade said as he kissed my temple.
“I think I should be thanking you,” I said, opening my eyes. “That was amazing.”
“Thank you for trusting me,” he said. “Even after everything I told you.”
I tilted my head back until I could see his face. “None of that matters. The past is the past.”
He kissed the top of my head. “I like having you here. It's special. A place just for us.”
“I like that I'm the only person you've brought here,” I admitted. “No ghosts.”
“I don't take clients to my condo either,” he said. “So we have two places where it's just us.”
I like that even better. I may be getting better with the whole not comparing me and Adelle thing, but as a girlfriend, I would be self-conscious in places where Cade had fucked other women. I wanted to put as much distance as possible between that part of his life and where we were headed together.
“Guess this means I have to drop Adelle permanently from my client list.”
I rolled my eyes. “Funny.”
“We'll have to work out some sort of schedule,” he said thoughtfully. “We definitely don't work the same hours and while I can afford to cut back, I will need most weekends...”
I pulled out of his embrace and rolled onto my back so I was looking at him. A knot was forming in the pit of my stomach. This wasn't funny anymore. “What are you talking about?”
Cade gave me a puzzled look. “How we're going to schedule time to see each other between your teaching and my clients, of course. I don't exactly work a nine-to-five, Aubree.”
Chapter 8
I stared at him for almost a full minute, waiting for him to give me the punch line, to confess he'd taken his joke too far. Then his eyes met mine and I saw he wasn't kidding. My heart twisted, pain mingling with anger. I sat up, pulling his blanket over me.
“You're still going to be an escort?” The question sounded even harsher than I'd meant it, but I didn't take it back.
“It's my job, Aubree,” Cade said. He sat up, frowning. “I wouldn't ask you to quit your job.”
“My job doesn't involve me fucking other people!” I snapped. I climbed out of bed, yanking the blanket from underneath him. My eyes burned with tears but I refused to give in. Cade would think I was trying to manipulate him by crying. “You said you couldn't stand the thought of another man touching me. How do you think I'd feel, knowing you were doing a hell of a lot more than touching other women?”
He scowled, his eyes flashing. “Well, I'm sorry I don't have a college degree and a career as a lawyer or doctor to fall back on. You knew what I was. Should've just said then that I wasn't good enough for you.”
My jaw dropped and it took me a moment to find my voice. “When the hell did I ever say that?”
“Right now.” He climbed off of the bed and folded his arms across his chest. “You tell me you care about me, but you're just like the rest. You want me to be something I'm not. To pretend.”
I took a step toward him, my anger curbed by the pain I could hear in his voice. “I don't want you to be something you're not. I want you to be the man I see in you.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “Right, the man you want me to be.”
“Who I know you ar
e,” I said firmly.
“You don't know me,” he snapped. “You think because we fucked and I told you some shit about my past that you know everything there is to know about me?”
“I know enough to know that you're better than this.”
“Bullshit.” He practically spat out the word. “You want to believe that because you think you're too good to fall for a whore. Too precious and pure for someone like me. So you convince yourself that there has to be more to me. The hooker with a heart of gold, right? Some fucking Hollywood fairy tale.”
I clutched the blanket more tightly to me. Why was he saying these things? What had happened to the man who'd told me that he cared about me? The one who'd made me feel things I'd never felt before?
“If I'd wanted to, don't you think I could've figured something out after nine years?” Cade's face was a cold mask, his words equally as icy. “Don't you think if I had any sort of marketable skill I would've used it to get out of this life years ago?” His mouth twisted. “This is what I'm good at. The only thing.”
“That's not true,” I protested. “You could do anything you want.”
“What if this is what I want?” he asked, his voice flat.
I took a step back. I hadn't even considered that. I'd assumed he'd kept being an escort because he didn't have a reason to stop. My heart gave a painful thump. I thought I would be that reason. I turned away from him so he couldn't see the tears spilling over.
I picked up my coat and pulled it on, wishing I had real clothes to wear. My bra was somewhere around here, but I wasn't going to look for it. I just needed something to cover me. I felt too exposed. It didn't, however, stop me from feeling the slick wet on my inner thighs, or prevent my sensitive skin from chafing against the coat. I wiped the back of my hands across my cheeks and took a deep breath before turning around.
I had to make him see what I saw. There was no way he wanted this. No matter what he said, I did know him. “You're a talented artist, Cade. And you're smart and sweet...”
Casual Encounter: The Complete Series Box Set Page 23