by Rae Kennedy
Cade can tell I am serious and doesn’t need much convincing. He jumps back on the bed, his smile big and wicked.
I push him down on his back. He puts his hands up behind his head and looks up at me, intrigued and aroused. He is laid out before me and my gaze greedily devours every inch of him. His legs are muscular like a runner’s. His stomach is hard, his abs and chest clearly defined under his smooth skin. I run my nose down his stomach to the deep cuts above his hips. He smells wonderful. I kiss him just there and feel the muscles in his stomach contract. I slide my fingers under his waistband. The skin there is soft and burning hot. I pull his briefs down and he kicks them off quickly.
There he is, naked and glorious. His cock is long and thick, the skin pulled tight against its painfully engorged state. I lean over him, my lips almost touching that soft shiny tip. My breath is heavy against him. I look up and our eyes meet. His are erupting with lust and longing but he looks like he is holding his breath. I keep my eyes on his as I softly kiss the tip of his aching prick, then lick him in one solid stroke from base to tip. I watch as he throws his head back, eyes closed before I take him fully in my mouth. He mouths something that looks like, “Fuck.”
Cinching my forefinger and thumb around the base, I work him in and out of my mouth, pumping him up and down with my lubricated hand. I press my tongue all around his length, sucking gently on my way up before plunging him back in all the way down, deep into my throat. I keep a steady rhythm, then quicken my pace as I hear him quietly groan into his pillow. He is surrendered completely to me.
I feel his hand in my hair, his fingers digging and massaging into my scalp. I move up and down faster, sucking harder. I keep up the pace as he starts rocking his hips, thrusting into my mouth.
“Fuck, Hale... I’m going to come... You should stop if you don’t want me to...”
I feel his erection swell and pulsate. He grips my hair tightly as his abs flex and he releases in my mouth, warm and sweet. I milk his throbbing cock a couple more times and suck the last drops of cum off the sensitive tip, making him whimper. I like this side of Cade. Vulnerable and completely mine.
He lays there for a few moments, entirely spent. “Jesus, where did you learn to do that?”
“I don’t know what you could be talking about,” I say in my most innocent voice.
“A girl hasn’t gotten me off with a blow job since I was a teenager. They usually get tired before I’m even close. I guess I just wasn’t expecting... I mean...you’re such a good girl, and that was...really great.”
“So a good girl can’t be good at head?”
He is surprised by my words. I am secretly thrilled. He is lying before me naked, a sheen of sweat over his body, the sheets rumpled all around him, and he is satiated, mesmerized—by me.
“No. I mean she can, but it’s more than that. You...you liked it. I mean really liked it.”
I look at him sheepishly and nod. I am thankful it is too dark for him to see me blush.
“Fuck. You are dangerous for me,” he says, panting.
I have never been called that before.
“You ready to go to bed?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I slide off the bed, find my panties on the floor and put them on quietly before stepping toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
I look back at him, a little confused. “Um, to bed?”
“Yeah. With me.” He throws the covers back and motions me over.
“I thought you had a rule or something against letting girls stay the night with you.”
“Trust me, I have no rules when it comes to you.” He is dead serious, his angular jaw clenching before the playfulness creeps back into his eyes. “Now do I have to come fucking get you or what?”
I run back to the bed, jumping into his arms as he wraps us up in the covers. He cradles me to his chest and kisses my forehead.
“Night, Hale.”
I snuggle up closer to him, tightening my hold. I fall asleep almost immediately.
CHAPTER 13
I wake up to the sounds of Cade breathing softly into his pillow. His arm is draped heavily over my stomach. I need to pee like a mother.
I slide out from under him, careful not to wake him. I find my shirt crumpled in the corner. How the hell did it get all the way over here? I guess I was a little over-zealous last night. I tiptoe into the hall and close the door silently behind me. Just as I turn around for the bathroom, Tuck comes out of his bedroom, heading down the hall toward me.
Shit. I take a couple of steps toward the bathroom and when he gets to me, he doesn’t seem to notice which door I had come from.
“Mornin’.” He offers me his sweet Tuck smile, but he still looks like crap. I wonder if he got any sleep last night. Hope he didn’t hear us.
“Hey, how are you doing?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “Don’t worry about me.” He clasps my shoulder as he passes. “I’ve been through worse. Just heading into work.”
“On a Saturday? Again?”
“Yep.”
“Hey, Tuck?”
“Yeah?” He stops a few feet past me and turns. His eyes look too old.
“Can we talk, uh...later?”
“Sure thing, sis. Everything all right? Is it the boy? Haven’t seen him around in a while.”
“No, that’s not it. I mean...well kind of, but—that’s over.”
“Oh?” He crinkles his forehead and frowns. He is going to go into protective mode and hug me or something.
“Yeah, but it’s good. He was a jerk. I’m fine with it. Really. Actually, I’m great.” I’m beyond great.
He smiles and nods, but doesn’t quite believe me. “Some advice? At twenty-one, they’re all jerks. Trust me—I used to be one of them.”
* * *
I hop in the shower. The water is scalding hot against my skin. I love it. I stand in the water for a long time, thinking about the night before. Cade’s hands on me, in me, his mouth, his tongue... I have tingles just thinking about it.
Then the door bursts open and Cade comes in and promptly takes a piss.
“I’m glad to see you’re still kind of a dick,” I tease him.
“Yup.”
I turn and jump, startled when I see his head sticking in the shower curtain.
“Hey! Get out of here!” I splash water at him, successfully getting him to retreat.
Outside of the curtain, he hollers, “You do realize I saw you very naked like six hours ago, right?”
“Yeah, but it was dark.” I turn and almost slip and fall on my butt. His damn hot-as-fuck face is at the other end of the shower curtain, looking at me.
“You’re right. This is so much better. And you’re all...wet.” His smile is maddeningly sexy. He’s looking at me like he wants to eat me.
“Get out!” But I am laughing and he doesn’t budge.
“Can I at least get a kiss?”
He looks at me so sweetly it makes my stomach flip. I step toward him, my wet lips meet his. Then his hands are on both sides of my face and I am moving backward as he steps over the tub to press me against the tile. Our mouths are locked together the entire time, the hot water streaming over both of us, getting in our mouths, making my breasts slide easily across his chest. I move my hands down his wet back to his soaked boxer-briefs, hook my thumbs in the waistband, and start to shimmy them down when he drops both of his hands and holds them firmly at his hips.
“These stay on. They’re the only thing keeping me from fucking you senseless right now.”
“And why aren’t you again?” I breathe between lapping up his kisses.
“Fuck if I know.” We are all slippery lips and tongues and hands. “Don’t ask me when you’ve got me hard. I can’t think straight.”
He stops kissing me, our lips still touching. I am gasping for air so heavily I inhale mostly water.
“I can’t wait to be inside you, but when it happens, I want you to be ready for it,” he says against my mou
th.
I feel pretty ready right at this moment. He gives my bare ass a squeeze, then steps out of the shower. He turns around before closing the curtain, dripping all over the floor.
“What do you want for breakfast?”
“I’m not really hungry.”
“Me neither.”
* * *
“You have to come shopping with me.”
Court’s invitation is a welcome distraction from thinking about Cade. I can’t keep my mind from wandering to him even while deep into the bargain racks at the mall.
“You seem happy today,” Court comments from between two scandalously short dresses. I just smile and nod. Court holds up the two dresses, shaking them toward me. “Black sequins or blue jersey?”
“Black.”
“Okay.” She throws it on top of the stack of dresses she has compiled over the last hour. “It needs to be perfect.”
“Why is that again?”
“It’s a blind date, so if he ends up being amazing, I need to look hot. And if he ends up being boring, then at least I got a fabulous dress out of the deal.”
“Good thinking.”
“Right?” She bobs along the store, her long blonde hair tied in a knot on top of her head. Even dressed casually, she looks elegant with a pop of red on her lips. She turns her light eyes toward me as we make our way to the dressing room. “Tell me why you are grinning so goofily today!” Her smile is big and white and impossible to refuse. She hauls her armful of dresses in the dressing room as I sit on a pink bench outside the door. “Is it Adam?” she calls over the partition.
“Um. No.” I’m not sure how to explain that one. “That’s definitely done.”
“Oh good!” She comes out wearing a little metallic dress, hands on her hips. “You were already so smitten with him by the time we met I was hoping you would figure out he was an asshole before I had to tell you and then you hated me for it.”
How did she know?
“You’re right. I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”
“Yup. ’Cause us girls are bitches.”
“Totally.”
“So?” She twirls around in the shiny number. “Yea or nay?”
“Nah.”
With a firm nod of the head, she is back behind the door. “So if it’s not Adam, who’s the boy?”
“Who says it’s a boy?”
She comes out in a tight yellow dress that clings to her legs. “I say it’s a boy because you keep getting all far-off and day-dreamy.”
“Okay, it’s a boy.”
She jumps up and down, practically squealing. “Spill it! But first—what do you think?” She spins around again.
“That one’s okay.”
Her face falls a little. “But my butt looks good in it, right?”
“As always.”
She perks up and goes back in the room. “So who is it?”
I hesitate to tell her. Why? “Uh...my brother’s roommate, Cade Renner.”
Silence.
That isn’t like Court.
I roll my eyes. This is why I didn’t want to tell her. “Go ahead and say it.”
She steps out of the dressing room hesitantly, wearing a cream lace dress. “I won’t say anything. I just need to know that you know what you’re getting into. If Adam’s frat has some rumors around campus, Cade has a reputation the whole town knows about.”
“I’m well aware of his reputation—and the truths behind it. I live across the hall from him.”
She looks suddenly very worried. “Have you slept with him?”
“Not exactly.”
“That’s good. Those kinds of guys tend to get bored and move on if you give it up too soon.”
I know that is Cade’s MO, but he isn’t going to do that with me. Right? He isn’t going to move on after we have sex.
Like Adam did. Shit. Panic starts to strangle my chest.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I really think this is different.” I try to put as much conviction in my voice as possible. Her face clearly says she doesn’t believe me, but she doesn’t say anything.
I’m about to defend Cade when—wait, what?
“Hold on. What rumors about Adam’s frat?”
“Oh. Shit. I shouldn’t have said anything about it. Really, it might not even be true—"
“Court. Tell. Me.” My serious face—getting shit done for twenty-one years.
One thing I’ve learned about Court is she never says anything bad about anyone. Like Ever. She looks tortured to tell me this.
“Well, the rumor is that several guys in the frat bet on the girls they can bed. There’s apparently a whole point system and they get more money if the girl is a virgin or not in a sorority or hard to get, things like that. And I’ve heard the money put up is big.”
I’m in shock. “What?”
“I don’t know for sure if Adam is involved, but he’s the biggest trust fund baby of them all, so I’d be surprised otherwise.”
“Trust fund?”
“Didn’t you know? Adam’s dad is a big-time CFO for some investment firm in the city.”
His dad? He’d told me he’d been raised by his single mom. Was anything he told me real? Was it all just a game? How can I trust anything a guy ever tells me again?
“I did not. He was a good liar.”
“Fuck ‘em.”
“Ha! Now, that was something he was not good at.”
Court giggles from behind the door then steps out in an intricate cream lace dress.
“That’s the one,” I say.
She scrunches up her nose as she nods, her smile showing off the cute little freckles on her high cheekbones. “I think so too.”
* * *
By the time Court drops me off at home, it is almost dinnertime and after our talk I have convinced myself that I should hold off with Cade. Make sure it is something real before I let him into my pants.
I walk into the living room and Cade is standing there. All gorgeous in dark jeans and a black button-up shirt that fits snugly across his broad shoulders, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off his intricate tats. I am taken aback by the sight of him. He is waiting for me. Me. My body responds immediately—my heart racing in my throat, my hands sweaty, and my skin heated. My plan of no sex might be very short-lived.
“Hey.” He smiles as he steps over to me, his eyes flickering down to my lips as he brings his hand to my cheek. “I missed you today.”
My knees are like jelly at his words and I lift my face to meet his. His lips are warm and soft, gently moving against mine. I slide my arms around his neck, holding him to me to deepen the kiss but he pulls away too soon. He runs his thumb over my bottom lip, making my breath catch.
“I thought maybe I could take you out tonight.”
Like a date? “Yeah.” I am still breathless. Going out will be good. I’m less likely to jump him in public. Right?
He smiles wide, his perfect smile that makes him look so happy, younger. “Do I need to give you time to get ready?” He is closing the space between us again and it’s giving me chills. The memory of lying naked with him last night is suddenly all-consuming. I nod, looking him right in his bright blue eyes, trying not to let him know how much his closeness affects me.
“I could help you out of these clothes if you like.” The glint in his eye is devious. He tightens his hands around my waist.
I slap his forearm and wiggle away from him. “I thought you were going to be all gentlemanly tonight.”
He backs away, hands up in surrender. “I’ll be anything you want, Haley.” But his eyes are still eating me alive.
I run to my room before I make any bad decisions.
I am staring at my closet in my matching peach panties and bra, cursing the fact that I hadn’t bought a new dress while I was out shopping today. I finally settle on my tight jeans, boots, and a burgundy sweater that clings just right to my curves.
When I go out to the living room, I expect to see Cade
sitting there with a huge grin on his face. Instead, I see Tuck. He claps his hands then rubs them together, obviously excited.
“Where are we going tonight, sis?”
Uhh... I don’t know how to respond. The only words that pop in my head are but...Cade...date...
Then Cade comes out from the kitchen behind Tuck, the look on his face clearly expresses all the emotions going on inside me. His jaw is tight and angular as he speaks.
“Looks like we’re all going out tonight.” Then he forces a large smile.
Dammit.
“This is going to be epic.” Tuck grabs me around the waist, smooshing my face into his chest as he pulls Cade in around his neck. “My favorite girl and my wingman.”
My face is close to Cade’s and I see his eyes widen at the wingman comment. He mouths the words I’m sorry.
All I can do is laugh. First date officially thwarted.
* * *
The bar is full of laughter, rowdy guys around pool tables, and Irish rock music. Tuck slams three more huge beers down on our shiny table, spilling foam over the rims of the mugs. He is already drunk. Cade squeezes my knee under the table before releasing it as Tuck sits.
“Cade, let’s do some shots!”
“Ah, no man. I think you’ve had enough.”
“You are no fun right now, bro.”
A couple of girls walk up to our table. The one with her boobs practically pouring from her shirt puts her hand on Cade’s shoulder and then smoothes it all the way down his arm. She leans into him, pressing her chest right up against him. I want to claw her hair out. But I don’t. I sit there like a lady. And guzzle my drink.
“Hey, baby, you wanna dance?” Boobs asks. Her lips are too close to Cade’s ear. Her voice is thick like she’s purring.
Don’t fucking call him baby.
Cade totally just looked at her tits. She bats her eyes at him, sort of pouting her lips. His eyes flash toward me, he looks a little...panicked? Embarrassed? He is definitely turning red. I can’t help but let go of my anger and smile at him.