I gazed up at him as he wrapped a loving hand around the back of my neck. I threw my legs back and pushed up on my knees on the bed, coming face-to-face with him.
“I can’t forget you either. No matter how hard I try…I can’t.” My chest bumped his. “I need you, Cane.” I slid a hand down his arm, clutching a loop on the back of his pants.
“You need me?” he groaned.
“Yes.”
“I need you too.”
I dropped my hand, running my fingertips over his zipper. I felt him twitch in his pants and he groaned, looking at me through hooded eyes.
“Did your pussy ache while thinking about me?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“How often did you think of me?”
“Every day and every night.”
He groaned again, a satisfied, guttural noise that made my skin hum and my body tingle. “Did you play with yourself when you missed me?” The tip of his nosed brushed across my cheek before trailing down my jawline.
“Sometimes,” I admitted, and the thought of it made me flush. It only happened in the showers. It was the only time I had privacy, and even so, I had to do it quietly. I thought about the shower, and how the water ran over my breasts and dampened my fingers just enough for me to slide a finger into my pussy.
He grabbed the ends of my hair, tugging lightly. “Tell me what you did.”
“I played with myself,” I whispered on his lips. “With my pussy.”
“Mmm.” He groaned. “What else?”
“I would close my eyes and press my back to the wall,” I continued, “and I would think about those moments we shared in the lake house, or even when I sucked your cock in the movie room in Destin. I even think about when you finger-fucked me for the very first time at your house, when we were alone and it felt so wrong and right.” I drew in a breath as his nostrils flared, eyes blazing with hunger.
“You want to know what I thought about?” He pressed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to lie down before climbing between my legs. I was only in my panties, and he tucked his fingers beneath the straps at my waist, wrenching them down to my ankles. When they were gone, he fiddled with the button of his pants.
“What?” I asked as he pushed his pants and briefs down next, just enough to pull his large cock and balls out.
“I thought about the sounds of your moans when I first put my cock inside you.” He turned me on my side, gripping himself with one hand while lifting the bottom of my thigh with the other to push the head of his cock into my pussy. As he did, I couldn’t hold back on the moan that had built up inside me. “I thought about how tight you felt when I first broke you in. How you dug your fingernails into my skin because I was too much for you—too big for your virgin pussy.” He thrust forward, and then drew back, and an impatient sigh escaped me. “I thought there was no way in hell I was going to last for long when you were so fucking tight. And when you clenched your pussy around my dick…fuck,” he rasped, and the deepness in his tone made my pussy throb.
He released a ragged sigh, gripping my hip and giving a relentless stroke. Then he picked up his pace, going primal for several seconds and taking what he needed while my breaths became tattered and hasty with each rapid thrust. It felt so good, but it was also torture. He was teasing me. Playing with my body, my mind, and I loved it. I loved it so damn much.
“But my favorite thought…” he went on, voice tight like he was close. He decreased the momentum to pull his hand off my thigh and slide it up to my chest. When he wrapped his hand around my throat, lightly locking and resting his fingers at my pulse, I quivered with lust. “…is when I wrapped my hand around your throat like this while fucking you, and you were left with no choice but to come all over my cock.” He leaned down, stealing a full, savory kiss from my lips, his hand still fixed around my throat. “That’s when I realized how perfect we were together.” Another kiss, and a little tongue that sent me spiraling into a reckless moan. “That’s when I realized that you truly are mine, Kandy.”
“Oh my God, Cane,” I breathed, holding his face and devouring his lips again. I couldn’t control my body. I was close and didn’t know how to handle the rush.
“Come for me, baby,” he demanded gruffly on my lips. “Wanna feel your pussy soak my cock all over again.”
His voice was dangerous. I trembled, feeling a wave of pleasure ride through my entire body. It rocked me hard, and went straight to my core. I held Cane’s face tighter, sucked on his bottom lip as he plunged even deeper, and then I came. I came for him, like he’d wanted me to, and when he felt my juices coating the length of him, his groan was ravenous.
“Oh, fuck,” he moaned. “That’s exactly what I wanted, baby.” He pulled his hand from my throat and worked his hips in rapid thunder. Slapping noises bounced off the walls, blood rushed to my ears. My pussy savored every single penetrating move. A raucous groan ripped through him and he stilled on top of me, hanging his head and crushing my mouth with his like his life depended on it.
We both sighed and whimpered behind the rough kiss. I clenched and released and he throbbed and twitched, spilling all he had within me.
He shifted back so I could drop my leg and lay flat on my back, then maneuvered between my legs, pressing his forehead down on mine. “Wish I could stay like this with you forever.”
“I know. Me too.” My heart sank when I realized that in only a few hours, I would have to go. I didn’t want anyone asking questions about where I’d been either. I was going to have to leave soon, even though I really, really didn’t want to. I wanted to stay with him. “Will I see you again soon?” I asked.
“Of course you will.”
“I’ll be back in Georgia for Thanksgiving break. Maybe we can meet up while I’m there.”
“We can. I should be home for Thanksgiving. My mother is cooking—wants me to be there to revive the family…whatever that means,” he laughed, picking up his head.
“Does she know about Kelly?”
“No, she doesn’t, and I’d prefer if it stayed that way. I moved my sister into a place as soon as I could. She was there for a while, hated Kelly’s guts whenever she just so happened to stop by. I don’t want her meeting my mother at all.” He made a face and looked away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. The whole thing with Kelly is fucking weird.” He pushed up and rolled onto his back. I sat up, placing my cheek in my hand and balancing my elbow on the mattress. “I had someone do some digging on her after finding out my office was bugged. Had it cleaned out and then hired this guy to get some information about her and her family. It is true that her father is a wealthy man and her parents are still married. They live in Florida now, moved sometime last year, but were Georgia residents for years.” He frowned again. “But the investigator told me she’d spent four months in a rehabilitation facility, and before that, spent six years visiting a behavioral therapist in a certified clinic.”
“What?” I gasped, eyes expanding. “For what?”
“Not sure yet. He’s getting into that now, digging a little deeper. But the thing that fucks with my head the most is that she was checked into the same rehabilitation facility my mother attended. It’s almost like she’d planned to get to know me. Almost like she’d been watching my every move, waiting for my visits. Waiting to run into me. I met her at that very clinic. I saw her around, but she wasn’t in scrubs or anything, like the others. She wore the clothes she wears now. Fancy shit. When I first met her, she told me she was there visiting a family member, not that she was a patient seeking therapy. She lied.”
“I don’t get it. How could she wear regular clothes if she was a patient?”
“For most rehabs, they have a thirty day program for their patients, where they can come back and do group therapy or one-on-one therapy sessions. For that, the patient can wear whatever they want because the program is optional. From the dates I was shown, and by doing the math, I’m assuming she was doing her th
irty-day therapy sessions around the time I had checked my mother in.”
“That is fucking insane!”
“It really is. Which makes this much worse than it already is. I don’t just have a desperate woman coming after me and jeopardizing my business, I have a desperate woman with deep baggage coming after me. Not only that, if she was with a behavioral therapist, I’m certain she has a mental case as well. Her behavior isn’t normal, and I remember talking to her mother once when she’d called and Kelly was in the shower. Her mom told me to make sure I called her if anything seemed off with her daughter. I had asked what she’d meant by it, but she didn’t go into great detail, just told me to call if something didn’t feel right.”
I sat up then, looking down at him. “Cane, this is serious then. You said you had a way to take care of it. Said you’d have to go back to your old roots. What exactly are you going to do?”
His eyes flashed up to meet mine, but he pulled them away just as quickly. He sat up and climbed off the bed, picking up his briefs and then his pants. “There are people who are good at intimidating others. Lora knows a lot of them. In my position, and with my career and my business on the line, I can’t do what I really want to do to get her out of the picture, but the people I know can. They can put a scare into Kelly, have her back off for good. They used to do stuff like that for me all the time, but it was for more serious matters. I’m just not sure if I really want to go that route.”
“Why not?”
“Though she is a pest, it’s not like she’s threatening to physically harm any of us. She just wants everything to go her way. With these people, everything could backfire. It’s too big of a risk.”
“God, Cane. You make it sound like you’re going to kill her or something.”
He gave me a warning look, and for a moment I froze…until he shook his head. “I would never kill anyone,” he mumbled, eyes falling. His eyelashes created small, wispy shadows on his cheekbones. “But I have no problem ruining someone’s life for trying to ruin mine. Because of her, I almost had to sell my company. They were trying to get someone to buy half of it, make me co-owner, push me out of the picture and turn it into this stupid trade with obligations I didn’t like. I refused, so I busted my ass and made deals I’m not proud of to make sure it didn’t happen.”
I climbed off the bed to stand in front of him. “Well, it’s okay. You didn’t sell it, and things are getting better now, right? As long as you are safe in the end and no one is harmed, I don’t care what you do. Do what you have to in order to make this work.”
He studied my face a brief moment. “What about your parents?”
I frowned a little, backing away enough to see his whole face. “What about them?”
“I’m not allowed to come around them anymore. They’ve made that perfectly clear. Your father threatened that if I ever came near you again, he’d kill me this time. Probably not kill me, but beat my ass to a pulp. I don’t want you to have to sneak around with me. You shouldn’t have to go through that shit. You’re too young and shouldn’t be a secret, Kandy.”
“My parents don’t understand what we have.” I grabbed his hands. “They don’t understand how much I truly love you. They never will, Cane. I was trying to keep the distance with you too because I thought I had to choose…but I shouldn’t have to. My heart hurts when I force myself to try and forget about you.”
“Kandy.” He exhaled, giving me a sincere once-over while squeezing my hands. “My Kandy.”
“What?” I asked, blushing.
He tipped my chin, bringing my eyes to his again. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I already have. I would never make you choose.” He exhaled. “But if this is what you want, for things to be private until we settle all of the shit around us, so be it. But I think you deserve better than to be a secret.”
“I don’t mind being your secret. Just…promise not to let me go again.”
He cradled my face, dropping his lips on my forehead. He wrapped his fingers around the back of my neck and I looked up into his beautiful green-flecked eyes. “I will never let you go again. Do you hear me?”
I nodded.
“Never,” he asserted. “What we have will be complicated. You know that, right?”
“Yes…but it’s been complicated from the start.” I put on a sad smile and his eyes softened, like he knew all to well what I was getting at. “As long as I know you’re there, I’ll be okay.”
I suppose my response was good enough for him because he nodded and placed a kiss on my cheek. I wanted him to know that I could handle it this time. Even though I had my doubts, and what he’d told me about Kelly made things even more complicated, I was willing. I missed him too much. Craved him too much.
I’d let my parents down once before for wanting Cane. But they already knew how much I wanted him now. Just because things had blown out of proportion, it didn’t mean it would stop my desire for him.
Suddenly, all of these questions came to me, hitting me like a train. Why did I have to fight it? Why did I have to deny myself happiness and pleasure? Was I being selfish for wanting him so badly? Was it wrong to love him the way I did? I wasn’t sure, and as we got dressed and he drove me back to the campus, I kept thinking about it.
Loving him was wrong…but at this point in my life, I didn’t care about being right anymore. I would have done anything for Cane, and by him showing up and coming to my school, I realized he would do anything for me too. We’d had a small setback, but we’d found our way to each other again.
Fate hadn’t been against us. Fate was with us. I could feel it. We’d sacrificed so much for the sake of other people’s happiness. It wasn’t fair that we had to give up on each other, just to keep others content.
Cane kissed me long and hard before letting me out of the car. Our hot breaths mingled when I gasped and his fingers lightly tickled the hairs at the nape of my neck. This kiss completed me—almost like it was set in stone that we were going to do this…again.
“I’ll text you,” he told me as I opened the car door.
“Okay.” I smiled at him, but before I got out, I leaned in for another kiss. I loved the softness of his supple mouth, the way his breath ran over my upper lip and my nose. I got out of the car and gave him one last wave goodbye before walking off. He had a flight at four in the morning and I knew he needed rest. After all, it was nearing 10:00 p.m. I had definitely broken the Sunday night curfew, but I didn’t care. It was worth it with him, plus I was sure I could convince Henley that I was studying and got caught up.
When I made it to the door of my building, he drove away slowly. I watched him go, and then grabbed the handle to open the door to my building, but a deep voice called after me, stopping me in my tracks.
I gasped, turning toward the darkness. The shadow got nearer, and when it came into the light, I caught sight of the brown skin and whiskey eyes.
“So it’s him,” Brody said, frowning up at me. His head swayed and my heart dropped to my stomach.
“Brody…w-what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you, talk about a few things, but I guess I shouldn’t have. You were gone all day. I know, because I came by earlier to see if you were around and you weren’t. I assume you were spending the day with him.” He scoffed, looking back at the parking lot with a grimace like Cane’s car was still there. “He’s the guy you can’t get over? Didn’t you say he’s your dad’s friend?”
“He was my dad’s friend,” I emphasized.
“What happened with that, huh? Did you fuck it up by fucking him? They must be ashamed of you.”
I blinked hard when my eyes prickled with emotion. Most of the emotion was out of anger. How could he say something so rude?
“Brody, I—” I clamped my mouth shut for a second. “Are you going to tell anyone?”
He shrugged hard, his shoulders nearly touching his ears. “It is what it is. I mean, I get it. He’s rich. He’s nice looking. He probably buys you whatev
er you want. I bet he’s a real catch. Kind of like a sugar daddy, right?” He laughed, a bitter laugh that cut me deep. ”Whatever though. You’re better off with him.” He turned his back, but kept his eyes over his shoulder to glare at me. “I’m not into sluts who fuck their family members’ friends anyway.”
He walked off, way too fast for me to even utter a word or try and stop him. He vanished into the darkness and I felt like I’d been shot right in the chest by a cannon. Brody had never spoken to me that way. Ever. I almost started to chase after him, but what would that have solved? He would still be upset with me about it. And it wouldn’t make me want him any more or Cane any less.
I went inside before I could let his words get to me, heading straight up to my room and thanking the heavens that Morgan wasn’t around. She must’ve been with Gina. I grabbed my shower caddy and towel and went for the showers. I thought I was doing fine—that his words meant nothing and his opinion didn’t matter—until I realized I was washing so roughly with my loofa that my skin became sensitive and red.
Slut.
I’d used that word many times in a conversation with Frankie when we talked about girls in high school who wanted all the attention at parties…but never had it been used on me. At least, not spat right at my face like that. It was an ugly word. Cruel and insensitive and I vowed to never use it again because yes, it did hurt.
I finished up and went back to my room, got dressed, and tried to catch up on homework. It was useless because when I thought about what Brody had said, I realized he was right.
Only a slut would be okay with sneaking around with a man who was nearly twice her age.
Only a slut would fuck her father’s best friend, ruin everything, and still choose him afterward.
The Cane Series: Complete 4-Book Box Set Page 42