Kaeden buried his face into her neck and deeply bit her neck as she flung her head back on his shoulder and filled the night with her hoarse cries. He continued working his hips, driving his dick up into her as she delivered small, tight clasping pumps that sent him free-falling behind her. He let his own head fall back and opened his mouth to let out a roar that shook the very trees that surrounded them.
Long after, they lay clutching each other as they still trembled in the aftermath of it all, both shaken and moved beyond words.
Never had both felt so sated.
Chapter 9
Jade was the first to stir awake. She was lying atop Kaeden, her head on his shoulder with his arms wrapped snugly around her beneath the blanket they shared. She kept her eyes closed and allowed herself to relish the moment as she inhaled deeply of his scent. It was bittersweet.
She knew once she awakened him and they dressed for their return to civilization, what they shared would officially end. She bit her bottom lip as she finally opened her eyes to the faint orange glow of the sun rising. Last night nothing had mattered. Nothing at all.
In the light of day everything was different. So completely different.
“Morning, Jade.”
She allowed herself another few seconds of his warmth before she raised her head to look up at him. “Morning.”
His hands shifted from the small of her back to cup her butt. Her skin felt alive and hot where his hand lay. The electricity she would never forget instantly shimmied over her body, along with tiny goose bumps. She felt the length of him stir to life against her stomach.
Not everything is so different.
“How’s your head?” she asked, her eyes on the bandage on his forehead as she shifted up from his chest.
Kaeden eased his arms up to lock her into place. “Fine time to ask,” he drawled dryly.
That made Jade smile, but she still eased from his embrace to rise to her feet. He placed his arms behind his head as he watched her. Jade tried to cover her breasts and her clean-shaven mound with her hands.
She failed miserably.
“It’s a little late for modesty,” he mused with the hint of a smile at his lips.
“Kaeden! Jade!”
At the sound of their names being hollered in the distance, Jade quickly gathered up her clothes, ignoring the tenderness of her core. She found her torn panties several feet away. She snatched them up. “We really need to get dressed before the cavalry finds us,” she told him, trying to keep things light.
Kaeden sat up and then climbed to his feet atop the blanket.
Jade couldn’t help but take a gander at him. She swallowed past a sudden lump in her throat as she eyed the almost literal third leg hanging between his legs. She flushed and fanned herself as she remembered the pleasure that exquisite tool had brought her last night. Turning her back to him, she rushed into her bra and clothes, shoving her torn panties deeply into the front pocket of her jeans.
She felt Kaeden’s eyes on her as she quickly rolled up the blanket to shove back in her backpack. “We really need to get you to a doctor to check you out,” she said.
Kaeden slipped on his jeans, leaving them unzipped as he reached out and lightly grabbed Jade. “I didn’t prove to you last night that I’m physically fit?” he asked low in his throat.
Jade glanced up at him and then at his bare chest before she shifted her eyes back up to his. “I’m concerned about your head that’s above the waist.”
Kaeden slid his arms down to stroke the back of her hand. “Last night was good, wasn’t it?” he asked her boldly.
Jade ignored the fluttering of her heart. “Last night was last night and this…this is today.”
Kaeden frowned deeply as he looked down at her. “And that means what, Jade?”
“Kaeden! Jade!” someone hollered from above them.
Jade shifted away from his grasp as she pulled her backpack up onto her shoulders. “We’re here,” she hollered back.
Kaeden leveled his eyes on her for a long time before he turned and finished dressing. “Why do I feel like I gave you a tune-up?” he snapped.
“Don’t act like that, Kaeden, we’re both adults.”
He snorted as he stepped into his boots. “Act like what? A person who was used for a good fuck?”
“I see them,” the voice hollered from above.
Kaeden and Jade both looked up to find Kade looking down at them from the top of the incline.
“You two okay?” he asked.
They both nodded.
“I’m fine. It’s just a bump,” he said, knowing his older brother’s watchful eyes were on his bandaged head.
“Jade, baby, are you all right?”
She stiffened at the sound of Darren’s concerned voice. She held her hand over her eyes to block the light from the rising sun as she looked at Darren and Kahron now standing beside Kade.
“Baby?” Kaeden drawled sarcastically.
Jade winced as guilt plagued her. In the midst of the passion, Jade had completely forgotten about Darren or their burgeoning relationship. She never thought she would be one of “those” women, and now two men might be hurt for her actions. “I’m fine, Darren,” she said with obvious hesitance.
Kaeden leveled cold eyes on her. “Don’t worry, everything is crystal clear for me now,” he told her in a hard voice.
Jade started to call out to him but just bit her mouth instead.
Kaeden was definitely in a bad mood. What other man in his position wouldn’t be? He frowned as he eyed Jade and Darren at the head of their group, leading them down the trail back to the ranger station at the front of the state park.
The camping trip was over.
And he was clear that he and Jade were over before they even really began.
She had a boyfriend?
Must not be tapping all that right since I had to play the cleanup man last night.
“What’s going on with you today?” Kade asked, lagging behind to walk with Kaeden, who was intentionally staying at the back of the pack.
“Nothing,” Kaeden answered him shortly.
“Okay, so what happened between you two last night?”
The best sex I ever had while I was used as a dang on maintenance man. “Nothing,” Kaeden answered him shortly again.
“Your problems get heavier on your chest when they become your secrets,” was all that Kade said before he sped up and left Kaeden alone with his thoughts.
Darren placed his hand on the small of Jade’s back and Kaeden’s gut clenched in pure jealousy.
Jade eased up from Darren’s touch, well aware that Kaeden’s eyes were on her. The men had decided to skip the canoeing to get back home and get Kaeden checked out by a doctor. Jade had to admit that she felt waves of relief at that news.
It was completely awkward being in both Kaeden’s and Darren’s company after last night. After what she and Kaeden shared. That chemistry between them was way bigger than them and it hadn’t been about quenching a horny thirst, otherwise Darren would have been blessed with her goodness weeks ago. The way she felt being with Kaeden had been the ultimate.
The ultimate connection.
The ultimate sex high.
The ultimate emotions.
The ultimate everything.
And she hadn’t had the strength to fight it.
But she knew what she did last night was wrong. No matter how right it felt.
She glanced over her shoulder and the shoulders of the men to lock eyes with Kaeden as he lagged behind. Sans his glasses, it was clearer to see his fine features and remember the taste of his lips. Her bud double-pumped between her still-sore feminine lips.
He gestured at Darren angrily and then signaled for her to turn around.
Jade did as requested but she knew she had to at least explain that she definitely was not double dipping in the sexual pool.
“Negro, please,” Kaeden muttered for the umpteenth time since they’d left the state park two
hours ago. He was glad his vision was blurry because he was tired of watching Darren constantly touching Jade during the drive back to civilization.
Several times he caught Jade looking at the rearview mirror. Kaeden knew she was glancing back at him. Probably scared I’ll tell her boyfriend she gave it up last night, he thought, knowing he was being snide and not really giving a damn.
“I’m sorry you guys didn’t get to canoe,” Darren said suddenly, turning in the front passenger seat to look back at them.
“Jade said she would reschedule a day trip to make up for it,” Kael told him from his seat in the second row of the passenger van.
“Well, I really want my little baby doll here to rest up after that scare she gave me last night,” Darren said, looking over at her before he placed his hand snugly on her thigh.
“Trust me, your baby doll got all her rest last night,” Kaeden told him. After that good dicking down I gave her.
Jade slammed hard on the brakes, sending everyone forward a bit on their seats.
Darren made an odd face as he leveled his eyes on Kaeden briefly.
“Sorry about that, everybody,” Jade said with a nervous laugh, her voice skittish.
“You want me to drive?” Darren asked, squeezing her thigh.
Kaeden turned to Kade, who was sitting beside him in the rear of the van. “Who called him?” he asked sarcastically, low in his throat.
Kade smiled, flashing his bright white teeth. “Dad thought we should let him know Jade went missing too. Seems like he’s cool.”
“Humph.” Kaeden turned back to look out the window, glad when they pulled into Holtsville’s town limits. He was ready to get the hell away from Jade Prince and her business partner/boyfriend.
Before she had even pulled the van to a stop in front of his parents’ house, Kaeden had gathered his things and was just waiting for his father and brothers to get out of his way so that he could be free of the van.
As soon as he stepped down onto the ground, Kaeden felt a rush of activity.
“Kaeden, are you okay?”
“What happened to your head?”
“You had us worried sick.”
“Thank God you’re okay.”
The rest of the Strong men stood there with shocked expressions as the women breezed past them to surround Kaeden.
Kael dropped the arms he had open and waiting for his wife to run into. “What the…”
“Ain’t this a trip?” Kade asked, just shaking his head as he smiled.
Kahron pushed his aviator shades atop his silver head. “We’re fine too,” he drawled dryly.
Kaleb just laughed as he crossed his strong arms over the wide breadth of his chest.
Kaeden felt bombarded as his mother, sister, and two sisters-in-law each took a turn hugging him close. “I’m okay. I promise,” he told them. “Jade took real good care of me. Right, Jade?”
He looked over his shoulder at her still sitting in the driver’s seat while Darren helped his family unload their backpacks from the rear of the van.
She locked her eyes with his and some emotion flittered in the mocha depths. “That’s right,” was all that she softly said.
“That’s my Jade,” Darren said, walking up to them.
She wasn’t your Jade last night.
“Be sure to see a doctor and get that head injury checked out, Kaeden,” Darren told him before easing past them all to open the passenger door of the van. “Y’all have a good day.”
Kaeden just stood there watching the van pull away as everyone else waved. Maybe it was better just having her in my dreams, he thought, hating that the reality of having her had turned so sour.
“I’m glad that you weren’t hurt, Jade. I was so worried about you, baby,” Darren said, sliding his hand onto her thigh to squeeze lightly.
Jade started to shift his hand away, but she didn’t. Instead she waited, assessing whether his touch could evoke the same electric and immediate response as Kaeden’s.
It didn’t.
Jade sighed as she steered the van down the long, winding road leading from the Strong ranch. “Where am I dropping you?” she asked.
Darren twisted in his seat to look at her. “Actually, I thought we could go back to your place—or mine—cook dinner, and just chill out,” he suggested with a bright smile.
“Oh, Darren, I really am very tired.” Jade hoped that would be the end of it. She really wanted to be alone. She had a lot on her mind.
He massaged her thigh again. “I’ve been up half the night hunting for you, worried that you were hurt.”
“Darren—”
“Jade, listen, I’m a patient man, but if you keep putting me off and don’t show me you have any real interest in something happening between us, what do you expect me to do?” he asked.
“Darren—”
“Jade, I’m not going to lie. I want you.”
Jade pulled to a stop at a stop sign. She gasped slightly when Darren lightly grabbed her face and turned her so that she was looking at him.
“I want to make love to you,” he told her fiercely before leaning in to press his mouth to hers.
Again Jade waited for the sparks. The fire. The electricity.
Nothing. It was nice and sweet. She wasn’t at all repulsed. But she wasn’t at all feeling the fireworks.
Darren pressed one last quick kiss to her plush mouth and Jade gave him a small smile before she faced forward and drove the van toward Walterboro.
Kaeden hated that thoughts of Darren making love to Jade plagued him for the rest of the day, making him grouchy and irritable. It was good lounging with the entire family and wolfing down some of his mother’s home-cooked food, but Kaeden was glad to finally be in his car headed to his town house.
He turned on his XM Satellite Radio to clear his thoughts of those little moans she’d made in the back of her throat when he was sexing her last night.
“I need you to wrap them chocolate legs ’round me…”
Vision of Jade’s chocolate thighs straddling his hips as she rode him flashed and Kaeden reached out to power off the radio, quickly bringing Eric Benét’s song “Chocolate Legs” to an end.
Kaeden released a heavy breath as he turned his BMW into the subdivision. He was just turning the curve into the cul-de-sac when he spotted Felecia’s blue Honda parked in front of his house.
Now what? he wondered as he turned onto the asphalt-paved drive.
He climbed out, deciding to leave his backpack in the trunk. He had barely reached the rear of his car when Felecia came rushing toward him.
“What happened to your head, and what’s the scratches on your cheek?” she asked in concern, her eyes searching his face. “I knew you shouldn’t have went camping.”
“I’m okay, Felecia,” he told her as she lightly touched his face with her hand. “Did my mom call to tell you I got hurt?”
“No, no. I actually just came by to welcome you home,” she said with concern in her eyes. “Oh, Kaeden, do you need anything? Is there anything I can do for you? Just say it.”
Kaeden looked down at Felecia, her face filled with concern for him. Waiting on him to return. And although she denied it, he knew she was waiting on him to see that she was the woman for him. A woman who wanted nothing more than to make him happy.
Why chase behind a woman who’s willing to cheat on her man?
A woman who ignored you up until last night?
Kaeden pushed aside the pang of hurt he felt at Jade’s actions and reached out to wrap one arm around Felecia’s waist. He jerked her body close to his and lowered his head to press his mouth down upon hers.
Chapter 10
Brrrnnnggg.
Jade moaned as she rolled over onto her back in the middle of her oh-so-comfy bed with her pink satin eye mask still in place. She sighed. She’d gotten in late last night from a weekend whitewater rafting trip and she had planned to do absolutely nothing all day except sleep—until her phone ringing jarred her awake.
Reaching out blindly, she patted the top of her nightstand until she felt her cordless phone. She snatched it up and hit the large Talk button. “Hello,” she said, sounding like a man.
“Rise and shine, Honeybear.”
Jade frowned. “Mama?” she asked in surprise.
“Open up. I’m at your front door.”
Jade’s frown deepened. “Huh?”
The sounding of someone loudly banging on the front door echoed into her bedroom. Mama. Jade hung up the cordless before she dropped it back onto the bed.
Jade knew she should be a bit more excited to see her mother, but Deena Rockwell could be so exhausting. Everything with her was over the top since “The Divorce.”
Jade rolled out of bed in her wifebeater T-shirt and striped boy shorts. She snatched off her eye mask as she made her way out of the room and across the living room to the front door. Deena was the anti-Jade. Whereas Jade hated to be looked at as nothing but a sexual object, her mother…that was another story.
Jade opened the door.
Deena winked at Jade before she flipped her long, straight jet-black weave over her shoulder, posing in the doorway in her white tube jumpsuit, gold strappy heels, and oversized shades. Jade definitely got her looks and her shapely frame from her mother.
“There’s my Honeybear,” Deena said, kissing Jade’s cheek before she strolled inside the cottage like she was on a runway.
Diva Deena was in the house.
“Hi, Mama.” Jade closed the door.
“Come on and wash and throw on a cute outfit. Mother-daughter day.” Deena took off her shades before she sat down on Jade’s couch and crossed her legs with flair. “I thought we’d go to Savannah for a little shopping and then lunch at the seafood restaurant we both like.”
Jade arched a brow and crossed her arms over her chest as she strolled across the room. “No layovers with one of your hot boys? I actually get to spend time with my mother.”
Give Me Fever Page 9