Thinking of Kaeden.
Yearning and wanting…Kaeden.
And she was sick of it.
It had been nice seeing him at the wedding, but if she had known that that one moment in time would leave her absorbed into him again, then she would have climbed back into her Jeep and never spoken to him at all.
In the last few months, she had gotten back into dating, she enjoyed her new job, everything about her life was stable. Everything was just fine.
She didn’t want to go back to the place she was in after their breakup. It had taken her a month to lose the weight she’d gained from her days on the couch sucking down Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Macadamia ice cream like it was nobody’s business.
Jade breathed heavily after she hopped off the treadmill. She reached for the bottle of ice water on the table as she looked out the living room window. The skies were darkening as she took a sip. It had rained nearly every day that week, making any local outdoor adventures nearly impossible. Jade was definitely feeling stir-crazy, especially being left to her thoughts.
Wanting to grab some fresh air before the rain, Jade grabbed her journal and left the cottage to sit down on the small stoop. The journal was one of the new additions to her life after the end of her personal relationship with Kaeden and her business relationship with Darren. She had stopped trying to find the answer to all her frustrations inside the bottom of an ice cream bowl. So she axed the spoon and reached for a pen.
Eventually Darren bought out her share of the business. Jade put the money in her savings and went to work for a larger adventure tour company that kept her away from home on the weekends. And that had been ideal because she didn’t want to run into Kaeden. She wanted that time to get over him once and for all.
And Kaeden. In time she’d gotten over him. Every day she missed him and loved him a little bit less. Every day her journal entries became more about reclaiming her own happiness and not dwelling in the sadness created by their breakup. And she had been a wreck in the weeks following their split.
It took her longer to get over him than she had actually been with him. Crazy. Jade opened her journal and bit her bottom lip as she made her newest entry…
Dear Me,
Saw Kaeden today for the first time in a long time. Okay, truth? I never expected him to show up to the wedding. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I would go. Those two fools made our lives miserable but I just felt like I had to see it to believe it.
Kaeden looked good too. Loving the whole beard thing. He seemed more confident. Had more swagger. It is definitely a good look for my ex-boo!
Jade bit the tip of her pen, so clearly remembering how that chemistry between them was still there. She wrote on…
Today was good for us because at least I know we could be friendly.
We had felt comfortable together. It was like all the months had evaporated into nothing…and that is scary.
Jade closed her eyes and thought back to the amazing moments they had shared. It had seemed the start of something epic. Something real. Something lasting.
Where did they go all wrong?
Ultimately it didn’t matter because there was no going back. They both had moved on.
Brrrnnng.
Jade jumped at the sound of her cordless phone ringing beside her. She laughed at herself before she picked it up and answered. “Scary black girl,” she said jokingly, having already seen her mother’s number on the caller ID. They hadn’t spoken since the wedding.
Deena laughed. “Please. I don’t think anything gets to you.”
“I don’t know. I saw Kaeden today and that got to me.” Jade looked up to the turbulent skies.
“Wooow. Okay. So how long before the panties dropped?”
Jade rolled her eyes. “Mama, please, I saw him at a wedding.”
“You went to that wedding of your ex and Kaeden’s ex?” Deena exclaimed in surprise.
“Anyway…he was there looking finer than ever, Mama. Oh my God.” Jade shook her head.
“Gave you fever, huh?” Deena teased.
Jade smiled. “Yeah, and it opened some doors that I wish stayed closed.”
“Was he alone or was he with someone?”
“He was alone, and I didn’t ask if he was seeing somebody. I wouldn’t doubt it. He has all this new swagger, like he getting punany thrown at him left and right.”
“Sounding a little jealous,” Deena said.
Jade looked up again as a slow mist began to fall. She held her free hand out and let the water spray on her hand. “And I am sooo wrong for that.”
“Hey, listen, since Kaeden is looking so yummy to you, why don’t you call him up and go take a bite?”
“Mama!” Jade exclaimed.
“What?” she asked innocently.
Jade laughed. “Oh, Mama, you are one of a kind.”
“Well, I’ll be in town this weekend, and we’ll go down to Savannah like we always do and shop. Let’s just blow my whole alimony check from your father.”
Jade just shook her head. “I will see you this weekend,” she told her as thunder rolled across the skies like furious drums. “I gotta go. Bye, Ma.”
She hit the button to hang up the phone. For a long time she stared at it, fighting the urge to call Kaeden. Frustrated at herself, Jade fought the urge to fling the phone across the yard.
“Damn,” she swore.
Chapter 24
Jade climbed to her feet to go into the house. After locking up, she took a quick shower and pulled on a cotton nightshirt. Jade turned off all the lights in her little cottage and climbed into bed. For a long while she lay there watching the storm clouds that threatened a heavy rain as she fought to push thoughts of Kaeden away.
But that was hard. Very hard.
Kaeden Strong had been firmly placed in her past, but one rare moment of curiosity over someone else’s business had sent their paths spiraling together.
Jade flung her sheets back as she flopped over onto her stomach. “Damn,” she swore as she closed her eyes and visions of Kaeden flashed like a slideshow.
Kaeden laughing.
Kaeden sneaking to use his inhaler.
Kaeden trying to endure the outdoors for her.
Kaeden naked and hard with a smile that said, “Come and get it.”
Kaeden’s expression when she made him cum.
Rolling over onto her back, Jade childishly kicked her foot against the mattress in frustration.
In those weeks after their breakup she had forced herself not to call Kaeden and tell him to bring it on back to her—and the fact that she had to fight not to call him made her will not to cave even stronger. The issue of jealousy had been an important one to her. She’d been there and done that, wasn’t doing it again. She’d taken a stand.
The thing was, her stand had left her…standing alone.
But it had been hard to get over him, and it took time just like she thought it would. And now just one half hour in his presence and she was feigning again for the man and his loving.
Fate was bitter and ugly sometimes.
Jade saw headlights flash against her bedroom wall as someone turned into her yard. Thinking something was wrong with her grandfather, she jumped out of bed and hurried to the front door to swing it open.
Her heart stopped to see Kaeden climbing out of his BMW. She stepped down onto her little stoop and pulled her door closed behind herself. “Hey, Kaeden.” Her voice reflected her confusion even as her entire body came alive at the very sight of him. She crossed her arms over her chest to cover her hardening nipples, which protruded through the thin cotton.
He put his hands in his pockets and walked over to stand by her stoop. “I like your hair like that. It’s really pretty on you,” he told her.
Jade swallowed her heart back down. “You came here just to tell me that?” she asked him with the hint of a smile at her lips.
“Do you know one year ago this month we went on that camping trip?” he asked her.
“I’d forgotten that.”
“I haven’t.”
A wave of some emotion floated over Jade’s body and she felt weak. She moved to sit down on the stoop, afraid her knees would give out beneath her. “Kaeden, what’s this all about?”
Kaeden cleared his throat as he looked down at her with those intense eyes and long lashes. “You know, I never apologized to you for the way I acted just before…before we broke up.”
Jade waved her hand. “There’s no need reliving the past because it is what it is, you know?”
“I was a fool.”
Jade looked up at him with soft eyes. “You know what, Kaeden? Yes, you were, but again, it’s all in the past. We both made it through. It’s okay.”
“But it’s not okay because…because I haven’t stopped missing you or wanting you, Jade,” he said in his deep voice.
“Kaeden, don’t,” she pleaded softly.
He pulled his hands from his pockets and squatted down before her. “Don’t what? Don’t tell you that I need you, because I do. Don’t fight for you like I should have done months ago, because I have to.”
Jade closed her eyes and let her head fall back as tears swelled up.
“The day we had that argument in your yard and you pulled off in your Jeep, you asked me a question.” Kaeden placed his hands on her legs. “Why is it so hard for you to believe that you were enough man for me?”
Jade remembered it well.
“For so long I had a thing for you, Jade. Your beauty and that body had my head gone. I never dreamed that a woman like you could—or would be—mine. To me you were on a pedestal. Unreachable. Unattainable. Only in my dreams. But then the dream became a reality.”
Jade’s eyes searched his, and she felt herself falling all over again.
“But I kept on thinking you was too fine for me and that some other man—a better man, in your eyes—would come along and help you realize that you should do better. My jealousy was stupid fear, and in the end I pushed you away. Not another man, but me. Just me.”
“Kaeden, that’s crazy. Plenty of men tried and failed. I didn’t want anyone but you. Only you. Didn’t you get it? Only you,” she stressed as emotional tears fell down her cheeks. “I was just as happy to have you as you were to have me.”
He lifted his hand and brushed her tears away with his thumb. “I’m sorry for the way I handled you. I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you. I’m sorry that I lost you, Jade.”
She shook his all too warm and electrifying hands away to rise to her feet, needing space. She couldn’t think straight with him so close. “I accept your apology, and you know we’re cool,” she said, trying and failing to sound casual and lighthearted.
Kaeden rose to his feet, nodding in understanding. “I’m a different man now, Jade,” he told her. “I’m not that little nerd who felt like I wasn’t your equal. And I’m ready—more than ready—to be the man that you need and want. I’ve had plenty of time to get my act together, and I want you back. I want what has been missing from my life.”
Jade felt overwhelmed. “I can’t do this right now, Kaeden. I can’t. I can’t.” She turned and entered the house, securely closing and locking the door behind her. She pressed her back to the door as her heart pounded.
Kaeden couldn’t just expect her to take him back just like that after nearly a year apart. What did he expect her to do, run into his arms and scream “Take me”?
She looked out the window just as he turned and walked back to his car.
Jade’s hand literally itched to reach out and stop him. Hold him. Feel him. Touch him.
But she didn’t.
She couldn’t.
And so she wrapped her arms around her own body as she watched him climb into his vehicle and reverse out of her yard and her life once more.
Kaeden was disappointed, but he wasn’t ashamed or regretful. He’d made a valiant effort to fight for Jade and there was nothing wrong with that. Jade Prince would forever be the love of his life, but now he felt like they had the closure they both needed so that they could move on with life.
Kaeden slowed down as he made a right turn onto a nearly secluded dirt road that would give him a shortcut to his side of Holtsville. He looked up in his rearview mirror as a pair of headlights flashed on and off behind him. He frowned when the person also started to lay on their horn. “What the…”
The vehicle sped up and he saw a flash of bright yellow. “Jade?”
The thunder and lightning intensified as he slowed down and pulled off the road. She pulled off as well.
Kaeden climbed out of his vehicle and watched as Jade did the same. She ran to him and before he knew it she was in his arms, snuggling her face in his neck with her heart beating as wildly as his. “Kaeden. Kaeden. Kaeden. Why did it take you so long?” she asked in a whisper against his cheek.
The skies opened up and rain poured down upon them.
Neither cared.
Kaeden wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close to his body, enjoying the sweet feel of her again. “I thought you didn’t want me back, Jade.”
She leaned back in his arms. “Kaeden, I waited for you,” she hollered to him to top the sound of rain pelting against the empty dirt road, their vehicles, and the neighboring trees.
Kaeden lowered his head and hungrily pressed his mouth to Jade’s. The taste of the rain mingled with their kiss as Jade sucked his tongue into her mouth with a deep, guttural moan that was filled with her undying need for him.
Kaeden turned them and pressed Jade’s body to the side of his car, bringing his hands up to twist in the wet tangles of her hair as he ground his hardening length against her belly. “I need you right now,” he whispered into her mouth.
Jade released him long enough to peel her nightshirt up and inched her plastered thong down her hips and legs to carelessly fling over the car and into the trees.
Kaeden unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, roughly shoving them and his boxers down below his buttocks as Jade arched her back, exposing the sight of the wet sheer material clinging to her breasts. Licking his lips with a sexy bite, he dove his head in and captured one taut nipple in his mouth, circling it with his tongue.
They both shivered as the rain continued to pelt down upon them, only intensifying their passion and fueling their fever. Jade’s fingers dug into his shoulders as he spread her legs and thrust his hips upward to unite them hotly.
Their mating was primal, without inhibition and based on instinct.
Kaeden delivered a wicked series of fast, furious, and deep thrusts that were made slick by the rain pouring down his body. Filled with a desire that made him almost mad, Kaeden stepped back, freeing his dick from her wet heat, and twisted Jade over onto her stomach. He used his hand to press her down on the hood as he nudged her lips open with his tip and then united them again and again and again. He felt like he couldn’t get enough of her as he continued his thrusts and bent down to suck at the rainwater drizzling down her back.
Jade gasped hotly, pounding her fist lightly against the hood as she used her hips to match him grind for grind. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to become familiar again with their matched ardor.
They fell in sync just like that.
That chemistry between them was there, as strong as ever.
The passion and fervor they created together was unmatched.
Needing to feel his arms around her again, Jade wiggled him free from her core and turned. Kaeden lifted one of her long and shapely legs over his arm before he bent his knees to fill her swiftly.
Jade met his thrusts with wicked motions of her hips that made her buttocks lightly slap against the car as she lowered her hands to tightly grasp his buttocks like she wanted to pull more of his hardness and strength into her. She enjoyed the feel of his buttocks clenching and releasing with every thrust that spread her tightness and made room for his girth.
The mood shifted between them as Kaeden brought his mouth up to lock with hers
again. Their union went from fast and furious to a slow and sensual rocking motion that was fluid. They both felt electrified as the hunger created from nearly a year apart quickly pushed them both to the brink of ecstasy.
Jade tilted her head back against the roof of the hood and she let the rain pour down on her face, throat, and chest as she enjoyed the in-and-out of Kaeden’s rod against her walls. She moaned as she bit her bottom lip and allowed waves of pleasure and fulfillment to course over her body. She allowed the tears to fall as white-hot spasms burst inside her core and shimmied over her body so that she felt like she was floating. She felt so complete in his arms. She could only sigh in the complete moment of ultimate fulfillment, and she knew that no man could give that to her like Kaeden.
Kaeden pressed his face in Jade’s cleavage as his loins hardened just before his body jerked, spilling his seed deep within her. He winced in pleasure as he came again and again until his body was weak and shivering against hers. Until he was quivering and spent. Kaeden felt overwhelmed from their reunion…but in truth, they had only just begun.
“Are we doing the right thing?” Jade asked Kaeden as they lay entwined together in the middle of her bed.
“It feels right,” Kaeden assured her.
“Yes, yes, it does,” Jade agreed as she looked up through the open window at the rain falling.
She sighed as she enjoyed the feel of his hands lightly massaging circles in the dip where her back arched into her full buttocks. That morning when she arose she never imagined she would end the night with Kaeden in her bed and in her life. She had so many thoughts fluttering in and out of her head, but the one constant was the love she knew she had for this man. A love that withstood a breakup and almost one full year apart.
She had gotten over Kaeden but she had never forgotten him. There were many times she filled her journals with silly random thoughts of him. Memories. Anecdotes. Wishes. Regrets.
Jade fell silent.
“Thoughts?” he asked.
Jade lifted her head, pressing her chin lightly against his hard chest as she looked at him. “I think we should state clearly what it is we’re getting into and what it is we want and expect from each other.”
Give Me Fever Page 22