by Luna, David
Sobs all of a sudden wracked Braden’s small frame, and Cade held him tightly and rocked him, murmuring softly that everything would be OK. He rocked him and kissed his temple, his hair, his cheeks. He rubbed his stubbled face against Braden’s soft hair, caressed his back until Braden’s sobs diminished and he began to calm, continued to murmur until Braden pulled back. They looked into each other’s eyes for what seemed forever, until Braden raised his own hands to clasp Cade’s face, and whispered, “OK”, and began to kiss him in return. He kissed Cade’s forehead, his temples, his eyes, his cheeks, his nose, his chin, and finally, so softly it almost undid Cade, his lips. There was such tenderness there, such trust that Cade finally felt he’d gotten through to him.
Braden glanced at him anxiously. “Do you still want to stay with me tonight, after all that?”
Cade let out a pent up breath. “More than ever.”
They snuggled down in bed, spooning, their clasped hands held over Braden’s heart. Cade’s other hand caressed over every inch of Braden he could reach. Emotionally exhausted, Braden fell asleep immediately, feeling completely safe in Cade’s arms. It took hours for Cade to sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking of all that Braden had told him and what, if anything, he could do about it. He finally drifted off, feeling somewhat better that he’d at least helped bring Braden some measure of peace.
Cade woke up with Braden still asleep in his arms. They had both slept in, and he was glad that Braden had slept soundly through the night. Braden’s head was lying on his chest and his arm was tight around his waist, not wanting to let go, even in sleep. Braden’s leg was also tossed over one of Cade’s, which was currently wreaking havoc on his ability to control his libido and the more he thought about it, the harder the situation became, as it were. Cade had awoken with one arm around Braden’s back, and his other holding Braden’s hand that lay on his chest.
Cade felt the moment Braden woke and took stock of his position, nearly on top of Cade. He waited to see how Braden would react and though his first reaction was tension at waking up in a strange situation, he immediately relaxed and melted into Cade. He flexed his hand under Cade’s, laced their fingers together, looked up into Cade’s eyes and smiled sleepily. “Hi.”
“Morning, baby.”
Braden smiled at the endearment. “I think this is my new favorite place to wake up.”
“What, your new bed, or in my arms?”
Braden smiled. “Yes.”
Cade chuckled, loving Braden’s response. “It’s my new favorite as well. You gonna kick me back into the guestroom tonight?”
“I don’t know. I’m getting kinda used to waking up like this; it might become an addiction.”
Cade growled, reached down and tugged Braden’s leg over his hip, bringing Braden to rest on top of him where he could have no doubts as to Cade’s aroused state. He watched Braden’s eyes go wide and his lips part in surprise. That surprise turned to desire and Cade could feel Braden’s body react to his. Braden brought both of his hands up and stacked them on Cade’s chest and rested his chin on them, a seductive gleam in his eyes. “Well, now that you’ve got me where you want me, what are you going to do with me?”
Cade reached up with both hands and ran them into Braden’s hair, tugging it back from his face and holding him in place. He pulled Braden forward, but instead of kissing his lips, like Braden expected, he nipped along his jawline to his ear, tugged Braden’s earlobe into his mouth and bit it just enough to send a jolt of heat through Braden. He teased the lobe with his tongue, which caused Braden’s whole body to shiver. Cade felt Braden get even harder between them and Cade smiled to himself, as apparently he had found one of Braden’s hot spots. He’d file that away for future use. He nipped one more time, again soothing the bite with his tongue, and answered in a whisper. “I want to strip you of every piece of your clothing and kiss every inch of your body; suck on your neck, your chest, your stomach and inner thighs, branding you, marking you as mine.”
Cade heard Braden’s sharp intake of breath and pulled back to look into his eyes that had turned to a dark jade and looked glassy with longing, pupils blown. Cade let go of Braden’s hair and roamed his hands down Braden’s sides, past his hips, down his thighs that had split and were lying to the sides of Cade’s. He ran his hands over the back of those thighs and pulled them apart farther, then pulled them up towards his hips, so that Braden was on his knees. Braden reached out with one hand and traced Cade’s bottom lip with his fingers, his eyes heavy lidded. Cade focused solely on Braden’s gorgeous green eyes. Their stare was so heated that Braden’s breathing quickened, and Cade’s voice was a low growl. “I want to bury myself so deep inside of you that you can’t tell where I end and you begin.”
He trailed his hands up his thighs again to cup Braden’s ass cheeks in his hands, he squeezed them and massaged them. Keeping one hand on his ass and upper thigh, he trailed the other up under Braden’s shirt, using his blunt nails to lightly, softly graze his back.
Cade continued that light caress on his back, feeling the shivers move through Braden. He marveled at Braden’s response to his touch. He seemed starved for it, probably as starved as Cade was to give it to him. Cade watched Braden move his hands on either side of him and he pushed up and looked down at Cade, smiled and leaned to the left. Cade thought he was going to bite his earlobe as he’d done to Braden, but he simply whispered, “I can’t wait to have you there, deep inside of me, where I can’t tell where you end and I begin.”
Braden moved his lips to the top of Cade’s ear and traced the outline of the shell of Cade’s ear with his tongue and continued down the shell to the lobe, to Cade’s neck, down his neck where he pressed the softest lightest kisses down the side, over Cade’s throat, which he tilted back, and on up to Cade’s other side where he switched back from kissing lightly to licking back to Cade’s other earlobe, up the shell of his ear before he whispered, “I want to lick, nip, and kiss every tattoo, starting at your wrists, moving up your arms to your powerful shoulders, down your muscular chest where those gorgeous piercings are. I want to tug on those piercings with my lips and teeth, suck them into my mouth so that I can flick them with my tongue.”
Cade groaned out loud, both his hands grabbing Braden’s hips in a tight vice. He had never been so fucking turned on in his life and all Braden was doing was telling him what he wanted to do. He reached up, clasped Braden’s head between his big hands, fingers deep in his hair, and drew him down for a kiss. Braden’s hands moved up Cade’s chest, up his neck and clasped his jaw just as the kiss began. At first, their lips were closed, just a gentle rub back and forth. Cade nudged Braden’s lips with his, opened his mouth and trailed his tongue lightly along Braden’s bottom lip and tugged that luscious, full lower lip into his mouth and nibbled on it, pulling it away from Braden, licking it, and then letting it go. He did this several times until Braden’s mouth was open for him.
He delved deep into Braden’s mouth, reveling in the tastes and textures there. He heard Braden let out a tiny whimper. He kissed him deeper, one hand letting loose his hair and grabbing Braden’s ass, he sat up quickly and tugged Braden against his rock hard erection. Their cocks rubbed against each other for the first time and Cade couldn’t help but pull Braden in harder while he delved into Braden’s mouth again and again.
He felt Braden’s hips start to move against his own. He gripped them with his hands and felt the flex of Braden’s muscles as his hips undulated against him. Rubbing their cocks together, through their clothing, both of them were breathing heavily, and Cade leaned his forehead against Braden’s. They looked into each other’s eyes while they both moved, Cade’s hands gripping Braden’s ass cheeks now, pulling him hard against him over and over. Braden wrapped his arms around Cade’s neck as he rode him. The feeling was more intense than Cade could have imagined. Braden tilted his head back and let out a whimper when he heard Cade’s growl. “That’s it, baby. Just like that.”
With Braden’s he
ad thrown back, his throat was exposed, and Cade wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to mark him. He nipped down his jawline, down his throat to where Braden’s neck met his shoulder and it was there that Cade opened his mouth wide, sucked hard and then bit Braden with enough force to have the smaller man grunt and start moving faster on Cade’s lap. Again, Cade’s mouth began a strong suction on that same spot. He felt Braden shudder over him and moaned. When he knew Braden would be wearing his mark for days to come, he stopped sucking and was about to kiss Braden again, when Braden’s phone rang. Braden jumped, but they both continued, trying their best to ignore it. It finally stopped ringing, and Cade made a move to take his mouth again, but the phone started ringing a second time.
Cade ground out a frustrated, “Fuck me.”
Braden laughed a little. “I was doing my best.”
He reached over to grab his phone. He glanced at the screen and got a puzzled look on his face. Still sitting astride Cade, he mouthed an, “I’m sorry,” to Cade as he answered it.
“Nana? Are you OK?”
Cade could hear Braden’s grandmother’s voice on the other end. “Am I OK? Braden, I haven’t heard from you in well over two weeks, which isn’t like you. Either something’s wrong, or you’ve met someone. Which is it? And don’t even think of lying to me; you could never lie to me and get away with it when you were younger, so don’t even think to try it on me now.”
Cade smiled. He liked the woman already, even though she had interrupted the hottest make-out and frotting session he’d ever had. He leaned back against the pillows and enjoyed watching Braden talk on the phone while still astride him, one hand on Cade’s chest as he held the phone to his ear with the other, a blush suffused his cheeks. “Nana, I’ve just been really busy. I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
“You bring your new man over here. Don’t even try to get out of it. I want to meet him and make sure he’s good enough for you. Today, Braden, or I’m calling my car service, and I’ll be there within a few hours.”
“How do you always know?”
“I know you. I expect you to come spend time with me, let me show my boy off, and his new man, and then I want to go out to lunch. I wanna go to that place you took me to, months ago. I want a real steak, none of this sissy food they have here. I’m wasting away in this prison you keep me holed up in. Poor Ethel took a dirt nap two weeks back; probably starved to death.”
Horrified, Braden chastised, “Oh my god, Nana! That’s awful. Don’t say that kinda stuff. Is Ethel really dead?”
“As a doornail.”
“Nana, stop! I’m sorry your friend is dead.”
“Well, you youngsters keep putting us geriatrics in lockup, what do you expect?”
Braden rubbed his hand over his face in consternation. “Nana, lockup? Really? It’s not a prison, and you’re the one that wanted to move there! It’s the nicest retirement community in the state and you know you love it. And, they have a very good chef there. Besides, how else would you be able to find enough men to entertain you?”
“Well, there is that. In fact, a nice man moved into Ethel’s old place. Name’s George, and we’ve got a date this week. He’s a charmer that one. We’ll probably end up schtupping sooner or later. In fact, just last night...”
Cade’s body shook with quiet laughter at the turn the conversation had taken, and got his nipple twisted hard as a result. He watched Braden heave a sigh and cover his eyes in exasperation as Nana went on about the new man in her life. Still blushing, he glanced down at Cade and raised his eyebrows and mouthed, “Lunch with Nana?” Cade grinned widely, put his hands behind his head, and nodded.
Braden cleared his throat, completely and utterly distracted by the display before him, Cade’s hands behind his head showed off his huge muscular and tatted triceps. He reached out to trace one of those tattoos and saw the heated look in Cade’s eyes. He finally realized that his grandmother was still talking about her neighbor and interrupted, “OK, Nana, that’s enough. We’ll come by and see you around 11.”
“Good boy. See you soon!” And just that fast, she hung up.
Braden groaned and all but collapsed on Cade’s chest. Cade laughed and hugged Braden to him. “So, that was Nana, huh? Can’t wait to meet her.”
Not looking up, Braden brought his hands up to cover his face and kept it buried in Cade’s chest while shaking his head. He whispered, “Oh god, the two of you together. Just…. God.”
Cade laughed and held onto Braden even tighter, then rubbed his hands up and down Braden’s back in reassurance. “Come on, you’re gonna give me a complex. Are you embarrassed to bring me to meet her?”
Braden bolted upright with a horrified expression, and practically yelled, “No!” before he realized that Cade was pulling his leg. Braden narrowed his eyes at Cade and smiled a dirty smile as he reached up and grabbed one of Cade’s nipple rings through his shirt and tugged. Cade hardly reacted, and his face grew serious. “You sure?”
Braden’s brows drew together when he realized that Cade was serious this time, and his jaw dropped open. “Are you serious, Zavier?”
Cade shrugged. “We established last night that we’re falling for each other. We’re in a relationship, but we haven’t really talked about meeting each other’s families. I can’t wait to show you off to mine. I really want to meet your grandmother, but if you don’t want me meeting her yet, we can wait.”
Braden, sitting astride Cade’s stomach now, Cade’s hands on his thighs, looked down into his eyes and saw the uncertainty and immediately had to assuage any worry Cade had. “Z, I’m gonna be so proud today, taking you to meet Nana. You’re everything I’ve ever been attracted to in my life, all rolled into the perfect package. You treat me like I’m everything to you, and god, I’ve never, ever had that from a man in my life. She’s just such a handful, and you can be quite a handful yourself, so the two of you together, I just can’t imagine what this day will bring. But Z, I can’t think of anything I want more than for you to meet her.”
The buzzing in Cade’s head stopped as soon as Braden assured him that he wanted him to meet his grandmother. Then he realized that Braden had finally called him by a term of endearment, and he smiled a mile wide. “Z?”
Braden blushed and looked down. “Yeah, it’s how I think of you. I don’t know why. It just sounds right in my head. If you hate it, I don’t have to call you that.”
Sitting up, Cade drew Braden in for a hug. He pulled back and looked into Braden’s eyes. “It’s perfect; I love it. No one has ever called me that, so I like it even more because it’s only your name for me. I promise, I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Braden grew serious. “I don’t want to worry her about Eric. Can we just not mention that?”
Cade’s brows drew down in consternation. “I don’t know, Braden. She’s your only family. Are you sure you don’t want to talk to her about it?”
Braden sighed. “I’m sure. As funny and lighthearted as she seems, she’ll worry herself to death. I just don’t want to do that to her.”
Cade shook his head. “OK. It’s your call.”
Braden rubbed Cade’s chest, sad that they couldn’t continue with their earlier make out session. “Thanks. So, we should get ready to go out there. It’s about an hour drive, and I need to check my blood and eat something.”
“Why don’t you take your time getting ready? I’ll take a quick shower and fix us some breakfast.”
“Sounds good.”
Cade took a cold shower. After Nana’s cock-blocking routine, it was either that, or jerk off, and he didn’t want to get off without Braden, so his options were severely limited. He brushed his teeth, pulled on a ribbed tank top and one of his many pairs of tactical pants. He carried his button up shirt into the kitchen to put on as they were leaving, and fixed a quick breakfast, eating his while fixing Braden’s food. He called Cooper and let him know about their plans. He was uneasy about not having backup while having to look out for both Braden
and his grandmother. Cooper agreed and said he’d follow them. He also let Cade know there was no sign of Eric yesterday.
He mentioned that he’d gotten copied in an email from Brody to both of them stating that he’d been able to locate the Camry as it was driven into a mall parking lot on Thursday night and hadn’t been driven back out. Cooper said he had sent Sawyer and Jackson there that morning to try and locate it and put a tracer on it to make things easier, should he use it again. Leaving it someplace like a mall parking lot, however, didn’t bode well for them to be able to track him that way. It reeked of final drop off location, even though Cade hoped that wasn’t the case, as it was the one lead they had on the fucker.
He didn’t want to keep this info from Braden, and he also wanted to tell him about Cooper following them today, so he went into Braden’s room with his breakfast, to let him know. Braden was standing in the bathroom in his boxer briefs and Cade’s body reacted immediately. He was also wearing his glasses and Cade had never seen a sexier sight in his life. He set the breakfast on Braden’s dresser, walked into the bathroom and moved behind Braden, who had shaving cream in his hand and a bit already on his face. Braden, hair still wet and dripping down his back, met his eyes in the mirror and then blushed when he saw the look in Cade’s gaze.
Cade finally, finally got to look at Braden without a shirt. He’d had the chance yesterday, but exactly like Braden, had avoided looking, knowing he’d be walking around with a permanent hard on, not to mention he hadn’t wanted to make Braden uncomfortable. He looked at Braden’s neck, and was immediately turned on even more by the mark he’d left on Braden’s skin. He reached up and lightly touched him there, crowding up flush against Braden’s back, looking his fill, and letting Braden feel what seeing him like that was doing to him. Braden was thin, but god, he was amazingly muscular for someone so lean. His muscle definition was perfect and his skin flawless.