My heart leaps at that. Not just at her saying that I’m the heart of this company—which, to be honest, I already knew. But she said she cares about me. The same way I care about her. “If losing the company is the only way I can really be with you, Cassidy, then I don’t care. I can start another company. Build up from scratch again. I don’t care. But I can’t build another you.”
Her cheeks flush bright red. Still, she shakes her head. “I can’t let you do that. Not for me.” She leans in to brush her lips against my cheek, so lightly that it sets me on fire. I want to grab her, toss her down on this couch, and…
I reign myself in with difficulty. The harder point is disguising the way my cock is stiffening against the seam of my jeans, impossible to control. “I want to,” I tell her, firmly.
She shakes her head. “I don’t care if some piece of paper says you’re married, Lark. I know your heart belongs to me. Just like mine belongs to you. That’s what really matters. Not the law. So if you want to keep your business, just stay married to Sheryl, I don’t mind. Really.”
Your heart belongs to me. Her words thunder through my body, like an electric current. I’ve never felt this awake and alive. Or this sure of what I needed to do.
I reach out to wrap my hands around her shoulders, drawing her back in close to me. “Cassidy… I don’t care about the business. What really matters is what’s right here in front of me. You.”
“What are you saying?” Her eyes widen ever so slightly. Between that and her flushed cheeks, her trembling lower lip, it’s almost impossible to keep my hands off of her.
But I manage, for now. Because there’s something left I need to confess. One last thing I need to tell her. “I love you, Cassidy.”
Her breath catches audibly. I know the feeling. I’m holding my breath too, waiting for her reply. Wishing that it will be what I want. Bracing myself, in case it’s not. After what feels like the longest pause in the world, though, Cassidy leans forward, until her forehead is resting against mine. “I love you, Lark,” she breathes.
And there we have it.
I bend forward to cover her mouth with mine, catching her in a slow, deep kiss. The rest of the world fades out.
31
Cassidy
One moment Lark’s lips are on mine, covering mine. The next thing I know, one of his arms is around my waist and the other is sliding behind my knees. He scoops me up off the couch like I weigh nothing at all—a move that, I have to admit, is seriously hot. I wrap both arms around his neck and kiss my way down his jawline to the spot where his neck meets just below his ear. I bite him there, lightly, and my reward is a low growl in the back of his throat.
“I’ve waited far too long to have you back in my bed,” he says, and the words send a thrum of desire through me, pulsing out from my stomach all the way to the tips of my toes where they curl in Lark’s borrowed socks.
But the words don’t turn me on nearly as much as what he said before this.
“I love you,” I whisper again, testing. Repeating. It’s the first time I’ve ever said those words to a man and truly meant it. It unlocks something new inside me, a depth of feeling I never knew existed before.
“I love you, Cassidy,” he replies, and I was wrong before. This is more emotion than I’ve ever felt at once, a torrent rushing through my whole body.
Because he feels the same way I do.
When we reach the bed, I expect him to toss me onto it. Instead, he lowers me gently, like I’m precious. Breakable. When my back hits the mattress he kisses me again, slow and forceful. Then he moves, his mouth trailing kisses down my jawline to my neck, my shoulder. He undoes my shirt with steady hands and peels it off, pausing only long enough for me to shift beneath him so he can unclasp my bra too.
He takes his time tonight. He kisses every inch of me, his lips moving over my shoulders, down my arms, until he sucks my fingers into his mouth one by one, teasing and smirking at me the whole time.
“I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since the first night we met,” Lark murmurs, still kissing his way across my body, my curves now, my belly, the slope between my breasts. He cups one breast in his palm, soft yet firm, and his fingertips brush over my nipple lightly. Even that is enough to make me shiver, from the crown of my head all the way through to my toes.
“Neither have I,” I admit in a low whisper, and he leans back, eyes hooded with a mixture of desire and feeling.
“Show me what you do when you’re thinking about me, Cassidy,” he murmurs, and a warm flush creeps up my throat to my cheeks.
But there’s a low thrum of command in his voice, something I can’t ignore. And the way he’s watching me, as if he can’t get enough, just turns me on more. I reach up to trace my hands down my curves, feeling the heat of all the places where his hands were on me a moment ago.
While I do, he sits back, those intense eyes fixed on mine.
“You mean like this?” I ask, smiling just a little, as my hands slide over the flat plane of my stomach.
He grins. “A good start.”
My hands reach waistband of my borrowed sweatpants. I hesitate for a moment. I’ve never undressed myself in front of a guy. Normally I let them handle that, since they’re eager to get their hands all over me anyway. But Lark is different. Patient. And the wait makes the payoff all the hotter.
I slowly inch the sweatpants down my thighs. His gaze traces over my body, and I swear my skin heats up beneath his gaze almost as much as I flushed from his touch, his tongue.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he breathes once I kick the pants aside, and I’m lying before him naked from the waist down.
My fingers trace the familiar lines of my mound. Down to my pussy, where I part the lips slowly, wetting the tip of my finger. Tracing it back and forth, I flush. I’m already so fucking wet. Lark always has that effect on me.
He leans closer, so his breath dusts my cheeks, before he kisses my jawline. The edge of my mouth. “I want to watch,” he says, voice low and heated. It sends a thrill through me, all the way to the tips of my toes.
“Spread your legs,” he murmurs.
My breath hitches, but I do it. I spread my legs wide, and his gaze drops to watch as I push my finger inside myself, curling it, stroking slowly and steadily. There’s a wet sound when I draw it out to brush my clit, and he grins.
“Tell me, Cassidy. Do you always get this wet when you think about me?”
“Always,” I breathe, and he laughs softly, before he leans in to kiss my lips. “My turn.” Then, before I can react, he slides down my body, and gently nudges my hand aside. I let it fall to the comforter, and he presses his tongue where my fingertip was a moment earlier, sliding it between my pussy lips.
He trails his tongue along my slit, slow and steady. Savoring. Then, with a low animal growl, he presses it inside me, and I arch up off the bed with a gasp. He feels so good. Hot and wet, his tongue strong inside me.
He curls it, lapping at my pussy as if he could swallow me entirely. It feels incredible. But it’s not what I need right now. When he pulls back for a breath, I grab his hair in both fists and pull him toward me. “I want you inside me,” I gasp, not able to wait any longer. Too on fire for that.
He grins and pushes his jeans off, kicking them aside.
When he draws his cock out of his boxers, I can tell I have the same effect on him that he has on me. He’s already rock hard, standing at attention, a small bead of precum gathered at his tip.
I lean down to lick it off, and his eyes flare, white hot.
He does push me back onto the bed now, leaning over me, bending to kiss my mouth. He still tastes like me, and him, all mingled together in a flavor that only makes me hotter. More desperate. “You want me to fuck you now, Cassidy?” he breathes into the crook of my neck, his breath nearly as hot as his cock feels against my inner thigh.
“Fuck yes,” I gasp.
He laughs softly. “So impatient.”
“I
need you, Lark.” The words escape before I can stop them.
He leans back to meet my gaze. In his, I see my own emotion reflected. The sheer depth of it takes my breath away. “Cassidy…” When he guides himself to my entrance, the tip of his cock poised there, it doesn’t feel like the other times we’ve been together. I feel more open now, somehow. More naked than I’ve ever been, completely exposed.
And yet, I don’t mind. In fact, I want to stay in this moment forever. Two hearts completely bared to one another.
He pushes inside me so, so slowly. I wrap my legs around his waist as he does, arch up against him so I can feel every inch of his lean, muscular body against my soft curves. “Lark,” I moan as his cock pushes fully inside me, straining my walls, making me feel deliciously full.
“I love you,” he murmurs, like someone who’s testing the words, savoring the way they feel. He kisses me again, slower, heated. And he draws out, then thrusts back in, our mouths still pressed together.
I slide my tongue between his lips. Taste myself more fully on his tongue, as ours entwine. He laughs against my mouth as I reach down to grip his ass, hard, and he draws back just far enough to meet my gaze.
“Have I mentioned how fucking hot you are, Ms. Marks?” He kisses my jaw. My neck. “You’re like a drug. I can’t get enough.”
The words add to the heat building in my belly. I wrap my free arm around his neck, hold on as he starts to move faster, thrusting harder. “I… never want… this to end,” I manage to say, as it gets harder to speak, the faster my heart beats, the harder and faster he begins to thrust.
Lark meets my gaze, a knowing smile on his mouth. “It doesn’t have to,” he says. And I realize, as the orgasm starts to build deep within me… he’s right.
We can have this for the rest of our lives, if we want.
32
Cassidy
A distant pounding sound wakes me far too early. I groan and try to roll over, only to find my movement restricted. There’s a strong, familiar arm wrapped around my waist, pinning me back against a lean body. I turn to peer over my shoulder at Lark. His eyes are still shut, his lids twitching faintly in a dream.
It must be a good dream. I can feel the hard press of his cock against my ass.
Grinning to myself, I wriggle against him, and savor the way he moans, low in the back of his throat. He doesn’t wake though, not yet.
Last night floods through me in a pleasant rush. I love you. He meant it when he said it. So did I. And he’s right, together we can figure all of this out. We can help my mom with whatever she needs, hospital bill-wise, and then I can put my foot down and explain to her that I’ll only help for emergencies like this. Not for every tiny thing that crops up.
As for his ex, well… We’ll figure that out too.
Lark shifts beside me, and an idea comes to mind. I’m about to slip under the covers and execute it when I hear the pounding again. Louder this time.
What the hell is that?
With a groan, I disentangle myself from Lark—the man sleeps like the dead after sex, I swear—and pad across the bedroom.
There’s a small door beside the elevator shaft. I stare at it in confusion, and it bangs again. I realize it’s the back entrance to the apartment, in case of emergencies when the elevator’s out of order.
And someone is knocking on it.
Strange.
I slip back into the bedroom and grab the first things I see. Lark’s baggy tee draped over a chair. It hangs low enough to reach mid-thigh on me, so it at least covers the necessities.
Then I pad back out into the living room, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “One second,” I call blearily. It takes me a moment to figure out how to undo the bolt lock on this mysterious side door. Then I wrench it open, and my jaw drops.
So does the person’s on the other side.
Sheryl stares at me like an apparition. As if I’m all her nightmares come true. She glances from me to the apartment over my shoulder and then back to me, and the shirt I’m wearing. Lark’s shirt. I can practically see the wheels clicking in her head.
“I can’t believe this,” she says, when she finds her voice.
“Sheryl, hi.” My heart hammers in my throat. “Um, if you’re looking for Lark, he’s still asleep, but I can go grab him—”
“You fucking homewrecker,” Sheryl yells, and I’m pretty sure I won’t need to wake up Lark anymore. Hell, the neighbors can probably hear this, even through all the advanced soundproofing of Lark’s penthouse. “I can’t believe I trusted you, and all this time you’ve been fucking my husband behind my back.”
She looks more furious than I’ve ever seen her, her entire face twisted in anger.
I take a step backward, startled, and she uses it to her advantage, barging into the apartment.
“How dare you.” She’s still fuming.
Finally, I find my voice. “He’s not your husband anymore,” I say.
“Tell that to our lawyers.” Sheryl laughs, actually laughs. “So this is why he suddenly started talking about divorce again. We were fine, we were working this out, and then you came along and wrecked it all.”
“Oh please.” I cross my arms over my chest, all too aware that I’m braless right now. “Lark told me all about why you haven’t signed the papers yet. You’re basically blackmailing him with his own company.”
“Till death do us part,” Sheryl shouts. “That’s what he and I promised each other. It’s not blackmail, I’m just trying to save my marriage.” Something in her voice cracks, and for a moment, I glimpse behind the angry façade. I see the sad, desperate woman behind it, and she looks way too familiar.
I reach for her arm. “Sheryl, listen. I went through a bad breakup too, and I hung on for way too long to something that wasn’t working because I was afraid of being alone—”
She jerks away from me. “Don’t you dare try to talk to me about relationship advice, you whore.”
I reel backward as though struck. My whole face has gone beet red. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but—”
“Don’t you dare call her that.” Lark’s voice breaks through the room, low and rough with sleep and fury combined. He’s in nothing but boxers, yet he still manages to look more put together than Sheryl in her neatly pressed business attire. He crosses the room to my side and wraps one arm around my shoulders, protective. Bracing. “Your issue is with me, Sheryl, not Cassidy. Don’t drag her into this mess.”
“You’re the one who invited a third party into our marriage,” Sheryl snaps.
“Our marriage has been over for years,” Lark replies coolly. “You know it. I’ve told you a million times. Cassidy’s right, Sheryl. You need to accept this. Move on.”
She laughs, high pitched and mean. “You already know my terms, Lark. If you want to call it quits, the company’s mine. End of story. Otherwise, I’ll see you at counseling tomorrow.”
With that, she whirls on her heel and storms out of the apartment, back down the staircase. Only now does it hit me that she must have climbed all twenty flights up here just to do this. Yell at Lark in his own house.
He’s realizing the same thing, glaring as he crosses over to shut the door behind her and bolt it. “I told the doorman not to let her up anymore. Guess she still has a key to the service door though.” He sighs. “I’ll talk to building management about switching it.” Then he runs a hand through his hair, his expression sour. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Cass.”
“Don’t be.” I walk toward him, opening my arms. He wraps his around me and buries his face in my neck. “Your problems are my problems now, Lark. We’re in this together.”
He laughs softly, face still pressed against my neck.
“What?” I ask.
He turns to meet my eyes, smiling. “It’s just… nobody’s ever stood up for me like that before. Especially not to Sheryl. She even scares my own family.”
I laugh, too. “After today I can see why.” We both glance at the service do
or. Lark’s expression sobers. “Hey.” I nudge his side. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out. Some way to work around her. And if you have to keep going to counseling for a while to keep the business, I don’t mind. It’s a weird situation, but it’s fixable. Everything is.”
“With you on my team?” Lark leans down to kiss my temple. “I don’t doubt it.” Then he sighs and straightens, glancing toward the kitchen. “Right. Drama this early in the morning calls for a reward. I’m thinking waffles?”
I grin and let him tug me toward the kitchen. “Sounds good to me, chef.” But worry still nags at me, even after Lark seems to brush Sheryl off. I watch him whisk eggs and sift flour, and then pour the batter inti the waffle maker, the most delicious smell emanating through the kitchen. All the while he hums along to the radio and tells me about his plans for the day. And watching him, a heavy weight sinks into my stomach.
Is he going to have to choose between his dream company and me? And if so… how can I possibly ask him to make that sacrifice?
33
Lark
For once in my life, I’m early to my counseling appointment. I wanted to get here before Sheryl, because I wanted to see the look on her face when she walked in and saw me on the couch, my back ramrod straight, my hands fists on my knees.
She’s tried calling me half a dozen times all last night and today. Probably to find out whether I’d show today, or whether she should start calling our lawyers about drafting the contract that will fuck me over the hardest.
I’m making the right decision. It was easy, actually. After Cassidy and I really talked, after I found out how she feels about me… There’s no other decision I can make, now.
The counselor opens the door to let herself and Sheryl in. As expected, Sheryl’s jaw drops when she spots me inside the room already. I rise from the couch, offering the counselor my hand. “This is going to be our last session,” I tell her, before anyone else has a chance to speak.
Kiss Me Now Page 21