by Sofia Finn
The rest of the night was a blur. I remembered Jeff getting me in his car to get me back home. I remember stumbling around and finding someone already in my bed. And I remember intense, wild sex, unlike I’ve had before or since.
But I had no idea who it was with.
Neither did Jeff. In fact, he had insisted that there had been no one in the house when he dropped me off. I would have thought I dreamt the whole thing up if not for the fact that I had found a pair of strawberry print panties on the floor the next morning. But that was the only clue I got. The mystery woman had disappeared without a trace.
Sometimes, when I slept, pieces of it came back to me. A scent here and there that was so familiar it niggled at the back of my mind. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t put a pin in it.
So I’d finally decided to let it go before it drove me insane.
“This is a nice car,” I heard Maddie say from the passenger’s seat.
“Thanks. It’s a Portofino.”
“Oh.” A drop of silence. “I have no idea what that means.”
I smiled. “It means it’s a nice car,” I said simply.
Most of the women I dated knew exactly what car I drove. They knew all about the fancy tailored suits and the million-dollar condos and all the other shit I had for no reason. But none of them really knew much else about me, except that I was the billionaire doctor.
Nobody else but Maddie.
Who, by contrast, knew nothing about the wealth I held and seemed not to care.
“Yeah, I figured,” she said. “This thing’s sleek as hell. Plus, all those little gadgets? Probably cost like a billion dollars or something.”
“I don’t think any car costs a billion dollars. The La Voiture Noire comes close though.”
“Ugh. Let me guess. You’re a car guy,”
“I’m an engine guy,” I corrected. “I don’t really care too much about the gimmicks, but this one has a twin-turbo V8. That’s why I got it.”
“Oh, a V-8? That’s amazing.” Her tone was sarcastic, and I winked at her.
We pulled up to the penthouse and rolled in through the automatic security gates.
Maddie gaped. “Jesus Christ. You live here?”
Her expression of wide-eyed shock made me take a second look at the complex I called home. I tried to see it through her eyes. The building itself extended into the skies, each floor with enough length to fit a duplex. Reflective glass covered most of it, and walls of platinum and gold led us into the lobby, where a friendly concierge greeted us.
“Jeez, in this economy, this probably cost like a billion dollars too,” Maddie muttered.
“You are weirdly obsessed with how much things cost.” I nodded back at the concierge as we headed into the building.
“Spoken like a true rich boy who has never had to worry about money in his life. Do you even know how much a loaf of bread costs?”
Her head spun around, looking at the crystal chandeliers as we headed into the elevator, and I pushed the button. “It can’t be that expensive. What are they like, 50 bucks?”
She turned her wide-eyed gaze to me.
“I’m kidding.” I smirked when she nudged me with her elbow. Just that little touch was enough sensation straight down to my cock.
I’m definitely in trouble.
I clicked the button for the top floor, and the elevator doors closed.
“Oh, and just so you know, Mr. Richie More-bucks, there is a price limit on Ela’s birthday gifts and anything you buy for her has to be under that. I don’t want you spoiling her before she even understands the true meaning of money yet.”
“Hmm,” I hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. I guess if I looked at it from her perspective, I could understand where she was coming from, but the idea of spoiling my niece was too tempting. I mean, I had a lot of money for no reason and not a lot to do with it. Why shouldn’t I spend things on getting Ela nice things? Maddie too.
The elevator took no time getting us to my floor.
“Don’t hmm me. I’m serious.” Maddie strutted down the hallway, and I nearly groaned at the sway of her hips. Jesus Cage, get a hold of yourself. I entered the code and scanned us into my apartment. At the entrance, she stood still for a while. “Are you kidding me with this? You have an actual chandelier in here?”
“There’s also an indoor jacuzzi and a bar,” I told her.
“If the jacuzzi is gold-plated, I’m going to scream.”
“It’s not.” It was platinum, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Speaking of Ela’s birthday,” I started as we both stepped in, and I tossed my car keys on the counter. I remembered the conversation she had with Ela earlier. “What’s this about you working double shifts?”
Maddie shrugged like it was no big deal. “Ela wanted a princess-themed birthday party with her friends from school, so I just wanted to do some overtime for a few weeks and get it for her.”
“I see.” Annoyance tinged my voice. “And you didn’t think of just asking me for the money?”
Her lips tightened. “I don’t need your money, Cage. I make enough for Ela and me, trust me. I just wanted to make a little extra.”
“Maddie, I’m not saying you need it. I’m saying it’s frankly dumb that you were out there busting your ass and not spending time with your daughter for something that could have been easily fixed if you had just asked me.”
“I don’t need you, Cage.”
“Yes, you do.” The comment provoked something in me, something primal and possessive. It jerked me into motion. I saw her eyes darken as my primed body came closer and closer until I had her backed up against the wall. “Say it.”
She stared up at me defiantly, in that way of hers that never failed to get my cock hard. It did. It was hard. Everything in me demanded she accept my possession. It didn’t matter that it made no sense. She was mine, and everything she needed would only be from me. She said nothing, holding my gaze.
Something was happening. Something crazy and lethal.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Maddie.”
“Am I?” Her voice was breathless, chest rising.
Damn.
“You are.” I snaked my arm around her waist, pulling her flush up to my body, lust seeping into my mind like madness. “Stop me.”
Maddie’s hands were on my chest. Her eyes held mine. She slowly shook her head. “I don’t want you to stop.”
And just like that, the last tendril of sanity snapped.
I’m not sure if she pulled me or I pulled her, but we kissed each other like maniacs, and it was glorious. It was like multiple explosions went off in my body. My cock strained. My mind threatened to shut off completely, but I fought for sanity. I couldn’t lose it. I might hurt her.
But I have to have her. Now.
I hoist her up against the wall, knocking over a flowerpot and deepening the kiss.
I moaned at her taste. She tasted like peaches and sunshine, and it was so fucking good. She’d wrapped her legs around my waist and rubbed her body against mine, making little mewling sounds of arousal, hands grasping. I caught her hands against me. I had to stop her, or I would lose my mind.
I pulled back briefly, then saw her eyes, hazy with desire. Her chest was falling up and down, and I couldn’t deny that my breathing was unsteady. But I had to be clear with her.
“Tell me you want this,” I growled.
She nodded frantically. “I want this Cage. Believe me, I so want this.”
“I want you to understand, Maddie. I’m not an easy man to fuck.” Her hips jerked into mine at the word, and I nearly lost my train of thought. “I’m overbearing and very dominant in bed. I will fuck you exactly how I want to fuck you, and you will like it. Is that understood?”
She nodded, still undulating in that maddening way. “Please, Cage. I’m burning up.”
There. I’d done the honorable thing. I’d given her a way out, and she hadn’t taken it.
She�
�s now was mine for good.
She sought my mouth with hers once more, but I looked away, searching for a surface. Shit, the bed was too far, and stairs were not an option for either of us right now. I bit back a groan as she bit my neck and started to suck. Definitely can’t make it now. I moved quickly to the middle of the room, and she yelped as I threw her onto the couch.
She reached for me again, but I shook my head. “Stay.”
Her eyes were wide as saucers at this point, but she obeyed. I took off my shirt and tossed it, watched her eyes travel over my chest as she licked her lips. My cock jumped at that.
“Take off your clothes,” I ordered.
She scrambled to do my bidding, tearing the shirt and kicking the bottoms off with alacrity. By the time she reached behind her for her bra strap, I stopped her.
“Hands above your head,” I said, taking off my belt.
She obeyed, and I looped the belt around her wrists, then stepped back to take a look.
God, she was so beautiful. She looked so helplessly wanting. Her whole body trembled slightly, and gasps made beautiful breasts move up and down. I couldn’t resist anymore.
She moaned as my fingers found her nipples through her bra. Her wrists shifted in her bondage as she begged me with her body for more. But I kept at the pace, even though it drove me mad to do so. Even when my body started shaking almost as badly as hers was, and my mind threatened to give out. After a minute, my hands danced over to her weeping pussy. We both moaned as I found her heat.
“So wet.” The words tore from my throat, the heat in my body taking over. “So fucking tight.”
I prolonged the torture as long as possible until she was begging and pleading and ready to do just about anything. But I wasn’t ready to let go of her until she did it. She braced her legs against the leg of the couch and impaled herself on my hand. All the way to the hilt.
She screamed, and my mind snapped.
I didn’t have a conscious recollection of removing the rest of my clothes. Still, within seconds I was inside her, cock surrounded by her wet heat and body moving purely on instinct. It was too rough, I knew. I was taking her too hard, but I couldn’t stop myself. The madness had taken over my body now, and I could not stop.
“Maddie,” I gasped, attempting to stop, but she shook her head and wrapped her legs around me, pulling me even deeper.
I roared to the skies as I found heaven.
13
Maddie
I woke up to soft kisses on my neck.
Last night seemed like a dream, but when I opened my eyes, he was there. Cage Burke’s head was tucked under my nape.
I had sex with Cage last night.
And it had been great. Mind-blowing. He’d been like a crazed man, driving me to the peak, again and again, not satisfied till he had drawn multiple orgasms from my body. Several times actually. And probably would have happened several times more if I hadn’t been exhausted and passed out in the middle of one.
I realized he was placing kisses against my skin as I slowly came awake to the light streaming in through his windows that stretched from ceiling to ground.
I groaned as I squinted against the glare. “Why the hell do you have wide ass windows?” My voice was rusty with sleep. “Are you an exhibitionist or something?”
I could feel him smile against my neck. “We’re on the 13th floor. Who would I be putting a show on for? The birds?”
“You know the 13th floor is bad luck, right? Haven’t you watched the movie where all those bad things happen to the people on the 13th floor of that hotel? Like they get murdered and stuff.”
“I’m not superstitious.”
“You should be. Maybe you should move before one of those ridiculous chandeliers you have come crashing down on you and just stab you through the heart or something.”
He chuckled then, drawing back to look at me. He looked so handsome and sleep-mussed, with none of the usual tension that lined his features. Even his shoulders, usually drawn together like they held up the weight of the world, were relaxed.
Cage Burke was relaxed.
“I didn’t know you cared so much whether I lived or died, Flynn,” he murmured in that sleep-roughed voice of his that had my cunt clenching.
Jesus. You would have thought I had gotten enough yesterday, but apparently, despite the soreness, I was still hungry for more.
“Well, you know.” I looked away, unable to hold his gaze. “You’re Ela’s uncle and all. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
The lie slipped out naturally, but guilt followed.
Tell him, my conscience murmured, but I couldn’t.
Not yet, not while we were just starting to get along. I didn’t want to see that warm gaze and easy smile completely disappear from his face. I would lose his trust in me. It would break my heart.
Because yes, I could finally admit to myself that even years after, I was still in love with Cage Burke.
I probably had been since the first time we met outside the hotel when he walked up to me looking like superman in a suit. He had caught me up against him, and I had looked into his cerulean eyes and been lost.
I tried not to fall for him. I fought it for as long as I could—out of loyalty to Ben. Even far after Ben no longer deserved it, I still stayed loyal after his love turned abusive. Until the night I flushed down Ben’s pills, and we had had that terrible argument. I’d told him I didn’t love him anymore. He threw things at me, and I left and had nowhere else to go.
Nowhere else but Cage.
Truly, I had only gone to Cage’s home to get comfort. To talk.
But I fell asleep in his bed as soon as I got there. He had found there in his drunken infatuated state, and I hadn’t been able to resist his kisses and, well…
Ela happened.
That’s right.
The fucking secret I swore I would take to the grave.
Ela isn’t Ben’s daughter.
She’s Cage’s.
“Earth to Maddie.” Cage snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Did you even hear anything I said?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t even realized he was talking. “Was it important?”
“Everything I say is important.”
“Aye aye, captain,” I quipped, and he bit my shoulder lightly in retaliation.
“You and Ela are moving in with me.”
I was so distracted by him licking over the bitemark that it took me a while to realize what he just said. When I did, I bolted up in bed, throwing him off. “Wait, what?”
He looked unmoved by my reaction. “Yes. Today preferably, although I understand if it might take time to get all the things together. And then with Ela, we should get a nanny. I have a good candidate in mind—”
“Hang on, Cage.” I pressed my hands over his mouth to stop the flow and allow myself time to think. “Did you ask me to move in with you?’
“It wasn’t so much an ‘ask’ as it was a ‘tell.’”
Oh, he knew just how to grind my gears. “I cannot move in with you,” I replied firmly, flabbergasted at the thought.
“Why not?”
“What do you mean ‘why not?’ We’ve only had sex once! Why on earth would I move in with you?”
“It’s not just because of the sex.” Cage sat up too. “It makes the most logical sense here.”
“How so?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Well, for several reasons. First off, last night’s activities were certainly not a one-time thing, and you live too far into the city. It’s a hassle driving back and forth to your place. Plus, your apartment is not safe for you or Ela.”
“It is!”
He gave me that irritating know-it-all look of his. “The walls are very thin and not well insulated, so it probably gets drafty in the winter. The neighborhood itself isn’t great. I read in the papers that someone got shot on Iverson.”
“That’s almost ten blocks away,” I countered wryly.
“Sti
ll. Too close for comfort. And above all, we both work and need someone to take care of Ela. I can have the nanny come here every day.”
“So you just have this all planned out, huh?” I couldn’t keep the anger from my voice. It must be nice to have all that money and just have people at your beck and call all the time. And he hadn’t even consulted me.
But instead of looking triumphant, he did something that shocked me even more. He reached over and kissed me on the shoulder again, murmuring, “Please, Maddie. I make an obscene amount of money. Let me use it to give you and Ela what you need. Please?”
My mouth dropped open as the anger melted right out of me. “Did you just use the P-word?”
“Yes. Don’t get used to it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. But I’ll have to talk to the nanny too, to make sure she’s a good fit. You can go ahead and call your movers. And whoever else you want to help me pack the stuff up. I know that’s what you were going to do.”
He gave me a mischievous smile. “They’re already on their way.”
“Mommy! Cage!”
“Ela!” I rushed to my daughter, gathering her into my arms and holding her tight. I can’t tell you how good it felt to have her warm breathing body against mine.
“You’re squeezing too tight, mommy,” Ela coughed. I reduced the strength of my hold but did not release her. Not yet.
“Sorry, baby,” I said, turning my face into her hair and taking a deep breath in. She smelled so alive. “Mommy is just happy you’re okay.”
“She can go home today,” the nurse standing by the hospital bed smiled at us, including Cage, who also walked up and gave Ela a high five. “She needs a little bit more rest and lots of fluids, but she should be okay to start back at preschool tomorrow.”
Ela pouted. “But I wanted to stay home with my mommy.”
I felt guilty. It was true that I hadn’t spent quality time with my daughter for almost the whole week, apart from getting her up and ready for school. “Oh honey…”
“How about we all skip our various responsibilities today and have a family day out?” Cage suggested.
“Yay!” Ela looked up at him like he held the sun in his hands. “Family fun day. Will you come with us, Cage?”