Chapter Four
This was lunacy. Blaine should have taken Cassie on the bed in the spare room, on top of the enormous pile of coats. His house was two hours away, and he didn’t want to wait that long to be with her. Inside her.
But it had been more than a year. What was another two hours?
Except now, she was sitting beside him, her beaver costume covered in a navy trench coat, her light brown hair spilling over her shoulders, down to her ample breasts. She was gorgeous.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t being particularly friendly toward him at the moment. He could hardly blame her. After all, he was the one who’d left. For more than a year. And then he’d pulled his hand out of her panties before she could get off.
It wouldn’t have taken long. He could have brought her to orgasm in a minute or two. He would have covered her mouth with his other hand to muffle her scream, as the bass pumped and the laughter of drunk people floated up the stairs.
It would have been hot.
But he’d been afraid that if he left her satisfied, she wouldn’t come home with him.
He shifted in his seat. It would be a long drive back.
He flipped on his high beams as he exited Georgeville. “I remember reading about high beams in the driver’s handbook when I was sixteen. I didn’t understand when you would ever need to use them. I was used to the city. So one day my dad took me out to the country…”
He was chattering inanely about nothing. High beams. Honestly, she wouldn’t care. He didn’t even care.
This wasn’t what he had wanted. He’d hoped that after he apologized and told her she was the only woman for him… Well, he’d hoped that would have been enough for her to forgive him.
But she hadn’t.
Still, she was coming home with him. That was something.
He had the weekend to convince her they had more than just amazing sex between them. That sex so amazing had to mean something.
He couldn’t wait to get started.
But when she let out a long-suffering sigh, he was afraid she’d changed her mind.
“You promised me the whole weekend,” he said. “Don’t back out now.”
“I won’t. But I will walk away at the end of it. And if I hurt you, then so much the better.”
That didn’t sound like the woman he’d known. Her words had an edge to them.
Fuck. He’d done this to her.
He said nothing, just put a hand on her leg. She was wearing leggings under her shorts, the material rather thin. He rubbed his fingers over it, and he could tell she was trying not to moan.
“Don’t hold back with me,” he whispered. “Never do that.”
She said nothing. It was just the two of them, alone on the empty road, tension filling the space between them.
…
If only Cassie had held back the day she’d met him. Instead, she’d plunged headfirst into a week-long love affair.
It had been a Sunday afternoon, the summer before last. Warm, but not disgustingly hot, and there’d been a nice breeze. She’d just finished doing a load of laundry and cleaning her kitchen, and a walk had sounded pleasant. Although she’d initially planned on walking down the McNeil Trail through the woods, somehow she’d found herself heading toward Tim Hortons for a chocolate dip donut and a coffee. It was as if she’d been pulled there.
She’d stepped inside, and before long, she’d been placing her order with the bored teenager behind the counter. Then she’d turned.
And there he was.
He’d been standing at the back of the short line, but he was all she could see. His gaze had been serious, penetrating. She’d felt pinned by it.
He was tall, lean. A little older than she was. Dark, somewhat floppy hair that didn’t seem to fit with his serious demeanor. Sharp blue eyes. But listing his individual features…that hadn’t come close to explaining what they were like when they were all put together.
He was suddenly everything.
“Your change,” said the teenager, sounding slightly irritated.
She’d fumbled as she put the coins in her wallet, then had turned back to the man in line. He’d lifted his eyebrows, just slightly. She’d felt light-headed, unfamiliar emotions coursing through her.
Love. It had to be love.
But that was preposterous. Maybe all the cleaning products had gone to her head.
Still, after she’d grabbed her coffee and donut, she’d walked toward him. She couldn’t help it.
“Meet me outside,” he murmured.
Oh, his voice. It had made her skin pebble. Or was that the air conditioning?
No. It had been his voice. She’d nearly shivered—it had such a strong effect on her.
She’d walked out into the warm day, her heart beating rapidly. She’d been very aware of the sun shining down on her, the breeze fluttering her hair. What would he do when he joined her?
When he’d come out, large coffee cup in hand, he’d tilted his head and said, “My car’s just over there.”
And once they were standing by his car, he’d kissed her. They’d both been holding their coffees, and her, her donut, and it had been just one press of his lips against hers. Over in a second. Yet it had reverberated through her long afterward.
“This is the part,” he’d said, “where I would ask you to go home with me.”
She’d pressed her thighs together. God, she’d wanted him there. Sliding his tongue over her skin and doing everything he could to her. It hadn’t been simply a physical desire; she’d wanted everything. Even though he was a stranger.
“But there’s a little problem,” he’d continued. “I don’t live anywhere near here, and there doesn’t seem to be a motel in town. So I’m hoping—”
“Will you come back to my place?” The words had come out in a rush.
“Why, yes. I would be delighted to.” One corner of his mouth had kicked up, and her knees had gone weak. He was incredibly gorgeous.
“I live nearby. Only a two-minute drive.” And she’d just cleaned her apartment, as if knowing she’d have company today.
He’d gazed at her steadily and then cupped her cheek and kissed her once more. A longer kiss this time, his lips closing over hers again and again, his tongue slipping inside her mouth.
“You,” he said, “are utterly perfect.”
“You forgot the part where you ask me my name.”
“Sorry, I’m not accustomed to situations like this.”
“Neither am I.”
He hesitated. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Cassie.”
“And I’m Blaine.”
There was something about it all that had been familiar, like some part of her had always known it would happen this way.
She’d shifted her donut and coffee to one hand and held out the other for him to shake. With a quirk of his lips, he’d taken her hand, holding it a long time, rubbing his thumb over hers.
“Cassie,” he’d said. “Is that short for something? Cassandra?”
“Cassidy. But no one calls me that.”
“Well, I will. When we’re in bed together.”
Her breath had hitched, and she’d known he heard it.
He’d laughed softly before walking to the passenger’s side and opening the door for her.
They’d gone back to her place, and the instant they were through the door, they were on each other, lips meeting, hands caressing, clothing coming off. Every touch had taken her breath away, and when they’d been in bed and he’d been above her, ready to enter her…
She had never needed anything in her life as badly as she needed to feel him inside her. And once he was there, it was the greatest pleasure she’d ever known.
Afterward, he’d held her, and they’d finished their lukewarm coffee and fed each other pieces of donut, and she knew it had been real. It had been love, even if it had happened in an instant at Tim Hortons.
On one hand, it was hard to regret anything so magical. But later, she wished she’d never had a craving for a chocolate dip donut. Wished she’d just gone to the McNeil Trail, even though her body was drawn in the opposite direction, because then, she wouldn’t have been heartbroken. Wished she hadn’t listened when he’d said, “Meet me outside.”
Pain-filled weeks turned into months, which turned into a year, and still, she could hardly stand being without him. Could hardly even bear to go to the damn coffee shop.
And now he was here. She was in the car with him once more, but this time he was taking her back to his place. She could not forgive him for how he’d left her so completely devastated, and she would never let him do that to her again.
This time, it would be different.
She would make sure of it.