Kade

Who the hell is this woman? And why have I let her get under my skin?

I’d nearly lost my mind when I thought Abbott had forced himself on her. That I’d even believed it in the first place proves how out of my mind she makes me, because as much of an ass my brother can be, I know he’d never do the things I’d accused him of.

But something possessive stirred inside me. It stirs inside me now.

Hell, just the way he looked at her, like she was something he could claim, had made me want to knock that damn grin off his face.

Fucking insecurities rage inside of me, mixing with an overwhelming desire to take a chance on opening my heart up again.

I’m not even sure if it’s a choice anymore.

My head spins with uncontained lust. Once again, this woman has me throwing every rule I’ve ever made out the proverbial window. But hell, she’s naked, in my hands, and even though I know somewhere in the back of my head that this won’t end well, I take the kiss I’m starving for.

It’s a collision. Our lips meeting. Our tongues lashing, teasing, and tasting.

Frantic.

Desperate.

Wild.  

Just like the first time.

I have no idea how I’m going to survive this intact. I can already feel her undoing all the locks and bolts I’ve placed around my crippled heart.

“Door,” she says desperately, her fingers tugging at my shirt. “Lock it.”

I’m so wrapped up in her that I haven’t even thought about Lola walking in on us. I’m losing my goddamn mind.

Pent-up desire knots my insides, fuels my reaction, driving me to lift her so that she’s straddling my waist. I press her back against the door. One hand fumbles with the lock until I hear it click, while I scrape a trail of kisses down her neck before finding one perfect breast and swirling the nipple with my tongue.

She gives a small cry, tugging at my shirt, and I understand her need, to feel flesh against flesh. To be buried inside of her and to lose myself completely in her body, and in those hazel eyes that look at me like they’ve known me for a thousand years.

This is insanity.

But even though I know it, I can’t stop. I’m not sure I’d want to, even if I could.

I have her plastered against the door, and I can feel the heat of her pussy through my jeans. My shirt is discarded, and her fingers work frantically at my belt.

“Sophie,” I say breathlessly against her lips, holding her wrists. “I don’t have anything.”

She blinks up at me, panting.

I’m seconds away from sinking inside of her bare. But at least one rational cell in my brain warns me that adding a potential pregnancy to the mix of this already precarious situation isn’t the best idea.

“I...” Her tongue flicks across her bottom lip. “I have an IUD and I’m clean. You’re the only person I’ve been with since...” She glances away.

I cup her jaw, forcing her to look at me. “I’m clean, too.”

There’s a hint of reservation in her eyes. I know I should feel it, too, but I don’t. I trust her for some fucked-up reason that I can’t explain.

I swallow around the enormity of that revelation, around the emotions that ripple between us.

You don’t even know her, my brain reminds me. But my heart and body know differently. I swear to God, I knew her the second I first saw her. I know it’s not love, but it’s something even more potent — recognition.

I see her, see my own battered soul reflected in her eyes. And it undoes me.

“I want you,” she says, the words a frantic whisper, like she’s struggling as much as I am.

This time when I kiss her, I let some of that emotion pour out of me. It’s too hard to hold back. It’s easier to just give in, even though I know I’ll probably regret it.  

My hands are back on her body, exploring, and this time when she reaches for my belt, I don’t stop her. She trembles as she works my jeans over my hips, and I step out of them.

I’m so fucking hard I might explode when her hand wraps around my cock.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about that night,” I say, lifting her up and wrapping her legs around my waist, my hard-on pressed against her pussy, desperate to disappear inside of her.

Her fingers are in my hair, and this time it’s her lips that find mine. Her kiss is filled with things I don’t understand, emotions that rage almost violently from her. And it’s like I can hear her soul crying out. I know without knowing her story that her grief runs just as deep as my own.

Grief.

It’s a force between us. Potent and real. Maybe that’s the part our souls recognize. Accept. I don’t know. I just know I want to protect her, consume her, and maybe find some sort of healing together.

My mouth doesn’t leave hers as I turn the shower on to help muffle the moans and whimpers I’m going to pull from her lips.

Her arms tighten around my neck, desperately holding on to me, and there are unspoken words in her eyes when her gaze catches mine between kisses.

Bound.

Drawn.

Gravity.

It mixes with each touch, the pleasure flaming higher as our hands and mouths explore each other’s bodies.

Heat-filled kisses, hungry licks…time stands still. My fingers move up her thigh, stroking her soft flesh, and when my thumb finds her engorged clit, my name slips past her lips in a desperate plea. “Kade.”

It does something to me, hearing her say it. It makes this thing between us more real, more right.

I press one finger inside her, swirling the pad of my thumb against her sensitive bud. “Say it again.”

“Wh-what?”

“My name, Sophie. Say my name.” I thrust another finger inside of her, feeling her muscles spasm around me.

“Kade,” she whimpers, her gaze holding mine.

Jesus, what am I doing to myself?

I lower to my knees, kissing a path across her breasts, down her stomach, needing to taste her, to feel her explode against my tongue. Staring up at her, I lower my head. Her hips jerk against my mouth as I kiss the swollen bud of her clit, swiping my tongue between her folds.

So damn addicting.

She gives a small cry, and I can feel her need for release as my fingers push inside her silky, sweet entrance again.

My balls are so damn tight that it’s nearly unbearable. With every lick, every taste, hearing her moans and feeling her mounting pleasure, my hunger only grows. And I know I’m helpless to this pull between us.

It’s not just a craving — it’s a need.

“Kade,” she cries out, her fingers tangling in my hair, body trembling against me.

As she comes against my lips, I hold her up with one palm locked against her hip.

“Beautiful,” I say, standing, gripping my cock at the base to hold back my own release that threatens to explode despite how much I want to be inside of her.

But, damn, the woman undoes me.

I brace my feet against the shower floor and lift her so that she’s straddling my hips, then I slowly ease myself inside of her sweet pussy.  

Her heat envelopes me, her muscles clenching around my engorged cock. Our gazes lock.

I could lose myself in those hazel eyes.

And I do.

Primal hunger shreds all my self-preservation, filling my senses as I begin to move, thrusting deep into the tight depths of her body.

Her palms flatten against my chest, and I can see the unbridled lust that swirls in her gaze as her hips move to meet my own. No darkness, no pain. Just this, us.

Pleasure races so intense, every nerve ending rioting with sensations.

My cock slams into her, flesh pounding against flesh, as our orgasms rise between us. And when she cries out again, I swallow the sound with my lips, my own agonizing groans matching hers as tremors race through our bodies.

I come hard, fiery pulses throbbing from the base of my spine through my balls.

Rapture. It’s a brilliant explosion of light and color. My gaze never leaves hers, and I feel it in the deepest part of my soul.

She has me feeling things I haven't felt in years.

And fear lances through me because of it. I have no fucking clue how to make sense of the affection I feel for her. It’s too much. Too fast. And too damn tempting to resist. Because for the first time in longer than I can remember, those dark places inside of me are filled with light.