Chapter Seventeen

Dylan

I toss and turn, unable to sleep, for two hours before I give up on finding sleep.

I can’t stop thinking about Cade.

About him showing up in the middle of the week.

His words.

The outline of his cock against my back…

Yeah, that was the thought that had me most on edge.

So on edge, that I was wet between my legs and wasn’t that a stupid thing to happen when you didn’t have a guy to help you with it.

Cade would help you with it.

Of that, I had no doubt.

But I do doubt that I’m in the right mindset for a sexual relationship. It doesn’t matter that I’m comfortable with Cade—after so few moments, too.

Men often wear different colors when trying to pursue a woman that they want but…

But, in my bones, I feel like Cade is different.

That he isn’t lying.

That he means every word he says.

It’s that feeling that has me talking myself up, gathering courage, to walk the second story, looking for Cade. When I don’t find him in any of the bedrooms, I quietly make my way downstairs, then down the second flight of stairs, heading toward the theater.

The room is dark, but after standing in the doorway, allowing my eyes to adjust, I see his form in the middle of the pit.

“Cade?” I whisper, but he doesn’t stir.

Shoot.

I debate leaving him but heck, I made it all the way down here…

“Cade,” I call his name a little louder this time, and he rolls, a groan coming from him.

Knowing I won’t be startling him, I walk inside quietly before carefully making my way across the padded pit. “It’s Dylan.” Duh. Of course, it’s Dylan.

He grumbles, and I think that he’s probably still sleeping, but he holds an arm straight up in the air and mumbles, “C’mere.”

My fight-or-flight kicks in, and I almost decide to leave but…

No.

I make my way toward him and kneel, before laying on my left side. Cade immediately wraps me in his arms, spooning me from behind.

“I—”

“Talk in the morning,” he mumbles against the back of my head.

But I want to talk now.

My head is racing.

I have so much to say.

I have…

With just his arms around me, holding me to him, and the smell that is so very Cade, sleep claims me.

***

Much like Sunday morning, I wake to Cade’s hand protectively over my rolling stomach. I wasn’t kidding when I said the baby was an early riser. His somersaults are usually the reason I wake up before an alarm clock.

Unlike Sunday morning though, this time I’m not facing him; Cade still has me spooned to him and if I thought his pressing cock was impressive last night, it’s quite different this morning.

He’s hard, and if anything, the feel of him has me recalling how uncomfortable I was in my own bed last night. I discreetly shift my hips and yep, still wet.

“It’s amazing you sleep through this,” Cade murmurs behind me. “He’s been active for at least twenty minutes.”

I imagine that if this pregnancy were different—hell, let’s just take this imagination thing all the way. I imagine that if I were in a different place; if I’d met Cade nine months ago; if this baby boy were Cade’s baby…

I’d put my hand over his and bask in the feeling that my man was just as excited about the baby as I was.

It didn’t matter that I was eighteen.

That I really was not ready to be a mom.

That I was terrified of it, actually.

All that would matter was that my baby was loved.

That I was loved.

I let myself play with that thought a little while.

And then I give in to my desires, and I put my hand on top of Cade’s.

“It’s definitely interesting,” I manage to say.

Cade widens his fingers and I allow myself to take the cue, wrapping my fingers between his. We lay there for a while, and the whole time I think…

This can’t last.

“Are you here until Sunday again?”

I feel Cade shift behind me, but he doesn’t pull away. He presses a kiss to my shoulder and I have to scold myself for getting excited about it. “I am. I kind of left without permission, though, so I don’t know that I’ll make it back down next weekend.”

“Were…” I take a breath. “Were you hoping come back down next weekend?”

“And the next.” He kisses my shoulder again. “And then the next.” My neck. My breathing starts to speed up and it’s not anxiety doing it.

Well, I’m anxious.

But for completely different reasons.

“And as long as you’d want me to.” He says the last next to my ear before…

Licking my earlobe.

If I wasn’t wet before, I certainly was now. Hell, I could feel my pussy pulsing in sheer want.

I shift so I can roll to my back, looking up at Cade.

Taking him in for the first time today.

His hair is a mess.

His cheeks and chin are shadowed.

His eyes are heavy with sleep.

And the way those eyes are looking down at me…

It makes a girl hope.

Makes a girl long.

It’s too fast.

Too soon.

Too good to be true.

But he’s already proved me wrong more than once.

He’s proving to be the good guy he said he wanted to be.

He wants to be my good guy.

“Why are you here?” I ask quietly.

Cade stares down at me before bringing his hand to my jaw, his thumb brushing just under my lip. “I told you last night. Let me be your guy.”

“But why?”

“I can’t explain what I feel when I’m around you, Dylan. It’s way too soon to say it’s love—”

I scoff at that. Yeah. Way too soon. If I were to add up the hours I’ve spent with Cade, it wouldn’t even amount to two days.

That was the definition of too soon.

“…but when I’m not with you, I’m unsettled. Not even three days without you, and I just wanted to be back here. I would have jumped set sooner or later, and the Grant fiasco was just a convenient reason for it to happen sooner.”

At Grant’s name, I swallow hard. “Speaking of that…”

Cade’s eyes are locked on mine, as he waits for me to continue. “B-because,” I stammer, then take another deep breath. “Because of everything that’s come to light, I’m afraid that the baby might not be Grant’s. I don’t…I don’t know who the father is.” That thought terrified me.

What did Grant do?

Drug me?

Pass me off to whoever wanted to fuck me?

Did they have rules at these parties? Obviously if there was a condom rule, it wasn’t followed. If there was one saving grace from everything, it was that my blood panel remained clean. God, I couldn’t even imagine. Pregnant with some sexually transmitted disease. That wouldn’t have been it.

I couldn’t have—

“Hey,” Cade says, squeezing my chin. “Come back.”

I didn’t even realize my eyes had glazed over until I refocused on Cade.

“If you think I judge you based on something you had zero control over, I need to prove to you I’m not that man. I don’t. I don’t judge you, I don’t think less than you. If anything, I think this is great news. You can go to the public with your story, Dylan. You can tell the world that they can go fuck themselves for being the bastards that they are, saying you were someone you weren’t.” His face is flushed, and I can’t help but feel endeared toward this man.

He’s angry for me.

Less than two days total or not, I could…

Hell, I could fall in love with this man.

And the thought doesn’t scare me. Not even a little bit.