Chapter 22
Caden
I braced myself, both of my arms straddling her body as I kissed my way down. Nibbling gently on her one nipple I paused, clenching hard as Cara moaned a bit. I smiled, her nipple still in my mouth.
“Just wait,” I promised, releasing her hard nipple and continuing my path of kissing down her body.
My lips grazed her belly button, gently flicking her stomach with my tongue and continuing downward, deliberately skipping over her most sensitive spots and opting to tease her more. I breathed on the inside of her thigh as I kissed upward, moving toward the perfect ‘V’ formed by her legs. I hovered my mouth over her perfectly trimmed pussy as she waited in anticipation of my next move.
Slowly I flicked my tongue across her folds, then in one smooth motion ran my tongue across her, pushing harder as I reached her clit. Cara moaned. I continued following her lead as she pushed her hips into my mouth.
“Caden, please,” she begged as she guided my head.
A few moments later, her body shuddered as she let out a breathy moan and climaxed.
* * * * *
“So, how did you do it?” Cara asked as she covered herself up with the sheet from the bed and rolled to face me.
“Well, I started with my tongue…”
“No, silly.” Cara laughed as she smacked me on the arm. “Graham. How did you get Graham to leave us alone? How did you get him to stop all of this?”
I rolled over and stared at the ceiling as I thought about my conversation with Graham earlier in the day. I hated confrontation, but my life seemed to have been filled with it over the last several days. Fights, ex-boyfriends, hateful and greedy stepbrothers, all of it was connected, but it was always what was making me happier than I had been in a very long time.
Graham wanted the company. He wanted me to give him what he believed was his and even though I took it from behind his back for what he had done, I felt bad for him in a weird sort of way. Graham wasn’t always a bad person, he just did enough to get by and then would rather use his energy to find the easiest way out of things, even if that took more work. It didn’t make sense to me. I knew Graham would fight me and continue to stalk both Cara and myself unless I gave him what he wanted. That’s almost exactly what I had done.
“I gave it back to him,” I said as I let out an exhale.
“You what?” Cara yelled as she sat up, the sheet falling to reveal her perfect breasts. “You gave that son of a bitch exactly what he wanted. Why would you do that?” Cara gathered up the sheets and pulled them back up to cover her exposed chest.
“He wanted the company. That’s what I gave him. He didn’t know that I had already arranged for the lead developers to join me. I even contacted the main initial investors and let them know what I was doing. Even though the company is public, it’s nothing without me, it’s nothing without the team that built the biggest product they are selling, and quite honestly, Graham doesn’t have the know-how to make this worthwhile.”
“But, now he owns the majority of the company. Everything you did…”
“Everything I did just showed me it wasn’t the company that was important. It was everything else. And he hasn’t won anything from me. He lost, don’t you see? I still own forty-nine percent of the company and when I sell those shares, I’ll have more than enough money to do whatever I want, including starting my own company.” I rolled back over to face Cara, running my hand over her naked arm. “Cara, I haven’t known you long, but there’s something about you. Somehow, I know you’re the one I was meant to meet and I’m willing to take a chance and start over…if I can start over with you, if we can forget all of the drama the last few days.”
“I’d like that, even though there were some amazing times I don’t want to forget,” she said as she smiled. “But I know what you mean. Just the same, please tell me you didn’t do this for me.”
I bit my lip as I looked at her. She was more beautiful at that very moment than she had been at any other time. “I didn’t. I did it for us, for what we could have and what we could become, together.”
Cara leaned in, closing the small gap between us, and kissed me. Her soft lips clung to me as she took a slow, deep inhale.
“Then let’s start over, for us,” she said as she leaned back, allowing her head to sink into the pillow of her bed. “Just us.”
* * * * *
Today was the perfect summer day to enjoy a ride with the top down and further enjoy our new-found freedom and time to start over. Over a month had passed, and Cara and I had spent every possible moment with each other.
“Here,” I said as I reached behind Cara and pulled out an apparel-sized box from the back seat of the Audi and placed it on her lap. I watched as the wind tugged at the bow on the box as her hands clutched it.
While it had only been over a month since I was able to appease Graham and put things on track with Cara, this was the first time we could actually enjoy it. Her job had kept her busy and I had been wrapped up getting everything in place for the new company.
I looked at Cara as the golden sun shone on her lightly bronzed face and the wind pulled her hair in a million different directions. Even on a hot and humid day with her hair strewn all over, she was perfect.
“What’s this?” she asked, a big smile stretched across her face as she waited for her answer.
“Well, if I tell you there’d be no sense in opening it up to find out.”
Cara puckered her lips and tugged at the bow. She opened the box top to reveal the bikini I had selected for her when we’d enjoyed our shopping spree.
“Caden, it’s the suit I loved from that boutique.”
“I had big plans that weekend, but everything seemed to have gotten off track. Since we decided to start over, I thought we could pick up on that perfection we had created before everything else.”
Cara pulled the suit from the box and held it up to her chest. “I can’t wait to try this on. Thank you so much.” She leaned over and gently kissed me as I attempted to keep one eye on the road and the other on her.
“I know it’s a bit spontaneous, but I rented a little house about an hour and a half from here. I thought maybe you could use that suit at the pool today.”
“Absolutely.” She smiled and reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I also took the liberty of making a few other plans for us today and tonight.”
“Had I known, I would have packed something. I thought we were just going for a drive.” Cara’s half-disappointed look was mixed with excitement.
“I know, but I took care of all of that for you. I hope you don’t mind, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, at least I hope you won’t be.”
She squeezed my hand again, her eyes shining with happiness. “All that exploring and spontaneity I’ve been craving my whole adult life—you’re giving that to me, aren’t you?”
“I love you, Cara. I’ll give you everything and more.”