This should make me scared, but, on the contrary, he’s going to give me exactly what I’ve been wanting. To clear up that feeling that there wasn’t quite full transparency.
“Yes, talk,” I say, hands going behind his head to tug his mouth down to mine. “But later.”
Much, much later.
I need this man inside me too much to worry more about words and what-ifs.
There’s more kissing, hands on each other. Fingers dipping, hands squeezing and stroking. The urgency mellows as Cage moves down my body, worshiping me with his mouth. I’d love to return the favor, but after he has me crying his name out, he sheathes himself in a condom and sinks deep inside me.
It’s the most perfect feeling in the world, and my future feels like it has no limits.
?
Cage holds me close with my ear pressed to his chest. His heartbeat has returned to a steady thump, and I’m thoroughly sated. His hand glides over my hair, petting me, and I’m getting drowsy, eyes starting to droop.
“Ready to talk?” he asks, and my eyes fly back open.
I lift my head, so I can see his face. “Now?”
While yes, I knew we needed to talk, I thought we’d just cuddle for a while. Maybe nap and laze about. We could talk about an early dinner and perhaps a glass of wine.
“I’d really like to,” he says, his face serious. I note what seems to be a glimmer of unease. All my mellow feelings start to churn into something that doesn’t feel mellow at all.
Whatever he sees on my face causes his own expression to relax. He leans in to kiss me. “It’s not bad. At least, I hope you don’t think it is. But I do need to tell you some things. Maybe we could get dressed, grab a beer, and sit in the living room.”
I don’t know how to take that. What does it mean that he doesn’t want to talk while naked and in bed? Is putting on clothing like an armor? Is he going to leave me, and he wants to be ready to walk out the door?
“Jaime,” Cage says, and I can tell he’s reading my emotions all too well. His eyes are warm as a palm comes to my cheek. “I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That’s the important thing I need you to know right at this moment, because I can see you’re scared.”
And just like that, I’m okay again.
He loves me.
He is in this for the long haul.
The commitment he made is real, and we are going to start a wonderful life together.
“Okay,” I say, a smile even coming to my face. “Are you hungry? I can fix something.”
“I wouldn’t say no.” He laughs, and we roll out of bed.
We clean up, use the bathroom, and tug back on the clothes we had on before, with the exception we both remain barefoot.
In the kitchen, Cage opens up two beers while I whip up some sandwiches and grab some chips. We bring the food into the living room and sit side by side on the couch, feet propped on the coffee table, with paper plates on our laps. While we eat, Cage asks me how this week has gone, so I fill him in on some happenings at work—which he’s always interested in—as well as the fact I told Laney about us.
“And your week?” I ask, sensing this is what he wants to talk about.
“Yeah,” he says in a low voice, wiping his mouth with a napkin. His feet go to the floor, and he puts his empty plate on the table. “About that.”
I mimic his actions, turning my body toward him so that our knees are almost touching and we can look each other in the face. Cage takes my hands in his, stares down at them a moment before raising his eyes to mine.
My heart starts beating hard because I can see whatever he’s getting ready to tell me is painful to him, and it will most likely be to me, too.
Oh my God… is he dying?
I open my mouth to ask that very question, my chest now constricting painfully at the thought of losing him when I just found him.
I don’t get a single word out though as the door to my apartment bursts open in a resounding crash. Cage had only engaged the lower lock so a hard kick rips the strike plate right out of the door casing causing wood and splinters to go flying.
An involuntary scream tears free from my throat as four men dressed in black with ski masks on come rushing into my living room. Cage leaps to his feet and vaults the coffee table to put himself in between me and the men, and it’s only then that I realize they’re carrying guns.