He cursed harshly, rising slowly from the bed and walking wearily to the bathroom. He washed his hands quickly, then his still-hard cock. When every last trace of his humiliating release was gone, he sighed deeply and stared into the mirror above the sink.
He looked the same as he always had. The same gray eyes, the same overly long black hair and tanned features. But he knew what lurked just beneath the surface. The monster he fought on a daily basis.
Cade knew he shouldn’t have drunk the night before. Knew he shouldn’t have sneaked into Marly’s room and watched her sleeping. If he had left her alone, if he had just stayed away from her, he wouldn’t be tormented now. But he had been unable to. He had slipped silently into the connecting bedroom, standing in shock at the foot of her bed; unable to believe what his eyes were seeing in the light of the low lamp she still refused to sleep without.
The blankets covered only her midriff. She had kicked them clear of her hips and thighs, and her full thrusting breasts. Her nipples had been hard, elongated and pointed, begging him to taste them. And between her thighs—he swallowed harshly. The flesh of her mound was waxed clean, and bare. Not a wisp of a hair remained, and it had glistened.
Thick and rich, her juices had coated her flesh. He had been unable to resist, unable to stop himself. Drawing nearer he had leaned down, his fingers running through the sweet glaze of desire. Smothering a groan of need, he had brought his fingers to his mouth.
He could still taste her on his lips. Sweet, addicting. Like the lightest fruit, and he craved more. He didn’t know how he forced himself away from her. Didn’t know how he managed to keep from sinking his hard cock into her over and over again until they both screamed out in climax. But he had. He had retreated to his own room, his heart beating fiercely, his loins burning with need. He needed her. He needed her too damned much, and she was the one woman he couldn’t have.
Shaking his head, he found he couldn’t hold his own gaze in the mirror. He was as perverted as his father. As sexually deviant as the monster who had tried to take her when she was but a child. Not much better than the demon of his own
Nightmares. He had raised her, loved her, but he had always known she wasn’t a
blood relation. As she grew, that thought had always been in the back of his mind, and as she got older, it had tormented him more often.
God above, when had she begun waxing? Why had she? It was the one thing guaranteed to make him harder than anything else could. Guaranteed to make his mouth water, his need to taste her all the more imperative. Slick, wet flesh. Glistening with the dew of her desire. Her taste sweet and fresh. He was dying. Slowly, surely, a dead man expiring from need.
Chapter Two
Grandpa Joe was finally dead. Marly stared out the limo window as they drove away from the cemetery, studying Cade’s fiercely controlled expression in the glass. The savage features of his face, with its high cheekbones, brooding black-lashed eyes, and the sharp line of his nose. But his lips were softer when he wasn’t pulling them tight like that. The lower curve just slightly fuller, and often smiling when he was with her. But he wasn’t smiling today. He was distant, silent. He had been ever since Grandpa Joe’s death. He didn’t talk to anyone, least of all Marly. He had shut her and everyone else out.
Marly knew Grandpa Joe’s death would affect him. She had left school as soon as she had learned of his death, but she hadn’t expected this. Grandpa Joe hadn’t exactly treated any of his children with love and affection. Marly especially had been exempt from his good will. But that had always suited her, because she had never cared much for him either.
Marly sighed, then turned her gaze to the others in the car with them. His brothers, Sam and Brock, were silent. They were twins and only two years younger than Cade, though they weren’t nearly as hard as their older brother.
Sam and Brock had light blue eyes, and their hair was just as black and silky as Cade’s. Their faces weren’t as savagely hewn though. They were nearly as tall as their brother, with the same broad-shouldered, slim-hipped build that characterized the August males. They could have been triplets, their looks were so similar.
They were silent now, too, but more because Cade was quiet than out of reflection. Grandpa Joe had not been the nicest person in the world. Often, he was taunting, his tongue cutting like a knife. Cade seemed to be the only one capable of ignoring him. Marly had just stayed away from him as much as possible. It seemed her very presence was enough to set him off.
Sitting on the other side of the boys was her friend, Greg James. He had driven from Dallas with her the morning before to keep her company. Greg was nearly as tall as Cade’s six feet four inches, but he wasn’t nearly as comfortable with his height. He stooped his shoulders often to hide it, and complained regularly that he would be a string bean all his life. He wasn’t a jock, and often bemoaned that fact.
Greg had thick, dark blond hair and hazel green eyes. He wore glasses in thin wire frames, and had more of an academic, rather than forceful male, demeanor. Marly thought he was the nicest guy she knew. He was quiet and considerate, and never made the crude advances that the other young men at school did. He was talkative once you got past the shyness, and had an amazing depth of loyalty. It was nearly as deep as that of Cade and his brothers. But, he was extremely uncomfortable right now. As though Cade’s tension reached out across the seats and smothered him. As she thought about it, Marly didn’t doubt it. Cade was more than intimidating, but usually the attitude didn’t bleed over to her or to company. Until Grandpa Joe’s death. Now he was hardly speaking to her. And that hurt Marly more than anything. In the eight years she had lived with him, Cade had never distanced himself from her this way.
Breathing deeply, Marly crossed her legs and went back to staring out the window. She smiled slightly as Sam made some comment to Brock. The sight of her straight, perfect teeth flashed in the image created in the window. It still amazed her how determined Cade had been that she not be ridiculed for her teeth when she was a child. It had been their first trip out of the house. The second had been for new clothes. Cade had always been there for her, no matter what. Fixing childhood aches, and soothing bitter tears.
Cade wasn’t going to allow her to help him though, no matter how much he might need her now. But he was letting her sit next to him, crowding her against the door when there was plenty of seat for him to sit in. His thigh rubbed hers, and if she wanted, she could lay her head on his broad shoulder.
“Hey Munchkin, where did you get those legs?” Sam was looking at her legs as he spoke, acting as though he hadn’t seen them before, shocking her from her thoughts.
His light blue gaze was curious, and frankly admiring as it traveled along her foot to where her thighs disappeared beneath the skirt.
Marly looked down frowning, wondering what was wrong. Surely she hadn’t already snagged the new silk stockings?
“What’s wrong with my legs?” she asked him, turning one this way and that to see what he was talking about.
“Hell, you finally grew some,” he teased. “I hadn’t noticed before. Damn fine ones too.”
Marly looked up at him with the intention of blasting him, but seeing the near desperation in his eyes, she grinned instead. Cade’s silences affected the other two men as well as they did her.
“You’re as silly as ever, Sam.” She shook her head. And he was. Sam was their prankster, and everyone loved him. Even at twenty-eight, he hadn’t fully matured and stated often that he did not intend to ever do so.
“Marly has the prettiest legs in college.” Greg spoke up earnestly then, as he cast Marly a shy look. His admiration only earned him one of Cade’s fierce glares.
The look was darker than any Marly could remember seeing in a while. His eyes narrowed, his jaw jutting forward in a challenging motion. She was shocked. She had received compliments often in his presence over the years. Never before had he reacted so strongly to them.
“Marly’s legs are not up for discussion,” he informed them all darkly, the gray in his eyes darkening dangerously.