Cade
Her. Her. Her.
Journey’s tongue moved over mine in ways that were sinfully hot and all things enthralling. Her kiss was rough as I licked, stealing her mind and giving her something else to think of. I bit her lip, my hands digging into her soft hair, tugging on the strands so she’d open up even more.
A door opened, and in the back of my mind, I knew she was on flatter feet and had returned from her little trip down memory lane, but I didn’t care. Our lips stayed together, mixing up our emotions like a one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle thrown all over the floor, as I pushed her farther down the hallway and felt for the doorknob behind her back. The hinges creaked as I shoved her into a pitch-black room. My senses were on overdrive, thoughts of the brutal past and guilt being erased with the good parts of us, mixing with the hissing of the machines that surrounded our flushed bodies.
Boiler room. The temperature was hot in the dark area, making my already warm skin hotter to the touch. My fingers dug underneath Journey’s school blouse, and the second I felt her soft flesh brush against my fingers, I felt her body tremble with something other than the panic she had been feeling seconds before.
Need. I needed her. It wasn’t the other way around.
The softest whimper climbed from her mouth as she pulled back, likely searching for me in the dark. My hand crept higher as I pushed her farther away from the door, getting as far away from an escape as possible. Stay. I was being selfish again, driving that mantra into my head that with selfishness came regret, and regret was something I’d likely feel when this was all said and done. And I was reminded of those pesky little threats tucked underneath the shelf in the linen closet. But goddamn, I missed her.
If I allowed my heart to open, just slightly, in this moment, with Journey’s heaving ribcage in my hands and her soft scent lingering around me, I would probably weep with the fact that I had her back—if even for a drop of a second.
“Nothing has ever come close,” I whispered over her eager mouth. I was greedy for the fact that she wasn’t pushing me away and darting for the door. Since she’d been back, it’d been nothing but quick glances full of despair and anger, her echoing footsteps as she walked away from me, and angry little lines covering her flawless skin with my demands of wanting to know what was happening inside that pretty little head of hers.
The only thing I could hear was her frantic breathing and the whirling of the machines. The only thing I could feel was the way Journey’s skin was growing warmer beneath my fingertips. The rough pads of my fingers brushed over the softest parts of her, and I grew hard within half a second.
“I think I’m fine now.” Her whisper didn’t deter me from my one-track mind. We were not finished.
“You’re still breathing heavy, Journ.” My teeth clamped onto her earlobe, and I knew she liked it. I shivered from having her caught in my grip. Journey was forgetting that I knew all her favorite spots and that I once had her heart in my unworthy hands, making her tick in every sinful way.
Her hands found my waist, and I burned all over. My eyes had adjusted a little bit to the darkness in the room. Tiny, red blinking lights only made the room seem that much more seductive with its reddish tint. We could have been in hell at the current moment, and I would have still kept her trapped in here like it was my own personal lair. Journey didn’t know it, and maybe she didn’t agree with it, but she was mine.
“Is that what we’re doing here? Pretending?”
Her fingers clenched tightly onto my tie hanging loosely from my neck in between us. My arm rested above her head as I backed her up farther onto something hard—a large pipe maybe. I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care. My hand splayed over it to keep me from pushing my hips into her.
“Pretending what?” I asked, crowding her space a little more. “That you need me to calm you down? Sure.”
Her light, sarcastic laugh hit me in the face, and I inhaled her sweet scent like a hound dog on a hunt. My eyes shut as she pulled me closer by my tie. “Pretending that we’re the same people we were eight months ago.”
My nostrils flared as a sinister smile slithered onto my face. My tongue darted out, and I couldn’t fucking help myself. I licked the entire seam of her lips, dipping in for a quick jab as if she summoned me. “You still taste the same.”
“Maybe,” she whispered, “but I’m not the same on the inside, Cade.”
I felt my eyes flare in the dark room. All I saw was her silhouette with small flashes of red tingeing her skin with heat. “Let’s find out.”
My hands dropped to her hips quickly, and she flinched, pressing herself further onto the large pipe behind her. Her skirt was pulled down and over her hips, little rips of fabric blending in with the sound of shrilling whistles of a nearby machine. I swallowed the gasp on her lips as I reached down and felt her ass in my hands, nearly dying right there with the feel of her in my grasp again.
I’ve been lost without you.I kissed her senseless, taking her soul and putting it right back where it belonged—even if she didn’t want to admit it. Journey didn’t understand my motives, and I couldn’t imagine what went through her head that night when I didn’t show and what she went through when she was taken under the assumption that she was suicidal. I couldn’t blame her for being standoffish and hating me, at least on the outside, because right now, she may have hated me, but she also fucking wanted me.
“Spread your legs,” I demanded, pulling back and trying to get a glimpse of her half naked in front of me. When she took too long to do what I’d asked, I gripped the inner sides of her thighs, nearly devouring her skin with my greedy fingers, and pushed her legs farther apart. A whimper escaped her mouth, and her hands slammed onto my tightly bunched shoulders.
“Cade.” My name was a lingering breath on her wet lips that I wanted to feast on.
“I haven’t touched you for so long.” A pause was shared, and there was a burn in my chest, like a hot iron-clad rod branding me there in front of her. “I know I don’t deserve it,” I said, creeping higher up her leg, feeling blood rush to all my favorite parts. If she didn’t let me in, I’d fucking die. “Let’s pretend. You’re still panicking, Journey. Don’t you feel your heart racing? I can smell the fear.”
“I’m not afraid,” she barked, hips tilting to meet me at the border of her panties. My teeth clenched as I tried to go slower.
“Good,” I said, pulling her panties to the side. The machines at our backs hissed louder as I ran my finger down her seam, feeling how wet she was. I smiled against her mouth. “Seems like you're not all that different. I still know what makes you hot.”
Her fingers dug into my shoulders as I slinked away from her clit and pushed the very tip of my finger into her tight, wet folds.
“Mmm.” Her body shuddered as I pushed in farther, and I saw sparks behind my eyelids.
“You’re all wound up,” I said, taking my hand from her hip and placing it over her rapidly rising chest. Her hand left my shoulder as I pumped in farther, feeling her soak me from the knuckle down. “Has it been a while?”