My release came much like the tornado last week. Out of nowhere, and with a sudden onslaught. I bucked on his lap, grinding against his talented fingers as my orgasm crashed over me like a tide. The dark behind my eyelids burst with lights and my entire body shuddered as I came.
Heavily breathing, my mind numb, I gradually floated down. Cade’s voice in my ear grounded me once again.
“Open,” he whispered, then kissed my neck sweetly.
I opened my eyes. The me in the mirror lounged against him, sated and relaxed. I exhaled, my back pressing against his chest.
“Look at you,” he said.
I looked. My cheeks were stained pink, my eyes bright, my body limp, lacking strength. Cade moved the hand resting on my thigh and circled my nipple with the tip of his damp finger.
“Perfect,” he said, his smile meeting mine in the mirror.
He thought I was perfect.
As perfect as that two-syllable word he’d uttered with zero hesitation.
—
I spent the entire hour in class zoning out. My thoughts returned over and over again to the moments in front of the mirror, to the way Cade had insisted on giving me pleasure while taking none for himself.
I mean, what guy turned down a blowjob? The mind boggled.
Then again, he didn’t exactly appear inconvenienced when he’d fingered me with a giant smile on his face. He liked my body issues under his control. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think I was hot shit all of a sudden, but this morning after my shower, I had paused in front of the mirror and appreciated my naked body in a way I never had before. I slid my palms over my breasts, down my waist, and over the round fullness of my hips. Then I touched myself there. Just for a second. Just to remember what it felt like to have Cade’s fingers on me. Not the same at all, as it turned out. His touch had been so much better.
Upcoming pathophysiology class be damned, I was in an amazing mood today. Nothing could kill my buzz. After that last class, my day was done. No more class, no work. I wondered if Cade worked tonight. If he did, maybe I could go over to Oak & Sage and just…loiter. That sounded nice. Anything sounded nice if it meant I was close to him.
Maybe he’d let me thank him for giving me such a nice gift. Maybe I could give him a gift. Tasting Caden Wilson would be fun. I’d like to see him naked. Out of control. Maybe we could sit in front of the mirror again.
I hummed, smiling at my wicked thoughts as I clopped down the sidewalk to the parking lot in my favorite pair of cork wedge sandals, so lost in my thoughts that it took me a second to realize someone had called my name. It took no longer than a second for me to realize it was Tony, and that he was alone rather than with his cling-on anime-eyed girlfriend.
My shoes stuttered to a stop in front of him and I shot a glance at my car, a few rows over and not near enough to make a run for it without him knowing I was running from him.
“Natasha.” He used my full name, like my father, to piss me off. His eyes skimmed me from head to toe, like he was trying to decide whether or not he missed me. After being his plaything for nearly two years, it infuriated me that he had to take time to decide.
“Antonio,” I ground out. My using his full name didn’t upset him in the least. He grinned.
“I hear you’ve been hanging around with Cade Wilson.” He was carrying a backpack over one shoulder. He wore a striped Lacoste shirt and khakis. That outfit used to be my favorite of his. The way the yellow stripes complemented his dark eyes. Now, though, I thought he looked dull. I had a new appreciation for cut T-shirts, jeans, and tattoos.
Tony’s wide mouth had nothing on Cade’s dimple. His short, neat haircut, boring compared to Cade’s messy bedhead. Tony’s smug smile filled me with nothing but regret that he’d ever seen me naked, whereas Cade’s smile filled me with intense longing.
Rather than take the bait, I offered, “And who have you been hanging around with lately?”
Tony’s eyes were nothing like the golden brown of Cade’s. Tony’s eyes were flat brown. Ugly brown. Shit brown, I mentally added with no small amount of animosity.
His white grin flashed against beautiful tawny skin. Tony was attractive, or would have been if he were on a magazine page and I wasn’t aware of any of the things he’d done with my friends while we were dating.
Cheating bastard.
He never would have sat me in front of his bedroom mirror, stripped me, and then demanded I watch as I came under his drugging touch. Tony’s touch wasn’t drugging. It was scathing. Like his personality.
“Dianna, you mean,” he answered.
“Just the one this time around?”
Tony shrugged. “Maybe she’s all I need.”
“Ha!” I couldn’t believe I laughed at that, but I had. Because it was funny. And even better, my comment made Tony’s smile disappear from his face like I was a freaking magician.