“You’re not in the Midwest anymore, Briony.” He stopped just a few inches away, not touching her, but inhaling her scent, savoring the heat from her body. Her quick inhale filled him with a want so deep he didn’t know how he’d ever be able to sate it. “You’re in Linnaea. And you’re going to be my wife.”
“A wife who will still slam the door in your face when you lie to me.”
Her words were feisty, but her voice was breathy and heavy.
“I spoke the truth.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you. Why do you insist on keeping this distance between us? On trying to be the bad guy?”
He leaned down, his lips a heartbeat away from hers.
“I’m not trying, Briony. I am the bad guy.”
With that, he kissed her. As soon as she started to kiss him back, he grabbed the blanket and wrenched it out of her grasp. She gasped as his hands trailed down her body, unclipping her bra in one quick movement and baring her breasts to his touch. She removed his tie with frantic grasps, then grabbed his shirt and ripped it down the middle, buttons flying across the room as she pressed her naked skin against his. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the thick rug in front of the fireplace. With the firelight dancing across her skin, her eyes glazed with passion as she reached up and cupped his face with her hand.
A thickness formed in his throat. When she looked at him like that, he wanted to be more than he was. He wanted to be capable of giving her what she wanted, the love story she deserved.
But since he couldn’t do that, he could at least give her pleasure.
He removed the torn shirt, suit jacket and pants, then lay down next to her, sliding one arm beneath her body and cradling her against him. His fingers slid from her breasts, down her stomach to beneath the edge of the black lace panties that were driving him wild. He slid one finger down the middle of her molten heat, watching her face as her lips parted in ecstasy.
“Please!” she gasped.
He teased her, slipping one finger in and out, watching her arch and moan his name, her skin flushed as she neared the peak. Then, just before she went over the edge, he withdrew.
“Cass!” she half moaned, half laughed. He removed her panties, pressed a kiss to the sacred spot between her thighs, then moved up her body and slid inside her wet core, nearly coming undone as her body closed around him. He moved with slow, deliberate strokes, their tempo building as his body coiled, tight, tighter still. He would never get enough of her, could never have enough of the pleasure and joy she brought him.
She called out his name as she sailed into oblivion, wrapping her arms around him and hanging on as if he was her salvation instead of her curse. He whispered hers as he drove into her one last time as his release shuddered through his body.
He didn’t know long they lay there, tangled in each other’s bodies. When he finally raised his head, it was to see Briony looking up at him with questions in her eyes.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my family. About Trey and the twins. My mom. Daxon.”
He stroked a hand down her back, a touch designed to soothe away tension and provide comfort.
“A painful subject, I’m sure.”
“I...” She sucked in a deep breath. “I have been focused on family for a long time, ever since my mom and Trey got married. At first it was trying to fit in and be who I thought Trey and the twins wanted me to be. How my mother loved me was the way all children should be loved, unconditionally.”
“She should have seen that Trey wasn’t being a good stepfather.”
“Yes,” Briony agreed with a nod. “But when she did confront him, I lied and pretended like everything was fine. I didn’t want her to see how deeply Trey and I not forming a relationship hurt. After she passed, it went from trying to be who they wanted to trying to rescue them.”
Cass smoothed a lock of hair out of her face, his hand lingering on her cheek. Her eyes fluttered shut as she pressed her face into his touch.
“Briony.” He waited until she opened her eyes and met his gaze. He leaned down and touched his forehead to hers, the gesture somehow more intimate than many of the kisses he’d experienced in his life. “Your stepfather is a fool.”
“He is,” she agreed softly. “But so was I. I based myself on my family. I didn’t take the time to get to know myself.” She bowed her head. “And I thought that if I at least learned who my father was that it would make me whole. I was always looking for someone else to complete me.”
Guilt hit him hard in the chest. His hand dropped from her face as he sat up and leaned back against the headboard, putting distance between them. He’d used her need to find out more about her family to manipulate her.
Coldness swept through him despite the warmth of the fire just feet away.
“I’m sorry things didn’t turn out the way you wanted,” he finally said.
Her hand came to rest on top of his. He watched with an almost horrified fascination as she wound her fingers through his, the emerald-and-topaz ring glinting in the firelight.