Her silly heart leaped, but she tried not to give anything away as she pressed, “Is that all? It felt like there was more.”
He rested his forehead against hers, the sounds of the water and birds the only thing beyond the frantic pacing of her heartbeat as she waited. He shifted, captured her lips in a desperate, sweet, stolen kiss. Before she even had a chance to respond, he pulled back to look into her eyes, his gaze charged with heat and sincerity before he answered, “I’d walk through fire for you.”
Cassidy bit her lower lip as her eyes filled with happy tears. She blinked furiously. “Mac, you keep doing this to me.”
“Day—”
She grabbed his face again and looked into his eyes. “I’m not changing my mind tomorrow, you idiot. I know it won’t be easy for either one of us. But this isourfire, and I won’t let you walk through it alone.”
“Love the sentiment, sweetheart, but the reality can’t be glossed over with pretty words. I can’t give you those; I can’t talk to you like that; I’m not that man,” he said.
“I’m not expecting that.”
“It’s a fucked up thing, what you’re even considering taking on. You can’t fix me. That’s not your job. A man shouldn’t beyour job.” His eyes flicked to the tree limbs overhead. “I’m not whole, and you can’t love me back together, and none of it’s on you.”
“I know. But I got you.” What he didn’t know was that she didn’t see him that way. She saw him as a survivor, someone who had fought his way back—was still fighting, yes—but also someone who was determined to stay in the here and now. Someone who was damned determined not to let go despite the fucking hell of a struggle it was for him.That’swho she loved, that man.
She saw someone whose broken edges were like a puzzle piece to her broken edges; she wasn’t whole, either. Two messes. They shouldn’t make sense together. Maybe they didn’t. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to make sense with anyone else.
Looking back at her, he said sincerely, “Wanna fuck you right now.”
She wriggled her hips. “I know that, too.”
“We still have a shit-ton to talk about, though,” he said, a brow rising. “A lot of people are going to have a lot of opinions about this—us. And you and me? Don’t know the first thing about you; not really.”
It was true, in many ways, they knew very little about each other. “I know, I do.” She kissed him, then said against his lips, “But what was that you were you saying about fucking me?” She squeezed her legs tighter around his waist as she ground her pelvis against his hard-on, eliciting a throaty groan from him.
Mac frowned. “You ordered my cock out of my pants.”
With a grin, she recalled, “And what a well-trained soldier it was, to be ready at attention.”
He pulled her closer toward him. “Still at fucking attention.”
Chapter sixty-eight
Cassidy
PRALINES AND CREAM
“Icecream?”
Cassidy wasn’t even sure what the hell it was: ice cream. The fact she was being asked any questions at all while his mouth was between her legs was incomprehensible. His teeth nipped at her clit, and she jerked against him, fingers digging into his hair as she half-screamed, half-choked.
This was Mac’s multi-tasking: getting to know her while satisfying his most immediate needs.
They would have stayed in their secluded bubble longer on the lake if not for two things: actual hunger and Mac checking his phone. He reported that he had multiple texts from Silas and Grady.
“We’re the talk of the town, sweetheart.”
“I would have thought the bar exploding would be the talk of the town,” she responded.
Mac read his screen before answering, massaging the back of his neck. “You didn’t run down Main Street because of the bar.”
He was paraphrasing whatever he was reading: she’d made an impression. Or they had. And then, there was the marina. Lord knew how many people had seen them, and she didn’t care. Let them all judge. Let them all have their souls ripped out and then see how they react.
Cassidy steered them home while Mac dealt with the responses.
At one point, she caught his worried gaze on her in the middle of his conversation, but when she gave him a quizzical look, he smiled and winked. But it didn’t erase the uncertainty when he returned his attention to his screen.