Chapter 29 Cassie
Cassie
Shock reverberates through me.
Cole… was jealous… because of me?
Because he thought Dan was my type?
Cole’s hand spans my wrist, easing me toward him until we’re an inch from colliding.
“Jealous?” I repeat, barely a whisper.
“Yeah, honey,” he murmurs, and the way his voice makes me feel is as warm and golden and sticky as just that—honey.
What happened to him calling me sunshine, as if he were mocking me? Now it’s honey, and it’s setting me on fire.
“I was jealous. Jealous of him being alone with you.”
His hand comes up to cup my face, one thumb grazing over my lower lip. Shivers explode through me.
“Jealous of him being the one you wanted,” he continues. “Jealous of him kissing you.”
“It was one kiss two years ago,” I whisper. “I barely remember it.”
His hand flexes around my jaw. “Then let me make you forget it completely.”
He leans in, his lips finding mine. Everything stops. Everything freezes. And then everything inside me ignites.
His first kiss is almost restrained. But after a breathy sound—embarrassingly cut-open with want—whimpers up in my throat, he seems to take it as an invitation.
The restraint evaporates, and he kisses me harder and deeper.
It’s even better than our New Year’s Eve kiss. Even better, because I know it’s real, and because I’m suddenly certain it won’t stop at just a kiss tonight.
And oh my god. What a kiss it is.
Heat floods me, and I’m almost embarrassed at how fast it happens, how my body responds to this kiss like I’ve already had him inside me.
He kisses my mouth, my jaw, my neck. I feel the rough graze of stubble along my neck as he mouths against my skin, nips along the curve of my neck, sinks his teeth into my lip.
I’m braced for it, waiting for one of us to come to our senses. I work at a sports agency, after all. I’m the one who draws up contracts and negotiates and always thinks about the terms of the deal.
What does it mean that as sure as a signature along a dotted line, Cole is marking me with kiss after kiss and my body is begging for more?
But instead of stopping, he drags me inside.
We only get a few steps past the doorway before he has me pressed up against the wall. The streetlights outside are making the dimly lit room look gold and hazy.
One of his hands pulls me harder against the line of his body. He reaches to deftly slam the front door shut behind us.
I can feel how badly he wants me, can feel it in the heat of his kiss and the strength of his fingers and—I shudder out a gasp—the hard, hot length of his cock through his pants.
“Since when have I been the one to make you feel jealous about anything?” I breathe.
“You want to play this game?” His voice is rough as gravel, still close to my face. “Come on, sweetheart. You knew I wanted you. You know I’ve been holding back. Ever since you hustled me at pool. And the time we stargazed. And the night at the frozen pond. I wanted you everywhere. All the time.”
His words make me shiver. “I wanted you too,” I confess.
He huffs out a low, rumbling moan like that’s exactly what he wanted to hear.
It’s like everything cold and frozen inside him has cracked open and now there’s only wild heat. Like I really am sunshine, just like he calls me, and I’ve melted away his ice.
God, does it make me feel powerful in a way that takes my breath away.
I know if I give it another ten seconds, I’ll be too far gone to stop this. I want him to drag me right across the line between us. But if I’m going to be stupid, I need to be smart about it.
“But we work together,” I remind him, planting a palm on the firm muscle of his chest. “Crossing this line could ruin both our careers.”
His lip curls up. “You want me to talk you out of this?”
God no.
“Because I will,” he continues. “If that’s what you really want, I’ll tell you it’s a dangerous idea, even by my standards.
I’ll tell you it could get us both in trouble.
I’ll tell you it’s not worth the risk. You say the word, and I’ll make myself into a liar for you.
Because it’d be a lie to say I don’t want this.
” I can feel the heat of his body as one arm comes to bracket against my head, leaning against the wall.
“I’ll only touch you if you really want it.
If you ask for it. If you want it as goddamn badly as I do.
So, tell me. Do you want me to touch you? ”
I nod breathlessly.
“Say the words, Cassie. Need to hear it out loud.”
So mean.
“I want it. I want you to touch me.” I swallow hard. The pleasure on his face at my words makes me feel shaky all over. “But this can only happen once. Just to—to get it out of our systems.”
Part of me wants him to disagree.
I almost think he’s going to. A flicker crosses his face.
Then he slides his hand up to softly grip my jaw. “Might take more than one night to get you out of my system. But that means I’d better get to work. Tonight, Cassie, I’m not your fucking assignment. I’m the man who gives you whatever you ask for.”
Gravity seems to disappear for a second.
But then I realize Cole is lifting me, pinning me up against the wall, effortless as he kisses deeper and harder. Holding me as if I’m feather light. My heels dangle as I wrap my legs around the firm, taut muscles of his back.
He carries me to his bedroom just like that. Dropping me down on his bed, he’s on top of me in a second. His knee is between mine, nudging my legs open for him.
My fingertips are trembling, buzzing with how badly I want him. I’m slow to clumsily open the top button of my white blouse.
Cole’s eyes glint. “Let me, baby, I’ve waited long enough already.”
He tears the rest of the buttons open, and my blouse hits the floor.
“Impatient,” I tease, laughing.
“Yeah, I’m impatient. You can thank the months of watching you walk around in those pretty little pencil skirts and pretending like I’m not thinking about how you taste.”
That knocks the laughter right out of my mouth.
He pulls off his t-shirt now, and my stomach swoops at the sight of him: the firm outline of his abs, the cut line of chiseled muscle running down to the band of his gray pants below his happy trail.
I reach out to touch him and my fingertips connect with solid muscle. He’s beautiful, in the most masculine way.
Zip. He pulls off my skirt.
His eyes drop to between my legs. He makes a low, sinful sound in his throat.
“It’s been pure fucking torture. Being the man you’re forced to supervise. The man you tell what to do. The man who’s always right next to you, but never the man who gets to do this.”
He unhooks my bra, tugging it off.
His hands immediately rise to cup my breasts. Heat skitters over my skin as his rough hands squeeze me, and I bite back a whine.
I swear I can see his pupils actually dilate.
“Look at those pretty tits.” He groans, almost pained.
“They’re a little small.”
I don’t know why I immediately try to point out my imperfections.
Maybe I’m trying to beat him to it. It’s just that no one has touched me in a long time. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to open myself up to being wanted. To think of myself as a sexual person rather than defining myself by my career… and it’s kind of terrifying.
Especially when I know by tomorrow morning, our one and only night together will be over for good.
He runs his thumb over my nipple, and I twitch. “They’re perfect. I don’t use that word lightly. But fuck, Cassie, these are perfect.”
He lowers his head and his teeth graze my right nipple. A needy ache hits me as he sucks it, switching to the other. Licking and massaging them with his tongue.
I whimper. It sends sparks straight between my legs.
“You like that?” he laughs against my skin. He licks my nipple again, languid and teasing, and I jolt with a yelp. “Yeah, you like that. Noted for future reference.”
“Future reference?” I demand, but it comes out as more of a whine. “This is—this is just for tonight, remember?”
“Maybe by ‘future’ I meant later tonight. If you’re only giving me one night with you, then I’m not just going one round.”
A gasp rips from my mouth as he grabs my ass, drags me toward him at the edge of the bed, and then sinks to his knees. One arm wraps around the crook of my leg and his fingers feather along the soft fabric of my bright blue panties.
He nudges them to the side, and I whine.
“Fuck, baby, look how wet you are already.” He sounds kind of in awe. “You’re literally fucking dripping for me.”
Heat floods my face. Seeping through my veins. I feel so on display.
“It’s… been a while.”
“How long?” His throat bobs. “If you feel like sharing.”
“Um.” I take a deep breath. I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit this. “A couple years. I’ve just been so hyperfocused on work, and there aren’t any men in Boston who are interesting enough to distract me from that.”
He smirks. “None?”
“No interesting men who aren’t professional hockey players. Or Ben Affleck.” I swallow. “Is that a problem for you? I’m a little… out of practice.”
“Of course not. But I’m glad you shared that with me.”
“Why?”
“Knew I had to make it good for you already. Now I know I have to make it so good it makes up for all the time you weren’t being touched like you deserve.”
He runs his thumb teasingly down the length of my opening. Dragging through my wetness.
A full-body shudder rolls through me.
“Prettiest thing I’ve ever seen,” he says, and slides my panties right off, throwing them to the side.
I’m the one who wanted him first. Cole knows I’m the one who had a crush on him before he ever knew I existed.
But he undresses me like he’s had this plan laid out. Like he’s thought about exactly how he would touch me if he ever got the chance.
Taking his time.
Savoring it.
For the first time in my life, I think something can be so good that it loops back around to torture.
“Fuck, sweetheart.” He meets my gaze from where he’s settled between my legs. The feel of his breath as he speaks against the stretch of my inner thigh makes me shiver. My back arches, my core fluttering around nothing. “Could look at this all day and all night.”
“Cole, I need you to touch me—”
My sentence shatters, melting into a whimpery, desperate sound.
“Who’s the impatient one now?” Cole’s smile crooks up.
The pad of his thumb hovers just above my clit.
On instinct, my hips buck up, desperate for his touch.
But he presses his other palm down on the slope of my stomach, holding me away.
“No, baby. Let me get a good look at you first. You told me it’s just this once.
So I need to memorize you.” He grips my thighs and sinks his tongue down onto my clit.
One firm stroke. “That way, I can keep you forever.”
Keep me forever?
My heart flutters with nerves.
I don’t have time to think more about it, because that’s when Cole licks me again.
And, god.
He licks, kisses, and sucks at me, slides his tongue inside me. Like he’s starving for me. Running up and down between my legs in a pattern that has me gasping.
“You taste unbelievable.” The deep vibration of his words makes me squirm against him, the burn of his stubble so perfect against my thighs.
A hot ache is building deep inside me.
I exhale, surprised. “I think—I think I might be close already.”
“Love how sensitive your body is. Fuck, we’re going to have a lot of fun with that.” He pauses to suck at me, tongue kneading over my clit. “Can you take one of my fingers inside you?”
Just the idea of any part of him inside me pushes me further to the edge.
“Yes. I—I think so.”
“Good. Relax for me. It’s been a while since you’ve been touched like this, so I want to get your body nice and relaxed before I fuck you. Understand?”
I nod, desperate.
He keeps licking my clit but gently slides his index finger inside me. My muscles convulse, automatically clenching around him. He groans against the slick skin of my thighs.
“You’re squeezing so tight around just one of my fingers. Don’t know how I’m going to last with my cock inside you.”
His finger eases deeper into me, setting a rhythm that has me writhing under him. Closer to the edge.
At home alone, it always takes ages for me to build to a climax, with my vibrator and imagination in the dark. Sometimes I just give up entirely before I get there.
But this orgasm hits me out of nowhere.
“Cole, I’m going to—” I gasp, and then my body is seizing as deep, rolling waves of pleasure cascade through me. Wave after wave until I’m almost sobbing, as Cole licks me until I’m shaky and limp.
He rises to his feet, over where I lie, breathing hard. He raises his fingers to his mouth, tasting me on himself. It’s the dirtiest thing I’ve ever seen, and the hottest. A pulse of heat hits between my legs.
“Spread your legs wider for me, baby.” His emerald eyes glint. “You’re not out of my system yet. Not one fucking bit.”