Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“So, his brother is okay?” Janelle asks me over a video call as I sit on my couch, sipping wine and thinking about the long, long day I just had. I wanted to go into that house with Elijah and Kade so badly. I wanted to make sure they were really okay, but I couldn’t do it.
I’m a chicken.
I’m pretty sure his sister caught on immediately about our relationship and couldn’t have cared less—well, that’s not true. She seemed quite thrilled by the fact that we were together, but still.
Going into that house would have been a really big step.
“Yeah. He’s going to be okay. Bumps and scrapes mostly. It could have been a lot worse.”
“So why are you at your place and not with Kade?”
I broke down and told Janelle pretty much everything. I’d like to blame the wine, but I’ve only had a few sips. She wasn’t surprised at all. Said she actually saw it in our eyes at pickup or something. She knew something had shifted.
I didn’t ask her why she didn’t call me out on it because I already know. I put these walls up to protect myself, and honestly, Janelle has always been really respectful of them. “I don’t know. It felt too real.”
“Bullshit.” My eyes widen, shocked she’s calling me out so aggressively now. She doesn’t flinch though. “You’re scared, and that’s okay, but you were there with him all day. And his son. From what it sounds like, everyone in his family knows about you two.”
“Not Elijah.”
She frowns, her mouth in a firm line. “Well, that’s understandable. He’s young, and he probably needs to be eased into it. But the kid likely already knows something is up. You can be there to comfort his father and him.”
I really, really want to be.
She snorts a laugh. “Good lord, you’re head over heels for both of them already, huh?”
I nod sadly. “I think so.”
She shakes her head. “Listen to me, Spence. You deserve happiness. I know you’re afraid of the school finding out, but I think you’ll find more people have your back than you realize. And you know for damn sure I do and always will.”
I smile at her. “Thank you.” Because there’s really nothing else to say, and when she starts to ask for details—knowing damn well it makes me blush—I hang up with her and then kick back on my couch.
I’m almost drifting off when there’s a knock at my door. I lunge off the couch, with absolutely no finesse whatsoever, and make my way to the door, jerking it open. I’m thrilled to see Kade and wrap my arms around him.
“You’re here.”
“I am,” he says, wrapping his arms around me too. I look back and see his car, noting it’s empty, so he’s alone.
“Where’s Elijah?”
“Tori said she could watch him tonight.” His eyes meet mine. “All night.”
I swallow hard at that implication, excitement spreading through me. I yank him into my house and fuse our mouths together. “Are you okay with that?” I ask, unzipping his coat and pushing it off him.
I guess I missed him—okay, I know I did.
“Yeah. I know Elijah is in good hands.” He lifts my shirt up and over my head, his lips trailing along my neck and down my throat. I groan at the sensation, having missed his mouth. I swear it feels like we’ve been apart for months without being able to touch and kiss, instead of days.
“I know we probably need to talk...” he says, lifting his shirt up and off. My eyes roam over his firm, tanned flesh, and I shake my head.
“Talk later.”
He chuckles, and we kiss again, taking our time as we strip and make our way to my room.
I need him desperately. So badly, I don’t let him prep me.
I just grab the lube and turn away from him, climbing onto the bed on all fours—totally naked.
I grab the lube and squirt some on my fingers, quickly pushing some into my hole as I toss the lube bottle in his direction, hoping he gets the point.
Thankfully, he does. I hear the lube bottle click open and then snap shut, followed by the squelching sound of him stroking his cock with it and then him climbing onto the bed behind me.
I’m probably nowhere near prepped enough, but I don’t care. I remove my fingers and then brace myself on the bed, wiggling my ass at him in what I hope is an enticing move.
“You ready, baby?” His gruff tone is enough to make me tremble as one of his hands moves to grip my hip and hold me in place, while the other guides his slicked cockhead to my opening.
“Yes. God, yes. I need you, Kade,” I plead, no shame whatsoever.
He could thrust all the way inside me and I wouldn’t complain one bit, but he takes his time, working his thick cock into me.
Making me feel every single inch of him.
His hands move to both ass cheeks, holding me open for him as he slips inside.
“You’re so fucking perfect. This ass is so fucking perfect. ”
“Ngh.” I can’t seem to form words as I remain on all fours, my fingers digging into the comforter covering my bed. I accept each punishing thrust into my body, feeling his balls slap against my ass with each one. “So good.”
He strokes in and out of me, over and over again before I can no longer take it. I brace myself on one arm and reach between the bed and myself, taking my cock in hand and stroking it with each push he makes into my body.
It’s over quickly, heat flowing through my body as the orgasm races down my spine, and it hits me all at once.
I come, my body shaking under his as he plunges into me, nailing my prostate.
I feel him jerk inside me and then the heat of his release as I stroke myself through the mind-numbing release.
We don’t clean up after though. Instead, he rolls me to my back, and he kisses me hard after he pulls out of me. His cock is still semi-hard, and mine is getting there quickly. His tongue sweeps over mine as my hands roam over his strong shoulders.
I let my hands trail down his sides and spread my legs more for him to notch against me perfectly. He’s holding some of his weight off me, but I like the heaviness of his body blanketing mine as we kiss.
I brush my fingers over what I know is the tattoo on his side. Flowers climbing up his ribs. “Will you tell me about this?” I ask, and he nods against me but doesn’t pull away, his nose brushing over mine.
“Lillies.”
It’s an interesting choice. Not that men can’t like flowers. Ask my friend Levi, after all. He can talk your ear off about flowers all day long. But I didn’t really see it coming from Kade.
“They were her favorite.”
“Megan?”
He nods again. “When she died, I was pissed at her. Really pissed. I used to have her name there before she died. I got it the same time I got Elijah’s name.”
“They were your family,” I say with a smile.
“Yeah. Things were rough with Megan—but I still saw that girl who didn’t judge me and could handle my mother.
Looking back, I’m not really sure I was ever actually in love with her, you know?
Or if either of us even knew what that meant then.
” My heart aches for him because he sounds like he feels guilty about that.
Still, I let him speak because I wasn’t there.
I remember seeing them in high school—maybe feeling a little bit of hot, burning jealousy seeing them together, but the truth is, I didn’t know much about their actual relationship.
“She was my friend, and I loved her, but...” He stops, the pain he’s feeling apparent in his voice.
“You two were really young,” I say, hoping to add some comfort for him. Maybe they weren’t in love, but he did have love for her. There’s no doubt about that.
“We were. And she got pregnant, and everything just happened so fast after that. I don’t think either of us really knew who we were. It wasn’t working for a long time before she died.”
I swallow hard, thick with emotion because I feel badly for them both. “You covered it up. The tattoo.” I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m judging him because I’m truly not. It’s just heartbreaking.
“I did.” I can hear the guilt. “But even though I was angry with her, I didn’t hate her.
She was Elijah’s mother, no matter what our relationship was.
But it was painful seeing her name, so I chose the lilies to cover it.
I guess it still kept her with me. It reminded me of simpler times before she got pregnant.
When she was just a girl who loved lilies and who threw her arms around my neck—so thrilled that I bought her a bouquet of them for her birthday when she turned sixteen. ”
I smile, thinking about the young couple who had so many things stacked against them. I move my hand up over his heart, over Elijah’s name. “She’s with you. And Elijah too.”
“Yeah. I know. And I’m glad.” He presses a soft kiss to my lips, and of course, the kiss quickly turns heated yet again. My hands fall to his ass as I coax his hard dick toward my still-slick hole. “What’s your favorite flower?”
He doesn’t press into me right away though because of course not—stubborn man. Instead, he remains with his dick notched at my hole and looks down at me with a look that hits me straight in the heart. “You really want to talk about flowers right now?”
His smile is bright and beautiful—stunning. “Maybe.”
“I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Maybe I can ask Levi.”
He lets out this grunt—or maybe it’s a growl—still not entering me. Even though I want that so badly and he knows it—I can’t help the laugh that tumbles from my throat. “Did you just growl?”
“No. I’m totally fine with you talking to the guy you dated.”
I snort. “You’re pretty adorable when you’re jealous. And dated is a pretty big leap. One date that I had with him, where you showed up and you were all that was on my mind.”
The way he looks at me—it nearly cracks my heart in two.
I know he’s not actually worried about me chatting with Levi—he actually seems pretty amused by our texts when I show them to him.
And from the way he’s looking at me—I know without a doubt the subject of Levi is long gone from his brain.
It’s just him and me, and it’s intense, and then he speaks, “I love you, you know?”
I gasp, both from the words and from his forward motion, surging into me in one smooth thrust. I tip my head back, arching my back as I accept him and process his words.
“I’m going to tell you again after we come, but I need you to know that.
” He kisses my nose. “I need you to always know that. I’m in love with you.
” He pulls back and then thrusts into me again, hitting that sweet spot with precision.
“I think part of me always was. I think about Megan, and the relationship we had and how I’m not sure I was ever actually in love with her because this thing I feel for you.
..” He trails off, but he doesn’t sound sad.
I know he means it. Not to diminish anything he had with Megan—but to tell me the way he feels about me.
It makes my heart soar. “This connection I always felt for you—I was afraid of it—because it was so big. So real. And now that I know you—truly know you—I love you, Spencer. I am completely and totally in love with you.”
I moan, dragging my hands over his back and digging my nails into his skin. “I love you too, Kade. I’m so in love with you, I’m terrified of it and not scared at all, somehow at the exact same time.”
He kisses my cheek and then the other one. Then my mouth. Peppering me with kisses as he thrusts into me like he doesn’t have a care in the world. He makes love to me like I’m his and he’s mine—like we’re one.
The orgasm builds slower this time. A simmer instead of an explosion, but when we go off, it’s just as devastating. I close my eyes and hug him to me, biting his shoulder and scratching his arms with my fingernails as I hold onto him.
When we finish, we lie there until his spent cock falls from my hole, and I can feel cum spilling out of me. Not a second later, my caveman brings his fingers there to push his essence back into my body.
“I love you,” he says against my lips.
“That why you marked me?”
“Absolutely,” he says with no shame or hesitance, and I laugh, wrapping my hand around the back of his neck and pulling him into another kiss.
“I love you too. Let’s go clean up,” I suggest.
“Nope. I want my cum in you forever.”
I chuckle. “I’m going to pay you back for this.”
His mouth moves to my ear. “I fucking hope so.”
I grin, unable to move, but I don’t mind. I’d stay here forever if I could.
And I realize that when I get over my fear and listen to Janelle, I can have this. Forever.
No more running away. Kade is worth it, no matter how difficult it is.