Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ELLIS
I’d stopped pretending I was doing anything but waiting for Cade.
The room had that hotel quiet that turns up the volume on your own heartbeat. I stripped the room of anything that screamed meeting instead of… whatever this was. I put the clipboard in the closet, lanyard by the sink, and my headset under a magazine. I told myself I was simply clearing the space.
My pulse said otherwise.
My phone lit up with a call from my boss, Jonah.
I winced, assuming he was probably disappointed about losing the prize. Still, I’d seen the popularity of our clips and videos over the past week. He had been thrilled with Signal House’s sudden exposure.
“The numbers are insane,” he said as soon as I answered the phone, without giving me a chance to say hello.
“All The Town Talk clips,” he added, “the calm after the Portico fire. Our traffic chart looks like a ski jump, Ellis.”
Good news, especially for my superiors.
“I just got off the phone with the board,” Jonah added, “and you’re our new Executive Producer, effective immediately. Base pay goes up to $125,000 with five percent equity vesting over four years.”
I stood in my hotel room, stunned into silence.
“You’ve carried this entire week, Ellis,” he said, “win or not.”
He let the line breathe in the air.
After years of working hard to prove myself, things were finally starting to pay off.
A car honked its horn outside in the Commons and brought me back to reality.
“I’ll send the paperwork tomorrow,” Jonah said over the line. “I wanted you to hear it from me tonight.”
“Understood,” I said, because I couldn’t come up with anything more eloquent. “Thank you.”
I ended the call and stared into the quiet. Under six figures belonged to an old version of me. This wasn’t a favor based on my last name; this was a raise based on my work. Not bankrolled by the Langford family, but earned. I set my phone face down like a keycard.
As excited as I was about the promotion, there was something else occupying my mind. The anticipation of waiting for a knock.
I ran a hand down my shirt one more time. Not for cameras, not to play the polished Langford—but because, for the first time in a long time, it felt like it belonged to a bigger life than yesterday’s.
The knock came. Two steady beats, close together.
Not tentative, not loud.
The knock of a man who’d already made up his mind.
I opened the door and Cade stood there like he’d just cleared some private checklist. His shoulders were set, his gaze was steady, and the heat of the night still lingered on him. He looked the way he always did when the atmosphere was thick; collected.
And yet still, somehow, that made my insides tilt.
“Hey,” he said, and somehow it sounded like we’d already agreed to something.
“Hey,” I managed, my voice not nearly as calm as his.
He stepped in and I closed the door behind him.
Neighbors, I thought.
It sounded less like a joke and more like a line we were about to cross.
We didn’t rush. I watched him take in the room. The tray of water I’d set out like I was performing adulthood. The curtains pulled just enough to keep the city from watching. And the jacket I’d thrown over a chair.
Cade’s mouth did that not-quite smile it does.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” Cade said, fire in his eyes. “I’ve wanted to touch you since the moment I looked up at you on the suite balcony.”
I’d had no idea he’d seen me on the balcony that first night.
“You, uh, wanted to touch me?” I asked. “Am I the first guy you’ve ever… been interested in?”
I wasn’t sure how to phrase it.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning back, trying to look casual. “I would completely understand if you needed time to work that out. How you feel about me, or how you feel about men in general. I know it’s a lot to process at once, coming to terms with your—”
“I want to touch you,” he said again. “Can I kiss you, Ellis?”
I nodded my head.
“You sure?” he asked carefully.
“Yes,” I said, struggling to breathe. And then, because it felt necessary, “Are you?”
Something in his shoulders let go.
“I’m here,” he said. “I’m sure.”
“Good,” I replied, and quickly closed the space between us.
The first contact was mine. My hands on his lapels, his on my hips. He was warm and distinctly real. I had the dizzying thought that losing a prize in public had somehow led to winning this private one.
It felt both ridiculous and true.
Cade kissed me—firm, sure. With the smallest pause at the edge, like he was double-checking permission. I’d already given it.
The second kiss forgot careful, the third dragged a low sound out of my throat.
We got rid of his jacket, then the tie. Our hands found each other like they’d been waiting all week. His palm slid up my back and locked around where my breath lived.
I swore softly into his mouth.
Cade smiled against my mouth like a man marking a win.
And I… didn’t mind being the win.
Fuck.
Cade Briggs was an incredible kisser. I felt almost embarrassed by how much I craved him, like he could see right through me.
I pressed my palms against his firm chest as I pulled myself even closer to him.
“Tell me if—” he started.
“I will,” I said, already pulling him closer to me. “You, too.”
He nodded once, then the room narrowed around us. His hand slid to my jaw. No push, just an anchor, and the world tilted around me.
He guided me toward the chair. He sat, then drew me between his knees, placed his hands on my shoulders and gently pushed me down toward the room’s plush carpet which met my skin with gentle restraint.
He didn’t crowd me; he set one palm to the armrest and let the other stay at the back of my neck, asking the question again without words.
“Yes,” I breathed, my fingers settling at his hips.
He tasted like mint and adrenaline, and when I sank lower the room tilted toward him.
He exhaled a sound I’d never heard from him before.
Cade’s body shifted in the chair as he leaned forward and placed his mouth against mine again. His tongue expertly explored my mouth as if this weren’t new in an intimidating way for him; it was new in an exhilarating way.
“You’re fucking beautiful,” he said, catching me off guard as his hands covered nearly every inch of my body. “Do you know how stunning you are, Ellis?”
“You…” I said, chuckling in spite of myself, “are the most perfect looking man I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded, and his fingers brushed down my waist sending a shiver up my spine. I made a sound I’d never heard myself make—low, helpless—while his fingers grazed my skin.
“Take off your shirt,” he said, his fingers tugging at the bottom of the fabric.
I lifted it over my head and Cade added, “Take off everything.”
Before I could, he brought his mouth down to my chest and trailed kisses along my skin. His lips found my nipples and wrapped around one of them, gently licking and biting the nub. He slid his other hand over to the other side of my chest, rolling my other nipple between his warm fingers.
The world contracted to just my breath and the warm weight of him. Careful at first, then certain. He checked once more, and I answered with my hands and a faint whisper.
“Cade…,” I said, moaning his name.
He pulled his pants and underwear down as his cock sprang free.
Fuck.
He was huge.
I’d thought about it… dreamt about it. Even pictured it when alone at night, but I’d never imagined it would fulfill every fantasy I’d had.
Suddenly, I was on him, his cock filling my mouth.
It took up every inch of space and flattened my tongue.
I brought a hand up to the side of Cade’s waist, trying to balance myself.
I didn’t want to choke on the sheer size of him.
I’d never had practice like this because I’d never been with a man as big as Cade before.
Still… I didn’t want him to think I was inexperienced. I was supposed to be the expert on hooking up with guys.
But in spite of my best efforts to open wide enough, he didn’t give me much of an opportunity to adjust. Instead, he lowered his hand to the back of my head and kept me in place as he started to thrust. Rhythmically, steadily, slowly, then quickly moving in and out of my mouth.
I whimpered at the sensation of his cock throbbing between my cheeks, hitting the back of my throat, but never going too far.
I found myself thinking that Cade might finish on my tongue. But I didn’t want him to finish in my mouth—not tonight.
I wanted him inside me.
I was preparing to gently pull myself back from his shaft so I could tell him what I wanted, but he pulled away first. I whimpered again as I watched precome dribble down the side of his cock, teasing me.
A grin flashed across Cade’s face. “I like the eager look; it looks good on you. Makes me want to be inside you.”
He gestured toward the king-sized bed. “Hands and knees.”
I quickly went to the nightstand. The previous night, I’d placed condoms and lube there after purchasing them from a convenience store. I’d hoped for this exact moment but told myself not to get my hopes up.
I tossed both on the bed for Cade.
Next, I climbed onto the bed and got into position on my hands and knees, like Cade had requested.
I heard the sound of the condom open as Cade tore into it and the lube cap being opened behind me.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
He came over to the bed and gripped his hands on either side of my waist. I felt him position himself right behind me. Excitement turned to nervousness. What if he was disappointed in me? What if it wasn’t what he was expecting from a man?
But nervousness quickly turned back to excitement as one of Cade’s fingers, now slick and covered in lube, gently prodded my entrance.
It seemed as if Cade was testing the boundaries—in more ways than one.
Self-consciousness returned to me, fleeting but present.
My cheeks went red, and my body easily accepted Cade’s finger before he slid another one inside me.
I felt him start to finger me, sliding back and forth, his digits filling me up with each stroke.
I groaned in a mixture of excitement and eagerness as I bent even closer toward the bed.
I was trying to give Cade the best angle possible to move inside me.
I wanted to feel how deep his fingertips could go.
“Fuck,” Cade moaned behind me. “Ellis, you’re so sexy. Do you have any idea? You’re driving me crazy.”
“Don’t stop,” I said, more of a sigh than a statement. “Please, fuck me. I can’t… I can’t wait any longer, Cade.”
“I can’t either,” he said as he slipped his fingers out of me.
In their place, I felt the tip of his cock. Gently at first, a motion in… then a motion out, before fully sliding his length in me, pushing it in and forcing all the air out of my lungs.
“Fuck,” I shouted, loud enough that I wondered if other hotel guests might hear.
Cade started to move, and I heard myself whining and whimpering. His cock felt perfect inside my ass. Every inch of my body pulled tight, nearly convulsing, before expanding again as he pushed into me.
I felt as if my soul might lift up and escape my body, overwhelmed with the pleasure of it all. I found myself pushing back against his cock, forcing him in even deeper, treating his shaft like my own personal toy.
Then, I felt Cade grab for my wrists before he pulled them away from the bedsheets. He positioned them near the small of my back, leaving me feeling helpless before him. His cock was now buried inside me as far as it would go. I was filled fully to the brim.
“Cade!” I shouted, no longer caring if anyone could hear.
His cock hit the perfect angle each and every time.
“Ellis,” he said, his voice choking.
I knew what was coming, and I was desperate for it.
“Fuck!” he said, the volume of his voice matching mine. “I’m close… I’m fucking close, Ellis!”
“Cade…,” I said, suddenly gasping as I reached down and felt my own cock, harder than ever.
Cade continued to brush his shaft against my prostate. I had no idea if he was doing it on purpose or if his cock was just so enormous that he couldn’t avoid hitting the same perfect spot time and time again. Either way, my body wasn’t complaining, it was begging for more.
A few more thrusts from Cade and I came—loudly, nearly shrieking. My come spilled down my cock and onto the sheets beneath me.
As soon as I came, he drove deep and shuddered as he came too, his hips moving back and forth against me. When he’d finished exploding, he collapsed against me and knocked us both down onto the bed sheets.
“Ellis, that was—” he laughed once, “unfairly good. I didn’t know my body did that.”
The world came back to us in stages. First our breathing, then the hum of the air vent. Then the sound of someone laughing a few floors down, which didn’t bode well for how noisy we’d been.
Cade rolled onto the bed beside me until his forehead found mine. I could smell the salt of his skin mixed with hotel soap and the lingering scent of whatever this new thing was.
“Hey,” I said, my brain pleasantly short-circuited.
“Hey,” he said back, voice rough around the edges.
We stayed exactly where we’d landed; moving felt like tempting fate.
“You good?” he asked.
“Better than good,” I said with a smile.
We lay there in the soft buzz of afterglow, breathing like we’d finally caught up with ourselves. Cade reached for the tray and grabbed two waters.
“Hydrate,” he murmured, as if it were non-negotiable.
“Yes, sir,” I said, and only realized how it sounded after it was out.
We sank back against the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. I let the glass rest on my chest and watched it rise and fall.
Cade looked over, hair a mess, and said, “I don’t have words I trust yet. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and make it smaller than it is.”
My heart jumped but I tried to play it cool. I’d been hoping it wasn’t insignificant for him.
“You don’t have to name it tonight,” I said. “We’re allowed to just… be in it.”
That got me a soft laugh. He slid his hand across the quilt until his fingers found mine and stayed there.
Warm, solid, real.
“Off the record?” Cade asked.
“All of it,” I said. “No cameras, no comments. Just us.”
He stared at the ceiling for a moment.
“I’m not confused,” he said finally, his voice low. “I’m careful. I know what I’m choosing.”
“Good,” I said with a smile. “Careful works for me.”
His thumb traced slow circles over my knuckle.
“Tomorrow, I’m the same guy,” he murmured. “I keep people steady, I keep the town calm.”
“And tonight?” I asked.
He turned his head, met my eyes without flinching. “Tonight, I stay,” he said. “If you want me to.”
“Yeah,” I answered, softly. “I do.”
The hotel buzzed around us, the door stayed shut, and our hands stayed exactly where they were.
For once, I didn’t need a script or a segment title. I knew what this was.