Chapter 28
brOOKE
Cade looked delectable out there in his softball uniform, playfully shoving his firefighting buddies and jeering the opposing team of police officers. Apparently this was a longstanding rivalry, but a good-natured one.
I chuckled to myself when I saw CASANOVA stitched across the back of his gray jersey. I grinned when he came up for his turn at the plate and he tipped his bat toward me in the crowd.
The police team won, but despite the jeers back and forth, both teams agreed to meet up for drinks at a local bar after the game. Evidently the cops got to pick the location, since they had come out victorious.
My hand in Cade’s, we entered the painted-brick building, which looked like every TV show version of “off-duty cop bar”—wood floors, wood walls, and wood tables.
I slid into a booth, and Cade headed up to the bar.
I cringed internally when I saw him walking back with two glass bottles.
I knew I’d told him I didn’t drink, and I hoped he wouldn’t pressure me in front of his friends.
He slid in next to me, smelling of dirt and sweat but somehow also still like men’s deodorant and something quintessentially Cade.
“Strawberry creme soda,” he said in my ear, plopping down a bottle for each of us. I gave him an appreciative smile. His friends joined us, bringing over baskets of fried pickles and onion rings.
“You and Cas, huh?” said the young guy across from me.
He had dark hair, floppy on top and shaved closer on the sides.
He wore a mischievous grin, one I was sure worked well for him when it came to attracting female companions.
I recalled the back of his jersey had said BLAZE.
“So how’d you meet my boy?” he inquired.
“We’ve actually known each other since we were kids. But we didn’t get together back then.”
“I wanted to,” Cade chimed in. “The timing wasn’t right, though.” He squeezed my hand and I felt the familiar zing of electricity run up and down my arm. “She was more than worth the wait.”
I leaned in and kissed him, even sliding my tongue into his mouth, and the guys began to whoop and holler.
“Get it, Cassssss!”
My cheeks burned when we broke the kiss, but I felt a surge of pride at knowing how proud he was to show me off to his friends.
An older man with a closely buzzed haircut approached our table. The guys around me instantly dropped the wild energy down a notch, so I knew this was a man they looked up to and respected.
Cade cleared his throat. “Brooke, this is Hawk, our station chief.”
I stuck my hand out and shook his large, calloused palm.
“Nice to meet you, young lady,” his gruff voice said. “You take good care of our boy, here.”
“I’ll do my best.” I squeezed Cade’s thigh under the table.
“You’ve really made a life here,” I marveled as we walked to the car.
“Yeah,” he agreed. He dropped a kiss to my jawline. “Home?”
I nodded.
By the time we reached the apartment, our hands were frenzied and our kisses hurried.
The kiss we’d shared at the bar had reignited the flame that had been burning since that morning at the beach.
I pictured the sunflower tattoo on his calf, and I longed to trace it.
I couldn’t believe he’d kept it hidden from me for so long.
We kicked off our shoes at the door, and he pulled off his socks, discarding them in the living room.
Breaths heaving, we fought to slow ourselves down.
He broke our kiss to slip my shirt over my head, and I instinctively used my hands to cover a bit of the exposed flesh. All the lights were on in his apartment, causing my self-consciousness to creep back in. He slowly reached down and encircled my wrists, pulling my hands away from my body.
“Don’t,” he pleaded. He ran his fingers along my shoulders and down my arms.
I twitched away when he touched the soft spot on my stomach, below my belly button. Undeterred, he dropped down to his knees to kiss the area in question.
“This is one of my favorite spots,” he declared. He met my gaze, recognizing the disbelief in my eyes. “I’m serious.”
He bit at the skin playfully.
“That’s what you get for questioning my taste,” he said teasingly. He moved to my hip bone, placing a kiss there as well. His hands reached around to my backside.
“And this ass is a work of art,” he declared. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught myself staring at it.”
I pulled him back up to me and kissed him, unable to give voice to my appreciation of his compliments.
“Let me take a quick shower,” he whispered into my ear. I groaned my disapproval at him moving away from me, and he looked back with a grin. “Really quick,” he assured me.
He exited the shower wearing just a pair of snug black boxer briefs. Pulling me up from the couch where I’d settled, he nodded in approval that I hadn’t slipped back on my t-shirt.
He gingerly slid my hair from its ponytail, running his nails gently across my scalp as he spread the hair out around me.
He let the strands fall across my shoulders, softly murmuring phrases like “angelic” and “mesmerizing” as he gently kissed my neck, shoulders, and arms. My arms were covered in goosebumps from his praise.
His eyes were heavy-lidded and full of heat.
He slipped his hands behind my back and undid my bra, letting it fall to the floor.
I felt exposed in front of him, but I allowed him to continue his slow, measured perusal. I glanced down to below his waistband, and he caught and followed my gaze.
“You see what you do to me,” he said matter-of-factly.
Biting my lip, I nodded. My body was thrumming with need.
Grabbing my hands, he brought me close, like we were slow dancing.
I draped my arms around the back of his neck while he swayed me, relishing the feel of my nipples scraping gently across his bare chest. Every nerve ending was on fire.
I tangled my fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck that I loved so much.
We continued to sway, skin touching skin. It was the most erotic and arousing experience I’d ever had, and we were barely even touching. He leaned down and dropped a warm kiss on my neck, and again I felt goosebumps erupt across my skin.
“I love you,” he said softly, so quietly I almost couldn’t be sure I’d heard him.
But then his eyes were on mine, and he was nodding, and I knew I’d heard right. He leaned his forehead down to mine. In a way the words seemed quick, but I also knew they’d been building for well over a decade.
“I love you, too, Cade.” I told him, nodding. “You make me so happy.” I nuzzled his neck. “You make me feel safe.”
My confident words seemed to unlock something in him, and he met my lips in another fevered kiss, his pace picking back up to the tempo we’d had when we’d walked through the door.
His hands rubbed my shoulders more roughly, and he guided me toward his bedroom.
As he moved me, I reached down to feel the bulge beneath his boxer briefs.
“We’ll go slow,” he assured me, dropping a kiss to my neck.
I nodded.
He undid the button of my denim shorts and slid them down my legs. I stepped out of them and walked to the bed, summoning confidence from his words and his clear arousal.
He slid onto the bed next to me and we lay on our sides facing each other. “Tell me what you want,” he instructed.
“You,” I replied breathily. “This.”
His mouth met mine, and he slipped his hand beneath my cotton undies, the only scrap of fabric left on my body. He decisively slipped a finger inside me, knowing how pliant I’d be already. I kissed him harder, reaching down to stroke him as he stroked a finger inside me.
I bit his lip and muttered “I want you so bad” between breaths. He rewarded me with another finger, stretching me as I rocked back and forth for him. I slipped my arm under his and yanked him closer to me, gripping his shoulder with my fingers.
“Please,” I begged. My head spun wildly with desperate need. He kissed me and slipped his fingers out, then leaned across to his nightstand, pulling out a foil-wrapped condom while I slid my undies off and cast them aside. He slid his own underwear off and slipped the condom down his length.
“Ready?” he said softly.
“God, yes.”
We still lay facing each other, so I hooked my leg over his hip and let him guide himself to my entrance. He pushed in slightly at first, allowing me time to adjust. His pupils were blown, and I could tell he was struggling to maintain his composure.
I shifted my hips, allowing him deeper access.
“Oh god, oh fuck,” he muttered, and I bit my lip and smiled. I loved him like this, his cocky nature shattered and his desperation seeping through. It was such a turn-on, knowing I could wreck him like this. I shifted my hips towards him further, and his eyes shot up to the ceiling.
He took a deep breath, mentally recalibrating, then his eyes met mine and he slipped his hand between us. He found my clit, swirling around in circles until I was bucking against him, heady with pleasure. It was intimate like this, our bodies fully aligned, our faces nose to nose.
“More. Please,” I begged him, and we shifted together until he was fully seated inside me, my leg wrapped around us, keeping us tightly bound. “Yes,” I told him as he began to shift. “Yes. I’m already close.”
“Thank fuck,” he stuttered out.
My leg dug into his back for leverage and I thrust my hips, grinding my clit into his pubic bone. My mind felt blissfully blank, my body focused only on the pleasure and on reaching its climax.
I felt him twitch inside me and I thrust once more, shattering until I saw stars. I cried out and he met my thrust, and suddenly I felt him pulsing rapidly inside me.
“Oh my god,” I mumbled. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”
He nodded in agreement, kissing my lips as we came down. “I prefer Cade,” he whispered, and I rolled my eyes at his playful humor.
He kissed my forehead, slowly separating our bodies. “Be right back.”
Then he slipped into the bathroom to clean up.
He was back a moment later, pulling me from the bed so I could clean myself up as well.
When I emerged from the bathroom, I found him sitting on the edge of the bed in his boxer briefs.
I approached him and he slid my underwear back on me and pulled me to him, laying me on the bed beside him.
I turned to my side and he slid in behind me, cocooning me in warmth.
Minutes later I was asleep.