Chapter Three
Cadence
I hoped he’d just shed his clothes quickly and hop on the bed, but no such luck.
He removed his coat and hung it over the back of the desk chair. He toed off the shoes he probably should’ve removed when he came into the house.
I’d been so stunned that practicalities like that escaped me.
He unbuttoned his flannel shirt leisurely, revealing rippling muscles.
I didn’t think he played hockey anymore, but as a physiotherapist, he’d need to stay in shape. Each time I drove past his clinic, my heart stuttered. I’d heard somewhere he was living in a condo in downtown Mission City, but I hadn’t known which one.
His hands moved to his belt buckle, and I salivated. Yes, big boy, show me all you’ve got.
Each time I drove past his family’s home—where his twin sisters still lived—my heart ached. Twelve years was a long time. Too much water under the bridge at this point. Not that I didn’t think of my former dance partner often and, okay, so not the time to be thinking of Marcus’s sister.
He opened the belt, unbuttoned his fly, and slid down the zipper. Gray boxer briefs.
Yeah, that fit his personality.
He tucked his thumbs in both underwear and jeans and slid them down in one fluid movement. He shucked them and hung them over the chair as well, then he turned to me.
That wicked grin hit me low in the gut. Naked, he was a thing of beauty. All sinew and muscle, and skin pale in the weak winter light. In the summer, though, it often went a light brown when he spent time out in the sun. Beach volleyball and running, if memory served.
And it did. I remembered. I remembered everything.
His cock jutted out, and he grasped it. “Are you going to join me, or is this a solo show?”
Again, I licked my lips. “Oh, this is a duet.”
I yanked down the comforter and top sheet. “Lie down.”
He winked and did just that, settling in the center of the bed.
At lightning speed, I shed my own clothes. I tossed them haphazardly over the desk chair, never letting my gaze wander from his. His eyes were almost black in this light. Slitted, and eating me up. Devouring me with his gaze.
By the time I removed my dress socks, my cock was leaking precum. I palmed myself, willing my raging hard-on to wait one fucking minute.
His gaze moved from mine to my cock, and then back up. “Please tell me you have lube and condoms.”
Right.
Had almost forgotten.
I yanked open the nightstand drawer and stuck my hand into the very back.
I’d refreshed the stash a couple of years ago because I often spent the night here and occasionally had company.
If Gertie knew, she never said.
She and Mabel honestly didn’t care, as long as I was safe.
They taught me about condoms when they were in their late eighties.
A lesson I’d likely never forget. I could be one hundred like Miss Mabel had been and would still flush as the two women sat me down for the talk. Still made me smile.
“You coming over here, or are you going to bask in that memory?”
“A good one, I promise.”
I dropped the lube and a strip of condoms on the bed. “You up for this, old man?”
His affronted look was adorable.
“I’m thirty-one.”
He sucked in his abs. “I have a while to go before I’m an old man.”
Fair enough.
I knelt on the bed and crawled atop him. I let my weight settle as he opened his legs and let me lay between his thighs. His skin was warm as I traced his cheekbones. His stubble was barely there. Had he shaved today? Had he worked today? I hadn’t asked how he wound up in my neck of the woods, but it didn’t matter. He was here now, and I planned to take full advantage.
Telegraphing the kiss, I moved slowly. Deliberately. He ran his hands through my hair and tugged lightly. Pulled me closer to him.
Our lips met, and he immediately opened for me.
I took full advantage, thrusting my tongue in. I wanted to claim him. Own him. Mark him as mine. Ruin him for any other man.
Wait…what?
This was just a fling, right? I mean, not even a fling. Just a fuck. Because there couldn’t be anything more between us.
Why not?
Before I could wage the internal debate, Marcus slid his hand down my side to my flank, then across to my ass. He grasped a cheek, squeezed it, then thrust up against me. Our cocks brushed. My insides lit.
I broke the kiss and pulled away, then shimmied down his body until I was between his thighs.
His cock angled up toward his stomach—red, angry, and leaking precum.
I swiped my tongue across the head.
He bucked.
A grin spread across my face. I grasped his cock and gave it a good couple pumps.
“Jesus, Cadence.”
The way he said my name—through gritted teeth—made me smile.
Our gazes locked, and I gauged every nuance of pleasure I could wring from him as I licked his cock from root to tip. I sucked on the head and flicked the slit with my tongue.
His eyes rolled back.
Swallowing him down was easy. Holding myself in check as I fucked him with my mouth was a whole other thing. Our gazes locked again, and his pupils blew wide as I edged him closer to orgasm.
Whimpers and moans and sighs escaped him. He grasped the sheet and tugged.
I sucked harder.
“Please, stop.”
A hoarse whisper.
Immediately, I pulled back.
“No,”
he howled.
I cocked an eyebrow.
He winced. “I was coming.”
“So…what’s your point?”
“I was going to come in your mouth.”
His brow furrowed.
“I wanted you to come in my mouth.”
This wasn’t supposed to be complicated.
“I, uh, you like that?”
He seemed genuinely confused.
“I love that. Why, don’t you?”
That brow knit further.
Oh, shit.
“Have you done this before?”
I tried to ask lightly, but the weight of it filled the room.
He shut his eyes. His cheeks reddened.
I needed clarification. “You said you wanted me to fuck you—”
“—and I do—”
“But have you ever done that before?”
Silence.
Finally, his eyes opened. “Have I done stuff to myself? Yes. Have I been with another man? No.”
“Are you out?”
I hadn’t heard anything either way, but this was truly none of my business. Except I needed to know. His head was somewhere, and I wasn’t convinced it was here.
“I was going to. I swear. When I finished undergrad and got into med school, I planned to tell my parents and sister. But then, you know, stuff happened.”
“Shannon’s accident.”
He nodded. “And I didn’t get into medical school, and suddenly it didn’t feel like the right time. So I studied to be a physiotherapist and have lived my life.”
“Alone.”
He nodded.
“Celibate.”
Not to put too fine a point to it.
He nodded.
“Not even a woman? Have you dated?”
This time, he shook his head.
“And no one noticed?”
I was perversely curious. His family had always been tight. I’d envied that. Especially after my own summarily booted me out.
“Zach and West noticed my lack of dating at the university, but we haven’t seen each other since the crash. I think Casey’s noticed, but she’s never said anything.”
Casey, Shannon’s twin, was his other younger sister.
“So basically, you’re a virgin.”
He’d been so aggressive downstairs, I never thought to question it.
If possible, his cheeks went even redder.
“Yeah. Basically.”
Oh, this was going to be so much fun.