Chapter 18
Harper
Cora goes down easily, already out of it once I get her into her pajamas and under the covers. I make it through not even half of a bedtime story before she’s completely passed out, snoring softly.
I ease her door closed and then take myself downstairs, thinking about having a cup of tea—or something stronger—to take the edge off the evening.
There’s a light on in the kitchen, and I startle when I see Cash sitting at the table, nursing a beer.
His shoulders are up around his ears, and he radiates tension.
From the quiet of the rest of the house, it seems like Lincoln and Everett aren’t here, working late maybe, and all of a sudden being alone in the house with just Cash feels… too intimate.
I step into the kitchen, and Cash looks up. The jealousy burning in his eyes makes my breath catch when I realize that’s what it is.
“What’s up?” I ask him, even though I’m pretty sure I already know.
“How was your date?” he replies. His voice is pitched low, but he’s clearly aiming for casualness when he says it.
It would have almost fooled me if I couldn’t see the way his hand is clenched around the bottle in front of him and the rigid way he’s holding himself.
He’s keeping himself under tight control, like if he lets go for a second, he’s going to explode.
Somehow, that doesn’t frighten me.
I let out a breath and decide to tell him the truth. “It was terrible,” I admit. “Leo might be someone’s type, but he’s definitely not mine.”
Cash looks at me, his eyes going sharp. “Did he do something to you?”
“No, nothing like that. He just spent the whole date talking about himself or lecturing me about the way to eat steak and telling me that he knows what’s best for me. It was just uncomfortable.”
His expression shifts when he hears that, but I can’t tell what he’s feeling now.
Maybe something like relief. But I don’t want to poke at that, and I don’t want to rehash the date anymore.
I just want to move on and pretend like it never happened.
Like I didn’t have a lapse in judgment brought on by being…
I don’t know. Lonely and desperate to move on with my life.
“What are you still doing up?” I ask him instead.
“I had to wait up for you.” Cash looks at me, unembarrassed by that. “I hated to see you go out with another man.”
“What?” I blink at him, stunned.
Cash gets up and strides closer to me, abandoning his half-drunk beer. He closes the distance between us, leaning down into my personal space. “I couldn’t sleep knowing you were out with Leo. I couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen.”
I frown a little at that. “What did you think he was going to do?”
“I don’t know. But I couldn’t rest until I knew you were home safe. Until you were back where you belong.”
My pulse picks up, thrumming fast in my chest. “Why does it matter so much?”
“Your safety?”
“No. The fact that I went out with someone else. Why do you care?”
His quiet snort is the only answer for a while, then he takes a breath. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”
“I guess not. Enlighten me?”
“I couldn’t stand thinking of you with another guy because I want it to be me. I want to be the one taking you out. I want to be the one buying you dinner and treating you the way you deserve to be treated.”
There’s pure honesty in his voice, and it makes something flutter in my belly. I take a small step toward him, just a tiny gesture of invitation, but it’s enough.
Cash’s eyes flare and heat, and just like that, all the tension in the room snaps.
It’s a rush that I can feel, and Cash looks just as surprised by it as I do, for a split second. Then he’s closing the last scant inches of distance between us, and our lips collide.
Cash’s mouth is on mine, hot and insistent, and I give in to it.
I match my movements to his, letting him kiss me the way he’s apparently wanted to for who knows how long.
His hands cup up, grasping at my hips, my shoulders, my waist—roaming over me like he’s restless and doesn’t know what he wants to touch first.
It doesn’t matter where his hands land though. Each touch is electric with sensation, and I shiver against him, pressing even closer to seek out more touch and more of his heat.
He tastes like honey and beer, and just now, it’s an intoxicating flavor. I melt into him with a soft whimper, which he answers with a low, tempting growl that I can feel all the way through me.
“Fuck,” he groans against my lips.
I swallow hard, wondering if this is going to be the extent of it. Maybe we’re both about to come to our senses and not do this in the middle of the kitchen in the middle of the night.
But Cash’s eyes are still dark with want, and he grabs my hips again, this time to lift me up so I’m sitting on the kitchen counter.
Another time, I might have protested that. Another time, I might have said something about doing this where we eat or how it’s not a good idea to do it at all. But right now, there’s too much need coursing through my veins.
It’s the disappointment from my date going badly and the realization I had afterwards.
It’s the culmination of Cash being so nice to me since I fucking got here.
It’s the ignition of all the little sparks of want that have flared between us since we met.
All of it presses down on me, making me hungry for whatever he wants to give me right now.
His mouth finds mine again, pressing a soft, needy kiss there. Then he moves lower, lips trailing down my neck. He finds a spot where I’m sensitive, and I shiver, arching against him just a bit.
That gets a low, pleased noise from him, and he keeps going, kissing down to my collarbone, where he sets his teeth against the jut of bone there.
“Cash,” I groan, shuddering in place. “Fuck.”
His eyes slide up to look at me, and I look back, feeling off balance. All I see in his face is desire, hot and pure, and it keeps stoking the fire of my own wants.
“You taste so fucking good,” Cash says. His voice is lower than usual, and it does something to me, making my gut tighten. “I want to taste more of you. Can I do that? Can I taste you until I’ve had my fill?”
My heart stutters and then pounds, but my body pulses at his words. I open my mouth, but I seem to have run out of things to say. So I settle on nodding permission and then feeling another beat of pure need at the look on Cash’s face.
His mouth trails even lower, finding all the bare skin revealed by the neckline of my shirt, pressing kisses and little nipping bites there. He mouths at my breasts under my shirt, and somehow through the layers of fabric, I can still feel him.
I swallow hard, trying to keep as much of my composure as possible, but it’s a losing battle. Every inch Cash goes down just takes away more and more of my control. My thighs tremble, and my pussy aches for him already.
It would be a little pathetic if this wasn’t so hot.
Cash slides down even more, dipping low and rucking up the hem of my shirt to press a kiss to my tummy before he gets on his knees between my thighs.
He somehow still looks powerful and in control down there, and my head spins with it. He slides his hands up my legs to my thighs, and something about that makes me tense up.
I realize, all at once, what he wants here. He’s eying me hungrily, and when he said he wanted to taste me, he meant more than just kisses. Or at least, he wants some very specific kisses.
Cash feels me tense, and he looks up at me again.
His eyes are flooded with his desire, but he holds himself back, waiting.
“Is this okay?” he asks. And even with his voice so rough around the edges from how much he wants this, I know if I told him I wanted to stop, he would.
“I’ve been dying to get my mouth on your pussy,” he continues. “But if you don’t—”
I cut him off before he can say anything else, heat and something like embarrassment flooding through me at the crude words he says so easily.
I nod again, gesturing for him to continue because I don’t think I can make my mouth say ‘yes, you can eat my pussy’ right now.
He smiles again, casually devastating, and then gets to work. His fingers are nimble as they undo the fly of my jeans and help me get them down. I have to lift my hips, helping him get them over the swell of my ass and down my thighs, but they get shucked off and tossed to the side.
To my surprise, he doesn’t immediately try to take my panties off. Instead he leans in close, pressing his hands to my inner thighs to spread them wider. His face is just inches from where I’m already wet and throbbing, and Cash closes his eyes and inhales deeply.
“Fuck,” he groans again. “You smell so fucking good, Harper. You have no idea.”
My face burns, but it’s not all embarrassment now. Something about seeing this man, this powerful Alpha, on his knees wanting me this bad goes right to my head. And lower down. My pussy clenches around nothing, and throbs with the need to be touched.
“You like this,” Cash says, his eyes flicking back up to my face. “I can see how wet you are. I can tell your pussy is already swollen for me. Do you want it?”
I nod again, feeling like a puppet on strings that can only do one thing.
“Can you use your words for me, beautiful?” Cash asks. “Can you tell me?”
Fuck. I swallow once and then again, trying to remember how to make words come out of my mouth. It’s like I’ve been rendered mute by the force of my desire and being on uncertain ground with this.
But Cash looks so earnest, even when he’s turned on and ready to eat me out, and I don’t want to disappoint him.
So I lick my lips and clear my throat and give it a go. “I want it,” I manage, although it’s half a whisper. “I want you.”
If possible, Cash’s eyes get even darker at that. “Good,” he growls. “Because I’m going to fucking devour you.”
He hooks his fingers in my panties and drags them down my legs. They get tossed aside with my jeans, onto the kitchen floor and already forgotten.
My heart pounds so hard I’m sure Cash can hear it, but he’s not deterred. He spreads my legs even wider with those big hands, and stares at my exposed pussy like he’s starving for it.
His thumbs rub soothing circles into the meat of my thighs, making my hips jerk at the touch.
“Look at this pretty pink pussy,” he says.
“I knew it would be just as fucking beautiful as the rest of you.” He licks his lips, not looking away for a second.
“I’m going to make you come so hard, Harper.
I’m not going to be satisfied until you come so hard on my tongue that I can taste you for days. ”
My breath comes in hard pants already, and I watch with wide eyes as Cash lowers his mouth, ready to make good on that promise.