Chapter Twenty-Six
Sky
I ’m weak in Cade’s grasp, pooling at the way he’s tugged me back. I may have just been chased within an inch of my life, but I would be lying if I didn’t say it felt like eons ago, now that his lips are on mine.
A satisfied hum sings in my chest as I let him slip his tongue into my mouth. God, he tastes good. If the heater hadn’t warmed me up, his kiss sure would. My body is molten as he drags my bottom lip between his teeth. It’s a sensation I commit to memory, scared I won’t ever feel it again.
“Sky,” he breathes into my mouth and pulls away. “You’re going to be the end of me.”
Rage bubbles up inside of me, either at the loss of his lips or the audacity of his words. I’m going to be the end of him? I want to tell him he’s the one who’s had no problem avoiding me while I’ve gone mad with withdrawals. That I’m the one plagued by sleepless nights when he doesn’t grace my dreams. That I think he’s a raging fire that might burn me alive if I get too close.
But when I twist in his grip, he slides his palm to my throat. It’s a move that holds me at length and locks me into submission. The words die on my tongue. His eyes are pained, filled with agony, like maybe I’m not the only one who’s been suffering.
“Cade—”
“Don’t,” he cuts me off and squeezes his eyes shut.
I’m losing him. Damn it. I can feel him pulling away, even with his hand around my throat. Panic creeps into my chest. I don’t want him to run again. I don’t want to go weeks without seeing him—without tasting him. I need him like the blood in my veins, and I think I’ll die if I have to go through that again.
I know he’s trouble. I know I shouldn’t want him. There’s something broken inside of him that threatens to shatter me, too, but I don’t care. Fuck the consequences and damn the risks.
“I want you to be the end of me,” I tell him, and then break from his grip.
I latch onto him, scared he might try to get away, and shake the blanket from my shoulders, pushing into his lap. I wrap my legs around his waist and slide my fingers into his hair, clutching him to me.
It’s the boldest I’ve ever been with a guy, but my body knows no bounds when it comes to Cade. I want to bare myself at his altar, and let him punish me as he pleases. He can have all of me if he’ll just have me.
A growl escapes him, and I instantly become aware of the firm and pulsating length beneath my ass. My stomach swoops as my cheeks turn pink. Was he… already hard?
“Be careful what you wish for,” he says, and then throws me onto my back.
I gasp at the velocity. I’m suddenly enveloped in his body, tiny beneath his frame that hovers over me. His arms are corded bars on either side of me, the muscles rippling as he lowers himself to my mouth. His hair tickles my cheeks, and I moan into him as he arrests my lips with his.
I’m gone. The Sky Lyons I was evaporating as he runs his hands along my waist. I don’t know who I am except for his. His conquest, his punching bag, his weakness. I don’t care as long as it’s a part of his.
I feel my way up his shirt, abandoning any traces of the demure girl I’m supposed to be, and relish in the luxury that is his body. He’s so toned, more than I knew from his regular attire of baggy jackets. He’s hidden away the most delectable bits of him, and I want to feel them all.
I tug at his shirt, silently begging for him to remove it, and he pulls his lips away from mine just long enough to help me, pulling the black fabric over his head and tossing it aside. I get a flash of his dewy, defined body before he leans back in.
He kisses me with a passion I have no trouble reciprocating, and I’m lost in him. His touch, his taste, his heartbeat and heat, and it’s still not enough. I want to breathe the air that’s touched his lungs. I want to get high on his carbon dioxide. I want his body on mine as if it’s a part of me.
As if feeling the same, Cade presses his chest to mine. The silk of skin on skin only makes the need worse though, and I tug at his hair, ravenous with need.
I need my bra off. I need our pants burned at the stake. I need, need, need.
His lips slip from mine, finding the soft of my neck, and I take the opportunity to taste the flesh along his jaw. I bury myself in him, inhaling the scent of forest and cold metal, and run my tongue across his skin.
I work my hands between us, desperate to undo his button and zipper. There’s nothing I want more than to have this moment, to really let go, to not be me. But the second my fingers latch inside Cade’s waistband, he freezes.
“Sky.”
It’s a warning.
But a weak one.
I can feel how hard he is against my thigh. I know he wants this too. Regardless, we both halt, catching our breath, but the reprieve doesn’t change my mind, if that’s what he’s hoping to achieve. I’ve been told what I want my whole life. Told how to act and who to spend my time with. I’ve been lectured about appropriate places to be seen, and how to not end up in unsavory situations, and this moment is all those wrapped into a neat bow. A bow of black, stained with blood, and Cade is the present I never knew I wanted.
“I want you,” I beg him.
He groans, a decadent rumble, and his body sags slightly. “Jesus Christ.”
I take that as defeat, and unclasp his button.