Chapter Fifty-Three
Sky
C ade’s eyes are closed, but his brow bunches and jaw sets. I can feel the tensing and releasing on my chest from where he’s fallen asleep. The moss green chaise in the library has sort of become our spot, and the dim glow of the wall sconces illuminates him beautifully. He’s a tortured soul of lost sleep, no matter how long he drifts off for. I don’t know what has him so stressed, but my worry for him increases every day, only shadowed by the lingering threat my father left me with.
Though, there’s been no reminders, no missed calls, not even a follow up text. The bruises on my arm are practically gone, and I haven’t heard a thing from him, which is unlike him. He normally likes to twist the knife after he guts you with it, but it’s been blissfully quiet, cocooning even, in the snow-blanketed world of Hillcrest. My mother texted me once, mentioning Christmas break, but I don’t think she’s aware of my father’s visit, and I didn’t bring it up. She deals with him on a daily basis now, all by herself. I don’t need to give her any more reason to reach for another pill. She was barely lucid when I left. I can only imagine how she is now.
As bad as I feel for her, a selfish part of me doesn’t want to go home for the holiday. And why would I? Yes, twinkling lights will have been strung up by a company for hire, and dinner will be as big as a feast, but it will be like it has been every year before, full of fake joy. There will be the quiet of walking on eggshells, the weak smiles my mother tries to shoot my way, and the gifts my father’s secretary picked out, devoid of meaning. Both my mother and I will pretend to be delighted so as to not seem ungrateful and trigger his insecure wrath, and then we’ll part ways to nurse the new wounds that yet another Christmas has bestowed upon us. It’s tedious and exhausting. There’s nothing worse than misery steeped in reds and greens and merriness.
At least here, the twinkling lights that Britney and her committee put up have character. I may not like her, but everything is warm and glistening with cheer. There’s even real snow, something Southern California doesn’t get.
And Cade.
Cade who will be left here by himself if I go. I’ve learned his mother has special quarters as the headmistresses, complete with a living room and kitchen, and that it’s actually really lavish, but their relationship is strained. I can’t see him willingly spending time with her during the break, and I don’t want him to be in that shack anymore than he already is.
The snow rises every night, and if it wasn’t for the men that come and clear the paths, I wouldn’t be able to get to class. I don’t know how Cade treks through it in the woods. What does he even do out there? It must be lonely.
I smooth a piece of hair from his face, frowning at the hollows under his eyes. I genuinely hope he isn’t losing sleep about the skull faced guy. The headmistress made good on her promise of getting security—a round man with a goatee—that patrols the campus after dark. I haven’t seen that crudely painted face since, though Ruby and I still keep the chair wedged under our door knob, just in case.
Because, if I’m being honest, I still feel him. Lurking, biding his time. For what, I’m not sure. He could have hurt me the night he was in our room. He had plenty of opportunity while I slept, but he didn’t. I don’t know what he wants, and that’s the scary part. A shudder runs down my spine despite the warmth of Cade’s body clutching mine, and he stirs, blinking up at me.
All the fear melts, leaving me unable to resist smiling.
“Hi,” I whisper.
“Hi.” The corner of his mouth quirks up, mirroring me.
“Sleep well?”
“How long was I out?” His voice is deep with repose, and it causes a heat to flare between my legs.
I bite my lip, trying to remember what time is. “Um, maybe an hour?”
“Sorry,” he says, and laces his hand in mine.
“Don’t be.”
“I can make it up to you.”
The wicked glint of his teeth makes my cheeks burn, and I glance around the library, unsure if we’re alone. Cade’s favorite thing to do is to ‘make it up to me’, even for something as simple as stepping on the back of my shoe. And while it’s my favorite thing too, my heart slams around in my chest every time he does it. It’s always in public, just shy of getting caught, and odds say we can only get lucky so many times.
He palms my thigh, sliding up my skirt before I can protest. He’s warm, always so warm, and I arch into his touch even though I shouldn’t. His eyes roam my body as he shifts down, spreading my legs and finding a spot between them.
“Cade…”
“We’re safe, Angel,” his voice softens as he hooks a finger around my panties, pulling them to the side.
My legs unintentionally widen, letting him see me. I can’t get enough of the way he looks at me, like he’s hungry and I’m a decadent dessert. It makes me want to feed him till he’s had his fill, let him take from me till I have nothing left to give. I would hand him my soul if I could, if it would please him. Anything to see him smile.
That radiant and mischievous beam sparkles up at me now, his warm breath mingling against the way I drip for him. I gasp as he slips his tongue between me, lapping all the way up until he finds the sweet spot. He works like a serpent, swirling, coiling, and slithering around my clit. My heart ricochets as my eyes dart at the stacks to our left, waiting for someone to round the corner.
God. I lose sight as my eyelids close and my body tenses. How is he so good at this? The wonder at how many girls he’s been with flits through my mind, but I can’t hold on to it, not as he dips his tongue inside me.
My body bucks and he grabs my hips, forcing me down. He chuckles into me, sending his warm breath cascading, Damn it. I always lose my cool when he goes down on me. I bite my lip as hard as I can, swallowing the moans that are desperate to escape. If someone hears me, I’ll never be able to walk the halls of Hillcrest again.
“Let loose a little,” Cade purrs. “We only live once.”
“You’re cra—” He pads my clit with the underside of his tongue, sending a pleasurable shock through me. It takes everything in me to level my voice. “Crazy.”
“Is that why you love me? Because I’m crazy?”
I lift myself onto my elbows, ready to level him with a stare, but I only catch a hint of that deviant smile before he dives back in. I fall, losing any rebuttal I had as he picks up the pace. He flicks and sucks, causing me to drip onto his chin. Even if he wasn’t good at what he’s doing, just knowing that it’s his full lips—Cade Haven, The Psychopath’s lips—wrapped around the bud between my legs, would be enough to have me dripping. I don’t love him just because he’s crazy, but it sure does something to me. He doesn’t give a fuck about anyone or anything, free of the masks the rest of us wear. He has no qualms about putting people exactly where they belong, and dishing out the consequences they deserve, no matter how messy. He doesn’t mince words or play by society’s standards, never pretending for the sake of niceties. He is who he is, unapologetically. That may label him as crazy—clinically and derogatively—but I call it real. Liberated. Enviable.
“You’re going to scream for me, Sky.”
I shake my head, fisting the velvet cushion. “No,” I say, slapping a hand over my mouth, just in case.
An irritated growl rips from his lips, and he lunges up, clutching my wrist and pulling it away. I don’t even get to giggle at riling him up as he pushes two fingers inside of me. The moan that escapes me is loud, piercing . My heart quickly hammers. There’s no way someone didn’t hear that.
Cade is smiling like the cat that ate the canary, and I want to swat at him, but I’m suddenly too weak when his thumb finds my clit. “Better hurry,” he says, face not even an inch from mine. “You have about sixty seconds before Ms. Lynn comes to investigate.”
“Cade.” I give him a warning glare, but it’s short-lived as he suddenly works faster.
Between his thumb rubbing and fingers pumping, I’m teetering on an edge that threatens to crumble. Everything in me is screaming we’re going to get caught, but I can’t stop him, don’t want to stop him. I’m lost in the abyss of his eyes as he baits the orgasm from me. I couldn’t look away if I wanted to.
“Come for me.” He presses his lips to mine.
And thank god he does, because the scream that rips from my throat is primal. He swallows it down to a muffle, quickly slipping out of me as my body shakes.
I’m barely out of the post bliss haze as he swiftly hooks an arm under my legs and hoists me up. “Time to go.” He pushes furtively off the chaise with a knee.
My heart thumps thrillingly as he casts me a mischievous grin and checks over his shoulder.
“Now look who has to hurry.” I giggle under my breath as he darts for the back exit.