17. Chapter 17 #2
Off, she spoke to my soul, and I was sure that it was the most attractive thing that she had ever demanded of me.
I pulled away just long enough to toss my shirt into the far corner of the room.
She looked at me, moving her fingers up to the stone around my neck, and I tried not to let her see how her touch affected me.
I knew that soon if she kept traveling over my back, her fingers would find my scars, the proof of my past and what I had endured.
She kissed my cheek, and I tried to anchor myself—I held her waist tight in controlled measured focus.
I could be in control of my attraction to her; I could be in control of my thoughts. I focused on her.
I could feel the sorrow in her soul as she touched the scars on my back. The compassion that she had for me was too expansive.
I kissed her mouth, and she kissed me back.
“Emma,” I whispered into her mouth.
“Cade,” she whispered, moving my face into her small hands to kiss me again and again. I pulled away again, wanting to hear my real name from her lips.
“Call me Cadian,” I whispered, wanting to give in to the trust that I felt between us, the connection that was real and pure and true. I never knew that I could feel that way.
“Cadian?” she asked as she rubbed her cheek against mine.
I grunted deep in my chest.
“Yes, no one calls me by my full name; say it again.” Our eyes locked. Her green eyes, I closed my eyes.
“Cadian,” she repeated. That was it, I surrendered.
“I knew you would come around, Emma.” I touched a strand of her hair that was on her face, my finger traveling to where my kisses had just been. “You are light—You chase away the darkness,” I whispered.
“Your soul is so beautiful,” she said.
“So is yours,” I kissed her again, wanting to distract myself and just be immersed in her. Her memories tangled inside of mine, and I heard her being called, ‘darling.’ It fit her—she was darling, precious, beautiful, and perfect. “Do you want me to call you, ‘darling?’”
She paused for a moment. I didn't think she liked the idea; it didn't matter. I would call her whatever she wanted me to call her if only she would never leave me.
“You can call me whatever you like, Cadian.”
“My light,” I whispered against her skin. “You are my light.”
She giggled.
“You like that, Emma?” I pulled away to look at her, avoiding thinking about her eyes.
She smiled and nodded. I kissed her even harder, moving so fast that she could barely keep up with me.
“You like it rough, sweet?” I could barely breathe from the passion.
Then, I heard her melody—one thought, one split second of a thought that she left unshielded. She had my crystal necklace in her pocket.
Traitor.
She was set to make a final attempt to save Shad—by stealing my melody from me.
No. No, how could she deny what was clearly between us?
I slowly untangled myself from her and moved off of the couch, trying to make sense of what was happening, to make sense of how I had been tricked by that girl.
Before I had even a second to fully grasp the situation, still inside the fog of passion, Emma darted from the room, and raced to the front door.
I shook my head and moved. I could hear keys jingling, and I darted for the door, too, running after her.
“Emma, Give it to me.”
She ran faster, her melody intent on getting out of there and saving Shad. I dismissed the broken shattered pieces of my insides at her betrayal. I locked them up tight. She slipped on the rocks. injuring herself. “Emma, what do you think you are doing?”
“Get away from me,” she shouted as she unlocked the car door and dove inside, locking it. I stood outside the window, and I lifted the spare key fob and unlocked the car.
“I will say, you are pretty convincing.”
But mostly this soul makes me weak. But not any more. I should have known better.
I tugged her out of the car by her arm. Fury and anger rose inside of me as things were becoming clearer.
She didn't care about me—she was imagining that I was Shad, and she had only kissed me in order to trick me and to manipulate me.
I tried to ignore the piece of me that shattered within my heart, landing on the cold rocky ground.
I was not loved. She wouldn't ever love or want me. I had not slipped into her life. I wasn’t my perfect brother—who had I been kidding?
Thinking I stood a chance? Where feelings of desire and love had once swelled and bloomed inside of me, anger suddenly arose.
A crushed dream fractured my chest. I would show her what happens when someone crosses me.
I pushed her against the hood and dug the useless midnight crystal out of her pocket, then flipped her around so I could dig out the tracker I knew was in her arm.
She didn't want me. Fine, I still needed her, though, and if she wouldn't come willingly, she would become my prisoner until Shad was dead.
Then I would be her only option, and she would have to love me.