Chapter 57
CADE
My parents’ house
My heart is beating at a rate rivaling that of a damn hummingbird’s as Lex loosens his hold on my waist.
Desperate for a distraction, I turn to my station, my hands shaking as I squeeze dollops of paint onto the wooden palette—a heavy black, a rich crimson looking a little too much like blood but I’ll fix that later, and a thick dollop of midnight blue that glows under the studio lights.
I try to focus on the colors and the familiar weight of the wooden brush in my hand, but my other urges are currently winning this battle by a fraction.
My dick twitches in my jeans the second I look back. Lex’s icy gaze is locked onto Bella with a fierce, possessive hunger. In one fluid motion, Lex grips the collar of his shirt and rips it over his head, tossing it right on top of Bella’s before adding his jeans and boxers to the pile.
The afternoon light highlights every hard line of muscle on his back as he closes in on Bella. Before she can even draw in a breath, Lex hooks his hands under her thighs and lifts her effortlessly, setting her back on the flat surface of the heavy wooden worktable.
“Paint, Cade,” Lex orders, his voice a rough command as he steps between her thighs and fumbles with the buttons on her jean shorts.
I swallow hard, my fingers trembling around the paintbrush as I stand there watching them. Lex presses his lips against every inch of her legs as he drags her shorts down.
He leaves her completely bare, her thighs spread wide on the dark wood of the table.
Lex’s thick fingers slide over her clit and circles twice before stretching her open to test how ready she is for him.
Bella whimpers when he slides two fingers deep inside her, working them in a pace that has her dripping onto his knuckles.
I know I’m supposed to paint. I’m supposed to capture the light, the shadows, even the damn curve of her spine. But watching the way Lex bends her back. The way his mouth slides hungrily all the way up her body while Bella arches into him with a soft, breathless gasp…
I can barely keep the brush steady.
Lex notices. “Having issues, baby?” he laughs against Bella’s breast before sucking her nipple into his mouth.
“Ahh!” Bella moans.
Which absolutely is not helping my own straining dick situation.
“Just focus on us, Cade,” Lex growls, though he never removes his gaze from Bella.
My eyes instantly snap to his hand as he reaches down, gripping his heavy, fully-veined shaft and guiding his monster of a cock to her entrance. He rubs the wet head of his dick against her clit first, making her hips shoot up at the sensation.
“Don’t look away, Cade,” Lex continues. “Paint what you see.”
God, I could use a drink of water right about now. I can’t move. Hell, I can barely breathe.
When Lex drives forward, sliding his cock fully into her in one deep and unhurried thrust, Bella lets out a cry that echoes off the glass. Her back arches off the wood once more, steel eyes closing shut as she grips Lex tighter.
“Fuuuuck,” Lex groans, biting at her shoulder as his muscles lock tight.
“Lex!” she breathes his name again.
The sound of her voice—not in pain, but entirely consumed by pure pleasure—incinerates something frozen deep inside me.
Suddenly, my hands decide to move. I dip the brush into the midnight blue, and before I can even think, I drag it across the canvas in a long stroke.
Creak. The heavy wooden table groans under them as Lex begins to move with slow, sensual thrusts. Each one drawing his name from Bella’s lips.
Swoosh. I sweep a shadow of black across the canvas, capturing the dark and possessive tilt of Lex’s head as he devours her.
Each and every breath they take becomes a line.
Every wet, sliding sound of skin meeting skin becomes a smudge of my thumb on the canvas, blending the hard lines into a soft, burning heat.
I dip my brush straight into the crimson, my pulse racing in a beat that matches Lex’s thrusts as he nears his end.
The red bleeds into the black, bright, violent, and beautiful.
Just like us.
Bella’s head thrashes to the side, her eyes fluttering open as they glitter with tears. She locks onto me through the haze of her high.
“Cade…” she gasps as Lex drives in deeper. Beads of sweat glisten on his chest in the afternoon sun as he moves faster, a broken rhythm that tells me he’s ready to explode.
“Cade…” she gasps again, her eyes rolling back into her head.
“I see you, sweetheart,” I whisper. My voice is raw as I paint the curve of her collarbone in a streak of pure white light.
“I see you.”
The room disappears. The only thing left is the sound of their bodies, the creak of the wood, and the frantic slide of my brush. I lose track of time, of the paint splattering all over my knuckles, and even the agony of my own aching erection.
I translate their souls onto this canvas with every stroke. I wash away every nightmare. Every memory of our girl trapped with that monster in Eden.
Every scream that’s been ricocheting in my head for months.
I force myself to wash it all away.
Bella lets out a final cry when her body clamps down around Lex as he drives into her one last time. He lets out a low groan, pouring himself into her.
My brush drags down the canvas as silence descends on the studio. Shattered only by the sound of our ragged, desperate breathing. I step back, drop my arms, and set the palette down.
“Well…” I whisper. “It’s done.”
Lex slowly pulls out of Bella, both of them slick with sweat. They walk up slowly behind me. Bella’s lips part and tears well instantly in her eyes when she glances down at the wet canvas.
The painting staring back at the three of us is raw. It’s messy. A storm of black and midnight blue clawing at the edges of the canvas like a living nightmare that’s trying to swallow us whole. It’s the darkness of everything she’s survived.
Everything we’ve survived.
But right in the center, slicing through the shadows, is a blinding and brilliant explosion of crimson and white light. It singes through the canvas and wraps around their two intertwined bodies, utterly drowning out the darkness with their love.
“Cade,” Bella breathes, her voice breaking as she looks up at me. “This is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever painted.”
“Yeah,” Lex mutters, his voice rough as he wraps an arm around her waist. He keeps his eyes focused on the canvas for a moment or two before a slow, amused grin suddenly tugs at the corner of his mouth. “But babe… you sure you want to turn this in?”
“What do you mean?” I ask as my breath finally evens out.
“I mean you really want your professor seeing my bare ass painted in high-definition brush strokes?”
I rub the back of my neck, a sheepish laugh escaping me. “I can always paint a different one for the critique.”
“No way,” Bella says instantly. Her jaw is set with a fierce, stubborn pride as she looks between the two of us. “It’s absolutely perfect, Cade. You’re turning this in. Everyone needs to see how incredible you are.”
Lex chuckles, pulling her against his side and kissing the top of her head. “Fine. If our girl wants to show off my assets to the entire Wexley Art Department, who am I to stop her?”
Bella rolls her eyes and steps out of Lex’s grip. Her playful gaze locks on mine as she reaches out to pluck the paintbrush from my fingers.
“What are you—” I start, but am instantly hushed by wet bristles shoved gently against my lips.
“Shhh,” Bella hushes, a wicked little spark in her eyes. “It’s my turn to paint.”
She spins quickly back to Lex and runs the paintbrush down the hard ridges of his abs. The black on the brush mixes with the beads of sweat still running down his chest, leaving a dark and messy trail in its wake.
Stepping in behind her, I press my chest against her back and lock my fingers around her bare waist.
My lips brush against the shell of her ear. “You’ll ruin the brush, sweetheart.”
“I’ll buy you more,” Lex grunts, winking down at me as he watches us.
Bella tilts her head back to look at me. “Take off your shirt, Cade.”
My throat goes dry but I don’t hesitate. I let go of her waist, reach down, and yank my shirt over my head and throw it to the growing pile of discarded clothes on the floor.
“Good,” Bella murmurs. She dips the brush back onto the palette, swirling the bristles in the rich, wet crimson.
She steps up to Lex first. Her playful energy suddenly shifting into a more intimate tone.
With a steady hand, she presses the wet brush right onto the phoenix inked between his collarbones.
Lex’s breath hitches slightly as she slowly moves the brush downward, stopping near the bottom of his sternum.
In bold, thick strokes, she paints four simple letters: MINE.
Bella doesn’t even wait for him to process it before she turns back to me. She presses the wet, cold bristles directly over my heart, tracing the same letters onto my skin while my chest heaves beneath her touch.
MINE.
That feral grin of Lex’s grows wider as he stares down at the red and black markings on his skin. “My turn,” he murmurs, taking the brush from Bella’s fingertips.
Lex steps around us, dramatically jumps over the pile of clothes, and reaches down to grab a clean, empty canvas from the stack against the wall.
I blink, my brain stalling in my highly aroused state. “Lex, what the hell are you doing?”
“I’m creating a masterpiece. What does it look like?
” Lex grunts, dipping the brush directly into the black paint with a chaotic, yet slightly terrifying confidence of a man who has never held a paintbrush in his life.
He points the wooden end of the brush toward the soft rug in the center of the room, then to Bella.
“Baby, help me out. I need inspiration.”
Bella lets out a beautiful laugh, her steel eyes shining as she looks at me. She reaches out and wraps her hands around the back of my neck. Gently pulling me down into a kiss that tastes like pure salvation.
Every ounce of control I’ve been clinging to for the last hour completely snaps at the taste of her. My hands frantically find the zipper of my jeans and I kick them off before guiding us both down on the rug.
“Cade,” she breathes as she climbs on top of me and straddles my thighs.
She grips my cock, guiding the thick head right against her soaked entrance before slowly sinking her weight down on me.
I watch her face contort in pure pleasure as her tight walls stretch, swallowing me inch by wet inch until she’s pressed flat against my pelvis.
“That’s more like it,” Lex mumbles, frantically smearing more paint on the canvas above.
Her hips begin moving in slow, agonizing circles.
“Fuck, sweetheart,” I moan. I reach, slide my hand over the back of her neck, and crash our mouths together. Our tongues tangle in a desperate battle while I thrust up deeper inside her.
I grab her by the hips. Roll her over in one swift motion so she’s on her hands and knees and drive into her from behind. She cries out when I hit that spot inside her. Her back arches as I pull her hips back to mine.
“Ahh!” she moans as I pick up my pace, my balls slapping hard against her with every thrust.
A paintbrush clatters to the floor next to us, splattering droplets of red on my thigh.
“Sorry,” Lex mutters. He leans down to pick it up. “Got sidetracked,” he adds, pressing a kiss to my shoulder before returning to his masterpiece. “Carry on, babe.”
I place a hand flat against the center of her back, pushing her down until her chest flattens against the rug and her hips tilt high in the air.
The steeper angle lets me drive deeper and allows me to fully lose myself in her.
Every gasp she breathes and every desperate tug of her hips lifting to meet mine only drives me crazier.
It’s loud, sweaty, and beautifully chaotic.
“Cade, oh my—” she pants as her pussy clamps down on me.
I need to see her.
All of her.
I grip her hips and roll her over once more.
I pin her on her back, her legs immediately wrapping around my waist as I press my chest flat against hers.
The friction of our sweaty bodies smears the wet crimson MINE between our chests.
It blends the letters until there is no boundary between where she ends and I begin.
“Look at me, sweetheart,” I groan, thrusting into her again.
Her steel eyes flutter open and lock onto me. “Cade,” she whispers.
“I’m here, baby,” I promise, pressing a soft kiss to her lips.
The tight, clenching heat of her orgasm is the final blow. I bury my face in the crook of her neck, letting out a deep moan as I drive deep into her one last time. My entire body locks up as I release everything I have into her.
We collapse together, our chests rising and falling in a rapid harmony as the smell of sex, sweat, and paint fill the air.
“Okay,” Lex mumbles, one hand under his chin, the other holding the corner of the canvas. “What do we think?”
I help Bella to her feet as we both brace ourselves to see Lex’s masterpiece.
“Well?”
“Oh my God,” Bella snorts as her eyes find the canvas.
I wrap my arm around his shoulder. “Stick to buildings, babe.”