Chapter 20
Bliss
By the time Cade pulled into the driveway at Hockey House, my lips already felt swollen from kissing him against the Range Rover, and my brain had downgraded itself to pure survival mode.
The house buzzed around us beneath warm summer night air, music spilling through open windows while people crowded the lawn with drinks in hand and absolutely no concern for tomorrow morning.
Somebody yelled Cade’s name from the porch the second his headlights swept across the driveway, but Cade barely acknowledged it before climbing out and coming around to my side.
The second I stepped onto the pavement, his hand slid around my waist and pulled me straight into him.
“You know,” he murmured against my mouth before kissing me slow enough to make my stomach flip, “I sure like the benefits part of this arrangement.”
I laughed softly against his lips. “It’s the friends part that makes you cringe a little?”
“A lot,” he admitted dryly while his hands slid down to the backs of my thighs. “You’re chaos.”
“Oh my gosh.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, laughing. “And yet you continue renewing your subscription.”
“Worst financial decision I’ve ever made.”
“Liar. Your face says you’re obsessed with me.”
“My face says you’re talking too much.”
“Your face says you wanna—”
The words broke into startled laughter when Cade suddenly lifted me off the ground.
“Holy shit!”
My legs wrapped around his waist automatically while he carried me toward the house like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Music pounded louder the second the front door opened, heat and noise swallowing us immediately as bodies packed the downstairs.
Somebody wolf-whistled from the kitchen while Briggs nearly dropped his drink across the island.
“There he goes!” Briggs yelled. “Our fearless captain finally snapped.”
“Go away,” Cade said calmly without taking his eyes off me.
I buried my face against his shoulder laughing while he carried me straight through the middle of the party. The entire room blurred around us beneath neon lights and bass-heavy music, but Cade’s attention stayed completely locked on me like the rest of the house didn’t exist.
That should’ve concerned me more than it did.
“You’re doing it again,” I whispered against his mouth while he took the stairs two at a time.
“You keep looking back, Pip.”
That stupid line again, mine and his. I was so fucked, because we had a special cue now, and nothing about that felt like benefits-only behavior.
I kissed him harder just to punish him for being the best friend I never knew I was missing and needed.
Cade laughed against my lips before gripping my thighs tighter. “Careful, Pip.”
“Or what?”
His eyes dragged slowly over my mouth before settling back on mine. “I fuck you right here on these stairs and skip all the pussy eating you had your heart set on.”
My stomach flipped violently.
“Oh wow.” I pressed a hand dramatically to my chest. “That was wildly inappropriate.”
“You liked it.”
“I’m filing several complaints with HR.”
“You think Hockey House has HR?”
“I doubt Hockey House has a mop, but I am nothing if not resourceful.”
Cade barked out a laugh just as he shoved open his bedroom door, and holy fucking shit, the second we were alone, the energy shifted instantly.
The noise downstairs dulled beneath the walls. The door slammed shut behind us.
And Cade kissed me like he’d been holding himself back all night.
The world tilted as he dropped me onto his bed, the mattress bouncing under me. I scrambled back against the pillows, laughter still bubbling in my throat from whatever stupid thing I’d just said, but he didn’t let me get far.
He was on me before I could take a full breath, crawling up the length of the bed with a focused, predatory grace that stole the air from my lungs.
He didn’t settle beside me. He laid his big body directly over mine, his weight pinning me to the mattress in the best possible way.
His hips slotted between my thighs, and I felt it immediately—the hard, insistent ridge of his erection pressing against me through our clothes.
A jolt of pure, liquid heat shot straight to my core.
Before I could muster a quip, his mouth was on mine. It was a claiming kiss, deep and consuming, all tongue and teeth and barely leashed hunger. His hand came up, his thumb brushing my cheek before his fingers gently framed my jaw, holding me still for him.
Taking.
The possessiveness of it, the sheer physical control, made me melt underneath him.
He broke the kiss just enough to speak, his lips brushing mine.
“You talk so much shit, Pip,” he murmured, the words a warm, dirty caress against my mouth.
His hips shifted, grinding that hard length against me with deliberate, slow pressure.
“But your body never lies. You’re fucking soaked for me right now, aren’t you? ”
A hot flush spread across my skin. “That’s a biological glitch. Don’t flatter yourself.”
“That hurt, Pip.” He kissed me again, a quick, hard smack of lips. “You know you crave me as much as I crave you.” He rocked against me again, the friction through the layers of denim and cotton making my eyes flutter shut. “This is all your fault. This constant fucking ache. It’s for you.”
His hand slid from my jaw, down my throat, over the straps of my halter top, coming to rest possessively on my rib cage, his thumb stroking just beneath the curve of my breast. He was everywhere, surrounding me, and the awareness of it—of his size, his strength, his total focus—was dizzying.
“I hate you,” I breathed, the words lacking any conviction.
“No, you don’t.” He kissed the corner of my mouth, then my jaw, his stubble scraping deliciously.
“You love that I can’t keep my hands off you.
That I want you this bad.” He shifted his weight, settling more fully between my legs, and the pressure became an exquisite, steady throb.
“It’s all I could think about today. Getting inside you, making you come for me. ”
“Arrogant,” I managed to gasp, my hips lifting involuntarily to meet his slow grind.
“Accurate,” he corrected, his voice dropping to a rough whisper right against my ear. “I’m going to make you come so hard, Pip. But tonight…” He pulled back just enough to look down at me, his eyes dark and serious, burning with a smoldering intensity. “Tonight, I want you to come just like this.”
My brain short-circuited. “What?”
“Right here.” He pressed down firmly, his erection aligning perfectly with my clit. “With my dick right here, through these perfect little shorts. I want to feel you let go and come in your panties for me.”
The crude, specific command, delivered in that calm, utterly certain tone, unraveled me. A whimper caught in my throat. “Cade…”
“Do it,” he urged, his voice a low growl. He began moving again, a slow, relentless rhythm of his hips, the friction maddening and perfect. “Stop thinking. Stop talking. Just feel it. Feel how much I want you.”
His mouth found mine again, swallowing my moans.
His hands slid under my tank top, his palms rough and hot against my skin, mapping my sides, my stomach, sliding up to cradle my breasts.
Every touch, every grind, every whispered, filthy encouragement was a brand.
He was weaving a web of sensation so tight I couldn’t have escaped if I wanted to.
And I didn’t want to.
The pleasure built, a tight, coiling spring low in my belly, fed by the friction, by the weight of him, by the possessive heat in his eyes every time he broke the kiss to look at me. It was intimate and dirty and so incredibly him.
“That’s it,” he murmured, watching the tension build on my face. “I can feel you getting close. Come on, Pip. Come for me. Let me feel it.”
The nickname, the command, the overwhelming sense of being his in that moment—it was the final key.
The coil snapped, and pleasure detonated, white-hot and shocking, radiating out from where our bodies were joined through layers of frustrating fabric.
I cried out, my back arching off the bed, my fingers clutching at his shoulders as wave after wave of sensation crashed through me.
He held me through it, his body still moving in that slow, grinding rhythm, drawing out every last pulse and shudder.
When I finally collapsed, boneless and trembling, he slowed to a stop. He was breathing hard, his forehead resting against mine. He was still rock-hard against me.
“Fuck,” he breathed, the word filled with awe and satisfaction. He pressed a soft, almost tender kiss to my swollen lips. “You are so fucking perfect.”
I could only manage a weak, breathless sound, but I buried those words so deep inside me I knew I would never forget them.
He’d made me come without even taking my clothes off, with nothing but the promise of him and the perfect, possessive pressure of his body.
And the look in his eyes told me this was just the beginning.
Cade’s weight was a solid, comforting anchor, his breathing a steady rhythm against my cheek. He didn’t move away. He just held me there in the quiet, his fingers tracing idle, possessive patterns on the skin beneath the hem of my pushed-up halter.
After a long moment, he pushed himself up on his forearms, caging my face. His eyes searched mine, the usual cocky glint softened by something deeper, more intense, as he moved against me.
“Bliss,” he said, my name a rough caress that Pip could never carry because my actual name was something he reserved for when he wanted my full attention.
“I want inside you.” The bluntness of it, after the slow, teasing build, made my breath catch.
“I want to strip you down. I want you naked. I want to keep the promise I made—to kiss every single inch of this skin.” His thumb swept over my lower lip.
“But I need to hear you say it. I need to know that you want me all over you.”