Chapter 46
Six Weeks Later
I wake to the feel of fingertips walking a path up my chest.
“Morning,” I murmur, eyes still closed, my voice still graveled from sleep.
“Good morning.” Cassie’s fingers continue, twisting the chain around my neck, nail scratching lightly at my throat. “You were snoring.”
“I don’t snore.”
“Believe me. You snore. Before I put him outside, Mutt and I were discussing how it’s by far your worst quality.”
Huffing a laugh, I catch her hand and bring it to my lips.
I kiss her knuckles, then the tender skin of her wrist, letting my lips linger where her pulse beats a steady rhythm, warm against my mouth.
When my gaze lifts, I take my morning inventory, my eyes scanning all the places she’s healing.
The scar on her head is mostly hidden by hair that’s growing back.
The bruising has faded so much, it’s hardly visible anymore.
She’s more and more like herself with each passing day since we’ve been home.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she whispers.
My eyes jump to hers. “Like what?” I bring her hand back to my mouth and kiss her open palm.
“Like you’re scared of me.” I hate how small her voice is. I hate even more that my actions caused it.
She scoots closer, closing the distance between us until our noses touch. I can feel her breath on my lips and the warmth of her body through the thin cotton of my T-shirt, the one she’s claimed as her own.
“I miss you,” she says quietly.
“I’m right here.”
“You know what I mean, Liam.”
And I do. We’ve both felt it, this invisible wall between us since the accident.
I touch her like she’s made of glass. Every night in bed, I’m afraid I’ll roll into her and press a bruise or hurt her somehow in her sleep.
One night I even put a pillow between us and she rolled her eyes and threw it across the room.
Her hand slides to rest on my chest, curling against my heart that beats only for her. “I need you to stop treating me like I’m broken.”
“Cass—”
“I’m serious.” She pulls back, her gaze fierce and demanding. “I love you for how careful you’ve been. Truly. But I need to feel like your girlfriend again. I need to feel like myself again.”
Her words hit their mark, and I swallow hard. She’s right. Even after her follow-up appointment clearing her for certain…activities, I’ve been so consumed with protecting her that I forgot she doesn’t need protection from me.
“I’m scared of hurting you,” I admit.
Cassie takes my hand and places it firmly on the curve of her hip. “Touch me however you want, and I promise I’ll tell you if it hurts.”
Sliding my palm up, I lift her shirt until one breast is exposed and swipe my thumb back and forth over the hardness, flicking my eyes up to her face as I do, watching for any sign of even the slightest wince. Instead, her breath hitches and a spark of that familiar fire lights up her amber eyes.
“See?” she whispers. “Doesn’t hurt. Do you trust me?”
“With my life.”
“Then trust me with this.”
I lean down and press a kiss to her collarbone, where a bruise once marred her skin, then to the spot between her ribs that I knew was especially painful for her. This is an act of worship, acknowledging her scars, letting her body know I see what it survived and I’m not afraid of it.
When I lift my head, Cassie’s eyes are glassy.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Yes.” She releases a shaky, watery laugh. “I’m just…I’m so happy I’m yours, and I’m here, and…” Her words trail off.
“I know, angel.”
She pulls my mouth to hers and the last of my hesitation goes up in smoke.
All the memories of the last six weeks are drowned out by the taste of her mouth, moving against mine.
Fumbling, I work to free my cock, and hook my hand behind her leg to drape it over my thigh.
When my thumb reaches her center, I find she’s already bare and ready for me.
She woke me like this, already ready. I run the tip through her wetness once and groan into her mouth.
Will it ever fade, this desperation I have for her? It feels endless.
In a single fluid thrust, I push into her until I’m buried to the hilt and my eyes slam shut at the melodic gasp of pleasure she makes.
We move together slowly, relearning the rhythm we used to know by heart.
Every touch carries the weight of almost losing this.
Every whimper I draw from her is a sound I feared was gone forever.
Her fingers grip my shoulders, and she pulls me closer.
“More. I need more, Liam.” Cassie digs her heel into the back of my thigh, forcing me deeper and rolls us so she’s on top. If she wants more, I’m all hers to take how she wants. And I get to enjoy the view.
“Shirt off,” I command, letting my back settle against the pillows. “You know how much I love looking at you.”
My girl is so obedient, slowly lifting her shirt over her head and tossing it to the floor.
And there she is, the most breathtaking sight above me.
Bracing with both hands, I push myself up until my back is against the headboard and her breasts are right there waiting for me.
Honestly, I can’t help myself. Leaning forward, I wrap my lips around her nipple, flicking my tongue against the sensitive peak until she starts to roll her hips, a slow agonizing back and forth that makes my head swim.
Watching her take control always winds me up, higher and higher.
But seeing her now just about knocks the breath from my lungs.
I push my hips up, thrusting into her, and she sucks in a breath, her head tipping back, exposing the long line of her throat.
I drag my mouth from her breast to the hollow of her neck, licking at the pulse point at her throat while she finds her rhythm above me.
Her hips roll in slow circles that have me gripping the sheets to keep from losing it.
“Look at me,” I say. I need to see her. I need to know she’s here, that this is real.
Her eyes open and lock onto mine, and I think I could get lost in that heavy-lidded, golden gaze.
She’s trapped me with it, and I never want to be set free.
Hands braced on my chest, she picks up the pace, each movement dragging a guttural groan from deep within my chest. I run my hands up her thighs, over her hips to cup her ass.
“You feel so fucking good,” I manage, and my voice doesn’t even sound like mine. “I missed this. I missed you.”
“Show me,” she rasps, rolling her hips in a way that makes my vision blur.
I search her face, brows raised together in a silent question that Cassie reads instantly. Her palm comes up to cup my jaw and she nods once, her thumb brushing across my cheekbone. “I promise, my love, I’m not breakable.”
I wrap one arm around her back and flip us, easing her onto the mattress beneath me. She gasps at the shift and I freeze, scanning her face again.
“I’m fine,” she says before I can ask. Bending one of her legs at the knee, I push in deeper and she gasps out her pleasure. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
I’m helpless to this woman, having no choice but to give her what she wants.
A whimpering moan is ripped from her throat as I pull out and push inside again, hard, the way I know she likes it.
Her nails rake down my back and the sting sends a shudder through me.
Sliding a hand between us, I find her clit and apply pressure, working her in slow circles while I thrust.
“Right there, Liam,” she breathes.
Thumb still pressed to her clit, I hammer into her, the sound of skin slapping against skin mixed with our jagged breathing as we fully lose ourselves to each other.
Sweat drips from my forehead at the effort it takes to keep my building release at bay, but I gather restraint and reel it in.
I have to wait. I have to give her this.
She deserves everything from me, and I’ll willingly hold on until she’s there.
Through gritted teeth, I whisper how perfect she is, how much I love her, how she makes me whole.
The noises we make become frantic and she tightens around me, letting me know she’s close.
Her eyelids squeeze shut and it’s the most beautiful view seeing her shatter beneath me.
Her back bows off the mattress and her mouth falls open, my name falling from her lips.
Her body’s still quaking as I give in, once, twice, and I have to grit my teeth at the heat gathering along my spine, building and building into a sharp spike of pleasure.
It reverberates through me, white light flashing behind my eyes and I bury my face in her neck, groaning through the best release I’ve had in my entire life.
We take our time coming back to earth. I stay buried in her while her fingers graze my scalp and I press kisses along her shoulder and across her collarbone. The wall has crumbled but the glass didn’t shatter. We’re just us. Two halves of a whole.