Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cadence
When Damien walked back into the hotel room carrying a pizza box that smelled like absolute heaven, his sex appeal rose at least another hundred points.
He set the box on the desk by the door and pulled a soda and a bottle of water from under his arm. “You like Dr. Pepper, right?”
I could have married him at that moment.
Orgasms, pizza, and Dr. Pepper… What more could a girl ask for?
He slid off his sandals and brought our food to the bed, and sat, crisscrossing his legs. He efficiently opened the box, and the intoxicating aroma of garlic, tomatoes, and peppers filled the air.
My stomach growled as Damien handed me my soda. “I’m so hungry.”
And not just for food.
“All those orgasms will do that to you.”
My cheeks warmed at his words. In those moments during sex, I was full of pure animalistic desire and had absolutely no shame. I would do anything to chase the bliss of an orgasm. But now, the memories of my wantonness embarrassed me.
Damien chuckled as he grabbed a slice of pizza, gesturing for me to do the same.
“Don’t laugh at me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, causing his shirt to ride up a little higher, exposing the round curve of my butt.
His gaze traveled from my face to my bare skin. “No need to be to be embarrassed. There’s nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants.”
I grabbed a slice and took a bite, groaning as the cheesy goodness awoke my taste buds.
Damien’s gaze darkened. “How do you feel about cold pizza? Because you’re not making it easy for me to sit over here and be a good little boy.”
“Don’t tempt me with a great time.”
Now, it was Damien who groaned before leaning forward and giving me a quick but passionate kiss. “I have to feed you,” he said, trying to convince himself. “If I don’t, you won’t be able to last the night. So, eat up.”
I took another bite of pizza and chewed it thoughtfully before blurting. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Not telling you it ended with Elijah.”
“Why didn’t you?”
I inhaled deeply. “Everything happened so fast. I was overwhelmed and afraid.”
He nodded. “I can understand that.”
I cleared my throat, suddenly uncomfortable. “Yeah. And I really am sorry. I never meant to throw my problems on you and then disappear.”
“Are you okay?”
“In all honestly, I am. It’s hard to explain, exactly.”
“You know I prefer the long answer.”
“That’s just your way of getting more information to try and read me.”
“Maybe.”
I sighed. “And I give in all too easily.”
“But that’s one of the things I like about you. You’re honest, upfront, and you don’t play games.”
“It’s just… he and I had been together for so long. I don’t really know how to be an adult without him. It’s daunting to consider how my life will change and what will be different. But I’m looking forward to finding myself again and becoming the woman I want to be. Not the one I’m expected to be.”
I paused to chew. He said nothing as I processed my emotions.
“I don’t have to worry about my behavior or if my outfit is embarrassing someone. And it’s freeing. It reminds me of a song from Skillet about breaking free. That’s me.”
“Did you just come at me, the musician, quoting a song? And from another band?”
“What can I say? I’m a lyric junkie.”
“We’ll get back to that. But I’m curious. What was the final straw? And how the hell did you end up here, in my hotel room, of all places?”
“Well… he didn’t believe in me, and it broke me. I could no longer fight for someone who was always choosing to think the worst of me.”
“Hm. That’ll do it.”
“As for why I’m in California, we can give Jade credit for that. She’s the one who pushed me out the door and onto a last-minute flight. I figured if you didn’t want to see me, I’d go stay with Liam.”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Truthfully, I wasn’t sure if you would be.”
Damien ran his hand through his hair. “Time is one of the most valuable currencies you can give. No matter how hard you work, it’s the only thing you can never get back. So, wasting time on things that will never come to fruition isn’t something I do.”
Ironically, I felt exactly the same way about wasting time.
He let the corners of his mouth rise. “Or at least I try not to, anyway. I can’t deny that I’d get lost in my fantasies.
But speculating about the what if’s and maybe’s between you and me was nothing more than a misuse of my time.
Because as long as you and Elijah were together, we’d never be anything more than friends.
There was no place in your life for anything else.
No amount of pining or thinking about you, would help either of us.
And I refuse to waste my time going after someone unavailable.
” He grew quiet as he said, “I won’t make that same mistake again. ”
“And now?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking, despite the hint he just dropped to his own trauma. As much as I recognized what we were doing was nothing more than being fuck buddies at this point, the words came out on their own.
Super crazy magnetic attraction aside, I wasn’t one to sleep around. It had to mean something. And I couldn’t deny that Damien did, in fact, mean something to me.
He ran his fingers through his already tousled hair.
“I don’t know. You just got out of a serious relationship.
It’s not exactly the best time for you to start anything new.
I do know that I want nothing more than to be here with you.
Live in every moment, and cherish every one of the memories we make together. ”
Once again, his words were cryptic and didn’t answer the question explicitly.
It was up to me to read between the lines and figure out what he meant.
He wasn’t openly admitting how he felt, but the way his body spoke to mine said so much more than the words that came out of his mouth.
It sounded like he was protecting himself, withdrawing into that safe place he kept in his heart.
I picked up another slice of pizza. “It’s getting cold.”
“And we didn’t even have sex. Blasphemy.”
We fell silent for a few moments, chewing over our thoughts and our food. I shifted onto my hip, not missing how the heat in Damien’s gaze never faded. He still wanted me, despite the serious turn our conversation had taken.
Damien cleared his throat and said, “So. Lyrics. I like to consider myself a connoisseur. What is your favorite song lyric?”
“Wow. Coming out with the heavy hitters already?”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants.”
I definitely didn’t believe that. It was pretty clear his own emotions were a complete mess.
“I have to say, there are so many great songs out there that picking only one is pretty much impossible. But off the top of my head, Paramore has some of the most powerful lyrics, and they resonate with me in almost any situation. One that recently got me was their song Tell Me How.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard that one.”
“There are some real impactful verses in there. You should give it a listen sometime. My dream is to create powerful lyrics like that, so when people will hear them they think, ‘man, she gets me.’”
“You want to write songs?”
It was difficult to talk about it, but I was a new me now. “Not want to. I do. I used to write all the time in college, but recently started again.”
Damien leaned into me. “So you sing?”
I tried so hard to keep my blush at bay and to appear the confident woman I wanted to be. I was manifesting her, and she was the one I wanted Damien to see sitting across from him on his hotel bed, wearing nothing but his shirt with messy hair and eating pizza.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, I do.”
“Sing something you wrote for me?”
“Now?”
“Of course.”
“I… I can’t. I’m rusty… and pizza and singing don’t exactly go well together.”
Damien pushed the pizza box aside, giving him full access to me, and he moved toward me like a lion catching his prey. “Sing.”
“But I—”
“I want to hear you sing, Cadence. And when I want something, I always get it.”
I shivered, sensing a double meaning behind that. His face was so close to mine, our foreheads almost touching, but somehow, having him in my bubble made it easier to open my mouth and let out the first note of the song. My song.
My voice came out in a whisper, but as I felt the emotion of my lyrics—of the very soul I put into this song—it grew louder.
“In the darkness, I’ll find my light,
I’ll spread my wings, I’ll take flight.
With every heartbeat, every breath,
I’ll break free, or find my death.”
As the last note left my lips, I opened my eyes to find Damien’s heated gaze staring back at me.
“Holy shit, Cay. You’re excellent. And I promise I’m not just saying that.”
I frowned. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I’ve wanted to write and sing songs for as long as I can remember. Jade and I used to fantasize about our famous lifestyle as rockstars.”
“What happened?”
“All dreams must come to an end eventually. And when you wake up, you have to start living. So that’s exactly what I did.” I looked down. “I hoped that I would be able to use my degree in finance in the music world, but ultimately, I gave up on that too.”
Damien surprised me by grabbing my chin and pulling my gaze to his. “It’s never too late for your dreams to come true. I’m living proof of that.”
And then he kissed me.
With every ounce of passion, desire, and heart-stopping heat we’d felt earlier.
Except this time, I knew exactly how it was going to end.
And I couldn’t wait.
The last few years, Elijah and I rarely touched in bed. We’d decided that we slept better in our own space and cuddling became inconvenient.
Damien was all for cuddling.
Sometime during the early morning, we stopped touching each other long enough for me to throw on his shirt before we both passed out wrapped around each other like shoelaces.
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised he preferred to sleep naked too.
When I woke to him treating me as the little spoon, it was hard to miss the erection that pressed against my lower back.
I smiled despite myself. My body was already showing signs of overuse, but at the thought of feeling the pleasure that Damien would give me, I didn’t care if I was sore.
I could suck it up for one more day. After all, I left tomorrow afternoon.
Time was of the essence.
I pressed against him.
He groaned in my ear, tightening his arms around my waist and snuggling into my neck as he ground his hips against me.
Just the sound of him turned me on.
Who was I?
I ran my fingers along his skin and up to his butt, and then down. A growl left his lips, and he thrust into me once more.
“God, I could wake up like this every morning,” he purred in my ear.
“Me, too.”
He pushed his hand down my stomach and toyed with the hem of my shirt. His shirt. The closer he got to my core, the more my body ached for him. I squirmed against him, trying to press into him further.
“Mm. Greedy girl.”
“What can I say? You bring it out in me.”
But instead of giving me what I wanted, he ran his long fingers along my thigh and back up to my stomach, pushing his hand under my shirt and trailing it down again.
He continued to tease me while I grew restless and needy. My skin was like ice and every move of his warm hand created tiny licks of fire, melting me until I was breathless.
As the tension within me spun into a tight coil, my insatiable appetite for him became too much.
Tired of his teasing, I took matters into my own hands.
Turning toward him, I sat up, and pushed his back to the bed.
I threw the duvet off us without so much as a word and straddled his thighs before taking him, all of him.
“Jesus, Cay.” He hissed out a breath as I slid on his cock. “You’re soaked.”
I could only moan as he stretched me, filling me completely.
As cheesy as it sounded, his cock fit inside me perfectly.
I ground against him, throwing my head back as I took my pleasure from him. I was climbing the hill quickly, and from Damien’s shallow breathing, he was right there with me.
It was just so good.
I lifted my hips until the tip of him was all that was in me before I slammed down.
“Fuck!” he cried.
Damien pushed off the bed and pulled at the fabric covering my body. Once he’d thrown it on the floor, he sucked in one nipple between his teeth while he played with the other.
Could I die from too much pleasure? How didn’t I realize sex could be this good?
Because I’d’ never had sex with someone like Damien before.
He pressed rough kisses from my breasts up to my throat before capturing my lips in his mouth.
“That’s it, baby girl. Take it all.”
“Don’t stop…” I moaned.
As I clenched around him, every muscle in my body became as tight as a newly strung guitar. The sensation of being full of him while he touched me, made my orgasm come in hard and fast.
“I’m going to—” Damien’s body become rigid as his cock twitched deep inside me, shuddering through his own orgasm.
We collapsed on the bed again, like countless other times the previous night.
It was honestly the most sex I think I’d had… ever.
Our bodies were covered in a sheen of sweat, but I rolled into him, desperate for more of his touch, more of his skin, more of his smell.
Damien planted a quick kiss on my head. “Well, good morning to you too, Cay.”
Heat crept into my cheeks as an uncontainable grin spread shamelessly across my face.