“I love you,” I whispered. “I was so afraid.”
His body stilled, his warm breath halting against my neck. He pulled back slowly, looking at me with wide eyes.
“I love you, beautiful girl. Your strength amazes me. Fuck, I think you are stronger than me.”
“I don’t know about that. I just …” I tilted my head to the side, studying his face. “The only thing that I know right now is that I love you.”
He pressed his lips to mine gently, holding my face on either side with his large, calloused hands. I closed my eyes like I did the first time he kissed me and tried to commit it to memory, willing my tears to stay away.
“That’s the one thing that matters. We can figure out the rest.”
Can we? What else is there to figure out? I wasn’t even sure. I had been so focused on Cane and Simon that I hadn’t had time to sort everything else out. Ashley, him pulling away before all of this went down, the fact that he had been lying to me … My head began to pound as all of that came back.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m so glad to see you in front of me. I was so scared something was going to happen to you.”
“Hey. I’m here. I’m fine. It was you I was worried about. That’s why you had to go.” His voice was like music to my ears, music I had been dying to hear and was now being played just for me.
“I know.”
“But that’s over now. You can come back home,” he whispered, brushing a lock of hair out of my face.
I looked into his eyes, knowing exactly what I wanted to do but not at all sure what I should do. I vowed once to always listen to my brain and not my heart, but I couldn’t tell them apart from one another anymore.
Cane pressed his mouth slowly to mine, his lips soft, gentle. I closed my eyes, releasing some of the worry I had been holding inside of me at finally being able to touch him again, of knowing he was safe.
Of knowing that he came for me.
I pushed all thoughts from my brain, pressed all decisions that needed to be made to the back of my mind as I focused on the present, of Cane laying me back on the bed and covering my body with his.
His body was heavy as he pressed it on top of mine, our bodies making contact at every possible point. He laced his fingers through my hair on each side of my head, holding me firmly in place as he kissed me like his life depended on it.
Maybe it did. Maybe mine did, too.
I became putty in his hands, my body responding to his like a siren’s call: letting him, trusting him, needing him to take the lead.
He broke the kiss, both of us struggling to catch our breath. He stared at me intently, his gaze as heavy on me as his body, until I finally became nervous.
“Cane? What’s going on?”
Very slowly, his face broke out into a smile. “If you only knew how much these little moments meant to me …” He looked down, blushing.
“I do know,” I whispered, “because that’s what got me through these last few days.”
I wrapped my arms around his back, my hands going beneath his shirt, feeling his muscles flex at my touch. I stroked his skin with my fingertips, feeling his body respond.
His lips found mine, more aggressively this time, as the fire that was always burning between us intensified once again.
“I need you,” he muttered against my lips.
I nodded subtly and his hands found the hem of my shirt. He drug it lazily over my head and tossed it away. I unbuttoned my pants, pushing them down and kicking them off. He grabbed a condom from his pocket before removing his pants, and depositing it onto the floor; his shirt quickly followed.
He was a sight to behold. His body was leaner than it normally was and chiseled to perfection. His shoulders were bigger, his abs more serrated. Men spent hours trying to achieve this level of definition.
Noticing my curious look, Cane smiled. “I’ve been boxing a lot. Hours a day.” He tore open the wrapper and rolled the protection over himself.
“I approve.”
He climbed onto the bed and over me again, holding himself above me in a push-up position. “I approve of this. And I’ve made a decision.”
“What’s that?”
“You are more beautiful than sexy.”
“Okay,” I said, not sure exactly how to take that.
“Don’t get me wrong—you are sexy, too. But that doesn’t explain who you are. Not to me. Being sexy is just on the outside. It would do you a disservice not to take into account the person you are on the inside. You are beautiful everywhere.”
“And you say you hate words,” I said, reaching up and pulling his face down towards me.
“It’s you. I lose the filter. It’s the only thing I don’t like about you.”
He lay on top of me and I could feel his hardness against my leg. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he guided himself into me. He pushed slowly, spreading me apart as he plunged deeper, inch by inch.
“I’ve missed this,” he said, pulling back and then rocking forward slowly again.