Cotton. His name alone was enough to make my head spin, and to make matters worse, he was walking toward me, looking like sex on a stick. Damn it. I wasn’t ready. I needed more time. After our talk the day before, I wasn’t prepared to see that lustful look in his eyes, and my willpower was fading… fast. I’d missed him so much, and seeing him standing there with all his sex appeal and charm wasn’t helping matters one damn bit. I knew I needed to tell him to go to hell… tell him to turn around and leave me the hell alone. He’d hurt me, really hurt me, and I couldn’t just jump back into things with him without some kind of resolve. But damn, it was so stinking hard. He was just too damn irresistible. My mind was thinking one thing, while my body was thinking something else entirely. Just one look from him, and all of my girlie bits were going nuts, making me want to jump his bones and spend the entire night making up for lost time.
No.
I wasn’t going to give in… at least not yet.
“Cass,” he smiled knowingly. Damn that sexy smile. Why? Why did he have to be so damn tempting? It wasn’t fair, and deep down he knew it. He freaking knew what an effect he had on me, and it pissed me off.
“Cotton,” I answered, with no smile given in return. Check one for Cassidy.
“Hey, Cotton,” Henley smiled as she gave him a quick hug. “Glad you finally made it back home. We were all worried about you.”
“Thanks, Henley. It’s good to be back, and congratulations on the baby. You’ve made Maverick a very happy man,” he smiled.
“Thanks! I’m pretty happy about it myself. Just think… a little Maverick running around. It’s gonna be awesome.”
“I’m sure it will,” Cotton smiled. “Looking forward to it.”
Everything was fine until he turned his focus back to me. His eyes locked on mine, and I felt my knees begin to weaken as he declared, “We need to talk.”
I had every intention of telling him no. I did. The word was sitting right there on the tip of my tongue, but instead, I said, “Okay.”
“Alone,” he pushed. When I nodded, he took my hand and started leading me down the hall. With every step I took, I tried to muster up the hurt, all the anger I’d felt towards him since the day he’d sent me away. By the time we’d reached his room, I’d managed to work myself into quite a frenzy.
When the door closed behind us, I crossed my arms and said, “Just so you know… no one has ever hurt me the way you did. No one.”
“I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry, Cass,” he said softly. “You know you mean everything to me…”
I crossed my arms in defiance and said, “If I meant so much to you, why would you send me away like that? Why did you say all of those hateful things to me? And why would you let Sara, your ex-girlfriend, stay with you?”
He raked his hands through his hair, and with determination in his voice, he said, “I thought I was protecting you, Cass.”
I threw my hands in the air and shouted, “That’s such bullshit, Cotton! There was nothing to protect me from.”
He stepped closer to me, just inches away, and said, “Tell me this. What would you have done if I’d lost the use of my legs and couldn’t ever walk again?”
“I’d love you just the same. It wouldn’t matter to me you couldn’t walk as long as you were with me.”
“You’re twenty-seven years old, Cass. You’re going to tell me it wouldn’t matter I couldn’t have sex with you… or have kids with you? That I’d be bound to a fucking wheelchair and lose my presidency with the club? That wouldn’t have mattered to you?” he asked.
“No. It wouldn’t,” I said defensively. “I love you, Cotton. We’d figure it out. If we wanted to have kids, we could have adopted or tried in vitro. Whatever it took. And being President of the club isn’t who you are, it’s what you do. You are the only thing I care about.”
“You wanted to know why I did it. This is why I did it. I knew you’d sacrifice your life to be in mine. I couldn’t do that to you,” he explained.
“Well, it was an asshole move,” I snapped. “You don’t get to make decisions like that for me.”
He placed his hand on my hip and said, “I know I hurt you, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
“I’m not sure if that will ever happen… but you can try,” I smiled. Maybe I was a fool for giving in so easily, but I didn’t care. I wanted him. I’d always wanted him, and I was done fighting it.