With a growl from low in his throat, he only let me make it halfway before he plundered, his hot mouth sucking my tight nipple between his lips.
Wrapping his arms around me, he yanked me against him, his hands cupping my ass as he lifted me up until my legs wrapped around his waist—his mouth on me the entire time. Heavy footsteps echoed in the quiet house as he carried me through the living room, never once faltering as he feasted on my skin.
His foot made contact with the bottom stair and his gaze flicked to the wall, to the picture there of two young boys, smiling, together—safe.
“Can you guess which one I am?” he asked, his voice thick.
“I don’t need to guess,” I murmured, pressing my cheek to his as I looked at the image. “I’d know that boy on the right anywhere.”
He went still and turned to me. “No one could ever tell us apart.”
I slid my hand into his hair and met his eyes—the confusion there in the taut lines of his pale, haunted face.
His vulnerability stripped bare…something he’d rail against for sure the minute he realized he exposed it to me.
“I see you, Cain.” I whispered the words over his lips as I dotted his chin, the corner of his mouth, and that dimple in his cheek with soothing kisses. “And when you finally see yourself…I’ll be here. Waiting for you to let me love you.”
His eyes flashed and swirled—almost crazed with hunger—a starving man afraid to reach for the offering.
I gave him permission to go and my heart broke with it, the ache in my chest taking my breath away. I gave him everything he needed to walk away without guilt, without fear of who he’d hurt when he finally did.
I offered him every last bit of security he and I both hungered—longed for—the security we never dared ask for from the people we trusted to take care of us—from the parents who betrayed us.
My mother in hundreds of little ways.
His father in a devastating blow when Cain was at his most defenseless.
Those were our false starts.
But there’d be no penalty for the wounds inflicted by the people we trusted.
And I would be strong enough for the both of us until he caught up. I’d honor everything he did for me, for the chances he took by laying everything I had on that track in two days.
And then—well, we’d see.
“Don’t think—just feel,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. “You can doubt this all in the morning, but right now—let me love you.”
Arms tightening around me, he nodded. His body trembled under my hands, his body curled into mine, and he continued up the stairs.
Our clothes in rumpled piles on the floor, with Cain lying flat on his back staring up at me, his gaze blazing a trail his fingertips followed seconds later, I rose over him.
The minute I started to take him in, inch by steely inch, he shot up, his arms banding around me, his hands in my hair, his hot gaze never leaving mine.
Holding on to me in every possible way, even as he was letting me go.
Our bodies moved together, our hands roaming over one another, our sighs turning to moans, our fingers tightening as each roll of our hips increased our urgency—propelling us toward goodbye.
The moment he let go, his body tight, his release a low, guttural groan vibrating from deep in his chest, the broken boy he’d been showed himself in the single tear that slid from the corner of his eye right before he buried his face in my neck and retreated into the shadows again.
28
“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m nervous enough to poop. You think that would be a penalty?” Rory asked as we watched the teams prep for the first round of elimination bouts.
“I don’t recall seeing poop in the rule book,” Marty said.
“I’m going to ask you to refrain from shitting on the track. Losing is one thing, going out like that…mmm, gonna have to give that a hard no,” Eve said.
Laser lights flashed and danced over the track in the center of the brand-new Ascend Sports Complex. Music rumbled in the background as ad images flashed on the screens, one facing in every direction for the audience stuck in the nosebleeds.
Not that we expected to pack the place today. This wasn’t about that. It was about charity…and it didn’t hurt Ascend to have the bit of good press that went along with it.
Priest waved his hand at us, calling us over to a quiet spot in the corner. “Okay, a quick rundown. These teams all know each other. You’re going to use that to your advantage,” he said, kneeling down while we all leaned in over him. “You’re not seasoned on the bank in the same way. You don’t have default moves. They’ve never seen you play. I know it sounds like those are all negatives. But they’re not. They’re all going to be your advantage out there.”
His gaze swept through all of us, his sole focus on the events today and getting us to tomorrow where we’d wake up and do it all again one last time.
I took my cues from him. Too much hung in the balance to do anything else but trust him and follow his lead.
Our other baggage, we’d left it in Galloway Bay. It wasn’t going anywhere.
“They haven’t been training the way you guys have. Their season ended just over a month ago and with the confidence they have in their experience, they would have done a few practices, but nothing even close to what you guys put in day in and day out. Use that.”
Jackson passed out water—yeah, he ended up coming with us because there was no way he was going to let Priest uninvite him—something about all that powerful feminine energy
