No, I couldn’t do that. Not after it had taken my heart so long to heal the first time.
“Your eyes are hungry. I feel like a delicious cream donut,” I tried to do what he did and put on a smile. It was how he stayed safe. Maybe it would do the same for me.
“You’re better than a donut.” He nuzzled my neck, pulling one of my legs up to position me beneath him. “Better than ice cream, or cake, or chocolate.”
“Better than pie?” I knew his biggest weakness from when we’d dated.
“Better than rhubarb pie with vanilla bean ice cream. And that’s my all-time favorite.”
“Now you’re making me hungreee—” The word turned into a gasp as he pushed into me.
Kade’s mouth went to my neck. He kissed my throat, behind my ear, finding every sensitive spot I had. And all the while, he filled me, going deeper and deeper with each thrust, until we didn’t exist as two separate people. We were the same. We were one.
I clung to him as sensation built again, as he drove it higher. He lifted away from me to pull my thigh up, to angle me so he could drive even deeper. Then his hand stroked down my body, over my breasts and stomach, down to where we were joined.
When he touched between my legs, I went full supernova. A whole galaxy of stars exploded under my eyelids in a dazzling array of color and light. I felt and heard him exploding with me, his face pressed to my cheek, his breath warm on my skin.
And when the skies finally cleared, and we lay together panting, a single clear thought formed in my head, like the birth of a brand new world.
The thing I’d been most afraid of had happened.
I was in love with Kade Lennox.
Again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kade
I woke up with something heavy pressing into my junk.
The covers were drawn up to my chest, and I must have slept in, because sunshine was leaking in through the curtains.
Soft breathing came from beside me. Natalie. She must have her leg thrown across my groin. The object pressing uncomfortably into my family jewels had to be her knee, but she looked so peaceful in sleep, I didn’t want to disturb her.
Instead, I smiled at the beautiful sweep of her lashes, and tried to ignore the growing pain in my testicles.
Only, nope. No more ignoring.
The pain was getting worse. I had to save my nuts from being crushed.
Reaching over the blankets, I felt for her leg to ease it off.
My fingers encountered fur.
Fur?
As my hand sank into it, my half-asleep brain tried to imagine what part of Nat could possibly be that hairy. It didn’t feel like a tidy patch of pubes. More like Bigfoot.
My hand froze as I woke up properly. When I jerked my eyes down, I saw a pair of unblinking yellow eyes.
“Nemesis,” I whispered. “Get off.”
Asher’s black cat gave me a contemptuous stare. She flexed her claws, and their sharp, vicious points stabbed into my genitals. “Son of a—!” I convulsed.
The cat launched herself off my junk.
Nat opened her eyes. “Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?”
I felt gingerly for blood. “It was Nemesis.”
“Nemesis?” She lifted her head, gazing around the room, but of course the devil cat had silently disappeared. “Are you sure it wasn’t a bad dream?”
I couldn’t answer, because I was distracted by the way the sheet had slipped from her shoulders and was clinging precariously to one breast, like a mountain climber hanging from a perfect peak by the tips of his fingers.
I couldn’t help myself, I had to trace my fingers down the slope of the mountain. Not to rescue the climber, but to push him off the edge.
A phone rang.
Nat turned away from me, scanning the room for it. “Is that my phone ringing? What time is it?” She saw the clock by the bed and yelped. “The insurance people are coming to the café.” Before I could stop her, she was scrambling out of bed. “Where’s my phone? And my clothes? I’m going to be late.”
I was dimly aware her phone had stopped ringing, but my entire attention was focused on Nat’s naked form.
She was a goddess. A deity. Her shape made me want to intone a prayer. Her breasts and hips were magnificently full, her waist drawn in as though she wore an invisible corset. When she bent to her overnight bag, her bottom was breathtaking.
“Why are my clothes pulled out of my bag?” she asked. “And where are my panties?” She peered around the floor.
I fought a brief war with myself.
Both my body and mind were fervently in favor of saying nothing and watching her search.
But a small and annoying voice that sounded irritatingly like a conscience insisted I should help her.
“It must have been Nemesis,” I said reluctantly, sending a silent apology to my junk, which was now throbbing for reasons unrelated to the cat’s claws.
“Excuse me?” She straightened, a clean T-shirt in her hands.
“Asher’s cat is a panty thief,” I said.
“You’re blaming the cat?” She narrowed her eyes at me, turning the shirt the right way to put it on. The jiggle of her breasts made my mouth go dry. “Admitting you’re the one with the problem is the first step, Kade. Once you’ve owned up to your panty fetish, we can move to the next step, aversion therapy. It won’t be fun for you, but—”
“Seriously, Nemesis is…” I stopped, realizing what she’d said. “Aversion therapy? Will you show me your panties while you spank me?”
She pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. “If necessary.” She pulled the T-shirt over her head, and I couldn’t even be sorry she was partly covered. Not when she wasn’t wearing a bra or anything on her lower half. If anything, she was even sexier partly covered.
“I admit it, I have a serious panty problem.” I reached deep inside myself for the control to mimic Asher’s deadpan tone. “I
