“No.” Instead of being insulted, she understood. Enough people had left her for her to recognize the same fear in him.
She climbed out of bed. Coming up beside him, she placed a hand on his shoulder, the muscles hard and tense beneath her palm.
“Don’t assume I’m like everyone else you know or might have been with, because that’s just insulting.” This was no time to get into her history or her past. All he needed to know now was that she wouldn’t run away just because he didn’t fit some cookie-cutter mold. “You can’t scare me off,” she informed him.
He spun back around. “No?” he asked, admiration in his tone, appreciation in his gaze.
“No.” She rocked back on her heels so she could look up and better meet his gaze.
He shook his head and smiled, all the tension leaving his body in a rush of air. “You, Lexie Parker, are something else.”
She grinned, pleased she’d broken through his barriers and gotten through to him. “Yeah?” she asked.
“Yeah. The question is, what am I going to do with you?”
“I can think of a few things.” She waggled her eyebrows before lifting the hem of his shirt and pulling it over her head.
And those were the last words spoken for a good, long while.
* * *
Kade woke up to the sun streaming through his window and a warm, soft body beside him in bed.
Lexie.
He didn’t typically have women over. Sex? Yes. At their place, not his. He didn’t like his privacy invaded, and he loathed the awkward mornings after. Something he hadn’t given a thought when he’d taken Lexie home with him or when they had finally passed out from exhaustion last night. Or should he say from exertion?
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so relaxed or complete. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself or assume too much. Nor did he want to overthink the way he’d spilled his guts last night. It wasn’t his finest moment, yet she hadn’t flinched, except to be outraged on his behalf, which he had to admit had made him feel good.
So he decided to begin the day the same way they’d ended last night. He rolled her onto her back and tossed the covers aside. Starting at her jaw, he kissed her, working his way down her body. He licked at her jaw, slid his tongue down her neck, and nipped at her collarbone.
She moaned, obviously awake. “Good morning,” he said, lapping at the soft skin of first one breast, then the other.
“Good morn—Aah!” Her words turned to a moan when he latched his mouth around her nipple and began to tease her with his tongue and teeth. She grasped his head, keeping him tight against her chest while she writhed and moaned beneath him.
His cock pressed hard against her thigh, aching and painful, needing release. But he wasn’t focused on himself.
“Kade,” she murmured.
“Hmm?”
“I want to taste you too,” she said, reaching for his dick.
He raised himself up on one arm. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said, eyes glazed with desire.
He shifted positions so his head was level with her sweet pussy and his cock was near her mouth. He swiped his tongue across her clit, and she arched into him, but she also gripped his shaft in one hand and licked the head, coating him in moist heat.
“Fuck.” It was his turn to groan.
She pulled him into her mouth, and stars flickered behind his eyes. It was all he could do not to thrust deep and hit the back of her throat, to keep pumping until he came. But he managed to hold back and instead retain his focus on her, sliding his tongue over her sex and nipping at her with his teeth.
She bucked, her hips thrusting forward. He grasped her thigh, holding on as he devoured her, doing his damnedest to deal with the heat and rising tide of desire flooding his body while making sure she came first.
He nudged his nose into her sex, her scent intoxicating, her taste delicious. Addicting. She pumped his shaft, her hand tight around the base, his balls drawing up tight.
Without warning, she stilled, then began to tremble, shake, and moan around his cock. The vibrations set off his own orgasm, and before he could warn her, he came hard and fast, waves of unbelievable pleasure washing over him, pulling him further under her spell.
* * *
The two weeks after the gala were like living a dream. Their photograph showed up on Page Six of the New York Post, online and in print, something Lexie wasn’t used to at all. She actually clipped the picture as a memento of a special night they’d shared and tucked it away in her dresser drawer.
Most women had many experiences with the highs and honeymoon period of dating a new guy, and all the fun and euphoria that entailed. Not Lexie. John was her last serious boyfriend. She’d known then and there, if he couldn’t put up with the drama in her family, no one could. Kade had swept in and just taken over, and for now, with her sister occupied with a new guy whom Lexie had yet to meet, she could enjoy their time together. Still, knowing her sister was on a high, even with new meds, Lexie waited for the next fall. Even with the real fear in the background, she felt like she was living a dream, and she didn’t want to wake up.
Her job stayed the same. She would arrive before Kade and wait to bring him his coffee, but with the shift in their relationship, he seemed to find more ways for her to help him out—and spend more time with her during the day. At night, they went out for dinner after work and often ended up at his apartment for a Mario Party match or other video game he patiently taught her.