Chapter Four
Lying in Cade’s, big, platform bed Ella stared at the digital clock on the dresser and held the house phone to her heart. The green light marking time taunted her with a never-ending night. One o’clock shined into her eyes. Five and a half more hours until sunrise.
With Cade’s wood and whiskey scent wrapped around her like a cozy blanket, she boiled in the sheer nightie Josie bought her. Concentrating on anything but Cade sleeping naked on the other side of the bedroom wall stood an impossible task. She couldn’t fall asleep, or she might have a sexy dream. What if she called out his name in her sleep? What if he came to her wearing nothing but green-plaid boxers like he did in her fantasies? What if he didn’t?
She dialed Maddie.
“Cade?” Maddie answered. “Tell me you didn’t give Ella your cell, or I’ll have to make sure my perfect, twin babysitters are still here and not on their way there.”
“It’s me,” she said. “You have my cell phone and don’t think you’re off the hook on that one.”
“What is wrong?” Maddie said.
“Everything is wrong,” Ella said. “Josie packed me a sheer nightie. I didn’t even know these things existed. Greg never bought me this kind of stuff. I never shopped for this kind of stuff. I slept in his T-shirts.”
“It’s one o’clock, Ella. Why are you calling me? I know it’s not about a sheer nightie.”
“Cade asked me back to the main house for dessert, and when we got back, we had dessert. Real dessert. He’s acting kind of weird. He barely said two words after dinner. He’s never been quiet the entire time I’ve known him. Is he normally the silent type?”
“Cade Jackson is not quiet. Let me call and ask what the deal is.”
“No,” Ella said firmly. “You are not calling him. I don’t think he’s into me. I’m going home as soon as the sun rises.” She threw off the covers. “I can’t believe I’m here acting like a fool in this stupid nightgown. Would it be too rude to ask him to take me home now?” I’d rather be home with the power off than here with fickle Cade.
“Wait, wait, wait. Ella O’Brien Winthrop, you are not going home. He’s into you. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing, but believe me, he is totally into you.”
Ella stood up and walked to the luggage case Josie bought for her. She squatted down and opened it. “You are wrong. I don’t need this right now. I just lost my best client to find out he doesn’t want to even kiss me.”
No response came from Maddie.
“Maddie, are you still there?”
Silence.
“Maddie? Maddie?”
“Ella,” Josie said. “Do not go anywhere.”
“What are you doing on the phone?” Ella asked. “Josie, this is private. Why are you at Maddie’s?”
“We’re on conference call,” Josie said.
“Sorry,” Maddie said sheepishly. “But Josie knows Cade better than anyone.”
“Please don’t tell me you dated Cade.” This just got freaking worse. If you even touched Cade like a lover, the weekend getaway is one hundred percent over. I’m never seeing him again. Ever.
“Gosh, no. Gross,” Josie said. “He’s like my big brother. Ella, what the heck are you doing by yourself?”
She did not want to deal with Josie’s blame game. So she did what she always did—told the truth. “Well, your buddy fired me as his massage therapist. Thank God for the little things, ’cause I don’t want to see him after tonight’s disaster. I kind of hit on him. I thought he might kiss me. Then, when we got back here…”
She picked up a damn-near transparent white bikini top from the luggage case. “He turned to ice. We had dessert. Real food dessert. Then, while I got a drink of water from the kitchen, he grabbed his things from his bedroom. I walked into the bedroom, and he practically ran into the room next door without saying a word.”
“What?” Josie said, seemingly confused. “Not Cade.”
“Yes, Cade.” She placed the bikini top back in the case. “He barely said anything all night. One minute he stood so close, and the next he backed up or turned me around and asked me about the kids.”
“Oh, I’m calling his ass,” Josie said. “This will not do. What the…”
A loud crash thundered from outside her window.
“Ahh,” Ella screamed, leapt up, and ran toward the bedroom door.
Cade burst into the room. “Ella, are you—”
She collided into his brick chest.
His arms swiftly wrapped around her and caught her.
“Cade, something’s outside. It’s trying to get in.”
Another loud boom bellowed from the backyard.
Startled again, she jumped. “Cade, do something.”
“Sweetie, that noise is just some raccoon trying to get in the metal garbage bins,” he said softly. “You’re safe with me.”
“Oh.” She exhaled and stepped back. “Sorry.”
She placed the phone to her ear. “I freaked out over noth…” She looked at Cade for the first time since he barreled in to save her.
She swallowed. His dark tee was on backward. His unbuttoned jeans were zipped halfway and almost ready to fall down over his hips.
“Ella.” His chest heaved with exertion. “You look so beautiful.”
“Hang up the phone,” Maddie said.
“No,” Josie said. “I want to hear how this goes down. Ella, do not hang—”
Ella tapped several buttons on the house phone as she stared at Cade’s bulge. Heat flooded her system, and cream slid onto the sheer strand of fabric between her legs. She dropped the phone on the plush carpet under her feet. She needed him. She craved him.
“I’m trying to take this slow. Listen instead of talk. But damn it.” He took a step toward her. “I’m a talker. You know that about me.”
“Uh, huh.” She inched toward him.
“I don’t take things slow.” His hands slid around her waist.
Mr. Cade Jackson, her fantasy lover, was finally taking charge and talking. Please let this really be happening.
“I’m not going to presume you want me.” His lips hovered over hers. “I want to sleep with you. If you don’t want to be with me, tell me now.”
She raised her gaze from his lips to his brown eyes. “I… It’s…” She nodded.
“Say the word, ‘red’, and I’ll stop, but until then, I’m going. I’m going to talk.” He squeezed her ass firmly. “I want you curled up next to me for the rest of the night. I want your soft, sweet, little body writhing under me. I want your warm, wet pussy tightening with an orgasm around my cock. I want to pump my cum inside you, making you mine.”
The rush of blood coursing through her body thundered in her ears with anticipation and excitement. No one had ever spoken to her in such a dirty, sexy way, not even in her dreams. She liked it. A lot.
Tongue-tied, she struggled to speak and think. From the way her lips parted, and her breathing accelerated, he probably knew it. At least he couldn’t hear her blood pounding in her ears, blocking all sound, as it raced through her veins.
“Ella, I want you in the worst and best way. I want.” His hands slid upward from her ass and traveled the curved path of her body parts. He skimmed up her arms over the sheer fabric of her nightie. “I’m going to make you mine in every possible way. I’m going to bury my face in your creamy pussy until you beg me for my cock. I’m going to fuck you until you scream my name. I’m going to tie you up and take my time getting to know your sweet body better than you already know mine. Does that scare you?”
She shook her head. It didn’t scare her. It so did not scare her.
“Have you ever had a man take every inch of you?” He brushed his lips across hers.
She shook her head. No. Greg epitomized vanilla sex. What Cade suggested was anything but vanilla, and she wanted it. She needed it.
He crushed his smooth lips against hers.
She had never experienced anything quite like the passion Cade aroused in her. Greg was sweet and gentle, while Cade was…not.
“Damn it, kiss me back,” he ordered.
She parted her lips and thrust her tongue into his mouth. She stroked his tongue. She let go of a portion of her control and handed him a small piece.
His moan encouraged her to surrender more control.
Her hands glided under the fabric of his cotton T-shirt. She needed to feel the flesh of his back, his ass, any part she could get her hands on.
Their tongues danced as if they had been partners for years. Her nimble fingers unzipped his fly as if she’d done it thousands of times.
He grabbed the back of her nightie and ripped it down the center. Then, in one sweeping motion, slid it over her shoulders, letting it float like a leaf on a gentle breeze to the floor.
Fire blazed in his eyes as he scanned her almost naked body. “You’re so beautiful.”
He stepped out of his jeans and kicked them behind him.
She pushed his shirt up over his chest and held back the moan begging to come out at the sensual sight of masculinity in front of her. “Cade, I don’t know. It’s been so long.”
He pulled the rest of his shirt over his head and stood in front of her in black boxers. “Don’t think about how long it’s been. Think about how much I want you.”
She reached up and stretched her arms over his broad chest. She lifted her heels and pushed up onto her tippy toes to get the extra few inches to curl her hands around the back of his neck. With his guidance and encouragement, she’d live out one or maybe two of her fantasies. Greg’s death taught her—life is fleeting. She had to take hold of moments like these and live them. The chance might never come again.
He bent his knees and lifted her up by her hips as if she were a fragile piece of priceless crystal weighing nothing. “You’re so small.”
“You’re so big.” Everything about you is larger than life.
She licked the curve of his neck, salty and clean like the perfect male. So healthy. She sniffed his neck, wood and whiskey. Home.
The sensation of ice shocked her back, making her body stiffen as it pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window on the east side of the bedroom.
“Sorry, but I’ve got to have you. Now.” He ripped the sides of her panty and tossed them on the carpet. “I’ll buy more.”
Her legs circled his waist for the hopefully blissful moment sure to come. His thick cock rubbed against her dripping, wet folds. “Cade,” she whispered.
“I’m not going to last long.” He muttered. “Normally I’d be more patient, but tonight has been torture.” He pressed his bare cockhead inside her. “This isn’t a one-night stand to me, or I’d wear a condom.”
The hard cock entered her sex like a thick rod of molten heat filling her empty channel. Her pussy walls contracted around him in delicious waves of pain and pleasure. He stretched her to capacity, and still she wanted…
“More.” She whimpered. “Please, more.”
He thrust deeper then stilled.
She raised her lids and gazed at his handsome face. The feral look in his eyes changed something inside her. She was a woman again, not just a mom, not just a widow.
“Please, don’t hold back,” she whispered. Take me like a caveman. I’m ready. I want it.
He ground his teeth together. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
He carried her to the bed and knelt beside it. Her butt hit the edge of the mattress. His cock inched slightly out with the bump.
She sucked in her stomach and squeezed her pussy around his cock. Want me forever.
He pushed her back until she lay on the soft ivory and brown comforter, never taking his heavy gaze from hers.
“Please,” she begged him. “I need you.”
“Tell me exactly what you need.” His thick cock slid fully inside her.
“Yes.” She sighed. “More.”
“More what?” he whispered.
“You,” she pleaded. “More of you.” She needed him to move inside her and take away the ache and loneliness he threatened to ease, if only for a few minutes.
His hand glided over her belly and chest. “Do you want my cock driving in and out of your soaking wet pussy?”
A low sound of desire escaped her lips. Yes.
He hovered over her and whispered into her ear, “Tell me. Say the words. I need to hear it.”
All embarrassment faded into thin air as she shouted, “Fuck me, Cade. Please. It’s been so long.”
He feverishly thrust in and out of her. Faster. Deeper. He lit up sweet spots inside her that had been long neglected and gave her exactly what she needed.
She threw her head back, closed her eyes and writhed beneath him. “Yes.”
He took control and tenderly pinned her arms overhead with the perfect amount of force.
She gladly surrendered.
In and out. In and out. He thrust inside her. His cock tapped a spot that shot a jolt of pain into her belly. She gasped.
The pain quickly morphed to pleasure. “Oh, my God.” She moaned. “Again. Again.”
With more fervor, he thrust in and out and sent his thick cock directly to the same spot. Pain. Pleasure.
She countered his thrusts, joined him, and pulled him into a beautiful rhythm of hungry, passionate sex. She rocked her hips, ground her swollen clit against his pelvis. She needed a sexual release more than she needed food or shelter.
“Look at me.” He slowed down the methodic thrust of his hips and gave her a taste of the heated desire he controlled like a master.
She opened her eyes to witness his fiery gaze locked on her. She recognized the look in his eyes. Greg had the same look when they made love, a physical hunger from deep within his spirit. The desire had sucked her into Greg’s world and allowed him to consume her. Cade held the same power over her…if she gave her heart to him.
The slow rocking turned into long, deep strokes. The long, deep strokes increased in tempo gliding in, and out of her silky sheath leading into delirious, passionate thrusting. Her pussy walls clamped down around him. Sweet spots lit up inside her.
“Cade,” she shouted. She rode the tide of complete bliss that she hadn’t experienced in five, long years. He’d awakened her need to be intimate with a man, not just any man—him.
“Take me with you,” he ordered.
The ripples of pleasure increased as she dug her feet into his ass and angled her hips for more. “Harder. Make it last.” Greedily, Cade’s grip tightened. He pulled out and drove into her with a force and desire that rocked her world.
In and out he hammered, faster and faster, shooting hot beads of cum deep inside her. “Ella, my Ella.” He thrust one more time and held onto her, mumbling her name over and over.
Tears gathered in her eyes as her brain comprehended what she’d done. Cade was the only other man besides Greg she’d ever slept with.
“Sweetie, did I hurt you?”
“No. You didn’t hurt me at all.” Far from it.
He made her want more out of life. He made her want him for the rest of it.
She exhaled and tried not to break down in front of him. But the fluid building in her eyes leaked onto her cheeks anyway.
He wiped away her tears while his cock stayed buried inside her.
She didn’t know what to do with her hands now that it was over, and he had released his hold of her arms. Greg had never held her like a possession. He’d never talked dirty. He’d never fucked her wildly like he owned her. Greg had sweetly made love to her until he couldn’t anymore. After awkwardly patting her hands on his shoulders and up and down his sides, she curled her hands comfortably behind his neck. “Sorry.”
“Don’t say that.” He rolled over and took her with him until she lay across his chest. “I’m not sorry.”
She nestled her face against his chest and hid her embarrassment. “I’m not sorry about what we just did. I’m sorry about the tears.”
He wrapped her in a tight embrace. “Are you okay?” He squeezed her and loosened his hold.
“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and sighed. Exhaustion took over her mind and body. “Better than okay.”
His chest rose with an inhale. “Good.” He exhaled. His limp cock slid from her pussy.
All the stress and insecurity from earlier vanished. For the first time in five years she’d experienced absolute sexual satisfaction. “Cade.” She yawned. “I like that you’re a talker.”
He rolled to his side. She turned around and pushed her back against his front. He curled his body around hers and pulled the covers over them. “Sweetie, sleep. I’ll talk your ear off tomorrow.”
“You better,” she mumbled. Real Cade is much better than the fantasy. She breathed in his wood and whiskey scent and hoped he’d be up for another round soon.