voice cracks and he doesn’t even try to hide it. “And loving you screws me up most of all, but in the best possible way.”
My mouth drops open and my breath catches. Any comeback I might’ve had vanishes just like that.
He brushes his fingers past my temple and into my hair, his eyes burning into me as his lips drop to rest against mine. “Love is meant to twist you up, spin you around, and tilt your whole world. Real love makes it worth the ride—the ups, the downs, the screw-ups, the make-ups . . . especially the make-ups.”
My breath catches and I gulp in air. He doesn’t stop though.
“You know me,” he says low and deep, invading my space. “You know that I’m nothing like my parents—my father—I’m my own man and I’m proud of every damn thing I’ve done and achieved because I did them for me. I never—and get this, Abi—never wanted you to change because to me, you’re perfect just the way you are and you always have been.” He dips his head so that we’re as close as we can be without touching. “The woman I met a year ago was one of the most self-assured women I’ve ever known. She knew herself, she did whatever the fuck she liked, and she apologized to no one for it. If you don’t see that anymore, I want the job of getting you back to that place.”
“Okay,” I whisper, letting his words and the strength behind them wash over me.
I put my hands on his hips and dig my fingers in, pulling him closer. His hands run down my elbows and rest on top of mine. Unable to help myself, I smile up at him.
“There it is,” he says quietly. He lifts his hands up to frame my face. “That smile, that light in your eyes—that’s what I was looking for.”
“What?” I whisper, my throat tightening.
“I knew something was wrong, but you weren’t letting me in. Thomas said last weekend that I should check on you but when I came over, you were fine—or just good at hiding it.
“I needed time.”
“Why? Tell me why you hid it from me.”
I lean into his hand on my cheek, deciding then and there to do it. I will say it all, tell him exactly what’s been eating away at me every time his parents do something against me. “Can I get my drink first?”
“Only if you pour me one, too.”
“Deal,” I whisper, my breath catching when his thumb sweeps my skin before brushing over my bottom lip.
“Whenever I have a bad day, I just need to see this smile to make everything worth it.”
“Cade . . .” My eyes soften, and my smile fades as tears sting my eyes.
“A patient can come in that’s too far gone and what gets me through is this smile,” he says huskily, his fingers flexing.
“You’re gonna make me cry and I. Don’t. Cry.”
A wicked grin curls at his lips. “Well, there was the time I gave you that triple orgasm. I swear there were tears in your eyes after that.”
“I want you to tell me everything and I promise, whatever it is, we’ll get through it. If we can survive my parents, we can survive anything.”
“You honestly believe that, don’t you? You believe in us that much?”
“I don’t need to believe in us. I know it’s true because I’m absolutely gone for you, Spitfire.”
My heart stutters, my stomach doing somersaults because I know then and there that I’m deeply in love with this man—evil family and all.
I glide my hands up his sides to rest lightly on his chest. “And I’m one hundred percent, head-over-heels in love with you too, Cade Carmichael Carsen the Third.”
“What are you doing?” she shrieks, her hands gripping my waist as I hoist her up over my shoulder and carry her down the hallway.
“We’re going to bed, and I’m going to work you up until you’re ready to burst, then do it over and over until you get it through your head that you were—and still are–everything I want and have been from the moment I locked eyes with you.”
She stops fighting me, her flailing limbs going limp, her hands now moving with purpose to my waistband and pushing down my sweats, forcing me to step out of them as I walk. At the same time, I repay the favor, flipping her back over my shoulder and throwing her—albeit gently—down onto the mattress. Then I’m lean over her, stripping