Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,73

back on the bed, a tangle of legs and arms as he eased his T-shirt off her body for the last time. It wouldn’t be fast and furious. It would be slow and dreamlike. Every touch and sensation to be memorized for an eternity.

Jake took in the curve of her neck, the way her hair parted to the left of its own accord, the way she arched her back when he ran his fingers in between the valley of her breasts.

He laid a trail of kisses from her sternum to her belly button. It was unhurried, and yet, it was everything.

This time, when he reached for the condom, he had to bite down hard on his tongue to quell emotions that seemed intent on overwhelming him. In the span of twenty minutes, his life had been turned upside down and he didn’t have the strength to right it.

Once he had the condom on, he settled back between Cassie’s legs. She wrapped her legs around him as he seated himself inside her. Warmth and softness enveloped him. The scent of her shampoo, the tenderness of her touch.

“Look at me, Jake,” she whispered.

It was normally him who asked for her eyes on his, but he couldn’t do it. Not when his heart was shattering into a million pieces.

He moved against her, a slow and steady withdrawal, and measured thrust. He knew enough of her body to know it wasn’t what she wanted, what she needed. She preferred fast and frenetic. But given she was leaving him, taking away his reason for being, he needed to do one thing that made him feel like everything wasn’t lost.

“Please. Look at me, Jake.”

He’d be selfish.

He made love to her the way he wanted to, no, the only way he could manage. And that was keeping his head buried in the side of her neck, where she couldn’t see the pain in his eyes.

He reached beneath her, cradling her ass. While the pace never increased, the depth of his thrusts did. He wanted to be so far into her, she could feel the perfect oneness of it.

“Jake,” Cassie cried.

He was never silent during sex, but words would trip him up. He’d beg. Plead. She’d see how much she’d hurt him, and because he loved her more than life itself, he wouldn’t lay that guilt at her feet.

He could tell the moment Cassie was headed for orgasm. Her movements became jerky, she lost all sense of rhythm. Her breathing changed to gasps of pleasure. She grabbed his face and forced him to look.

And as he came with her, pulsing deep inside her, he could see his pain reflected right back at him in her eyes.

15

“Orla, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this morning.” Cassie wiped the tears from beneath her eyes as she left the hospital, her phone pressed to her ear. “If saying good-bye to Dad was this hard, how do I say good-bye to Jake?”

They’d spent every possible hour together since the evening Jake had seen her flight confirmation and their emotions had gotten the better of them both. Sex the previous evening had combined the same desperation and magic.

“You’re going to breathe your way through it. One step, one breath, one good-bye.”

Across the lot, she saw Jake waiting by his truck. She’d snuck out like a teen going to a late-night party . . . left him in bed with a note telling him where she was. If he’d woken up and cuddled into her like he always did, she’d have caved and stayed.

“I’ve got to go. Jake’s here, waiting for me.”

“He’s a good man from everything you’ve told me. Are you sure you don’t want to stay, even for a little while longer?”

“It would just make things harder. I need to get back. You know I do. I have a life there.”

“Yeah, I know. Hugs, lovely. I’ll see you later. I grabbed you some groceries and I’ll make dinner.”

“You’re the best. See you later.”

She walked the rest of the distance to Jake. “You didn’t have to come get me,” she said.

“And you didn’t need to creep out. I knew last night was our last. I felt you pull away from me once we were done.”

Cassie looked down at her sneakers. “I’m sorry.”

Jake opened the door. “I brought all your bags from the hall. Did you leave anything else, or do you need to go back and grab anything?”

Cassie climbed inside. “No. That was everything.” She glanced over her shoulder at