in silence, staring up at the stars, the only sound is the hiss from the jets of the hot tub.
With water beading off my lashes, I glance over to see Sydney staring at the same sky. “Are things easier now?”
She turns her head. “What do you mean?”
“Financially. Now that you’ve rented the room out.”
“Oh, yeah. It is.”
“And emotionally?” I can’t imagine what she’s been through. He may have been a cheating asshole, but I’m sure there’s a part of her that misses him. I know because the look on her face is one my dad had many times when he’d return home, and my mom had pulled her bullshit on him. He hated what she did to him, but he still loved her. I was so fucking proud of him the day he divorced her.
An emotional laugh escapes Sydney. “Am I that transparent?”
I move closer, turning to face her. “No, but I know that look.” I wait for her eyes to find mine. There’s apprehension in hers and empathy in mine. “I know because I’ve been in your position. Well, the cheating part. If these last six months taught me anything, it’s that one lapse in judgment can completely destroy another human being.”
“Someone pull a fastball on you?”
“You could say that.”
She breathes out slowly, her cheeks red, her eyes wide. Reaching up, she touches my face. “I… like you, Cason.” Her hand drops. “And that’s a bad thing for me to have happen at the moment.”
“Why?” I move closer, my hands finding her thighs under the water. She lets me run them up the outside before I take her in my hands and position her effortlessly on my lap. With her stare on the house, she blinks and looks down at me. I know she feels my reaction to her straining against her, barely contained inside my shorts. Sliding my hands up her shoulders to the top, I push down and grind into her. A soft moan falls from her lips. “Bad can go so fucking good,” I whisper against the shell of her ear.
Her knees slide, her center in line with my cock now. I fight the urge to slip my hand between us and enter her like I want to. It’d be easy, but I’m not about to do something she doesn’t want.
“Cason, we can’t do this.”
“Why?” I latch my mouth onto her neck, eager for more. I assault her neck, shoulders, chest, anything I can with my tongue, trying to convince her this is so right.
The water splashes around us as she moves again, dragging herself up and down my swollen, very needy cock. It’s fucking perfection. Dropping my hands to her ass, I increase her motions, my body hunching forward, so desperate for more.
Her breathing hitches, and she tries to slow us down. “I’m serious. We have to stop.”
I don’t wait before I trail my mouth to hers and try to seal the deal with my kisses. I know how to draw even the most stubborn hitters into the strike zone, but this one, she’s making me work for it for sure.
Her back arches when my tongue enters her mouth, her moan released on her next breath. “We can’t.”
“Not until you give me an actual fucking reason.”
“I did.”
“Can’t isn’t a reason.” Taking advantage of the position we’re in, I drag her over my cock faster. “What about just the tip?”
She laughs into my mouth. “That’s a tease.”
I bring our mouths together again. “Please? I need you. Look what you’re doing to me.”
“Look what you’re doing to me,” she whispers, dropping her hand between us. She pushes her bikini bottoms aside, and then she rubs her pussy on the head of my cock. It’s fucking torture. “I keep thinking about you. Constantly. And I can’t.”
I pull my mouth from hers, panting. I can’t even catch my goddamn breath. “Why not?”
She swallows thickly and inches back away from me. “Because I’m broken at the moment.”
“I can give you a Band-Aid. Just sex.” I move closer again, refusing to allow space between us. “Nothing else. At least then you can forget about all that other shit when we’re together.”
“Sex? You’re offering sex only?”
No. My heart’s on the line too, but I’m not about to tell a single mother that. I swallow. “Yeah. I won’t ask for anything else. Just sex.”
She considers it. I know she does. You can literally see her thinking about it.
There’s crying from the house, followed by Sadie yelling for Sydney. “Hey, Syd?”
She jumps back away