AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 3
Cain’s kisses were the strangest mix of soft and sweet, blended with an intensity that felt raw and dirty. Maybe it was the way he watched me, his eyes drilling into me until the last second before his mouth met mine. Or the way his rough hands held my cheeks with such deference, such tenderness. The way he yanked my stool over to him, a possessive, unabashed quest to get me closer to him.
He was a combination I had never experienced, but one that set my heart to racing and my body tingling. I felt like I was simmering on low and with each kiss, he turned the heat up. He was barely touching me, yet I felt that edgy desire, the kind that makes you want to crawl out of your skin if you don’t get satisfaction. I wasn’t going to ask him to leave the bar again though. I did have my pride. Besides, I sensed he wanted to take the lead now and that was fine with me, because this was not my area of study.
Maybe I shouldn’t have waited so long to make this happen with a guy. A few kisses and I was desperate to jump Cain’s bones. I tapped my feet up and down urgently on the stool, agitated, wanting more, needing more. I reached for him, wanting to feel his body. I splayed my hands over his muscular chest. A lobster fisherman. I imagined those muscles were from hauling traps or whatever a fisherman did. I would have to research it, curious.
The thought irritated me. I wanted to just feel, to enjoy. But I had a million things flipping through my head, one right after the other. It was like my brain glanced at a thought for a split second, then I swiped the screen and saw the next one. Muscles, fishing, the physics of kissing, the sweetness of the booze still on my tongue, what time it was, whether or not Bella was home already, curiosity about what it would feel like to have a man inside me…swipe, swipe, swipe.
Stop it, stop it, I told myself.
Cain pulled back but hovered in close to me, his eyes locked on mine. He tapped my forehead. “Quit thinking, Sophie. Your thoughts are so loud I feel like you’re screaming in my ear.”
That surprised me. No one ever realized how frantic my brain could be. If they knew I was thinking, contemplating, they imagined it was an orderly math equation. Or they never thought about it at all. They didn’t understand the assault, the anxiety of needing to assess every angle of every situation. If I could flip Cain on and off like the light switch to test the flow of electricity, I would.
“I can’t help it,” I said.
“What are you thinking?” He straightened up, sat back on his stool so he wasn’t right in my space anymore, and I regretted it.
“It doesn’t matter.” It didn’t. “That was a good kiss.” It had been.
Cain studied me, the corner of his mouth turning up. “Good.” He reached around me and lifted his drink. He took it all down with one swallow and wiped his mouth. “I think I already know you.”
I frowned before I could stop myself. “What do you mean?”
“See, when someone is ordinary, when they play by the same rules as everyone else, same words, moves, it’s impossible to know them. To see what’s going on in here.” He tapped the side of my head softly. “But you’re different. And that makes it easier to know you. Your words are really yours.”
There are a lot of social situations where I don’t know what is expected of me or what I should say. But this was different. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the expectation. It’s that without meaning to, Cain had made me feel vulnerable. Because for the first time in a long time I had the oddest sense that he got me. He was pretty damn perceptive for a guy I had just met on the random.
“I’m honest to a fault,” I said. “I can’t help it.”
“I do like that about you. A whole fucking lot. But that’s not what I’m talking about.” His eyes stayed trained on me yet he still gestured to the bartender for another drink.
“You’re not driving, are you?” the bartender asked him.
“Dude, what am I, stupid?” Cain said, breaking away from me to glance over at the bartender. “Of course not. Just give me the fucking drink and stop trying to be my mom.”
Darryl shook his head but he did start pouring another drink. I thought about how many Cain had drunk already. Four? Mine. His. Two more of his here. Possibly one before I had encountered him. He didn’t seem even remotely drunk though. No slurring, stumbling. His eyes were clear.
“You must have a high tolerance for alcohol,” I said.
He gave a snort. “Too high. Do you want another drink?”
I shook my head. I had a slight buzz and I didn’t want that to increase. I wanted to feel everything he was going to do to me.
“Your place or mine?” he asked.
His hands had fallen to my knees and he was stroking my skin softly, working his way a little higher with each pass. “Yours, please.” Bella would have a heart attack if I brought him back to our house. There would be no enjoying sex with her freaking out in the background. “Do you live alone or with your family?”
He paused in reaching for his drink. “I live alone. You couldn’t pay me to live with my family.”
“Perfect.” I meant for us, in terms of intimacy, but when he laughed I realized how insensitive it had sounded. “I mean, not that it’s great that you don’t want to live with your family, but—”
He held his hand up. “I get it. You’re very cute and funny whether you mean to be or not. Let’s go, Sophie Bigelow.”
I took a sip of my drink. It tasted overly sweet and my nerves came back. Maybe this was insane. Going home with a guy I didn’t know. I looked at the bartender, Darryl. His eyebrows rose in question. “Am I safe if I go home with Cain?” I asked. I wanted a record of where I was.
Cain snorted.
