Page 170 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

Catherine shrugged. “I don’t know; why would I?”

Cross dropped the cigarette to the silver tin at his feet. It would be the last one he ever lit in his life, guaranteed. “Because, Catherine, it’d be gone. And now it is. That’s why.”

She rolled over in the hot tub, all naked shoulders and breasts peeking out of the steaming water.

“So … that’s it. You’re done because I don’t like it.”

Cross leaned on the balcony, overlooking the city and enjoying the movement down below. “Yeah, babe. Whatever.”

Splashes made him look over at her again, only to find Catherine was crawling out of the hot tub, and wrapping herself in a towel. His towel still hung tight around his hips, and he was enjoying the chill racing over his skin after being in the too-hot water for a half of an hour. Catherine tucked herself into his side and back, resting her head on his shoulder blade in silence.

“Come here,” Cross said in a murmur, wrapping an arm around Catherine to pull her in front of him. He hugged her there, before falling back onto one of the over-sized wicker chairs. She rested in his lap, straddling him naked under a towel, with damp hair and glittering eyes. “Love you.”

Catherine smiled. “Always.”

Her mouth found his, all lips and teeth and tongues warring while her teasing hands shifted towels and found his cock to stroke him hard, until he was groaning into her mouth and reaching for his pants. He couldn’t get the condom out and onto his length fast enough.

Not with Catherine whispering into his ear, breathing the same word over and over and over. “Please, please, please, please.”

She only settled—quieted—when he was buried deep inside her. His fingers dug into her ass, and her bottom lip was caught between his teeth. So sweet and lovely and fucking perfect. It never changed. It really only got better, he thought.

A shift of her hips, the squeeze of her thighs, her shaky sigh, her fingernails digging into his chest, and her head tipped back … perfect. The rhythm was all too familiar, and he rarely needed to urge Catherine on to do anything when she was riding him. She had her way. How she grinded her hips and took him deeper. How she held her breath and squeezed his cock when she was getting closer. He could feel the shivers racing over her skin and her green eyes darken … so wild.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Cross breathed into her throat.

Harder.

Faster.

Deeper.

He couldn’t breathe, and she was heavy lidded and whispering again.

Please, please, please, please …

She came with clenching fingers, trembling thighs, and the softest cry, all content and relieved at the same time. She tucked herself closer into his body, hiding her face in his neck as he dragged her harder into his body, so close to that goal himself, and wanting it bad.

Dopesick, he thought.

On Catherine, he was always fucking dopesick.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Cross mumbled into her hair as he finally felt that tightening in his groin and the heat in his spine release. He was so damn deep in her and breathing. There was his breath again. “Christ, yeah.”

Catherine kissed his throat. Cross kept his face buried in her hair and scent, refusing to budge an inch. This was a good place to be, anyway.

“You’re the only one I let touch me,” he heard her say, though her words were so soft. They traveled away with the city noise down below. “I don’t let anyone else, ever. I can’t. I’ve tried when we’re not doing our thing, and it’s like my whole body just goes into a shutdown. I don’t know how to stop it. It’s like there’s this disgusting feeling crawling all over me.”

Cross tightened his embrace, holding a trembling girl tighter, who never said what was really wrong, and always made him figure it out himself in the end. He’d long suspected that what happened months ago with Derik had been a start of a downward spiral for Catherine, and he wasn’t sure if she was coming to the end of the fall, or was still in the middle of it.

How was he supposed to catch her if he didn’t know when she was going to come crashing down?

“Why didn’t you tell me that before now?” he asked.

“Not with you. Never with you.”

“Catherine.”