Page 122 of Stealing Blinds

Until cerulean blue and honey amber meld to flames extinguished and busted bars.

Until all our broken pieces tumble around us to form a breathtaking mosaic.

Shards that shape us and reflect us.

I’m not a washed-up gymnast or the daughter of a murdered convict or the woman scorned who set the fire that won’t stop burning her.

Or maybe I am those things. But it isn’t the whole picture. In the depths of those alluring eyes, I am talent, ambition, heart, and loyalty.

A pillar and pandemonium. Value and victory.

His.

The babbling brook and chiming drums can’t devour our slapping skin or grunts and moans. The shadows cast from the candlelight can’t dim the electricity illuminating us. Together, we’re more—more than our pasts and this moment and the treacherous task awaiting us. Combustible and uncontainable.

“So good for me,” he praises. “Look at your pussy, swallowing my cock, Sylvie. Gorgeous.”

He pistons and pumps, and I let go and become.

A shriek of pleasure blasts out of me from an orgasm that is cliff diving and coming home—sunlight, shadows, ravaged bones, and a fervent hug. “Jesus, Cash.”

“I know, baby.” He jerks into me, cradling and decimating with every jagged thrust. “Fuuuuck,” he wheezes as spurts of his cum spill into me, but he still vows, “I’ve got you.”

And he does. He melts against me, our limbs entwined, our breaths tangled.

Hope revived.

Bliss interrupted.

The door swings open, and I swear a smile lights Cash’s face, but everything moves too fast to be sure.

“What the fuck?” Danny bellows as Cash smoothly pulls out, covers me with a towel, and jumps off. “Did you arrange this shit? Fucking sick, man.”

His indignation is comical since after he fucked around with my sister, I found him in bed with his now fiancée.

Even in the buff, Cash is cool, collected, and commanding, like most men could only be with an army behind them. “Get the fuck out of my room, Gordon.”

“Isn’t this what you wanted? To use her to piss me off?” Danny throws his arm toward me. “You’ve got her tied up in the spa? In the room next to mine when I was offered a massage?”

He never did like pranks. He’s one of those assholes who loves to dish it out, but can’t take it. I beat him at air hockey once in front of his teammates—creamed him actually—and he was pissed at me for days. Hindsight is crystal clear.

Cash lunges for him—all deranged and menacing—gripping his throat and lifting him off the ground. He only hoists him enough so that Danny’s heels are no longer flush with the floor. Danny is six-one, but somehow, the two inches Cash has on him translates to a beast and a mouse. But it’s the demented frenzy that Cash seems to be in that Danny notes. His face pales, even as he schools his expression to steely indifference and glares at every inch of my man in the nude.

“Based on our interaction earlier in the week”—Cash digs his thumb into what looks to be a healing cut on Danny’s neck—“you should have seen something coming.”

He didn’t tell me that he saw him, but I also didn’t ask.

Danny winces, but the pressure on his vocal cords must not be too debilitating. He flicks his gaze to me, feigning concern that was lacking when I was grieving our baby. “He’s using you, SJ.”

It’s strange how time and distance and new angles change things, rendering what was once convoluted utterly transparent. I suppose I could feel stupid, but I choose to be grateful.

“I don’t go by that name anymore.” I flash a cheeky grin. “And maybe I’m using him.”

“Are you?” he scoffs, still suspended against the wall by the naked Noire. “You loathed hockey violence, but this shit you’re okay with?”

“I’ll take those questions one at a time,” I sing, and Cash bites back a smile, relishing my postcoital confidence. “I’m absolutely using him for his huge, pierced dick—even you can’t stop looking at it—but I’m also in love with him. And from where I’m tied up, this violence is far more entertaining, though I do prefer to be the one he’s choking.”

“I’ll be your boy toy, baby.” Cash glances over his shoulder at me with a proud wink before flashing a wicked grin at Danny. “She’s a fucking keeper.”