Page 30 of Beg for You

I stared out over the rippling water.

And coming up with a solution to this nightmare was proving more than a little difficult. My meeting at the bank had been unsuccessful…and humiliating. I owned the building my gallery was in and I’d hoped I could use it as collateral, that I could borrow against it. But there wasn’t enough in it for the amount of money I needed, not even close. And my father had already borrowed against the ranch, so that was out.

My phone beeped again. I expected it to be another message from him. It wasn’t. Heat flashed through me instantly, my pulse bouncing into an erratic beat, pounding heavily at the base of my throat.

Cal.

Three days had passed since our last encounter. I’d never experienced anything in my life like what we’d shared. My face heated just thinking about it. God, the way he’d looked leaning over me, solid thighs bracketing mine, chest bare, muscles bunching, rolling with his movements. One of those big hands wrapped around the length of his cock, stroking. I’d never seen anything more beautiful or exciting in my life. Keeping my hands to myself hadn’t been an option. I’d never seen a naked man, in the flesh at least. I’d certainly never touched one—tasted one. His cock had been heavy, long, thick. The skin smooth, like raw silk over an iron bar in my hands, against my tongue. I wanted badly to know how it would feel moving inside me. I shivered, blinking down at my phone, trying to clear my head.

Cal: Today. 8.30?

I quickly typed my reply.

Me: See you then.

I shivered thinking about what might happen tonight. I’d never encountered a man like him. He wasn’t polite, or cautious, or false. He was what he was. Cal took what he wanted and made no apologies for it. And right now what he wanted was me. I’d made him lose control like he had. Me. My scars hadn’t turned him off. They didn’t seem to factor at all. Like he didn’t see them.

He didn’t treat me like I could break at any moment. He treated me like a woman, a woman he wanted, and he didn’t even attempt to hide how much.

His touch was sure, at times rough in a way I surprisingly liked. It could also be incredibly gentle. Those hands of his were so large and strong, but he had complete control over them. This shouldn’t have been surprising after seeing his drawings, but it still was. It was just another layer to the man, a man I realized I wanted to find out more about.

There might not be any point.

I quickly shut down those thoughts and typed out a reply to my father, telling him I couldn’t make it. My phone rang a minute after I sent it. I ignored him. I didn’t want to think about the decision he was trying to force me to make, and I certainly didn’t want to talk about it.

Not yet.

When I walked into Rocktown Ink later that night, I was greeted by Cal’s blue-haired brother, Dane. He was standing behind the counter, reading a magazine. His eyes lifted to me when I walked in and moved over me in an assessing way.

“He’s with a client. Should be just about finished.”

“Thanks.” I headed to the couch, and memories of what Cal and I had done there only a few nights ago flashed through my mind. My body heated, tingles skating across my shoulders, goose bumps breaking out across my skin.

“So…um,” Dane said, drawing my attention back to him.

I raised a brow in question.

“The name’s Dane. Not sure if he told you, but I’m Cal’s brother.”

“Cassandra,” I said and waited.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, look…about the other day, when you first came in. I was out of line. I acted like a dick and I’d like to apologize.”

He looked pained, and he was right, his comments had been out of line, but I had no desire to make more of it than was necessary. “That wasn’t actually an apology, you realize?” I said, because I wasn’t going to just let him off either.

“I’m sorry for being a dick,” he said.

He meant it; it was there on his face and in the tone of his voice. Regret. He’d apologized, and that was good enough for me. “I accept your apology.”

He grinned.

I smiled back.

He was an extremely good-looking guy. I could see the similarities between him and Cal. Dane was tall, though leaner than his brother, but they had the same strong features. They both had brown eyes as well, only Dane’s were lighter and had a wicked gleam to them that was very attractive.

His head tilted to the side and he winked. “So now we’re friends, how about you and me grab a drink sometime?”

As he said that, a guy walked out from the back of the shop—no, a human grizzly bear. He was huge, bigger than Cal even, and Cal was an extremely big guy. He had just as many tattoos as Cal and his brother, and he was shaking his head and looking at Dane.