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My lips purse and I raise my eyebrow. “That’s it?” Deep down I just know it isn’t. He and Edge are cut from the same crazy, stalkerish cloth.
He eyes me warily before muttering, “I may have had a hand in making sure I helped you at the gym.” I kind of figured that one out already and I make a continue motion with my hands. “And I may have made sure that you had everything here you would ever need to cook and bake so that you didn’t have to go back to your apartment.” He holds up his hands in surrender. “But really, that’s as far as my crazy has gone.”
I tap my fingers on my thigh and give him a glare. “I swear, Jake, you better not be leaving out anything. If you are, I’ll tell Edge your secret.”
He looks at me and chuckles. “What secret? I’m not hiding anything from Edge.”
“Oh, no?” I smirk as I reach over for the TV remote. I turn it on and search through the guide for the title and hit the show that I’m looking for. “Then what’s this?” I make sure my eyes are big and innocent looking.
He blinks a few times before looking back at me. “I set that up because I figured you might enjoy watching it.”
That could be plausible, except, “Is that why you watched almost every episode of the whole ten seasons? To make sure that I would like it?” I ask sweetly.
“I wouldn’t want you to have to watch a shit show,” he mumbles.
“Oh, give it up!” I scoff at the lying ass. “We both know damn well that this show is your dirty little secret.” I flip around some more. “Just like the rest of these are.” I give him a bland look. “You do realize that it tells you the last time you watched an episode, don’t you? Most of these have been watched way before you knew me.”
He leans forward with a serious look on his face. Not too long ago that would’ve sent me running, now, I just smile. I know he would never hurt me and that knowledge makes me feel invincible. “You don’t want to start this war, Cadie. You’re not going to like how it goes for you.”
“Is that so?” I chuckle darkly as I cross my arms. “And what exactly are you going to do?”
His eyes narrow before getting a glint of inspiration. “It would be a damn shame if anything happened to that fancy bread maker and electric pasta maker. It would be terrible if they met with a horrible demise.” He shrugs innocently before reclining back into the couch like he just won. Please.
“We both know that you won’t do anything to any of the gadgets in the kitchen. You would only be shooting yourself in the foot.” I make sure to meet his eyes that aren’t looking so confident anymore. “You’re not exactly Gordon Ramsey.” I ignore his put-out look and continue, “And you like my homemade bread and pasta way too much to give up those. Face it, you’ve got no blackmail on me.”
I swear, you wouldn’t think that a man as big and intimidating as he would be capable of pouting, but that’s exactly what he’s currently doing. Men really are such big babies some days. “I’ll find something,” he grumbles making my smile widen. We both know there isn’t anything he can do to torment me. He won’t ever sacrifice his meals and treats to get back at me. Although, I should probably hide my coffee stuff. I wouldn’t put it past him to take a page from JT’s playbook and put salt in it or something.
“Unlike you,” yeah, I pause for emphasis, “I don’t have any hidden, embarrassing secrets that would get me ruthlessly made fun of by my best friend.” I smile triumphantly.
“Edge was right, you used to be a lot nicer,” he huffs with his arms crossed, looking downright petulant.
I try to get up and almost fall over because my legs and butt have gone numb from sitting on the floor for so long. Luckily, Marrow has reflexes like a cat and hauls me up next to him with laughable ease. I swear, his muscles don’t even bunch from exertion. “Thanks.” I give him a smile before continuing. “And it wasn’t that I used to be nicer. I used to be afraid of my own shadow and was too terrified to even speak. Unfortunately for you, the real Cadie, is a sarcastic bitch who doesn’t mind saying whatever she’s thinking.” I shrug. “You only have yourself to blame. You’re the one who made me comfortable, now you have to deal with the consequences.”
He’s staring at me with a small smile. And then it hits me. What I just said is true. He is the reason that I’m so comfortable nowadays. Well, not entirely, Edge and everyone else helped as well. But he came in and took his time to allow me to get comfortable in his presence. He always made sure that I knew I had nothing to fear from him. And he has been particularly careful to make sure that I’m always smiling and happy. Well… shit.
My eyes start to water against my will and my nose starts tingling. “What’s wrong, Darlin’?” He looks alarmed as he reaches over and pulls me onto his lap. “Why are you cryin’?” His voice is gruff, but his eyes are soft, so soft that they really make the water works even worse.
“It really is your fault,” I hiccup making him blink. Confusion is marred across his handsome face. “You brought me back to the old me. You gave me… me back.” I’m full-on sobbing and I don’t even know why. I just plant my face in his chest as the tears continue to fall. He patiently rubs my back while crooning nonsense noises in my ear.
He gently lifts my head when the sobs have subsided to just little hiccups. “Cadie, I didn’t do any of that. That was all you. You worked hard to pull yourself from that despair. You work hard at the gym to make sure that you can take care of yourself. You got yourself out of that bad situation and rebuilt your life.” His dark eyes are seemingly staring into my soul. “Sprite, the only thing I did was make sure that you feel safe; the rest is all you.”
“You don’t get it,” I croak, my voice hoarse. “That’s all because of you.” I sniffle.
He gives me a small shake of his head and a tilt to his lips. “Nah, you don’t get it, but hopefully, one day you will. Hopefully, you’ll see that it was all you. That you’re truly amazing and did things that some people never could. And I can’t fucking wait to see the realization hit your face. I can’t wait for you to be as proud of yourself as I am.”
“Why do you have to be so sweet?” I complain because his words are making me uncomfortable. I was barely surviving before. I did nothing but flounder around for a long time, longer than I would like to admit.
His chuckle causes my whole body to bounce. “No one has ever accused me of that.” He shakes his head ruefully. “A grumpy asshole, sure, but never sweet.”
I place my hands on either side of his face, enjoying the way his beard tickles my palms. I move my face closer and kiss him. I try to pour everything I’m feeling into it. All of the gratitude, happiness and love I have in my life now. That last one kind of makes my mind go blank because I do love him, even though it’s so soon. I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone as much as I love him. Not that I’ll be telling him that anytime soon. I may have come a long way, but my ass is still going to stay planted on the chicken side of the road. Hopefully, he can feel it though.
One of his hands goes to the back of my head and wraps around my hair to keep me in place, not that I have any intention of moving. His other wraps around my back and slides lower until his hand covers my whole butt. Either his hands are freakishly large or I really am damn tiny. I’ll just go with him being really large. No need to dwell on me being miniature.
The kiss has turned ravenous, his tongue commanding and dominating as it wraps around my own. His hand on my butt pulls me closer to him, leaving no space between our bodies. I can feel the hard length of him under me and I do what any woman would, I slowly grind myself on him causing a deep rumble to fill his chest.
Both of his hands are now on my ass and squeezing so hard I’m sure that I’ll have imprints of his fingers that I have no problem wearing proudly. I’ve learned not all bruises are bad, some make us realize that we’re living life how we want to. Just like I wore the beard burn between my legs last week after he tried to kill me through orgasms. It really wouldn’t have been a bad way to go truthfully.
All I can do right now is grip the back of his neck as he moves his lips from my mouth, to my ear and not stopping until he’s hit every sensual spot that he can with his teeth and tongue, thoroughly marking me as his. My hips continue to move on their own, trying to get the friction I need but am unable to get enough.
