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“You know you’re not making this easy for me,” he says, his voice thick with desire.
I turn towards him, meeting his gaze and finding nothing but sincerity in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
Caden reaches out and takes my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. “I mean I want you, Summer. And it’s driving me crazy being this close to you and not being able to have you.”
My heart skips a beat at his words, and I feel a surge of desire deep within me. “That’s a conversation you need to have with your brothers.”
“Don’t you get a say?”
Blinking, I take that in. “Yes, obviously, but I would never do anything to hurt them.”
“Noted.” He lets go of my hands and sighs.
“Can we talk?”
“About what?”
“You, me, I don’t know, whatever.”
“You want to get to know me?”
“Is that okay?”
He grins. “Sure, I’m an open book.”
“Unlike your brothers then.”
He snorts. “Brooding assholes. What do you want to know?”
“I know about your childhood, your shared childhood, from what Ciarán and Cathal have mentioned.”
“Figured. And?”
“And I want you to know that I’m here for you if you want to talk.”
“Yeah, I get that. I honestly don’t have much to say. I mean, growing up, it felt like I was constantly walking on eggshells, trying not to set my dad off. And with my mom gone, there was no one to protect me or my brothers. We had to rely on each other to survive.”
“It sounds awful, and I can relate. Not to all of it, but I was raised by my aunt, and she was cruel and heartless.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, angel. You deserve so much better than some old bitch being a dick to you.”
His words are blunt, and they make me giggle despite myself. “Thanks. No one has ever put it quite that way, and I appreciate you for it.”
“Well, life dealt us a shitty hand, but I made the best of it,” he continues, matter of fact. “I did what I had to do to survive, and it paid off.”
“How do you mean?”
“I turned the tables and made it into a game. I went all in and gave those who paid for us the time of their lives. It was easy. I love sex, always have, still do.”
“Jesus, Caden,” I mutter, eyes wide as he reveals this to me.
“Yeah, it sounds crass and fucked up, but I was raised to be fucked up. Why not go all in? Ciarán and Cathal were different. They took it all as punishment. I chose the brighter side of life.”
“But you still ended up in the mafia. So not that bright,” I point out.
“Well, you got me there. It was just what I knew how to do.”
“You’re so strong, Caden. You’ve been through so much, and yet you still manage to be this incredibly optimistic person. It’s weird. You’re the exact opposite of your brothers.”
