Outside I get the ladder out of one of the sheds. Stinker is lying in the yard and he looks at me with his sad eyes. I look at him with guilt. I was going to take him with me when I left here, but if I go with Cade, we’ll be on the back of his bike and who knows when I can have my stuff shipped. Of course, today it’s beginning to look like I won’t be going to Kentucky. It’s only fair that I make sure he gets a chance to be adopted tomorrow—even if it might kill me to say goodbye to him even one day early.
I scratch him behind his ears and then grab one of the banners and climb up on the ladder—intent on securing it across the front of an old gazebo that’s out there. I can hear a bike coming up the driveway, but I ignore it. I also ignore how much better I feel knowing he’s here.
“Damn, it looks like Cupid has thrown up out here, Red.” I roll my eyes because it doesn’t. I haven’t even started decorating out here except for the banner. “Shouldn’t you wait until tomorrow to put the balloons out here?” he asks. Okay, so I put balloons out too. He’s also probably right about waiting, but now is not the time to point that out.
“I have a lot to do because I do all of this alone,” I mumble. “I can’t afford to wait until the last minute.”
“I told you that I would help you, Red,” he says, and I turn my head to look at him, holding onto the ladder to steady myself.
“Gee, Stud, when I woke up alone, after you promised to help me all day, I had to wonder. I mean, you didn’t leave a note or wake me up to tell me you were leaving, so I didn’t really know what to think, now did I?”
“Shit, Red—”
“When most of the day went by and I didn’t hear from you, I figured I was on my own. Again, like I always am.”
“Heavy called me and needed my help. I’m a VP of the club in Kentucky, Red. Sometimes I’m going to be called out. That’s just the facts. Weasel woke up with a stomach virus and he wanted me as back up when he went into Denver.”
“I’m not stupid, Cade. I know shit comes up. Usually, if you’re in a relationship, you tell the other person where the fuck you’re going to go—or at least if you’re leaving,” I growl.
He frowns.
“You’re right.”
“Gee, thanks, I feel so much better now that I know I have your approval for being pissed,” I snap. Turning back around, I let out a scream as I fly backward because Cade has wrapped his arm around my legs. Then, he somehow catches me in midair. I find myself cradled up against his body one minute and then thrown over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes the next.
“What are you doing?” I demand, slapping my hand on his back.
“I was an ass. I should have left a note or called. In my defense, when I headed out this morning, I didn’t think it would take this long.”
“You should have at least called me!” I insist stubbornly.
“You’re right,” he says, walking us back in the house.
“What?”
“I said you’re right. I absolutely should have. I got involved in club business and fell back in the role that I’ve had for years. I get shit done and I focus only on that. I’ve never had anything else—anyone else that I wanted to give attention to. I fucked up, but I’m still learning this relationship shit, Red. I’ll probably fuck up again, but I’ll learn.”
“You’ll learn?”
“Absolutely.”
“You know what, Cade? It’s not fair that you address all my arguments before I get the chance to give you hell,” I mutter. “Can you let me down?”
“Nope.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because I’m going to get your shit sorted, then I’m going to call the club in, and we’ll get the shit sorted for your shelter.”
I go still.
“You’re going to call the club in to help with the shelter? What are you going to have them do?”
“The same thing I’m going to do to your body,” he purrs. “Anything I want.”
My body trembles with anticipation…
16
Keys
When we make it to the bedroom, I slowly let Red go until she’s standing in front of me. Her breath is so ragged that I can see it move through her body. Every single time I hear the gentle gasp of breath exhale from her lips, it wraps around my cock. I’m so hard for her that I have to have her. I don’t think I have gentle in me.
“Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to fuck me, Stud?” Red challenges and my grin deepens. My girl doesn’t ask for slow and gentle. Maybe someday I’ll manage to give her that and make her like it, but I love that she’s just like me when it comes to this need between us.
“Strip, Red,” I growl, already in the process of doing the same. Our gazes remain in contact the entire time as one by one her body is revealed to me and we’re standing in front of one another completely nude. “You’re a fucking work of art, woman,” I growl, reaching out to slide my hand over the side of her neck, over her shoulder, slipping down to hold her breast, my thumb sliding against the stiff nipple that’s straining out and practically begging to be tasted. I was never one to resist temptation—especially when it’s as sweet as Red. I take it into my mouth, sucking on it hard, while my hand slides further down.
I run my fingers against the lips of her pussy. Bare, sweet lips that are covered in the sticky sweet wetness, that I’ve quickly become addicted to. I bite her nipple, marking it. She cries out, the pain causing her entire body to vibrate. She lets out a hungry moan that I know I will hear in my dreams for years to come.
Fuck, for a lifetime.
I drop to my knees. I can’t eat her out like I want. My dick is on the verge of exploding now. I need inside of her. The hunger is so strong that I just can’t control it this time. Still, I’m going to taste her. I can’t keep from it. I push her legs apart enough so that she’s completely open to me. The glistening wetness coating her tender flesh is beautiful. It paints the inside of her thighs, too. She’s so ready for me.
“Who owns this pussy, Red?” I rumble. My fingers draw imaginary lines from freckle to freckle along her thighs. I promise myself that one day soon, I’m going to do this with every freckle on her beautiful body, only I’ll be drawing the lines with the cum I wring out over her face, tits, stomach, and pussy, definitely her pussy…
“I’ll tell you after you do your job,” she groans. That’s my Red. She’s going to make me earn every little thing from her. Asshole that I am, I like it like that. It makes her total surrender that much sweeter.
I pull her lips apart, opening her to me. Instantly, the hungry scent of her desire hits me as I flatten my tongue out and lick up her cream, groaning as I taste her. I feel her fingers curling into my hair. She tries to pull me into her, but I don’t let her have her way. I’m the one in control tonight.
“Cade,” she whines, and I’ve never been the romantic kind of man, but my name coming out of her lips when her body is trembling with hunger is the sweetest fucking song I’ve ever heard in my life. I lap against her pussy, teasing her clit, sucking it into my mouth, feeling her quiver, her orgasm already close to the surface.