“I really screwed last night up, didn’t I?”
He laughed and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m just glad you stayed.” He peppered my cheeks and lips with soft kisses.
“Gage, did you really just say you wanted to claim me?”
His husky laugh went all the way to my toes. “I’ve wanted nothing else since you spilled your beer on me.”
“Oh God, we’re back to that again? Are you ever going to let me live that down?”
“Never.” He grinned wickedly as he bent down to kiss me again.
“Gage?” I asked through a breathy moan when he placed an openmouthed kiss on that spot behind my ear. “I’m in control with what we do?”
He brought his head up to look me in the eye. “Completely, Cass, do you want me to stop?”
“No, but if I do want to stop—”
“Then we stop. No questions asked.”
I nodded and sucked my bottom lip into my mouth, thinking about finally making my dreams of him a reality . . . well, some of them anyway.
“Come on, let’s just watch a movie.” He mistook my silence and grabbed my hand, towing me to the couches.
Before we got to the couch, I tugged on his arm and slowly backed up toward his room.
His eyes darkened and he looked quickly between me and his bedroom door. “Cassidy, don’t do this for me.”
“I’m not,” I said softly. “Did you already forget about last night?” I asked with a sly grin.
“You’ll let me know—”
“I’ll tell you when to stop, Gage,” I assured him.
With that, he put his hands on the back of my thighs and picked me up, and walked us to his room, his mouth never leaving mine. He gently laid us down on his bed and kept most of his weight off me while still pressing his body to mine. Bringing his knees up, he put his weight on them and unzipped my thin hoodie before peeling it off me and covering my body with his again. My hands went to the bottom of his shirt and I pulled up until he helped me get it off, depositing it on top of my hoodie on the floor. I traced the contours of his shoulders, chest, and stomach while letting my eyes memorize every square inch of his upper body. He had an amazing body—I already knew that—but to be able to freely touch it, and have the weight of it pressing down on me . . . I couldn’t help but smile as I lifted my head off the pillows to kiss him again. He met my kiss greedily and soon I was shivering when he moved lower and his teeth lightly grazed my throat. Arching my back to press my chest into him, I silently willed him to touch me. His kisses alone were making my insides heat, but I wanted more. It took me another minute to realize he wouldn’t do anything until I told him. I still couldn’t believe he was putting me in control.
“Gage,” I said around his mouth, and he just moved it to kiss along my jaw.
“Tell me what you want, darlin’.”
“Undress me.”
I was expecting him to rip my clothes off, but God, what he did was so. Much. Better. The first to go was my shirt, and as he slid it up inch by inch, his mouth and tongue followed the hem of my shirt. When it was finally off, he captured my mouth with his and kissed me until I was completely breathless. Then he tortured me the exact same way with my jeans, placing hot, openmouthed kisses all the way down my hips, thighs, calves, and feet. I knew I should have been at the very least a little embarrassed by the way I was writhing beneath him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care right now. He hadn’t even touched me yet and already I was shuddering with pleasure. He retraced his way up my body and, without lifting his head from my upper stomach, brought his hands under my back and unhooked my bra, slid the straps off my shoulders, and pulled it from my body.
Placing a hand on either side of me, he lifted himself off me and shamelessly studied every inch of me. One hand came up slowly and touched down on my lower stomach toward my hip. As soon as the tips of his fingers were on my skin I knew where they were, what he was looking at, and my body instantly locked up. I’d never let anyone other than Tyler purposefully see my scars, but I didn’t exactly have a choice since he was the one who always took care of me. How could I have forgotten about the hideous lines marking my body? Especially at a time like this. I didn’t want Gage to see this part of me. God, I should have waited until it was completely dark in the room! He’d seen the bruises for a brief moment when I moved here, but I’m sure he hadn’t even noticed these the night I walked here from Tyler’s. I preferred it that way. There were only two outcomes to this: disgust and pity. Neither of which I could live with coming from him. My hands blurred as one tried to push him away and the other stupidly tried to cover the biggest scar on my torso.
“Stop.” Gage’s voice came out so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
“Please let me put a shirt on,” I begged shakily.
“No, babe.” He gently but effectively pinned my hands against the bed. “I want to see you.”
“Gage—” I sucked in a deep breath as he dipped his head and gently placed his lips on the right side of the large scar and slowly made his way to the left.
Without looking back up at me, he broke the contact with my skin until he came upon another, slightly smaller scar and bent to kiss there as well. Over and over, Gage kissed my stomach, thighs, arms, and shoulders until every scar on my front made by my mom and stepdad had been covered. When he was done, he resumed his earlier study. Gage said something I couldn’t make out, and after another minute looked directly into my eyes, his green ones dark and full of want. “You’re perfect, Cassidy.”
G AGE
OH MY GOD, how is she mine? I couldn’t have taken my eyes away from her even if I wanted to, which I definitely didn’t. Her small body lay there; the only part moving was her chest, which was rapidly rising and falling as she watched me look at her. “So beautiful,” I muttered, and she was. Every part of her, scars and all, was absolutely beautiful.
My eyes raked over her perfectly curved hips and flat stomach leading up to a tiny waist and perfect breasts. Perfect. There was no other word for this girl lying underneath me. How could I have wasted a second of my time on any other woman than her? And yet, I’d never paid a tenth of the attention to them that I was giving to Cassidy. Every other woman had been a means to the end result, but I could have spent the rest of the night simply looking at Cassidy, and it wouldn’t have been long enough. My jeans were uncomfortably tight, but I resisted the urge to let them join the rest of the clothes on the floor and continued my visual exploration of her. I glanced over her small shoulders, dipping into her neck and up her throat before looking at her full lips, swollen from kissing and partially open. And finally, finally, I reached her gold eyes, bright with unshed tears. Mine. This beautiful girl is mine.
“You’re perfect, Cassidy.”
A sound that was a mix between a laugh and a sob left her and she tore her arms from under my hands and threw them around my neck, burying her head in the crook of my neck. She was shaking slightly and I ran my hand through her long, thick hair.
“Are you okay?” I asked when she still didn’t let me go.
Her face flashed before mine for only a second before disappearing again down my chest, where she began to place damn near torturous openmouthed kisses. But that second was enough; her eyes were still wet but she had the softest, most beautiful smile I’d ever seen on her. It was more than just my smile, and I wanted to see it again.
With a gentle tug of her hair, I brought her lips back to mine. They moved against each other for a short time and I about thanked God out loud when she arched her back and guided my head to her chest. Her hands moved to the top of my jeans when I brought my mouth to the swell of her breast and I groaned against her skin at the extra space she’d given me by undoing my jeans and pulling them down slightly.