I’d never been asked into those intimate places with other girls. Or maybe I had never cared to be asked. It didn’t matter. The bottom line was that Cadence and I were in uncharted territory.
So I cleaned up my room for her and took a shower and made sure the mood was acceptable to get her out of most or all of her clothes. Which meant candles and a good, lyrically deep, emotionally nuanced indie mix playing.
I was waiting in the kitchen when she scratched at the door. I opened up and she smiled at me. A smile like I was the only person in the world she wanted to see. A lot of girls had probably smiled at me like that before, but I had never bothered to give a damn.
With Cadence it was all I was waiting for. I pulled her into the house and let her come at me. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I navigated to my room, Cadence kissing my face and neck and ripping at my shoulders and bucking against me.
It was fucking hard to keep quiet.
We fell on my bed and she pulled my shirt over my head. I gave her the same treatment. She snuggled down on top of me, all soft, warm girl boobs and hot everywhere kissing. All it took was a flick of my fingers and her bra was gone, one push to get her pants off, and then…nothing. She wasn’t wearing anything else.
“Saxon!” she said against my ear, her hands fumbling at my pants. She yanked them down, and my boxers with them and I kicked them the last of the way off.
I rolled her under me and kissed her harder, my hands on her and my lungs pulling deep breaths of her into my body. She was fantastically good smelling and tasting. Her arms and hair were tangled around me, trapping me. I was happy to be trapped for once.
I ran my hand up and down the long length of her back. She kissed me softly.
“You look like Juliet.” I rubbed my forehead against her shoulder.
“Like Romeo and Juliet?” Her fingers combed through my hair, pushing it back off of my face.
My lips traced all along her arms. “Yeah.”
“How do you know what Juliet looked like?” she asked, kissing my bottom lip.
“From what Romeo said,” I told her. “Dark haired. So pretty it would stop your heart.”
So I was paraphrasing. I was probably high as a damn kite when we read Shakespeare in school. Every time we read Shakespeare in school. But I did know that Juliet was dark-haired. And stunning. Like stars or jewels or flowers. Or Cadence.
“Do I stop your heart?” She pressed her hand over my chest, over my racing, flipping, pounding heart.
I could hardly see the green in her eyes, her pupils were so huge and black. Her left ear was pierced twice, and there was a beauty mark next to it. The right was pierced three times, but one was closed up. She had told me all about it. And the funny thing was, I had been completely fucking fascinated by her ear-piercing stories.
“No.” I pulled her hand down to my chest, over my heart. And my work-hardened pecs. No point in having a developed set of muscles if you didn’t get to make a girl sigh over them once in a while. “You give my heart something to beat for.”
“You’re just trying to get into my pants.” She nuzzled my neck.
“You don’t have any pants on,” I pointed out.
She wiggled under me. Pantless.
We had talked about a lot of things together; friends and enemies, parents, school, music, movies, food. Almost everything. But we had rattled around sex.
Thanks to her noisy clan of a family, we didn’t get a chance to physically get this far often. And when we got here, there was never any time to get anything good started. But tonight, as far as I knew, we had all night.
“Juliet was a virgin,” Cadence said suddenly.
I put my hands on her shoulders and slid them up and down along her body, as far as my arms could reach. I liked the line of her from shoulder to thigh and back again. I was memorizing curves spread along warm, smooth skin.
“Yeah.” I was careful and would keep being that way. With whatever she wanted to tell me.
“I’m not, Saxon,” she said, reaching a hand up to smooth over my eyebrow.
“Me neither.” I rubbed her gently.
“But no one expects you to be.” She tensed and jerked away a little bit. “Are you disappointed?”
“That you’re in my bed, naked? Yeah, Cadence. I’m heartbroken,” I joked.
“That’s not what I mean.” Her eyes were wide and a little worried. Her dark hair was all around her face, some pieces stuck to her cheeks.
“I’m not disappointed. If I was, then I wouldn’t deserve to be with you anyway.” I moved a piece of her hair that had fallen in front of her mouth.
“I don’t want to talk about the other times.” She set her mouth in a hard, determined line.
“That’s okay,” I told her. I meant it. Shit, if we started sharing back and forth, I’d need the whole night just to finish.
“They weren’t terrible or anything. They just…I kind of wish I could get a do-over with them. You know?” She closed her eyes and kissed my lips softly.
“I kind of wish I could get a do-over, too,” I confessed. “I regret not being with you first, Cadence.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head back and forth.
“For me either.” There wasn’t a way to touch her enough. My hands were everywhere and completely unsatisfied. “We were with who we were with. And who I was with led me to you. Somehow. I’m just glad that’s where I wound up.”
“They only liked me because they thought I was pretty.” She pressed her nose to my shoulder. “I think, for awhile, I only liked me because I thought I was pretty.”
“Didn’t you like you because you were smart?” I asked, kissing the top of her head.
“Not really,” she said, then pulled back and raised her eyebrows at me. “You think I am?”
“Do you think you are?” I volleyed.
“Yeah.” She smiled, and if sex could be an expression, it would be the one on her face. “I am.”
“What about the fact that you work hard?” I pointed out.
“Ugh,” she sighed. “You make me sound like some kind of work horse.”
“You inspire me.” I squeezed her bicep. “I’ve never had a girlfriend who could benchpress me.”
Cadence laughed, and I had to put my hand over her mouth to keep her from waking Aunt Helene. She had a fantastic laugh, but no volume control.
She licked my palm.
“There are better uses for that tongue,” I said.
She licked my face.
“Not exactly what I was thinking.”
She licked my nipple.
“That’s more like it.”
She licked all the way down until she was where I had jokingly directed her, but I pulled her back up.
“You don’t want it?” she asked, and seemed really surprised. Although, I guess that was fair.
“I do.” So badly I was shaking hard. “I want it. Just not first.”
“What do you want first?” She gave me a look that I just couldn’t read.
“I’ll do for you,” I suggested. She bit her lip a little and kissed me slowly.
“Why you first?” she asked.
“Or at the same time.” The logistics were getting sticky fast.
“Do you have a condom?” Her voice was all business.
“I do,” I said, and I went completely hard at the mention of it.
“Let’s have sex.” She said it matter-of-factly.
And then we didn’t say too much. I reached into the drawer by my bed and pulled out a condom. Cadence slid it out and put it on me with expertise I wasn’t about to dwell on. Then she moved over me and slid down, fitted me in and pressed until I was completely inside of her. And it felt fucking amazing.
I had done this a hundred times before. Probably more. But this time there was something else happening.
I had this person who I gave a shit about, and pleasing her meant something.