Chapter 41: Chapter 41

CONNOR/ KADE HAWKINS

YOU WENT TOO FAR.

NOT EVERY REDHEAD IS TINA HANKS.

SHE WAS SCARED, NEW PLACE, NEW PEOPLE, TONS OF SHIT, AWAY FROM HER FAMILY.

Ice’s words haunted me through breakfast all the way to my date with Lucia Amato, another woman who’d landed her ass in hot soup outside my club, Deluxe.

My CCTVs outside Deluxe picked up what happened yesterday. Some piece of scum threatened Lucia, her new bodyguard protected her and whilst I was grateful, she could have died and whether I was using her or not, it wouldn’t sit right with me if she did because she was a good person.

“I gotta bounce and the guys aren’t back yet from their second search”

The first search for the Zetas yesterday was a complete waste of time. The fuckers were two steps ahead of us and they’d already relocated before we caught up to them.

Then the Lucia thing happened and I was forced to check up on her, act like a loving and concerned fiancé even though I knew I fucked that up too.

“I’m on my way home”, I took a left, scrubbing a hand over my face.

“Go easy on her this time. She’s—well pretty spooked by you at the moment”

Her. Red haired Cassie, spooked? The defiant little minx spooked?

“She almost burnt down my kitchen right after I specifically asked you not to let her out of her God damn room!”

And if it weren’t for Ice’s call about my damn kitchen nearly getting blown off, I would have still been with Lucia right this damn second.

I expected it though. Having her in my house was bound to cause chaos.

The guys were entranced by her the minute they saw her, I fucking saw it and I knew her being there was a distraction. She would botch all my plans.

“She was hungry, you had her locked in her room like some prisoner. Grow a heart man”

Grow a heart? Grow a fucking heart?

It was my heart that ran our operations. My heart that defended the weak even when they didn’t know it. I had a fucking heart but I wasn’t too dumb to let it get squashed by another red head from the depths of hell.

“You are the last person who should be telling me to grow a heart, take care of things, I’ll take care of her”

I cut the call.

Half an hour later, I was chanting a calming mantra as I opened my front door.

I exhaled and inhaled hoping the cold air licked away the raging spitfire threatening to pop my veins.

I had locked her in her room as punishment yesterday what would I do to her now?

Spank her ass till she understood how things around here worked.

My thought conjured up a thought and I trampled it to the ground the way one would annihilate a disgusting roach.

I wasn’t touching a single hair on Red Cassie, I wasn’t touching those damn wrists of hers that were softer and slicker than butter, or coming close to that siren scent of hers that drew clueless sailors to their deaths.

I had barely crossed the living room when the acrid smell of something burnt hit me square in the face.

The smoke was receding fast but it didn’t change the fact that whatever Red Cassie had done to my kitchen would absolutely make me see red. Probably lash out at her like the unbothered dick I was.

I entered the kitchen.

I saw the black soot on the wall, the mess that was on the countertop, the small bits of something white on my upper shelves, the wall too and the exterior of the fridge but I was too blindsided by the sight in front of me.

Red Cassie.

Bent over near my oven, in my black ‘People are dumb’ t-shirt.

Except the t-shirt rode up her thighs, rode up her ass and I caught a glimpse of clean shaven soft like legs that ran all day.

I had seen legs of course. Had licked candle wax off a woman’s legs but Red Cassie’s legs were different?

The thought of those legs hugging my waist while I plunged deep into her plagued my mind.

But that wasn’t what made my dick hard, wasn’t what made my balls string tight with appetite, it was those damn cotton panties that greeted me on the way in.

Hugging a fat pussy, they peaked underneath that shirt and I was grasping straws trying to say anything, trying to get angry at her, to push away this insane wanting from my system.

I fucked women who wore La Perla or Agent Provocateur or one of them Victoria’s Secret thong collection not—that. Cotton.

But my dick didn’t get the memo. It throve, it craved, it wanted, it understood the meaning of cotton.

Cotton meant innocence, purity—a woman who might not have known the meaning of being thoroughly fucked, roughly spanked, well eaten till she couldn’t think of anything other than—

“Ouch! Fu-fuck!”

Cassie stood up in a frenzy wringing her hands in midair. The clanging sound of metal hit the floor and I was running to her side without even knowing it.

“K-Kade?”

Those hazel eyes with a hint of green met mine but my eyes were on her hands.

“What happened?”

I asked, she stared at me hiding her hands from me, taking a step away from me and I took another step towards her.

“Lemme see those hands”, I commanded, she didn’t take her hands from her back and my forehead furrowed at whatever games she was playing.

What games was she playing? With me? Me of all people? The me that hated her and her presence in my house and her body filling my shirt and that pussy that was still—

“I found the cleaning supplies, Cass, I’m not so sure about the— “, Ice stopped, looked between me and Cassie before he placed some cleaning rag and a bottle of some shit that looked like bleach on the counter.

Cassie turned around and I stood still where I was.

Ice called her Cass?

“Thanks so much, Ice. I really appreciate it, I’m sorry about the mess again”

She was telling him, sorry?

“It’s my kitchen”, I growled behind her, Red didn’t turn around to face me.

“You found the bleach?” she lifted the bottle of supposed found bleach,” this will do, thanks”

“You know if you want, I can help get the stains off from the walls and…”

“Leave”, my voice came harder, directed at Ice.

Ice gave me his usual grin before he turned around and I was left with little miss ‘I love Ice for bringing me bleach’.

She started moving and I was way ahead of her by grabbing those damn wrists I swore I wouldn’t touch and making her face me.

“It’s my kitchen, I’m the one who gets an apology not him”

She didn’t say shit.

“This is what we are doing now? You couldn’t win yesterday’s fight so you are acting like a kid? What is this? Silent treatment?”

Nada, not a single fucking word.

She tried to pull her wrist away from me, I pulled harder, she winced in pain.

Calming the cease fire between us, I glanced at her wrists letting her go in an instant.

Her wrists were red and freakishly pinkish with circles running around them.

Fuck, I did that? The cuffs from yesterday did that? I didn’t fucking notice.

She might not have spoken but those green brown orbs did more talking and I bet the only words they could say were ‘fuck you Kade’.

“Sit”, I pointed to the bar stools that were surprisingly the only thing standing in this mess.

She crossed her hands on her chest.

Fucking stubborn.

“It’s not the time to act tough, Red. Sit”

She didn’t move an inch, I puffed out steam.

“You are angry? I’m angry too and here we are. I fight my anger off, I shoot to get rid of the rage, what do you want to do to get rid of that rage?”

As if I had unleashed a tiger from the traveling circus, she was already in front of me quicker than I would have realized, faster than I would have dodged her.

The sound of her palm hitting me smack in the face speared the air.

She’d slapped me. Fucking hard, my jaw throbbed and I didn’t get to question what the fuck had happened when she landed another palm on my cheek.

She was strong I gave her that.

I never let anyone…no woman touch me, no woman nor man slap me, punch me without seeing the punch itself beforehand.

Red haired devil slapped me. My cheek, my jaw, my chest, then her she opened her mouth to speak and the next shit she uttered made me want to stand still and let her maul me with her tiny fists to death.

“I HATE you! I hate you; I hate you! None of this is normal—you can’t just speak and expect me to obey. You can’t just lock me in a room all alone without—I can’t adjust to all of this. My life? I was in a good place”, her fists stopped and instead she was crying on my chest.

Instead, her breaths were hitting my chest, her hair was tickling my nose and the dumb thing about all this was I let her.

I let her beat me till the copper taste of my own blood hit my tongue. The strong minx had actually torn my lower lip with a cut and I let her.

My hands caressed her back not sure what type of shit I was supposed to say to make her feel better.

Whatever demon magic she was using on me fucking worked. I was too deluded to let go. To bark at her and cuss profanities to no end.

“My life was stellar? Super stellar—my career was at the tip of success; my life was perfect and it would have been perfect had I not met you! All this—I don’t want it. I want a dorky husband who’s some lawyer at some shit company and kids—four—five kids who’ll maybe play lacrosse in future and make me want to pull my hair out”

She was spiraling and I found myself smiling like a chum.

“You’ll still get that. The dotting husband and the shitty lacrosse playing kids”, I humored, she stirred in my chest.

“I don’t think I will—my life is over, butchering men are out to get me for shit I didn’t do, for your shit”

“For my shit”, I repeated.

“I still hate you”, she fussed.

I held her,

“I know”

CASSANDRA BATES

I WAS STILL AT the height of my outburst, trying to take it down a notch by calming my heart.

His hands were huge compared to my tiny ones and I didn’t like how my heart felt, didn’t like how it beat or how my skin was painfully aware of his touch, of his presence, of his darkness.

“Feel better?” he asked, his head hung low and his eyes glued around my wrists.

I was sitting on the stool now and he was kneeling on the floor ruining his Zegna dark suit.

The suit I had already ruined with my tears and maybe snort?

What can I say? He’d locked me up in a dark room, no food, no water and in there I had been haunted by the events that had happened for the last two days.

Haunted with what this meant. I would be their prisoner till Kade caught the so-called butchers and with being their prisoner came the possibility of me being fired from my job for taking a leave without any heads up to the boss.

Then my apartment—I was already two days late on rent. Would they evict me? Thrown my stuff out?

And with all that, I raised a fit.

“Ah-“, I hissed watching him dab the soaked cotton wool around my wrists.

“It’ll sting a bit”, he said, dabbing the mild antiseptic around my wrists while I followed his actions.

Watched how his hair fell on his forehead in this slick way, watched how his lips formed a pout and how his jaw moved, watched how he blew a breath on my red wrists—an action that warmed my heart and straight down shot to my undies.

“No more lashing out on me. No more dark rooms, Kade. I’ll stay, I’ll stop fighting but I have to know what’s going on”

“Okay”, was his reply before he packed everything into the first aid kit, stood up and turned around to put the thing up there on the shelves.

His back to mine, I insisted like a child,

“I’m being serious”

“So am I”

“Well? Then start talking”, I huffed, he turned around leaning against the edge of the kitchen sink.

My tears had blurred my vision when I was beating him, when I was lashing out but I never meant to hurt him…like that.

Was that dried blood on his lip? Did I do that?

I gazed at his busted lip and Kade noticed.

“I’m sorry for that and your kitchen”

“I could have handled things better too, Red. You were hungry?”

Hungry and mad, I wanted to affirm.

I had microwaved some eggs I found in the fridge only for them to explode in my face the minute I cut them.

Then the bacon totally got burnt and I was racing around the kitchen with a pan on fire trying to find the best place to throw it. I threw it in the trashcan of course then the trashcan caught fire and I was racing again with a pot of water to extinguish the fire before Ice arrived.

I never made a meal from scratch if I was being honest. I would either burn my own kitchen down or eat something that wasn’t—consumable which was why I preferred take outs or eating out.

“I haven’t eaten anything since I met you, genius”

His face—God, was he smiling? Was Kade actually smiling?

“Let’s change that then”

Then he was moving, getting rid of his suit jacket, working his way through the kitchen like the next Master Chef.

I watched as he single handedly made a burger from scratch, crisped a few bacon strips, made a salad and all the while he cleaned my mess like it was nothing.

Who were you Kade Hawkins? What was your story? Where did the scar come from?

“This is really good”, I praised, my mouth full of the bacon, some sauce he called vodka sauce and the salad that had arugula and some kale in it.

I hated kale but this man in front of me managed to change that.

“Better than your boyfriend’s cooking?”

He was teasing or joking depending on how you looked at the situation and I should have joked along with him.

Possibly told him I had a boyfriend back at my apartment worried sick about my wellbeing, calling the police right at this very second but I didn’t because I wanted to see his reaction.

“I’ve never had a boyfriend. Casual flings, maybe but no boyfriends”

He looked at me and in Kade’s dictionary, staring at someone was gazing intently at another person with hard eyes and a smolder on his face till the other person felt like ducking under the nearest table.

“Eat your food, Cassandra”, my name bounced off his lips in a punishing way that left me parched.

The smug look on his face was still there but he seemed relieved and at the same time strained.

Could he hear my heart beat from where he was standing? Could hear my little mound pulse the way a clock did with each passing second?

And more so, did I want him to hear me? Did I want him to end this tension between us by grabbing me by the neck and showing me just how good those lips of his tasted?

Jesus Christ Cassie, get a fucking grip.

He was engaged.

“And once I finish? Do I get a detailed story of what you guys do around here?”

“After we both clean-up”

“I’m clean”

He tsked before answering,

“Your hair’s stained with my blood and you reek of burnt toast and eggs, that’s not being clean”

“You are a germaphobe aren’t you? A germaphobe you know, allergic to germs?”

“Red”

“Fine, I’ll clean up but you are going to tell me everything soon after mister”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I showered and for five minutes I was debating whether I would run to Kade and ask for a shirt or wear the same shirt I had found in here.

The one that reeked of burnt toast and eggs.

I could have worn my polka dotted blouse and skirt but eeh—they reeked too, of sweat and Kade’s cologne right after he’d wrestled my body to the ground of the parking lot where a dead man was.

I took a white robe and wrapped it around my body getting out of my room and disappearing down the left wing of the mansion.

Kade’s room was somewhere around here, I knew it because I heard his footsteps receding in this particular direction.

I placed my hand on the first door and it opened with a crack.

His wood paneled room was bathed with yellow light from the sun, a grey comforter adorned his bed and even as I ventured further into his room, I could smell him, see him in here.

I was all the way in when the sound of water streaming met my ears.

“Kade?” I called out, quickly realizing he was in the shower.

I should have turned to his closet taken a shirt and disappeared back to my room and I intended to do that until I heard,

“Fuck”, Kade groaned, I stilled, my jaw practically dropping to the floor.

Unable to stop myself, I creeped further tiptoeing to the bathroom door. It didn’t take any strength to fling the bathroom door open, only slightly.

So slightly that I could see Kade. Naked. Alone.

His head bowed, dark hair falling over his temples, his biceps flexed as his fist pumped vigorously between his legs.

He groaned another string of incoherent cusses and my breathing hitched.

He leant forward bracing the wall with his hand and I was left looking at his back. A den of muscles contracting and expanding simultaneously.

My lips fell open as I watched the sight, wetness flooding my core at the sight of his black tattoos that rippled his back and arms.

He started pumping faster, his solid muscles flexing as water traced every line of his perfect body down to his tight sculpted ass.

“Fuck”, he groaned again, his hips starting to rock and I struggled to catch my breath.

Struggled to end this hypnotization that had me glued on the spot, all hot and all too flustered to actually breathe.

I imagined those same hips rocking against me, pumping into me.

His fist moved faster and I watched as every muscle in his body flex bringing him to his edge. He groaned seductively milking his cock.

His chin lifted, his eyes squeezed shut and with a satisfied moan he exhaled,

“CASSIE…”

MY LIPS PARTED WITH A GASP, HIS HEAD TURNED. HE LOCKED EYES WITH MINE AND I WAS A DEER CAUGHT IN HEADLIGHTS.

……………………

Thanks so much for reading.

Please, please leave your comments down below, they inspire me to write faster. Also, if you have time, don’t forget to leave a review—no spoilers though-

Pardon any grammatical errors, I haven’t really edited the chapter because I was too excited to post it.

Love you all, see you then.