Chapter 55: Chapter 55

CASSANDRA BATES

EVER BEEN KISSED like…well I don’t know like you were the most freaking important being in the world?

I had been kissed by a lot of guys, no question about that and the only guy who’d come close to making me shiver from a mere kiss was JACE BUT KADE?

He redefined what a kiss stood from the minute his tongue plunged into my mouth impatiently giving me a glimpse of him and trust me, the dude tasted like he looked. So strong and so intoxicatingly bad.

Bad in a good sort of way. Bad in the sense of ‘you kissed him, that’s bad’ but good you know? God what was I even saying?

Hand on my chin, the other hand nervously tapping my skirt, I gazed out the window trying to make my heart at least beat rhythmically.

The action failed when Kade’s big hand squeezed my thigh and a lot ooh a lot of ticklish prickles shot up my leg to my core and I knew i needed a fresh pair of panties because the ones I was wearing were soaked like a chicken crossing the road on a rainy night.

“Talk to me, Red”

Kade’s voice hit me from my side.

I gulped a chunk of saliva to wash down the nervousness that came the minute he kissed me, the minute he spread my legs on that conference table, kneeling at my feet with the intention of burying his face between my thighs and I stopped him.

I told him no and he respected it but there was still that look he gave me that told the tale of he was hurt.

And Kade’s version of being hurt was growing a bigger scowl than the one he stacked on.

“I wanted it...that”

“Sex?” he lifted a brow.

“Yeah, sex. I wanted to have sex with you Kade you have to know that, it’s just that—”

“It’s too soon, I know”

I crossed my hands on my chest turning to him with a raised brow.

“You are finishing my statements now?”

“You don’t like it? I googled stuff couples like to do and finishing each other’s sentences seemed cool? And romantic?”

The gasp that left my lips was replaced with a chuckle.

“You googled stuff about couples? Kade, we weren’t even a couple up until a few hours ago”

“I had hope you’d change your mind and accept me back”

And when he said that statement his eyes were on me, peering deep into my heart, I could hear the thump thump of my heart against my chest cavity.

“And if I didn’t change my mind?”

“I would go back to sleeping outside your friend’s apartment just to see you”

This time I didn’t smile or laugh about the statement because the image that came to my mind didn’t seem too pretty.

He had been sleeping outside Anna’s apartment building. When? How long? I hadn’t seen him around, at least, I think.

“How long?”

“Since you left me”

His thumb rubbed the skin on my thigh, the action was sweet but I was still hung up on the fact that he’d purposefully been sleeping on some park bench because of me.

Thank God he was built like a robot otherwise he would have had a bad flu right about now.

“Kade, I know this…us…is a first for you but I don’t want you sleeping outside like a homeless person because of me, ever. If we break up or something changes between us, promise me you will not sleep outside anyone’s building just to stalk me”

“We are never breaking up Cassandra. I have you; I’m not letting you go. Ever”

Why did he have to be so him?

Brooding, angry but sweet and big and cuddly like a murderous teddy bear.

I didn’t want to say anything else because in my heart, I truly didn’t want to ever break up with him.

He hadn’t asked me to be his girlfriend, I hadn’t grown the balls either to ask what we were but this was the same man who wanted to marry me on the dot so a relationship it was!

When he changed lane from the Main Street diverting to another, I was so familiar with, a confused look hugged my senses.

“I thought we are going to your place”

I whined.

“We are. After we get your things from your friend’s place. Red, I want you home. And home is next to me”

“Good. I’ve missed Ice and the guys too”

“I’m not taking you to the mansion yet. Ice took you away from me and the guys stood there and watched. No more Ice or the guys”

“What? I asked him to drive me here because you weren’t picking my calls. What did you want Ice to do? To chain me to a chair till you got back?”

“Yes”

Rage simmered in my belly when his car came to a pit stop outside the home I had known for two weeks or so.

“I’m not a dog that you’ll chain to the dog house and leave it there till you feel like petting it again and if this is how we are going to work then maybe—”

Two things happened in record speed, Kade’s seat belt flew in the air and the next his other hand landed on my right cheek turning me so fast I barely saw the kiss coming.

His lips were like butter to my lips. The hand on my thigh another flame that torched my feeble soul and places in me I didn’t know could ooze desire.

And when he parted from me, disappointment washed over me but he remained close, forehead touching close.

“You are much more to me than a plaything Cassie. I fucked up by leaving you in the dark for two weeks but you know what hurt? What hurt was getting in that house expecting your ray of sunshine to make me whole again only to find out you left me.

Your bedroom clean, your scent gone so believe me when I say, if I have to keep myself chained to you just to have you, I will. Now we go up there, we pack all your undies and your little skirts or whatever and we leave for my apartment because that’s where I want you to be”

“I think I like bossy Kade better than honest Kade”

Another kiss and we were out of the car.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Her dad was in the military just so you know. I’m no soldier but believe me I know jujitsu and I will not hesitate to break your bones if you break her heart”, Anna warned.

“Just stop”, I held her hand giving her a brief hug.

Kade Hawkins stood in our apartment like a sentinel. And for a man his size, he made Anna’s apartment look like some shabby apartment that was owned by meth dudes.

Hands tucked in his pocket, a wan smile directed at Anna, he grabbed my suitcase with one hand,

“I’ll take care of her, you have my word, Anna Swan”

Anna took his word for it and with one tight hug, her hands squished my cheeks.

“You still have room here okay? If things don’t work out with Prince Charming over here, you can always come back”

“I know. Thanks, Ans for everything”

“That’s what friends are for and hey if your man has a brother, I want him. I want a hunky man too, Cass. Don’t forget about me or my yoni’s needs”

I laughed. Kade had that scowl on him and something else, something I couldn’t pinpoint but I let it go.

The sun set behind the enormous buildings at the heart of the city, Kade’s hands worked like a machine putting my stuff in the boot of his car and I for the most part stood by the patio watching his muscles flex underneath that black coat that clung to him like wax or better yet…paint.

And when he was done, his eyes met mine and a smirk speckled his face as he moved to the passenger’s side opening the door for me.

“What a gentleman”, I cooed.

He spanked me on my way in before buckling my seat belt in.

“I’m always a gentleman”

“Right, says the guy who wanted to fuck me in his board room”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not a gentleman. I go for what I want Red, always have, always fucking will and you are what I want”

Then he shut the door on my red tinted face and moved around the car to hop in the driver’s seat and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t still flushed a few hours later as Kade maneuvered through his kitchen in nothing BUT GREY SWEATS.

“There, right there. What’s the story about that scar”

The one that tore his torso slightly and while it looked gruesome, I wanted to lick it.

I wanted to lick all of him.

Sauteing the onions, he moved around to the fridge and I shamelessly took a peek of his firm ass.

The same ass I had seen in that bathroom deflating and becoming rigid as he came with my name flying out of his mouth.

“ICE STABBED ME”

WAIT.

“What?”

“He was a lead spy in one of the missions and I got caught so to prove his loyalty he had to stab me”

“Wow so um…what if he killed you?”

“He wouldn’t”

“That scar doesn’t look like a paper cut, Kade. Is this what you guys do? Put yourself in danger for people who might not even know you exist?”

I hugged my knee, the underside of my ass covered panties touching the cold metallic side of the stool I was sitting in.

He canted his head to look at me.

“That’s just it, it’s not about fame or some shit like that. I do this because it’s the only way for me to pay for every shit thing I have done in my life”

“We all make mistakes, Kade”

“Not the kind of mistakes I’ve made, Cassie. I’ve done worse”

He turned to the dish he was making, giving me his back.

The back that had two to three whip lines.

And just for the fuck of it, I stood up from my seat, Kade’s white shirt falling to my mid-thighs and in my mismatching socks, I walked around the kitchen island and hugged his back kissing all of his scars and every skin I found lick-able.

“I don’t care because to me, you are perfect just the way you are”

And I kissed him again, every tense muscle on his back relaxed.

“I’m nowhere near perfection, Red. You on the other hand…”

I reached beneath his veiny arms and switched the heat off, making him face me.

The butter sizzling and the smell of caramelized onions buzzing in the air around us, we stared at each other.

His brown darkish eyes on me, my normal-greenish irises on him.

“I’m not perfect either. I had dyslexia in high school but that didn’t stop the boys at my school from shying away at asking me out. I guess I owe my looks to that.

I was the girl madly in love with her adopted brother like I told you before and well he broke my heart I thought I would never recover.

After he left, I might have fantasized about fucking a priest, ohh and my dad’s best friend and eventually I slept with some guy I met on TINDER because I was the sad twenty something year old working her ass off in New York with no friends or no pets to keep me company.

And the sex… it was nothing like I saw in porn, it was…weird. He or maybe it was me, I think I was weird. I’m insecure about a ton of things and I’m confident enough in saying I literally don’t know what I’m doing with my life”

“No one’s got it all figured out, CASS”

“Yeah? You are a vigilante, you already have your life figured out”, I poked his chest. His hands held me still by the waist.

“This life chose me, I didn’t choose it”, he said skeptically, I chuckled because it sounded like something he picked from a movie.

“Either way, I don’t want you disappearing again. I want to be with you like this. You cooking, me admiring your not so perfect self”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way Red”

And his lips were on me, kissing me like a tornado that swept me off my feet from nowhere.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Elite motors sent all of the employees an email about a getaway fun-day on Monday.

While Kade and I had spent the weekend, cuddling, watching movies, me tattling about my past and him listening, that email might have been a wakeup call that I had work and that he was my boss.

Which was why for the past five hours I had escaped my co workers even if at some point we all had to work together to conquer the rock building exercise and the tag on a rope game.

I had been so caught in watching Kade delegate some stuff to the team to catch the band of angry gossips walking towards me.

“Don’t you dare run, Cassandra or I’ll chase you myself and put you down”, Linet warned.

I sighed turning to my coworkers with a wan smile.

“H-Hey guys”

“You’ve been avoiding us”, Ralph accused.

“I’ve had a lot of work these past few—”

“Are you sleeping with the boss?”

The question slapped me. Might as well have knocked me off my feet while we were at it.

I whipped my head to the right. Kade wasn’t where I had left him at. My eyes snapped back at my coworkers and in between a curious Linet and some guy from IT department was Adam.

And Adam sure looked like he was about to faint and I felt guilty.

Adam wasn’t my boyfriend or anything, we barely even kissed the last time Kade yanked me from the bar with a hot kiss.

Yet why did it feel like answering that question would hurt the funny good guy I worked with.

“W-what are you guys talking about?”

I played dumb.

The murmurs died down and Linet wasn’t buying my innocent bullshit.

“You said you and the boss were a thing. He bought you a blouse for God’s sake”

The eyes were back on me. I could see the way some of them were looking at me, like I was the floozy who’d seduced the boss to bed, that I was too cheap to be anything more to the boss and somehow all that got to me.

“I never said that, Linet”, I lied, “He bought me the blouse because he spilled coffee on me that day, nothing more”

“But y-you, you went to his office, you said-“

“I think that’s enough, Linet. Less talk, more doing. That collision course ain’t going to finish itself”, Adam butted in.

Linet and the other employees gave me vicious stares before they all skedaddled to the said collision course.

Then there were two.

Adam in dark overalls and gear around his waist and then there was me with the tank top and jeans.

“Sorry about her, about everything”, he started.

I flicked a strand of hair from my face.

“It’s okay. There’s bound to be rumors about the newbie in every company so I get it”

Adam scratched the back of his neck like a lovesick teenage boy.

“And are they…rumors?”

“Adam- “

“Wait don’t answer that. Of course, they are rumors. Cass the other night at the club I had fun…with you, I kinda got the vibe you did too and I was wondering…I guess what I’m trying to say is”

Sweet Adam didn’t finish his statement because the next thing he did was haul me to his arms and kiss me without me anticipating the move.

The minute his lips touched mine, my hands were on his chest trying to push him away. The kiss lasted a second before a cool breeze of wind slapped my face.

“You are fucking fired!”

Kade’s voice rang in the air.

Still surprised, I opened my eyes making out what was happening.

Adam had been yanked away from me and in front of me stood Kade angrier than I had ever seen him. He flung his elbow back before he made a direct hit with Adam’s face.

The sound of something cracking filled the space we were in. Adam staggered back with a broken nose that oozed blood from his nostrils to his mouth.

I didn’t get to say anything else because Kade hauled me over his shoulder stomping out of the dojo like a freight train.

“Kade! Kade! Put me down!”

His back was made of fucking bricks because three punches and he didn’t feel a thing. When he put me down against the silhouette of his car it took a minute for the world to stop spinning and when it did, Kade’s angry face was right in front of me caging me in.

“Kade-“

“What the fuck was that, Cassandra?”

Not red but Cassandra. Oh, he was mad mad.

“I didn’t think he’d actually kiss me. I tried to push him off of me”

“And you think I’m angry because of that?”

“You broke his nose”

“He touched what’s mine”

“Then why else are you angry?”

“Why else I’m angry?” his eyes turned murderous, his jaw rippling with rage,”I’m this close to getting you in that car bending you over my knee and slapping that ass so hard, I’ll imprint myself on you because you have no idea what you mean to me.

They asked you a bloody question, CASS. They asked if you were mine and you said we weren’t a thing. Was it because of the limpdick back there? Do you prefer him as your man?”

“What? No, I’m with you”

“It sure doesn’t feel like it. I’m yours Red you know that and if you are mine, shout it to the whole world but don’t fucking lie”

He might have been angry but past those eyes of his was the look of hurt.

“I didn’t mean to lie to them. I just…didn’t want them to think that I’m-“

“You are what?”

“Your whore. That I got the job because I slept with you or something”

His hand slipped around my waist dropping down to my right butt cheek and squeezing it and I whimpered like a wanton wanting so much more.

“Let them think whatever they fucking want. Whore, my woman , love of my life, you are mine Red, all mine and the others could go fuck themselves”

“They are your employees, Kade. You can’t just go punching them and telling them to go fuck themselves”

“I can if they are bothering you”

He leaned in for a kiss, I wrapped my hands around his neck and the minute our lips were together, he backed me against his car, the hand that was above my ass slipping into my pants and gripping my skin like it was precious porcelain.

My mound throbbed, my heart felt like it was about to combust with phoenix flames, goosebumps dappled my skin and when our foreheads touched and I pulled away from him with a moan, I whispered,

“I love you”

And Kade took my lips again like he was about to drown in a vat of snakes if I didn’t kiss him back. My heart beat with a tremor, what if…what if he didn’t feel the same way. What if it was way too fast to say those three letter words to him yet.

We stopped to catch our breaths.

Kade buried his face in my neck whispering,

“I want to meet your parents, Red. As soon as possible”

“What?”

“I can’t live without these kisses or without seeing you in my fucking bed when I wake up. I wanna marry you, Cassandra and I want to ask for your hand in marriage as soon as possible because I love you too”