Page 47 of Proof

It was a while before Cass’s mouth searched out mine. His kiss was still deep and hungry. It was searching and stealing at the same time.

I never wanted it to end.

The cold water from the shower kept my wish from happening, but Cass’s whispered words against my ear made me not care.

“JJ… my JJ.”

My.

Mine. Such a small word that held so much fucking power.

I was Cass’s and he was mine and that was all that mattered.

CHAPTER 15

Cass

Iknew he was gone the moment I opened my eyes.

It took me several long seconds before I forced myself to look and then run my hand over JJ’s side of the bed. The covers were thrown aside and the clothes he’d been wearing the night before—the ones he’d taken off piece by achingly slow piece right in front of me—were gone. The small dip in the pillow next to mine was proof that hehadbeen in bed with me for at least a little while.

That meant what had taken place in the shower really had happened. It hadn’t been one of my many dreams that had always led to JJ being safely wrapped in my arms.

I remembered all of it. Finding JJ on the floor the night before, his soft, pain-filled whispers calling out to me. Holding him in my arms as I’d begged him not to leave me.

Not again.

I remembered when JJ’s breath had evened out after I’d gathered him into my arms, and I’d logically known that he’d only fallen asleep. Unfortunately, logic hadn’t played a role in the cruel reminder that he and I had been in virtually the same position the night he had been shot. Even as the sun had begunto stream through the kitchen windows and I’d been lost in sleep, my mind had begged anyone who was listening to never let anything take JJ from me again.

After he had woken me from the nightmare, I’d been relieved to discover he was okay. I hadn’t been expecting him to help me to my feet, let alone use his words and touch to get me moving. True, I probably could have dealt with the pain on my own if JJ had chosen to leave me on the floor, but from the moment he’d started telling me in one way or another to shut up as I’d argued with him, I’d given up the fight.

In more ways than one.

Yes, I’d finally shut my mouth when JJ had begun rewarding my silence with bone-melting kisses, but that hadn’t been all of it. I’d given up the internal battle that had raged inside me. The one that tried to deny that my feelings for JJ had lessened in any way.

Not even when I’d been locked away in a place where I’d conveniently been written out of people’s lives. If anything, he was the reason I’d kept my sanity in that soul-sucking place. I might have left that police station with every intention of seeking revenge on the man I’d been so certain had betrayed me, but JJ had changed the game on me without even trying.

The brutal truth was that there’d never been a game. I hadn’t pursued JJ after my release because his brother had asked me to. I hadn’t done it to try and prove my innocence.

I’d done it because I’dneededto do it.

I’d needed to see him so I could prove to myself that hehadn’tbeen taken from me forever.

I’d needed to follow him because I’d neededhim.

When the storm raging inside of me had been at its darkest in that cell,myJJ had been there. The one who’d let me see a side of himself that no one else had: his vulnerability, his fear of disappointing the people in his life, the resentment he’d carriedfor so long because he’d never been able to be his true self to his family and friends.

ThatJJ had helped me keep my head above water day after endless day.

Although he and I had only met up a few times before he’d been shot, I’d known from the first time he’d smiled at me that I was a goner. I hadn’t been a big believer in all that love at first sight nonsense or that there was some stranger walking the earth who was supposedly my soulmate, but JJ had been the reason I’d changed the way I’d viewed a lot of things before a bullet had torn our lives apart.

There was no use in trying to deny it anymore.

I was in love with JJ. Even when I’d been at my lowest, I’d loved him. During all the times my fist had slammed into a jaw or gut as my fellow inmates had tried to take my life, I’d let myself believe my rage had stemmed from the sting of his betrayal. Deep down, though, I’d been fighting for my life because I’d believed that someday I’d see JJ again. I’d believed I’d seemyJJ again.

I sighed and took stock of the few aches and pains that lingered. My body had been and still was drained by the mind-blowing orgasm I’d experienced in the shower. The whole time JJ had been running his hands over me to help ease my stiff muscles as the warm water had rained down on our bodies, I’d been hard as a rock.

Painfully so.

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