Page 77 of Worthy

Cade signals for the check.

Chapter twenty

Cade

We’re mostly silent on the drive home, with our interlaced fingers doing the talking, driving up the sexual tension.

Madd’s thumb slides over the back of my hand, feather-light, yet just as potent as if he was stroking my chest, or my cock. Everywhere he touches me, every way he touches me, ignites such an intense response. I’m helpless against it. I’m helpless against him.

He’s part of me now, and I know that won’t change even after he’s gone. The thought puts a bit of a damper on an otherwise perfect night, because we’re inching closer to the day when he’ll leave for good, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Tonight was sort of a last-ditch effort to see if there might be a future with us. I wanted to give him a traditional date, show him how special he is to me, and I hoped by doing so he’d decide to pick me instead of his career.

I can’t outright ask him to do that. It’s too selfish, even for me, but I figured if he came to that decision on his own, I could live with myself. So, I went all out, getting dressed up, taking him to a fancy restaurant, the whole nine yards. And I can tell he loved it. But not enough, sincehe mentioned not knowing what his future holds after he finishes his thesis.

I knew it was futile to hope he’d pick me after all the work he’s put towards his dream, though I still hoped for it, anyway. It fucking crushed me to have him confirm he’s still leaving, but then he turned around and laid claim to me, sort of, and I’m still riding that high right now. It’s probably temporary, I think he still plans to give me up when he leaves, although if dinner didn’t convince him to stay maybe sex will.

That makes it sound like I’m reverting to old habits, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sex is totally different for me now than it was before, and while I have so much more than just sex with Maddox, there’s no denying the two of us together are something special. At this point, I’m so desperate to have him choose me I’m not above using any means necessary, including sex, to nudge him toward that decision.

By the time we get home, his sweet little touches have made me hard as a rock, and I have the overwhelming urge to throw him on the bed and take him. But I force myself to go slow, to savor every moment of this, and show him what he means to me since I can’t tell him.

I take his hand and lead him to the bedroom, standing him before me so I can drink him in. He’s just as stunning as he always is, but tonight he looks roguishly sexy in his button down with the sleeves rolled up. I trace my finger along the exposed skin at the top of his chest, up his neck, along his chiseled jaw.

″Beautiful,” I whisper as I cup his face in my hands and kiss him softly.

Maddox reaches out to undo the buttons on my shirt, one by one, pushing it off my shoulders to run his hands over my chest, down my stomach, teasing along the waistband of my pants. I mirror hismovements, pushing his shirt off his shoulders so it falls to the floor, leaving him standing before me in nothing but his low-slung jeans.

I want to capture the image before me, commit it to memory, but the need to touch him is too great. I pull him close, crushing our chests together as I wrap my arms around him and capture his mouth. Our tongues meet in a sensual dance, giving and taking and savoring this moment where our passion for each other is the only thing that exists.

″I need you,” Maddox growls against my lips, and damn if that doesn’t make my heart ache just a little. I know he means he needs me physically, but two months ago he wouldn’t have been bold enough to say so, and it makes me both proud and sad that he’s comfortable enough to do it now.

Stripping off my pants as he does the same, I walk him backward until his legs hit the bed, pushing him down until he’s lying on his back. His breathing turns heavy, and goose bumps rise to the surface of his arms. His nipples pucker even though I haven’t touched them, and when I wrap my hand around his length, he’s hard as steel.

″Cade,” he groans. “I want you inside me. I want to come together.”

″We will.” I place a quick kiss on his soft lips. “But you, first.”

At my urging he rocks his length into my hand while I pump him, fucking my fist, until his warm cum spills over my fingers.

Maddox coming is a stunning sight. His hands grip the sheets, knuckles white. His back arches as his hips buck. His chest heaves as he cries out.Fucking beautiful.

I hold still until the tremors stop, then release his cock to lick his essence off my fingers, then reach for the lube.

″I need to feel you, Maddox,” I tell him as I wet my dick. “This time we’ll come together.”

I push slowly inside him, and the ecstasy consumes us both.

***

“What’re you looking at?” Deacon asks as he comes to sit next to me.

I turn the screen off before he gets close enough to see that I was staring at a picture of Maddox. It’s the only one I have of him, taken at our sunset dinner, when he was standing at the rail looking over the water.

His back is to the camera, head turned to the side, looking at something in the distance with a wistful expression. I don’t know what possessed me to take the picture, but I look at it every chance I get.

″Nothing, just a list of what’s left to finish.” The lie rolls off my tongue so easily I think I get away with it, until Deacon snorts.

″Right. A list of what’s left to do is what’s giving you that sad puppy face, not the fact your man is leaving.”

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