Page 47 of Second to None

He inhaled and smiled back, curling one hand around my left ankle, trailing kisses along my shin and up to my knee. I propped myself up on an elbow to watch him—the dark tangle of his hair, the charcoal smudges of his lashes.God. He paused, lips open against my kneecap, then raised his head.

“What happened?” he asked.

Oh. That.

It wasn’t a particularly large scar, its edges uneven where the skin had puckered slightly, pale against my summer tan. I wished he hadn’t noticed it. But I didn’t want to lie either.

“Got drunk one night. Three years ago—almost four now.” I forced myself to hold his gaze. “Dropped a glass.” Whiskey spilling amber across the floor, shards scattering across the kitchen tiles, and me staring at the mess with a dull sort of frustration prickling around the drunken fog in my mind. “I tried to clean it up and fell on it.”

“Jesus, Lee.” His eyes shone with something that wasn’t quite shock, wasn’t quite pity.

I looked away. “On the bright side, it was the final kick in the arse that I needed. Booked myself into rehab the next day. Mason had been on my case for weeks, so… that finally did it.”

Cass shoved a shaky hand through his hair, drawing several deep breaths as silence wrapped around us. Well, hey. Effectively ruined the mood, hadn’t I?

Only then he ducked down and pressed a kiss to the scar—gentle, almost reverent. His voice cracked a little when he spoke. “I’m glad this did it. I’m glad it was this, and not something worse.”

Oh, hell. I reached for him, pushed him onto his back and crawled on top, claimed his mouth like—like—God. Like he was air and water, fire and earth. It didn’t make sense. I couldn’t do this again, but tomorrow was light years away.

He shivered into me, tugging me closer, fingers in my hair. “I want?—”

I kissed him quiet because me too.Me too. Eyes closed, I felt him shift under me, blinked just long enough to see his hand slide under the pillow. When he pressed a condom and lube into my palm, I paused.

“When did you…?”

His gaze was steady. “When you asked to come over.”

“You knew?”

“Hoped.”

This was real, wasn’t it? For tonight, it was. I let the foil crinkle between my fingers, studying him for seconds that thudded in my chest. He let me, the slight tilt of his chin daring me to touch him already, eyes heavy-lidded, the faintest upwards quirk to one side of his mouth. He looked sure of what he wanted, sure it was me, and I was caught by a wave of desire so intense it almost swept me under.

“Right,” I managed. Right.

I set the condom aside for now and squashed the useless thought of how I wished we didn’t need it. This wasn’t then. I stroked one hand along his hip and uncapped the lube with the other before I moved between his thighs. He bent one leg, foot flat against the bed, draped the other over my shoulder, and curved a hand around my elbow, grounding us both. Beautiful, God. How many times had we done this? And would this be the last?

Stop overthinking. Tomorrow can sort itself out.

“All right?” I asked, tracing small circles around his rim, my attention dragging up his gorgeous body. Somehow, I didn’t think he wanted to hear the things I’d used to tell him freely—you’re so beautiful, babe, I just love looking at you. Could do it all day.Like it had lost its shine. Like being adored for his face and body made him wonder if that was all he had to offer.

“Yeah,” he breathed, and I watched the way his lashes fluttered when I nudged a finger into him. He rocked into the stretch, cock heavy on his belly and lips parted as he watched me.

Beautiful.My beautiful boy.

“You make it bloody hard to think, you know that?” My voice sounded hoarse to my own ears. “The way you move with me, the way you open up—it’s like nothing else.”

“Is that a—” He broke off when I added a second finger, head arching back as spots of hectic red bloomed high on his cheeks. Not the polished star the world got to see, butCass. “That a bad thing?”

“No, Cass. It’s amazing. You’re…”Gorgeous. Fuck, I was messing this up, wasn’t I? White heat flowed through my veins as he shoved back against my fingers. God, yeah, he’d always loved it a little rough. But I just… I needed him to know he was more than a perfect arse and a pretty face to me. Always had been. “You don’t do anything halfway. You’re right here with me, fully in the moment. Totally present. I’ve always loved that about you.”

Too much?

His throat moved when he swallowed. “You don’t have to butter me up, you know. I’m gonna let you fuck me either way.”

“Cass.” I crooked my fingers and watched his mouth fall open, hair a mess against the pillow.

He made a questioning noise, more groan than anything concrete. I leaned down to kiss him, swallowing the little sounds he made at each twist and stretch.

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