Page 61 of Tripped By Love
Marco
BETTER THAN I AM
“And though my past is far behind me,
It's still not as far as I want.
But I will open my arms and I’ll fall at your feet,
And I’ll let you in to where you can so damage me.”
Performed by Keith Urban
Written by Urban / White
Cassidy had her arms and legswrapped around me and was holding me so tight that there was no space left between us. Like the hugs she gave Chevelle. I could feel the strength of her emotions in the hug. She should have been pushing me away, scowling at me for having let this happen to another human being, for causing Maliyah so much sadness that she’d almost died because a portion of her heart had stopped. Instead, Cassidy clung to me as if I’d been the one wounded.
She kissed my temple. Soft lips grazing my hairline, sending electric waves through my body that reacted to her touch, to her entire being tucked up against mine with her softly shaped butt cheeks pushing into my thighs and groin. Her core lined up against mine in a way that instantly made me go hard even as I tried to push the thought out of my head.
Her breath hitched as I grew harder. Even thoughts of all my sins couldn’t stop it because I was completely surrounded by the scent and heavenly grace of Cassidy O’Neil. She put her hands on my cheeks, drawing my face up from where it had rested, cocooned in her neck, hiding in the shower of long hair that had fallen over me. Her eyes met mine. Heated. But also full of sadness and horror and something else I was terrified of naming. Something that echoed the feelings in me that I tried to bury.
“Marco…do you even know how breathtaking you are?”
My chest cracked open. I closed my eyes against the sight of her.
I hadn’t expected her to run, because Cassidy wasn’t someone to duck at the first shot, but I had expected my past to stick a fence between us. Barbed wire that was jagged and easily tore flesh and bone. I’d expected her eyes to be opened so that she saw a very flawed man instead of continuing to look at me with glistening eyes.
She leaned in and feathered a kiss along my cheekbone, grazing over my lips to the other side before coming back to land on my mouth. A soft kiss. As if she was trying to give me solace. Comfort when I hadn’t earned it and hadn’t told her the story to make her feel any of this. I’d thought it would push her away instead of drawing her closer.
But the simple, light kisses exploded the heat inside me, turning it into a thundering roar of a volcano spewing out, and before I could stop myself, I was devouring her. Biting at her lips, plundering into the soft recess of her mouth, seeking all of her. She didn’t push away. She did the opposite. She consumed me back. Teeth and tongues and lips brutalizing each other as flames of longing coursed through us.
Her hips thrust against my groin, and it drove me nearly mad. I wanted her bare. I wanted to remove the last pieces of clothing that were holding us apart until there was nothing between us. Until I was filling her and making her moan.
My hands slid under the tank she wore as a top and bra combined, fingers finding a hardened nipple, caressing and flicking until she gasped. All the while, my mouth continued to take her air and make it mine. Her fingers danced below my shirt, gliding over my stomach, making my muscles contract beneath her touch, burning me. Branding me. Making me Cassidy O’Neil’s in a way I’d never belonged to anyone before.
I dragged the strap of her tank down and finally left her mouth to slide tongue and lips down her neck. The salty taste of her sweat embedded with her natural scent, making me hungry for her as if I’d been starved for years. I’d just lifted one beautiful breast from its confines when my phone rang out, blasting through the room, bringing us back from the gates of heaven.
It was Jonas’s tone. One I couldn’t ignore.
I groaned, and to my surprise, Cassidy laughed. She fell away from me, and I missed the heat and scent and weight of her instantly. I reached behind us to the small cabinet in the room and pulled my phone down.
“What’s up?” I asked, and even to me, my breath sounded uneven. Shaken.
“I didn’t bring a key to the apartment. I can’t get in. I thought you’d be here by now,” Jonas said.
“I’m at Cassidy’s, working out.”
“Cool, I’ll meet you there.” He hung up before I could even tell him not to come.
“Jonas is on his way.” I popped to my feet and glanced down at her. She looked even more beautiful than normal. Lips pink and raw, a flush to her cheeks that had nothing to do with our workout. She’d pulled up her tank, but it was unable to hide the hardness of her peaks. Hard, just like I was.
Her eyes landed on my groin, and she smiled. “You better do something about that quick.”
“Quick is not my idea of fun,” I teased, and she laughed as she rose from the mat.
She pulled a T-shirt out of the closet and tugged it on just as the back door slammed shut. I grimaced, hoping it didn’t wake Chevelle. “Sorry.”
“Chevelle sleeps through almost anything. It’s good. I bang around in the kitchen while he’s sleeping, too.”
