Page 114 of Wild Pitch
“Let me show you that all of that is bullshit.” I make a point of looking at her lips. What happens subconsciously is that it makes me run my tongue across mine. Lifting my eyes to hers again, I say, “Let me kiss you, Hope.”
CHAPTER 37
HOPE
“W—What?” The simply question comes out breathless, full of yearning but disbelief.
Cade tilts his head back, eyelids half mast and about to give me a heart attack. His voice grows even deeper as he repeats, “Let me kiss you.” It must be so obvious that I’m still not computing because he adds, “Let me show you that you’re worth being fully kissed. Until there’s no doubt of how freaking hot you are.”
My jaw drops.
My ears start buzzing.
My vision brightens, narrowing on his face and the fact that there’s no teasing there. The cowboy is as serious as when he steps on the mound. As if this was a game where he’s facing a big slugger with full bases and a full count.
I guess I’ve been frozen for so long that he takes a step back and says, “Of course, if you don’t want to?—”
Oh, no. There’s no way I’m letting him takebacksies.
Grabbing a handful of his T-shirt and the open flap of his over shirt, I pull him down until his lips crash on mine.
I figure that maybe this wasn’t the best approach when both of our eyes stay wide as saucers.
“Sorry,” I say against his lips and pull away. “I don’t know what I was?—”
But then the corner of his lips rises, and next thing I know one of his hands circles my waist slowly, making sure I feel the firm touch, until it finds the small of my back and pulls me against him. Air rushes out of my lungs and I balance myself with my hands against his chest.
The index finger of his free hand curls under my chin and lifts it. There is something so hot about that little move that I melt against him, and that’s even before meeting his molten blue eyes. My heart trips because they’re focused on the lower half of my face, and then the pad of his thumb touches my lower lip.
I can’t believe it but that’s enough to completely disconnect my logical brain. I’m all feeling after that, all emotion, my entire being focused on the friction of his finger as it caresses my lower lip slowly, carefully, feather-like. I’m sure he can feel my heart violently punching his ribs through my chest, and I’m not even sure I’m breathing right now.
“Not like that, darlin’,” Cade whispers, his deep voice wrapping around my skin like velvet. “I was thinking more like this.”
This time my eyes flutter closed. I feel his breathing fan my face, his heat closer until we touch.
My soul sighs a littleohas his lips find mine, like a little eureka moment when you first figure something out. And what he’s teaching me right now is that I’ve never been kissed properly before. It’s not just about lips touching, tongues brushing. A proper kiss is so much more—it’s two souls coming together for the first time.
His hand shifts to hold my jaw, getting out of the way as his lips close around my upper one. Cade savors it without a rush, his moist and hot branding my skin. My legs turn to jelly as he shifts his head, our noses brushing just like they accidentallydid earlier, after he caught me from the step ladder. Maybe the same memory dances in his mind because he holds me tighter, and I appreciate the excuse to slide my hands up, palming the hard muscles of his chest and shoulders until I find his neck. The feel of his warm skin tears a little sound out of my throat that changes everything.
Cade’s tongue runs over my lower lip, the shock of it making me open my mouth. His jaw works under my hand as his lips press against mine, opening to deepen the kiss. This time he’s the one groaning.
I cinch my arms around his neck, bending him lower to remove the space left between us. Even though the kiss is deeper, our tongues brushing without shame, Cade doesn’t let me hurry the pace. His hand tangles in my hair, fingers closing around the strands to hold me in place. The soft scrape of his fingers against my scalp almost makes me see stars.
Wow, so this is what kissing Cade Starr feels like. Life changing.
Sensing my need to oxygenate my brain, Cade slows way down to release my lips with a little pop that echoes in the silence. He doesn’t move an inch though, keeping an arm around me like he knows I wouldn’t be able to stay upright if he lets go.
Slowly, I open my eyes and almost die, because he’s watching me intently through half mast eyes. “Do you get it now?” he asks, voice husky and thick and so, so damn hot that I moan.
“Get what? I don’t even know what my name is right now,” I admit, my voice completely alien to me.
His hold around my hair shifts, and that’s when I realize that he messed my ponytail and I probably look like I have a bird’s nest on my hair. But I don’t think he cares. I don’t think I do either.
“That’s how you deserve to be kissed. Slow, thorough, and on purpose.”
“On purpose?” I parrot, my brain not quite revving up yet.
“Isn’t it obvious?” His nose brushes with mine again, and my heart hammers even harder as he speaks against my lips. “Can’t you see you’re making me wild, Hope?”
