Page 48 of Witness Protection

Chapter Ten

Five days in paradise.

Cayden didn’t care about money and what it could buy. What he wanted was intangible. Unattainable. After skating through life, each dark patch thinning the ice, he’d been close to drowning.

Then Sophia and her sweet innocence pulled him to the surface.

Now he was lost.

She trusted him, sought him for comfort, made him feel like he mattered. He’d trade everything he had for another day with her. But good things never lasted. It was time to return his prize to the rightful owner.

He’d put a tracker on Hawk’s car when he left the factory. It would allow him to find Hawk after the melee, because right now Cayden and Sophia were off the grid and untouchable. Not even Hawk and all his hackers would be able to find them here.

“What do you think?”

Sophia sat on a stool in front of a makeshift easel he’d made for her out of scrap wood. Her happiness had taken over his life. The past week had felt like a hundred years, and it was hard to imagine life without her. But every day would only make the break harder.

She’d almost finished her painting. A nature scene. He stood behind her, not focused on her art, but her body. She straddled the stool in a pair of his black boxer briefs and one of his white undershirts. It had been wickedly hot, and his A/C unit was on the blink. It had been torture watching her saunter around half naked. She didn’t realize how much she affected him.

He’d tossed and turned the past several nights, remembering the taste of her pussy, the sound as she cried his name. He wanted to be a bastard.

“Nice,” he said.

“I wish I had blue.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, you’re lucky I found that stuff in the shed.”

“It’s so hot,” she said, touching up some realistic leaves on a tree with her paintbrush. He loved her passion and devotion to her art. He didn’t have anything like that in his life. There were so many layers to Sophia Morenov, and he wished he could have discovered them all. But their time together was running short.

He gathered her hair, allowing the air to hit her shoulders. He trailed his fingers through her hair, down her neck, and along her arm.

She set the paintbrush down. “That feels good.”

Cayden leaned down and kissed her shoulder. He shouldn’t, but he did anyway. She turned her head, and after a brief pause, they kissed. Really kissed. She swiveled around, wrapping her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. She was eager, as if waiting for this moment since arriving. He hadn’t planned on this, had wanted to keep avoiding intimacy, but Sophia was his kryptonite.

She stood up, then climbed the stump so they were almost face to face. He wrapped his arms around her waist, keeping her close, loving the feel of her in his grasp. When he slid his tongue along the seam of her lips, she opened for him. He couldn’t get enough of her, kissing her until the whole world went away.

Hungry.

Desperate.

This kiss split him down the center. He was falling for her hard.

He lifted her up under the shoulders and did a spin with her, before resting her back on the stump. She was blonde again, her hair fanning around her like a fucking angel.

Cayden loved her. With every fiber of his being.

He didn’t even care if his heart got broken. All he had was today. He was going to enjoy their time while it lasted.

“You’re so strong.”

He moved his hands lower, cupping her ass and squeezing. Cayden kissed behind her ear, then down her neck. She tossed her head to the side, giving him better access. He’d never wanted anything more. Even his revenge paled in comparison.

If he fucked her, he’d never be able to let her go. Could she even love a man like him?

“Cayden…”

“What is it, baby?”

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