And smiling. Of course, smiling.
“Well, I guess we know which one you pick, Liv,” Ginger slurs from the passenger seat. I jump. We’re almost to her house and this is the first time she’s spoken. I thought she was passed out.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he’s a bad boy. And we both know you always pick the bad boy.”
Her head slumps to the side after she deals me this blow.
I do always pick the bad boy. And I do always live to regret it. Am I making a huge mistake with Cash?
Her words haunt me from the time I drop her off to the time I walk Cash to his room after our trip home on the motorcycle. I leave him for the night after a very chaste kiss.
He stops me with a hand to my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he whispers. I’m sure he’s curious why I’m going to bed without…him. He saw my father fast asleep on his bed downstairs.
I try to put some heart into my smile, but I imagine that I fail miserably. “Nothing. I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well.”
I go to my own room, closing the door snugly behind me and then getting ready for bed. After more than an hour has passed and I’m still not asleep, I decide to take a shower, hoping it will refresh and relax me. Maybe it’s the grime of the bar that’s keeping me awake.
I’m standing beneath the hot spray of water, trying not to think too much, when I hear the metal curtain rings slide along the shower rod. I wipe my eyes and look up to see Cash stepping into the shower.
I can’t help but go a little ga-ga over his naked body. It’s even more perfect than I could’ve imagined. His chest is wide and tan and flawless but for the tattoo on his left pectoral. His stomach is flat and rippling with muscles. His legs are long and strong. Not one inch of him disappoints, including the several hard, proud, impressive ones that make my insides quiver.
I know I’m staring, but I can’t help it. Just the sight of him makes me wet and ready.
A finger beneath my chin tilts my face up. Cash’s expression is serious and sweet, his face devastatingly handsome.
“You worry too much. Can’t you just trust me?”
His eyes are boring holes into mine. I want him so much, but I just don’t know that giving in to him is the smart thing to do.
If only he were more like Nash…
“I don’t know,” I answer him honestly.
He nods in acceptance. “You’ll learn to. I promise.”
And then he kisses me. It’s a slow, deep kiss that carries meaning and emotion, neither of which I know how to interpret.
I pull away to speak, but he puts his finger over my lips. “Shhh, just let me love you, okay? Don’t think. Just feel.”
His sinfully dark eyes are fathomless, but earnest. After several seconds, I nod. He smiles then kisses me again. Tenderly.
With his lips and his tongue, he licks the water from my skin—from my neck, from my nipples, from my stomach. He kneels between my legs and brings me to the brink of ecstasy twice, stopping both times as if he’s waiting for something.
When I’m nearly ready to explode a third time, he stands and kisses me again, grabbing the tops of my thighs and picking me up to press me against the shower wall. He lowers me onto his shaft, his tongue thrusting into my mouth, mimicking the movements of his body.
We climax together. He swallows my moans, no doubt in deference to my sleeping father. When we’re done, and he’s still buried inside me, he turns with me in his arms and holds me beneath the shower spray. The warm, massaging fingers of the water soothe me. I nearly fall asleep with my head on his shoulder.
Letting me down, Cash turns off the water and grabs the towel I laid out for myself. He dries me from head to toe and then carries me to the next room and puts me to bed, naked.
“Go to sleep,” he says softly. “Don’t think anymore. I’ll see you in the morning.”
And then he’s gone.
And I go to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX- Cash
I wake up with a raging hard-on and only one girl on my mind. I can barely see the light of dawn coming through the curtains. I know I shouldn’t wake her, but I’m almost afraid not to. As much as she gets caught up in her own head, it’s hard to tell what mindset she’ll be in when she wakes up.
So I go to her.
I open the door a crack and listen. I can hear her father snoring downstairs, so I slip out of my room and down the hall, silently entering Olivia’s room.
I move quietly. I’m relieved that her breathing remains deep and even. She’s lying on her side, facing away from me. Stripping off my jeans, I peel back the covers just enough to slide beneath them. I ease in beside her and snuggle up close to her back.