My body practically shook from exhaustion as he smiled at me. “One more, baby doll. I’m taking one more from you, and then you can leave my side of the red line, huh?”
He thrust into me like he belonged there, and he squeezed my thighs and brought my ass in close like he needed to be surrounded by me. I gasped as I watched him fuck me with that damn suit on.
He lost control under it, his neck flexing, his chest heaving, and his dark eyes watching me in that mirror. “Don’t come to my side unless you can handle me fucking you sore, Izzy. Don’t come near me unless you’re ready for me to wreck you, because it’s all I want. All I dreamed about.”
His words, that piercing against my inner walls, the way he clung to me, digging those calloused fingers in so hard there would be bruises, pushed me toward my third climax.
I begged for him to go faster, to fuck me harder.
Caden Armanelli didn’t disappoint.
13
Izzy
Cade put me in the lukewarm shower with him afterwards. He practically had to carry me because I honestly felt like my legs might give out. His hands were suddenly gentle, his touch light as a feather, as he washed me off and then told me to go lie on my side of the bed.
“My side, really?”
“If you don’t, I’ll fuck you again so hard you truly won’t be able to walk. I’m sparing you. Do as you’re told.”
I’d seen this coming. I enjoyed hearing him tell me what to do, I enjoyed pushing his buttons, and I enjoyed the consequences of my actions. I felt more alive than I had in a long time, like I could be myself with him the way I couldn’t with anyone else.
I slipped on a green bikini and short flowy skirt before he came out of the bathroom, buttoned up in his suit again.
He eyed my outfit but didn’t say a word about it. “Lie down on your stomach.”
I probably needed a nap, so I listened. He grabbed a tube of aloe vera and pointed to my butt. “It’ll soothe your skin.”
I shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
“Sure you will,” he said softly, but he had already lifted my skirt and pushed my bikini aside to rub the cool substance over one cheek. Thankfully, I could tell that the bottoms would cover most of the red marks as I stared over my shoulder at his tenderness. When he pulled the waist of my skirt to the side to see where his fingerprints were already bruising certain areas, he tsked. “Should have been gentler.”
His demeanor was such a juxtaposition to what I was used to from him. We were supposed to be enemies. We were at each other’s throats usually. And then he rubbed aloe vera on me like I meant something to him, like he didn’t only want to fuck me into oblivion and leave it at that. It got me wondering if he was like this with everyone. If he fucked all the women he was with this way.
As he put my swimsuit back in place, I sat up and blurted out the question. “Do you always carry around all the tools needed for a good ass reddening?”
“That your way of asking if I’m sleeping around?” He lifted a brow.
I narrowed my eyes at him even as my heart clenched at the idea. “Of course not. I don’t care who you sleep with. We’re just getting each other out of our systems, right?” I threw his initial reason for hooking up with me in the bathroom back in his face.
I only did it to have him correct me, though, because when I imagined Penelope and Cassie eyeing him up, I saw red.
“That’s good. Because I packed this aloe vera for anyone who’d bend over for me. Not specifically for you.” I swear he said it to get a rise out of me, and when I wrinkled my nose at him in disgust to cover my hurt, he full-on laughed. “Go have fun out there. Supposedly, we have to know everyone’s names for the damn campfire tonight. Come back for lunch.”
“Or I’ll come back to sleep, and you can eat lunch with whoever will bend over for you.” I stomped to my purse, grabbed lip gloss and a towel, and left him. I swayed my hips a little more than usual, hoping he was watching me the whole way.
When I heard him growl out a curse and mutter, “That outfit is a damn joke. Barely covers your ass,” I smirked to myself and flipped him off before turning the corner to get the hell out of that cabin.
The sun on my skin and the sparkle of the lake brought me back to the real world. I texted my sister on the way to Lucas’s cabin to check in on Bug. She was driving in every now and then to check on my cat, while my apartment building staff fed him twice a day.
Me: Bug still alive?
Lilah: The cat still lives.
Dom: Why the hell are we group chatting about this?
Declan: They wanted to make us feel bad that we didn’t offer to take care of her pet even though we live across the country.
Lilah: Well maybe you should all live closer.
Declan: Yeah, my job would allow for that.
Me: Doesn’t the NFL only last a season.
Declan: I’m kicking your ass when I see you, Izzy.
Me: I’d love to see you try.
Lilah: Does that mean everyone’s coming home soon?
Dimitri: I’m never coming home. Mom’s putting something in the water back there. I don’t want to be the next one giving her grandkids.
Lilah: Come on. My baby does need cousins.
Me: Oh no. She got to Lilah too. We might need to kick her out of the group chat.
Dom: I’ve sworn off women for this very reason. Izzy, you’re the only one I’m talking to from now on.
Lilah: Oh please. Izzy’s about to go down the same rabbit hole as me anyway.
Declan: What’s that supposed to mean?
Dom: Is she dating someone?
Dimitri: She’d better not be fucking around with someone dangerous like you were, Lilah. Izzy, are you being careful?
Each of my siblings, but especially my brothers, were so damn overprotective I couldn’t fathom telling them that their baby sister was screwing around with her boss, a mobster.
Especially not after Lilah married an Armanelli and they punched Dante square in the face.
Me: Lilah, look what you started. For NOTHING. I’m on a work retreat. Leave me alone, Hardy boys. Your baby sister is fine.
Declan called me as I trekked up Lucas’s porch stairs. His deep voice cut me off before I could even say hello. “You’re not doing something dumb, are you?”
“Well, hi, asshat. Nice of you to call and see how I’m doing.”
“I’m in the middle of my workout, and Lilah is dropping silent clues like I don’t pick up on that shit.”
Of course Dom called right then. I rolled my eyes. “Now Dom’s calling. Literally nothing is happening. She’s just taking the heat off herself. You guys are so overprotective. Please stop.”
He sighed like he didn’t want to worry about me, but he did.
All of them did. Because I’d made them worry too much before. “So you’re good?” he asked, and my heart squeezed. Declan was the closest to me in age other than Lilah. And he would have got on a plane immediately if he thought something was wrong.
“I’m fine, Dec. Go back to your workout. Tell the fam you talked to me, too, so they don’t all keep calling.”
He agreed that he would, and I heard some texts go through as I hung up.
Lucas was at his door, smiling like he hadn’t seen me in ages. “No bears ate you!” he exclaimed.