Makenna was swimming in emotion. The grief she felt for him was palpable; it ran down her temples into her hairline and constricted her throat. Her desire to protect him—to make sure nothing hurt him, scared him, took from him, ever again—came out of nowhere, but she felt the kind of kinship with Caden she’d always felt with her brothers. It didn’t matter that she could still count the amount of time she’d known him in minutes.
And, God, she wanted him. She wanted to pull him down on top of her. She longed to feel his weight settle on her body, his lips on hers, his hands in her hair and gliding over her skin. It had been eleven months since she’d last been with someone, and never had she felt this kind of a connection. Makenna wanted her hands on him, too. Now that she was touching him, she worried she wouldn’t be able to stop.
“Don’t stop talking to me, Makenna. I need your words. Your voice.”
“I don’t know what to say is all. I want to take away your hurt.”
His cheek lifted into a smile under her hand. “Thank you. But sometimes I think I need it. It reminds me I’m alive. And it makes the good times feel that much better. Like right now, being here, with you.”
Chapter Four
Between the lack of any visual reference, her soft hand stroking his hair over and over, and managing to share the story of his mother’s and Sean’s deaths without once coming close to panicking, Caden was almost dizzy with triumph. It was Makenna, it was all Makenna’s doing. And he adored her for it. No one had ever gotten into the heart of him the way she had, and certainly never as fast.
Makenna’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “You say the sweetest things, Caden Grayson. I swear.”
Caden smiled against her hand, still holding his cheek, and finally chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
He shrugged, then remembered the body language would be lost on her. “Sweet isn’t a word usually applied to me.”
“Well, then, people don’t know you.”
He nodded. “Maybe so.” Probably so. He’d be the first to admit he kept people away. He didn’t like the feeling of burdening others with his baggage. Sometimes distance was easier than acting, or explaining.
“Definitely so,” she replied.
Caden liked her argumentative nature. She was playful and feisty and had him talking and laughing more in the couple hours he’d known her than probably in the whole last month combined. With her, he’d never given distance a second thought.
Caden almost moaned when she slid her palm up his face and began stroking from his temple, back over his ear, and down to his neck. His mouth dropped open. His breathing picked up. He couldn’t help but lean into her surprisingly sensual touch.
He closed his eyes for a moment and just gave in to the feeling of it. He could hear her breathing and didn’t think he was imagining her breaths coming quicker, too. The possibility she might be longing for him the way he was longing for her all at once made him hard. He groaned low in his throat before he could stop himself.
“Makenna.”
“Caden.”
Was her voice filled with longing, or was that just wishful thinking? Surely he was projecting his desire onto her, right? He swallowed thickly and shifted his hips. His button fly was relaxed, but not enough to accommodate his hard-on without discomfort.
Then, her fingers exerted pressure against the back of his neck. But she continued on with the steady stroking, and he thought he must’ve imagined it. He just wasn’t sure. He concentrated all his focus on the movement of her hand and…I didn’t imagine it that time, did I? There it was again—her fingertips pulling him towards her.
Please let me not be imagining that.
He licked his lips and moved his head forward just an inch or two. God, he wanted to kiss her. His fingers itched to finally thread their way into all that red hair. His lips fell open in anticipation of claiming her mouth. He wanted to taste her. He wanted to feel her under him.
“Makenna,” he rasped, a plea, a prayer.
“Yes, Caden, yes.”
It was all the confirmation he needed.
He pushed himself across the carpet until his chest encountered her side. He slowly lowered his head so he didn’t hurt her in his blind impatience. His mouth found a cheek first and he pressed his lips against the soft apple of it. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. His right hand landed in a pile of silky curls, and the satisfaction he felt at finally touching her hair made him swallow hard.
“So soft,” he murmured, meaning her hair and her skin and the mound of her breast pressing against his chest where he lay atop her.
Caden let out his own moan when her lips pressed against the skin in front of his ear. She exhaled roughly, and the rush of her breath over his skin brought goose bumps to his neck.
He trailed soft kisses across her cheek until he found her lips.
And then he couldn’t go slow anymore.
And neither could she.
Caden groaned as his first kiss brought her full bottom lip into his mouth. Both hands found their way to her face, and he cupped his palms around her cheeks so he could guide their movement. Makenna’s high-pitched moan accompanied her hands grasping at the back of his head and neck.
When her mouth fell open, Caden accepted the invitation like a starving man at a feast. He slipped his tongue into her sweet mouth and relished the tantalizing caresses their tongues traded. Makenna stroked his head and massaged his neck and gripped his shoulders. Caden pulled himself closer to her because, as much as it was, it just wasn’t enough.
He needed to be closer. He needed more of her.
Makenna was floating in the pleasure Caden’s touch brought. The darkness combined with the intensity of their connection made her feel like nothing else existed in the world. She’d never experienced this kind of passion before—at least, not from a kiss alone.
From the minute he murmured those sweet words about how good it felt to be with her, she knew she was going to have to kiss him. She needed to taste the mouth of the man who’d survived such tragedy, but managed to retain so much gentleness, so much sweetness. She thought they’d shared the most honest and enjoyable conversation of her life. She yearned for more, for a way to burn it into her memory for all time.
In her mind, Makenna was saying “Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me,” but she wasn’t as confident as Caden seemed to be about asking for what she needed. So she stroked his head and gently pulled at his neck. And the anticipation he might actually realize what she was suggesting had her shifting her thighs at the noticeable dampness on her panties. All of this, and she’d never seen him. At least, not with her eyes.
She gasped when the warm weight of his firm chest fell across her breast. His hand gripped long locks of her hair as his mouth pressed gently against her cheek. She couldn’t hold back her moan at the goodness of finally feeling him like this. Needing more of him, she cradled his head, holding him to her, then slid her hands lower, reveling in the sculpted ridges of his broad shoulders and solid biceps.
Then his lips claimed hers. While Makenna loved the sweet butterfly kisses he’d traced over her cheekbone, her need to connect with him was too great to go slow. Her mouth fell open after their first kiss, and Caden didn’t disappoint. He pulled more of his torso on top of hers and explored her wanton mouth with his tongue. Sometimes he thrust and sometimes she parried. Every movement caused her heart to slam against her rib cage and her body to tingle in anticipation.