Red in the Blue

Chapter 45

CW: Strong sexual content

I shifted against the back of the couch under Cade's gaze. He slid up from the couch like his bones were ribbons. He crossed the space between us and lowered down onto his knees in front of me. I started to sit up straighter in surprise, and he put his hands on my knees, warm through my tights. When he waited there, watching me, I slowly widened my legs and he pushed in between them, my skirt bunching up tautly against my thighs. His lips were on mine again as soon as he could get to me. I tried not to think about what I was doing. He smelled good and he felt good, and I pulled him to me, wrapping my arms around his neck, kissing him back. His lips moved against mine, and I wanted his tongue. I brushed my hands down his neck, past the open collar of his shirt. I wanted his tattoos to smudge off onto my skin. I wanted to be doused in him. I started unbuttoning his shirt. Cade made a noise in the back of his throat and his hand caught mine. He pulled back just enough to see my face, our noses almost touching, both breathless. I wanted to touch his face. To touch his cheeks and his jaw, to nuzzle against him. I wanted to fit into that hollow at the base of his throat. The need was licking up at me from inside, hot and fast. Now now now do it now need need need.

I whimpered, brows pulling together, and pushed myself tighter against him.

"Yeah?" he breathed. His arms had wrapped around my waist, and they tightened, flexed really, so I could barely feel it.

"Now," I said. "More," I said.

"More what?" Cade asked. The scent of him was like falling back into blankets that went on forever, down and down and down. I wanted to wrap myself in him.

"Use your words," he said. Fuck. It twinged in my gut.

"Fuck me," I said.

His arms flexed again. His jaw set.

"Are you sure?"

"Fuck me."

All the breath whooshed out of him. He looked like he was in pain. I fisted my hands in his shirt and tried to pull him back in. He reached a hand out and slid it along my jaw, hooked it behind my ear. For a minute, I thought he would pull me in and kiss me softly like he had at the council meeting. But his hand continued and gripped suddenly in my hair, my head dipping to the side as I hissed with the sudden twinge. I barely had time to register before Cade had pulled me back against the couch and pinned me there, his eyes wild and dark. He ducked his face into my neck, the feeling of his lips on my skin not nearly enough as I tried to buck up against him.

"Easy," he ordered lowly, buried in my shoulder. He dragged his lips back up my neck and, one hand still fisted in my hair, pulled the collar of my sweater away with the other and started kissing at my shoulder. I felt his kiss graze his mark, the scar at the junction of my neck and shoulder, and sparks exploded behind my eyes.

"Oh," I moaned. "Oh, fuck, that."

He licked up the mark again.

"This?" he asked as my body tingled and burned again.

"Damnit," I answered. There were too many things. Fuck that felt good and fuck it was annoying that such a gross, unwanted, claiming mark would feel like that.

Cade pulled back and his face was brushing mine again. I reached out and started to undo the buttons of his shirt. His hand tightened in my hair. The other hand snaked up and fit around my throat, up under my chin. I let him feel me moan under his hand. His grip tightened and I hummed at the pressure, pushing my hips up into him as I got the last of the buttons undone. He almost growled when my fingertips brushed his stomach, and the sound startled me into pausing. But he snatched his hands from me, impatient now, and pulled his shirt off and stood up, pulling me to my feet. There was a zipper at the side of my jumper, and I pulled it and let the jumper fall to pool on the floor. Cade's big hands gripped my waist for a split second, like he just needed to get his hands around me, then he was taking my sweater off over my head. His eyes raked over me. I reached for his belt, and he gripped my wrists and spun me around suddenly, pushing me back onto the couch so I was folded over the back of it.