Eternal (22 page)

“Don’t, it’s ugly,” I contested, becoming
self-conscious and moving my marred flesh from him.

“Shh…,” Cayden soothed. “It’s not ugly, baby,
no…. It shows you were strong enough to survive, Winter. You did not die.
Winter Perri did survive. You lived baby. You lived for me.” I began to cry.
“We all have scares, Winter. Let go of yours, give them to me.” Cayden took my
ankle and kissed the scar again, only this time he ran his mouth tenderly up
the blemished line. “We have healed each other, Winter. The scars we carry on
the inside and on the outside don’t exist between us. You are beautiful, my
perfection.” Cayden leaned forward and kissed the tears from my cheeks.

“I love you, Cayden,” I whispered softly.

He located the side slit to my dress and moved
the material until he exposed both thighs. Cayden kissed my thighs. “And I am
the luckiest man in the world because you do,” he replied, blowing his warm
breath across each kiss.

Chills scattered across my body. Cayden swiped
his fingertip across the excitement of my flesh. Every part of my body hummed,
shivered, and chilled, yet deep inside a fire burned. He moved, stood up, and
looked down at me as though I was something to be admired before picking me up
from the bed. He held me close. Placed my feet upon the ground. Cayden never
broke his midnight blue gaze from my eyes.

I lifted my hand to his face, brushed my fingers
along his jaw, and touched his lips. He smiled tenderly. Kissed my fingers. His
hand slid up my arm before both his arms wrapped around me. Cayden released
each button on the back of my dress. Once they were loose, he pulled the straps
of my dress off my shoulders. My designer gown fell in a silky green pile at my
feet.

I slipped my hands inside his tuxedo jacket and
experienced the warmth of his body before I moved my hands over his shoulders,
moving his jacket back. Cayden shifted his arms. His jacket hit the floor. I
pulled his crisp white shirt from his pants and unbuttoned it. He slipped it
off. His shirt joined his jacket. I permitted my hands to run over the canvas
of his chest. I felt the strength of him. My hands traced his stomach before I
kissed each spot my hands had touched. Cayden’s eyes closed. His head bobbed
back while I kissed his flesh.

“Cayden, you are truly beautiful.”

He let out a low chuckle. “I’m glad you think so
however, I’m not real sure men qualify as beautiful.”

My hands brushed over his chest once more.
“Trust me, babe.” I kissed his throat. “You are beautiful.”

I stepped out of the pile of green at my feet
and walked over to the bed. I crawled onto the bed and gradually removed my
sheer panties. I lay back when I was free of them. Cayden stared at me intently
before he moved again. He pulled off his shoes then took off his pants. My eyes
worshiped every piece of him. I gloried at his beauty, understanding I would
need to keep this memory with me. So that’s what I would do. Worship him. Adore
him. Love him as if there was no tomorrow. After all, we are none promised a
tomorrow.

“Sit up, baby,” he said in a low voice.

I smiled and sat up on the bed. Cayden came
around behind me. I heard the rustle of the sheets as he slid onto the bed. His
hands swept my braided hair back. He kissed the base of my neck, slid his lips
up my skin until his tongue stopped at the tip of my earlobe. He flicked my
lobe with his tongue, sucked it, then his mouth meandered to the back of my
neck were he’d started. Hot breath gusted across my flesh. A ripple of pleasure
rolled over me. Cayden kissed down the entire curve of my spine, lingering in
the sweet spot at the base. I shook and arched forward. He gave a low murmur of
pleasure.

Cayden’s arms wrapped around me before two warm
hands covered my breasts. He pulled my bare back into his bare chest, allowing
me to move to my knees. Cayden bent me forward at the waist. When his hands
shimmied down my sides and firmly held my hips, the core of me moistened. His
strong fingers splayed across my skin. The thought of what he would do with
them enticed me.

Cayden’s body curved over my back, his chest to
my shoulder blades, his waist at the small of my back. I shivered when his warm
lips kissed my shoulder blades. He slid me back toward him before skimming his
hands over the curve of my butt in a lingering way. He explored my body as if
he were completely fascinated by the lines of me. Especially the intimate
crease of me. I moaned. He squeezed the plumpness of my cheeks, before he moved
his fingers inward.

“So beautiful,” he murmured.

Cayden brushed his fingers up my inner folds. He
let out a low soft groan of satisfaction when he felt my body twitch to the
flashes of sensation that caused me to shift back toward him. He narrowed his
touch. Circled over the hard tip between my legs. I swayed my hips in motion to
the rasping movement against my wet sex. I thought I would lose my mind from
the sensation. His finger worked my wanting. I needed more. As if he read my
thoughts, Cayden pushed two of his fingers knowingly into me. His other hand
pressed into the small of my back, arching me farther into his touch.

Cayden filled me with a full sensation that made
me quiver. I heard him groan. The sound deep and sexy. He leaned over my back
and fingered my slick, tight sheath while kissing my neck. His teeth grazed
over my right shoulder blade. When Cayden pulled his fingers from my body, I
glanced over my shoulder to see him lift them to his lips. The look upon his
face was pure satisfaction as he placed his slick digits into his mouth. He
groaned before his mouth moved to my ear.

Cayden whispered softly. The vibration of his
voice danced across my skin as he said, “So sweet.”

“Cayden…,” I moaned.

He shifted his body. With a slow push inward, he
parted my inner muscles and filled me with his cock. We both moaned in unison,
moving together, locking and unlocking like pieces to a sensual puzzle. I
arched back, picked my hands up from the bed and continued to sway with him. My
back, my shoulder blades, slid against his strong chest. We were kneeling upon
our knees, worshiping each other and loving as one.

I lifted shaky arms up over my head and latched
my hands around the back of his neck. Fingers twined into the nape of his silky
hair. Cayden’s right hand followed up the slope of my belly until he claimed
what was his. Tingles shot across me when his thumb slid across each erect
nipple. He squeezed one then the other before his hand glided up the front of
my throat and chin. He placed his index finger into my mouth. I moaned and
sucked his finger while his other hand squeezed and kneaded my left breast.

“Aaa…, Cayden.” His hand dropped to my shoulder.

His mouth was at my ear, his breath warm.
“Winter,” he whispered my name over and over.

“Cayden, I can’t live without you,” I muttered,
telling my fear.

“I will never let you go. You are mine, Winter.
I am yours. We will always be.”

Cayden moved, stirred my very soul. He was
holding me, making love to me with his words as he also made love to my
body.
 
He lied us down onto our sides.
Spooned my body from behind. Kept his body in perfect rhythm with mine. The
tears flowed down my cheeks until they found a home upon his strong hands.

Cayden told me how much he loved me.

“Winter, you are my love, my life.” With every thrust
he made, he said, “I love you,” wanting to drive the point home, press the
words deep into me.

His name fell from my lips. “Cayden, my Cayden.”

Cayden slid out of me then he plunged back
inside, “I love you,” he said. My breath caught. “Give me your fears, baby, let
them go.”

“There are things you cannot promise, Cayden.
Things you cannot….”

 
His hand
held my stomach, his other held my breast and he rocked inside of me as he
spoke. “Let go, baby, leave the fears, let go of all those impossibilities you
fight against.”

“Cayden, we can be separated even if we wish
otherwise. There are things in life we cannot fight against, things we cannot
control.”

 
“Winter,
do you know that I love you?”

He throbbed inside of me and pushed deep.

My breath caught. “Yes.”

“Do you trust me?”

“With everything that I am, I trust you.”

“Then trust you will never lose me.” Something
happened. Cayden seemed to understand the root of all my insecurities, all my
fears. He knew it went deeper than the mere jealousy of all the beautiful women
who surrounded him. “
Austin
told you he would never leave you, didn’t he, baby?”

I broke. Crashed into the remaining remnants of
that wall I constructed and tried so hard to hide from Cayden, but I could not
hide. My body gave. He pulled me into his hold as I uttered one single word
that punched through me and hit Cayden squarely.

“Yes.”

Cayden held me tight. He went completely still
before he pulled out of my body. He turned me so I was facing him before he
gently kissed my lips. “He never left you, Winter.”

“Yes he did, Cayden. He left. He promised to
stay with me always, something he could not promise because he died. There is
no forever, Cayden.”

“No,” he protested, “do you love him?”

Tears streamed down my face. “Yes, as I love
you.”

Cayden reached up and touched my face. My tears
rolled down his fingers.

“Do you still think about him?”

What could I say but the truth?

“Yes.”

Cayden placed his hand to my heart and said
quietly, “He is here, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

He placed his other hand to my temple and
whispered, “And he is here.”

“Yes.”

“
Austin
never really left. You hold him within you.” I closed my eyes, allowing the
knowledge of Cayden’s words to fill me. “I will never leave you, Winter.”

 
Cayden
kissed the corner of my mouth. The tears rolled down my cheeks. He brushed his lips
softly over my lips, over my eyelids, the tip of my nose before peppering
kisses along my face, and down my neck. His hands went beneath my shoulder
blades. He rolled me to my back and slid between my thighs.

“Winter, do you know you are mine?”

“Yes.”

He moved. In one smooth thrust, he was inside of
me, deep. I moaned at the sensation as my body took him.

“Do you know I would never let anyone hurt you?”

“Yes, Cayden.”

“Do you believe we are meant to be?”

“Yes.”

Cayden rubbed his hips against me. It sent bolts
of pleasure through me in an indescribable powerful force.

“Do you know I would never hurt you?” he asked.

I moaned, “Yes….”

“Tell me, baby. Do you know you will never lose
me?”

“I know you love me.” I breathed. I experienced
the sensation of his body, his words, his touch, but I was unable to find the
courage to believe I would never lose him, for the day I found him I feared
losing him, and I also knew if I had to, I would let him go to keep him safe.

Cayden moved again. He enveloped me into his complete
embrace. “You will never lose me. Please believe it, trust and never forget
it.”

I surrendered in this moment because he wished
me to. Believing because he was right. He would always be with me as
Austin
was. There was
something unbreakable about our bond. Cayden would always be a part of me. He
was already a part of me, and part of him was growing inside my womb. I needed
to tell him about the baby.
Tomorrow.
I would tell him, tomorrow.

“Yes…” I rasped. “I won’t ever forget, Cayden.”

“Never, Winter. You will never lose me. You and
I are here,” he said. He touched my heart. I knew he felt the beat of it as he
placed my hand to his heart. “And here.” He placed his forehead to mine. “And
here.” He gazed deeply into my eyes. “Forever, Winter.”

And in this flash in time we were...forever.

“I have never wanted anyone but you. I ache for
you, Winter.”

“As I ache for you, Cayden.”

His hands roamed over my hip. He pressed himself
into me, moving his hand lower, rubbing against the bud of my desire as it bloomed
beneath his expert fingers. Cayden kept perfect time, circling his fingers
against my swollen quivering flesh while he moved himself inside of me in
smooth strokes. We were joined, bodies slapping, deeper and harder.

“Come for me, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “I
want to feel you come around me. I want to feel your body hold my body tight
within you.”

I relented. My body quivered, spilling over in a
torrent. “Oh…Cayden.” I moaned before the breath was sucked from me.

“That’s it, baby, I love you,” he said.

Cayden bit my neck softly when I bore down from
climax. He groaned in response. When my body calmed, he pulled out of me to lie
back on the bed. I turned around, crawled toward him, and brushed the palms of
my hands across the entire canvas of his sculptured body. His body was put
together in tribute to the male form. I watched his skin, his muscles, as they
reacted to my touch. I wanted to hold onto every sensation, every movement of
his glorious body.