From Ashes (27 page)

“Gage, I love you,” she breathed as she brought my face to hers, and I smiled against her lips.

“God, darlin’, I love you so damn much. Don’t ever leave me again.” I kissed her once more before making my way down her body.

I should have taken my time kissing every inch of her now that she was back in my arms, but that would have to wait ’til later. I needed to take care of her, of us, and I needed to do it right now. Not wanting to tease her, I dove right in and her back arched off the ground. The sexiest moan you’ve ever heard filled the room and her hands wove their way through my hair to keep my head where she wanted it. I groaned against her, having missed the taste of her, the way my sweet Cassidy completely let go when we were together, and thanking God that she had come back to me.

She came so hard and fast, I wanted to stay there and make her come again that way, but I knew I’d have time for that later. Now I needed her. Her hands were already pulling my body back up hers, and though I tried to be considerate to her and not kiss her after that, she slammed our mouths together and swiped her tongue against mine, moaning even louder when she tasted herself. Dear Lord, my girl was hot. She wrapped her legs around me at the same time I sank into her and our kisses cut off as she cried out and I groaned. Feeling her around me took away the last of the tension of those last two weeks and I reveled in the feel of her.

“Oh, Gage, please. Please move.”

I smiled and bit at the hollow of her neck before whispering in her ear as I slowly slid out, “Yes, ma’am.” And slammed back in.

“Gage!” she cried, and her back bowed off the ground again, her head pressing against it.

I wanted to take this slow, I swear I did, but I just couldn’t. And thank God she was right there with me, matching each thrust and urging our bodies to go faster and harder. She had just started to tighten against me when her body started shuddering and I rode out her orgasm a little longer before I found my own release and collapsed onto her. Cassidy took my weight easily and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, letting one hand softly caress my back.

“Welcome home,” I mumbled into her shoulder, and she burst into giggles.

“I’d say that was
definitely
a welcome home.”

“Don’t ever leave again, darlin’,” I pleaded again, and she squeezed my shoulders before releasing them.

“Never.” She brought my head up and kissed me softly before looking into my eyes. God I missed those whiskey eyes. “Do you want to get dressed and we’ll talk? It’s going to be a long talk, I have a lot to tell you.”

“Nope.” I rolled off her and pulled her onto her side as well. “I want you to stay like . . .” I trailed off as I caught a flash of color on her exposed shoulder and leaned up to look over it. “You got a new tattoo?”

“I did.” Her smile was one I’d never seen before and she rolled away so I could see it. It was one badass-looking phoenix, and before I could ask what had made her get that, she rolled back so she was facing me. “I’ll get to that part but not yet. It’ll be explained though.”

“All right, darlin’.”

C
ASSIDY

T
HREE AND A
half hours later, and I was sitting up on the floor, looking down at Gage, who was propped up on both elbows, staring down at the hardwood floor. I’d just finished telling him my story, every part of it. He’d thrown on his jeans and I’d put on my underwear and my racer-back tank when he had to go out to my car to get the letter from my mom, but other than that, we’d stayed half-naked and in the same spot where we’d had our “welcome home.”

Of course he’d known some things about the beatings from Tyler, but he’d never heard about them from me. I told him about all the different ones that stuck out in my mind, how and what Jeff would reward my mom with right in front of me after they got done almost killing me, and about the times when I’d be able to walk away after they beat me, how I’d still be able to hear their moans filling the house. I told him about how I had to shut off my emotions, what I felt when it was happening, before and after, and how Tyler was my savior during those times.

He flinched, but I still told him everything I felt and thought when I saw him hitting Grant, when he elbowed me, and the flashbacks when he turned to hit me again. I explained how I’d thought that until I was able to be past that, I couldn’t talk to him, because it would just continue to get worse for us. Then I mentioned the fire and what led to Detective Sanders and Detective Green questioning me, which led to the reading of the will, all the money, and the letter from my mom. I’d had to stop for a second and take a few deep breaths before I told him all about Detective Connor Green, and when I say “all,” I do mean
all
. I told Gage about my feelings for him after he’d shown up that night years ago, the coffee shop this past week, the alleyway, and the hours afterward. Gage read the letter again after I told him about the alleyway with Connor and that was when I told him how I had come to see the beauty in my mother’s actions with the fire and why I’d decided to get the tattoo. I didn’t need to explain why I got a phoenix, since it was in the letter, but I did tell him all about my dad’s ring and the painting that had been on my bedroom wall. Gage was pissed that Connor had kissed me, but his eyes had gone solid when I told him about the hours on the phone and texting in the days following, and going to his house Saturday morning. I didn’t leave a thing out from then either; I told him everything, from the way I felt to taking his tie off for him and watching him take his shirts off. How I kept thinking about leaving to see Gage while Connor was in the shower and, as soon as Connor was back, how the butterflies were back again. What happened when I showed him the tattoo and how he had my legs around his hips and me pressed against the wall in under a second, and how I’d started to kiss him back before I told him to stop.

As I had with the phone calls, texts, and coffeehouse, I told Gage everything we talked about when Connor had me pressed to the wall, including my promise to him. Gage’s hands had curled into fists and his jaw started ticking from the pressure. I wanted to run my fingers down his jaw so he would relax, but seeing as I was the reason he was so pissed off, I just scooted back a few inches and held his flat stare as I continued to tell him how I told Connor not to wait for me and that Gage was it for me, kissing him, and then leaving. I ended with flying back to Texas, going to the town house to find it empty, going to buy my dream car, and stopping to see Jesse and Isabella in hopes of helping them with their financial situation before going to find Gage so I could tell him about how I’d been forced to face my demons, and that I knew what I had to do to overcome them.

Connor, as I’d told Gage, was really attractive and sweet but didn’t hold a candle to Gage. What he had that Gage didn’t was an understanding of my past, and before Connor sat down with me at the coffee shop, I hadn’t known that I needed that. But what I had come to realize was that it wasn’t Connor, and it wasn’t that he’d gone through what I did; it was that I was keeping that part of my life from Gage. I wasn’t giving Gage a chance to understand it and help me with my demons. He would never know what it felt like, but by telling him everything and by baring my soul to him, I could allow him to be there for me and it could only help our relationship improve. And as I’d hoped, as soon as I told him everything, I felt a new connection in our already unbreakable bond that came from my opening up to him about myself. But now he wasn’t speaking, and he wasn’t looking at me. And since the better part of the last hour had been spent talking about Connor, I could only imagine why.

“Phone.”

“What?”

“Phone, Cass, give me your phone.” He turned to look at me and his eyes were still flat.

I nodded and dug through my purse as I held his stare. “I know why you want it, and I’m not going to stop you. But, Gage, I just told you all of this; do you want to talk about it first?”

“No. When I can stop thinking about you and him, I’m gonna come back, and then we’ll talk about it.” He took my phone, stood up, and walked out of the house.

G
AGE

I
SLID MY
finger over the phone, and though I wanted to, I didn’t check the messages. Cassidy had been painfully honest with me, so I knew she hadn’t hidden one damn thing from me. Checking the messages would only be saying I didn’t trust her, and I did. I went to her recent calls, and though I knew she’d been avoiding everyone but this detective, it still felt like a blow to see his name as the top four of her recent calls. Next to each of them was a number. Three, five, two, six. It didn’t take more than a second to add them up. Sixteen. They’d called each other sixteen fuckin’ times in a matter of two days, which he was working the majority of, and one morning. My stomach churned and I pressed on his name. It only rang twice before he picked up.

“Cassidy.” He sighed, sounding relieved. “God, I’m glad you called.”

“Not Cassidy,” I responded.

It only took a few seconds for him to get it. “Gage,” he stated firmly.

“Yep.”

“So she’s there with you.”

“Yep.”

“And you’re calling, which means she’s told you about me.”

What pissed me off more was that he’d known about me and still kissed her, begged her to stay with him. “Told me absolutely everything about you, including how she felt about you.”

“Everything,” he said doubtfully.

“Everything, meaning I just had to listen to my fuckin’ world talk to me for an hour about a guy who knew about me and still fuckin’ kissed and had her up against a wall with her legs around him. She even told me how she helped you out with your clothes before you got in the shower. So yes, I know it all.”

“Jesus.”

“I don’t appreciate people touching what’s mine,” I said in a low warning tone.

He didn’t care or back down. “I’ve never met anyone like her. It didn’t take me more than a couple minutes to know I wanted her, and not just in my bed. Girls like her don’t just come around every day—in fact they don’t come around ever. You weren’t there for her when you should have been. I don’t give a fuck if she didn’t tell you where she went. I would have made it my mission to find her and not let her go again. You let her go two weeks without even calling her.”

“And you let her go four years without even checking up on her. You don’t know the first thing about me and Cass, and you and she didn’t know that Tyler and I were talking daily while she was there. I knew I freaked her out the night of the fight, so Ty and I agreed it was best if I waited for her to come around instead of pushing her. Since Tyler’s the one who took care of her all those years, I figured he knew best, and looks like we were right.”

Connor scoffed. “You can’t keep her in a glass box. I pushed her and
that’s
what helped her. If not, she’d still be battling her demons and she might not be there with you. Since she told you everything, I’m guessing she told you if
you
weren’t in the picture, she wouldn’t have walked out my door.”

My hand gripped the railing on the wraparound porch and my head dropped. Hearing her say that had hurt more than anything else she’d told me. “She did,” I said, confirming it.

“Pushing her brought us together, and yeah, it may have ultimately sent her back to you, but it gave us a connection you’ll never understand and you’ll never have with her. I’m not blind, I know she’s completely in love with you. As soon as she says your name those eyes of hers light up and it felt like a punch to my gut every time. But just remember what she said to me. Remember that I do want your girl, and that when you mess up, I’ll be ready to take her from you.”

“Not gonna happen,” I growled, and straightened. “I’ve had enough of other guys trying to take her from me. So hear me when I say that Cassidy. Is. Mine. She came back
to me.
She’s not going anywhere, and neither am I. I hate what she just told me, I hate that she feels anything for you at all, but I will fight to keep her and make her forget about you for the rest of my life.”

Connor stayed silent.

“I’m putting a ring on her finger. I’m marrying her. And I’m gonna have a family with her here on my ranch. I don’t want to hear from you ever again, and when I say
I,
note that Cassidy will tell me if you call her, you understand?”

“Yeah, I got you.”

“Good-bye, Detective Green.” Without waiting for a response I ended the call and stormed back into the house.

Cassidy was on her knees, butt on her feet, and looking at me like she had earlier, like she was seeing the sun for the first time and afraid it was going to be taken away from her. I understood the look now; she hadn’t known then and didn’t know now how I was going to react to the Connor thing. Without saying a word, I scooped her up in my arms and carried her through the empty house into the kitchen. Her eyes didn’t leave mine and her hand shakily came up to brush across my cheeks, down my jaw, and across my lips.

“Gage,” she whispered.

“You’re mine,” I informed her, in case she hadn’t figured that shit out yet. I set her butt on the edge of the counter and gripped the sides of her underwear to pull them down, letting my hands trail back up the insides of her thighs.

She nodded. “Forever.” Her voice was breathy as her arms went back onto the large granite island in the center of the kitchen and her head fell back.

“I talked to Connor.”

“Figured that.”

Her head was still dropped back, so I let the hand that had been supporting her back slide up until it cupped her neck and forced her to look at me. “Are you mad about that?”

“No, I had a feeling something like that, or worse, was going to happen. But I’m confu—oh!” She gasped when I slid two fingers in, and had to work hard to keep her eyes open and on mine. “Confused. Aren’t you mad, why are you—oh God—um, why are you doing this?”

I smiled widely and leaned forward to suck on that spot she loved behind her ear before telling her, “Always told you I wanted to claim you, darlin’.” Cassidy burst out laughing, but the movement it caused, and where my fingers currently were, made the sound cut off, and she moaned deeply. “Plus, we gotta break in all the rooms of our home.”