Perfect Sense (Perfect Series Book 1) (23 page)

“Alright, Anna.” Jake cuts her off and wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her backward. “We’ll pick you up tomorrow night at eight. Have fun on the lake. See you tomorrow.”

I wave. “Bye, it was nice to meet you.”

“See you tomorrow night,” Anna calls over her shoulder as they walk down the steps.

When they are out of sight, I turn and look at Cash. His eyes are focused and staring into the distance. His hands grip down onto the railing and his shoulders are hunched. He looks like he is in thought, mulling and reeling over something. Stepping towards him, I take a deep breath. “You okay?”

He shakes his head. “No, I’m not okay. Why did you say you wanted to go?”

I shrug. “They seemed really nice and they sounded like they really wanted you there. They are your friends, right?”

Cash turns around to face me and his hands slip around my waist, until his fingers brush the curve of my bottom. “Did you ever think that maybe I wanted to be alone with you?”

“You’re the one who said you brought me here to give me a taste of Newfie life, so wouldn’t a party with a bunch of Newfoundlanders seem like a good place to start?” I glance up at him through my long lashes with a coy smile.

He lets out a throaty growl and slips his hands lower until they are cupping my ass. “Alright Mittens, point taken. Now get your sexy little ass on my boat. We have some fishing to do.”

Naturally, like any other city girl sitting on a boat holding a fishing rod in her hands I have no idea what I am doing. Cash sits at the bow and places a minnow on the end of his hook. He casts it into the water then takes my rod from my hands and baits it with a minnow and gives it back to me.

I will never ever get used to him as an outdoors man even though he looks extremely hot in a flannel shirt rolled up to elbows and a backwards baseball cap. My eyes absorb every inch of him from behind my sunglasses. The scruffy jaw. The piercing blue eyes. A sexy smirk. A crooked nose. He turns to me with a smile on his face, his expression telling me he’s enjoying the thought of seeing me adapt in the wilderness.

“Do you even know how to cast a line?”

My face heats when those dancing blue eyes start scanning my face, silently laughing at my inexperience. He’s clearly amused by my lack of country living.

“I’m a city girl. I know how to buy it. Not catch it.”

He climbs across the boat with fluid movement and then slides in behind me, slowly, placing his powerful legs on either side of me. His hands cover mine and his mouth presses against my ear. “Lift, pull back and release.”

Just like his words, he pushes my index finger upward to slack the line. He guides my hands as we pull back the rod and then flick it forward to release the line into the water. The air between us is charged as he pulls away freeing me from his distracting and intoxicating scent.

“Congratulations on casting your first line.”

“Thanks,” I reply.

I sit motionless in my seat, watching the line sink lower and lower into the calm dark waters. So here I am, on a boat, alone, in Canada, with Cash Brooks, my body acutely aware and my heart pounding at how surreal this is. If someone had told me yesterday that this is how I would have been spending my Friday night, I would have told them they were crazy.

“You okay, Mittens?” he asks, tossing a bunch of trail mix into his mouth from the other side of the boat. “You’re not a fish lover are you? Because we’re going to keep them once we catch them, and eat them. You know that, right?”

My mouth is dry and a thousand and one conflicting thoughts swirl in my head about how scary and real my feelings are for him. I turn to face him. And then, he’s beside me.

“I’m not a fish lover,” I ramble, watching his blue eyes studying me. “I mean I like fish. Eating it. I haven’t caught one yet. But I’m sure I’ll like it.”

He runs his thumb slowly along my cheek. “Really? Because you still look terrified.”

I helplessly let me gaze run up and down his perfect athletic form. I am terrified. He
makes me want things and feel a way I’m not ready for. Suddenly, my hands are jerked forward and my rod bends, pulling me slightly off my seat.

“Shit, Mittens. You got one.” Cash’s hands clamp around my reel and he tugs hard at the rod, mounting the fish on the end of my hook.

Seeing him so excited for me makes me want him like my next breath. He starts cheering me on and moves away from me to let me reel in my catch. The fish fights back dragging me closer to the edge of the boat. I shriek a bit from the force, but my body wakes up with sensation as his strong and powerful arms wrap around me. He tugs my rod with me, successfully reeling in my first catch.

In one swift motion, Cash leans forward and grabs the flailing fish with his bare hands, pulls out a mallet and whacks it over the head. In its now lifeless state, he tosses it to me and I catch the huge ugly and slimy thing with a smile.

“It’s disgusting!” I laugh. “What is it?”

“It’s a lake trout.” Cash beams at me. “And it’s huge. I can’t believe your pretty manicured hands are holding that mammoth fish right now. It’s pretty sexy if you ask me.”

I blush and toss the fish back at him. “This is fun. I want to catch another one.”

He tosses the fish to the bottom of the boat and steps forward without removing his gaze from me. My breathing hitches as I watch his face harden and his eyes flash as he takes me in, wearing an oversized sweater and one of his old baseball caps.

He reaches for my cap and removes it from my head, and my airway constricts when I feel his large hand move around my neck as he pulls me against his chest and parts his mouth on mine. Our breaths mingle, and a delicious shiver runs through me as his lips pull me apart and our tongues flick out. He draws back with a wicked grin on his face.

He runs his hands up my body. “God Quinn. I could watch you catch fish all day. Hell I’d watch you do pretty much anything if I could see you smile like that again.” He softly laughs and hands me my rod.

Blushing, I wrap my finger around the rod and gently tug it from his hands. “Then move out of my way and let me catch another.” I grin and make my second cast.

Six fish and two hours later, gray clouds start rolling in and a misty drizzle moistens my face. With our fish strung along the side of the boat, Cash begins driving us back to shore. He tosses me a bright yellow rain poncho from one the secret compartments at the sight of me shivering with frizzy hair sitting at the stern.

“You okay?” He asks over the roar of the motor.

I nod, feeling raindrops hit the tip of my nose.

“We’re almost there,” he says with a wink. “You’re a trooper, Mittens.”

Ten minutes later, Cash pulls us into the boathouse and docks the boat. The rain is pounding down on us and Cash is sopping wet. My poncho doesn’t cover my bottom half and my legs are freezing from being pelted by the cold droplets. We run as fast as we can up onto the porch. Cash yanks open the sliding glass doors and we step inside the warm interior, laughing.

When our eyes lock, he pushes back my wet and mangled hair placing his hands on either side of my face. I’m dying with want. With recklessness. With anticipation. He smiles down at me and his rough voice whispers against my lips. “I’m done with being a gentleman.”

The instant he takes my lips; fireworks shoot off from my body.

All the pent-up fear of becoming lost to him disappears in this one moment. I was never going to be able to win against this connection between us. No matter how hard I fight it, it will never go away. Everything that I have worked so hard for, is lost in this moment. Nothing could ever tear us apart. I grip his face between my hands and smile devilishly against his lips. “You were never very good at being a gentleman, anyway.”

Chapter 13

My hands roam Cash’s body frantically, reaching for the hem of his wet shirt and peeling it off in one easy swoop. He sucks on my bottom lip, kissing me with a hunger that is almost strong enough to be frightening, pinning me against the sliding doors and driving his mouth into mine. His hands run down my sides and grip my hips before he unzips my jeans and drops them to the floor. I wrap my arms and legs around him, running my hands through his wet and mangled hair. We bump into the wall, the record player and the couch, shifting and pulling at each other in desperation. Our kisses are frantic, our touches wild.

The pressure of his throbbing cock against my sex feels amazing and the way his lips and the coarse stubble on his face rubs roughly against my lips, chin and neck is overwhelming. Cash is all around me, tasting me, feeling me, kissing me, but it’s not enough. I want more. Harder.

I run my hands along his stomach and reach for his belt. I unbuckle it as fast as I can, dropping his pants to the floor before slowly sliding my hand down to his throbbing mass, stroking it. He groans into my mouth from my touch, pulls me closer and guides me onto the couch.

“I’m dying to be inside you.” His voice is rough with need. My breathing catches at feeling his finger slide along the wet silk crotch of my panties. “Is that what you want?”

I squirm against him, those words amp the fire inside of me to new heights. “Yes,” I pant out, breathless.

He slides his fingers inside my sex and leans down and kisses along my neck in a single, smooth movement. His touch sends a wave of pleasure to sizzle through me. He slides another finger inside me and all I can stifle out is another pleasurable moan, grinding myself against him.

“Promise me something,” he whispers along the crook of my neck, slowing his rhythmic movements against my clit.

“Anything,” I say, arching my back to feel him push deeper inside me.

“Promise me, you’ll never forget this moment.” He withdraws his fingers, sweeping across my sensitive skin, eliciting an involuntary shudder. I look up at him and his eyes are hooded with worry and maybe even a sliver of guilt as they stare back into mine. A tiny beat of silence passes between us as he gently places a kiss on my lips. “No matter what happens after this weekend, promise me you won’t forget,” he whispers.

His promise frightens me. The sudden panic in his voice is too bewildering and too much. I know he wants me, but deep down I know he is untamable and unconquerable. Is that what he is trying to tell me? What I already fear? Is it because deep down he knows that all we will ever be is hot sex and secret weekend getaways?

“I won’t forget,” I whisper, kissing his rough jaw and chin. My mind can’t worry about our future right now when all my body can focus on is getting its next Cash fix. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone.” I feel his hands run along the back of my thighs. His touch unleashes a million tiny prickles to radiate all over my wet and bare skin. “Nothing feels right unless I’m with you.”

He reaches up, and digs his hands into my hair. “Don’t say that.”

I lean in closer, pressing my lips against his neck. “It’s true. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”

Bending slightly, he kisses my ear. “Vous etes si belle.”

My blood heats at the sound of his rough and ragged voice dissolving into a French accent. “What the hell was that?”

“I’m Canadian. French is my second language.”

“What did you say?” I ask breathlessly, unable to comprehend how Cash keeps on getting sexier.

He moves closer, his hips rolling against mine, his breath hot against my ear. “I said you’re beautiful.”

“I like it. Say something else.”

With a wicked gleam in his eye, he bends his head down and takes smalls nips at my shoulder, then looks back up at me, whispering. “Rester dans mon lit ce soir.”

“And what does that mean?” I ask, studying him. He looks nervous. Whatever he said is scaring the shit out of him to repeat.

“I asked you”—he pauses, cupping my breasts and making me ache in my sex even more— “to stay in my bed tonight.”

My heart swells. “Yes, of course.”

“Good. I want to feel you, taste you, and touch you all night long.”

My breasts heave up and down, my sensitive nipples grazing against the warm skin of his chest. I sit up abruptly, gripping the sides of his face with my hands and bring his lips to mine. He moans into my mouth, and I become lost in his urgent fingers on my hips lifting me up and pulling my entire body on top of him.

I slide my fingers down his rippling eight-pack and wrap his long hard cock in my hand. He catches my wrist and pins both my hands along the back of the sofa, causing my breathing to hitch. Before I can object, he seals his lips over mine, his tongue demanding and urgent.

“Not here,” he growls. “I want you in my bed.”

He grabs me and picks me up. Wrapping my legs around his waist I devour his mouth while he walks us up the stairs, down the hallway and into his room.

He tosses me onto the bed and climbs over top of me, kissing down my stomach until his mouth hovers over my sex. I gasp, digging my hands into the sheets, feeling his skilled tongue against my wet and swollen lips.