Chapter 6

6

DENVER

G od, Cassie felt good. Her pussy was warm and slick. And so tight. I never imagined anything could be this tight.

I’d been holding out while I watched her bounce up and down, her eyes closed, her lips parted as she breathed heavily. Now, that image was frozen in my brain, and I knew that meant I wouldn’t last much longer.

I had to touch her again, though. I moved my hands beneath her shirt and cupped her breasts, and she threw her head back, her hips gyrating in time with her movements.

She was a guy’s wet dream, and she was right here in my hands. Literally. In fact, feeling her hard nipples against my palms was what did me in, and I came, biting my lip to keep from crying out.

She said she was on the pill, but as I spilled my seed inside her, all I could think about was how I wished I could get her pregnant. Maybe her birth control would fail and we’d have a little one in nine months. But no, I had to make sure she was on the same page as I was with that.

I was thinking forever. She might just be seeing me as an item she’d checked off her to-do list.

When it was over, I pulled her toward me, my arms automatically going around her. Neither of us moved for what seemed like an eternity.

But after what turned out to be only a few minutes, a noise caused both of us to jump up, scrambling to get our clothing back into place. It would have been easy to assume nobody would find us over here, but those footsteps sure sounded close.

“Hello?” a male voice called out. “Is somebody in here?”

Cassie and I exchanged a look. Could we escape out the back door? No, we had tarps to pick up. But it was clear from his voice that this guy had no clue what we’d been doing. Cassie looked a little flushed, but anyone looking at her wouldn’t assume she’d just had sex. Not now that she had her shirt tucked back into her shorts.

“Over here!” she called out as she reached over to straighten my collar.

And then she smiled up at me, and in that look, I knew this wasn’t just an item she was checking off a list. No, she was thinking about a future with me too. I’d bet my bank account on it.

“Are you the lady who called about the tarps?” the male voice asked.

He came around the wall that had blocked us from the rest of the place. By then, Cassie had come around her chair and was standing at the end of it, staring down at her phone like she’d been doing that all along.

“You’re Brandon?” she asked the guy, who wore an apron and a name tag.

He was a lot younger than I would have expected. Probably not much older than a teenager. He looked completely clueless as to what had gone on here just seconds before he arrived. More than that—he probably wouldn’t have even cared.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was in the back eating lunch. Amy’s supposed to be out here somewhere, but she tends to…disappear. Follow me.”

Cassie glanced at me and made a funny face before rushing after the guy. I followed too, trying to snap back into business mode. I’d just come inside this woman, and now I was supposed to act like my life hadn’t permanently changed?

I paid for the tarps and led Cassie back to my truck, where I tossed everything in the bed and climbed in. It would take me a while to recover from what had happened back there, but one thing I knew was that I didn’t want this woman to walk out of my life.

“Stay,” I blurted.

I’d just started the truck, but I didn’t put it in gear yet. Instead, I turned to look at her, hating the fact that I was basically begging. I didn’t beg. But Cassie was worth breaking that rule.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said with a smile.

Maybe she’d misunderstood. “I mean stay in Rosewood Ridge. Don’t leave when you’re finished volunteering. Stay here and see where this can go.”

As I waited for her response, I cycled through all the other options. She could very well say her life was back in Chattanooga. She couldn’t just give all that up. If she did, was I prepared to move to be with her?

Yes. The answer was yes. I’d move to the moon if it meant spending the rest of my life with this woman.

She was my home now. It didn’t matter where we lived.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

That was not the answer I’d expected. It filled my heart with hope.

“Never been surer of anything in my life.” I took a deep breath and plunged in. “I think I’m falling in love with you. No, I know I’m falling in love with you. None of this wishy-washy stuff. I’m in this one hundred percent.”

I’d already said I’d never been surer of anything in my life. That summed it up best. This was the woman I was meant to be with. This was why none of my other relationships had worked out. I had to wait for Cassie to walk into my life.

“I’m in,” she said as a smile slowly spread across her face. “We’ll work out the rest later.”

I reached over and took her hand and said one word. It was the only word that needed to be said.

“Together.”