Page 69 of Love, Hate, Love

“Nope, now I want more.” His body was flush on top of mine, one cookie still in my grasp. He grabbed my wrist and brought the fisted cookie to his mouth.

His gaze was on my lips. He was going to kiss me and I wanted him to, whether it was sane or not. Ineededhim to.

His head dipped lower, his mouth feathering over mine as our lips touched. It morphed from something soft and light to a desperate need in less than a second. His hands threaded into my hair as I arched against him.

“Kade?” Elijah called as he walked into the living room.

We jumped apart from where we’d been entangled on the floor on the other side of the couch.

Elijah immediately turned around. “Oh shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t see anything. I promise. Nothing at all.” The door closed a second later.

Kade rolled back and then stiffened when he looked at me. “Are you all right?”

Elijah had seen us kissing. Nothing was all right.

I shook my head, afraid to speak because I knew my voice would crack.

“I’ll go buy you more cookies. I’ll buy you as many cookies as you want. Just don’t cry.” He sounded like he were terrified a tear might hit my cheek.

“I’m not crying,” I said, even though my voice was shaking.

“What’s wrong?” His hand shifted to cup my face. “Why are you upset?”

“What if he talks?” I said.

“Elijah isn’t like that, but I’ll go talk to him and make sure he understands.” Kade’s face lost all its softness.

He got up, pulling me up with him before taking off after Elijah.

How could I have been so foolish? This was my life at stake, prison. And for what? To kiss a man who’d already turned his back on me once? I couldn’t be this foolish.

Chapter31

Kade

I’d kissed Leah yesterday,and even though we’d acted as if nothing had happened since, my brain couldn’t move past it—or how to make it happen again. Would it be the smartest choice I’d ever made? No. Did I care? Didn’t seem to.

Alec walked into the office, where I was sitting thinking.

“Do you know what’s going on out there?” he said, hooking a thumb toward the chaos right outside the door.

Even if I couldn’t see it, the noise was impossible to ignore. I hadn’t quite been ready for what Cassie had planned, which was nothing short of erecting the Taj Mahal in a few days. There were fountains, ice sculptures, and I’d heard talk of swans this morning.

“Unfortunately, yes. How was your flight?”

“Total shit. There was so much turbulence it felt like I’d gotten tossed into a bouncy house with a bunch of cracked-out five-year-olds.” He took the seat opposite me and kicked his boots up onto my desk, running a hand through tousled hair. “Why am I here? You never did tell me why I had to come to this wedding. I have to say, the angel wing archways? It doesn’t look like it’s going to be my scene.”

“Leah wanted you here. I didn’t really give a shit.”

“Oh, did she now?” He smiled at me in a way that was going to get him knocked off his seat.

“Not like that. She wanted more people she was comfortable around.” I wasn’t mentioning a word about Missy. No need to direct attention that way.

“When did you start caring about what she wanted? Wait, let me correct that. When did you startadmittingto caring about what she wanted?”

Leah was out near the stables, but just in case, I got up and shut the connecting door to the main living area.

“That’s not the only reason I asked you to come out. There’s something not right about this situation,” I said.

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