Is it really so bad,keeping these things from him? He won’t care. I know it.

But yes, I had to borrow the dress from Kenna because I don’t have a fancy wardrobe. I get my clothes from the thrift store. She even let me borrow her makeup… Maybe everything Cade sees is a farce. A lie I’ve presented to him.

“Cade…”

He pulls away. “We don’t have to, I’m sorry.”

The look on his face…pure admiration, love, whatever it is, the same is mirrored in mine. “It’s not that. I’m?—”

“Sexy?”

He runs his hands through my hair, threading his fingers through the strands at the nape of my neck. “Debatable.”

He gives my hair a short tug in response. “You are sexy. You can feel how hard you fucking make me right now.”

I shouldn’t. I should tell him the secret about my dad. Explain everything to him, right down to why I have the assistant job in the first place before this goes any further.

…But now’s not really the time, is it? We had a non-perfect date. He gave me jewelry. It would be selfish to unload on him right now.

“I’m a little nervous,” I admit.

He cups my cheek. “I’ll make your first time good for you.”

I kiss the inside of his palm, savoring the moment. I love that I don’t have to utter everything about me to him. He never asked if I was a virgin, and now he’s assuming correctly. Very perceptive of him.

“I bought pain reliever in case you need it afterward. I even borrowed an ice pack from the trainer’s office.”

My gaze clashes with his. “Just what do you think you’re going to do to me?”

“It’s only a precaution.”

“Did you also borrow a heating pad?”

The areas around his eyes crinkle. “No, but I have hand warmers that I use for practice sometimes. That should work.”

“Looks like you thought of everything.”

“I have ribbed condoms, too. For your pleasure. And I bought your favorite doughnut from the bakery. It’s in my closet, waiting.”

I lift to my tiptoes. I don’t know what I did to deserve a boyfriend like this. His fingers knead my ass, bringing me closeenough that his erection grazes my stomach. Pressing a kiss to his lips, I return to tracing each ab, then work his buttons through one by one until I can run my palms up his chest. I push his shirt over his shoulders, and he whips it off him before his hands are right back on me again, cupping my breast through my dress and circling my nipple. It peaks under his attention.

“I need you out of this.”

I nod, kissing him again while he works the zipper down. He pulls the straps off my shoulders, kissing my collarbone and then following the material to the floor, he kisses the swell of my breast, then my nipple, stroking my bud fiercely with his tongue.

I work my arms out of the straps, and the dress pools at my feet in a ring of soft fabric. Discarding my shoes, I step toward him, forcing him toward the bed while I unzip his pants. My heart careens in my chest. Shaking fingers push his pants to the floor until we’re standing there in only our underwear.

He steps back to study me, but in an instant, he drops to his knees, burying his face between my legs. He hikes my right leg over his shoulder, tugs my panties to the side, and strokes my pussy with his tongue.

“Cade!”

He moans into me, and there’s no doubt how much this man loves to taste me. He barricades me against him with a strong arm across my butt. “I’m addicted. I can’t help it.”

My soft cries fill Cade’s room.

“Fuck me.” He stands, lifting me with him until he lays me on the bed, throwing my panties to the floor. He swallows, lazily circling my clit with the tip of his finger, his gaze traveling over me like I’m a hundred-year-old painting hanging in a museum.

My hips move off the mattress in tandem with his movements. “I want to see you,” I breathe.