Page 31 of Hideaway

Feeling her self-esteem slowly decimate into nothingness, Kara bent to pick up the shirt. Suddenly eager to cover her nakedness, Kara quickly slipped into Cade’s shirt, fastened every button up to the neck, and wrapped her arms around herself to ease her trembling. Maybe the wholesleep with Cadeplan hadn’t been the best idea after all.Hecertainly didn’t seem to think so anyway. She gathered the last remnants of her pride and met Cade’s gaze expectantly as though awaiting his next command.

“Would you like to use the bathroom first, or shall I?” Cade asked, his tone softening.

“I’ll go,” Kara answered swiftly, thankful for a chance to escape the embarrassing situation she’d created and have a moment to brush her teeth and calm her nerves in peace. She made a dash for the bathroom and shut and locked the door behind her.

Finally alone, Cade allowed some of the uncertainty he’d been feeling to creep into his face. It was tiring having to constantly erect a mask of composure when his emotions bubbled so close to the surface, desperate to burst through. With Kara in his vicinity, in his fucking bedroom, he had to be even more careful. He knew what she wanted. It was painfully obvious when she stripped herself bare for him, offering him her exquisite nakedness like a sacrifice to a bloodthirsty god. Well, she wasn’t wrong there. He thirsted for her, he craved to devour every aspect of her essence. And when he was satiated, there would be nothing left of her.

Cade bent down and picked up the panties the cheeky girl had thrown at his feet. He groaned when he felt and smelled the wetness of her arousal on the material. Cade picked up the rest of Kara’s clothes and deposited them in the hamper in his closet for Mrs. Hughes to launder. And he placed Kara’s damp knickers in his underwear drawer for safekeeping. Since she had practically given them to him, she wouldn’t be getting that particular pair back.

Sitting down on the bed, Cade contemplated what exactly he was going to do about Kara. He knew he couldn’t give her what she wanted because she couldn’t give him what he needed. She was too pure, too delicate, too fucking innocent to be able to handle the darkness that he needed to occasionally let loose and allow to gorge. His appetites required a willing victim, and he was fairly certain Kara would go running if she knew how he wanted to use her—and he really couldn’t allow her to run from him. So he would give her what he could, let her sleep in his bed, give her the warmth of his embrace if she so desired, but he wouldn’t, under any circumstances, allow himself to fuck her. Because fucking her had the potential to break them both.

In a cloud of steam, Kara exited the bathroom—still dressed in his shirt, thankfully—smelling clean and minty, her gorgeous face washed free of makeup, and her eyes noticeably red and puffy, as though she’d spent the majority of her time in the bathroom crying. That was two days in a row that he had been the cause of her tears, and it made him feel like a fucking bastard. In that moment, Cade wanted to do anything to wipe the sadness from her face, but he knew giving her what she thought she wanted would only hurt her worse in the long run. As much as it twisted at his insides, he preferred being a bastard that day to save her future pain.

“Are you finished?” Cade asked as he headed toward the bathroom.

Avoiding his gaze, Kara nodded. She was seriously considering whether she should bolt while Cade was in the bathroom brushing his teeth, but figured her pride had already been irreparably destroyed so she might as well stay. She settled into the same side of the bed that she had slept on the previous night, diving under the covers and hating how much she loved being enveloped by his delicious scent. Quickly to avoid being caught, Kara switched the pillows, snuggling her face into the one Cade had used last night, the scent of cedar and mint lulling her into a sense of calm tranquility.

All too soon, the bathroom door opened and Cade stepped into the room still wearing only his sweatpants. His dark hair still dripped from being washed, sending rivulets of water cascading down the ripples of his abs. Kara bit her lip to stifle an irrepressible moan at the sight of him. He was devastatingly, breathtakingly beautiful—like an avenging angel, all darkness and light, cruelty and tenderness, destruction and salvation. A single look from him could shatter her as much as it could bring her heavenly bliss, and she would happily take ruin or rapture at his hand.

“Where would you like me? On the floor, or in the bed? As it was your bargain, you are free to choose,” Cade asked as he tried to decipher the confusing concoction of emotions scattering across her face.

“The bed,” Kara answered softly, uneasy with the reminder that she’d made a deal with the devil—and he had yet to collect.

“As you wish,” Cade acquiesced before turning off the lights and climbing into bed. He turned away from her, giving his attention to his phone as he went about his nightly ritual of answering emails and concluding work related tasks. He wasn’t usually so inattentive when he had company in his bed, but Kara wasn’t his typical fuck, and he desperately needed a distraction from the fact that she was lying in his bed with her pink pussy bare and free for the taking. If he allowed himself to think about her wet cunt, he would go fucking insane before he snapped and fucked her until she passed out.

Kara stirred impatiently in bed; sleep was the farthest thing from her mind at that moment as she waited for something—anything—to happen. Cade remained fixated on his stupid fucking phone, something she still hadn’t been allowed the privilege of using while at the manor, she reminded herself with chagrin. He showed no interested in her whatsoever, even though she’d practically begged him to fuck her. He’d offered to do it the day before with no reservations, so what had changed?

“Cade?”she called quietly into the darkness, pleading for some glimpse of the passionate, intoxicating man who had lately been edging her feelings dangerously toward something more than mere attraction.

Any semblance ofthatCaden Ashford seemed to have vanished amid a storm of dark, brooding silence. She could think of no cause for the abrupt change in Cade’s demeanor. Fearful that she had done something to upset him, Kara anxiously studied the unmoving form lying as far from her as was possible without the risk of crashing to the floor. His back was bare, the dark sheet barely upholding the bounds of modesty as it draped slightly below the twin indentations above his backside. His shoulders appeared to be sculpted more from stone than flesh, broad with smooth curves. His back rippled with muscles Kara hadn’t known anatomically existed, making the indentation of his spine more pronounced, like a linear valley amid mountains. There was a soft curve to his hip that continued below the obstruction of the sheet, tempting her gaze further down. The man was so frustratingly beautiful in every aspect that Kara’s heart seemed to ache just from looking at him.

“Go to sleep, Kara,” Cadecommanded shortly, his tone somewhere between anger and deep annoyance.

“I am sleeping,”she answered unconvincingly.

“No, you aren’t. I think your eyes might have bored holes in me by now.”

“Well, I’m sorry if my gaze offends you. Perhaps I should return to my own bed as you obviously find my presence so unbearably repulsive,”Kara responded bitterly.

“You’re in this bed byyourdemand, not mine. I’m under no obligation to enjoy the experience.”

Her feelings properly wounded, Kara fell silent. He was right, of course. The stirrings of attraction and arousal that had begun to blossom within her were unwarranted, undesired, and, worst of all, unreciprocated. Kara’s eyes pricked with tears brought on by embarrassment mingled with self-pity; she brushed away the signs of weakness angrily.

With a suddenness that startled her, Cade rolled over to face her, his body so close that the crisp scent of his cologne assaulted her senses like a wave crashing against her. Kara shivered inexplicably, the intensity of his gaze penetrating deep to her core with a power that couldn’t be explained. Somehow, she felt as though she would follow anywhere those piercing, green-gold eyes led her.

“I apologize, that was a little more harsh than you deserve,”Cade said softly, most of the previous sharpness faded from his voice.

Kara barely recalled the offense, his closeness having banished all thoughts of the past to hazy memories. He seemed troubled as his eyes searched hers, an unfamiliar crease residing between his brows, altering his expression with a severity that would have been alarming if she hadn’t already resigned herself to whatever intentions he might have in store. His mouth curved with an amused smile that didn’t match his darkly intense eyes, as though a conflict of emotions warred within him. Without thinking, Kara raised her hand to his forehead and stroked upward, willing the pensive furrowing of his brow away.

The unpredictability of her touch obliterated any inhibitions Cade might have possessed, and he reached for her desperately, capturing her face in his hands and forcing her lips up to meet his. Kara let the kiss consume her, feeling as though every fibre of her composition melded with Cade’s the moment their bodies collided. His mouth was conquering—warm, demanding lips claiming her as his, tongue penetrating deeply as he explored the undiscovered territory of her mouth, unsheathed teeth meeting with the tender skin of her bottom lip with such force that Kara couldn’t suppress a moan. The primal sound drove Cade deeper. With a passion that bordered on violence, he grabbed her hair and twisted tightly, locking her in place beneath him. His other hand moved roughly over her body, vigorously exploring every piece of her as though he were trying to commit her to memory. Kara’s breath hitched in anticipation as his hand traveled lower; her lips grew more eager against his, urging him further.

The moment ended too soon. Without explanation, Cade broke off the kiss and pulled away sharply, leaving Kara breathless and aching for more. Disentangling himself from her embrace, Cade rolled onto his back and stared dismally into the darkness, refusing to acknowledge Kara’s presence or what had quite nearly occurred between them.

“Fuck,”Cade breathed as he ran his fingers through his hair, his breathing left heavy and uneven after their encounter.

Kara stared at him in complete bewilderment. What the hell had just happened? Or almost happened? Cade’s kiss had caught her off guard, nearly as much as her own fervent response to his touch. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt something quite so electrifying as his hands on her skin; she needed more, a hollow emptiness lingering in the absence of his body against hers. She watched as Cade’s chest rose and fell deeply, she heard the quickened pace of his heart beating in his chest; it was a frantic rhythm that mimicked her own. He had been just as aroused as she was, so why had he stopped? Kara reached her hand across the distance between them, longing to pull Cade back from whatever dark place he had vanished to.

“Unless you want to be thoroughly fucked this instant, do not touch me again,”Cade said dangerously, still refusing to look at her.

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