Going Down Easy (Billionaire Bad Boys 1)

“I’m sure he felt the same way about you.”

Kade shrugged. “I’ll never know.”

“Have you ever reached out?” she asked.

“No. I wasn’t about to set myself up for rejection.”

More rejection, she thought, grasping his hand harder. She swallowed hard, unsure of what to say.

“But back to what you asked me, about the pizza and the mess?”

She waved away the question. It no longer mattered, in light of everything else.

“The answer is, I don’t know. I can’t control what my brain chooses to obsess over. And the medicine I take helps a lot. So did the CBT sessions.”

“CBT?”

“Cognitive behavioral therapy. It helps solve problems and change thinking patterns.” He shrugged, jerking out of her grasp, obviously embarrassed.

“Don’t pull away from me.”

“You should go.” He rose from the bed. He wore only a pair of track pants, and his bare chest heaved heavily as he breathed. “You will eventually. Might as well—”

“No.” Instead of being insulted, she understood. Enough people had left her for her to recognize the same fear in him.

She climbed out of bed. Coming up beside him, she placed a hand on his shoulder, the muscles hard and tense beneath her palm.

“Don’t assume I’m like everyone else you know or might have been with, because that’s just insulting.” This was no time to get into her history or her past. All he needed to know now was that she wouldn’t run away just because he didn’t fit some cookie-cutter mold. “You can’t scare me off,” she informed him.

He spun back around. “No?” he asked, admiration in his tone, appreciation in his gaze.

“No.” She rocked back on her heels so she could look up and better meet his gaze.

He shook his head and smiled, all the tension leaving his body in a rush of air. “You, Lexie Parker, are something else.”

She grinned, pleased she’d broken through his barriers and gotten through to him. “Yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah. The question is, what am I going to do with you?”

“I can think of a few things.” She waggled her eyebrows before lifting the hem of his shirt and pulling it over her head.

And those were the last words spoken for a good, long while.

* * *

Kade woke up to the sun streaming through his window and a warm, soft body beside him in bed.

Lexie.

He didn’t typically have women over. Sex? Yes. At their place, not his. He didn’t like his privacy invaded, and he loathed the awkward mornings after. Something he hadn’t given a thought when he’d taken Lexie home with him or when they had finally passed out from exhaustion last night. Or should he say from exertion?

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so relaxed or complete. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself or assume too much. Nor did he want to overthink the way he’d spilled his guts last night. It wasn’t his finest moment, yet she hadn’t flinched, except to be outraged on his behalf, which he had to admit had made him feel good.

So he decided to begin the day the same way they’d ended last night. He rolled her onto her back and tossed the covers aside. Starting at her jaw, he kissed her, working his way down her body. He licked at her jaw, slid his tongue down her neck, and nipped at her collarbone.

She moaned, obviously awake. “Good morning,” he said, lapping at the soft skin of first one breast, then the other.

“Good morn—Aah!” Her words turned to a moan when he latched his mouth around her nipple and began to tease her with his tongue and teeth. She grasped his head, keeping him tight against her chest while she writhed and moaned beneath him.