Cade
Real.
This was real.
This was as real as it came.
I was as real as I had ever been with anyone.
My heart rammed itself against my chest with her sweet, soft lips moving against mine with the water pelting me on my back. Her waist fit so well in my hands that I wanted to freeze time and stay here forever with our truthful words slipping to the wet floor. She and I had finally figured it out. We needed each other, wanted each other, despite the things that pulled us back as individuals. The quiet scars on the inside, that most men didn’t want to admit were there, rushed out quickly as I confessed that my upbringing had affected me in ways that I hadn’t admitted to anyone. It was freeing to admit to her that my mother leaving me without a single word hurt in ways that I was too stubborn to accept. And all I wanted to do after letting go was show her how much she meant to me. I wanted to show her that I would do anything for her because Journey Smith, the girl who didn’t know where she came from or about any aspect of her past, was the only fucking person on this earth that knew me from the inside out.
“There is nothing that could come between us. You know that, right?”
Journey jumped up, and I caught her, my hands slapping onto her wet skin. Her legs wrapped around my waist, her hands around my neck. “If nothing has come between us yet, I don’t think anything will.” She pressed her lips to mine, stealing the words off my tongue. She spread her legs, and I was already nudging inside her, burying myself physically and emotionally. I swallowed her hot, little gasp and pulled out slowly, looking her dead in the eye every single time I pushed in.
Feel this. Feel every bit of me take every bit of you.
Journey threw her head back, pushing her perfect mounds in my face for the taking. Water slipped down to her belly button, and when I caught a glimpse of our joined bodies, I made myself savor it. Perfect.
“You and I, Journey. You and I.”
She began to squeeze around me, gasping louder and louder. I pumped in harder and faster, taking my hand and bringing her face back down to mine. “I wanna see you when I bring you to the edge.”
My finger brushed over her bottom lip, taking it from her teeth. My fingers were plunged into the skin of her ass, and she pressed down on me, both of us bringing each other to oblivion. Her eyes grew hooded, and in between a thrust, I said, “Eyes on me. Watch us come undone for each other.”
She moaned, her pretty gray eyes trying desperately to roll in the back of her head. Her pussy tightened, and I almost fell from the way she sucked me. “Fuck, Journey.” A tingle shot up from my heels all the way to my spine, and I pushed her back harder against the tile to go in deeper. Forever. Mine. A second later, we dove for each other, kissing and sucking as I quickly pulled out of her, coming down the front of her belly. I kept ahold of her as I crashed and burned, only to rise from the embers seconds later.
For the first time, Journey and I were as raw as we had ever been with the truth out in the open and our vulnerabilities somewhere in the past.
We stared at one another as we tried to regain our breathing. My arm rested against her lower back, and I gave her zero space as I crowded her even further. My palm wove into her wet hair as my thumb brushed over her swollen lip, and we stayed like that until the water grew cold.
With the shock washed away, Journey’s breathing eventually slowed, and we climbed out of the shower. Neither one of us said a word as I draped us both in towels and pulled her over to the bed. Nothing but the sound of me brushing her hair and our breathing filled the room, and even as we crawled underneath her covers, fully dried from the shower, it was a comforting quiet.
The thinnest sliver of light shined through the window, but I could still see every bare inch of her that was visible from the blankets. Her arm was draped over my chest with her head nestled onto my shoulder, her damp hair a blanket of its own over my skin.
“Let me see your palm.” Her whisper cut through the darkness like a light I didn’t realize I was searching for.
I shifted under her, glancing down to her plump lips as a small smile crested itself there. “My palm? Why?”
Her voice was airy, like our earlier moment broke through, and she was finally here. “I hated most of my time at the hospital.” A soft noise left her. “I mean, who could blame me? But there were some goodparts about it.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, fully invested. “Like what?”
The warmth of her body settled in even deeper as she dove under the blankets and pulled my other arm out, gripping onto my wrist. “Well, I wouldn’t have survived without Tobias. That’s for sure. He taught me how to be strong when I didn’t want to be.” I stayed silent as she turned my hand over and began running her fingers over the thin lines along my palm. “And I met some really quirky people that filled up my time in between my scheming.”
“Like who?”
“Athena would be at the top of that list.” My stomach did a flip at the sound of hidden happiness in Journey’s voice. I wasn’t even sure she knew she was smiling, but the more she talked, the more her cheeks curved. “She was an older woman. She always told me she was celebrating her thirtieth birthday, but I think she was in her sixties. Her hair was fully gray and went down to the backs of her thighs. She used to make her granddaughter braid it every time she’d come to visit.”
Journey’s light touches on my palm began to send warm signals to parts of my body, so I tried to break up the heat by asking, “What was so special about Athena?”
“She taught me how to read palms.”
I paused, my eyebrows shooting upward. “Read palms? Like…magic?”
Her laugh was cute. “Oh, yeah. She claimed she had magic running through her veins.” She laughed again, and I swore I fell even harder for her—as if that were possible. “She made me laugh when I was seconds from losing it, always pulling my palm into her lap and running her fingers over the lines, inspecting my hand an inch from her eyes. It was sort of calming.”
I shifted underneath Journey, watching her look at my palm like she was going to do the same thing as Athena. “So, could she really read palms? What do you think?”