“Fuck,” Cade groaned as he watched me, eyes searing with heat. “Just like that, baby. Give yourself everything you want. Take it from me.”
It didn’t feel like I was taking though. It felt like we were both giving to each other, feeding into this frenzy of passion until it became bigger than either of us. Like the awesome, larger-than-life waves that were our only companion this time, our first time just the two of us, I felt my pleasure starting to crest again.
“Cade, I’m?—”
“I know,” he choked out. “Come for me, Allie. Come all over my cock. We both need it.”
And with his words, I did exactly that, coming so hard I saw extra stars mingling with those in the sky above us. My body tensed hard, snapped, shook as it struggled to come down from the peak.
“Christ, Allie,” Cade panted, sitting up to press his chest against mine without unseating himself. I felt him fucking me even as my own legs gave out, his hard thrusts hitting a new angle that had me gasping, my pleasure cresting again. “I can’t hold out any longer,” Cade said through clenched teeth.
It was with pure need that I told him, “Then don’t. Please, Cade, come inside me.”
He cried out, a beastly roar into the night, as he did exactly that. Hot, liquid seed spurted from the head of his cock, coating my insides, and another orgasm surprised me as my inner muscles milked it out of him. It was glorious, filthy, pure instinct and pleasure and connection—and we collapsed together onto the sandy blanket when it was through.
To think I hadn’t known, only a short while earlier, this very same evening, just how I felt about Cade Farmer. Now, I couldn’t think it, but everything in me felt like he belonged here. Still connected to me, growing soft inside my heat, his strong arms cradling me in warmth.
“It’s not overrated,” I said drowsily, and Cade’s answeringhmwas a question. I traced circles in his chest hair as I explained, “Sex on the beach, I mean. At least when it’s us.”
He laughed, just a small rumble, and kissed the top of my head.
“Agreed. Underrated, if anything. But that could just be because it’s you, woman of my dreams.”
The lovely words were enough to make my fragile heart shudder, and then it felt like it expanded in my chest. Opening up space for Cade, for his two best friends I also couldn’t picture my life without anymore. Was there any way for the four of us to make this work? Would any of them want that? Somehow, Cade’s possessiveness, his insistence on having this one-on-one time with me, gave me the sense that he wouldn’t be too gung ho about the idea of sharing me long-term. And then there was the fact of Daphne. She was his child, and he didn’t know it yet, but he’d have to someday. I didn’t think the possessive tendency would be limited just to me, if he wanted anything to do with his daughter at all.
I thought about telling him again. Considered exposing myself to him fully, much more frightening than the physical exposure I’d shared, telling him the big truth that felt like the one thing in my life that still belonged to only me. I heard our daughter’s name in Cade’s heartbeats, and cowardly as it was, I still kept the secret of her to myself.
27
GAVIN
It was silly as hell, but as the guys and I sat in a big, cozy restaurant booth across from a dolled-up Allie Tate, I realized this was maybe the first real date I’d ever been on.
Fucking ridiculous. I was twenty-fucking-eight. I’d slept with dozens of women, flirted with hundreds. Somehow though, I’d skipped the real date part of the equation.
Before Allie, I’d always stuck to the fun, frivolous kinds of relationships. In part because I worked too hard, too many long hours, to be a reliable boyfriend. But deeper than that, the idea of all the roses and romance of real dating had never appealed to me. Call me picky or shallow, but even before my dad died and I lost interest in the fun and fleeting kind of connections too, no one had inspired the poetry-reciting kind of butterfly feelings damn near every artist signed to Ratliff Records sang songs about.
Until Allie.
We’d brought her to the city, LA proper, to give her a taste of our world on this unconventional first date. My connections and money had gotten us a reservation at a swanky restaurant—something high-class enough to impress her, show her shewas special and deserved a luxurious night out, but not the tiny-portion paparazzi traps favored by a lot of the Hollywood elites. Tonight was a group effort though. Luca had envisioned the after-dinner plans and decided to make it a surprise, even going so far as to arrange babysitting for Daphne by reaching out to Allie’s best friends; Cade had had the idea to send Allie flowers to the diner with our date plans written in the card. And somehow, even the conversation that flowed between us now felt like a collaboration.
But I liked to think the slinky little dress Allie had picked out, the shimmering makeup that elevated her already-gorgeous features to breathtaking levels, the sky-high heels she’d donned that made her legs look miles long and made me think of her wearing nothing but those shoes with her legs wrapped around my hips…all of that was just for me.
“You guys really know how to spoil a girl,” Allie told us in a low, pleased tone as our server brought the bucket of ice and bottle of champagne we’d ordered. She laughed at the cork pop, and she made a point to lock eyes with each of us in turn as she took a long, slow drink from the bubbly nectar.
“You deserve it,” Cade’s voice rumbled low. A pause, and he added, “Plus, Gav’s paying.”
Allie laughed. God, I loved the melodic, gleeful sound, how her cheeks turned pink in the low light, and the warmth of it shot right through me. We’d already each had a cocktail, so it was a little bit the liquor, but that buzz was nothing compared to the effect of Allie Tate’s presence.
“It’s really nothing,” I said.
“It’s not nothing,” Allie countered. “I mean, besides the cost. The effort is…nice. Not something I’m used to.”
“We might as well bring out the big guns for our first date,” Luca posed, “since we skipped ahead so many steps before now.”
“Making up for lost time,” I agreed, and Allie smiled at the errant wink I threw her way.
We really went all out, ordering decadent appetizers we all bonded over—“My grandpa would call these ‘more-ish,’” Cade said, “because you want more of them”—and four different entrees, promising to let Allie try each of them. It was basically pornographic, seeing her enjoy the lush dishes, mimicking sounds she made in bed to express a different kind of sensual pleasure. I met Cade’s gaze after one particularly visceral moan, silently commiserating with my friend over how hard it was to resist this woman. Public or not.
