Page 29 of As It Was (Strawberry Springs #1)

MOLLIE

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Mark Bell

All right. I’m officially on the Cain and Mollie train. He SMILED at her.

Comments:

Kerry Winsor : I didn’t know he knew how to do that!!! Time to start a bet.

Tammy Jane : Fifty bucks that it happens in a week.

Mark Bell : Fifty bucks something’s already happened.

Kerry Winsor : Fifty bucks for it fizzling out within a few months.

I thought I knew many things. How to drive a car. How to pay bills.

How Cain Smith worked.

I was very wrong about one of them .

My mind was a confusing mix of is this real? And I thought he hated me . And finally, shit , he’s an incredible kisser .

Just minutes ago, this was the last thing on my mind.

And now he was kissing me. He was in my space, filling my lungs with a scent I couldn’t place. His hands cupped the back of my neck, and it hit me that this might have been the best kiss of my life.

All my kisses with Trevor had me molding into him. He wanted me pliant in all aspects of my life. But with Cain, I pushed against him with the same force he gave me. I was the one to run my tongue over his bottom lip. I was the one with my fists in his shirt to bring him closer.

But he was on the move too. A door opened, and instead of staying in the hallway where anyone could see us, we were now in a dark closet, the door shut firmly behind us.

That was when his tongue clashed with mine. That was when he hiked my leg up and fully pressed into me.

We needed to talk about this. We shared a house . Technically, he was my employee , but my brain was filled with an unhelpful mix of more , please , and now .

Cain’s mouth left mine, but he placed a kiss on my jaw. “I told you that you would regret that.”

“I regret nothing.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. I was out of breath. I went in for another kiss, but he pulled away.

“Don’t you have a date with Lucas?”

“No,” I hissed. “I was coming to ask you to help me out of it, you idiot. I guess this is one way to do it.”

He narrowed his eyes, a sight barely visible in the dim light of the closet. “And you’re—you kissed me back.”

“Yes, I did.”

“But—”

“We can talk it out later. Right now, I want you to kiss me again. ”

I hoped he wouldn’t turn me down. I wasn’t ready for the awkwardness to settle in. I didn’t want to think too hard about this. For the first time in far too long, something felt good . I wanted more of that feeling.

Cain’s lips returned to mine, and all tension left my body. I ran my hands through his hair, pulling him to where he fully pressed into me.

My weight settled against the wall behind us. I didn’t feel crowded, but surrounded by something safe. Some one safe. I’d stood up to Cain, been myself, and he was still here kissing me.

This time, he pushed it further. His teeth sank into my bottom lip, and I let out a moan.

Heat pooled in every part of my body, something I’d been missing for far too long.

With Trevor, things like this had felt like a chore, something to get over with so we could say we had a healthy sex life and move on.

But this? This was fun .

Cain’s hands roamed. Over the curve of my hip. Over the swell of my breast. Every part of me he touched, my attention followed like a lost puppy. I wanted more of his hands and less of the fabric between us.

My nails dug into his scalp. I wanted to beg for more, but didn’t want to take my mouth off of his to do it.

He must have gotten the message, because his fingers slipped below my bra line. I sucked in a breath when he pulled my breast out of my dress and teased my sensitive peak.

I arched my hips into him, feeling his cock strain in his jeans.

“What are you doing?” he muttered against my mouth.

I gasped. “What I want to.” His touch on my breast became firmer, and my mouth went dry.

“And what do you want?”

“Touch me. Anywhere. Everywhere.”

He huffed out a breath, his mouth moving to my jaw and neck. I leaned my head over, trying and failing to keep my composure.

Cain’s hand left my breast, drifting lower and lower. I hiked my leg up again, giving him full access to what I hoped he wanted.

I already knew I was dripping. It had been far too long since I’d had good ... anything in the company of another man. Trevor used to try until he’d gotten tired of it.

I doubted I would orgasm in a dark closet of a bar, but I could let him touch me.

His fingers brushed over the waistband of my underwear before moving between my legs.

“You’re fucking soaked, princess.”

I bit my lip. I thought I hated it when he called me that.

Not this time.

Cain slipped past the thin fabric. He found my clit so fast I jumped out of shock.

“Sensitive?”

“ Ah , y-yes. It’s been a while since a man could find it.”

“Wha—do they need a map? Have you ever been with an actual man?”

I wanted to answer him, but I was a mess of gasps and pleasure. He traced the outline of my pussy so perfectly that heat shot out from his fingers and went straight to my core.

I had no concept of time, but my body responded to every one of his movements. My hips jerked, and I dimly realized that I wasn’t struggling to build up to an orgasm this time. I was going to struggle with coming way too fast.

Blindly, I reached out to stroke his cock through his jeans, earning me a stuttered breath from him. I took in his hardness, imagining what that would be like inside of me, and I felt myself tighten around nothing .

Cain’s mouth landed on my shoulder, and then came the brush of teeth on my skin.

My eyes slipped closed. I wasn’t sure where I was any longer. All I knew was how I felt.

And it was incredible.

Cain’s fingers were on my clit, teasing it with just enough pressure to have me on the edge, but not enough to where I was jerking away. He breathed as hard as I did, like he was just as turned on as I was—though I hadn’t touched him like he had me.

“Come for me, Mollie. I need you to.” He was more out of breath than when we’d been dancing, and I felt his words in every inch of my body.

It wasn’t a habit of mine to do what he told me to, but this time, I wasn’t in control. Pleasure was, and the words tipped me right over the edge of the cliff he’d brought me to.

Heat erupted from my core, spreading through every part of my body, up my spine and down to my toes. It was good. So good that I wanted more.

I wanted this to never end.

But it did, and though I was still catching my breath, the bar grew loud outside the door, bursting the bubble we’d found ourselves in.

Cain tensed before he moved away. “Shit,” he said.

It must have been time for us to get back to reality. I tugged my dress back in place and waited for the regret to hit me.

It didn’t.

But I was pretty sure I was alone in that.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said.

“You gave me the best orgasm of my life and that’s what you say?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Why were you so okay with that? ”

“Did you forget the part where I said it was the best orgasm of my life?”

“Mollie, you’re my boss . This is breaking so many rules.”

A pinprick of reality broke through my post-orgasmic haze. He was right. What we’d just done complicated things a lot . I didn’t regret it, but he had a lot more riding on this than me.

“I—yeah. I suppose we did break some rules.”

He let out a sigh. “You should go.”

“Of course. I’ll just ... go to the bathroom.”

Cain nodded jerkily and I made a break for it before I could stop myself.

Bursting into the bathroom, I took off my smudged lipstick and made sure my dress was in the right place before I hunched over the sink.

I stared down at where my ring used to be, thinking of all the things Cain and I hadn’t talked about. He barely knew me, and I barely knew him, and we’d gone at each other in the closet of a bar.

I would have laughed if this wasn’t so bad .

Trevor and I were done, but I knew Mom and Dad expected us to get back together. They figured I would come home and settle into my old ways, including being with him.

But the truth was, every second I was here made me want to stay longer.

Until Cain and I eventually ruined the fragile peace we had.

My thoughts were a mess, and I still needed to turn down Lucas’s invitation to dinner. The band stop playing, and I knew I needed to get that done before I completely lost my mind about what had just happened.

I walked out of the bathroom and right into a woman walking in. She jumped back, eyes roaming up and down my body. I hoped none of what I’d done showed anywhere on my face or neck.

“So, Mollie, right?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

She hummed as she appraised me. “You’re actually kind of pretty. I’m surprised.”

I blinked in shock. Was that an insult or a compliment? “Thanks?”

“Let me give you a word of advice then. That man you’re hanging out with? Cain? You should stay away from him.”

I stood up straighter, finally turning to her. “Why?”

She laughed. “Because he’s a loser. And he’s caused a lot of problems in this town. You’re from Nashville, right? I bet you could find a lot of better guys there.”

I’d tried my luck. And ended up with Trevor.

I may have messed things up with Cain, but I also knew I wouldn’t take people talking shit about him. So far, I’d managed to avoid it. But the rising anger each time someone teetered on the edge of saying something bad about him was palpable.

And this woman was the tip of the iceberg.

“Can you remind me when I asked for your advice? Because as far as I know, I didn’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I only take advice I ask for, not petty words from someone who obviously doesn’t know a damn thing about who Cain Smith is now . Not whatever you saw in the past.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you see in him anyway?”

“I see the man who ran me a bath when I was sore from working in the fields. The man who danced with me even though he hated every second. I tried my luck in the city, and let me tell you, I did not find a man like Cain there.”

“Then you’re stupid,” she said.