Page 40 of As It Was (Strawberry Springs #1)

“Everything,” I whispered back.

“Then let’s find a way to give you that,” he murmured into the shell of my ear as his mouth trailed downward.

I arched into him the second he took my nipple into his mouth. His tongue swirled the sensitive bud, and I had to quiet my moans to keep myself contained.

“No need for that,” he said. “We’re alone this time. Let me hear you.”

Fuck. I slowly lowered my arm. I was used to keeping quiet. There had always been someone around in Nashville. Trevor had never made me scream anyway, but I’d pretended for his sake.

This time, I let go.

A finger teased me open, slowly pushing in. I clenched around him as he hooked and went right to my G-spot, a near-mythical thing. I hadn’t known I could come this way until Cain had showed me I could .

His teeth grazed my nipple and I pressed my head back into the tile, already gasping for breath.

“ Yes ,” I rasped out.

“Is this everything?” he asked, his words rumbling against my nipple. “Or do you want more?”

Another finger teased my opening and my knees went wide.

It was euphoric to get exactly what I needed when I needed it. To have a man put me first and make me feel good time and time again. Was this what Wren had been talking about? It had to be, because there was nothing that could be better than this.

I was gasping for breath, not sure where to focus my attention because everything felt so fucking good. My pussy was hot as he fucked me with his fingers. My nipples were only adding to the sensation that thrummed through every cell in my body.

His thumb moved to my clit, and that shoved me toward the edge. I tried to hold out, to keep a hold on the rising pleasure as long as I could, but it was inevitable. Cain’s mouth and hand were too perfect.

I tumbled over, every part of me alight with the feeling of my orgasm. My vision went black, and I might have floated off out of the shower and into the sky.

It took a while for my body to come back online.

I knew that I wanted to taste him. Cain might have had other plans as he pressed a kiss to my mouth, but I fell to my knees.

“What—”

My mouth covered his cock, silencing him. I paused for only a second to feel its heavy weight in my hand, then I took him as deep as he would go.

He pressed on my tongue and the back of my throat, and I bobbed up and down, hearing him gasp as his hands ran through my hair and cupped my head .

I got a few minutes with him in my mouth before his hold tightened.

“You’re way too good at this.” My stomach flipped at the praise, and I kept up the pace. I was determined to continue making him groan as he fucked my mouth.

But then his hand grabbed my neck gently. “As tempting as it is to come down your throat,” he said, his voice soft yet unyielding, “I have other plans.”

“Other plans?” I asked.

“Your mouth is great, but there’s another place I wanna come.”

The water turned off and he hauled me up.

His lips pressed to my wet cheek for all of a second before he said the hottest thing I could have ever imagined.

“Bend over the sink, princess. And then we both get to watch what I do to you.”

“What about your rule?”

“I’ll make you come on my cock. Don’t worry about that.”

Impossibly, my cheeks only grew redder, but I nodded. Nothing else sounded better. I scrambled to get to the sink, ready to feel him inside of me.

But then logic made its way into my mind.

“We don’t have a condom,” I said, turning back to him.

“Fuck.”

“I could get back down on my knees.”

His eyes met mine in the mirror and I knew he wanted me like this . No other way.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, and then he was gone.

In the seconds that he retreated to his room, I felt a stab of disappointment. I didn’t want him to go, and I hated that we had to wait for a condom of all things.

For the first time in a long time, I wished hormonal birth control had worked for me. I wished I could feel him bare .

Maybe I could get over my fear of IUDs. Maybe I could figure something out to make sure that next time, we could do whatever we wanted to without worrying about a condom.

Cain didn’t take long, and the second he was back, he tore open the wrapper with his teeth and had it on in seconds. When he lined himself up with me, my body broke out in chills.

I knew that when he’d fucked me the first time, he’d broken me for all other men. And as he pushed inside of my pussy, inch by agonizing inch, I knew that was still true. He filled my body, stretching me in ways I wasn’t used to. I was addicted to it and all I wanted was more.

“Look,” he said, grabbing my hair and tipping my head back to make me look into the mirror. My mouth was agape. My nipples were hard. “You’re so fucking perfect all the time, but even more so when I’m inside of you.”

My body heated at the words. He pulled out and thrust in, jerking me forward. I both saw and heard my moan as he picked up the pace.

I didn’t usually think about fucking in front of a mirror, but it was the hottest and dirtiest moment of my life.

Cain was already unfairly attractive, his chiseled body coated with a sheen of sweat, the bit of hair he had on his chest only adding to his beauty.

But now I saw exactly what I felt written all over my face, and it sent me to new heights.

Trevor used to complain when I wouldn’t come from penetration alone, since it meant he’d had to put in more work. I’d simply thought it just wasn’t a thing I could do. The last time Cain and I were together, I finally had.

With the right man, it was very possible.

I was working myself up again, purely from the feeling of his cock inside of me. But as I started to approach the edge, he stopped and leaned forward, teeth sinking into the crook of my neck .

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“We’re gonna take this nice and slow,” he said. “Until we’re both begging to come.”

“I already am,” I managed to say.

“Not as much as you could be.”

He finally moved again. He pulled all the way out of me, leaving me aching and empty, and then slammed back in. He was rough, yet gentle. Hard, yet soft.

And minutes later, I was about to come again.

Only for him to stop.

He was going to make us both lose our minds, and yet I would let him. As he worked both of us up and then paused, I reached new feelings of need that I didn’t know I had.

Looking in the mirror, I thought I’d been red before, but now my whole body was flushed. Now I was barely breathing properly. Now my whole body ached.

“C-Cain,”

“Y-yes, princess?”

“You have to?—”

“I don’t have to do anything.” He marked his sentence with a rough thrust.

“I ...” Another thrust. “Need.” Another. “To—ahh!” This one hit depths I didn’t know were possible. “ Cain .”

“Fuck it,” he said, and he didn’t stop his pace. His hips pumped into me and my pussy tightened around him.

“ Yes !” I yelled as I returned to the edge. I had no idea what I said as I was driven over it. All I could feel was an electric heat shooting from my core down to my toes and up to my fingertips.

It kept going, even as I felt him jerking inside of me, cum erupting from his buried cock.

I had no idea how much time I lost while floating through the stars. All I knew was that neither of us were able to stand when we were done, and I had to use the sink cabinet to support myself.

“I ... I can’t tell if I’m mad at you for that, or if I’m grateful.”

“I saw your face as you came, princess.” He pressed a kiss on my sweaty cheek. “I’d say the second one.”

Eric was quiet when Cain picked him up from school, but told the both of us he’d just had a long day. Judging by the crease in Cain’s brow, he was worried about it, especially after Eric went to bed early.

I hoped he was just tired like he said he was.

Quickly, I figured out I was wrong.

I was snuggled up in my fuzzy blanket with Cain when he suddenly bolted out of bed. For a second, I was confused, but then I heard the sound of a child’s cry and knew exactly why he’d run.

Throwing a robe on, I went out in the hallway. Cain was kneeling in front of Eric, who had tear-stained cheeks.

“You’re burning up,” Cain said, his hand on Eric’s forehead.

“I don’t feel good. I threw up.”

I could sense tension from every inch of Cain’s body, and suddenly, I was feeling the same as he was.

Suddenly, I wished I knew more about kids and sickness.

“Dr. Connor warned me about this,” Cain said. “I need to call him. And clean up the?—”

“I’ll call him,” I offered. “Hand me your phone.”

I thought Cain was going to turn me down, but he looked between Eric and me and then passed me his unlocked phone, and I found the contact.

“Hello?” a man’s voice answered. He sounded sleep ruffled and I felt bad for waking him up.

Then I heard Eric sob, and I no longer felt bad. Still, I’d never called a doctor in the middle of the night, but I also had never lived in a place like Strawberry Springs before.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m Mollie, a friend of Cain’s. Eric is really sick and he wanted me to call you.”

“Eric’s sick?” There was movement on the other end of the line. “Well, it’s not unusual. Kindergarteners get a lot of things. What are the symptoms?”

“He threw up and has a pretty high fever. Oh, and Cain is very panicked.”

“He’s serious about Eric, so I’m not surprised. I’ll be over in a few minutes. I can test to rule out a few things and bring some Pedialyte.”

“Wow, do all doctors in small towns do house calls?”

Dr. Connor laughed. “No, but I’d do it for Cain and Eric. See you soon.”

He hung up after that and I blinked in shock at the phone. Did Cain know that Dr. Connor was making a house call specifically because he was asking?

Cain was running Eric a bath when I found him. “Dr. Connor is on his way.”

“What?” he asked. “I thought he would just tell me what to do over the phone.”

I shrugged. “He offered. He said he could rule out a few things.”

“I don’t feel good,” Eric muttered, and Cain’s attention was back on him. I made sure the washer and dryer were ready to clean Eric’s bedding before pulling up what to do for a sick kid on my phone.

Headlights appeared in the driveway twenty-five minutes later, and I opened the door to a tall man with light brown hair.

If I wasn’t already smitten with the man upstairs, he would have turned my head.

He was over six feet with a lithe figure and an unfairly sharp jawline.

His hair was longer, going past his ears, with a middle part that he pushed back when he saw me.

He had on black-rimmed glasses that did nothing but accentuate his handsome features.

“Hi,” I said. “Are you Dr. Connor?”

“Call me Henry,” he said. “Where’s Eric?”

“Upstairs. I think I just heard Cain get him out of the bath.”

I motioned for him to follow me. Eric was dressed, but still looked miserable.

“Hey, kiddo. Not feeling well?”

Eric only shook his head. Henry grabbed his thermometer and got right to work. Cain hovered, unable to sit still.

After running all of the swab tests, Henry finally looked at Cain. “I think it’s a stomach bug. Thankfully not the flu or anything else.”

“What do I need to do?”

“Support, mostly. Try to have him take smalls sips of the Pedialyte I brought. If he can’t keep anything down, take him to the hospital.”

“Will do. Thank you for coming all the way out here, by the way. You could have just told me this on the phone.”

“I think ruling things out does amazing things for panicked parents.” Henry smiled.

“I’m not?—”

“Guardians count,” Henry said. “At least in my book.”

Cain nodded, and Eric asked to go lie down. I watched as Cain took him to his room and got him settled.

“Is there anything else you need?” Henry asked.

“No, not really.” I shook my head. As Cain stepped back out into the hallway, I gave him a purposeful look and pointed between Henry and Eric’s closed door.

“Not right now,” he muttered as he joined me.

“Then when?” I asked .

“Is there something else going on?” Henry asked, an eyebrow raised.

Cain sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

“Not about the sickness, but there’s one other thing.”

“What is it?”

“I need a letter. Saying Eric is well taken care of here.”

Henry frowned. “Does the school need it or something? I’ve never heard of them asking for such a thing.”

I didn’t know how Cain’s conversation with Tammy had gone, but I had a feeling he hadn’t admitted everything that was happening. He could barely talk about it with me, so I wasn’t sure what he would say.

“Eric’s biological father is suing for custody. I need to prove that Eric’s happy here.”

Henry’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know his biological father was in the picture.”

“He never was. He wasn’t even on the birth certificate. But the DNA doesn’t lie. And he supposedly has a right to do this ... even if both Mollie and I think he’s not fit for it.”

Henry looked between us, but his gaze settled on Cain. “Thank you for telling me. I know something like this is sensitive. You probably don’t want people knowing.”

“No, I don’t. But I need these letters, so everyone will know eventually.”

“It won’t be from me,” Henry reassured. “And I’ll help. I have plenty to go off of.”

“You do?”

“You’ve taken him to every appointment since you brought him home. He always seems so happy when I see him. And I just saw how worried you were when he was sick.” Henry smiled. “Do you want me to keep going?”

“N-no,” he said. “I got it. Thank you, Dr. Connor. ”

Henry blinked. “Dr. Connor? I thought all of my friends called me Henry.”

“Are we friends?”

Henry winced. “Ah, well. Maybe we’re not. I’d like to be, though.”

If it weren’t such a serious moment, I would have laughed at the shocked expression on his face.

“The answer is yes,” I said for him. “And I’m sure he’s always wanted the same. He’s just awkward.”

“Really?” Henry asked.

“Yeah,” Cain replied. “I don’t do ... people all that well.”

Henry laughed. “Neither do I, but in different ways. I thought you hated me.”

“He’s like that with everyone,” I said. “Even me, until I made him admit it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m gruff.” Cain rolled his eyes. “But can we continue the teasing when it’s not three in the morning?”

“Maybe at the next appointment. Bring Mollie along for the full effect.”

“Definitely.”

Henry laughed. “I’m glad I came out here. Even if it did make me lose a little bit of sleep.”

“Still, sorry for making you come all the way.”

Henry waved it off as if it were nothing before he turned toward the door. He paused and looked back at us. “Oh, and you two are good for each other. If I can say that.”

Cain spoke before I could. “You can. And I know. Life got better when she showed up.”

“I’m glad you found your person,” Henry said. “If only we could all be so lucky.”