Page 99 of Branded (Breakers Hockey)

Twenty-Eight

Jules

Cas’s car was parked at the curb in front of my apartment.

My heart was in my throat.

I was nervous .

It was after two and I’d texted Cas thirty minutes before, telling him I was heading home. I’d half expected that he would be asleep, that he wouldn’t text back.

But…he was Cas.

So, of course, he’d texted me back.

See you soon, gorgeous.

Gorgeous.

That still sent a flutter through my belly each and every time I heard it—or saw it in a text, I supposed.

But now I had pulled into my parking spot and was sitting in my car, and I was trying to work up the courage to get my shit together and walk inside.

Except…Cas was in there.

And I’d made some decisions in the last twenty-four hours.

Had decided to take a tentative step—or maybe ten tentative steps forward—and now those decisions had led to this.

To Cas in my house and me being awake and no drama surrounding us.

Just me and him and?—

My car door opened.

I stifled a shriek. Because it was Cas. Of course it was.

“Come inside, sweetheart,” he whispered.

“I’m not used to this,” I whispered back instead of moving, instead of getting up, instead of launching myself into his arms like I really, really wanted to.

“Used to what?” he asked, fingers drifting down my throat. “Someone having your back?” A beat. “Or someone being nice to you?”

Either.

Both.

All of it.

Cas not blinking about playing babysitter. His guilt for being a small part of me getting hurt two nights before. The food. The kisses. The gentle way he touched and talked to me.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I know you aren’t, gorgeous, but I’m going to keep on giving it to you. Because you deserve nice. You deserve someone to have your back. You deserve everything. ”

Shit.

Now my eyes were stinging.

“Hey,” he whispered, pushing the button to unlock my seat belt, reaching over the console to snag my purse. “Let’s go inside and get you warm, yeah?”

Luckily, he didn’t wait for me to answer, just tugged me out of the car.

And hell, if him cupping the back of my head, protecting me from hitting it on the frame of the door, didn’t send me all that much closer to tears.

I was falling for him.

Deep .

And I knew that I wasn’t going to stop falling.

That, heaven help me, I was going to ride this out.

A breath.

Several blinks as he closed the driver’s side door and locked my car, as he walked me up to the front door and let us inside.

Click .

That lock was engaged too.

“Ethan’s out,” he murmured, setting my purse on the table in the hall. “So, let’s get you to bed, gorgeous.” He reached for my jacket, tugging it down my arms, hanging it on the hook by the door.

And that was when I kept on falling.

More care.

More gentle.

More Cas.

So, this time…well, this time I was going to leap both mentally and physically.

I launched myself into his arms, wrapped my arms around his shoulders, my legs around his middle, and then I lowered my head, slanting my lips over his.

“Jules?” he asked against my mouth.

“Bed,” I whispered back.

To his credit, he didn’t hesitate, just carried me down the hall and to my bedroom.

But he didn’t close the door.

Which meant he didn’t lock it either.

Instead, he kept carrying me across the room before he bent and laid me on the bed.

When he didn’t come over the top of me, didn’t pin me to the bed and commence with the kissing and touching—and hopefully, the fucking—I frowned, started to sit up, wanting to kiss him again, wanting to touch him.

Only, when I reached for him, he was already moving away, shifting to the foot of the bed, tugging off one of my shoes and then the other.

Okay, that was fine.

His fingers trailed down my calf, to my foot, started to rub, and— oh —that was better than fine. That was nice. Really nice. My feet always hurt like hell after a shift and?—

I moaned.

His eyes went hot. “I’m going to make you do that again.”

My breath caught. Yes. Finally . We’d been dancing around this for so freaking long.

But then he added, “When you’re not so tired.”

Air rushing out, disappointment coursing through me. “Cas?—”

His hands went to my other foot. “Just relax for a few minutes, gorgeous,” he murmured. “Then you can get to sleep.”

“I don’t?—”

Oh, holy hell, his fingers .

If they were that good on my feet, how good would they be in other places— in other places?

Right.

That thought had me freezing, had me focusing.

And I knew that he was going to have me reduced to a lump of goo if I let that go on much longer.

Which was the only reason that I was able to tug my foot free.

Then I moved quickly so he couldn’t distract me again, darting to the door, closing it quietly, and engaging the lock.

Yeah, that click was satisfying.

Worry in his eyes. “Jules?—”

I stopped thinking, concentrated on moving back to him quickly.

A second later, I was in his lap, arms around his neck.

“We’re alone. Ethan is asleep. And I want this .

” My lips hit his for a kiss that was hard and hot and with copious amounts of tongue.

“And”—a breath, pushing through my nerves—“I think that kiss means you want it too.”

He groaned, one hand weaving into my hair, the other gripping my hip, dragging me close enough that I felt all that hard and hot . “I do want it. But it’s late, sweetheart. You’ve worked a full shift and hardly slept the last couple of nights?—”

“And Ethan is asleep,” I said. “And I’m used to being tired.

And, I’ll repeat, Ethan is asleep .” My words came quickly, countering the fury that had begun to gather in his eyes as I spoke.

“I’m a single mom with a five-year-old who’s beyond curious and never stops moving when he’s awake.

Free time without my kiddo is a premium.

” My hand on his jaw, feeling the bristles of his beard on my palm.

“I…” Here was another leap, another step onto the bridge that suspended me over a gorge when one wrong move would send me careening to the bottom.

But…all the right ones might take me?—

Hell, this was the first time I’d even allowed for this possibility.

That being…that the right moves might take me safely to the other side.

“I like you, Cas,” I whispered. “And I like the way you make me feel and how you touch me. And I’d like you to touch me more and— ah! ”

It was a shriek, one that hopefully wouldn’t wake my dead to the world son, and one that was accompanied by my body flying backward, my head landing on the pillows…

And Cas’s big, hot, hard body was on top of mine.