Page 14 of The Chief (Those (Damn!) Texas Dantes #3)

This time, the storm hit with no warning.

No pretense. No gentle slide into heat. Cade’s restraint broke with her name on his lips, his hunger sharpened to a single edge: her.

There was no leisurely exploration. No careful push and pull.

Only the pounding of wild need and the knowledge that she could take all of him.

And wanted to. Cade pinned her wrists above her head with one hand, his other gripping her thigh as he pounded into her with ruthless attention.

He knew her now, what made her cry out, what made her shatter. And he used it.

The bed rocked beneath them, the headboard knocking softly against the wall. Elise could barely breathe. Every thrust forced a new sound from her lips, moans, gasps, pleas she couldn’t prevent. His name became a litany, broken and fierce with need.

He leaned over her, biting at her throat, her shoulder, sucking bruises into her skin like he needed to mark her. Claim her. Brand her from the inside out.

“You think I’m done with you?” he growled against her ear. “You haven’t seen what I can do yet.”

A broken sound escaped her throat, her hips rising to meet his with wild urgency.

He pulled out suddenly, and she cried out at the loss. But he flipped her without effort, pulling her to her hands and knees, guiding himself back into her with one devastating thrust that stole the air from her lungs.

She dropped to her elbows with a cry, and he followed, draping over her back, fucking into her with a rhythm that bordered on savage. One hand tangled in her hair, the other splayed across her belly, keeping her right where he wanted her.

“Look at you,” he rasped. “Taking me so damn deep.”

She clenched around him and he groaned, hips stuttering.

“Do it again,” he demanded, thrusting harder. “Give me everything.”

She couldn’t stop it. The orgasm ripped through her like a wave, and she screamed into the sheets, her whole body trembling.

He kept going, driving into her until she cried his name again and again, until he shouted her name and spilled inside her, collapsing with a ragged groan.

They stayed that way, sweaty, shaking, entwined, until their hearts eased and their breath came back.

Cade kissed the back of her neck, then her shoulder, then lay beside her and pulled her into his arms.

“I’m not going to last much longer if you keep looking at me like that,” he said, his voice hoarse.

Elise laughed, breathless and aching. “You just had me begging. Twice. I think we’ve established who’s in charge here.”

His grin was dangerous. “Then let’s see how long I can keep it.”

But this time, he didn’t push her into another round. Not yet.

Cade pulled back just enough to look at her, brushing a thumb along her cheekbone. “You okay?”

She nodded, still catching her breath. “Yeah. Just… not ready to move.”

He smiled faintly. Then he reached for the covers, pulling them up over them both, and settled onto his back, keeping her tucked against his side. His heartbeat thudded strong beneath her cheek, grounding her.

For a while, there was only the sound of their breathing, the drip of silence stretching long and full between them.

Then Cade spoke. “Do you believe in it? The Brand. Fate. Any of it?”

She hesitated. “I didn’t. Not until I met you. And then… I don’t know. It scares me.”

“Why?”

“Because it takes choice off the table. And I’ve spent my whole life trying to hold on to what little influence I had.

I made choices to survive. To protect myself.

And suddenly, this thing—this mark—comes along and says none of that mattered.

That I was never really choosing. That terrifies me.

Or comes close. Like I didn’t choose you—you were chosen for me. ”

He was quiet for a beat. Then: “I didn’t need the Brand to want you, Elise. I already did. The mark just cut through the bullshit.”

She blinked. “Even with Petra?”

He exhaled. “Especially with Petra. I kept telling myself I needed a partner. Someone who fit the profile. But every time you looked at me, every time you challenged me, something happened I couldn’t explain. Something I just didn’t want to face.”

Elise tilted her head back to look at him. “Why me, Cade? What was it about me that made you pull away from the safe choice?”

He turned to her fully now, propping himself on one elbow.

“Because you weren’t safe. You were real.

And beneath that facade you wore so well, I saw glimpses of something more basic.

Honest in a way that scared the hell out of me.

You saw straight through every polished lie I’d built.

You kissed me like it meant something. You ran like it did too.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about you after that. ”

She shrugged. “I was afraid. I still am.”

His hand found hers beneath the blanket, fingers lacing. “I am too. You terrify me. Because you make me want more than control and power. You make me want… you.”

They stayed there like that for another stretch of quiet.

She let out a breath. “So what now? What happens in the morning?”

He kissed her knuckles. “That depends. You still going to be here?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I’ll still be here.”

“Then everything changes.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” he said. “But we do it together. One truth at a time.”

And this time, when he rolled her onto her back and kissed her again, it wasn’t about claiming. It wasn’t about passion. It was about that promise.

Together.

Their lips parted, but neither pulled away despite everything that hung between them, intense and open, finally spoken.

Elise traced gentle circles on his chest, the silence no longer heavy, just full. “So what if I’d never kissed you that day? What if I’d let Petra have you like I planned?”

His fingers tightened around hers. “I would’ve married her. I would’ve buried what I felt and told myself it didn’t matter. Until one day it exploded and destroyed everything. But I still would’ve thought about you. Every damn day.”

She bit her lip. “That kiss was a fuse. It lit up everything I’d buried. Every truth I tried to deny. It didn’t just shift things. It detonated them.”

“No,” he said quietly. “You did. The kiss just made me admit it.”

They laid there for a long moment, hearts slowing, skin cooling. Cade reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “What are you thinking right now?”

“That I’m scared this will be the last time I get to be this close to you.”

“It won’t be,” he said without hesitation. “You’re mine now, Elise. I don’t walk away from what’s mine.”

She exhaled shakily. “So we’re doing this? Really doing it?”

Cade leaned in and kissed her temple, her cheek, then her mouth. “We’re doing this. No more running. No more pretending.”

A beat passed.

“Tell me something,” she whispered. “What do you want from me? Besides this?”

He turned her face gently toward his. “I want the woman who fights me when I’m wrong. Who sees through me when I wish she wouldn’t. I want the woman who kissed me when she was scared because she needed something real. I want you.”

Her eyes burned.

“And what do you want from me?” he asked, softer now.

She let her fingers glide across his jaw. “Just this. Just you. However I can get you.”

He smiled, that rare, soul-deep smile she was starting to crave. “You already have me.”

He caught her gaze and held it, then reached up and brushed his knuckles along her cheekbone, grounding the words with touch. A gesture that said, I’m not going anywhere.

And this time, when he pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her shoulder, it wasn’t about sex. It wasn’t about dominance or heat.

It was about home.

But as her head settled against his chest and her heartbeat finally regulated, a new thought took hold—quiet, fierce, and impossible to ignore.

Home had teeth.

And tomorrow, in all likelihood, it would bite.