Page 121 of Trapped With You

“Absolutely nothing.”

We shared a small laugh that was overshadowed by the sound of the downpour battering against the walls of the motherhouse.

Cade raised our hands and slowly trickled his fingers down the length of mine like water rivulets over the slope of a leaf after a rainstorm. His strokes over my palm lines were a reminder that he was branded there, too. In my history. Past, present, and future.

“From the moment I first saw you standing in the alleyway to the moment where you first touched me, you’ve been in my blood,” he murmured. “And from the second you called me beautiful and said you loved me even after I showed you my monstrous scars, you’ve owned me, Ella. I’m ruled by you and I wouldn’t have it any other way, baby.”

Arrows dipped in gold struck my heart and unfurled ribbons of emotions that made it difficult to speak around the lump in my throat.

When our eyes connected, I noticed how lighter his blues appeared now that his demons were expunged. This was him at peace after battling for so long. Our expressions mirrored one another.

“I never stopped loving you, Ella. Not for a single second.” He pressed a tender kiss to my left wrist, over my fluttering pulse. “You’re the only girl I’ve ever wanted. The onlyone I’ll ever want and love. You’re it for me,mo chuisle.”

God, this man. He was as beautiful as ever with his vulnerability and poetic words. With his protectiveness and prophetic devotion. With his lowered defences and incessantlove for me.

I was unable to resist him any longer.

“I’ve always dreamed of you, too, Cade. Ever since the first moment I saw you,” I confessed. “And in the time we were apart, I still dreamed of you every night.”

“You dreamt about me even when you hated me?”

“I tried to hate you. For a while, I think I convinced myself I did…But it never really worked.”

One of his hands stole to the back of my neck and he tugged me closer, erasing the fictional distance between us. “How many men have you been with since me?” he asked raggedly, his breath mingling with mine. “How many do I have to kill?”

Such an unhinged mob prince. I smiled and swept my finger over his mouth, snagging his bottom lip and pulling until the inkedELLAwas visible. I wanted to experience the feel of it as he sucked my clit. “Zero. I haven’t been with anyone since you,querido. I only lied to toy with you.”

His grip around my nape tightened. “You little brat.”

I sank my orange claws into his jaw with intention. After hearing Cade’s side of the story, I knew I was the only one for him. But the green-eyed envy monster residing inside of me needed to hear it aloud. “What about you?”

He arched a dark eyebrow, mirth swirling in his expression. “I’ve spent the last three months chasing you around the city. You think I have time for other women, sweetheart?”

“Good answer.” I dragged my fingers down his throat, inciting a full-body shiver to tumble through him. His kryptonite was me running my nails lightly over his skin. It tamed him like nothing else. “Otherwise, I’d be forced to do some damage. You don’t want to play with my bad side, Cade.”

“Pretty girl,” he whispered. “Iloveyour bad side.”

“It’s sick how obsessed you are with me.” And I loved it.

“If being obsessed with you is a sickness,” he rasped with araw, undone quality. “Then I never want to be cured. Continue to own me, to live inside of me, to never stop being mine, Ella.”

A flash of coruscation illuminated our space, highlighting our hungry expressions and the fierce want rippling in the air.

With desperation, we lunged for one another.

A clap of thunder followed just as our mouths crashed together with needy sounds, two long lost lovers finally reunited after wandering forever in search of their halves.

The first kiss was titillating and my tipped world finally recentered on its orbit.

The second kiss was a dominant, reclaiming one. The kind that saidyou’re-mine-and-mine-alone-and-there’s-no-changing-that.

The third kiss was filled with absolution and hot lust. Every cell in my body vibrated with sheer bliss. My mind was spinning with a flurry of sensations, from his masculine cologne wrapping around me like a warm cocoon, to his bold hands chasing the curves of my body like recommitting them to memory, and to his taste melting on my tongue like sugared sin.

“Ella.” The sound of my name in that gravelly tone had me weak in the knees. He hoisted me up his body and I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I’ve missed you so much, baby.”

We stumbled and landed against a wall, causing the picture frames to shake with the force. I raked my fingers through his hair and sucked his bottom lip with a moan, running my tongue over the inkedELLAtattoo. “I’ve missed you, too. So much, Cade.”

We exchanged wet, greedy kisses, the salacious kind that set my entirety ablaze. It was animalistic the way our tongues met and hips ground together. We never lost the ability to drive each other wild.