He watched her, her face flushed, her eyes dilated, locked to him, so fucking beautiful in her want, and he slid a hand under him, in his back pocket, pulling out his wallet.
A growl surged from his throat when she bent to yank her jeans and panties down her legs, exposing herself to him. She kicked them off and leaned over him, frenzied as she worked his belt.
He slid the condom out of his wallet then tossed the wallet aside.
She unbuttoned his jeans then slid down the zipper.
He dug his heels in to lift his hips off the couch as she wrenched his jeans and shorts down his hips, thrilled beyond reason when she’d freed his hard, aching cock from its confines.
She swung over him, her eyes again glued to Coert’s.
His eyes to hers, he’d barely rolled the condom on before she was grabbing hold of his dick. She positioned it with one hand, leaned over him, the fingers of her other hand curling around his neck.
He put both hands to her hips when she found his head.
And then he had her.
She pulsed down, her head flying back, filling herself with him.
Giving him her, buried inside her, Cady all he could see, all he could feel, his entire focus, finally again his world.
“Cady,” he grunted.
She looked to him and moved, hard, slamming down on him, her hand at his neck spasming, her pussy spasming, harsh breaths escaping parted lips.
He raced both his hands up her back to her head, holding it at the sides, holding her steady, holding her eyes, not about to lose those eyes, not about to lose her.
She rode him fast, frantic, reckless.
He yanked her face closer to his and saw it race up in her.
“Cady,” he whispered.
Her head shot back as she let out a soft cry.
He pulled it forward, resting her forehead on his and holding her close as she panted and whimpered her orgasm against his lips, her hips still slamming into his.
When she started to lose it, the beauty drifting away, he rolled her to her back and took over.
Too far gone for her—the feel of her, having her under him again—to go gentle, he rode her rough and she held on. Both her arms circling his head again, she shoved his face in her neck. Her legs rounding his back, cinching tight, lifting her hips to give him more, he thrust into her, feeling each one push her breath out into his neck until he groaned into hers as he bucked into her body and came really fucking hard for his Cady.
He let it happen, it was fantastic, but it was so enormous he feared he’d hurt her. So he pushed back at it so he could gentle his movements and glide inside her as his orgasm slipped through him until he could settle in deep.
Finally again buried inside the only place he was ever supposed to be.
After he was done coming, the room didn’t come back, the lighthouse, her dog, Magdalene, anything.
It was just Cady and him and that couch. That was all Coert could take. That was all he wanted. That was all he’d wanted for years.
And there they were.
They had it.
He brushed her neck with his nose, smelling hints of her perfume that were clean and earthy but also mellow and floral and it was so totally her, different than the scent she wore back in the day, it felt like a gift. Having it be so her, this her, after having her and feeling her soft body under him, his fingers in her hair, her pussy sleek and tight around his cock.
That was it felt like a gift until suddenly she made a strange noise, forced her hands between them and shoved up hard.
Not prepared for that, Coert lifted up farther, thinking his weight was too much, and still unprepared, she slithered out from under him, his cock lost her, and he was losing the rest of her.
He made a grab to hook her at the waist but was too late and she was too fraught. Practically falling over the side of the couch, she escaped him and he’d just gotten up on a forearm to turn to her, follow her out of the couch, find out what the fuck was going on, but he froze when he saw her awkwardly snatching up the clothes on the floor, holding them to her body.
And his heart felt like it exploded when her tortured eyes hit his.
“I’m sorry.” The words were dripping shame and embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.”
She then took off running to the stairs and up them.
Midnight followed to the foot of the steps, ran back to Coert, then changed directions and raced cumbersomely up the stairs after her momma.
“Fuck,” Coert bit out, pushed up from the couch, saw a door under the stairs and hoped it led to a toilet.
He went there and entered the smallest half bath he’d ever been in, but it was still freaking nice.
He didn’t take the time to admire it.
He pulled off the condom, flushed it, rinsed his hands and didn’t bother drying them, closing the door to the bathroom or even doing up his jeans as he ran out and took the steps two at a time, holding his pants together at the fly.
He hit a room that had a big circular couch in it, some side tables with a curved TV that was still on, affixed to the wall.
But no Cady.
So he sprinted up the next winding set of stairs and came right into the smallest bedroom he’d ever seen that was dominated by a bed, but it was amazing the economy of space and the magic brought to it with fairy lights under sheers draped over the bed on the ceiling, and compact furniture that was all gorgeous but all useful.
He did not admire that either because Cady was at the foot of the bed and had her panties up, the other clothes in a pile in the minimal floor space at her feet, but she was holding his sweater.
Slowly her eyes came to him.
“I took your sweater,” she whispered like she’d just admitted committing murder.
“Cady,” he said carefully.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” she kept whispering.
“What?” he asked softly.
“Done that. That. To you. Touched you. Made you . . . made you . . . I shouldn’t have touched you like that.”
Was she insane?
“Cady, honey, think. I was right there with you all the way.”
Her eyes were on him but he could tell she wasn’t looking at him but was somewhere else, somewhere very not good, when she murmured, “I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
“Look at me, honey,” he urged.
She didn’t look at him.
“Cady,” he said, taking a step toward her.
Her eyes focused on him.
And her words broke when she said, “I’m so sorry.”
Okay.
Done.
He had to go all of two feet but he went there, scooped her up, turned and planted his ass on the end of her bed with her held in a tight ball in his lap against his chest.
“Stop that,” he growled into her hair. “I was right there with you every step of the way.”
“You . . . you’re . . . the investigator. His reports. Patrick’s reports. I read them. I know how you got your daughter.”
A surprise but not a surprise.
“This was not that,” he said firmly. “That wasn’t even what you’re thinking.”
“You . . . you . . . women haven’t done right by you.”
He put hands to either side of her head and forced her to look at him.
“Stop it,” he bit out.
“Coert—”
“It was me.”
She stared into his eyes.
“Me, Cady. I did it. I broke us. It was me.”
“You didn’t—”
Shit.
Fuck.
Shit!
Fuck!
He felt it and he could no longer stop it.
His body bucked and his voice cracked when it forced itself out.
“It was all on me.”
Gone was his Cady who was twisting shit in her head.
Suddenly in his lap was Cady who was all about him.
He could see it in her face.
And he couldn’t handle it.
“Coert—” she said urgently.
“I fucked us up. I fucked you up. From the beginning. Used you. Knew it was wrong. Knew it would break us. Knew it. Did it anyway.”
“Coert, honey, look at me—”
He was looking at her but she wasn’t there.
She was in his lap, as close as she could be, but he was in hell.
“After, after you knew, after you knew every time you said the name Tony it was a lie, I was a lie, we were a lie, I was a piece of shit, I wanted to go to you. I knew you. I knew what you’d do. Malc and Tom, they said dig right back in. Don’t give you time. Get right back in there. But Cap, my captain, said to give you time. He said if I gave you time, you’d see it was my job. You’d understand. It’d be all right. You’d be open to me fixing us, starting again. If I went too early, I’d go in when you were pissed and hurt and fuck shit up even more. Malc and Tom were right. I should have listened to them. Cap was wrong. You needed me and I knew it, and I listened to him and it was fuckin’ stupid.”