Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

Summer: I feel like we live on the same piece of land and yet, I haven’t seen you at all.

Willa: Been busy.

Summer: With what?

Willa: Saving horses.

Summer: Oh, yeah?

Willa: Sum, I’ve saved so many I might as well open a rescue.

Summer: Good lord.

Willa: Would it be legal for me to have Cade write me a charitable donation receipt to offset my taxes?

Summer: I think he’s fucked you stupid, bestie.

Cade’s head pops out the back door, and butterflies erupt in my chest. I can tell by the way he scans the backyard that he’s been looking for me.

“Hi,” is all I say from the far side of the hot tub, steam wafting around me. We’re well into the dog days of summer now. It’s August and the nights have cooled. The air is fresh against my chest and shoulders, but the hot bubbling water caresses my body, chasing away the chill.

I’m not cold at all. Especially watching Cade step onto the patio, barefoot with thin lounge pants slung low, signature black T-shirt hugging his biceps, and hair all mussed from a shower and lying down with Luke.

“Luke asleep?”

“Yeah.” His eyes rake over me hungrily. “I meant to come find you sooner, but I think I fell asleep in there.”

“That’s okay. I’ve been keeping busy,” I reply, not missing the way his head quirks and his eyes narrow.

“Yeah? Busy with what?”

“Thinking about last night,” I reply boldly, stretching my arms above my head and showing him the way my nipples have pebbled beneath my thin, purple bathing suit.

The same one he couldn’t take his eyes off of the last time we found ourselves in here together.

Rather than approaching me, he props a shoulder against a thick wooden beam, still standing under the covered portion of the patio. He crosses his arms over his chest and regards me like he’s unaffected. However, when my eyes drop below his waistline, I know that’s not true.

“What part?” His voice is a rumble, thunder that rolls over my skin and shoots straight to my core.

“Well, I started out thinking about how I got on my knees for you.”

“You do look beautiful on your knees,” he replies smoothly. My heart rate ratchets up under his gaze. Recounting last night has every nerve ending firing. “More beautiful when you struggle to take it all. I love watching you work so hard.”

A smile twists my mouth.

“Pull the bathing suit down, Red. Let me see those perfect tits.”

My thumbs hook under the straps as I lick my lips and swallow against the dryness in my throat. Peeling the wet nylon back, I hold his gaze. It burns like hot coals, following my every movement.

“Good. Now, play with your nipples while you tell me more about last night.”

He doesn’t move an inch, and I try to gather courage to keep going because, while I’ve had some good sex in my life, I’ve had nothing like this.

Or anyone like Cade.

My forefingers and thumbs twist my nipples, and it makes my voice go all breathy when I say, “I liked when you came after me. I’m sorry I stormed off before you could finish talking.”

He blinks at me, like he’s a little surprised by what I just told him. “You don’t need to apologize, Red. I haven’t exactly sent clear signals with you.”

Pinch. Roll. Swipe. The truth tumbles out.

“Neither have I.”

His jaw shifts. “No one would expect you to be the mature one in this relationship when I’m the one who’s in his late thirties.”

I tip my nose up, refusing to let that comment make me feel childish or young. Cade isn’t looking at me that way, so I push the thought away, focusing on another word he used.

My hands smooth over the fullness of my breasts, and he watches, eyes glued to me, his length straining hard at his pants. “Is that what this is? A relationship?”

I realize I want him to say yes—take control of how out of control I’m feeling around him—and tell me how this is going to work. Because I want something to work.

But he says, “It’s whatever you’re comfortable with, Red. We can let it be gradual. We can skip a label. We can figure it out when the time comes. But whatever it is, it’s important to me. You’re important to me.”

My hands stop moving because I feel like this might be a chance to tell him I want him to go full caveman and tell me I’m staying here with him and Luke.

I’ve flitted around doing whatever I want for years with no real tether to anything except my best friend and my brother. I’ve enjoyed seeing his career take off, but none of that was for me.

I feel grounded out here. At this house. With Cade and Luke. It’s happened slowly, but I feel like I belong here, which seems absolutely insane to blurt out to this man who just very clearly reiterated our age difference or pointed to my maturity as a reason for my behavior.

And he’s not wrong. I’ve always been a little averse to growing up and settling down, but I’m finding I want nothing more. After so much time spinning around not knowing what I want, I think I might have finally figured it out.

“You’re important to me too, Cade,” is what I settle on, because I know he needs to hear that. He’s homed in on my insecurities, and I’ve homed in on his.

We build each other up. We tidy one another’s loose ends. We fit so perfectly.

“Good. But, Red, I don’t think I told you to stop playing with those tits.” His voice changes, taking on a playful edge as he takes long, casual steps toward the hot tub, peeling his shirt away and dropping it on the brick patio.

“Yeah, but now you’re standing out there looking like a total snack, and I want you to come play with them instead,” I pout dramatically while my hands move again.

He chuckles and leans his chiseled forearms on the rim of the hot tub. “Fucking desperate,” he murmurs, shaking his head.

“Hey, yo—”

“Sit on the edge of the tub, baby. You told me I could watch you touch yourself while you thought about sucking my cock on the porch. And I know you’re a woman who keeps her word.”

I practically purr under that compliment. Because I am the type of woman who keeps her word. I’m fiercely loyal, and that’s something I’ve always taken pride in. I’m trustworthy and a good friend. I might not be a high achiever, but you can count on me to be there if you need to bury a body in the middle of the night.

I do as Cade says, lifting myself onto the ledge, steam swirling off my skin as I rise from the water.

“Fuck.” He holds a fist up over his mouth and stares at me like I might be his last meal. “That fucking bathing suit.”

“This one?” I ask, pulling it up tight so it squeezes my pussy in the way that drives him wild.

“You almost made me lose it that night, you know?”

“I wish you had.”

“I don’t.” He replies smoothly, and I arch a brow at him. “Don’t give me that look, Red. It wouldn’t have been the same and you know it. I wouldn’t have known you the way I do now. You would have still thought I was an asshole.”

“Who says I don’t anymore?”

He gives me his disapproving scowl. “Between then and now I’ve . . .” he trails off, glancing away for a moment, thinking carefully about the next words, “gotten to know you and come to care about you in a way I didn’t expect.”

“Same,” I reply, like an idiot who doesn’t want to throw herself across the hot tub and say, Actually, I think I’m falling for you! Hehehe.

He stares at me, but like, into me. He stares at me like he really knows me, like he could pull out all my deepest, darkest secrets and insecurities. I almost giggle because in a lot of ways he already has.

I wonder if he can tell that I’m losing control where he’s concerned.

I decide I don’t care, so I widen my legs and pull my bathing suit to the side, baring myself to him, smiling when his eyes flare in perfect time with his nostrils.

“You were so jealous that night,” I say. “So angry. Not at me, I could tell that much. But at yourself for wanting me. And I couldn’t wait to watch you come undone.”

I swipe a finger through my lips, feeling the slippery wetness between them just from having Cade’s eyes on me.

“I was too rough,” he says, licking his lips, but he doesn’t look sorry.

“And I liked it. No. I loved it.” I press lightly on my clit, teasing myself for him, letting him watch. “Your hands in my hair.” He groans as I prop one foot up on the edge, feeling more and more bold. More and more turned on by the way he’s looking at me. “Your cock in my mouth. Hard boards biting at my knees.”

I tease my slit again, dipping a finger in but only to the first knuckle. “The way the muscles in your legs flexed beneath my hands. I felt like a goddess. And the fact that anyone could have walked up and seen us together? I loved it.”

His jaw pops under the strain of holding himself back. I can see the muscles in his forearms rippling as he rubs his hands together. It’s like he just needs something to do with them that isn’t ripping this hot tub apart to get to me.

“You wanted everyone to know that mouth is mine, Red?”

I nod. His throat bobs. “You looked like a goddess too. You always do. You should see yourself right now. All that pretty copper hair stuck to your shoulders.” His eyes trail over me. “Tits out and heaving. Begging to be fucked.” His gaze moves down over my torso. “Flimsy bathing suit all bunched up, proving how fucking useless it is at hiding your body.”

His eyes flare when they land between my legs, where my fingers are still swiping lightly over my pussy. “That cocktease of a tight little cunt all out on display for me. Begging. Just like every other inch of your body.”

A whimper spills from my lips and heat rushes out through every limb. I feel like I could turn to putty for him and his filthy words. Crass words that are reverent at the same time. So full of admiration. Possession.

“Stop fucking around and show me how pretty you look with your fingers shoved inside, baby.” His voice sounds strangled as he moves his eyes to mine. There’s something on his face I can’t quite place. A vulnerability that pops up only now and then.

A look that says he needs me as badly as I need him. In one smooth movement, I slide one finger in, then two. But he doesn’t watch between my legs, his eyes stay on my face. A blush rushes over my cheeks.

This should feel dirty, a bit playful, but it feels like worship and he’s not even touching me.

“Has anybody ever told you how incredible you are, Willa?” I swallow. “How fun? How smart? How goddamn witty?”

Fuck. His words are like a baseball bat to the chest. Totally out of left field.

My lips pop open, and only a small squeaking sound comes out. I try to cover by saying, “What about pretty? I get that a lot.” Because I’m not sure incredible has ever really happened.

He shakes his head before stepping into the hot tub, still wearing those lounge pants that skim his body so deliciously.

He drops into the water, toned arms gliding him across to me in one smooth movement. “You’re still weari—”

“No. Pretty girls don’t make me feel like this.” His hand wraps around my calf while the other comes to hold my hand between my legs. He takes control of that hand, making me pump in and out of myself a couple of times.

“Like what?” I breathe, head tilted down, eyes fixed on the man submerged between my legs.

“Totally out of control.”

And then he drops his mouth to me. My head tips back, and he makes me feel totally out of control too.

He sucks at my clit. Licks at my lips. Hums like he loves the taste. All while still working my hand with his.

“Keep going, baby,” is all he says when he draws his hand away to grip my thigh.

My legs end up wrapped around his neck, one hand propped on the deck while Cade Eaton lays me out and makes a meal of me.

It’s the corded muscles in his back, the sight of wet fabric beneath the water—proof that he couldn’t hold himself back even a second longer—that has me barreling quickly toward that cliff.

The same one he’s been pushing me off for about the last twenty-four hours.

The one he’s always at the bottom of to catch me when I fall.

And fall I do.

With my fingers thrusting in and out easily, and his expert tongue working me, I bite out, “Cade! Fuck!” All that tingly pressure inside me explodes. Down my inner thighs. Up my spine.

Straight to my heart.

His hands are all over me, pulling me into the water, sliding over me possessively. My ass, my ribs, fingers trailing up the column of my spine, until he holds me close and whispers in my ear, “Fucking incredible.”

I turn and kiss his stubbled cheek, seeing the corner of his mouth lift. But I don’t get to see the small smile for long because he’s turning us, putting me down in the water while he pushes to stand above me.

He pushes the wet fabric down, letting his thick, proud cock jut up between us.

I lick my lips and he smirks. “No, baby. First, I’m fucking those pretty tits, then you can have a taste.”

“Okay, deal,” I reply as I quickly draw closer.

A laugh rumbles in his chest. “So eager. I’ll add that to your list of admirable traits. Now put my cock between your breasts and push them together. It’s my turn now.”

“You like to watch, huh, Eaton?” I tease while doing as he told me.

“I like to watch you, Red.”

I shake my head, like it might ward away the butterflies erupting in my stomach. I’ve never done this before, and it’s exciting—his cock on my chest, breasts pushed tightly around his girth, a drop of white glistening on his thick head. I glance up at him and smile. His tongue darts out over his bottom lip, and then both lips flatten in concentration. Arms slung back behind himself, he thrusts. The water lubricates us, and his movements are slow and measured.

His mouth is slightly open, chiseled cheeks slack as he watches himself sliding between my breasts. We don’t talk. I think we’re both in a bit of a trance—or maybe we’ve said enough tonight.

Maybe he’s feeling just as exposed as I am.

Maybe if I feel like a goddess when we’re together, he feels like a god.

Maybe we both just revel in that feeling.

My arousal hasn’t abated and watching him slide his cock through my tits is getting me worked up all over again. Every time he murmurs, “Fuck,” in that deep breathy voice, my pussy clenches.

“Willa, I’m going to come.”

“Yes,” I hiss, biting at my lip, propping my chest in the most inviting angle, loving watching him come apart for me.

And then I feel it. Cade goes still and his cock throbs and twitches. His cum shoots out over my chest. One shot hits my chin, and he groans, which turns to a quiet sigh as his hand strokes the back of my head.

I rise and stand before him, dripping with his seed. “That was fun.”

Cade huffs out a deep, appreciative chuckle. “God, was it ever.” And then his eyes are burning over me, assessing his handy work.

“How do I look?” I quirk a brow and arch my back.

“Like you’re mine,” he growls.

Those words. My body aches for more. I want him to be mine too. “Yeah? You like this look on me?”

“It would be better like this.” He swipes his thumb over my chin and in one smooth movement, paints my lips with the stray shot of cum. He leans back and looks at me with a mischievous grin on his face. “Definitely mine.”

“You’re a savage, Eaton.” I laugh lightly, before darting my tongue out to taste what he put there. “And I love it.”

“Good thing, Red.” He slips into the water, dragging me down with him to wash us off. “Because I’m going to haul your fine ass to my cave now. Keep you on your back, coming all night long.”

Then he scoops me up and carries me into the house.

Like a total savage.

One that keeps me coming all night long.