Connor, as I’d told Gage, was really attractive and sweet but didn’t hold a candle to Gage. What he had that Gage didn’t was an understanding of my past, and before Connor sat down with me at the coffee shop, I hadn’t known that I needed that. But what I had come to realize was that it wasn’t Connor, and it wasn’t that he’d gone through what I did; it was that I was keeping that part of my life from Gage. I wasn’t giving Gage a chance to understand it and help me with my demons. He would never know what it felt like, but by telling him everything and by baring my soul to him, I could allow him to be there for me and it could only help our relationship improve. And as I’d hoped, as soon as I told him everything, I felt a new connection in our already unbreakable bond that came from my opening up to him about myself. But now he wasn’t speaking, and he wasn’t looking at me. And since the better part of the last hour had been spent talking about Connor, I could only imagine why.

“Phone.”

“What?”

“Phone, Cass, give me your phone.” He turned to look at me and his eyes were still flat.

I nodded and dug through my purse as I held his stare. “I know why you want it, and I’m not going to stop you. But, Gage, I just told you all of this; do you want to talk about it first?”

“No. When I can stop thinking about you and him, I’m gonna come back, and then we’ll talk about it.” He took my phone, stood up, and walked out of the house.

GAGE

I SLID MY finger over the phone, and though I wanted to, I didn’t check the messages. Cassidy had been painfully honest with me, so I knew she hadn’t hidden one damn thing from me. Checking the messages would only be saying I didn’t trust her, and I did. I went to her recent calls, and though I knew she’d been avoiding everyone but this detective, it still felt like a blow to see his name as the top four of her recent calls. Next to each of them was a number. Three, five, two, six. It didn’t take more than a second to add them up. Sixteen. They’d called each other sixteen fuckin’ times in a matter of two days, which he was working the majority of, and one morning. My stomach churned and I pressed on his name. It only rang twice before he picked up.

“Cassidy.” He sighed, sounding relieved. “God, I’m glad you called.”

“Not Cassidy,” I responded.

It only took a few seconds for him to get it. “Gage,” he stated firmly.

“Yep.”

“So she’s there with you.”

“Yep.”

“And you’re calling, which means she’s told you about me.”

What pissed me off more was that he’d known about me and still kissed her, begged her to stay with him. “Told me absolutely everything about you, including how she felt about you.”

“Everything,” he said doubtfully.

“Everything, meaning I just had to listen to my fuckin’ world talk to me for an hour about a guy who knew about me and still fuckin’ kissed and had her up against a wall with her legs around him. She even told me how she helped you out with your clothes before you got in the shower. So yes, I know it all.”

“Jesus.”

“I don’t appreciate people touching what’s mine,” I said in a low warning tone.

He didn’t care or back down. “I’ve never met anyone like her. It didn’t take me more than a couple minutes to know I wanted her, and not just in my bed. Girls like her don’t just come around every day—in fact they don’t come around ever. You weren’t there for her when you should have been. I don’t give a fuck if she didn’t tell you where she went. I would have made it my mission to find her and not let her go again. You let her go two weeks without even calling her.”

“And you let her go four years without even checking up on her. You don’t know the first thing about me and Cass, and you and she didn’t know that Tyler and I were talking daily while she was there. I knew I freaked her out the night of the fight, so Ty and I agreed it was best if I waited for her to come around instead of pushing her. Since Tyler’s the one who took care of her all those years, I figured he knew best, and looks like we were right.”

Connor scoffed. “You can’t keep her in a glass box. I pushed her and that’s what helped her. If not, she’d still be battling her demons and she might not be there with you. Since she told you everything, I’m guessing she told you if you weren’t in the picture, she wouldn’t have walked out my door.”

My hand gripped the railing on the wraparound porch and my head dropped. Hearing her say that had hurt more than anything else she’d told me. “She did,” I said, confirming it.

“Pushing her brought us together, and yeah, it may have ultimately sent her back to you, but it gave us a connection you’ll never understand and you’ll never have with her. I’m not blind, I know she’s completely in love with you. As soon as she says your name those eyes of hers light up and it felt like a punch to my gut every time. But just remember what she said to me. Remember that I do want your girl, and that when you mess up, I’ll be ready to take her from you.”

“Not gonna happen,” I growled, and straightened. “I’ve had enough of other guys trying to take her from me. So hear me when I say that Cassidy. Is. Mine. She came back to me. She’s not going anywhere, and neither am I. I hate what she just told me, I hate that she feels anything for you at all, but I will fight to keep her and make her forget about you for the rest of my life.”

Connor stayed silent.

“I’m putting a ring on her finger. I’m marrying her. And I’m gonna have a family with her here on my ranch. I don’t want to hear from you ever again, and when I say I, note that Cassidy will tell me if you call her, you understand?”

“Yeah, I got you.”

“Good-bye, Detective Green.” Without waiting for a response I ended the call and stormed back into the house.

Cassidy was on her knees, butt on her feet, and looking at me like she had earlier, like she was seeing the sun for the first time and afraid it was going to be taken away from her. I understood the look now; she hadn’t known then and didn’t know now how I was going to react to the Connor thing. Without saying a word, I scooped her up in my arms and carried her through the empty house into the kitchen. Her eyes didn’t leave mine and her hand shakily came up to brush across my cheeks, down my jaw, and across my lips.

“Gage,” she whispered.

“You’re mine,” I informed her, in case she hadn’t figured that shit out yet. I set her butt on the edge of the counter and gripped the sides of her underwear to pull them down, letting my hands trail back up the insides of her thighs.

She nodded. “Forever.” Her voice was breathy as her arms went back onto the large granite island in the center of the kitchen and her head fell back.

“I talked to Connor.”

“Figured that.”

Her head was still dropped back, so I let the hand that had been supporting her back slide up until it cupped her neck and forced her to look at me. “Are you mad about that?”

“No, I had a feeling something like that, or worse, was going to happen. But I’m confu—oh!” She gasped when I slid two fingers in, and had to work hard to keep her eyes open and on mine. “Confused. Aren’t you mad, why are you—oh God—um, why are you doing this?”

I smiled widely and leaned forward to suck on that spot she loved behind her ear before telling her, “Always told you I wanted to claim you, darlin’.” Cassidy burst out laughing, but the movement it caused, and where my fingers currently were, made the sound cut off, and she moaned deeply. “Plus, we gotta break in all the rooms of our home.”

She was biting her bottom lip and grinning, her honey eyes bright. “Then I have a request, since this is my room.”

“Anything,” I promised, but she gripped my wrist and pulled my hand away from her. “Anything but that.”

Laughing huskily, her hands went to the button on my jeans and she looked up at me from under her lashes before leaning toward my ear. “I want my turn. Lie down, Gage.”

I kept my eyes on her as I stepped out of my pants and hopped onto the island with her, lying down and letting my legs hang off the end. Before I could pick her up to place her on me, one hand was grabbing my base and her mouth and tongue were teasing the tip for torturous seconds before she took as much of me in as she could.

“Shit, Cassidy.” I groaned and raked my hands down my face before looking down at her, only to find her looking up at me again from under her eyelashes. Where the hell did this girl come from? I couldn’t take my eyes off what she was doing and cursed the fact that I was getting worked up way too fast and this would all be over too soon. Her hand, mouth, and tongue were working together perfectly and I felt like a damn middle schooler again.

When I knew I didn’t have more than a minute left, I put the slightest pressure on her ponytail and she looked up, quickly releasing me with a satisfied grin as she crawled over and sank down on me. Her mouth opened but nothing more than a breathy sound of pleasure came out as her eyelids fluttered shut and she started riding me. On our kitchen island. In our house. On the ranch. Hell. Yeah.

It didn’t last long, but thankfully I was able to hold off until she got off first. We lay there, with her draped on top of me placing kisses over my chest, and I couldn’t think of anything better than right now. But then again, I thought that every time Cassidy and I were together.

“We need to thoroughly sanitize this island before I cook in here,” she said between kisses, and I laughed as I pulled her up to kiss her.

“Does that mean you like the house?”

“You really built this?” Her eyes were wide with amazement as she looked down at me.

“Dad and I have been building it for quite a few years now. The second I met you, I knew I wanted to finish building it for you. Even when I thought you were with Tyler, you were always who I pictured when I was here working on it, or when I was working on plans in Austin. We expanded the kitchen a bit, put the huge island in here, and I haven’t even shown you the master bathroom yet.”