Existing (49 page)

“Wow. That was incredible
!”

He smiles. “I’m glad you like it.”

After the main course, Cabe places a hot chocolate fudge cake in front of me and a huge dollop of soft-serve ice cream.

“Did you make this too?”

“Yup,” he says, “and the ice cream.”

I’ve had two glasses of wine and I can feel my thoughts slowing down as I think them
. “You’re something else, Cabe Evans.”

“I’m nothing compared to you
, Roisin Williams.”

We grin at each
other and eat the cake in silence. It’s delicious. The combination of hot fudge cake and cold ice cream is sending my taste buds into a frenzy. The cake is moist and chocolaty, at the same time as being light and fluffy. “Yum,” I moan in pleasure.

Cabe clears the plates away and passes me a small
, rectangle-shaped box.

“What’s this?”

He sits back down across from me and smiles. “It’s a belated birthday present, a holiday present, and a it’s-been-two-months-since-you-knocked-my-lunch-out-of-my-hand present all rolled into one.”

“You shouldn’t have,” I say, staring at it
while thinking that the box alone looks expensive. “I don’t like presents. I don’t deserve it anyway.”

“Oh be quiet,” he
says and smiles playfully. “Just open it.”

The box creaks as I pry
it open. As soon as I see the sparkling diamond, I snap it back shut.

“Cabe,” I begin, “I can’t-“

He sighs and stands from his seat. He walks behind me and leans over, taking the box from me. As he opens it, I see the single diamond twinkling in the candlelight. “Look,” he says, holding the diamond up for me to look at. “It’s you.”

I stare at
it and then suddenly realize that the diamond is in the shape of an opened rose. “Oh my God,” I breathe.

He unclasps
the chain and pushes my hair over one shoulder. He pulls the necklace gently around my neck, where it sits just below my voice box.

“It’s beautiful,” I whisper.

“As are you.” He kisses the side of my neck that’s exposed to him, causing electrical surges to power down my entire body until they settle and coil in the pit of my stomach.

“Come on,” he says, taking my hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”

We walk up and down the beach holding hands. I keep feeling the diamond rose bouncing around on my skin, and every now and then I catch Cabe glancing at it too.

When we near his house an
hour later, he pulls off his shoes and rolls up his trousers.

“Take your shoes off
, Rose.”

I smile
, thinking about the night he first asked me to do that.

“What? Why?” I ask, but go ahead and s
lip my shoes off before he can answer.

Cabe’s hands find the back of my knees and
suddenly he’s carrying me into the sea, making it splash up and around us just like it did before. We are both giggling when he throws me up and then lowers me into the water.

“Argh,” I laugh, “
it’s freezing and you’ll ruin my skirt!”

I walk away and wait for the feel of his hand on my arm but it doesn’t come
. I stop when the water is half-way down my calf and turn around.

I look
at him and see him smiling at me.

“Rose?”

I look around, making sure no one is stealing our shoes, and then look back at him. “Yeah?”

I see his chest rise as he takes a deep breath in. “I’m in love with you.”

I stand still. I can feel tiny fish swimming around my toes. The water doesn’t feel cold anymore, and neither does the breeze that skims and dances over the tops of the waves. My heart isn’t fluttering anymore; it’s hammering in my chest at his words. We stare at each for a long time and then I smile.

Cabe starts to walk toward
me. I forget that I need to keep my skirt dry and run through the water to meet him. His hands are in my hair and his lips are on me before I can say anything. I kiss him with everything I have. All the love I feel for him pours out of me and into him, and then I pull back, panting with desire as I hold his head in my hands and look deep into his bright grey eyes.

“I’m in love with you too,
” I whisper.

We lie on the bean bags, blanket, and pillows in the sunroom and listen to the rain that hammers down against the roof. Roisin got soaked on our way back here so she’s had to take off her dress. She’s now wearing a pair of my sports shorts and a t-shirt that’s about three sizes too big for her.

“This is not sexy at all,” she says, tugging on the bottom of it.

The heat coming from the log burner in the corner is keeping our feet warm. “You’d look sexy in a black bag,” I tell her.

She grins at me and nuzzles her head onto my chest. I hear her take a long, deep breath and
I brush my hand down the back of her head and through her hair. She lifts her hand up and starts to stroke the top of my bare arm. When her hand moves up to trace the lines of my face, I can’t stop the moan that falls out of my mouth.

“This is nice,” she says
.

“Hmmm
.”

“Are you falling asleep?”
she asks.

I lean
up on my elbows and blink her. “Yeah, I think I was.”

“Come on,” she laughs, pulling me up.
“Let’s go to bed.”

“
Where does your Dad think you are tonight?” I ask as we walk up the stairs holding hands.

“Charlotte’s house.”

“And does Charlotte know you’re here?”

“She’ll cover for me if she has to,” she tells me.

When she gets to the top she stands still, looking up at the stairs that lead to my bedroom.

“Where am I sleeping?”
she asks.

I stretch and yawn.
“It’s up to you. You can sleep next to me if you want, or the guest room is made up and ready.”

“I’ll just go and get chang
ed and brush my teeth and stuff,” she says.

I nod towards the five doors.
“Middle door. I’ll go and get changed myself.”

I watch her walk into
the bathroom and then dash up to my room. I shower quickly, making sure that I wash every inch of myself clean. I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, but if I end up getting naked with her, then I want to make sure that I smell nice.

I know it’s stupid, but I’m shitting myself at the thought of having sex with her. Riley would laugh and then hit me or something if he knew how scared I felt. It’s not that I’m scared of physically doing it. I’ve watched enough porn and listened to far too many of Riley’s stories to know what I’m supposed to do, but it’s what happens afterwards that scares me. We love each other though, so it’s not like I’m going to do it and then lose her or anything. I just can’t get past the fact that I’m doing something that I never thought I’d do.

I pull on a pair of sweatpants and run back down the stairs before she comes out of the bathroom. I can hear her picking things up and moving them so I know she’s finished showering. I lean back against the rail and wait for her, trying to make myself look like I’ve just been patiently standing here the whole time.

When she finally opens the door
, a cloud of mist falls out of the room before she does. She steps into the hallway and stares at me. I smile and let my eyes trail down her whole body. Her red, silk nightie makes her skin look even more tanned than before. It hugs and nips in at her curves, revealing a lot of her legs and a whole lot more of her cleavage. I know she can see me looking, but I don’t care.

“You’re stunning,” I whisper. I take a step towards her and pull her into my arms.
“And you’re all mine.”

She giggles and kisses my neck.
“I love you,” she says against my skin.

I
suck in a deep breath and smell her freshly shampooed hair. “I love you, too.” I kiss the top of her head and pull back. “Have you decided where you’re sleeping yet?”

She grins and nods. “I’m
with you.”

I grin and lift her up into my arms, carrying her up the second set of stairs and into my bedroom
, where I gently place her on the middle of my bed. I walk over to the wall and flick the switch, plunging the room into complete darkness.

“Where are you?” I whisper as my hands try to find her.

She giggles in the darkness. “I’m right where you left me.”

“Oh yeah,” I
say, “in my bed. Right where you should be.”

I crawl up the bed to her and wrap her into my arms. I brush her hair
from off her face and kiss every inch of her face until I get to her lips. Once I’m there, it’s like something has switched on inside of me. I grab her hair and kiss harder. I slip my tongue into her mouth and run it over her bottom lip. She groans into my mouth, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

We kiss like that for what feels like forever until she pushes against my chest, forcing me to lie flat on my back. She star
ts at my forehead and kisses me all the way down until she gets to my stomach. It’s incredible. The feelings that are whirling around inside of me feel like they’re going to burst right out. My dick has been hard since the second I kissed her, but now it feels like it’s going to force its way out of my sweatpants. I can feel the blood surging around in it and I want her to touch it. I want her to kiss it and suck it and do whatever the hell else she wants with it.

She tugs on the elastic fastening until
my trousers are loose and then slowly starts to pull them down. I take one last breath and look at the ceiling as she tugs them free from my legs. She pauses and I wonder what she’s doing. When I lift my head up to look at her, she’s raising her eyebrows at me and grinning. I want to ask her what she’s grinning about but before I can, she closes her hand tightly around my cock and starts to slowly move her hand up and down. I groan and let my head drop back onto the pillow as she starts to move quicker.

I can’t think about anything else as the feelings start to tingle their way around my body. I know I
’m close already and I know I can’t let that happen, so I grab her hand and stop her.

“What?” she asks.

I don’t say anything. I grab her shoulder and flip her over. Now it’s my turn to explore. I kiss her shoulders, her arms, and then move across her chest until I pull her nightie down and let her breast break free. I lower my head and start to kiss around the fleshy outside of her breast. I feel her fingers weave through my hair and then she starts to tug on it and moan. I flick my tongue over her hard nipple and then take it all into my mouth. I suck a little, hearing her moan and then I wriggle her nightie down her body and yank it off in one swift movement. When I look back down, she’s completely naked. And shaved. And breathtakingly beautiful.

“What?” she asks since I’m obviously speechless…and staring.

“Where are your knickers?”

She rolls her eyes. “I decided to not wear my
panties
. There didn’t seem to be any point.”

I laugh and kiss up her
thigh. Her hips start to buck and wriggle underneath me when I start to kiss the skin around her pelvis.

“Please,” she begs. “Cabe, I can’t wait any longer.”

I lean back on my heels and look at her. I don’t need to be told twice. Before I have a chance to even think about a condom, she sits up and shuffles forward until her arms and legs are wrapped around me. She kisses my neck and lowers herself down.

“I love you,” she whispers. “You’re my life now.”

I’m so shocked at her confidence that I don’t realise what she’s actually doing until I feel myself starting to poke her. I pull away.

“Condom,” I breathe.
Shit
. I don’t have any.

She shakes her head. “I’m on the pill.”

I smile and start to kiss her neck. Within seconds, I can feel myself sliding inside her. Fuck, that feels good.

“Oh, God, I love you,” I breathe.

I push my hands into her hair and kiss her neck. I move up her neck and nibble on her ear until she groans and start to rock against me.

I don’t have long. I can already feel my orgasm building
and I can’t stop myself. I wrap an arm around her lower back and start to pull her against me, pushing myself deeper and deeper inside of her.

“Cabe,” she rasps
.

“I know,” I whisper. I can tell by the way she tightens around me that she’s close too. I kiss her mouth again as the
tingling feeling flies up from my toes and straight to my dick, and I thrust one last time.

I nearly pass out because I hold my breath for so long. I can hear the noise we’re mak
ing and feel how we’re shaking against each other, but it’s like I’m not really there. I’m floating. We collapse breathlessly onto the bed and grin at each other.