Read Online Breaking Leather: Lone Star Lovers, Book 4 by Delilah Devlin - Free Book Online Page B

faces. They knew he was through waiting. That he’d taken the lead. For now.

    Inside Ezra’s bedroom, Chrissi stood beside the bed while Cade pulled the oversized shirt over her head and turned down the covers.
    “I need to use the facilities,” she said quietly, feeling awkward again to be standing naked next to the quiet Kinzie.
    Cade might be the quiet one, might be the one she’d always thought of as the most grounded and kind, but there was something different about him now. Something watchful. She didn’t know why, but something of his stance and enigmatic expression put her to mind of a wolf, a patient, intelligent predator.
    He gave her a nod, his permission to leave, which made her bristle. She didn’t need any man’s permission to do a damn thing, but here she was allowing him to take charge. Still, she left him to take care of business in the bathroom and brush her teeth.
    When she let herself out of the bathroom, she saw his jeans draped over the armchair in the corner, and Cade lying beneath the covers with two pillows wedged behind his shoulders. He patted the bed. “I didn’t change my mind. We’re just sleepin’. But I’m gonna hold you.”
    The thought was too delicious, too seductive to a woman who’d slept alone for so many years, for her to even pretend she didn’t want it. She slid beneath the covers while he turned off the bedside lamp, then let him turn her to spoon her body against his.
    She rested her head on his arm and scooted deeper against him. His cock was semi-aroused and pushing against her butt.
    “Can’t help that,” he whispered, humor in his tone. “Ignore it.”
    “Easy for you to say,” she grumbled, hiding a smile.
    “Nothin’ easy about having you here in my arms and not doin’ a thing about it. But I don’t wanna prove you can’t trust what I say.”
    “I never doubted you were an honest man, Cade.” She turned inside his arms. His gaze, which glinted in the moonlight, was still shuttered, wary. “Maybe you can make me understand.”
    He pulled away a lock of hair that clung to the moist corner of her mouth. “What can’t you quite grasp?”
    “How you of all people can be okay with this. Don’t you want a woman of your own?”
    “Truth be told, I’ve never found another you, Chrissi.”
    “But I wasn’t your girl. We weren’t intimate before that night. How could you know?”
    “Didn’t you know the truth? Even before we did it? Why else would you have told Josh what you did?”
    She sighed. “I didn’t see it as something permanent. Just a fantasy. Like fucking Brad Pitt. Not something I truly aspired to.”
    “I knew because every time I watched you with Ezra, I burned. I was so eaten up with jealousy, I stayed horny and mad and ready to pull teeth because I wasn’t the one you wanted. I didn’t like what it made me feel about my brother. I didn’t like that my fantasy had to do with stealing you away, fucking you in front of him. Now, I love my brother. I’d die for him. But I’d fight him for the right be with you.”
    She swallowed hard. The uninflected way he said it, the steadiness of his gaze said he meant every single word. She turned away, but let him pull her snug against him, let him smooth his hands over her body, avoiding her breasts, never straying between her thighs—soothing jumbled thoughts and a worn-out body.
    She felt sorry for herself that she didn’t feel the same sense of conviction that he did. Couldn’t be as selfless about her needs. She might desire all three of them, but she needed peace of mind. Needed self-respect. Needed to know that her future wasn’t going to be something sordid and sinful, and ultimately flawed. When she took a mate, she wanted it to be forever. Not just for now.
    And she seriously didn’t see how this could work in any way, except as a short-termed fling.
    “Go to sleep, Chrissi. Stop worryin’. It’s gonna be okay.”
    “You sound like Ezra. You both like bein’ in charge.