“Show them your hands, Blade. I don’t think they realize how bad they are,” Candice pleaded.
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“Yeah, Blade, show us your cuts,” Josh taunted, adding his own unwelcome two cents.
Blade’s eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at the little shit, wishing he could pound him. “If I didn’t want to embarrass Candice right now, I’d shove both my banged-up hands right up your—”
“Blade!” Lacey warned. “You’ll make Candice think we’re an unruly bunch of hooligans. Now, stop all this silly chest beating, the both of you.” Lacey turned to Candice and explained. “It seems you’ve got both of them turned inside out, hun.”
Candice’s expressive eyes grew big as her gaze darted from Blade to Josh and back to Blade. She started to stammer and stutter, but Blade hushed her by bending and placing a kiss to their joined fingers. “Don’t worry, Candy girl, Josh knows better than to even think of putting a move on you,” he murmured against her soft skin. He glared at Josh. “Don’t you, cuz?”
Josh crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Blade wanted to wipe the smirk right off his face. Out of the blue, Josh put his hand on Candice’s forearm and noted, “I can see right now that you’ll be good for my intimidating cousin. He rarely takes care of himself, and when he does, it’s only because Aunt Marie had to browbeat him into it. So, for the family, I thank you for bandaging Blade’s boo-boos.”
Blade stepped forward, pushed beyond his control, but Candice hastily diffused the situation by laughing and holding him firmly by her side. “You’re quite welcome, Josh. I was happy to do it.”
Blade was dumbfounded, but Josh’s wink and slap on the back as he sauntered off let him know he’d been had, big time. He glared at his sister, but she only patted his chest and smiled. “You really had that one coming, Blade,” Lacey declared, then she, too, walked away, saying something about finding Nick and leaving early.
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“At last, we’re alone,” Blade groaned. The blush that stole over Candice’s soft cheeks pleased him. He angled his head. “So, what do you think of your decision to come here? Was it as daunting as you thought it would be?”
Candice’s surprise told him that she’d forgotten all about her fears. He was glad. It was a step in the right direction, as far as he could see.
“I’m having fun, and I’m a little sad about that, to be honest.”
Now that wasn’t at all what he wanted to hear. “Being with me makes you sad?”
“Oh no!” she clarified, as if appalled he would think such a thing. “I just mean I feel as I’ve been living behind a huge brick wall for so long and I’ve missed so much.”
Ah, hope springs eternal, Blade thought. “So, maybe the idea of being…intimate with me isn’t such a scary idea?” he asked, holding his breath.
She stared at the ground and kicked at the grass with her foot, not speaking.
“Candy?” he pressed, careful not to push, but needing to know where he stood.
“No, it’s not so scary,” she confessed. Heat flared in her eyes, encouraging him further. “In fact, I wanted to talk to you about that.”.
“I’m all ears, sweetheart,” Blade said as unfamiliar feelings flooded his body.
There’d been lust when he’d first set eyes on Candice. Secretly, in his dreams, he’d burned for her. Now, as she stood shyly readying herself for what she was about to say, his heart squeezed tight. Hell, he was starting to care for her, and they hadn’t even gotten past a few quick pecks!
Blade wasn’t sure what to make of that revelation.
“I would like to, you know, do some things.” She shrugged. “Tonight. That is, if you want to.”
Some things. She wanted to do some things. That was good, but Blade needed to clarify
things
. He didn’t want to misunderstand her meaning.
Blade tugged on Candice’s hand and brought her around to the side of the house, where they were out of sight of his family and friends. Once he had her alone, Blade let go of her fingers and cupped her chin in his palm, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I think 34
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what you want is to start getting used to the idea of being with me. Touching each other, kissing, making out a little. Is that what you’re saying, sweetheart?”
She swallowed hard and answered with an eager, “Yes, Blade. I want that very much.” When he started to say, “Fucking fantastic idea, let’s leave and start immediately!” she stopped him with a breathy, “Because I’ve been dreaming about you, too.”
Blade couldn’t think, couldn’t move. Her admission added fuel to a fire that was already blazing out of control. “You’ve dreamed about me?” She bobbed her head and blushed the tiniest bit more. “Like, the wildly erotic kind of stuff, baby?” he asked, more than anxious to hear all about these dreams. She bobbed her head again, causing the fly of his jeans to strain against the hardest friggin’ erection he’d ever had.
“Damn, Candy,” Blade groaned. “I need to get us out of here, pronto.” When he started to move around to the front of the house to his truck, Candice tugged him to a stop. Every muscle went taut, and he worried she was getting cold feet.
“Shouldn’t we tell everyone we’re leaving?”
“Hell no! I can’t walk through a gauntlet of family and friends with a hard-on like this.” Inexorably, Candice’s gaze moved down his body and landed on his lap. She hastily looked back at him with a mixture of fear and desire in her beautiful eyes.
He touched her cheek with his fingers. “I’m not a teenager, nor am I Lance Markum.
I can control myself, Candice.” He stroked a callused thumb over her plump lips, enjoying the soft skin. “If you say stop, we stop. No questions. No recriminations. I promise you that, baby.”
He went still, leaving it up to her. Blade wanted Candice bad, but he wasn’t going to push her. He would wait. As long as it took, he would wait. When she smiled and nodded, he wanted to explode in triumph. She trusted him, and for Candice that was saying something. He would not disappoint her.
***
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Candice hadn’t been intimate with a flesh-and-blood man for a year. What if she panicked? What if she was too clumsy to keep a man like Blade interested? She groaned and worried and fidgeted in the seat of Blade’s truck as he drove them back to her place.
He’d probably been with countless women. She was positive none of them had their throats close up at the mere thought of sex. But Blade was so careful with her, so easy and gentle to be around. And he’d emphatically promised to stop if she was uncomfortable. Besides she wasn’t the vulnerable, naïve woman she’d been with Lance.
She could take care of herself now. Jackie thought she was ready, and her defense instructor had told her she was a quick study. Even Lacey had offered her own thumbs-up, saying Blade was a man of his word. If he told her he’d go slow, then she could darn well count on it. The time had come for Candice to believe in herself.
But as they pulled into her drive, all her newfound courage fled. “Blade, I’m not sure about this.”
Blade turned in the seat, smiling in that wicked way he had. “Relax, sweetheart. We aren’t going in there and getting naked.” He looked down at himself and laughed.
“Besides I didn’t come prepared for sex. We’re just going to do some over-the-clothes stuff. Getting used to each other, remember?” She nodded, and Blade’s brow quirked up as he whispered, “Next time, if you ask me very nicely, we’ll do more.”
Just like that, Candice’s reservations fled and she found herself once again feeling safe. “I’m sorry.” She covered her face and blurted, “I feel like the biggest tease in the world, pulling you back and forth constantly.”
Blade pried her hands away from her face. “You’re not jerking me around, Candy girl. I knew this was going to take some time. You’re worth all the time in the world.”
Candice searched Blade’s face for signs of frustration, but she found none. He appeared as if he did indeed have all the time in the world. She sighed heavily, glad he wasn’t going to push.
Blade opened the truck door and stepped out, telling her to stay put until he could help her down. Candice was in too big a hurry to wait. She had to practically jump to get out of the truck, because it, like him, was huge. Her legs shook so bad up the walk, she 36
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stumbled once. Blade’s hand at the small of her back steadied her enough to get to the front door. Once inside, she excused herself to go to the bathroom, while he fetched a couple of cold drinks. When she came back, she found Blade on the couch with two ice-cold colas on the end table and his eyes closed.
He’d stretched his long, lean legs out in front of him and his head lay against the back of the couch. Had he fallen asleep? After such a long day and then the cookout, it was selfish to keep him when he should be in bed.
Careful not to disturb him, she sat on the couch next to Blade and watched him in silence. He really was quite handsome, in a roguish pirate sort of way. In the soft light of the small table lamp, his dark hair shone with flecks of silver. It was a little too long by today’s standards, and his mustache was a bit shaggy. He had something of a weathered look from all the hours he’d spent working in the sun, and, oh God, he was so very sexy.
Candice was thrilled he was with her and not some other woman tonight. If she had to pick a man to help break her out of her self-imposed isolation, Blade Vaughn was one heck of a choice. Maybe another night… A night when he wasn’t so beat up and exhausted from work.
She started to wake him and send him on his way when the deep timbre of his voice broke the silence in the dimly lit room. “You’re beautiful, Candice. I hope you know that.”
He’d been awake! “Why you sneak!” she admonished, trying not to be so glad about it. “You weren’t asleep at all, were you?”
Blade grinned good-naturedly. “Actually, I did get tired, sitting on your comfy couch waiting for you to come out of that bathroom.” He leaned closer to her. “I thought I’d been abandoned. Like maybe you’d climbed out a window or something,” he teased.
Instinctively, Candice inhaled his musky male scent, nearly quivering in anticipation of the evening that was still to come. “Oh,” she murmured.
“You weren’t thinking of abandoning me were you, Candy girl?” Blade asked, his voice as seductive as a lover’s touch and twice as potent.
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“Well, you have had a long day, and I was starting to feel very selfish, keeping you awake so late. You should be in bed asleep.”
“If I was at home in bed right now, I’d still be kept awake by you,” Blade growled.
“In fact, a lot of my nights have been pretty restless lately due to unrequited lust.”
She blushed at his words, even as honesty forced her to admit, “Maybe not so unrequited. Remember, I told you, I’ve been dreaming of you, too, Blade.”
He gave her a feral, possessive smile. “Yeah, and we’ll get to that, I promise. But first, there’s this…” He leaned in the rest of the way and kissed her. This time it wasn’t so fleeting or barely-there.
The warmth of his lips was everywhere at once, and her body pulsated with pleasure.
He was slow, gentle and skilled as he angled his head for better access. Candice didn’t know what to do. Her experience with kissing was pretty limited. She’d never felt so inept. Thinking he was going to stop when he moved back a fraction, she moaned.
“Relax, sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere,” Blade promised softly. “But you need to loosen up a little for me, okay?” He unclipped his ever-present cell phone, then placed it on the end table next to the forgotten drinks.
She nodded, thrilled to the core that he wasn’t giving up on her. Blade settled back against the couch and said, “Come here.”
She stared at him as if he’d gone suddenly mental. He smiled indulgently. “I think you’d be more comfortable if you were the one in control. I don’t want you to feel smothered by me. If you were on top, able to stop at anytime, it would help you feel at ease.”
She was such a silly twit, and Blade was being so sweet, so unhurried. She couldn’t resist the allure of his sexy smile, his relaxed demeanor. Candice lingered over him, unsure and awkward until Blade picked her up and adjusted her so she straddled him.
Safely tucked onto his lap, he commanded her with gentle words. “That’s it. Now, put your arms around me.”
Candice happily obeyed him, beyond pleased at the thick ridge pressing into her bottom. Suddenly his lips caressed hers again, and his arms closed around her in a loose 38
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embrace. The lazy and gentle touch of lips soon had her wiggling and moaning on his lap.
Need rushed in as Candice craved more. Blade growled low in his throat and slipped his tongue against the seam of her lips, seeking entrance. She opened for him, then he was inside the wet heat of her mouth, tasting and driving her insane.
Oh my, he was the man in her dreams, and she was safe in his arms. Candice desperately wanted him in every way a woman could have a man.
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Never in his life had he been accused of being a patient man. Aggressive. Stubborn.
Chauvinistic. Intimidating. Yep, all of the above, but never patient. And right now every fiber in his being screamed at him to toss patience to the wolves and get on with it already. Still he held back, suppressed his innate need to control and dominate, and let Candice run the show.
She was such a fiery little thing, he was sure of it, but she would need to strip off her thick layer of fear first. If he rushed her, he’d only risk alarming her. Blade would die before he caused Candice even an ounce of pain.
That didn’t help his gonads one bit. As Candice moaned and wriggled, he was ready to explode. His cock responded to her soft ass with bursts of pulsating excitement. All he could do was sit back and let her play. It was killing him. The best things were worth the wait, he reminded himself for the thousandth time. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t mean they couldn’t move on to the next stage of their torturous activity.