From Ashes(14)
Author: Molly McAdams

Chapter Six

GAGE

I KEPT TOSSING and turning in bed. Cassidy was going back to Austin tomorrow, and I wouldn’t see her for three weeks. This last week had been more torturous than living with them, and I was seriously considering not letting her go back with Ty. Despite the things that had happened in the last year, and what happened at the beginning of the week at the bonfire, I knew for sure she was in love with me too. Mama didn’t have to tell me that she didn’t look at Ty the way she looked at me; I’d known that from day one. But my entire family was now convinced she wanted me too, and I think that made watching her with Tyler harder than ever. Before, I kept telling myself I was only seeing what I wanted to; now I knew that wasn’t it, and I needed to try to get in her head one more time. Besides, Mama and my sisters, especially Amanda, had taken a huge likin’ to Cassidy, and I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted her in our family now.

Jumping out of bed, I threw on a pair of jeans and the first shirt my hands touched before quietly making my way to Amanda’s room. After making sure my sister was completely out—since apparently she had been awake every morning when I woke Cassidy up for my hug and decided to fill Mama and my sisters in on that bit of information—I walked over to Cassidy’s bed and didn’t waste time. I brushed her hair away from her face and pressed my mouth to her neck and cheek before saying low in her ear, “Wake up, darlin’.”

Her eyes shot open and she looked at me, confused, for a moment. “Gage? Is it already time for you to go to work?”

“Not even close.”

“Oh.” She yawned and tried to lean over to look at Amanda. “Then what are you doing?”

“You wanna go for a ride with me?”

She paused. “Right now?”

“If you want to go back to sleep we don’t have to . . .” God, this was a bad idea.

“Who’s going?”

“Just us.”

Her eyes widened and a soft smile touched her lips. “ ’Kay, let’s go.” She crawled out of bed and looked at me, then down at herself. “Uh . . . what should I wear?”

I looked at her little body in those short sleep shorts and that form-fitting sleeveless shirt; my body started burning and my pants got tighter just looking at her. “That.”

Cassidy pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and even in the dark I could see her cheeks went red. “Guess I’m ready then.”

Grabbing her hand, I led her through the dark house, snatching a blanket out of the closet on the way out, and had Bear saddled up and both of us on him in no time. I could have gotten Star ready for her, but I wanted this excuse to have my arms around her, her back against my chest.

I led Bear to a creek that ran through my favorite part of the ranch and tied his reins around a tree branch on top of the hill before spreading out the blanket and lying down with Cass. We talked for two hours about the ranch, the stars, the quiet other than the light wind and cicadas, and the fireflies, which were her favorites. Cassidy began yawning a lot and I started to wonder if I should take her back, but I wasn’t ready to end this.

“I’m going to miss it here.” She sighed softly. “It’s so beautiful, all of it.”

“You can come back as often as you’d like.”

She smiled as she rolled on her side to look at me. “I’d wear out my welcome if I came here as much as I wanted to.”

“Not possible, my family loves you.” I love you.

“I’m going to miss them too; they’re so amazing. I’ve never really been close with any other girls, even Jackie. I mean, she’s a good friend and all, but it’s just not how I feel with your mom and sisters. I wish I could’ve had family like that growing up.”

God, there were so many things I wanted to say, but every single one of them was too much. I’d just scare her away. She yawned again and I sat up. “You’re tired, I should get you back.”

She grabbed my arm and pulled me back down, scooting up to lay her head on my chest. “Not yet. Going back means I have to leave you, and I don’t want to.”

My heart skipped a beat, then took off. “Cassidy.” I placed my fingers under her chin and tilted her head back; her honey eyes were bright in the moonlight. I slid out from under her head and hovered over her, my lips within an inch of hers. “Please don’t leave.”

Brushing my mouth across hers, her breath caught and eyes darkened before she wrapped her hands around my neck and crushed her mouth to mine. Our lips moved against each other, and a soft whimper escaped her throat when I caught her bottom lip between my teeth. Exactly the way I’d wanted to from the first night of meeting her. I pressed my body against hers and couldn’t stop my groan when her tongue met mine and she ran her hands through my hair. Lowering my body to hers, I wanted to die when she hitched her knees onto my hips; placing both forearms on either side of her head to hold my weight, I ground my h*ps into hers and was rewarded with a sweet-as-sin moan. God, I wanted her, to feel her and hear her sigh my name, but I knew I needed to restrain myself from anything like that for now, which meant I needed to stop kissing her. I just didn’t want to. I wanted to rip her shorts and shirt off and spend the rest of the night worshipping her body, I wanted to make her moan like that again and again . . . damn it, I really needed to stop. I forced our kisses to slow until our lips were barely brushing each other and tried not to think about slamming into her.

When I finally calmed down, I opened my eyes and saw her looking at me under heavy eyelids. “You’re so beautiful, Cassidy,” I whispered against her cheek before kissing it.

Her cheeks were still stained pink from our kiss and her lips tilted up in a soft smile I was beginning to realize she only ever gave me. My smile.

We stared at each other while her eyes slowly closed a little more and I knew I had two options: take her back to the main house and say good night, or keep her with me. “Come here.” I pulled her into my arms and rolled onto my back so she was lying across my chest. Kissing the top of her head, I relaxed under her. “Get some sleep, darlin’.”

She nodded against my chest and pressed her lips there twice before curling against me. “Good night, Gage.”

Good night indeed.

CASSIDY

I WOKE UP with my back curled into Gage’s chest, my head resting on one of his arms, his other wrapped securely around my waist. Last night wasn’t a dream. Oh my God, Gage kissed me, and I slept in his arms. I took a deep breath in and out and couldn’t help the huge smile that broke across my face. Tyler had been wrong about everything; Gage did want me. His arm tightened around my waist before he intertwined my fingers with his and brought my hand back to his lips.

“Morning.” His rich voice was even deeper from sleep.

“Good morning.” I rolled over and blushed as I placed my lips to his neck. I wasn’t sure how things were supposed to be this morning, but I couldn’t stop myself. I held my breath for a few seconds until his wide smile and dimples came into view right before his lips pressed softly to mine. My whole body started tingling the instant his mouth was on me. Dear Lord, if I had known kissing Gage would feel like this, I would have tried to make it happen long ago.

He pulled away, but placed two more quick kisses on my lips before sitting up and pulling me with him. “Come on, I need to get back to the house.” He must have seen the hurt in my eyes, because his went wide and he cupped my face. “I wouldn’t go back unless I had to. My dad’s probably already pissed that I wasn’t there this morning. I’m not going to work today though; we’ll get ready and I’ll take you to another spot on the ranch that I want you to see. Just us. But I need to tell him I won’t be around today.” His eyes were bright and though he tried to contain his smile, his dimples gave him away.

I got up and helped him fold up the blanket. “I thought I’d seen the whole ranch.”

“Not even close, you’ve only seen about half. Where I want to take you, though, it isn’t too far from the house, but it’s really secluded.”

My stomach heated and I was suddenly extremely anxious to get to wherever he was talking about. Leaning into his side when he wrapped an arm around me, I smiled and let him lead me back to his horse. The ride back to the house was quiet, like last night, but it was nowhere near the same. He played with my hands, teased my neck with his lips, and made sure Bear took his sweet time going back. I was nervous when we came across Gage’s dad, but he took one look at us, smiled wide, and told us to enjoy our day together.

“I need to take care of Bear. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

“Okay, I’m going to take a shower, but I’ll try to hurry.” I turned but he grabbed my hand and swung me back into his chest, kissing me deeply.

“See you soon.”

My head felt light and my stomach fluttered as I quickly made my way up to Amanda’s room to grab a change of clothes and rush through my shower. I couldn’t wait to get back to him. For almost a year now he had consumed my every thought, and I believed I’d never be able to have him. It felt like it was too good to be true now that I did, or at least, I thought I did. I didn’t know if this would change when I went back to Austin today, or when he came back in August. I shook my head to clear those thoughts. Gage wouldn’t just drop me like that; even when I thought I was only his friend, he cared too much to treat me that way.

A startled yelp escaped from my chest when I bounced back into Amanda’s room; she was gone and Ty was sitting on my bed. “Tyler! You scared the crap out of me!” I got a closer look and rushed over to him. “What’s wrong, Ty?”

“Where were you this morning?”

I bit my lip and looked away. “I was with Gage.”

“Cassi,” he groaned, and flopped back onto the sofa bed, “why are you doing this? He’s only going to hurt you.”

“No, he won’t.”

“Do you not remember anything he’s said about you since we moved in?”

How could I forget? He didn’t want me living there, I needed to stop asking him to take me to work, I was like a sister to him, I was ruining his relationships with other girls by being in the apartment. “Maybe he changed his mind,” I said softly.

Tyler shook his head and hugged me to his side. “If he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”

“He won’t.”

“Whatever you say, Cassi. I know I’ve stopped you from being in relationships before, but I won’t anymore. If he’s who you want, then you should be with him. But you’re still my girl; you always will be.”

“I love you, Ty. If it eases your mind, no one will ever replace you.”

He smirked at me. “Duh.”

I laughed and smacked his chest. “I feel bad for my future husband. He’s going to have to share me with you.”

“How about we just marry each other, save everyone the heartache?” he teased, and squeezed me closer.

“You’re so dumb. All right, I gotta go do my hair really quick. He’s taking me around the ranch today. I’ll be back before we leave. Did your parents still want to leave tonight?” I dragged the last few words out.