Sophia...

Knocking on the apartment door with a gentle tap, I nervously rub my outer thighs, just trying to keep my shaky hands occupied whilst eagerly waiting for it to open. I have been soooooo churned up inside since leaving Cade this morning. Mum told me I could have the day off, but I decided to go and relieve her after I had left him, because the thrilling thought of us kissing, was literally driving me to horny distraction. I just needed to be kept busy, otherwise the day would have insufferably dragged on and on. Dragging to this single spine-tingly moment—seeing Cade again.

When the door eventually opens, the softest of spheres, virid in colour, are there to welcome me. "Sophia." I like the way Cade uses my name. It's like it somehow thrills him to use it. "Your picnic awaits." He says with a wide smile, gesturing for me to enter.

Stepping over the threshold of the door, I slowly move into the candlelit room with a curious smile. In the living area, there on the floor, is a gorgeously laid out picnic. "This is so lovely, Cade." My smile becomes more upturned as I give him a grateful sidelong glance.

"Well I did promise you a picnic, didn't I?" He's playing down how much thought he's actually put into our evening together. Playing down just how romantic it really is. "Do you want a wine?"

Slipping my coat from off my shoulders, I smile back at him. "Yes please." Placing it on the back of his sofa, I look at the waiting picnic before following him to the fridge in the kitchenette. With silent admiration, I watch him pour my drink with sophisticated ease. There's so much I want to say, but for now, I'm happy to just watch him for a little while. He not only looks good in jeans and a dark blue shirt, he smells good. With an impressed smile, I watch him some more. Everything about Cade is so very attractive—his rippled dark hair, his just as dark eyelashes, his masculine hands, his naturally pouting lips, his strong athletic build and his intense green eyes—they now all thoroughly excite me.

As he passes me my chilled wine, Cade gorgeously grins. "Have you had a good day?"

At the end of a quick sip of my drink, I happily nod. "Yes thanks...you?" The polite chitchat is necessary I know, but I'm literally aching for Cade to just hurry up and kiss me. The air that we breathe, is now so very dense with impatient sexual tension. The same air is charged with the most hair-raising of sensual static.

Bringing his wine glass to his lips, he too nods. "It's been a productive day." He says before swallowing down a little of his drink, all the while intensely eyeing me. "Before we eat, I think there's something that we need to get out of the way first." Gently lifting my glass from out of my hand, he carefully places his and mine down onto the kitchen counter. Once both of his hands are free, he slowly pulls on my Bardot top, desperate to eliminate the achingly dense space between us. "You look beautiful tonight, Sophia." With another quick little pull, I'm soon stumbling against him. "Beautifully mine." With nothing left to say, his mouth is desperately kissing my eager lips. He's kissing me so passionately, I feel as though the world might just disintegrate beneath my feet. This kiss.
It's like it's our first, our last, and all the breathtaking ones in between; all being passionately poured into this one long and meaningful kiss. Our feverishly locked lips, means something.
A something that cements our bond to one another. So very quickly, our brief relationship has already evolved into something deeper—unfathomably deeper.

As our numb lips separate, I dizzily look up at Cade with seductive, shuttering eyes. "I have wanted you to do that to me from the moment you first opened your door."

With a confident chuckle, he chastely kisses my mouth again. "I know." Eagerly bringing his arms right around me, he reveals more of his smug smile. "I wanted the exact same thing." With a tender squeeze, he then says. "Now, we can eat!" Threading his fingers with mine, he confidently leads the way towards the wonderful awaiting picnic.

Sitting closely side by side, on big and squishy cushions, we hungrily start to tuck in. Passionate snogging, certainly does build up an hearty appetite. "Did your mum say anything else to you today?" I am eager to know whether anything more was said after I had gone.

Buttering a cracker, Cade shakes his head. "No." His answer is short, purposely clipped.

Leaning in nearer to him, I inquisitively ask. "How come you live here and not at Lapley Estate?"

With a small mouthful of food, Cade quickly swallows it down, wiping the corners of his lips with his fingertips. "I choose to live here because I choose to not be anywhere that my mother is."

Blinking back at him with a mixture of growing curiosity and inexplicable interest, I know I am starting a conversation that Cade is reluctant to be any part of. "Do you and your mum really not get on?" I'm smiling, but my question is wholeheartedly serious. I come from a family that is so loving and supportive, and we express that love and support at all times. So I find it so sad when someone I know doesn't have that.

Cade gently laughs, grabbing me by my shoulder in order to suddenly kiss me. He's still smirking as he languidly ends the distracting kiss. "I haven't invited you here to talk about my mother...let's talk about you instead."

Not only is he trying to totally dodge my question, he's dodging it with appealing charm. As intrigued as I actually am about his relationship with his mother, I am unfortunately not yet immune to his beguiling charm, so I find myself going all girlishly coy. "What do you want to know about me?" I modestly ask, slightly blushing now.

Playing with my long ponytail, Cade's voice is sexily low. "Everything."

More blushing ensues, followed by an even shyer smile. "There's not that much to know. You pretty much already know all that there is to know about me." Lowering my lashes, I keep my flirting eyes still very much on him. "My life is Heaven Scent, my family and my friends." I wish I could tell him more, but my life really is that simple. Simple, but happy.

Cade listens, listens with a soft smile as he pulls a few grapes off their stalks. "Did you always want to work in the shop, or was it just expected of you?"

Shaking my head hard, I'm keen to explain. "Mum never forced me to work at the shop. She always encouraged me to try other things, but I enjoyed being in the shop more." Cutting off a thin slice of Brie to put on some crusty bread, I am more than willing to tell Cade more. "For me, it's not just about selling flowers...it's about the reason why our flowers are bought." Sitting taller, I passionately carry on. "Flowers are given at the happiest and the saddest of times in people's lives. They are given to say sorry and they are given to say thank you. They can be bought to say hello or they are bought to say goodbye. A bouquet or a wreath, can mean many things to many different people. That's why I love what I do. It's not just about putting together a beautiful bunch of flowers. It's about putting together what someone is trying to say, by using those beautiful flowers." Content with my explanation, I take a bite into my Brie-covered bread. As the creamy cheese dances on my tastebuds, it's only then that I realise just how much Cade is staring at me with a charmed smile upon his lips. "What? Do I have Brie on my face?" I ask with a frown as I start feeling for an embarrassing blob of cheese all over my cheeks and chin.

Cade starts laughing, still wearing an enamoured expression. "Your face is perfect...just as you are." His one hand then lifts, reaching out to touch my bare shoulder. "You really are something else, Sophia." The tips of his fingers, faintly brush across my skin as more of his tender words come. "I've never met anyone like you before. You see the light and beauty in an often dark and ugly world. I really think you're going to make my complicated life so honestly simple. And for that, I will thank you now."

Holding my cheek against the back of his hand, I enjoy the warmth it brings. "You don't need to thank me, Cade."

With a lingering and consuming stare, like he's trying to talk to me by only using his intense eyes, Cade eventually answers me. "Believe me, I do."

There's a dusting of sadness to his reply, a sadness that I just can't ignore. "Why do you sound so sad when you say that?"

Heavily sighing, Cade removes his hand from my shoulder to sit straighter. "I'm just glad that you're here." He seems to struggle to go deeper with this conversation, like there's a sudden change of gear in his mind.

"Can I ask you something?" Bothered a little by his reluctance to talk on a deeper level with me, I begin to wonder what my being here, now actually means for us.

Putting an olive into his mouth, Cade is quick with his answer. "As long as my mother isn't involved in the question, fire away."

My words then come flying out of my mouth. "Now that I am here, and I'm here because I really want to be...what does this mean for us?" I guess I just need to know what me and Cade now are. Are we just going to hook up from time to time, when our mutual attraction is in the mood for it? Or are we something a little more permanent?

Cade momentarily says nothing. He needs just a second to collect his thoughts before answering my pretty heavy going question. With my heart in my mouth and insecurity turning my blood cold, he soon calms them both with one of his gorgeously crooked grins before pulling me right against him. "I told you before, you're now beautifully mine." Then his lips crudely convince me of this. They kiss away any dubious thoughts that had suddenly started to breed in my stupid mind. As his mouth tenderly breaks away from mine, Cade continues to stroke both sides of my face. "I want you, Sophia. I really want there to be an us. But you need to know that this is a first for me. I've never got involved with anyone before. So I need you to be patient with me, okay?" When I nod, he blinks with an affectionate little smile. "I know I'm not a man who easily opens up, but when I am ready, I will. Just don't expect it all at once, that's all I am asking. If you're wanting to be with me, you just need to know that. I can't be anything else but honest here, Sophia. If you still want me, I'm all yours."

Laying himself so truthfully bare, I realise I want him more than anything else in this world. Oh, I've heard some of the rumours about Cade, that alone should make him something so very forbidden, but nothing is sweeter than that, that is so gorgeously forbidden. Crashing my lips against his, I show him my reply. My lips show him that my answer is an absolute yes! Straddling him on the floor, I allow myself to get carried away in the sexual tension that has surrounded us since I arrived. I allow it to bury my fingers in his thick dark hair and push my hankering breasts against his expanding chest. Our breaths become hot and heavy as we start getting lost in the aroused abyss of us. This is just how we wonderfully are. We just can't keep our hands and mouths off each other whenever we are together. Cade thinks I make his complicated life simple, while he makes my insecure life secure. We both seem to get from each other, something that we both need. "Take me to bed." I murmur, languidly licking the seam of his soft and sexy lips as my lewd eyes also beg for him to.

"Another time maybe?" Comes his husky and breathless whisper back.

"Huh?" I draw back, completely stunned by what he's just said.

Cade leans in closer, nipping my lower lip with a wicked glint in his eye. "Not tonight. I've never actually dated a woman before, so I'm trying my hand at it...starting from now."

Squinting with uncertainty as I become still in his heated lap, I cautiously smile. "Are you being serious?"

"Deadly." Comes Cade's proud reply.

Still unsure whether he is joking or not, I decide to pepper his neck with lots of seductive little kisses. I will kiss him into sexy submission, if it's the last thing I do. "Are you sure I can't persuade you to not just date me?"

Laughing and enjoying my playful kisses, Cade is determined. "Nope!"

Upping the ante, I push myself deeper against his growing arousal. "Don't go all good boy on me now." I start undoing his shirt, eager to at least get him partially naked.

Cade groans, trying hard to resist me and preventing my fingers from going anywhere near the rest of his buttons. "And don't you go all bad girl on me now." His pinched eyes slowly decide to open, offering the greenest of affection as he softly gazes back at me . "Let me do right by you, Sophia. Let me get to know you and you to know me." Not wanting me to think that he doesn't want me, he quickly cradles my face with his warm hands and lightly places a kiss on my now sullen lips. "I think my dick might angrily pack his suitcase, swiftly followed by my bemused balls for saying this, but let's just wait a while...okay?"

I can't help but laugh. What he's just said is not only admirably sweet, it's funny as hell. Wrapping my agreeable arms around the back of his neck, I smirk. "Okay." Then I promptly remove myself from off his lap and his erection, making sure that I still sit closely beside him. "Does your angry dick and your bemused balls want some focaccia?" I innocently ask.

Cade's mouth twitches, before erupting into throaty laughter. "Just come here." Holding one of his arms out, he insists for me to cuddle up against him. As soon as I snuggle in close, his enveloping arm holds me tightly and his laughter soon dies off. "What's your favourite colour?" He suddenly asks, causing me to giggle.

"So now we're doing totally random questions, are we?" I titter, still cuddled tight against him.

Kissing the top of my head, he answers with a smile in his voice. "Random but absolutely necessary."

Thinking for a second, I mumble. "Um, I'm not really sure. It depends on my mood."

"What's your mood now?"

"Yellow, for feeling happy." Cade holds me tighter as soon as he hears me say that. "What about you? What colour are you feeling right now?" My head rests against his chest as I happily wait for him to tell me.

Now Cade is the one to just think for a second. "Umm, I think I am definitely feeling blue...possibly even a dark shade of purple?"

Sitting up to face him, a smirk starts spreading across my mouth. "Blue or purple?" I ask, now beginning to frown.

Cade wickedly smirks back, mischief wildly dancing across his green spheres. "It's my bemused balls, they're suffering terribly."

With a stubbornly jutting chin, I don't feel sorry for him one little bit. "Your fault, not mine."

Teasingly rubbing his lips across mine, Cade's smirk only grows even more wicked. "I think you'll find it's most definitely your fault. I don't seem to be myself when I'm around you." His arms earnestly hug me some more. "It's a good I'm-not-myself when I'm around you, though."

In a lighthearted manner, this is Cade's way of opening up. Wanting to swiftly reward him for it, I hug him ever so tightly. "And you make me feel good, too. You have a confidence that seems to be so contagious. In actual fact, I think we're going to be really good for one another." Using some of that contagious confidence, I just needed to tell him how he truly makes me feel. I always kept so much inside of me when I was with Paul. It only came out on account of my pure frustration with myself for suppressing so much shit inside of me, which I think, ultimately led to the demise of our relationship. I don't want to do that with Cade. So I completely understand his need to do things differently with me, because I also want to do things differently with him. For me, I want to be able to tell him how I feel, as and when I feel it.

Stroking my tied back hair, Cade smiles down at me. "I think you're right. I already know that we're really good for one another. For reasons that I will one day tell you all about, I never thought I'd ever feel anything for anyone. But you, Sophia, you have challenged that theory. Which is why I'm going to do right by you. I'm going to treat you right, and enjoy doing it. I've never cared whether I hurt someone, but I care about hurting you. You beautifully fill my life with new and wonderful things, and I want to do the same in return. Everything that I am, I no longer want to be. I know that if I am to keep you in my life, I can't be the Cade Lapley that everyone knows. Old habits can die hard, but I promise you that I will be faithful, honest and respectful to you." His palm caresses my face with the last of his heartfelt words, a nervous smile hovering around the corners of his tight mouth.

I thank him the only way I know how—with an heartfelt kiss briefly placed upon his mouth. "I appreciate your promises, Cade." Then I snuggle back down against the warmth of his chest, picking off a grape between my fingers and putting it into my mouth. "I think you've been led to believe that you're a cold man, but I know that you're not." I quietly say between slowly eating the juicy grape. "When you're ready to talk about why you think that, I am here." The grape is finally swallowed. "I just want you to know that."

Resting his nose and chin on the top of my head, Cade deeply breathes me in. "I can't think of a better person that I will one day want to tell." Embracing me hard, he exhales slowly. "Tell me all about your parents. It might help me to win them over when I eventually meet them."

"You won't need to win them over." I quickly assure him.

"I will. As soon as they know who I am, they'll be disappointed. If you were my daughter, I'd be disappointed if you came home with someone like me." He tries to laugh away his subtle put down of himself, but I don't like it.

"Will you please stop putting yourself down, Cade?"

His smile doesn't leave his handsome face. "I'm not putting myself down, I'm merely stating a fact."

Pulling myself up, I refuse to accept what he says. "My parents will see in you, just what I do." My smile at him is one that is trying to convince him that my mum and dad will be accepting of him.

Grinning, Cade curiously asks. "Oh yeah, what's that, then?"

Kneeling now, closely beside him, I playfully confess. "I see an intelligent, hard-working, witty and devastatingly sexy man."

Cade laughs. "Mmm, I think if your parents thought the last one, that would be wrong on so many levels."

I'm smiling but my tone quickly turns a little more serious. "My parents will be absolutely fine about us." I'm telling him that, because I believe it to be true. Yeah, they maybe momentarily a little bit shocked when I tell them about Cade and I, but ultimately, they will just want me to be happy.

Sceptically pouting, Cade cocks his head slightly. "We'll see."

Kneeling higher with a grin, I then cheerfully tell him. "We will see. They know that my taste in men is particularly good." There's a flirting lilt to my voice and a playful glint in my eye.

Cade laughs deeply now. "Says the woman whose last boyfriend dumped her for truly pathetic reasons."

Okay, Cade has just made a very valid point there, but that doesn't hinder any of my playfulness. "I can assure you that since then, my choice in men has vastly improved." Suggestively joking, I lean forward on my knees to lightly plant a kiss on his wonderfully waiting lips.

Using the lips that I have just so gloriously kissed, Cade cockily purses them together. "Yes, it has." Then his cockiness soon fades, replaced with hardening concern. "Have you spoken to your ex since you broke up?"

I don't know why I do, but I feel a tad uncomfortable talking about Paul with Cade. Paul hurt me and Cade hasn't. Mixing the two together just doesn't work for me, so I turn to grab my wine from off the coffee table before answering. "He's tried calling and texting a few times, but I've always ignored him." I casually say before having a swift little sip.

"Why?" Cade's tone is deep, deep and with an almost accusatory resonance.

The mood has gone from playful and flirting to strained and unrelaxed in the blink of an eye. Sensing the shift, I try not to react to it. "No major reason. Paul said everything he needed to on the day that he finished with me. Anything else since then, is no longer relevant."

Cade says nothing at first, thinking through what I've just told him. "And it's definitely over with you two?" He eventually asks me, but I think he's also kind of asking himself aloud, whether or not I still have any feelings left for Paul.

Placing my wine back down on the table, I'm quick to straddle Cade. "If I still felt anything at all for Paul, I wouldn't be here." I reach down for his hands that stubbornly remain palm down on the picnic rug. Lacing my fingers with his, I brings our entwined hands affectionately between us. "Paul wasn't right for me, Cade. I only realised that after we had broken up. I'm not ignoring his calls and texts because of some deep-seated hurt that's still inside of me that prevents me from being able to reply to him. I'm ignoring his texts and calls because Paul no longer matters. I don't care about anything he has left to say to me. I am moving on in my life and I'd like to move on with you very much in it." Tilting my head, I smile back at him. For a man so outwardly confident, inwardly he has insecurities just like the rest of us. But I don't want him to have those insecurities, certainly not on account of me and Paul. I think he already has enough to contend with, ones that I know have been deeply planted by his own mother. Without having much to go on, I just know that Cade's mum is at the stem of who he is as a person. Which is why I can't let him allow me to become just another one of his inner insecurities. "Do you believe me?" I quietly ask, squeezing my fingers against his.

Bringing his mouth a mere whisper away from mine, Cade just as quietly replies. "I believe you." Then he honours me with one of his deliciously soft kisses, adoringly slow, devoted and accepting.

And just like that, my heart was floating.

It floated for the rest of the evening.

It floated on my way back home.

It floated when I eventually fell into bed.

**THIS SWEET CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO MY DEAREST GIRLY, ktavaglione .....WHO IS JUST AS SWEET (AND PRETTY DARN FUNNY, TOO!) XXXXXXXX