Sophia....

As tense and as nervous as I am, I honestly can't wait to see Cade. I just want him to tell me what happened when he went to see his mother. I want him to feel able to tell me about going to see his therapist. Because, although he kept telling me that he was okay—I could tell that he wasn't. When he came into the shop, kissing me until I couldn't think straight, I saw vulnerability swimming within his troubled green eyes. It was there, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. But now that I am here, I want to rid that vulnerability from his eyes. Erase it from his soul. Knocking gently on his door, my heart softly, but rapidly, beats within my anxiously tight chest as I wait for him to open it. When he does, I look up at him, suddenly awash with such emotional relief at the mere sight of him. Literally throwing myself at Cade, I start nervously rambling. "I've been so worried about you." I whine, holding onto him for dear life. "Since you came to the shop, I've not been able to stop thinking about you." My clinging onto him, only gets clingier. "I know something bad has happened between you and your mother, but I need you to tell me everything. I mean, everything. I know that she hates me. I know that she doesn't want you to be with me, but I don't want you to keep anything she said to you, away from me...okay?"

Now smiling, Cade lovingly squeezes me tightly against his strong chest. "I will tell you everything. But first, you might want to try and take a breath?" The warm rumble of him chortling to himself, is such a welcomed sound against my ear. Drawing back slightly to endearingly look at my face, he's still smiling down at me. "I'm sorry that I've made you so worried, I just really needed to work through some things today. But now that you're here, I'm ready to tell you all that's happened." Using only the soft pad of his adoring thumb, he thoughtfully strokes my cheek. "Come and sit down with me?" Taking hold of my hand, I feel his fingers clasp around mine as he leads me towards his comfortable sofa. He seems to have put some thought into my arrival this evening—candles are lit, Rag'n'Bone Man is quietly playing in the background and I can smell something nice cooking in the oven—this is Cade trying to relax me. Sitting ever so close, I eagerly wait for him to begin, caressing my fingers with his while I do wait. Cade seems to be looking at the way our hands are so effortlessly entwined—effortlessly entwined, just like our hearts. "Before I start, I just want you to know how happy you have made me, Sophia. Without you, I don't think I would have got through today."

As sweet, and as sad as his softly spoken words are, they also scare me a little. "What's happened, Cade?" I ask with a pleading edge to my voice. "Just tell me what has happened?"

With the sad sweetness slipping away from his handsomely shadowed features, Cade quietly begins. "This morning, my mother told me that she was raped. I was the product of that rape."

Gripping tighter onto his hand, I shuffle closer against Cade. "Oh god! I'm so sorry." A shaken apology slips out of my lips. "I'm so sorry." I apologise again, just because it feels right to do so.

Cade sighs deeply, appearing to be more okay than I thought he might be. "After seeing my therapist, I am feeling much more together about it now. I have been seeing Grant for quite some time now, because I needed help. I may come across as this wealthy and arrogant barrister, but inside, I've been a functional mess. Day by day, I've been slowly becoming my mother. The drink and the women, they were to just help me forget that I was slowly becoming her. I've been fighting against that, for most of my pitiful life. Then I met you." He pauses, pausing to smile just a little. "You have changed everything for me, Sophia. God knows how, but you've made me fall in love with you. And although I don't deserve it, you have fallen in love with me." I try to interrupt him, but he doesn't let me. "Just let me say my piece, it's important that you hear it." He smiles again, stroking his thumb across the fleshy Venus of mine. "I am one half of a rapist, the other half of someone who has become emotionally dead inside. I know that I am a man with a shit load of baggage, I know that. I used to think that I was unsaveable. I used to think that my life would be just as empty as my mother's. I thought all of that, until you came into it. You make me want to be someone else, Sophia. You make me want to live my life in a better way. The thing is, I know I am complicated. I know I still have some things to work through in my head. When I told you that I didn't want to be a broken man for you, I meant that. It's going to take time, but with you in my life, I know that I can do it. All that I ask, is that you give me time? Give me enough time to become unbroken?" His glazed green eyes are locked onto my grey ones, framed with such desperate sincerity. "This is who I am, Sophia. Every single flawed part of me, I have shown to you. My ugly past and my hopeful future, I have given it all to you. I know that I may not be enough right now, but one day, I will be. All I need to know, is whether you can wait until I will be good enough for you?"

Clasping both of my hands right around his, I desperately implore for him to listen to the words that I urgently need to say. "It breaks my heart that you actually think that you're not enough for me, Cade. You're enough now. You'll be enough tomorrow. You will always be enough. I don't care about your past, because I know that you're promising us a future. Whatever happens now, I am here. I am here, loving you. Yes, you are complicated, but I love you just as you are." I am grinning now; stupidly and proudly grinning with soppy tears in my eyes.

Cade is once again, staring down at our lovingly locked hands. With a relaxed one-sided smile, he brings the back of my hand up to his appealingly soft lips; kissing my fingers in the most worshipping of ways. "I know I'm not the easiest person to be with, but you, Sophia, you are so easy to be with." His spheres are dark and intensely sincere as the shadows from the candlelight flicker against the side of his contoured cheek. "Move in with me?"

Softly jerking my head back, my voice is loaded with unexpected surprise. "Move in with you?" My mouth is slightly parted with a smile that seems to be just growing and growing.

Answering me with firstly a glorious little kiss, Cade whispers against my eagerly parted lips. "Move in with me?" Then he kisses me again, more firm and more needy; his question quickly becoming caught up between our thoroughly deep and erotic kiss. As it passionately comes to a tender end, Cade delicately rubs his tumescent lips across mine. "If today has taught me anything, it's to grab what makes you happy with both hands." Taking me in his convincing arms, he kisses me again with more urgent and necessary desperation.

Kissing him back with the very same fervour, I think I have already given him my ardent answer. This is who we have become.
Explosive.

Unpredictable.

Impulsive.

Formidable.

Cade's tongue feels for mine, wanting ours to become just as entangled as our bodies now are. Lying me back on the sofa, our kiss becomes more abandoned than ever. With our tongues still tantalising each other, our hands go beneath all of our clothing; wanting our fingers to feel their way around our excited anatomies. "I love you. I love your body." Cade deeply declares between our lewdly locked lips. His mouth then leaves mine totally breathless for him, as it trails itself down my arched neck and semi-exposed stomach. The trail that his mouth so deliciously takes, his teasing tongue takes the very same thrilling trail. Twisting and groaning, I just want to get my jumper completely off. Lifting my shoulders slightly, I manage to eagerly remove it over my head. Cade watches me relax back against the sofa, his dilated eyes roaming my entire upper body with a wolffish grin upon his desire-veiled face. "You're so beautiful." His featherlight fingers are now softly running across my décolletage and across the cups of my black lacy bra. I lie there, enjoying the sensation of his fingers upon my erotically charged skin. I lie there, taking in aroused little breaths as his fingertips feverishly seduce me. Those wonderfully deft fingers of his, then undo my jeans, which only increases the excitement tenfold. A soft gasp of my approval absconds through my unsealed lips, which causes Cade to quickly kiss them. "I love the sounds that you make when I am touching you." He pleasingly murmurs, pushing my jeans down slightly so that he's able to rid me of them completely after sumptuously kissing my voluptuous mouth. Knowing that he's way behind me in the getting naked game, he hurriedly pulls his jumper over his head, tossing it somewhere behind the sofa. Watching me so very intently, he then slowly strips down to his black Burberry boxer shorts. Lying where I am, my grey eyes hungrily absorb every exciting inch of him. This beautifully complicated man, is all mine. From the dark hair on his head, to his manly toes—he is mine.

Daringly removing my knickers, I flirtatiously swing them around one finger with a cheeky little smirk. "I'm ready." I playfully say, still smirking in his temptingly aroused direction. I love how Cade brings out this audacious side of me. It comes out, because I know how much he wants me. It's there, scandalously varnishing his dark green eyes.

Needing no more prompting, Cade is soon free of his underwear and hovering achingly close above my body. "And I am ready for you." Easing himself into me, he momentarily closes his eyes as he pushes just that little deeper inside. "Shit, you feel so amazing." A breath of bliss quickly leaves from out of his mouth, his pleasured eyes slowly beginning to open again. "You always feel so amazing." More of his devoted declarations come. "So amazingly wet." Deeper he pushes again, struggling to keep his eyes open as he does. My own eyes satisfyingly close, enjoying each and every one of his electrifying thrusts. With each dizzying drive into me, the more tremors of excitement silently ripple through my sexually responsive body. 

Grabbing onto Cade's back, I push against each one of his precisely deep plunges. In just moments, we are so sensually synchronised. His hard and attentive fullness, satisfyingly fills me. I am no longer aware of the music playing in the dimly lit background, all I am now aware of is the evocative echoes of us—moans of the sweetest pleasure and sibilant sighs of the sexiest kind—that's all that now provocatively fill our aroused ears. "I love you being inside of me." I breathlessly tell Cade. I love how it feels when he's embedded so deeply within me. I love the closeness and the carnal intimacy. I just love every single thing about this complex man. Needing him to look at me, my hands reach up for his face. His hooded-with-desire eyes, firmly lock onto mine, before trying to force a smile with his rapturously tight mouth. That sexily strained smile, that is mine.

Every jubilant jab, is also mine.

Sex with Cade is just so beautifully mind blowing, so soulfully sensuous. "I love you. I love all of you." How he makes me feels, almost floats from out of my elated mouth.

Bending down, Cade succulently kisses me. "And I love you." He croons, biting down on my lip with his tempting teeth before ramming into me with such flirtatious force. His eyes slowly begin to close, needing to savour each and every one of his deep and plunging pushes. He can no longer articulate how good it feels to be buried within me. Instead, his breaths become fast and short as he wildly pounds into me over and over again. Tightly wrapping my legs right around him, I meet each and every one of his frantic slams. Every deep and delicious slam takes me that little bit closer to where I so achingly want to be. I know this orgasm is going to momentarily blind me. In a wonderful way, I am going to be seeing tiny little stars dancing just beneath my fluttering eyelids. And I want that. I want the orgasm. I want the dancing stars. I want it all. My fingers desperately sink into the skin on Cade's broadly defined back, needing him to give me what I so brazenly want. With a rhythmic succession of punishing pushes, he penetrates me with wild abandonment; groaning deeply with that wild abandonment as he passionately begins to explode inside of me. His overwhelming orgasm, wonderfully triggers mine. Holding my exalted breath, strong and consuming contractions euphorically start to rip through me. Yes! I'm experiencing a toe curling orgasm, and yes, I'm seeing those dancing little stars. As the delectable contractions begin to reduce, I can't help but smile as I'm getting my breath back. "What's that smile for?" Cade's contented voice coaxes my starry eyes to lazily open wide. Still wearing my ridiculously sated smile, I say nothing; still enjoying the sweet aftershocks of my very enjoyable orgasm. With him still deeply inside of me, Cade can also feel those wonderful little aftershocks, as I enjoyably tense my muscles all around him. "Ah, I get it now." He laughs softly, teasingly pushing his groin into mine. "Does this mean that you'll definitely be moving in with me now?" His green eyes mischievously narrow, as he playfully keeps pushing himself into me.

Happy and thoroughly satisfied, I almost sigh out my answer. "Yes." I seductively tell him, tilting my cheek against my right shoulder with a flirty little smile.

Cade bring his lips down onto mine, a smile being felt through his adoring kiss. "Good." He says with warm gratitude as he slowly pulls himself out of me, wanting to cuddle up beside me on the large and luscious sofa. "I want you to come and have a look at a house with me?"

Shifting onto my side, I look at him with a surprised smile. "So I'm not moving into the shag pad?" I ask, totally smirking back at him.

Stroking his fingers up and down the naked length of my lower body, Cade softly answers with a shake of his head. "Definitely not into the shag pad." His humour seems to evaporate, allowing him to become far more serious. "I need to make a lot of changes. I'm leaving here. Leaving Lapley Law Firm. Leaving who I used to be." Holding me tighter, he exhales a long and accepting breath. "I need a new start."

Understanding his need for all of those changes, I hold him just as tight as he is holding me. "A new start is good." Absolutely agreeing with him, I cuddle him harder still, because I know deep in my heart that Cade needs this new start. "So, where is this house?" I excitedly ask, delighted to be a part of Cade's new start. 

"It's in Coates...not too far." Cade keenly answers, lulling me into a relaxed state the more his soothing fingertips caress my skin. "It's a detached Edwardian farmhouse. It has some acreage attached to the property, too."

"Sounds posh." I dreamily tease, feeling tireder by the second.

"I'm not looking for posh, I'm looking for our home." He quickly retorts, squeezing me tightly against him.

I know Coates, I've even driven through the perfect looking little village on occasion. And it's posh. Prettily posh. "I don't have loads, but I have some savings that I can put towards the house?" A house in Coates, is a house that I would never even contemplate renting, let alone thinking about buying. All of a sudden, I feel so very financially inadequate.

Quick to assure me, Cade is soon lying on top of me again. "I don't want you thinking about money, or rather, the lack of money. I'm not investing in a house, Sophia...I'm investing in us." He stares down at me, his expression so honest and warm. "If you don't like this house, I'll buy one that you do like." His face erupts into a boyish smile, hoping that his smile is one that will disperse my worries.

I know what Cade is doing. He is trying to stop anything from coming between us, even the Lapley money. So I share with him, all of my mounting worries. "I just don't want people thinking that I'm only with you for what you can give me."

Stroking my hair, he just smiles. "When you say people, you mean, my mother?" Sighing, I fearfully nod. That is when Cade tries to sweetly assure me once again. "My mother won't be in our lives, Sophia. I know that I have no future, all the time that she is in my life. I know that. After last night and today, I know that more than ever." Now caressing my jawline, he offers me yet another one of his contented and persuasive smiles. "Besides practising law, the only thing that I do really well at the moment, is loving you." Placing a brief but gentle kiss to my lips, he then lovingly adds. "You are the calm to my chaos. You make sense to my confusion. You give me direction when I'm lost. Everything that I do in my life, now includes you. I don't care where we live, just as long as we are together. From here on in, it's just you and me." His one hand then holds the one side of my face within his cherishing palm. "I can't change how I was brought into this world. I can't change how my mother has treated me whilst being in this world. But what I can change, is who will exist in my new world. That's you, Sophia. Only you. It will only ever be you for me. I love you. I will live and die loving you. So help me create this new world. Let me create it for both you and me." Pressing his lips onto mine, I become overpowered with my emotions. As his mouth kisses away my fears, his mouth summons my tears. Noticing them, Cade becomes so very concerned. "What have I said? Have I upset you? Am I asking too much of you too soon?"

Laughing through my stupid tears, I zealously throw my arms around his neck. "You've not done anything wrong. In fact, you are saying all the right things." Needing him closer, I pull him down to me. Nose to loving nose, I smile. "I think you are incredible, Cade Lapley. Against all odds, you're fighting back. Through the ashes of devastation, you're rising up. With all that you've had to endure through your life, you have never given up. I am so proud of you. I love you. I love you more than I ever thought possible. Which is why I'll gladly move in with you. Whether it's in Coates or Timbuktu...I'll be wherever you are." Once I've had an outlet for my emotional outburst, I cuddle him really hard. I hold onto him, because I'm just so full of admiration for my beautiful man. That admiration proudly exists, because I know how much Margaret Lapley's secret has quietly devastated Cade. He is being so admirably brave about it, even though I know that he has buried it somewhere in a very dark place within him. I think Cade himself, is so sick and tired of the dark places that have always blighted his life. He no longer wants his darkness to obscure the light in his life. And if I am that light, I'll proudly shine bright for him. I intend for the constant light of my love, to navigate him through the darkest caves of his past. "No matter what, I love you." Is the last of my emotional outburst. All at once, it is emotionally spent.

Cade places a lingering kiss to my lips. Then a delicate one to my forehead. Followed by the softest ones to my cheeks and my chin. "No matter what, I love you." He endearingly repeats my own words back to me with an understanding and grateful smile. "Shall we now eat? The smell of that lamb stew is making me hungrier by the second." Clambering over me, Cade is looking around for his clothes and kindly finding mine at the same time. "We only need to wear our jumpers for now. They'll only be coming off later." His grin becomes crookedly lewd as he cheekily waggles his dark brows at me.

God, I love my frisky fella! Pulling my jumper down over my head, I watch Cade confidently stroll towards the kitchenette with a lightness to his bare feet. He seems happier and less burdened. Thinking that I may have a little hand in him looking that way, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Kneeling up against the back of the sofa, I delightfully watch him getting our dinner ready. I truly do love this man. I love his damaged heart and his complicated life. I also love how his hair starts to naturally curl upwards without a comb or hand to tame it, and I love how he tends not to look so clean cut in the evenings.

All of him, I love.

His touch.

His smiles.

His insecurities.

His faults.

Every good and bad part of him, I will continue to love. Because more than anyone, Cade deserves to be loved.

**OH MY...HOW I LOVE THIS SENTIMENTAL AND HOT MAMMA SAUCE CHAPTER....YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT, MY GORGEOUS READERS, IS ALWAYS SO VERY APPRECIATED 💋
ANYONE ELSE FEELING FRISKY NOW? 😉
OR ARE YOU FEELING ALL WARM AND FUZZY INSIDE?**