The One and Only: A Single Mom Second Chance Romance (Heart of Hope) by Ajme Williams (read any book txt) 📕

on the lights, took my coat—was the perfect gentleman—all in silence. At last, he led me to the living room.

I sat down before my knees had a chance to give out. Cade couldn’t seem to be able to sit down—he paced the room, instead.

“I’ve already admitted to screwing up before, all those years ago,” he told me. “But you’re the one who’s screwing up now.”

Oh, really? “I’m not the one who left and never looked back. You could have called me any time over the past ten years. When you’re the one who does the breaking up, it’s not up to the heartbroken person to rekindle the connection. Cade, think about this for a second. If you’d been dumped, would you contact that person? If you had been told what you’d said to me, would you have any reason to believe that the other person would want you, or a child, in their lives?

“A child would have ruined your chances at a political career, and you had made it clear to me that that was all you cared about. I know now that you were just saying what your parents wanted but I didn’t know that then. You gave me no reason to think that you’d be anything but upset. And there is no law, anywhere, that says I have to track down the father of my child.”

Cade folded his arms. “Because Drew doesn’t need a father? He doesn’t need a positive male influence in his life, is that right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid and don’t put words in my mouth. I never said that. Of course, it would be better for him to have his father in his life. You think I didn’t wish that you were here when he was born? I missed you, I was in love with you, and I wanted you to be here for your child. But I didn’t think that it was a possibility, and I wasn’t going to set myself up for humiliation and I certainly wasn’t going to set my child up to be rejected. I would never take that chance that he would be hurt, abandoned, told that he meant nothing to his parent.”

Cade’s jaw dropped and he stopped pacing. “You…you think I would do that to my own child?”

“Yes.” I looked him dead in the eyes, “Because it’s what you did to me.”

Cade slumped down heavily on the couch, like his legs had given out from under him. He looked at me, his eyes moist. “I’m…”.

He cleared his throat and looked away. After a moment of silence, he looked back at me.

“I didn’t realize that…. I told you about my parents and what they wanted for me. Back then, I knew that they would never approve of us. I didn’t know how to stand up to them. So, I took the coward’s way out and I rejected you. And I’m so sorry for that, Laura.”

He took my hands gently in his. “I’m so sorry but I want you to know that I loved you back then, I really did, and I want to make it right with you now. I’ve spent all these years regretting what I did, regretting how much I’d hurt you. I had…I had no idea how much it still hurt you. I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

Cade raised my hands to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “I’ve learned from my mistakes. You don’t have to worry about me abandoning my son ever. And you don’t have to worry about me abandoning you, either. That’s never going to happen.”

He cupped my cheeks, a look of such tenderness on his face that it took my breath away, and he kissed me.

My chest felt like it was cracking open, like all the emotions I had tried so hard not to feel were pouring out of my heart, and I had no chance of stopping them.

I pushed myself up on my toes to kiss him back with everything in me, and Cade laughed as he stumbled back a little, his arms coming around me to steady my balance. He pushed me back down onto the couch, and for a moment we were just intertwined like that, kissing like we were teenagers all over again.

Cade slid his hands underneath my blouse, squeezing my breasts, and I gasped, arching into him. I bit on his lip teasingly in response, and he laughed. “There’s my playful little kitten.”

I meowed and Cade burst into laughter, sitting up to get his shirt off. I slid my hands up his chest, pinching his nipples, kissing the muscles on his torso. Cade groaned with a deep desire that validated the roaring passion inside me, blood pumping in my brain with desire for one thing, and one thing only. Fervently, he took off my clothes and hauled me onto his lap.

For the first time, I was truly hoping that we could be together. He had apologized and wanted to be with us, he had promised that he wouldn’t leave again. I felt buoyed, floating, happier than I’d been in ages.

I spread my legs apart and settled on his lap, rubbing him down, feeling his cock harden against the touch of my body. It felt so damn good, and I was tempted to keep going, to make him come just from making out and rubbing my clit against his throbbing cock.

But I couldn’t give up the feeling of his cock inside me. I teased him for a bit, letting the tip of his cock almost get inside but I’d pull away again and get back to grinding against him.

“Minxy little kitten,” Cade growled, biting at my throat with his lips. I gasped, feeling myself get wet at his tone of voice.

“You like it,” I replied, twisting my hips a little.

Cade wrapped his hands around my hips, fingers digging in, and he lifted me up—then lowered me down onto his cock.

I gasped, pleasure spreading through me, my body spreading itself to welcome