“You’re upset,” Cade said, his hand warm and solid on her back.

“A little sad,” she offered with a tremulous smile. “Thanks for being here, all of you.”

Jack nodded and wrapped his hand around Sadie’s arm. “We’ll leave you alone.”

“Hey,” Sadie protested as he began to pull her toward the door, scrambling to keep up with his long strides. “You know, I can walk without help.”

“But can you stay out of trouble without help?” Jack asked drily, and towed her out through the door on her gasp of outrage.

“They should just do it already,” Olivia observed.

“Jack and Sadie?” Cade laughed. “That’s a match made in hell.”

“Stranger things,” she murmured, and laid her head on his chest with a sigh.

“Talk to me, fofa.” His arms came around her, his warmth seeping into her chilled skin. “Do I need to kick Kyle’s ass?”

“No.” She gave a half laugh that sounded more like a sob. “He apologized, like I said. Explained why he did…what he did.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not now. Later, maybe.”

He was rubbing her arms, trying to chafe some warmth back into her. “Do you want to go home?”

She shook her head. “No, but I don’t think I want to play tonight.”

“That’s fine,” he assured her.

“I’m tired,” she said, her voice thick with tears and confusion. She didn’t know why she felt so unbearably sad.

“Tell me what you need, amor,” he murmured against her temple.

“This.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes. “Just this.”

* * * *

Later, curled against him in the dark, she told him what Kyle had said. “Was it my fault?”

“No.” Cade’s arms tightened around her. “No, it wasn’t. Kyle is the one who made the choice to lie, to pretend. He put you both in a terrible position.”

“Maybe I expected too much from him.” She lay with her cheek on his chest, staring at the moon though the window. “He told me when we met, he’d never done CNC before.”

“But he told you he was interested, and willing,” he reminded her. “You had no reason to doubt him.”

“But I should’ve seen it.” She twisted to look up at him in the dark. “Shouldn’t I have noticed that something wasn’t right?”

“I don’t know,” he told her. “I wasn’t there.”

“I should have,” she said again, and turned back to the window. “But I wanted the consensual non-consent so badly, and I just…couldn’t see past that.”

“I’m sorry, fofa.”

“Me, too,” she said softly, staring at the moon. “Me, too.”

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen