Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 by Violet Duke

had a chance to check in with some of them afterward.” He exhaled heavily. “They said it was pretty hard to watch. Seeing parents on drugs with kids involved always is.”
    “I can imagine.” Actually, she didn’t have to imagine—not that she would ever tell him that. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to take seeing those enigmatic eyes of Caine’s ever gazing at her in pity.
    Noticing finally that her hand was still on his, she quickly dropped it and turned to pull out the nearest chair. “Are you hungry? I know Joe keeps some beer in his fridge in the back. I could grab you one and make you a sandwich or something.”
    Caine shook his head, bypassed the chair, and kept on walking.
    Toward her.
    She backed up a few steps until she bumped into a counter stool. “Caine?”
    “I don’t need a sandwich. And I don’t want a beer.” He slid a hand into her hair and dropped a kiss onto her forehead as he exhaled slowly. “The only thing I need or want right now is you.”
    Good thing for the stool behind her because Addison felt her legs give out a bit, around the same time Caine picked her up and deposited her on the tall seat.
    To bring her lips level with his.
    “You kissed me today,” he murmured against her lips.
    Words weren’t anywhere near the realm of possibilities right now, so she simply nodded mutely in response.
    His arms came to rest on the counter on either side of her, effectively creating a hot as hell Caine cocoon that her body was responding rather dramatically. Partly due to the fact that Caine before his shift, and Caine after his shift were like two different people.
    Caine before his shift was sweet, charming, and guy-next-door irresistible.
    Caine after his shift was unbridled, magnetic, and bad-boy-on-the-hunt unescapable.
    This Caine standing before her now also had an almost palpable aura of undiluted alpha energy rolling off of him in waves.
    Oh, sweet lord, his eyes alone were conjuring some wicked, dirty thoughts in her mind.
    “You kissed me twice,” he repeated. “So I was hoping it’d be okay with you if I kissed you back. Twice.”
    Being that he was after-shift Caine, he didn’t wait for an answer.
    He kissed her.
    And what a kiss it was. His lips moved from her ear, to her jawline, down to the racing pulse at her neck. And back up again.
    “That’s one,” he rasped against her skin.
    Jesus Christ, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to survive number two.
    It was a near thing.
    His arms clamped around her and drew her flush against him mere seconds before his lips came crashing down onto hers. He wasn’t kissing her, he was having burning hot sex with her mouth.
    And good God, for the first time in her life, she wanted, needed, craved more .
     

 
     
     
    CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    THE NEXT EVENING , Addison was still walking around with a fool grin on her mouth that just wouldn’t quit.
    “You got lucky last night,” gasped Shirley, not even a minute into the start of Addison’s shift.
    Her cheeks burst into flames. “No I didn’t,” she hissed back, peering over Shirley’s shoulder to make sure the kids were out of earshot.
    “Bull. I know a five star satisfaction rating when I see one. And honey, you look like you even went back for seconds. Is it Caine? Is he as intense in bed as he is out of it?”
    “I told you, I didn’t have sex last night.” Or ever. “And why would you assume it’s Caine?”
    “Please. You two can’t keep your eyes off each other when you’re in here. And even when you’re not together, seriously, I don’t think the two of you even realize other people of the opposite sex exist.”
    That was certainly the case for Addison; it was nice hearing from a bystander that it looked like Caine felt the same way. “We just…kissed.”
    Shirley whistled. “Must have been a hell of a kiss.”
    Lordy yes, it was. Even the mere memory of last night’s kiss was having more of an effect on her than every kiss she’d ever had before it,