STORY EXCERPT

“Oh my God! Why are you here? Please tell me nothing happened,” she said in a rush.

“Can I come in?” he asked her.

“Yes. Yes,” she said, standing aside to let him in. “Sorry.”

Logan walked in and took a seat at the small table by the window. He looked as though he wanted to tell her something, so she remained quiet, only hoping it was nothing bad.

“I need to tell you something,” he began.

“Oh God! Please tell me your mom is going to be okay.”

“Yes, she’s fine,” he said with a look of worry. “That’s not it.”

“Is it your sister? Oh, I hope it isn’t your sister! Why didn’t you call me if—”

“Cadence!” he said to her finally before she went on any further. “I lied.”

Cadence stared at him quizzically. She sat down on the edge of the bed, continuing to stare at him. “Something did happen to your mother?”

“No. I lied about something happening to her. She wasn’t in an accident,” he sighed heavily. “She’s fine. I didn’t go home.”

Cadence shook her head, as if trying to clear it of the confusion she was feeling. “I don’t understand. Why would you lie about something like that?”

“I know,” he said agreeing with her. “It was horrible, and I’ve already made my peace with that. I’ve called my mother and my sister. They’re fine. I had to tell this one lie to you because I know what you would have tried to do if I hadn’t. I hope you can forgive me after you know why I lied.”

She hated to be lied to above anything else. Above her last boyfriend cheating on her, that wasn’t the betrayal she had felt. It wasn’t the fact that he was fucking some woman behind her back, it was the fact that he lied to her. That had been the betrayal. It wasn’t the fact that Grayson was not her father, it was that she had been lied to for so many years.

She sat silently, staring at him. “Say something,” he said to her.

“I’m waiting,” she said matter-of-factly. “You said that I would forgive you if I knew why. I’m waiting to hear why.”

Logan ran a hand down his face. “I needed to do some surveillance, Cadence.”

She pursed her lips, nodding her head. “Nope. Not buying that excuse. What else have you got?”

Logan grimaced and continued. “Well, I knew that if I told you the person I wanted to tail, you’d try to convince me not to, or try and come along. I couldn’t have that. I needed to tail Angel.”

“What? Angel?” She stood and started to pace around the room. “Angel is trying to help us. I asked him about Victor and he told me, Logan. If he was trying to hide something, why would he tell me anything?”

“Why are you willing to believe a man you only met four days ago?”

She stood with her arms crossed in front of her bosom. “Why are you so sure he’s lying to me?”

“Sit,” he said to her, but she defiantly stood glaring at him, until he motioned to the end of the bed where she had been sitting again. “I know you believe him. It’s hard to question a man that takes you to his family’s home,” he said to her.

She glanced at him. “So, it wasn’t only Angel you were following.”

“No. It was only Angel. But you chose to become his bestie, so yes, I knew where you were too. He lied, Cadence.”

She continued to sit and glare at him.

“I followed him to a cemetery,” he continued. “I questioned the caretaker there. Angel goes to that grave on the reg’. And sometimes he’s not alone. Sometimes there’s an older man with him.”

“So?” she said to him. “More than likely it’s one of his uncles, or maybe his brother Oscar.”

“His brother Oscar is a small, skinny man with a graying beard?” He stared at her intently.

Cadence shook her head. There had to be an explanation. She had come to like and trust Angel. He had taken her to meet his family. They had spent the morning at the farmers market. He’d tried to kiss her. But she had met Oscar. All of the men in Angel’s family had the same tall trait. And they were also far from skinny.

“The caretaker told me that the grave is empty, Cadence.”

Her head snapped up. “Empty? Like, no one is in it?”

“No one is in it. Yet, fifteen years ago when the grave was dug, a man with a scraggly beard threw a crucifix into the grave,” Logan said, looking intently at her. “The caretaker says that sometimes Angel goes to the gravesite alone, but at others, he’s with the older man. And still at others, the older man goes alone. The last time the caretaker had seen the older man was no more than a month ago.”

Cadence suddenly stood up. “What the fuck! But Angel said—”

Logan settled back into his chair, seeming satisfied with her reaction. “I know,” he interrupted. “But that’s not all, Cadence.”

“There’s more than Angel going to pay his respects to an empty grave, and possibly Victor going there alone?”

“There was a name on the grave. Miguel Antonio Obregon Macias. He was born in 1964 and died in 1987.”

“I was born in February of ’88,” she said breathlessly. “That man that isn’t in the grave might be my father. The years coincide, Logan.”

“I thought of that. I went to find out something from the death records. Nothing.” He emphasized with a wave of his hands. “No record of him dying. No record of his birth here in the Dominican Republic. It was like the man never existed, Cadence.”

“This is weird.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“If this Victor De la Rosa is my father”—she stared up at him, resting her head on her arm that lay on the pillow—“I just want to know. That’s all. I didn’t come all of this way to just give up when we’re so close.”

She was silent for a few seconds. He saw the tears starting to well in her eyes as she continued. “If he isn’t it’ll be nothing new. I’m basically alone now. I’ll just still be alone.”

He ran his fingers along her jawline, tracing the outline of her face, her lips, and her chin before his lips descended on hers, kissing her tenderly. She kissed him back, letting her mouth explore his, letting his tongue explore every tingling part of her own. Her hands captured his face, holding him to her lips as their mouths plundered and explored each other. He finally pulled away, staring at her intently before capturing her lips once again with his own. His tongue licked and explored, as his arms pulled her closer to his body.

She felt his erection throbbing and pressing with need into her belly with the heat of his passion. His hands roamed along her curves, caressing her hips as he continued to pull her closer to him. And as their lips continued to plunder one another in a frenzied need to pleasure and be pleasured, he began to pull her tank over her ample breasts, his hands cupping their fullness in his palms. His thumbs ran over her tight, hardened nipples.

He turned her over onto her back, dipping his head to take an engorged nipple into his mouth. He sucked hungrily on the tight nub, making her moan and writhe under him. She pulled at his shorts, but he quickly pulled them off as she wiggled out of hers, throwing them both onto the floor. Their bodies came together as if they were magnets, being pulled by an invisible thread of lust and passion that seemed to overwhelm them both.

Their hands fought to find purchase on their flesh. Their mouths kissed and licked and played within one another, tasting and teasing each other to a heightened sense of pleasure. They stroked each other’s bodies, caressing and massaging and exploring.

His gaze left hers, traveling along her body. She noticed his expression when he gazed at her tattoo. The dragon. She watched his eyes staring, mesmerized by it as she moved her body. The talon poised near her breasts as if it were to claw at her, or at him, as he bent his head and licked along the outline, kissing along her breast and the dragon’s talon.

She moaned aloud as he trailed his lips down her body, nipping at her flesh as his fingers played between her legs, finding the sensitive nub of her clit and moving his fingers expertly over the tip. He stroked her pussy with an expert touch, gently nudging her legs apart to give him more access.

“Oh shit,” she whispered as she felt his tongue trailing down her abdomen.

He moved down the bed until he was nestled between her legs, stroking and running his finger down her slit glistening with her arousal. She squealed at feeling his tongue trace the route of his finger. He held her large thighs apart with his hands as he licked her pussy, delving into the delicate folds before gently sucking on the aroused inner lips. She moaned and writhed with each stroke of his tongue, moving and thrusting her hips involuntarily to the pleasure he gave to her. Her hand held onto his head, keeping him in that one spot as she rode the waves of a delicious orgasm that had her body quivering and tingling from every nerve ending.

He came back to her, kissing her passionately. Their eyes locked on one another, as she felt his throbbing cock poised between her legs. He stared down at her, as he slowly pushed his length inside of her, the two of them gasping out loud.

He began to move inside of her. She matched his thrusts with her own, lifting her hips to meet his movements. His thrusts were slow and deliberate, gauging her reaction before going any further. He slipped his hands under her butt, speeding up his tempo as their lips came together explosively.

He was buried deep inside of her pussy, hitting that sweet spot that many men brag of hitting but few do. He did. He thrust so deep and so deliciously, sensually, erotically inside her, she thought she would never feel anything as amazing as the two of them again.