Free Cade: Fire And Ice: A Second Chance Hockey Romance by Jessica Lake, Alana Hart Page B

Cade was going to leave North Falls. And I was going to stay.

Chapter 10: Cade
     
    My parents started watching me like hawks after the incident with the credit card bill. It took a few days to find the opportunity to get away but I took it one night after practice, slipping out early and driving to Ellie's trailer as the sun set over the ugly, treeless landscape. There was a light on inside and I knew she was probably going to be angry at me for showing up, but I was starting to go crazy with missing her. I was also almost constantly torturing myself with the possible reasons as to why she hadn't come back to school yet or made any attempt to contact me.
    I knocked on the flimsy front door lightly and it opened a few seconds later. One of her brothers - David, I think - was standing there. He looked up at me for a few seconds and then disappeared silently into the living room. Three little boys in that household and there was never a sound.
    Then Ellie appeared and I felt a huge smile spreading across my face. She opened the door and stepped outside, closing it behind her before saying anything.
    "Cade! Why are you-"
    She stopped talking when I wrapped my arms around her small, warm body. I felt her melt against me when she gave up trying to resist. We stood there for a long time, holding each other close.
    "Ellie," I said, finally, "why aren't you at school? Are you OK? I've been going nuts worrying about you."
    She lay her pale cheek against my chest, being careful not to bump her broken nose, and sighed.
    "I didn't feel like going to school, Cade."
    I was a little taken aback. That was it? She didn't feel like going to school?
    "Well...OK. Did you feel like seeing me?"
    She looked up at me through her long, dark eyelashes and a little jolt of electricity ran through my body.
    "I - Cade, yes, of course I wanted to see you. But I also didn't."
    "Why? Why wouldn't you want to see me? The only thing I've been thinking about all week is you, Ellie."
    She slumped against me. "You don't understand, Cade. I was embarrassed. I am embarrassed. I didn't want anyone at school to see me like this. Don't you know how much everyone hates me? Haven't you noticed? And they hate me even more now everyone knows I'm...with you."
    I caught the little moment of hesitation before she said 'with you.'
    "Yeah, Ellie, you're with me. You can say it, because it's true. And I don't give a fuck who knows it."
    It wasn't entirely true. I gave a fuck if my parents knew it, if only because I was still living with them for however much longer it would be until I got drafted.
    "It's easy for you to say that, Cade. Everyone worships you. You can do whatever you want-"
    I cut her off. "Ellie, come on. That isn't true."
    She looked up at me sharply. "What? Cade, are you joking?"
    "No, I'm not joking. If I could do whatever I wanted things would be a lot easier."
    Ellie slipped her cold hands up under my shirt suddenly, running them lightly over my torso. Already half-hard just from the feeling of her body against mine, I was instantly, completely erect.
    "I missed you, Cade."
    Her voice was so soft and sad, somehow. The pit of anger that had been in my stomach almost since I met her, the uncontrollable urge to protect her from everything in her life that could cause her pain and my rage at the knowledge that I wasn't going to be able to do that, rose up inside me. I wanted to kill Katy Grebling. I wanted to pick Ellie's useless parents up by their necks and force them to tell me why they'd failed their own child so thoroughly. I wanted to take away all of her cares and responsibilities and see who she was without them suffocating her. But I couldn't do any of those things. All of that aggression had to go somewhere. When I slid my hand down her hip and clamped it tightly onto her ass she gasped, but she didn't pull away.
    What Ellie did was understand me. She knew where my frustration was coming from - she felt it, too. She took my rough, hard kisses,