"Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny." - Steve Maraboli

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Silas's POV

I groggily wake up, feeling her soft skin in my arms and her warmth pressing into me. God, she's perfect. Everything about her is perfect and I just wish I had realized it sooner.

I look down to see her skin shine, afterglow radiating off of her. God, thinking about last night makes my chest burst; I savored the way she felt, her beautiful sounds, and even the marks she left on me, unintentionally marking me as hers.

And it was true. I was hers. Even if she doesn't know it or like it, I was. And I would wait a lifetime for her to allow her to be mine.

It took me several seconds to realize that she had awaken and noticed my staring, but I honestly didn't care. "You're pretty," I whisper, a smile already spreading to my face. Her face lights up and god, I would die for her smiles every fucking day. "I know," she replies, her grin never leaving her face.

"What do you want to do today, baby?" I pick a strand off her face and tuck it behind her ear, and unconsciously begin raking my hands through her silky smooth hair. Her eyes close as I begin to massage her scalp, and I love the way she closes her eyes and takes deep breaths as I do it.

"Mmm, we could-" Her voice stops as I grab a fistful of her hair, pulling slightly at her roots, and then letting go. I massage her scalp afterward, and I can tell by the way she leans her head onto my chest that she likes it. "We could-"

"Use your words, baby," I tease.

"You could just do that all day, and I'd be fine." I chuckle, still continuing to play with her hair. I spot a hickey on the side of her neck, no doubt my marking to her even though she could just cover it up with makeup.

She begins to make soft noises the harder I tighten a fist on her hair and release, and I'm not embarrassed to say I hardened at the sound. "Silas, you can't be this horny in the morning," she whispers seductively, even if she didn't mean to. The huskiness of her voice didn't help my situation at all, and it takes quite a bit of self-restraint to stop myself from stroking my cock, just to release some pressure.

As if reading my mind, Caden's hand works her way from my thigh to my dick, and just the tough of her soft fingers on my groin has me groaning. "Baby, if you do that again, I will come all over your hand."

"Teach me," she whispers. I look down to see her eyes filled with lust and desire. "I've never done it before."

I sigh as her hand continues to touch me. Her hands graze the tip of me, no doubt painting her fingers with my pre-come.

"You don't have to," I struggle to say. "Some girls don't like it." Even as the words come out of my mouth, my dick is throbbing in protest.

"I want to, Silas." She shifts out of my arms, her legs now straddling mine, and her gaze fully on my dick. "I really want to. Teach me, please."

"Okay," I whisper shakily, having given in just at the word please and the way she said it with such innocence, even when asking me to teach her how to take me.

"Okay, baby, use one hand to grab the base. Stroke it, up and down. And then when you're ready, you can use your mouth for the top. Don't go all the way, I don't want you to hurt yourself." My voice shakes as I instruct her. Just the thought of me in her mouth makes me want to release myself already.

She nods, taking in every word and begins to stroke me. Her palms are so soft and they feel so fucking good. I lay my head back down on my pillow, trying to control myself not to come so early. "You can tighten your grip."

She does, and fucking hell, it feels so good. I moan out loud when her other hand begins to play with my balls. "Fuck baby, you're going to make me come."

"Not yet," she demands with such authority that it makes me cock my head up. Her eyes gleam and I smile, having never seen her like this. And it's fucking sexy as hell.

Without warning, her hands grip so hard, words spew out of my mouth uncontrollably. "Fucking shit, baby. How the hell have you not done this before?" She laughs as she continues stroking me tightly.

Then, without warning, I feel the slickness of her tongue on my tip. "Fuck!" I groan. My hips thrust forward. She laughs again.

Her mouth descends again, my cock now engulfed with warmth and wetness. I try not to thrust too hard so I don't hurt her. She begins to suck me off, up and down while her hand strokes where her mouth can't fit.

"Fuckkkk, you're going to make me come in your mouth if you don't stop," I groan. I sink my hands into her hair, beginning to massage her hair to give her some pleasure. She chuckles again, and her voice reverberates from the tip of my cock to the bottom of my balls.

"Please, baby, I am going to come." I try to gently remove her from me, but she doesn't budge. She continues to take me in, ignoring every word out of my mouth.

Finally, my body releases, and fucking shit, it was the best fucking orgasm I've ever had. My hips thrust uncontrollably into her mouth, climaxing every bit of me into her. She stays there, taking in everything, and just the sight makes me want to come again.

When, at last, my body relaxes and the shaking has ceased, she lets go of me and wipes her mouth. "Was that good?" From just her tone, I would think she sounds insecure of her handiwork, but now looking at her face, I see her little smirk plastered onto her gorgeous face.

I grin evilly and yank her arm, her body falling onto mine. "There was no way you haven't done that before." She laughs, burying her face into my neck. "Believe what you want, but I will say, I like the way you beg under me."

Who the hell is this Caden, and will I see her more often?

I grab her chin and force her to look at me. "Kinky, kinky girl. What else are you hiding?"

She smiles and shrugs. "Wouldn't you like to know."

I laugh again before showering her with kisses.

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We are baking.

Yes, baking. Caden said she wanted to bake so here we are.

But first, we needed to take a small journey to Target as I do not have the necessary ingredients for said baking.

Did I want to bake? No, not particularly. No, what I wanted was to curl her into my arms and give her massages and kisses on her ear and ignore the Netflix movie playing on the screen.

But, she wanted to bake, and so now we're baking.

I believe the term for this condition is called "whipped." Yes, I am whipped. Like whipped cream.

And when Caden treaded to the refrigerator aisle and placed a can of whipped cream in the cart, I almost laughed out loud at the timing.

I would also like to mention that when we were at Target, we crossed the clothing section. And when her eyes landed onto a set of couples pajamas, she looked at me and then at the pajamas, and then at me, and the next thing I know, we are wearing matching pajamas.

Whipped.

"Take two cups of flour and put it into that bowl," she instructs, having looked up a chocolate chip cookie recipe online. "And then put in the baking soda and salt and mix." I obey, like the good dog I am. She smiles when she notices and kisses me on the cheek. "Good job."

After mixing in all the ingredients and being left with a pretty good-looking bowl of cookie dough, Caden smiles at our handiwork. "You make a cook assistant baker," she praises.

I lift my hand to my heart. "Well, thank you. I tried my very best." My hands hook onto the end of her pajama shirt and I pull her lips onto mine. Her lips taste like cookie dough and I lick them right off. "You've been eating our handiwork before they've been baked?" I say into her mouth.

"Maybe." Her mischievous grin says it all.

I spot the whipped cream that we haven't used. "And what was the purpose of buying the whipped cream if we weren't going to use it?" I ask.

She smiles evilly again, that stupid, beautiful little smirk. "Who said we were going to use it in the kitchen?"

That sentence breaks my already horny self, and I engulf her into my arms, taking in her lips again and kissing her passionately. "You know, I'm starting to think you're even hornier than me."

"Debatable," she mumbles into the kiss. Her hands curl into my hair and she pulls at my roots like the countless times I've done to her. Now I understand her reaction. That feels fucking amazing.

"Silas, we can't do it before the cookies have been baked." She pulls her lips away from me, but I wrap my arms around her waist. I have gotten to the habit of burying my hands under her shirt, and gripping her waist, loving the way she fits perfectly into my hands.

"I told you not to do that." I know she hates it but I just love her little squirms and attempts at pushing my hands away. And the upsetting thought that she believes she's anything but perfect makes me want to touch her everywhere, feel how perfect she is and let her know.

"I simply can't resist when I have such a beautiful human being in front of me." She rolls her eyes and ducks away from my kiss, but I spot the amusement in her eyes. Instead of her lips, I find her neck, but that doesn't deter me from tasting her and kissing her the way she deserves to be.

She sighs into me as I nip her neck and earlobe. "Silas, we need to finish the cookies."

We finished the cookies. And the can of whipped cream.

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Caden's POV

The weeks went by, and it's honestly been some of the best days of my life. I've never felt so happy with Silas, almost as if we were in a bubble of just us.

I really didn't want our bubble to pop. I didn't want the elephant poking it's head into something so beautiful. He's treated me wonderfully, always putting my needs first.

Even when we had to go to work, either he or I would come by each other's apartments and spend the night. It was like a dream. A beautiful dream that I never wanted to wake up from.

But I knew the moment he looked at me with conviction and guilt that he wanted to talk. Talk. Talk about me, my past, Cole, everything.

The very thought shakes my soul and makes my heart pound out of my chest. I hate to admit that I don't even know if I'm capable of telling him everything; if I'm ready.

A part of me is still afraid he'll leave me. Despite his words, and his actions, and the way he stares at me like I am a wonder to this world when he think I'm not looking, there will always be an insecure chunk of my heart that dreads the day he'll just leave... like he did once before.

What if he sees me differently? What if he think I'm nothing more than a criminal, like he's said before? What if, what if, what if... All these what if's are eating at my soul.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he says, after noticing the change in my face and the tension that has now engulfed us. Despite his words, I can see the disappointment on his face; see the say he yearns to know who I was. He says he loves me, but what if he wants nothing to do with me after he learns the truth.

The very thought sends bile into my throat. I don't think I'll be able to lose him again.

But then I recall that PowerPoint. God, that damned PowerPoint where he shared everything. His mom, his dad, his feelings. We didn't talk much about that either, feigning ignorance to each other's pasts.

I still have every word of that PowerPoint in my head, always looking back and seeing this man who lost his mother and father in the span of months evolve to a CEO.

I finally decide it's time. It's the least I can do for everything he's shared even if we fail to acknowledge it.

I take a deep breath, trying to prepare myself and hopefully not cry. "In my senior year of high school, I had a piano recital. It was very important to me; I had been working for months on my piece and I wanted my family to be there. Cole was in his college dorm while I had been practicing my piece, but he was also planning on attending."

I stop myself, bracing my eyes to not water as I continue. "That night, my parents accidentally bumped into the back of a truck. The driver wasn't so happy about that and pulled a pistol on them." Despite my efforts, tears begin to form in my eyes. "They died, while trying to come see me. They died and it was my fault. Cole drilled that into my head for years after."

I don't look at Silas. I refuse to. I don't want to see the pity in his eyes. I just want to let everything out. Let this burden I've been carrying on my shoulders out. "After their deaths, my brother took it hard. He had to drop out of my college since we didn't have any income. And since we were both 18, nobody took us in. I dropped out of high school and had to sell my mother's boutique shop to pay the mortgage. I sold every last valuable thing in my house to scrape by while Cole continued to blame me."

I didn't notice when he moved, but Silas shifted to sit closer to me on my couch. He hadn't yet touched me, giving me space in case he overwhelmed me which I appreciated. "As much as I grieved the deaths of my parents, I also grieved the loss of my brother. You know, when we were little, he was every little sibling's dream of a big brother. He'd always protected me from bullies, "friends," even helped me out when I got in trouble with Mom and Dad. But that person was gone the moment he dropped out of college. He became unrecognizable."

"He only started beating me when we moved out, got a smaller place. As if this new setting made him realize his old life was gone and he refused to accept it. We barely had any income so we resorted to crimes. More accurately, he would force me to do the crimes while he stood watch. Except, all the times I'd get caught, he magically disappeared, leaving me to get arrested. All the saving my parents had were drained to pay for the bails and bonds."

"Four years we lived in that apartment, and every day, or every other day, he'd find some reason to punish me... And I let him. I refused to believe the brother I once had was gone, so I just let him. I believed every word he said, about everything; about my parents, about my life, my work, myself. I worked in every job that'd hire me while he drank himself into a coma."

"And then I met you. And I got the job. I had finally had an income and every time I came home, I had a smile on my face." He gazes at me with an Are you serious? look that makes me stifle a laugh. "Okay, maybe not all the time. Yeah, you were an asshole a lot. But still, I had a good income, friends, and a job I was good at. So when I came home, I didn't look like a sagging zombie. And Cole despised that. I could tell by the way he glared at all the new clothes I bought or the smiles on my face when I came home."

"And so the night that we... you asked me about my record, I was beyond upset. I came home to see him with his belt in hand, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I had joined Sawyer on some self-defense lessons, and so when he moved to strike me, I had swerved. We fought until I was able to knock him out and get out. And as you know, I blacked out on the concrete."

"I'm sorry that I wanted space from you in the hospital, but everything was so overwhelming. I had finally realized that the Cole I loved was gone and it was just so-" I was cut off when Silas reached out to touch my hand. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

I smile, and that's when I notice that tears had been pouring out of my eyes the more I talked. Just sliding down, and he didn't move to wipe them away. Neither did I.

Silas continues. "I'm sorry for all the shit I put you through. I was a fucking asshole. You were just fucking radiant and I hated it. I wanted to extinguish that light in you while still keeping you in reach of me. It's like a part of me was always drawn to you no matter what I did." He looks at me, truly looks at me through the tears, the pain. "I should've realized sooner that I was loving you even before I knew it."

That sentence struck deep into my core, and finally, after years of keeping it locked inside me, I let out all of my emotions. Sobs swept through me like currents in an ocean, and Silas held me into his arms, never letting go.

Each sobbed tore another piece of my past away from me, and left me feeling lighter, like a doll who's flaws were washed away. I let every ounce of my body go as the tears rushed out of me.

I let the pain, and the grief, and the trauma overwhelm me, and then with every breath and sigh, I let it go.

And in that moment, I knew that I would always love my parents. And I would always love my brother. The brother who once loved me back. But it was time for me to move on from this, move on with my life without this hollow feeling plaguing me everywhere I went. It was time I did something for myself for a change; something that made me happy. It was damn time I deserved it.

And I knew, as Silas rubbed my back and scratched my head and whispered the words I had rejected just weeks ago, that I wanted him by my side every step of the way.

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