Who: Caden, Shan and Aaron When: evening, Thursday, June 28th Where: the carnival Status: Complete
Point Pleasant could be downright boring, Shan had already personally discovered. There were only so many shops to browse, so many pretty views to take in. She’d done a lot of exploring on her own, and she felt like she was out of things to discover already. It was just more proof that she needed a project to work on, something to fill her time while Caden was working or just not in the mood to hang out with her. Or she needed more friends like Shane to spend time with.
She’d told Caden about running into a friend from Jersey in the grocery store and how strange that had been. He had seemed a little grumbly to hear it was a man, but Shan had assured him that Shane had a boyfriend and everything, which seemed to help. It didn’t seem worth mentioning that she and Shane had fucked each other senseless the one other time they’d met. Not yet, anyhow. Why risk Caden being stupid about one of the few people she already knew she liked in this town?
It had taken some cajoling and promises of blowjobs afterward, but Shan had finally convinced Caden to come to the carnival with her. She hadn’t really wanted to go alone, and it wasn’t like she was overflowing with friends yet, so going with her husband was what she wanted to do.
Finally it was Thursday night and they were there, walking amidst the booths with beers and snacks in their hands and a pair of ridiculous sparkly pink sunglasses perched on top of Shan’s head. She’d never actually won a carnival game before, so she was pretty proud of them. “I wish they had a rollercoaster,” she declared as she pinched off some cotton candy to pop into her mouth. She loved the way it melted on her tongue. “Want to ride the Round Up thing we saw?”
Caden spent a lot of the week telling himself, and others, that the carnival was not his thing. Because it wasn't. But by the fifth time Shan asked to go, Caden had to admit he was curious. If he'd be seeing a shrink, they probably would have said it was some deep-seated need to do something normal... something he could have done in his childhood, if his parents hadn't both been fuck ups. So he finally agreed and since Thursday night was Aaron's night to close the bar, he and Shan headed off to the carnival.
The beer was tolerable so he opted against grousing about it. Caden took a drink and glanced at her before squinting thoughtfully. Round Up thing... "Yeah, sure," he said, once he'd swallowed. "Don't be too sad about the rollercoaster... it'd probably be shit. I think you've got to travel to one of those huge amusement parks to ride anything good." But hell, he'd go on a ride for her. Maybe because she'd promised blow jobs. Or because she looked pretty cute with those dumbass glasses on her head... and he knew her lips were going to taste like cotton candy later.
That made her grin a bit as she looked over at him. “Do you like them? Rollercoasters?” she asked. Shan hadn’t plumbed the depths of Caden’s childhood for a lot of details yet, mostly because she didn’t want him doing the same to hers, so there were a lot of things she didn’t know. He seemed like the type to have been a wild teenager, and wild teens loved adrenaline, right? She certainly had. Still did, really. “You’re right though, this one would probably suck, but seeing rides at all is making me jones for Coney Island, and something fast.” Shan sipped some beer and ate some more cotton candy, pleased Caden was being agreeable. Maybe even having a good time? She hoped so.
"I've only been on a couple of rollercoasters," he said with a shrug. "Not any real good ones, but they were all right. I haven't been on one in over a decade though. Maybe longer." He had certainly liked adrenaline when he was younger... still did, in a way. But his adrenaline usually came in the form of violence. "Never been to Coney Island though. Maybe we'll go sometime this summer." It was more the appeal of getting out of Point Pleasant than anything else. Caden just didn't want to spend the next 3 months stuck at the bar and working himself into the ground. Shit was getting a bit easier now, so he wanted to take advantage of it. Getting out of town with Shan seemed like an even better idea, because he knew she would be down for having some real fun.
“I didn’t get to ride one until after I ran away,” Shan said with some understanding. Caden had had a shitty childhood, she’d had a shitty childhood ... parents who provided shitty childhoods like theirs weren’t super likely to take their kids to amusement parks. Shan’s family had tried a couple of cheap ‘family vacations’ but those had always just been more abuse in different settings. “But yes! We should totally go! The city is amazing, so much fun, and you should definitely try a good coaster once in your life.” The whole world had opened up to Shan when she’d run away, in all its filthy glory, and it made her want to show Caden all of the cool parts he may have missed living in this backwoods town. They were approaching the Round Up, so Shan started hurrying through her drink.
Though he hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about his childhood, Caden did wonder what his life might have been like now if he had run away. Or just left as soon as he could legally do so. Ditch Point Pleasant, drive west, find a job... it had just never felt like something he could do. And now he just didn't see the point. "We'll go," he decided. When, he had no idea, but he'd tell Gavin he was fucking off for a weekend, and just do it. Caden had to imagine Shan was pretty damn fun in a big city and the idea of getting into some trouble was appealing. He finished off his beer as they got into line at the Round Up, tossing the empty cup in the nearest garbage can.
Shan finished her own beer and bid a sad farewell to the cotton candy she couldn’t finish and tossed her trash in the bin. Maybe it was dumb and basic, but she was kind of excited to go on a fast ride, and her steps were bouncy as they moved through the line. Point Pleasant had bored her to the point where this was exciting, how sad was that? She made a happy little squee and drummed her hands against Caden’s arm before they climbed the steps to enter the ride, grinning from ear to ear.
Caden knew Point Pleasant could be boring as fuck. He had grown up there, after all. Bringing Shan to this town from Atlantic City, though... he had honestly thought she'd be gone by now. A week or two of hot sex and then divorce papers would be filed and she'd be on her way. But she was still here, which was honestly a bit mind-blowing. Not that Caden was complaining. If he'd wanted her gone, she would know it. Following her up onto the ride, he chuckled at her obvious excitement and reached down to pat her ass before they got situated in their space. "I'm gonna need another drink after this," he said, making sure everything was in place and locked properly.
The town might be boring, but Caden wasn’t, or the family Shan felt like she’d only scratched the surface of. Besides, maybe she needed a little Boring in her life for a while, to serve as something like a break. Her life was often full of drama, so she could temporarily fill it with pretty views and lots of amazing sex, until the wind blew her somewhere else. It was all still up in the air to Shan, but she was having a good time now, and that was really all that mattered. “Something stronger than their piss beer?” she asked with a grin as she pulled her own restraints down. Maybe the beer hadn’t been that bad, but Shan could go for some real alcohol too. She also should’ve brought some weed or Xanax or something, but oh well, too late now.
"Definitely something stronger than piss beer," Caden said with a short laugh. If the carnival didn't have anything, they certainly had liquor at home. Or hell, they could stop and grab a bottle from the bar and go somewhere else to drink it. Maybe to the lighthouse, where he could get Shan to blow him. It was shit he used to do as a teenage boy, so why not have some fun with it? When the ride started, it was easy enough to keep his focus. But as it sped up, he could hear Shan laughing beside him, which admittedly was a nice sound. The faces became a blur as the thing went around faster and faster and Caden found himself actually having a good time. At least until he saw his father across the way. It seemed impossible. It was impossible. The old man was dead and buried, his face smashed in... and probably decayed to bone now. Caden shut his eyes tight as an icy sensation spread through his chest. When he opened them again, Joseph was still there, staring stoically back at Caden as they went 'round and 'round. But another blink and he was gone, replaced by a younger looking girl in pigtails who was screaming with delight. What the fuck had just happened? The ride felt like it went on for ages and as soon as it started to slow, his hand fumbled for the clasp on the restraints so he could get off the damn thing as soon as he could.
Oblivious to Caden’s distress, Shan had a great time on the ride. Her stomach felt like it was in her throat from the g-forces, all of her guts clenchy and almost pleasurable. She held tight and laugh-shrieked happily until the ride began to slow down, too soon for her tastes. Damn, did she miss a good rollercoaster. Feeling windblown and giddy with dizziness, Shan undid her own safety restraints once they’d come to a stop. She stumbled a bit once she had her feet under her again, everything still tilty and spinny in that fun way, and she grabbed for Caden’s arm to steady herself, still giggling. “Shit, that was fun,” she said breathlessly, grinning as she glanced over everyone moving off the ride.
Caden's guts were clenchy too, but for a completely different reason. He also felt like he wanted to vomit, but he managed to keep it down. Even as he got out of the restraints, his gaze was sweeping along the people all laughing and heading for the exit. His dad wasn't there. Of course he wasn't. But why had Caden seen him at all? He wasn't drunk. His hand itched to reach for his phone so he could call Aaron, but he was at a carnival with Shan, who seemed oblivious to what had just happened. "We gotta go home," he muttered once they were off the ride and his feet were on the ground again. There were too many people around and Caden was terrified that he would turn around at any moment and come face to face with Joseph's corpse.
Shan’s mind was on that drink as they stepped off the ride, and what she could eat next, or what might be fun. She wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, to see how stealthy of a handjob she could give Caden while they were way up high -- ooh or maybe the tunnel of love? He interrupted her fun thoughts with his words, and Shan really focused on her new husband’s face. He looked pale and unhappy, or maybe nauseated? “What? Already? Why -- are you okay?” she asked, eyeing him with concern. Was he pukey and embarrassed about it? Ugh, men. They’d just gotten there! “You wanna sit down for a minute?”
"No, I don't want to sit down," he said tightly, already looking around for the way out. "I've got somethin' to do. If you wanna stay, you can, but I've got to go home." He had to call Aaron. He knew this shit was in his head somehow, but it might not be. What if this was some kind of warning? What if something had moved Joseph's body? Stranger things had happened in this fucking town. He started down the path through the vendors to the parking lot, not really caring if Shan came or not. Caden was feeling sick, but focused and he just needed reassurance that what he saw was some random hallucination and not something about to start trouble for his family.
Totally baffled, Shan moved to follow him. “What happened? What do you mean, something to do?” she asked, hurrying to keep up. He had to go home all of the sudden? They’d just been talking about having another drink, what had changed so abruptly? That ride had been impossible to take a phone call on or check text messages, so Shan was completely confused. And kind of put out, honestly, it had taken some cajoling to get Caden to come to the carnival at all, and she felt like they’d barely gotten started. At least it was only Thursday, Shan doubted the carnival would be folding its tents before the weekend was over, so maybe she could come back ... maybe with Shane instead, if Caden was going to be a party pooper like this.
The jittery feeling in his stomach wasn't going away and it seemed to get worse the farther away from the Round Up he got. Shan's voice, while usually serving to turn him on, was only irritating him now, scratching at the apprehension that had settled in his bones. "Can you just shut up for a minute?" Caden snapped, running a hand over his hair. He pulled out his phone to send a text to Aaron. you working? He kind of wished Shan would stay at the carnival so he wouldn't have to drive her home, or deal with her questions. Roxy would have just let him go do his thing, but he had a feeling Shan was going to push and push until he lost his shit.
Shan felt her own temper flare, but she grit her teeth and shut up. Something had obviously happened in Caden’s mind that he wasn’t going to share. She might have stubbornly stayed behind if she had some guaranteed way to get home, but she didn’t. Shan didn’t want to start bothering Shane with needy phone calls and be that annoying friend, and she didn’t really know anyone else to call. Apparently she needed to start driving herself places they were going to together. Her jaw tight, Shan just kept walking with him toward the parking lot, more than ready to leave now herself.
His phone buzzed with Aaron's response and Caden sighed. His brother was closing the bar, so he'd be busy for a while. That wasn't going to help Caden's anxiety with this whole mess at all. tell gavin you have to go. make something up. miles can handle it. meet me at my place. He hadn't asked but he didn't feel like he needed to. If Aaron didn't follow through, Caden would just have to drive to the bar and physically pull him out of it. He also knew that Shan was pissed about having to leave the carnival so early, but this couldn't wait and he sure as hell wasn't going to enjoy himself after what he had seen. He unlocked his truck doors to climb inside, glancing at Shan as he did so. "You can stay if you want. I can always pick you up later. But there's some shit I have to do and it can't wait."
“Fuck that,” Shan said flatly as she pulled open the truck door to climb inside. She had no idea what was going on with him, but she didn’t want to be left behind at a place like this alone. Shan wasn’t scared, it would just be shitty and boring on her own. Carnivals were built for couples and families and friend groups, and if her only connection here was going to ditch her, she would rather just be at home where she could soak in the bath or watch TV or something. As soon as she was settled, she pulled out her phone to get engrossed in Instagram while Caden drove them back to Seaview. She didn’t want to talk or even really acknowledge him, and she hoped he knew he’d thoroughly fucked up his chances of getting laid tonight. Maybe tomorrow too.
"We'll come tomorrow," he muttered, since he figured he ought to do something to placate her, or he'd be dealing with a pissy Shan for the entire weekend. Caden was well aware that she was likely going to freeze him out, but he could handle that. This shit was too important to ignore just to make her happy. He sure as hell couldn't tell her what he had seen, or what he had to do now. She would think he was crazy, or worse, she'd want to tag along and that sure as shit wasn't happening.
Shan didn’t respond, pretty sure that was just some bullshit to try and pacify her. It had taken enough effort to convince Caden to go in the first place, Shan didn’t plan to bring it up again. She just thumb-scrolled through posts without really seeing them, silently longing for a city to get lost in, a bunch of friends to turn to for some wild fun, anything but this. It wasn’t an unhappiness she’d felt very often yet since being here, and it was a kind of bummer to feel it now. Shan knew she would get over it, but until then she wasn’t going to pretend she wasn’t upset just for Caden’s ego. As soon as he pulled the truck into the driveway, Shan grabbed her bag and fished her keys out, pushing the door open once he’d stopped. She walked cooly to the door to let herself in. Caden could do whatever.
Caden was used to dealing with pissy women but it would be far worse if he told her what was going on. Despite the ring on his finger, he didn't know Shan well enough to say he trusted her with those darker secrets and he sure as hell wasn't going to put Jasper in jeopardy by telling his wife everything that had happened before they met. Caden got out of the car to head inside himself, checking his phone to see if Aaron was on his way. He'd need to make sure he had what he needed, just in case...
Gavin had not been happy about Aaron having to leave so abruptly, but having a pregnant fiancee really made for a good excuse. At least it was only Thursday and not one of their busiest nights. Caden’s text messages had Aaron quietly freaking out as he sped through town toward Seaview. It had sounded urgent, and Caden never sounded urgent unless it was something bad. All kinds of possibilities ran circles through Aaron’s mind, but the biggest one was that Caden had killed his new wife, and needed help with the body. It was a terrible thing to think about his brother, but Aaron couldn’t think of what else Caden would need him for so badly. His palms were sweaty against the wheel as he finally turned in behind Caden’s truck. He got out and hurried to the door to knock quietly, really dreading what he might find inside.
Shan seemed to have disappeared to the bedroom, which was probably for the best. Caden paced, waiting for Aaron and once he heard his brother's truck out front, he walked over to unlock the door he'd only just locked. Habit, he guessed. Only morons would keep points of entry open and vulnerable in this town. Pulling the door open, he motioned for Aaron to step inside. "I saw somethin' tonight," he said, not bothering with easing into it. But he kept his voice low. "On some ride at the carnival... I... swear I saw dad there. Watchin' me. I closed my eyes, tried to shake it off, but when I opened them again, he was still there."
Aaron’s eyes ticked past his brother to the living room, but nothing seemed to be amiss. There was no body on the floor like he’d worried about, no huge pools of blood like the one that had congealed under their father’s ruined head. It took him an extra second to re-focus on Caden and what he was actually saying, but once Aaron registered it, he frowned. “That’s weird ... on a ride? Are you sure?” he asked, though that was probably a stupid question. Caden wouldn’t have called him here if he hadn’t been sure. “Did you see him get off of it? Where’d he go?” Maybe it had just been some ugly sonofabitch who favored their dad? What they’d had to do still haunted Aaron sometimes too, just mostly through nightmares.
"I'm sure," Caden said. "He wasn't there when the ride stopped. I'm not drunk and I know what I saw. I just..." He ran both hands over his head, wishing he could snap his fingers and get rid of his jittery nerves. "I need to go out there and check... make sure he's still in the ground. I don't think I'm gonna be able to sleep or do much of anything until I know." He looked at Aaron, almost apologetically. "We don't have to dig or anything... just make sure the ground hasn't been disturbed." Yes, he could have gone alone, but he and Aaron were bound by this and honestly, he didn't want to go alone. Especially not knowing what he might find.
He immediately looked pained as he saw where Caden was going, and shook his head a little with a soft “Caden --” But looking into his brother’s eyes, Aaron couldn’t bring himself to say no. Caden so rarely asked him for help. Whatever he’d seen had obviously spooked him pretty bad, and it took a lot to scare his big brother. “Fuck, man ... okay,” Aaron muttered with a sigh. He was pretty sure Caden must have just gotten his wires crossed for a minute, he didn’t suspect that Joseph had crawled out of the ground to haunt them. A zombie probably would’ve garnered more attention. Aaron at least hoped Joseph wasn’t suddenly a vengeful ghost. He just wanted the old man completely gone. “You want me to drive?”
Caden was relieved that Aaron agreed to go because he didn't feel like screaming at his brother. This could potentially affect him as much as it affected Aaron and they needed to make sure that Joseph was still in the ground. "I can drive." Caden needed to be able to focus on something and keep his hands from shaking. Since Shan had stormed off to the bedroom, he opted not to let her know that he was leaving. Let her sulk for a bit if that's what she wanted to do. "We'll just check and leave." That's what he told himself, anyway. It wouldn't take long, assuming the ground was still as it should be. He motioned for the door, eager to get moving. There was the fear that Joseph would show up again, that Caden might be the only one who could see him. Maybe he was losing his mind.
Shan had not actually stormed off to the bedroom. Instead she’d found a place to stand that was out of view of the front door, listening hard to the soft conversation between Caden and Aaron. She missed parts of it, they were keeping their voices low, but enough to gather that they were going somewhere for mysterious reasons. To check something. Shan had been pissed off and wanted to eavesdrop to figure out why Caden was being such an asshole, but now she was intrigued as well.
Impulsively, as soon as Caden said he would drive, Shan decided to go with them. She moved away from her corner, walking on her toes to be quiet as she made her way to the back door and slipped outside. She closed it softly behind her, then ran around to the front of the house. Crouched low and kind of feeling like a spy, she climbed up over the gate of Caden’s truck, ducking down into the shadowy bed just as the front door opened again and Aaron came out with Caden behind him. She laid down in as small of a space as she could manage, tucked into a corner close to the cab so they wouldn’t see her in the rearview.
Caden climbed into the truck with Aaron, silently grateful that Aaron hadn't put up much of a fight. Not that Caden expected him to. Aaron could be a massive pushover, which was annoying as fuck most of the time, but now it was a blessing. He lit up a cigarette as soon as they were on the road out of Seaview. "Gavin pissy with you for leaving?" he asked, aware that their older brother was never fond of being left alone in the bar, even if he had Miles and Jocelyn. It would've been easier if Gavin understood what was going on, but both Caden and Aaron knew that could never happen.
As much as Aaron wasn’t eager to do this, he saw why Caden wanted to, and maybe it was good to check the spot where they’d buried him anyway. Not even for paranormal reasons, just to make sure nobody had dug up the body, or animals hadn’t scattered him everywhere or anything. It made his stomach churn to think about -- Aaron was pretty sure they’d dug deep enough, but he’d never buried a body before, so who the fuck knew. “He’s pissy about everything,” he answered Caden, briefly glancing over before looking out the darkened window again. “He’ll get over it. If this really don’t take long, I’m gonna go back. I told him Mila wasn’t feeling good and needed me, so ... this better be worth it.” It kind of felt like bad luck to use Mila’s pregnancy as an excuse, like now she would get sick, but Aaron hadn’t been able to think of anything else on the fly.
That wasn't surprising, but not anything Caden could, or wanted, to fix. Gavin would get over it. "It'll be worth it as long as the ground hasn't been disturbed," he muttered, not really caring that he probably sounded unhinged. He knew what he saw, goddammit. Caden focused on his cigarette for a few moments, his eyes on the road as they got closer to Blackwater. "Maybe it was a witch," he added thoughtfully. "Those fuckers do all kinds of shit in this town. What if one of 'em is fucking with me?" If it was anyone, it was that D'Onofrio asshole. Caden still hadn't been able to quell the urge to teach that fucker a lesson after what he'd done to Caden's fingers... and his mind.
Aaron propped his elbow up on the door and rubbed a hand over his face, barely resisting rolling his eyes. “Why would one of the witches be fucking with you?” he asked, glancing over at Caden. “Did something happen?” Sometimes his brothers’ paranoia really didn’t make any sense to him, both of them were weirdly high strung about certain things. He knew a lot of it probably came from how they were raised, but they were all grown ups now, for God’s sake.
In the back of the truck, Shan watched the streetlights and the stars go by overhead. She couldn’t hear anything that was being said in the cab, but that was kind of fun in a way. This whole thing was a big mystery to unravel. They were obviously driving out of town, and she hoped they weren’t going too far, because it was kind of chilly back there with all the wind, and she hadn’t brought a jacket or anything. Shan had no idea what she was going to do once the truck stopped, but she was dying of curiosity to find out what her new husband was up to.
Caden swallowed hard and shook his head, even as his lips spoke differently. "One of 'em messed with my head. Don't remember if I told you that or not. I think I did." Did he? That whole situation had been so fucking frustrating and it was all because of Mila's first pregnancy. Seemed pointless to do what they did, now that Mila was pregnant again and Aaron was going to marry her. "It might not be them. I don't fucking know, Aaron. All I know is that I saw what I saw."
Aaron squinted and thought hard for a moment before their confusing conversation from the last time they’d been to Cherries together came back to him -- ironically, after they’d checked on their dad’s grave. Aaron briefly longed for a real connection with Caden that wasn’t based around so much fucking trauma. The details of their talk were fuzzy now, lost to booze and a bad memory and everything that had happened in between, but he remembered now who Caden was sure had fucked with him. “I believe you saw it,” he said, trying to placate him a little. “But you know how this town is, it fucks with everybody. Doesn’t mean it was D’Onofrio. Or maybe Dad’s back to haunt your ass, I don’t fuckin’ know either.” He sounded mild about it, a flat joke that Aaron knew wasn’t funny.
Despite himself, Caden chuckled. Leave it to their fucking father to be the kind of guy to haunt his children. "Yeah, well... I'd say we've all been fucked with for far too long." And if one believed the history of this town, that was also the witches' fault. Caden had always brushed it off, but now he had to wonder how much myth was actually true. "If dad's haunting my ass, he'll be haunting your ass too. You know how he liked to pass the love around."
“... if he’s haunting us, he’s gonna go full Poltergeist on Jasper,” Aaron muttered after a moment’s thought. It felt like a ridiculous sentence to say out loud, but a lot of ridiculous-sounding things were true. He was worried about their nephew, though Jasper seemed to be adjusting okay from the outside. He even had a job now and everything. Sure that some of that was just a facade, Aaron wanted to spend more time with him before the baby came and he didn’t have any free time left. “Was he on your mind or anything before that? Like maybe it was just you seeing shit, you know? You can’t be over it all yet.” Aaron looked over at Caden’s profile with a furrowed brow.
Caden worried about Jasper too but it wasn't like his nephew knew a healthy way of coping with the shit he had done, or even gone through. Jasper was probably more like Gavin than he knew. Hell, Jasper was a Lucas whose mom was batshit crazy, so he was doomed from the start. "He wasn't on my mind," Caden muttered. "I was with Shan, so she was on my mind." Really, the possibility of a handjob on the ferris wheel was on his mind more than anything. "Believe it or not, I was actually enjoying myself. Maybe that's why I saw him. Had to ruin my good time. Doesn't that shit happen to you? Always waiting for the next shoe to drop when things start feeling good?"
It was a little hard to believe that Caden was enjoying himself at a carnival, but maybe his hot new wife was a good influence on him or something. Aaron still didn’t expect it to last long, but stranger things had happened. “Sometimes it does,” he answered after a pause. It probably didn’t happen to him nearly as often or as strongly as it did to Caden, but Aaron at least knew where he was coming from. “But not all the time.” He was glad for it too, because things were currently going really well in his life, and Aaron wanted to enjoy that instead of stressing about what bad shit might be coming. Maybe that was naive of him, but at least he wasn’t miserable.
"Then I'd say you've got it pretty good." Caden pulled the truck off to the side of the road, the dark woods calling for them. It was insane how clearly he could remember this place. There was nothing special about it, no marker to tell them Joseph was buried there. But Caden knew. "Let's make this quick," he told Aaron, turning off the engine and pushing open the driver's side door to get out. They would be walking a bit, but he told himself it was going to be okay. They wouldn't get lost. They would find Joseph's grave, make sure the ground was intact and leave. Then he'd go home and suck up to Shan a bit so he didn't have to sleep beside a cold shoulder all night.
Before he got out, Aaron rummaged around in Caden’s center console until he found a flashlight, then exited the truck too. “Aight, let’s see if he’s still there and you’re just seein’ shit,” he said with a sigh as he pushed the passenger side door closed. If he’d been asked, Aaron wouldn’t have been sure he could’ve found the exact spot again, but now that they were there, he felt that certain pull of memory too. This whole place was burned in his psyche. He clicked the flashlight on and started toward the treeline where they’d entered not so long ago, carrying their carpet-wrapped father between them.
In the bed of the truck, Shan pressed herself harder against the metal walls, lips pressed together and her breath held until she heard four boots crunch across the gravel at the edge of the road. Her mind was racing -- ‘if he’s still there’, who was he? And why would anybody be staying in the woods at night? The answer was pretty obvious to her -- they were going to a grave. A hidden one, it seemed like. Was her husband a murderer? Was his brother? Had they killed and buried someone together? Shan waited until she couldn’t hear anyone anymore, then waited some more before she carefully un-balled herself and risked taking a peek above the edge of the truck.
Caden wasn't dense enough to miss that Aaron probably thought he was crazy, or overreacting or extra-paranoid. But he had the feeling if Aaron had seen their dad die in the manner that he did... he'd be out here looking too, especially if he saw the old man's face at the fucking carnival, of all places. He said nothing, but lit another cigarette and walked with Aaron through the trees. Blackwater was always an eerie place, even in the summer daylight, when you could hear the birds and wildlife. There was just something sinister hanging around it and he felt it rather acutely now. But he stayed focused on where they were going, not wanting to get lost in this hellscape. When they eventually came to the spot where Caden knew they had buried Joseph, he held his hand out for the flashlight Aaron was holding. "Let me do it."
Aaron didn’t really know what to think. All kinds of horrific shit was possible, beyond his wildest imagination, he knew that to be a fact. It wasn’t completely out of the question that their father had somehow returned to life, or was reaching out beyond the grave. He just really didn’t want it to be that. Hadn’t the darkness plagued their family enough, for fuck’s sake? It creeped him the fuck out to be in Blackwater again, especially in the dark, and Aaron’s shoulders were tensed the entire walk, his nervous system trying to brace for anything. Once they reached the right place -- another thing he seemed to instinctively recognize -- he wordlessly handed over the flashlight.
Caden stepped forward, branches crunching under his boot as he shone the light down onto the ground. It took him a few minutes, scanning every inch of the space where he knew they had buried Joseph. But the ground was untouched. Weeds and grass had already started growing where they dug before... twice actually. There was no sign that Joseph, or anyone else, had disturbed the earth. Caden exhaled slowly and then turned back to Aaron, careful not to shine the light in his brother's face. "Let's go home." It had to have been his imagination. Some subconscious fuckery. Joseph was dead and buried. Nothing but bones by now. He had just needed to make sure.
In spite of his doubts, Aaron was apprehensive while Caden looked around with the light. Part of his brain questioned whether or not they were in the exact right place, but he knew better in his gut. This was the place, and Joseph’s body was still in the ground. The rest of him was hopefully rotting in hell, but Aaron didn’t want to dwell on that thought. Aaron nodded a bit when Caden was satisfied and reached out to pat the back of his shoulder. “It was worth a look,” he murmured. “Hopefully just your imagination being a dick.” He turned with his brother to walk back through the trees.
Meanwhile, back at the truck, Shan had climbed out of the bed to have a short look around. She couldn’t find anything special about this spot, it was just an empty stretch of road and a bunch of looming trees. It was pretty fucking creepy for a city girl, but she was determined not to be afraid. If Caden and Aaron were murderers, it would be mighty convenient for them to kill and bury her out here. It would probably be smarter for her to stay hidden, but her heart was racing with wild energy and she knew she wouldn’t be able to pretend this hadn’t happened. Shan wasn’t that good of an actress. She rummaged through the truck until she found Caden’s cigarettes, lit one up, and climbed up to sit on the hood of the vehicle to wait for them to come back, gazing up at the stars for now.
"As shitty as it sounds, I don't think my imagination is that imaginative," he muttered. But he had come to see what he wanted to see and now Caden just had to let it be. If he saw Joseph again, he would know then that something was going on, but for now he was okay with chalking it up to a dizzying ride and alcohol. They walked back to the truck in silence, Caden more than ready to get back home, take off his clothes and slip into bed next to Shan. Assuming she hadn't locked him out, of course. That worry was quickly dismissed as soon as he and Aaron came to the clearing of the trees and he saw his wife sitting on the hood of his truck. He stopped abruptly and blinked, as if it were possible that she was as much of a hallucination as his father was. "What the fuck are you doing?" he barked finally, once he realized she was flesh and blood and had clearly followed them somehow.
There was enough moonlight to make out who was coming out of the woods. It was a small relief to see that Aaron was still with him. If Caden murdered her for this, at least her death would have a witness. Shan had one arm crossed tight under her breasts, and her hand was shaking a little as she took a drag from the cigarette before she answered. “Waiting for you,” she said cooly, not moving from where she was. Her crossed legs felt tense and tight, ready to start kicking if he grabbed for her. She wasn’t going down without a fight, that was for sure. “Did you kill someone? Because that’s something that like, I should know.” Shan’s tone was almost casual -- she was afraid, but she was going to do her damndest not to let him know it.
“Oh shit,” Aaron breathed as he spotted what had made Caden stop. How the fuck had she gotten here? There were no other vehicles around the truck, there was no way she’d walked that far that fast -- a stowaway? His stomach twisted uncomfortably with the sense that this was going to escalate badly, some remnant instinct from childhood, and Aaron braced himself to hold his brother back if necessary.
"Did I kill..." Caden was both confused and furious that Shan was sitting there, smoking a cigarette like she hadn't somehow invited herself along on a ride that had nothing to do with her. It took him a second to realize she had been in the bed of the truck the whole time. He had never actually seen her go into the bedroom, he had just assumed. Honestly, Caden might have been amused if he wasn't so furious. "The fuck are you talking about. Get down off the fucking truck." He shoved the flashlight at Aaron to take before walking toward the truck now with purposeful strides. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"
As Caden started to approach, Shan pushed herself up to standing on the hood and backed up closer to the windshield so she would be harder to reach and she had the height advantage. “I’m your wife,” she snapped back. She didn’t expect that to mean anything to him in any emotional sort of way, but if he was a killer, that put her high on the list of likely victims, statistically speaking. “So if you might chop me up and bury me in the woods, I wanna know about it! Why else would you be out here, checking on something?!” She spoke rapidly and made finger quotes in the air, watching him warily. Aaron had taken the flashlight and was following Caden, but not close enough yet to grab him. If he even would, Shan didn’t know. Maybe they worked together on murder.
Caden stopped at the front of the hood and stared up at where she was standing, looking at her as if she'd lost her mind. "I didn't kill anyone, you fucking psychopath. Get the fuck down from the truck now or you're gonna be riding the windshield home, because that's where I'm fucking going." He motioned at Aaron. "Get in the truck. We're getting out here." He was still pissed as hell but he knew enough about Blackwater to know it was stupid as hell to be hanging around out there in the dark for very long. It was probably smart that he'd given the flashlight to Aaron, otherwise he'd probably try to beat Shan with it. And if he did that, he would have to bury her. It wasn't anything he wanted to do, but he was going to protect his family. Caden headed for the driver's side door, still watching Shan. "You fucking coming or what?"
Aaron walked toward the passenger side door, glancing between the two of them with anxiety churning in his stomach. He didn’t like any of this -- being present for a marital fight, on high-alert for Caden to lash out and hurt her in front of him, the fact that Shan knew what they were out there to look at ... what was Caden going to tell her? What if she went to the cops? Shan didn’t seem to be moving, and Aaron was pretty sure Caden would leave her out here, and that was as much of a death sentence as being chopped up. Death, or worse. “You should really come with us,” Aaron said quietly up to Shan as he reached for the door handle. “You don’t wanna be out here alone at night. He’s never killed anybody.”
Shan looked over at Aaron with her brow furrowed and her lips pressed into a tight line. She had no idea if she should believe him or not. He’d been nice enough to her at the barbecue and the bar, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t lie his ass off to protect his brother. “Yeah, like I should trust you,” she muttered sourly. Shan went to climb down from the hood, batting Aaron’s hand away when he offered it up to help her. “Does your pregnant fiancee know you’re out here looking at graves or whatever?” Glaring, Shan brushed past Aaron to climb into the truck cab and settle in the middle of the bench seat, her arms crossing firmly around her again.
Caden heard what Shan said to Aaron and as he climbed into the truck, he slammed his door behind him. "Shut up, Shannon. Aaron's doin' you a fuckin' favor right now." Aaron was right that Caden would have driven home without her, had she not decided to get into the truck. She was a grown ass woman who had hidden away in his truck bed to snoop. Her decisions were her own and he was just pissed off enough to let her deal with whatever Blackwater wanted to throw at her, if that was her choice. Caden glared at Shan as he turned over the engine, shoving the truck into drive. Once Aaron was safely inside, he made a u-turn in the road to head back towards town. "I don't know what you think you heard," Caden said tightly, "but I didn't kill anyone. Aaron didn't kill anyone either. And you sure as shit shouldn't have been hiding in my goddamn truck."
The turn was jerky, making her shoulders bump into both of the men on either side of her, and Shan tried to squeeze herself smaller. She was very aware of how petite she was compared to both of them, but at least being right beside Caden would make her harder to grab and hurt while he was driving. “But someone is dead and buried out there, right?” she demanded, not about to back down verbally even though she’d gotten in the truck. “I’m not fucking stupid, Caden. You buried someone and then you saw something at the carnival that made you wanna go check the spot, right? We were having a nice fucking time, and then this switch just flipped and he was ready to bail and leave me there.” She directed the last part at Aaron, who was trying to keep his body as close to the truck door as possible, wishing he was anywhere else. He didn’t even look at her, his jaw clenching. Shan looked over at Caden’s profile again. “I’m not gonna rat you out, I just need to know.”
"You don't need to know a damn thing," Caden muttered. "It's actually better if you don't know." They were married but he had no idea whether or not he could trust her. He sure as shit wasn't going to tell her about Jasper's involvement, no matter what came up. "And you are fucking stupid if you think sneaking around in my truck and doing this kind of shit was going to make me tell you anything. Fuck." It was such a brazen and idiotic thing for her to do. And in a way, it felt like his fault, because Shan was his wife. And now he might have put his family at risk, especially if she decided to go to Barrett about it. They wouldn't find anything, but he wouldn't put it past Barrett to start sniffing around anyway.
It felt to Shan like he was confirming it without saying so -- if it wasn’t a body, the worst possibility she could think of, then he would say it wasn’t, right? That was only logical. Trying to figure out whose body it was would be much more difficult. “You wouldn’t tell me where the fuck you were going, so I was gonna find out. I’ll find this out too,” she assured him coldly. If she didn’t start packing her bags as soon as they got home, that was. Shan was sorely tempted to do it, to bail on this whole stupid thing now that there was a corpse involved somewhere. She was at least definitely going to send her current address and info to someone she trusted ... only Shan didn’t really have any of those people, did she? Caden could kill her tonight and it could take weeks or months for anybody to miss her. She remembered Shane was in town, and that was a small comfort, but Caden could always tell him and everybody else that she’d just run off, like she tended to do. It made her feel cold and small and panicky for a moment.
"You think so, huh?" Caden's voice was quiet now, his eyes focused solely on the road. Reaching for his cigarettes to light another, Caden felt more calm now than he had minutes before. He still wanted to smash his fist into her face, but that was because she had gone behind his back to involve herself in shit she had no business being a part of. Now, though... there was shit to fix, otherwise he would have to bury her ass beside Joseph, and Caden didn't want to have to do that. "Aaron," he said calmly after lighting his cigarette and blowing smoke out the window. "Mila knows all about this, right? You've told her."
Aaron rubbed at one eye, opting to stare out the window instead of look at either of them. “Man ...” he started, some resistance in his tone. They shouldn’t be talking about any of this in front of Shan, none of this should’ve happened, Caden never should have married this random fucking woman and brought her home and into their shit. Aaron almost told him to just shut the fuck up and not involve him anymore, but he was already involved. “Yes, Mila knows everything,” he said instead, low and quiet. He didn’t know why that mattered, Mila wouldn’t tell Shan anything, and it would probably only reinforce to Shan that she was entitled to the truth. “She’s the only one I’ve ever told, though.”
"That's what I thought," Caden said. Mila knew. Roxy knew. Despite their relationship having ended, he knew Roxy would never tell anyone. Even if she hated him, he didn't think she would do that to Jasper, or even Gavin. He didn't say another word until they were driving through town, back to Seaview so Aaron could get his car and leave. He wanted Shan to stew for a while before he dealt with her. As much as he wanted to yell and have it out, he didn't want to do it in front of Aaron. This shit was between Caden and his wife and that's how it was going to stay. When they pulled back up to the house, Caden turned off the truck. "We'll talk later," he told Aaron simply.
You could cut the tension in the silent cab with a knife, and Aaron had never been so glad to pull into Seaview. He wanted to ger the fuck out of there. He felt a small tug of worry for Shan, he knew how Caden could be, but honestly? He couldn’t help but think that whatever she got from pulling this stunt, she deserved. It had been family business she stuck her nose into, and regardless of the ring on her finger, she wasn’t family yet. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he muttered to his brother as he reached for the door handle. Aaron’s gaze ticked to Shan and he tacked on a flat “good luck,” before he exited the truck to hurry to his own and be on his way.
Shan badly wanted a cigarette and a few stiff drinks, but those probably weren’t in her immediate future. She ignored Aaron’s fake-ass well wishes, sliding further over into the passenger side as soon as he made room. She didn’t climb out though, not yet, sure that Caden would make it clear where he wanted to continue this ... whatever it would turn into. Her arms were still firmly crossed and her expression was tight. She didn’t know what to expect yet, but she was trying to brace for anything.
Caden watched Aaron leave, making no moves to get out of the truck yet either. It wasn't until his brother's truck was pulling out of the small driveway and headed for the exit that he motioned to Shan's door, pushing open his own to climb out. "Want a drink?" he asked, tossing his cigarette butt on his way around the truck to the front porch. It would be a lot easier talking about this shit with some liquor in his stomach and frankly, he didn't want any nosy neighbors trying to spy on whatever might be going on in his truck.
“Several,” Shan answered in a mutter as she pushed her door open and slid down to the ground. She didn’t know if he would let her actually have them or if he’d be slamming her head into a wall the instant they were inside or what, but if it was a sincere offer, Shan wasn’t going to turn it down. Granted, Caden hadn’t hurt her out of rage yet since she’d been living there, so maybe the pit of dread in her stomach meant nothing ... but Shan’s entire history with men told her to expect the worst when they were angry. She walked to the front door and stepped inside behind Caden when he opened it -- she hadn’t even brought her keys with her, the decision to stowaway had been so impulsive.
Once they were inside, Caden tossed his keys onto the table and headed for the liquor. Occasionally he glanced at her, wanting to make sure she wasn't about to grab a lamp and break it over his head while he wasn't looking. Pouring two glasses of scotch, he carried them over to where she was standing and offered her one of them. "We've got some things to talk about," he said after taking a drink from his own glass. "And some things to get straight about what we're doing here. I guess the first thing you need to know is I'm not the chop 'em up and bury 'em type. But there's gotta be something about me that makes you think I'd be capable of doing it."
Shan took the glass and immediately put it to her lips for a drink. The burn as it went down was reassuring somehow. She barely resisted snorting and rolling her eyes at the last thing he said, but instead she just shook her head a little. “You’re a man. My life has been a nonstop parade of assholes who wanted to hurt me, I’ve been beaten and raped and groped and harrassed and almost killed a couple of times, I’ve had two friends murdered by their boyfriends -- so yeah, you could say I’ve got some trust issues with men, especially when they start acting shady.” Her cheeks felt flushed and she took another quick swallow of scotch without taking her eyes off of him. A logical person would question why the hell she had married a stranger and moved states with him, but Shan obviously wasn’t the best at making logical decisions.
Caden should've been more surprised when she listed off her reasonings for distrusting him, but he wasn't. He knew Shan had baggage. They both did. Which was probably a recipe for disaster and they were both doomed, but that was life, wasn't it? While he wasn't heartless enough to want those things to have happened to her, he was also glad she wasn't some pure-hearted saint who had lived a perfect life. He probably couldn't hurt her the way he'd hurt Roxy. "Probably not very smart to marry a stranger then," he pointed out. Never mind that he had done it too and put his whole family in jeopardy. "But one bad decision always leads to another, doesn't it? You don't trust me and I've got no reason to trust you. Yet you want me to tell you all about my own bullshit? You think sneaking around and accusing me of killing someone is going to force me to open up to you?"
“Oh my god,” Shan exclaimed in frustration, unable to resist rolling her eyes this time. “You say that like this was all some master plan of mine to get you to talk about your precious fee-fees or some shit. It’s not about that. I had no idea where you were going when I got in the truck, and when it became pretty fucking obvious that it was a gravesite, I got scared, okay? Can you understand that at all? Right now I don’t give a flying fuck how open or closed you are, keep your secrets, I don’t even want the details now. I’m no narc about to run off to the cops about it, I don’t want to make trouble for you or your family -- I just want some fucking reassurance that you’re not a killer and you don’t plan to like, hunt me through the woods for sport or whatever.” She stopped for a breath and huffed, taking another drink from her glass. “Just say that body isn’t a girl you personally killed, and I don’t care about anything else, okay? We can forget about it.”
Christ, women were insane. All of them. Insane enough to sneak into his truck, accuse him of being a murderer and then declare she would find out what was in the woods. Now she didn't care? Fucking insane. "I already told you I wasn't a killer," Caden snapped. "Jesus Christ. And no, it's not a girl I killed, or a girl anybody killed. I have absolutely zero desire to hunt you through the woods, or anywhere else. That good enough for you? If you're not gonna trust me to not fucking murder you, then why the fuck are you sticking around?"
“Because I don’t want to leave yet!” she cried, her emotions still running high. Caden obviously had zero empathy for the spiral this discovery had sent her on, or her own sense of self-preservation -- which was probably fucked anyway, but still. Shan wasn’t ready for this to be over yet. The town might be boring sometimes but she’d still been having fun. Caden was fun. Usually. It was the variety of fun that was hard for her to get anywhere else, so the idea that he might be dangerous beyond roughing her up in bed sometimes was distressing. Shan held up her free hand, closed her eyes to take a quick breath, and tried to de-escalate. “Fine, great, you said it twice and I believe you, thanks for that,” she said, her tone calmer. “So you keep your word and I’ll keep mine that it’s dropped. I’m sorry I got nosy and got in your business, okay? My absolute bad.” She needed another drink, so she moved around him to go to where the scotch bottle was and refresh.
Not wanting to leave yet implied that she would want to leave eventually, which also wasn't too surprising to Caden. They both went into this thing knowing that they weren't joined for life. That either one of them could walk away when they decided they wanted to. But Caden was honestly a little relieved that Shan wanted to stick around. They were having fun and Shan was fun, even if she drove him crazy sometimes. But what woman didn't? As a species, they were created to drive men insane. Thank god for pussy. Caden watched her go for the bottle and took another long drink from his own glass. "My family is important to me," he said finally. "And we've been through some shit in this town. The person buried in the woods out there... he deserves to be there. I need you trust me on that, if nothing else."
Shan turned to lean against the kitchen counter, eyeing him with a bit of lingering sullenness on her face. He sounded sincere, and she didn't get the sense that he was lying. And hadn’t Aaron said “he” at some point? At least Caden wasn’t denying that it was a grave -- Shan was reckless and dumb about a lot of stuff, but she wasn’t a complete moron. “Okay,” she said after a pause, gesturing vaguely at him with her glass. “I trust you on that. There’s a few deserving people I’d love to bury too.” Shan took another sip, willing that slightly buzzed numbness to spread farther, faster. No matter what the circumstances were, that level of loyalty to his family was kind of hot, in a way, as much as she hated to admit it to herself at the moment. Would he kill for them, even if he hadn’t done it this time? Would he kill for her, someday? Or would they crash and burn before they could even get close to that level of trust and intimacy?
"Well, if you ever need help, I'm good with a shovel." Caden toasted her with his glass. He knew he probably shouldn't be morbid about such things, but it was really the only way he knew how to handle this. He had to learn to trust this woman, otherwise his entire family could implode. If she threatened him, or them, he probably wouldn't hesitate to bury her himself, but... Caden really hoped it wouldn't come to that. After another drink, Caden walked over to where she was leaning against the counter, crowding her in with his body. "I'm not asking you to trust me completely, 'cause I can't say I trust you either. But we've gotta start somewhere. I'll do anything for my family. Right now, you're my family too."
Shan briefly entertained a fantasy of the two of them going back to New Jersey to track down her father and murder him, but she tried not to dwell there. She couldn’t ask that of anyone, especially not this new man in her life. Shan watched him approach and set her glass down, her eyes on his face. She got a strange mix of feelings when he said she was his family -- that word obviously had different connotations in Caden’s life than it had in hers. Her gaze dropped for a beat but she lifted her chin, not truly minding that he’d moved in so close to her. “I’ve never really had any family who wanted to do any good for me,” she murmured, meeting his eyes again. “I know trust is earned and it takes time, but ... I hope we can get there.”
"Yeah, I hope we can too," he said. And he meant it, but he also knew it would depend on how she was around his family and how many times she snuck into his truckbed... metaphorically, of course, because if she tried it again, he'd probably kick her out on her fantastic ass. Caden knew family meant different things to different people and while he knew very well that his was far from perfect, they still looked out for each other. Some families hated each other through and through. Taking a chance, he slipped a hand over the nape of her neck to keep her in place as he leaned down to kiss her.
Something in her had craved that kind of family for years, a group of people to look out for her and for her to return the favor. The abuse in her life had started so young, she didn’t have any full siblings, so there had been no one to watch her back. Only people who came and went and piled on more pain until Shan had escaped -- right into scary, dangerous parts of the real world. If Caden really thought of her as family now, even family on probation ... it made her chest feel weird with unfamiliar hope. Shan didn’t resist the kiss, tilting her face up to meet his lips and her eyes drifting shut, but it took a couple of heartbeats before she relaxed into it. One hand moved to rest against Caden’s side, and she inhaled slowly through her nose, glad that he didn’t seem actively pissed at her anymore.
Family probation was probably a really good phrasing for what Caden was thinking. He wasn't going to actively chase Shan off but if she gave his family shit... in a dangerous way... things were going to change. But right now, her lips were plush and soft and Caden was more focused on kissing her than thinking about his family. The cold shoulder was over and so was the argument, for now. Shan probably had Aaron to thank for that, because if his brother hadn't been there, Caden was pretty sure he and Shan would have both probably come home with bloody noses. He pulled back a bit and cocked a brow. "Wanna go back to the carnival?"
Shan quirked her brows back at him as she considered it, then shook her head a little. The mood was lost for the night. The fight might have been over, but she wasn’t feeling very festive anymore. She tugged a bit at the bottom of his shirt with both hands and smiled faintly. “You owe me a Ferris wheel ride though ... maybe we can go back tomorrow? Or at least like, before it leaves?” That had originally been what he’d said anyway, so she hoped he was still all right with it. If he was willing to indulge her a second time, Shan felt like that would be a good sign.
Caden nodded. He'd already promised they would go back and he'd keep it. After a second, he chuckled and took hold of her chin to lift her face a bit higher so he could kiss her again. "That was pretty fucking ballsy, what you did." Now that he wasn't shaking with fury over it, and they had reached some kind of compromise, he found some amusement in the whole thing. "What would you have done if we'd taken Aaron's truck? Or if it started raining?" He was glad now that he hadn't left her on Witcham Road. Knowing what he knew about those woods, she probably wouldn't have made it home.
She couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “I’m a ballsy bitch, what can I say. That’s why I’m here,” she murmured, keeping her mouth close to his. Shan was definitely in love with Caden’s lips, if not the full man yet. They were luscious and always felt so good pressed against any part of her. “I didn’t go outside ‘til I heard which of you was driving,” she explained, hoping the eavesdropping wouldn’t spark a whole new wave of anger ... but maybe not hoping too hard, because she did enjoy it when he got aggressive with her. “And if it rained? Guess I’d just get wet.” She shrugged with a suggestive little smile. Shan didn’t doubt that he really would have left her out there, but she didn’t know just how dangerous that would have been.
Caden smirked. "Mmhmm. Soaked, yeah?" He brushed his hand down her side to play with the hem of her shirt before dipping it beneath the material to touch her waist. Her skin was always so soft. Caden was no longer thinking about the eavesdropping, or anything else for that matter. He still had the smell of Blackwater on him, but he was sure it would dissipate as soon as his clothes were off for the night. Besides, he didn't want to talk or fight anymore. Shit had gotten worked out, his dad was still buried in the ground and he had Shan's word that she wouldn't tell anyone what happened. Tomorrow he'd take her back to the carnival and maybe get a blow job on the Ferris wheel. Caden kissed her again, long and slow before he pulled her tightly against his body, wanting her to feel how aroused he was starting to get.
Maybe it was fucked up that she was scared Caden was going to murder her less than an hour ago, but his mouth on hers made her feel warm and melty inside now. Shan had never really cared about being fucked up, though. It was unavoidable, she might as well embrace what she liked. And she really liked feeling his body pressed against hers and the way his fingers pressed into her skin. Shan parted her lips to deepen the kiss, her own hands slipping under Caden’s shirt to caress the broad expanse of his back. She could feel the bulge growing in his jeans and after a moment she slipped a hand between them to caress and squeeze it through the denim. Just knowing she was turning him on gave her a delicious rush of tingles between her legs -- whatever other problems they had or would have, that chemistry was undeniable. Shan nipped at Caden’s bottom lip and kissed him harder, wanting to rev him up even more.
Groaning into her mouth, Caden ran his hands down and around to her ass, gripping it tight before he bent his knees enough to lift her. With her legs around his waist, Caden turned to head for the bedroom, his mouth never leaving hers. He forgot that an hour ago he wanted to murder her. He forgot about Aaron and his dad and all the bullshit that came with it. Right now he wanted his wife naked and sprawled out on his bed for him to feast on, preferably for the rest of the night. The rest of the bullshit could wait.