Stupid Dirty (Possum Hollow, #1)

by Erin Russell

I’ve spent every day of my life with some invisible storm cloud hanging over me, but Cade seems to walk around with sunshine permanently on his face. I’d slit my wrists to have a little taste of that.

I don’t want to feel responsible for Silas’ safety. I want to keep sulking about the race and being pissed at him. But it looks like it’s a little late for that. Duct-taping broken people back together is all I do, really.

“Cade?” “Mhmm?” I stay still and quiet, letting him come to me. A long time passes before he turns his head. It’s still nestled in the crook of his arms, but now he’s facing me, looking me in the eye for the first time since we started this conversation. “Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to fly?” And that’s it. Five-alarm-fire bells are ringing in my chest and I’m practically vibrating with the need to get him inside and the fuck away from this drop.

The same hard body that was threatening me yesterday, and then pulling me back from the edge, now seems like something soft that I can burrow into and hide.

Shit like this is supposed to be fun. But it’s like everyone’s speaking a different language, and I’m the only one without the dictionary. Every time someone says something, I have to go through my brain like a Rolodex to figure out what to say back.

I hope he knows what he got himself into when he invited me into his world, because he’s not going to be able to pry me off him anytime soon. It’s too late. There’s no way I’m giving this up now.

“Yes, I promise I’m not chatty. Cade calls me ‘robot boy’.” “It’s true.” Cade grins again. “He’s incredibly dull. You’ll love him.”

The real Silas—my Silas, my brain prompts me, which is a weird way of looking at it but not technically untrue—is so much brighter than the old version. He smiles more: still small, shy smiles that are mostly for me, but they’re so genuine. He laughs and talks more easily with me and the open, unguarded way he gives affection to Maddi and Sky makes me want to beam at him and never stop.

He’s fucking glowing. If I took a picture of him right now and he threw up a Tinder profile, his phone would blow the fuck up. Which makes my stomach twist with envy a little, which is also unlike me. I don’t know what’s going on in my head right now.

“Fuck,” he says, still staring at me the way he does. “We are so fucking stupid. No one is as stupid as we are. Fuck, we’re dumb.” I don’t have time to figure out what he means by that, because half a second later he launches himself at me and my lap and mouth is suddenly full of Cade.

One of Cade’s hands is on my back, his nails digging into the skin there so hard I think he could draw blood, and the other is wrapped around the back of my neck in a way that feels so possessive I want to dig a hole in his chest and never come out.

“‘Stupid dirty fuckhot’ was a compliment, just fyi,”

I may enjoy bossing Silas around in our regular lives, but our shiny new sex life has unlocked something growly and dominant in him. Something ferocious. The fact that I’m about to come in my pants tells me I don’t hate it.

I love the way he looks at me, his pupils blown out with lust, like I’m beautiful. I love getting wrecked for him.

Hold me. Promise you’ll never leave me. Be my family and let me be yours. I can only breathe because you’re still here.

I wish you could see yourself when you’re out there, the way you light up. You look so beautiful.”

From the first time we hooked up and I saw what you looked like spread out underneath me, I was hooked. I wish you could see yourself like that, Cade. It’s unbelievable.” “Sloppy and desperate?” He asks, but there’s a teasing lilt to his voice. “No, dumbass. You look free. You’re totally uninhibited, and it’s like I get to be the thing that wraps around you and keeps you safe.