Chapter Twelve
THE NEXT MORNING, Bella was in the shower when she heard Jenna calling for her from the bedroom.
“Bells? Belly? Bella!” Jenna stormed into the bathroom where Bella was showering.
Bella peered out from behind the shower curtain. Jenna wore a red bikini and a pair of cutoffs. She thrust a plate of something that resembled mangled bread toward her. “Good Lord, Jenna. What is so urgent?”
“After seeing you and Caden together at the beach last night, I decided it was time to take action with Pete. He arrives in ten minutes, and I wasn’t sure what time you and Caden were leaving. Sorry to barge in.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not. You don’t mind, do you?” She didn’t give Bella a chance to answer. “I need you to try this.” She shoved the plate closer to Bella.
“I’m all wet.” She didn’t mind Jenna barging into her bathroom. In fact, the day Jenna stopped treating Bella’s house as her own would be a very sad day for her. One that Bella hoped never happened—even when they were old, gray, and saggy. With Leanna and Kurt coming together, and now her and Caden, maybe they needed to think up a sign that they were getting busy inside and not to come in. Like the proverbial sock on the doorknob. The thought made her smile.
Jenna scooped up a hunk of whatever it was and shoved it into Bella’s mouth. “Pete loves pumpkin, so I made orange pumpkin bread, but I didn’t have enough butter or flour, so…” She furrowed her brow. “How is it?”
“Jen…”
Jenna plopped down on the toilet lid. “Oh, no. I knew it! I have been baking the stinking thing for an hour.”
Bella drew the curtain closed and finished showering. “Why don’t you just get something from Leanna? She always has good stuff.”
“She’s at the flea market already, and besides, I really wanted to try to get his attention, you know?” Jenna went to the mirror and brushed her hair, then used Bella’s eyelash curler.
“Hand me a towel.”
Jenna tossed her one.
“That red bikini will get his attention, Jen.” She stepped from the shower and looked at Jenna in the mirror. “Look at you. You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you’re compassionate, and you’re funny. Jenna, you don’t need extras. Just be you.”
Jenna’s shoulders dropped. “I’ve been being me around Pete for years, and either he’s gay or he’s just not into me.”
Bella ran a comb through her hair. “He’s just shy, and when you’re around him, you’re shy, too. Why don’t we have a barbeque and you can invite him? We’ll liquor you up, and you’ll be yourself again instead of lost in your Petey crush.”
“Maybe I should invite him to go with us on the fishing trip.”
Bella shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” She went into the bedroom and put on a yellow bikini and a short, sheer, cover-up.
Jenna went into Bella’s closet and brought out two pairs of flip-flops—one pale yellow, one light blue—then held them up next to Bella. “Did you and Caden decide where you’re going?” She put the yellow flip-flops on the floor, and Bella slid her feet into them.
“The beach.” Bella lowered her voice. “He’s never done the deed outdoors.”
“Bella!” Jenna’s eyes widened. “He’s a cop. You can’t delinquentize him!”
Bella arched a brow. “Says the girl who pretty much eggs me on with every slightly bad thing I ever do.”
“That’s you, not a cop.”
Bella rolled her eyes. “Do you really think I’d suggest that we do anything that could get him in trouble?”
Jenna arched a brow.
“Have some faith. I’ll try to behave.” Maybe.
At the sound of tires on gravel, Jenna looked out the window and gasped.
“He’s here.”
“Caden?” Bella asked.
“Pete!”
Bella pushed her toward the door. “Go.”
Jenna circled back to the bathroom and grabbed the plate. Bella took it from her hands. “Leave that here and go. Try to put together a coherent sentence.”
Jenna straightened her bikini top and smiled. “Do I look okay?”
“Crystalline-blue eyes, boobs like Salma Hayek, and an aura of sweet and sexy that could melt ice. I think it’s safe to say you’re a walking, talking, instant arousal in a four-eleven package.” She hugged her quickly and pushed her out the door. “Talk to him. Practice saying, Hey, sexy, on the way down.”
Jenna waved a hand behind her as she headed toward Pete’s truck, which was parked by the pool. Bella went around her cottage and peeked around the corner, watching Jenna. Jenna was slightly pigeon-toed, with a natural swing to her hips that would have looked like a mockery on anyone else, but it looked sexy and natural on Jenna. She slowed by Tony’s driveway and smoothed her hair. Come on, Jenna. You can do this. Jenna’s shoulder lifted, then fell, as if she’d taken a deep breath.
“Who are we spying on?” Caden’s arms wrapped around Bella’s waist from behind and he kissed her cheek.
“Jenna’s going to invite Pete on the fishing trip.” Bella inhaled his minty, citrus, warm scent, and every sexual nerve in her body awoke. “You smell amazing. What is that?”
“Tommy Hilfiger. I figured you might want something different.”
She looked over her shoulder and inhaled again. “I always love the way you smell.” His skin glistened in the warm sun, and when he bent to kiss her, he closed his eyes. She loved his eyes. They were warm and expressive. She could see what he was feeling in his dark eyes, and when he opened them, they told her that he was exactly where he wanted to be.
“There she goes.” Caden nodded toward Jenna.
Pete was in his midthirties, with a body that could stop traffic and a mop of thick brown hair. He had a welcoming smile that could ease a scowl from the devil. He set down his tools and leaned casually against his truck, giving Jenna his full attention. Who wouldn’t in that hot red bikini?
“She must be talking, right? He looks like he’s listening.” Bella’s pulse quickened, as much with anticipation of Jenna’s potential date as for Caden’s close proximity.
“Sure. What’s the big deal?” Caden asked.
“You only know the Jenna we all know. She’s a pistol, but around Pete, she’s a wallflower.”
Pete nodded and Jenna’s arms went behind her back. She linked her hands together, lifted her shoulders, and kicked at the gravel with one foot.
“He said yes! Oh, I’m so happy for her.”
“How do you know?” Caden asked.
“Her body language. That shoulder scrunch was like her happy dance.” She turned to face Caden, and without thinking, she hooked her finger into the waist of his bathing suit. He sealed his lips over hers, and for a minute she debated skipping the lake altogether and taking him inside for a day of frolicking in the sheets instead of the sand. She forced herself to push those thoughts away, realizing she’d had to do that an awful lot lately.
“How’s Evan?”
“He wasn’t thrilled about last night’s earlier curfew, but he was fine again this morning.”
“One thing you can count on with teenagers is that they’re completely inconsistent.” Bella headed inside, and they gathered her beach tote, towels, and the lunch she’d packed for them. “I remember what it was like to be that age. I would hear myself say something mean to my mom, and it was like I couldn’t stop myself if I’d wanted to.”
“Yeah? Then the next few years should be fun. You might want to run while you still can.” Caden carried the cooler outside, and they packed the truck for an afternoon at the lake.
“If I can teach a classroom of teenagers, I think I can handle one.” They climbed into the truck, and she leaned across the seat and kissed him. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”
“Then I’m a lucky man.”
BELLA AND CADEN went to Fisherman’s Landing, a large lake shaped like a figure eight that wound beneath a bridge and disappeared behind a bank of trees on the other side. A wooded trail led from the parking lot to the beach. There were a handful of rowboats, pedal boats, and kayaks tied to a small dock. The rental kiosk was down the beach to the left. They walked down the narrow stretch of beach in the opposite direction of the boat rentals, past families with small children darting in and out at the water’s edge, past the roped-off swimming area, and found a quiet spot at the far side of the beach.
Bella lay on her back in a yellow bikini, which tied at the hips. Her hair spread out like threads of gold around her beautiful face. Caden couldn’t stop himself from stealing glances at her. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted, and it was all he could do not to climb on top of her and kiss her until she begged for more.
“I can feel you looking at me.” Eyes still closed, Bella smiled.
“Caught me.” He leaned up on one elbow and ran his fingers over her stomach. Her skin was soft and warm from the sun.
“That feels nice.”
“You’re telling me?” Caden glanced behind him to make sure no one had moved closer to them. When he was sure no one could see them, he leaned over and kissed the swell of her breast, just beyond the yellow triangle of stretchy fabric.
“Mm. That felt good, too.” She shifted onto her side, stretched her arm along the blanket, and rested her head on it.
Caden leaned on one elbow and ran his hand along the curve of her hip as it dipped to her waist, then up her ribs. He moved closer, so their bodies were almost touching. The closer he got to Bella, the hotter he became.
“You’re dangerously sexy, babe,” he admitted.
She draped her arm over his waist and pressed her hips to his. “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”
He exhaled a breathy laugh and sealed his mouth to hers. She met his desire with a needful, eager kiss and eased onto her back. Caden slid his leg over her thighs and the skin-to-skin contact spurred him to deepen the kiss.
“Bella,” he whispered against her lips, then kissed her again. “I feel like such a letcher around you.”
She looked up at him through a sexy haze of desire so thick he had to kiss her again.
“If you’re a letcher, then what does that make me?” She ran her fingers up his back and brought her mouth to his shoulder.
The warm, sensual strokes of her tongue on his heated skin nearly did him in. When she drew back, her eyes darkened seductively. A quick sweep of their surroundings confirmed that they were far enough away from anyone else that as long as he kept his back to the other side of the beach, he could tease her right back without being seen.
He slipped a finger beneath the tie on her hip and leaned down, grazing her lips with his. He’d never done anything like this before—right out in the open—and it amped up the thrill a zillion times.
“You are a naughty, naughty girl, Bella Abbascia.”
Heat flared in her eyes.
She wrapped her slender fingers around his wrist. He glanced over each shoulder in a way that he hoped was casual, trying to mask the urgency racing through him, and he wondered if the risk they were taking was making this as exciting for her as it was for him. When he met her gaze again, Bella dragged her tongue across her lower lip, leaving it glistening wet, and pulling a groan from his lungs.
“Touch me,” she whispered.
“How about you let me lead?” He kissed the corners of her mouth and licked the glistening streak on her lower lip.
He brought his mouth to her neck and kissed a path to her ear, and a needy whimper escaped her lungs.
“You can plead all you want. You’re not getting what you want until I’m good and ready,” he whispered.
“You’re so unfair.”
“Am I?” He sucked her earlobe.
“Caden,” she said in one long breath.
“I love hearing my name come off your lips like a plea.” He felt her shudder and kissed her. He pulled back, now in full tease mode, and pressed featherlight kisses around her lips.
“Unfair.” Her eyes fluttered closed, and her arm drifted to the sand beside her.
He covered her mouth with his and took her in a deep, soulful kiss, swallowing the sexy little sounds that she tried so hard to repress. When their lips finally parted, her eyes fluttered open. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Those were great kisses.”
She closed her eyes for a beat and he touched his forehead to hers.
I’m so in love with you. He silenced the words that ached to be heard with another soft kiss.
BELLA DIDN’T KNOW how long she lay on her back with her eyes closed, trying to quell the desire that snaked through her veins and stole her ability to think clearly, but when she finally opened her eyes, Caden was about fifty pages into a novel. He was perched on his elbows beside her. He squinted against the sun.
“Hey there, beautiful.”
“Sorry for zoning out.” She rolled onto her side and ran her hand along the muscles that flanked his broad back.
“Don’t be. I’ll take it as a compliment.” He leaned over and kissed her.
“Your kisses blew my mind.” She smiled and gazed into his eyes. She could lie right there beside him all day long and be perfectly content. Happy, she corrected herself. Perfectly happy.
“Can’t ask for more than that.” He set down his book. “Do you want to rent a boat?”
“Sure.”
They walked down the beach hand in hand, and for the first time in a very long time, Bella felt like she was part of a real couple. She’d never felt very connected to Jay, so he’d always felt a little like a friend with benefits. Even with the other guys she’d dated throughout the years, she’d never felt the same deep connection she felt with Caden. Holding his hand wasn’t high school exciting. It wasn’t a precursor to sex. It was so much more than those things. Holding Caden’s hand felt like their lives were joining together and becoming one. She could see herself years from now sitting on the beach reading beside him; she could picture him graying around the temples with crow’s feet around his beautiful dark eyes. None of those thoughts were part of her summertime plan, and yet they were there, as real and as present as the man who instilled them.
Caden rowed them out to the middle of the lake. Children’s voices drifted farther into the distance, birds flapped as they landed on the water, and Bella soaked in the peaceful moment.
“I kind of like this whole setup.” She leaned back and stretched her legs out in front of her, wiggling her toes between Caden’s bare feet. “You can row me around anytime you want. You know, if you get bored one day and just feel like being a sexy, shirtless water taxi.”
He shook his head, but his smile reached his eyes. “Can I?”
“Uh-huh. I mean, I wouldn’t fight it or anything.”
Bella spread her towel out on the metal seat and lay horizontally, dangling her toes in the water. Her arms fell limply to her sides, and she closed her eyes. It had been a perfect morning, and now, as the boat moved swiftly through the water, the comfortable silence that had become familiar no longer surprised her.
From behind closed lids, a shadow darkened the sky and the air cooled as, Bella assumed, they passed beneath the bridge. When her closed lids were struck by the blazing sun again, she knew they’d passed through to the other side. The lake was large, and in all the years Bella had been going there, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d seen people go beyond the bridge. She kept her eyes closed and listened for sounds of others. She liked drifting along without knowing exactly where she was, letting Caden make the decisions of where they were headed. She trusted him, and that thought nestled into her heart like a bear bedding down for a long, cold winter.
She heard the sweeping of the oars in the water cease and felt the boat drifting slower. She heard Caden sigh. He sounded as relaxed as she felt, and she wondered what he was doing, but the moment was so blissfully peaceful that she didn’t dare open her eyes. The boat rocked, and she sensed Caden’s closeness before she felt his mouth on hers. She opened her lips and welcomed his warm, loving kiss. Keeping her eyes closed, she relished in the anticipation of not knowing what might come next. He kissed her like he was making love to her mouth, and her mind drifted far, far away.
“No one’s around. I promise.”
She trusted him completely. The risk heightened the excitement, and she hoped he was feeling the same thrill as she was. She reached for him, eyes still closed, and felt his hip, then followed the line of it to his firm butt.
He whispered against her lips. “I swear I love more about you than your body. I really do.”
He kissed her softly, and she tried to deepen the kiss, but he drew back, teasing her once again. Every sensation magnified with each hot breath as he whispered against her ear, “But I want to make love to you.”
She fisted her hand in the fabric of his shorts and licked her lips.
“You know that drives me crazy.” He kissed her again, and she opened her mouth wider, trying to take more of him.
His hands gripped her hips and held on tight as he brought his mouth down to her belly. “I love how you tremble when I touch you.”
Tremble. Touch. More.
His hands left a hot trail as they slid up. He nibbled the edge of her jaw, bringing her nerves to the surface of her skin. She sensed his face over hers, and forced her eyes open.
His gaze slid to the water, and the edge of his lips curved up. “Up for a swim?”
Yes! Her mouth still wasn’t working. He sank to his knees beside her and drew her close.
“I don’t have a condom,” he whispered.
Her heart was beating so hard she was sure he could feel it. She forced herself to speak. “I really am on the pill. I’m not a college girl just looking for sex, or someone who forgets to take the pill religiously and willing to risk a pregnancy.”
He touched his forehead to hers. “I know, Bella.”
She quieted, letting him make the decision. She wanted to be close to him, to be with him in every sense, and as he contemplated the situation, she was hit with a thought so powerful that it drew her back. She could see herself having a child with him.
“I haven’t risked this since Caty.” He pressed his hands to her cheeks and gazed into her eyes with the most serious look she’d ever seen on him. Her pulse quickened from the uncertainty of what it meant. His jaw clenched, and his eyebrows drew together. His eyes swept over the empty lake. They were alone, so very alone. It felt like they were the only people on earth.
“We don’t have to…” she offered.
“I want to, Bella. I want you. I want you in every way possible.” He kissed her then, and she couldn’t hold back any longer.
She grasped at his shoulder, his back, his hair, whatever she could reach.
“Water.” A command. Another desirous thrill.
He stepped over the side and reached for her. “Come to me, baby.”
She leaned toward him, and in one swift move, he had her in his arms, the cool water warmed in seconds. He sealed his mouth to hers and kissed her like he needed her in order to breathe. His powerful legs kept them afloat. He tore his lips from hers, breathing hard.
“Caden.” She paused to catch her breath. I love you. “I…I’ve never done this before. You’re my first outside lover.”
“I hope to be your last.”