Chapter 4
So much for sleeping in. I awoke with an unpleasant feeling. It must be damned early. My eyelids barely opened. I grumbled and pulled the blanket over my head.
Then I froze as something rustled in my room. Slowly, I slid the blanket down a bit and squinted against the sunlight shining on my bed.
Kaden was sitting there. To be precise, he’d made himself at home in my chair, his feet up on the desk. He looked at me unmoved, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to watch me sleep.
“Good morning, sunshine.” His voice dripped with irony.
Only a few hours ago he’d broken up a party and certainly he’d slept even less than I had. How could he be sitting here looking so fit?
“Coffee,” I groaned in my pillow. “No coffee, Allie doesn’t talk.”
His look of amusement surprised me. I’d never seen this expression on his face. After last night I had expected almost anything, but not this.
“Who would’ve thought you weren’t a morning person.”
“I might have told you that if you’d done a normal interview with me,” I muttered. I sat up, struggling to keep the blanket over my breasts.
“There’s coffee in the kitchen. I left some for you.”
I blinked at him. Was this a dream, or why was he being so nice? Something didn’t make sense.
I straightened my top, got out of bed and looked around for my sweater.
“Here,” Kaden threw the gray bundle at me. “Now start waking up.”
“Why?” I muttered. Before leaving the room, I turned to him again. He had folded his arms behind his head and was looking me up and down.
“We’re doing something today.” There was an undertone in his dark voice that I couldn’t quite interpret.
I walked to the kitchen, shaking my head. The apartment had already been straightened up. There was zero evidence of last night’s chaos. Instead, the smell of cleaning products mingled with the heavenly aroma of freshly brewed coffee.
I reached for the biggest mug I could find and filled it. With the cup in my hand I went back to my room, where I poured a generous portion of creamer into my coffee. A minty scent filled the air.
“You just poured mint-flavored creamer in your coffee,” Kaden said, making a face. He leaned forward and took the bottle from my hand. “Ugh.”
“You have no idea,” I replied and took a big gulp. I sighed with pleasure. “It tastes like a peppermint patty. Want to try?”
He grimaced as he read the label on the bottle. “No, thanks.”
I shrugged. “It’s another thing I would’ve told you if you’d given me the chance.”
“Do you have any other habits I should know about as an afterthought?” As he studied my face, he dropped his feet to the ground, and leaned forward.
Now that I was pretty much awake, I noticed how pleasant Kaden smelled. His spicy shower gel was a good match to the minty-vanilla candle fragrance in my room. How nice.
His hair was still damp and uncombed, and I felt a strange urge to run my fingers through it.
“Aside from the fact that you have a weird sense of smell and taste.” He nodded first to the candles, then to my coffee.
I thought for a moment and then leaned against the desk next to him. “I like Taylor Swift; I know most of her songs by heart and love to sing them in the shower. I have a thing for TV series of all kinds. Since I arrived in Woodshill, I’ve been surviving on fast food. I wasn’t allowed to eat that stuff at home. Oh, and I’d really love to have a cat. But don’t worry,” I added, since Kaden had already opened his mouth in protest. “Of course I won’t get one as long as I’m living with roommates. What else? Oh, if I watch a sad movie I start to cry, usually without noticing it myself. Probably because I’m just super empathic.”
Stop. Kaden was staring at me with his lips slightly parted, and I could see his thoughts moving like clockwork.
“Am I going on too long?” I asked, contrite. Hopefully he wasn’t overwhelmed with all my quirks and wondering how he could get rid of me as fast as possible.
“No, it’s okay.” Kaden ran both hands over his face.
“How did the party end up?” I asked, just to change the subject.
Now he leaned back again and folded his arms in front of his chest. My eyes wandered to his many tattoos. They were beautiful, not clumsy looking like so many others I’d seen.
“After your performance, the mood kind of cooled.”
“Oh no,” I cried, looking up from his tattoos. “I’m so sorry.” I put down my coffee and ran a hand through my hair. “Really, I didn’t mean to hurt your girlfriend’s feelings. I just didn’t like the way she spoke to Monica.”
I held my breath as Kaden let his eyes travel over my body. Then he shook his head a bit, raising his chin to look me in the eye again. “She isn’t my girlfriend. And I didn’t like it either.”
“That’s why I’m sorry. I just had such a long week and lost control, and then there was the wine, and … ” I paused and blinked. “Huh?”
“I didn’t like the way she spoke to Monica, either,” he said. For a moment he seemed lost in thought, then folded his arms behind his head. “To tell the truth, I didn’t like anything that came out of her mouth. It was more what she did with her mouth.”
I gulped my coffee.
“Yuck, Kaden!”
He grinned. A sly, self-assured grin. I wished I could just pour my coffee over his head. “What? Since we’re roommates now we can talk about this stuff openly and honestly, right? That’s what I always did with Ethan.”
I grimaced. “No thanks. No need. Would you excuse me now? I’ve got to go brush my teeth,” I said, putting down my coffee and getting up to leave. But I didn’t get far.
Kaden had grabbed me by the wrist and turned me around. In a sweeping move he’d trapped me between his legs. I stumbled and had to support myself with the other hand on his shoulder to avoid falling into his lap. I felt his hard muscles under his thin cotton shirt. Mmm.
“Monica is the only woman I’d call a friend.”
His grip around my wrist was gentle. I could have freed myself at any moment. But I didn’t want to, not at all.
“So you didn’t violate any rules,” he whispered, letting go.
Confused, I stayed put and frowned down at Kaden. “So I did everything right?”
Kaden raised one eyebrow. “That’s not how I’d put it, actually.”
“Actually,” I mimicked, grinning broadly at him.
“Don’t get too cocky, Allison.”
The grin froze on my face.
“How do you know my name’s Allison?” I demanded.
It was as if that other moment between us had never been. Kaden had rolled a bit backward on my desk chair and was giving me this nasty, mean look I’d come to know so well. “A good guess? There aren’t that many possibilities with a name like Allie.”
“Ah.” I turned away from him. “I really have to go wash up,” I said, and dashed out.
Sighing, I leaned over the sink and supported myself with both hands on the cool surface. Everything’s fine. It didn’t take magic for him to conjure Allie into Allison. And that wasn’t even my first name, just my middle name. Everything was okay. No need to worry.
Just as I shoved the toothbrush into my mouth, I heard a knock. And of course Kaden opened the door without waiting for me to say, “Come in.”
I should have screamed. Why isn’t there a lock? What if I’d been on the toilet? But instead I tried to appear as undisturbed as possible, and said only: “Hmm?”
“Do you have hiking shoes?” he asked.
I shook my head and brushed my teeth a bit more vehemently than necessary.
“That’s not going to do you any good,” muttered Kaden.
I spit out the toothpaste and rinsed my mouth well before asking, “You want to go on a hike with me?”
My words were muffled, as I dried my face with a hand towel.
“You said something about how you came here because of the scenery. I thought I could show you a few spots.”
Looking at Kaden, I raised one eyebrow. “Why?”
The fact that he could change so much overnight was utterly confusing to me.
Kaden just shrugged. “You don’t have to come. If you want, you can also sit around here and cry.”
Oh. My. God. Had he heard my little nervous breakdown last night?
He raised his eyebrows. “The walls are thin.”
“I was just—” I started, but Kaden interrupted.
“I don’t give a shit why you were bawling. Rule one,” he admonished me, as I pressed my lips together. Of course. “But if you’re in the mood to see a bit of Woodshill and you’re seriously into nature, come with me. I’m going out today.”
I swung around to face him as he followed me back to my bedroom. “You got me. But please leave me alone while I get dressed.”
His eyes twinkled. “I could help you.”
“Rule number three, Kaden,” I admonished, and even surprised myself at how well I managed to imitate his tone. Hopefully it would sink in with him, how ridiculous that whole thing was.
“No, I mean I could help you pick out what to wear,” he replied, without picking up on my joke. His brows knit, he walked over to my shelf and inspected my shoes. “You really don’t have any hiking shoes, do you?”
“Nope. I’ve only been in Woodshill a few days.”
He lifted up a pair of my heels. “But you have a hell of a lot of these.”
“You can’t have enough pumps.”
“I’m sure they look incredibly sexy, but I doubt you could walk for long in them.” He put the shoes back in their place and grabbed a pair of sneakers. They were old things that I only wore when I went to a Pilates class. “These will have to do.”
He set them on the floor in front of me and left the room. “Get a move on. I wanted to leave half an hour ago.”
He didn’t see me roll my eyes. On one hand it was nice of him to want to take me along, but on the other hand his domineering style was driving me crazy.
Still, I was secretly pleased to see something of the mountains that I’d only viewed from a distance or on the Internet. I put on a pair of jeans and a blouse. Then I tied the laces of my sneakers in tight loops and grabbed my purse.
When I entered the living room, Kaden was leaning against the kitchen counter. Seeing me, he frowned so darkly that I could hardly see his eyes. “Are you kidding me?” he asked, in disbelief.
“What?” I looked down at myself—not bad, if you asked me.
“Your top won’t work at all. It’s going to fall apart the minute you come near a branch. Come here,” he said and went into his room.
Taken aback, I followed him to the doorway.
He was standing in front of his dresser, rummaging around one of the upper drawers. As he reached, his sweatshirt slipped up so high that I could see a bit of his skin. A very nice sight. Especially when I let my eyes wander down below the waistband of his boxer shorts. My roomie had a very nice …
“Here,” he said and threw a gray bundle at me. Oh, God: Had he noticed me staring at his butt? “Put this on.”
I put my bag on Kaden’s desk and unfolded a thick hoodie with pockets you could easily sink your hands into. On the front was the masked face of Deadpool, which made me smile. Apparently, I wasn’t the only superhero fan in this apartment. “Thanks.”
I pulled my blouse over my head. Of course I was wearing a camisole under it, but Kaden’s eyes widened a bit, and I turned around. As I slipped into his sweater I took the chance to inhale at the collar. It smelled like Kaden. I grabbed my bag from his desk and turned to face him.
“Why on earth would you want to take a purse on a hike?” he asked, jerking his head toward my bag.
“Because I’m sure I’ll need money. And of course my phone. And lip gloss, tissues, and … ”
Kaden grimaced. “Maybe I should leave you here.”
Had this guy had never been around a female of our species? Unnerved, I fished my cell phone out of the bag, but paused as I heard him say my name.
“Allie.”
It was the first time he’d called me by the name I’d given him when we met.
I raised my eyes from my bag and looked at him.
“Hiking is about leaving everything behind and freeing your mind. You won’t need a cell phone or your wallet, let alone all that other shit.”
I gave a loud sigh and set my bag back on his desk, lifting my empty hands in the air. “Happy?”
Kaden gave me a crooked smile. “Very.”
OMG.
What was I getting myself into?