Alex was lying in Cade’s bed, in the dark, staring at the ceiling while he was passed out cold beside her on his stomach, one hand under the pillow, the other one hanging off his bed.
Once they’d finished their first workout against his front door, he’d picked her up and carried her to his room, tossed her on the bed, walked into his bathroom quick, then came back out completely naked.
Her clothes were still in the living room along with his pants and shoes. Her heels were on the floor next to the bed after he’d finally taken them off with his teeth.
What a wonderful mouth he had. She knew first hand now since he ran his mouth, his tongue, and his teeth all over her body.
All those comments about Cade not taking anything serious in life didn’t apply to sex. He was seriously on a mission to drive her insane and give her the maximum number of orgasms a body could take before it had no energy to move.
Hence the reason she was lying here wide awake while Cade didn’t have a care in the world.
She had every intention of getting up and leaving. Their arrangement didn’t lend toward full nights spent together. At least in her mind.
Obviously not in his, though, since he’d pulled her in tight and held on, knocking away any ideas of escape.
So since she was awake and Cade was her ride home—another thing she’d completely forgotten about—and sleep was the furthest thing from her mind, she was trying to figure out what the next step was going to be.
She’d never done anything like she did tonight with another man. Not just the sex in the living room, but the amount of it, period.
She never had someone that even wanted to continue on with the night, trying to wear her out.
Then again, she really hadn’t been with all that many men, despite the rumors when she was in high school.
One boy. Her first. Ronnie Larman. She’d been head over heels for him and he felt the same way. Or so she thought. But nasty jealous girls ruined that for her, starting rumors that she was cheating on Ronnie when she wasn’t. When she was just being friendly to another boy that had no friends. Sometimes doing the right thing, the polite thing, backfired in the worst possible ways.
There were two boys in college. One that was short-lived; it just didn’t work out. Then Keith.
Keith who had long-term plans and she fit the mold in his mind, but he’d never clued her in on them. Not until it was too late.
She rolled over and looked at Cade again. This couldn’t go anywhere. They were two different people with nothing in common.
He was a treat for the eyes, sure. The same had been said about her a lot in her life, but superficial never lasted long.
Her hand reached out, her fingers lightly trailing along his shoulder and arm. “What am I going to do about you?” she whispered.
***
The next morning Cade rolled over to an empty bed, sat up straight and looked around in a panic. Where could Alex have gone?
He jumped up quickly and tripped over her heels on the floor, then breathed a sigh of relief knowing she had to be in the house somewhere.
He made his way into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, then jumped in the shower fast and walked into the kitchen. She was sitting at his island in one of his T-shirts drinking coffee. He hadn’t even heard her opening and closing drawers to find that.
“Morning,” she said, her eyes roaming over him.
“Morning,” he said back, walking forward and giving her a quick kiss. Her eyes told stories of wanting just that from him. “You found everything okay, I see?”
“I tried not to pry too much, but I needed a hit of caffeine and you were snoring away. No reason to wake you.”
He snorted. “I don’t snore.”
“Since you’re sleeping, you’d have no clue.”
He looked at her grin and decided not to answer. “Did you sleep okay?”
“No.”
His heart was racing for a reason he couldn’t explain. “Why?”
“Just a lot on my mind. No particular reason.”
He walked to a cabinet and pulled a pan out, opened the fridge and grabbed some eggs. “Did you eat yet?”
“No. Are you going to cook for me?”
“I am. Aiden isn’t the only one that can cook in the family.”
“Are you as good as him?” she asked, laughing over the rim of her mug.
He loved that she had no qualms about teasing him when other women in the past never felt they could. He wasn’t sure why either. “No one is as good as Aiden.”
“You’re telling me. I know it was just a barbeque at your parents’ party but it was the best I’d ever had.”
“He has a special talent. All my siblings do,” he said.
“You do too,” she said.
He squinted one eye at her. “What would that be?”
She stood up and walked over to stand next to him. “You’re nice. You’re charming. You make people laugh. That takes a talent whether you want to admit it or not.”
“Not everyone laughs though.”
“Cade. Stop it. Not everyone has something they can excel at in life. There are too many people in the world and not enough things for that to happen.”
He’d never thought of it that way. “I guess it’s being part of the Fierce Five. We’re all looked at as one. All compared to each other. Everyone searched for an identity.”
“Yourself included?”
“Yes. It seemed I didn’t have anything that made me stand out.”
“So you decided to be the joker of the group?”
“Well, it did seem to come naturally to me.”
She wrapped her arm around his waist. “We all need someone to make us laugh in life. I’d be the first person to say I might not have laughed as much as I wanted.”
“Why is that?” he asked, kissing her forehead. Sometimes she was so serious and he wasn’t sure why. There was so much about her he couldn’t get a handle on.
“Just a lot of pressure.”
“For what?”
“Helping with the family business. Trying not to ask for too much because I knew my parents were busy and money was often tight. I was labeled when I was younger so it was pressure and stress to stay out of the spotlight.”
“You’ve made comments before about not wanting attention. Because you’re beautiful? Jealous women say and do things when they’re cornered. You just need to ignore them.” He knew first hand.
“It’s not just that. Or not fully. That’s only part of it. When you mature physically faster than most, guys look at you differently. Girls spread rumors and lies because the guys are looking at you. It’s endless. Maybe if I’d had some siblings like you, I would have had some backup. But I didn’t and didn’t have a lot of friends either.”
“Why is that?” he asked, stepping back and cracking some eggs into the pan to scramble. He wanted her to relax and talk and he was thinking if he continued to hold her, she’d clam up.
“I had friends, don’t get me wrong. Just no one that I could consider a best friend. I danced when I was younger. Ballet, tap, jazz. My mother got me started and I loved it. But by the time I turned eleven my body was developing so fast and I was self-conscious. I stopped dancing and started to play sports. I didn’t miss the actual dance as much as the way it made me feel. But sports took over and I enjoyed that instead while it lasted.”
“Okay. I’m still not understanding why you didn’t have a lot of friends back then.”
“I’m pretty athletic and competitive.”
“Ah, now it’s making more sense.” He knew first hand how girls could get catty and mean when they didn’t get their way or the attention wasn’t on them.
“Anyway. Enough of my sad childhood. Actually, it wasn’t all that sad. I don’t want you to think that. We got off topic. We were talking about you.”
He laughed. “Nah. I’m done talking about me. I’m guessing you’re done talking about you too. How about we forget about our pasts and think about the future instead?”
She looked a little apprehensive. “Meaning what?”
The hurt he’d been trying to fight back since yesterday was rearing its ugly little head at him again. He tried to exhaust them both enough so that she didn’t ask for a ride home last night. He hadn’t been ready to end their time together.
“Meaning the past is just that. In the past. Can’t change it. Can’t do anything about it now.”
“The same could be said about the future. Not much we can do about it.”
“Then we can focus on the present,” he said, pulling the pan off the stove. “And eat breakfast, then I can bring you back home for a change of clothes and maybe we can go do something fun today.”
She walked away from him and grabbed two plates and set them on the table. “What kind of fun?”
“Whatever you want,” he said, not wanting this day to end with her. He had it bad.
“I’ll think about it. I had planned on doing some work.”
“It’s Sunday. Why not take the day off? When was the last time you had a day off?”
“I couldn’t even tell you,” she said, digging into her eggs. “These are pretty good.”
He winked at her. “Aiden would tell me they’re too plain, but I don’t need everything in life to be locked, loaded, and overstuffed.”
She burst out laughing. “I’ve never thought of eggs that way before, but whatever works.”
He was going to tell her it wasn’t about eggs. It was about them. The two of them sitting there casually eating breakfast, but he could tell it wasn’t what she’d want to hear.