Cautious: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

by Candice Wright

  “Everyone always thinks that because parents are adults, they must have their shit together. Nobody ever realizes that the kids are often the ones left picking up the pieces of their parents’ fuck ups and indiscretions,” she says before opening her menu and burying her head, effectively shutting down the conversation.

  Red flag number three. There are so many things I want to ask her, but watching her try to pull back her emotions even as I see the sheen in her eyes makes me want to wrap her up in my arms and never let go. How can someone seem so strong and yet so fragile at the same time?

  “You called me Blake,” I point out softly, finding I don't like her silence one little bit.

  “I did? Well, damn.” She gives a relieved smile of her own, happy to be on safer ground.

  “Thank you for agreeing to come tonight.” I can see my words surprise her.

  “Well, it's not like you gave me much of a chance to say no, now did you?” She laughs.

  “I don’t mess around when I see something I want,” I admit.

  She looks a little awestruck at that, which is crazy. Doesn’t she know how fucking spectacular she is?

  She coughs, flustered, looking back down at the menu before speaking. “What's good here?” she asks quietly, deflecting the attention away from herself.

  I’m guessing her, spread out on the table, is not the answer she’s looking for. Although maybe for dessert… I shake it off, it's too soon. And Callie, well I get the feeling, she’s worth waiting for.

  “This is my first time here too, but when you come to a steakhouse, baby, you order steak,” I reply.

  “Is that a rule?” she questions with a chuckle.

  “It should be.”

  “Well, it makes being a vegan really freaking difficult.”

  I freeze, kicking my own ass for not asking her beforehand if she ate meat. Hold on a minute, I remember her eating a burger at the office the other day. I glare at her but find my lips twitching when she throws her head back and laughs.

  “Now, that was just mean,” I tell her with a laugh of my own, the melancholy from before forgotten for now.

  A waiter approaches from one of the nearby tables, his eyes firmly on Callie as he holds up his pad and pen.

  “Hello, I’ll be your server this evening. My name is Ricco. Are you ready to order?” he asks her, ignoring me completely.

  I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from saying anything, not wanting to make a scene and ruin our date over this chump.

  She shifts in her seat and looks at me for confirmation, so I nod before turning back to glare at him.

  She places her order of steak, baked potato with sour cream, and a portion of green beans, all while Ricco’s eyes are fixed on the V of her dress. By the time she has finished, her arms are crossed over her chest, her body language screaming “back off.”

  When he finally turns to look at me and sees the furious glare on my face, he visibly swallows. Little pissant.

  “I’ll take the same, and we’ll have the original waitress back, thank you,” I order in a clipped tone, somehow managing to keep calm enough to stop myself from smashing my chair over his head.

  “Sorry, sir, that's not how it works,” he protests, his voice petulant and whiny, his tone suggesting that I’m the one who has offended him. I crick my neck and remind myself that there are too many witnesses here to get away with murder

  “I came here to spend the evening with my girl, not for her to be made uncomfortable by some punk-ass, snot-nosed teenager staring at her chest,” I bite out quietly so the surrounding tables don't hear us.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I don't know what you’re talking about,” he retorts indignantly, turning his wide eyes to Callie as if to say, “why is this man overreacting?”

  I wait for her to call me an overbearing asshole, but instead, she surprises the ever-loving shit out of me.

  “Don't do that.” She shakes her head, frowning. “You should have put your hands up, owned it, and apologized. Now you look like a dick. He’s right, you did make me uncomfortable. How would you feel if it were your sister or mother and some strange guy did nothing but stare at their chest?” she asks him, not as quietly as I did, therefore garnering the attention of the two tables beside us. “Now that we’ve established I have breasts, I think it's important to point out what I don’t have is steak,” she says, making him flush as he turns and stalks away.

  I stare at her in shock. I can’t remember any female I’ve dated taking my back like that. She must feel my eyes on her because she looks up, her eyebrows quirking in question.

  “What?”

  “I’m so hard right now I’m ready to get to the locking you in the basement part of the date,” I respond immediately.

  She pauses for a moment before her lyrical laughter rings out over the restaurant, drawing eyes and soft smiles her way.

  I am so fucked.

  Chapter Nine

  Callie

  One date turned into two. Two turned into four, and four turned into twelve. It's official. I suck at staying away from Blake Price and his cocky voodoo magic that makes my nether regions start singing the national anthem whenever he’s nearby.

  “Earth to Callie.” I jolt at the sound of June's voice calling me from the bottom of the porch steps.

  I look up from the book I have been pretending to read, even though I have been on the same page for the last twenty minutes, and see June smiling at me with a pie dish in her left hand as she balances her weight on her cane with the other.

  “June!” I gasp, rushing down the steps to relieve her, before scolding her for not calling out to me.

  “Child, I called you ten times, but your head was so far in the clouds you couldn't hear a thing,” she tells me, making me blush. Damn, busted.

  “Sorry, June. I guess I need more coffee. Its’s not even lunchtime and I can tell it's going to be a multiple pot kind of day,” I admit, heading into the kitchen with the delicious smelling pie.

  “What’s got you in such a tizzy, or do I even need to ask?” she questions with a hint of smugness in her voice.

  “Urgh,” I answer eloquently, placing the pie on the counter before pulling a chair out for June and indicating for her to sit.

  “He better be treating you right. He might think he’s a tough guy now he’s all grown, but he’s not too big for the ass-whooping he’ll get if he isn’t treating you like a lady.”

  Oh, he’s treating me like a lady all right. Every time I think we might get down to the good stuff, he pulls back, leaving me with a killer case of lady blue balls.

  “He treats me wonderfully. That's half the problem,” I admit as I pour us both coffee, adding sugar and creamer to each. Smiling, I pass her drink to her and give her arm a squeeze. I’ve fallen for this woman as much as I have her grandson.

  “I had a plan. Live a simple, quiet life without complications. But then Blake came along and messed everything up. Every time he takes me out, I swear it's going to be the last time, but I just can’t say no to him.”

  “So don’t. He’s a good boy, Callie, he needs a good woman beside him,” she tells me before taking a sip of her drink.

  “There are things he doesn’t know about me, June. Things I’m not sure I’m ready to tell him. Heck, I don't know if I’ll ever be ready. Until I do, I feel like what's between us is being built on a lie.”

  She’s quiet for a beat, studying me, and I get the impression she is choosing her words carefully.

  “Callie, you know what Blake does, right?” she hedges, so I nod and wait for her to continue.

  “Well, there is more to protection than just being a physical presence. That’s just one facet of his job. The other is to be well informed. You've been seeing each other for the last two months now. I guarantee you that Blake has known at least the basic outline of your history for the last five weeks.”

  Bomb. Dropped.

  “What? No! He wouldn’t do that!” I protest.

 
“It's who he is. It's not done maliciously, but he would be able to sense, just like I can, that you are running from something. He wants to protect you.”

  I shake my head and stand, walking over to the window, feeling sick to my stomach.

  “Protect me by going behind my back?” I spit out angrily.

  “Callie, don't you see, all this worrying about you feeling like you are lying to him is pointless now because he already knows.”

  I’m sure her words are meant to reassure me, but they have the opposite effect, whatever the fuck that might be. I clench my fist, angry at Blake for breaking the trust between us but even angrier with myself for trusting him to begin with.

  “It’s only pointless because he’s hiding stuff from me too.” I’m trying not to take this out on her, but even I can hear the bite in my tone.

  “Child,” she continues, but I cut her off with my hand up, trying really freaking hard to hold the tears at bay.

  “I don't want to talk about it anymore, June. I’ll talk to Blake later. Thank you for the pie, but I’m suddenly not feeling well. I’m going to lie down for a little while. Please stay and finish your drink.” I walk to her on shaky legs, press a kiss to her cheek.

  Ignoring her protests, I head up to the bedroom. I stand for a moment staring at my bed in a daze, a bed that only hours ago I wanted to share with the man who has just gutted me. Kicking off my shoes, I climb onto the bed and lie on the pillow that still smells like Blake. I feel the tears start to fall as the anger makes way for the sting of betrayal. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I wrap my arms around myself protectively.

  Swallowing hard, I blow out a breath and try to fight back the tears, but they continue to cascade over my cheeks in little rivers onto the bedspread beneath me.

  I don’t know what he found out, at this point it doesn’t even matter. He might think he has me all figured out, but Blake has no clue. Nobody does, and in his misguided bid to protect me, he has ended up hurting me like everyone who came before him.

  I don’t know how long I lie there, staring aimlessly out the window at the cloudless blue sky, but I know it must have been a while when I feel the bed depress behind me. I don’t fight it when a strong arm wraps itself around me, pulling me back into a hard chest. My head and heart are torn between lashing out and drawing comfort from him.

  “June called you,” I guess.

  “She did. The question is, why didn’t you?” he says softly, rolling me over to face him.

  “Because if I had called you, I’d have ended things between us without giving you a chance to explain.” I feel his body go solid at my words. “I’m so mad at you,” I whisper, my voice laced with tears once more.

  His face looks pained as he tries to catch them with the pad of his thumb.

  “Baby, don’t cry. All I wanted was to keep you safe. I knew you were hiding something. I can't protect you if I don't have all the information.”

  “I didn’t ask you to protect me. I didn’t ask you for anything,” I retort with a sniff, swiping my tears away.

  “You’re my woman, Callie. Of course I’m going to protect you.”

  “Oh, really? And when did you start looking into me?”

  “I had Marcus start digging the day you first came to my office. You shut down, and it had me worried,” he answers quietly.

  “I’d known you for twenty-four hours then, Blake, I wasn’t your woman—”

  “You were mine the second you bounced your head off my chin on the steps outside your door,” he snaps.

  I stare up at him in shock. “What?” That’s not possible.

  His hand glides across my jaw as he dips his head and slants his mouth over mine. I resist for a minute, twisting my body to try and pull away but Blake keeps a firm grip on my jaw until eventually, I relent, my whole body melting into his.

  We’ve made out, a lot, over the last seven weeks. Many of our dates ended in some pretty heavy over-the-clothes petting, but Blake always put a halt to things before they went too far. Now I’m wondering if it's because of my history and he’s worried he might trigger something.

  He moves his hand to my waist, and I take the opportunity to pull away breathless, not wanting to let his voodoo kisses cloud my brain.

  “What did you find out?” I ask, already dreading the answer even though I'm curious about how good these guys are.

  “Callie…” His voice trails off when he sees the firm set of my jaw.

  “It's my life you invaded, now tell me what you found out.”

  “I know your father was serving a hefty prison sentence and that he died while he was inside,” he admits.

  I shake my head, trying to keep my anger and the feeling of hopelessness at bay.

  “He didn’t touch me,” I tell him emphatically. If he found out my dad was in prison, then he also found out why he was there.

  He studies my face, masking his feelings, but not quickly enough for me to miss the brief look of pity.

  “He didn’t. He never touched me in anger or in any kind of sexual way.” I tell him the same thing I’ve told dozens of people over the years, but nobody ever listens.

  “It's okay, Callie,” he whispers, stroking my hair back from my face as I squeeze my eyes shut.

  It's not okay. It never was and never will be, but this is my cross to bear, and I learned early on that people only hear what they want to.

  “Is that the reason why you won't touch me? You think I’m damaged goods?” I question, feeling him tense at my words.

  He presses his forehead against mine before speaking, his warm breath fanning over my face.

  “You are not damaged goods, and the next time I hear you call yourself that, I will spank your ass.”

  I glare at him, still pissed off to the max, but there is another heat present too and it has nothing to do with anger.

  “You’ll spank me?” I snort. “Is that a promise or a threat?”

  Chapter Ten

  Blake

  She’s trying to kill me.

  “Callie, maybe now isn’t the time,” I warn her as she rolls me to my back and straddles me.

  “You hurt me, you broke my trust, and then you held yourself back from me because of the knowledge you obtained. You know what you didn’t do? You didn’t talk to me. I’m a big girl, Blake. I make big girl decisions all by myself, and I sure as shit don’t need you or anyone else telling me how I should be feeling or acting.”

  Fuck. She’s right, I know she is.

  She continues to speak before I can. “Part of me wants to walk out that door, climb in my car and never come back.”

  I grip her hips hard at that, as if holding her to me will prevent her from leaving.

  “The other part of me isn’t ready to walk away from you yet.”

  I yank her down and kiss her hard, filled with equal parts relief and trepidation.

  “Which part is winning?” I ask, pulling away to look in her lust-filled eyes.

  “That depends on you—” Her words cut off as I flip her over and press my body over hers.

  “What do you need from me?” I ask, willing to do just about anything to fix this.

  She lifts her head and bites down on my earlobe, making me grind my hard cock into her before she whispers, “I need your hands on my body, your tongue on my skin, and your hard cock inside me.”

  Fuck. Yes.

  “Oh, Callie,” I purr, “All you had to do was ask.” Fisting a handful of her hair, I pull until her graceful neck is exposed.

  “What else do you want, Callie?” Dipping my head, I kiss behind her ear, making her squirm. “You like the idea of being spanked?” I tease, remembering her reaction.

  She wiggles underneath me, which is an answer in itself.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before, but I like to read and I think I’d like to try everything once before I write it off, you know?” She gasps when I bite down on her ear and tug before releasing it.

  “What else?” I echo,
skimming my hand over her ribs before sliding it under her top. I want to hear her tell me all the dirty things she wants me to do to her.

  “Erm…” She stalls, her blush intriguing me.

  “Tell me,” I cajole before rubbing my fingers over one of her pebbled nipples and pinching it over the lacey material of her bra.

  “I want you to tie me up,” she admits, making my already hard cock turn to steel. Jesus, she’s fucking perfect for me.

  “There is something about giving over complete control to someone, trusting them not to abuse the power you give them, all while relying on them to give you pleasure. I… I wouldn’t trust just anyone to do that to me,” she adds, letting me know that despite the damage I caused with my thoughtless actions, beneath the anger, she still trusts me.

  “The thought of tying you to this bed is like waving a red rag in a bull’s face,” I growl at her, shoving her top and bra up roughly, exposing her peaked nipples to the cool air.

  “If you don't want this, say so now,” I tell her, knowing if she needs me to walk away I will, but it will be directly into a cold shower as I beat myself off to images of my cum painting her body.

  “I want this,” she whispers.

  That’s all I need to hear. I dip my head and suck a nipple into my mouth, biting down softly before lathing away the sting with my tongue.

  “Jesus, you taste like heaven,” I breathe, slowly trailing kisses down her body, dragging my lips over her flat stomach, circling her belly button with the tip of my tongue, making her squirm with laughter.

  I lift my eyes to look at her, burning the image of her smile into my brain as her hair fans out around her on the pillow like a halo.

  I hesitate, but she must anticipate my question as she lifts her hips, allowing me to slide her shorts and underwear over her ass and down her smooth thighs. I toss them over my shoulder, not giving a single fuck where they land, and spread her thighs wide.

  As soon as my tongue makes contact with her clit, she arches off the bed.

  “Holy motherfucking dickballs!” she gasps, making me laugh against her, which in turn, makes her moan and grip my hair hard.