Talk This Way

by Dakota Cassidy

  Oh, this man.

  * * *

  Take that, Miss Throw Caution to the Wind.

  Flynn gazed up at Cat, sitting on top of him, beautiful, uninhibited and perfect. He felt like he’d just managed to climb Mt. Everest naked. Who’s Mr. Stuffy Pants now?

  Cat looked down at him, her eyes shadowed for a moment before her snark took over. “So, am I the air that you breathe now?” she asked, slipping from his lap and off the bed.

  Just as he was patting himself on the back for dipping his toes into spontaneity, she was slapping him down with that we-shouldn’t-have-done-this look. “Is that regret I hear in your tone, Miss Live in the Moment?”

  Smoothing her skirt over her gorgeous thighs, she made a face at him. “You hear nothin’ of the sort.”

  Flynn grinned at her, pulling himself upright and sliding to a sitting position. “I dunno. I think Mr. Stuffy Pants hears remorse,” he teased, walking his fingers up and over her hip.

  She gave him a long glance, her eyes a fiery glow. “I have to go.”

  Somebody didn’t like turnabout. “You don’t want to cuddle? Talk?” Because strangely, he found, he wouldn’t mind. Not that he’d ever tell her that. He was enjoying her flustered state as much as she’d enjoyed his.

  Cat made her way to his bedroom door. “You don’t have time to cuddle. You have to join the book-of-the-month club” was her parting shot.

  His laughter mingled with the tune of his front door slamming.

  Chapter Eight

  Leaning down, Cat gave her mother a kiss and pushed her steel-grey hair from her forehead. “How are you today, Mama?”

  The lines around Tessa’s eyes were deep, but her smile was always welcoming. “Plum worn-out. This physical therapy isn’t for the faint of heart.”

  Cat squeezed her mother’s hand and tucked the blanket around her legs, scanning the room to be sure she had fresh water. This wasn’t the fanciest room at Oakdale, but it was nice enough, and the care here was quality. “I know, but it’ll be over soon, and then you can go home. It’s only temporary.”

  “You look tired, sunshine. Why’s that?”

  “It was a really busy day at work.” And a busy one-night stand last night. Phew. She didn’t know if—later—she could even look Della in the eye today for all the sinnin’ she’d done with her son.

  Tessa’s blue eyes went sympathetic. “I hate that you’re workin’ so hard, Cat. I told you, I don’t need all this uppity therapy. I was healing okay—just takes a little longer. Just get me to the doctor once a week, and I’ll be fine.”

  Cradling her mother’s hand against her cheek, she shook her head. “No, Mama. Once a week isn’t enough to help you mend that hip. I know it, and so does Medicaid. With your diabetes, you need therapy and someone who can be with you ’round-the-clock if your sugar drops. You do remember the last time that happened, don’t you?”

  She’d dropped by her mother’s, just by chance, and found her on the floor because she hadn’t taken her insulin. She’d never forget that day, and it was never going to happen again if she had to use Velcro to fasten Tessa to her back and take her with her wherever she went.

  But Tessa would still worry. “It’s so expensive, Cat. All that money we don’t have. It worries me. I don’t want you in debt, workin’ yourself into an early grave because of me. You’re young. You should be out enjoyin’ your life, maybe meeting a nice man. Don’t spend your life alone like I did when you went off to college.”

  “I’m not alone. I have you, and I’m enjoyin’ my life just fine.” She’d done plenty of enjoying last night. Oh, God. Why had she slept with Flynn McGrady, and why couldn’t she stop thinking about it today?

  Whatever had clicked inside her when they’d finished making love, whatever that strange shift inside her was, just wouldn’t quit. It was like the unreachable itch she couldn’t scratch.

  Tessa cupped her chin. “You’re a good girl, Cat. Always takin’ such good care of me.”

  Guilt stabbed her in the gut. “It’s sort of the least I could do, don’t you think?”

  Tessa shifted in her chair, gazing at Cat. “Is that more guilt I hear, Catherine? I won’t stand for your guilt. It was an accident, pretty girl. Just an accident.”

  “Of course I feel guilty. You’re here because of me, Mama.” Her voice hitched, much the way it always did when she thought about the day she’d run her over mother.

  It had all happened so fast. She’d been backing out of her mother’s driveway after discovering she wasn’t home.

  She’d checked her rearview mirror twice because the children in her mother’s subdivision were known for their disregard for the rules of the road.

  “Honey, you couldn’t have known I tripped and fell. You were inside the house when it happened.”

  Cat’s smile was faint, the memory of her mother, crumpled like a rag doll in her driveway, still haunted her dreams. “Yeah, Mama. The next time you decide to fall and crack your head open like a melon, could you do it anywhere else but under my car?”

  Her mother laughed, the sound tinkling and light. “It wasn’t your fault, honey. How were you supposed to know I’d been out walkin’?”

  Upon discovering Tessa wasn’t home, Cat had climbed in her car, late as usual for work at the coffee shop. According to her mother, she’d tripped, fallen and rolled under Cat’s car before she’d passed out. That’s when Cat hit what she thought was anything but her mother under her car.

  “I crushed your pelvis, Mom. Me. I broke you because I was late for work and rushin’.”

  “Like everybody isn’t late sometimes?”

  “I was late more than just sometimes.”

  Tessa’s gaze narrowed. “You stop that right now. I won’t have you always hoverin’ over me with that sad face. It happened. I’m doin’ just fine. Now, how about you go see if they’ve put out that plate of donuts in the rec room yet?”

  Cat chuckled. “You know you have to watch your sugar.”

  “Oh, get me one of those tough sugarless ones that taste like an old tire.”

  Cat tucked the blanket around her mother’s knees before rising. “Don’t go runnin’ off on me now,” she teased.

  Tessa barked a laugh. “As if I could. You ruined my quest for the gold.”

  Cat snorted on her way out the door. “Funny, comedienne. Keep that up and we’re gonna get you a special on HBO.”

  Thank God for her mother. She was Cat’s rock. Her world. It had been just the two of them for a very long time, and she planned to keep her mother around as long as she could.

  Making her way down the long hallway, she passed the nurses’ station, giving one of her favorite nurse’s aides a wave before poking her head in on Della, who was fast asleep with her unseemly romance novel tucked under one of her gnarled hands. Cat grinned when she thought about Della’s passion for the spicy books.

  Della was in one of the pricier rooms with a gorgeous view of the vast lawns outside Oakdale, while her mother’s room was much smaller with only a tiny window overlooking the AC units. Clearly, Flynn didn’t have the kind of financial troubles she did.

  Of course he didn’t. He lived in a building where the rent had a ton of zeroes tacked onto it.

  Flynn. Her chest tightened and that heat he’d created in her last night resurfaced.

  She’d acted impulsively again. One more rash act of her vow to rage against the rules everyone played by.

  She had to stop doing that. She would stop doing that. It only led to messy entanglements she sometimes had trouble getting out of.

  Flynn McGrady was definitely messy. But maybe not so stuffy.

  Almost naked, he was anything but stuffy.

  You will stop thinking about him right now. Right now.

  As she entered the r
ec room, Emmet Kingsley, hair as white as snow, handsome, and the ex-executive of some big company, latched onto the edge of her shirt. “Look who’s here. Prettiest thing I’ve seen all day. You have time for a game of chess today?”

  Cat grinned down at him, giving his shoulder a fond squeeze. “Not today, Emmet. I’m a workin’ girl—need to get home and get my eight hours in so you can still call me pretty tomorrow. Did you drop by Mama’s room? She has a new crossword puzzle book, you know,” Cat said with encouragement.

  Emmet had a bit of a crush on her mother, if she was reading him right, but as forward as he was with her, he was equally as shy with her mother.

  He cleared his throat, two spots of red popping up on his wrinkled cheeks. “Haven’t had the chance.”

  Cat pushed his wheelchair over to the table of donuts and grabbed a sugarless one for her mother—one with her favorite sugar-free chocolate frosting. She wrapped it in a napkin and handed it to Emmet. “Then would you do your favorite girl a favor and run this to her room? I’ve got to get a move on. Besides, wheeling this thing down the hall is good for your arm.”

  She’d love someone like Emmet to sweep her mother right off her feet. Her mother deserved a good sweeping after her father.

  With a quick smile down at him, Cat rushed off before he could protest.

  “Miss Butler?”

  Her eyes flew to the man attached to the voice. Casper Reynolds, Oakdale’s administrator. His suit, perfect and as black as his heart, blocked her view to the doorway to the hall outside the rec room. “We need to have a conversation.”

  She smiled her prettiest smile. “We do. It just can’t be right now. I’m late.”

  His beady eyes glared down at her when he shuffled his feet. “Are you too busy to discuss your mother’s stay with us? Because time’s running out. I’ve left you several voice mails, Miss Butler. We can’t house your mother for free.”

  The hum of the busy room dimmed, the chatter becoming hushed. A hot flush rushed to her cheeks. “If you’ll just give me another couple of days, I promise you, I’ll have the money.”

  Well, most of it, anyway. She could put off paying her rent for the moment. What was one more month? Soon enough, she’d have her first week’s pay under her belt—that should appease him.

  “Will you have all of it, Miss Butler? You’re already two months behind.”

  “Two months? Wow. Time flying and all, huh?” She tried to joke, but Casper Reynolds wasn’t having it.

  “Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter.”

  As if she was a ball of giggles over the enormous bill for her mother’s rehabilitation. “This is me not laughing,” she said. “Promise, I’ll have that money to you ASAP. Never you worry. We Butlers always pay our bills.” She ducked and faked him out, managing to get around him and scurry out of the rec room.

  Cat made a beeline for the red exit sign at the end of the hall. Her mother might not be running any marathons, but even in heels, she had to admit, she’d make a decent quarterback.

  * * *

  Flynn took the side exit out of Oakdale, hoping to cut off Cat at the pass.

  Last night, he’d spent the rest of the evening reviewing his life after she left, going over his conservative take on things, and he had to admit, Cat’s way was a whole lot sweeter.

  Abandoning all the rules and living in the moment was damned hot, and now, he wanted to live in some more moments.

  He’d thought of nothing else since he woke up but her lush lips on his, her incredible body and her passionate response to him.

  That she didn’t believe two people could live happily ever after had given him pause. His parents had. They’d loved each other until the day his father died. For some reason, those words—out of all their words last night—stuck and along with his lusty thoughts, he couldn’t shake them.

  Flynn caught sight of her, threading her way through parked cars, her long, lightly tanned legs sexy as hell in her wedge sandals. The warm breeze lifted her thick curtain of hair and swished her skirt around her thighs.

  He came up on her left side and fell in step beside her. “So, how are you today, Live in the Moment?”

  “Busy, vampire lover.”

  “Too busy to grab some dinner?”

  “I don’t eat.”

  “Wasn’t that you I saw annihilating a piece of Mr. Moore’s birthday cake two weekends ago when they had that big escape-from-Oakdale party for him?”

  “It was my doppelganger. Or maybe my evil twin. If you’re doin’ your duty, and readin’ those romance novels, you should know all about evil twins by now.”

  Flynn laughed, grabbing her hand, which she didn’t yank out of his grasp but didn’t exactly cling to, either. “How about I eat and you watch?”

  Now she laughed, too, the sound light and breezy. “That sounds kinky.”

  He pulled her to a stop, keeping her hand in his, loving the way it fit his palm. “I’m buying.”

  She sighed and it was one of regret. Or maybe it was wistful? Whichever, it wasn’t good. “We shouldn’t have done what we did last night, Flynn.”

  “This coming from the woman who lives in the moment?” He put a hand to her forehead. “Maybe you are Cat Butler’s evil twin.”

  She rolled her eyes, adorable and perfect. “I’m trying to be less impulsive. As you can see, it leads to nothing but trouble. We hardly know each other and yet, we bumped uglies.”

  He gave her a shrug of his shoulders, keeping his response casual. “I don’t know, I didn’t feel at all troubled by bumping our uglies—and, FYI, you’re anything but ugly.”

  “That’s because you’re a man. Men never feel troubled by one-night stands. Women fret endlessly over them.”

  “That’s not what Drusilla in Ride the Night says. She says she never regrets sex. Of course, she’s a succubus, which is a sex demon, I think. But if she doesn’t regret it, why should you? And if you have dinner with me, that’ll make it a two-night stand—no fretting involved.”

  Her face softened in the fading sunlight. “You really are reading all those books of your mama’s?”

  “Kind of endearing, right?” He gave her the most charming grin he knew how to give. Then watched the wheels turn in Cat’s head while she weighed the pros and cons.

  “Fine. But it’ll have to be quick. I have work.”

  “Tonight?”

  She looked over his shoulder, her eyes focusing on anything other than him. “Odd shifts. All the new girls have to take them. It’s in the newbie handbook.”

  First she was managing stuff, then she was working odd shifts all the new girls had to take? “We’ll be in and out. Promise. My car or yours?”

  As they made their way to her car, Flynn ignored the nagging questions about her employment and her lack of faith in lasting relationships, and did what she preached.

  Lived in the moment.

  Chapter Nine

  “How did we end up here—again?” Cat asked, her toes properly curled.

  “It was the fountain. All that splashing around you were doing was damn sexy. Wet silky shirt, plus Cat’s flesh exposed beneath it, equals superhot,” Flynn said, nuzzling her neck and making her purr.

  After a dinner of juicy cheeseburgers at a local café, they’d taken a leisurely stroll and the temptation of the big fountain in the middle of the park they’d ended up in was more than her aching feet could bear. So she’d hopped in, taking Flynn, shoes and all, with her.

  Their laughter led to one amazing kiss that led to another, until they were back at his place and in his big bed.

  As he skimmed his lips along her collarbone and down over her shoulder, that wicked heat he’d just moments ago sated began to simmer between her thighs again. “Did we swap bodies?”

  Flynn let his tongu
e flicker over her breast, making her arch upward. “Nope. Just spit. Why do you ask?”

  She felt him smile against her ribs, gasped when his mouth nipped at her waist. “I get the impression this isn’t something you normally do.”

  Slipping his hand between her thighs, Flynn’s fingers skimmed her swollen flesh. “Eat cheeseburgers?”

  Cat’s fingers gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his muscles. “No. Make love to a woman when you hardly know her.”

  “Then let’s get to know each other. Afterward, you’ll be a woman I made love to and know better. I’ll start,” he offered, thumbing her clit until she writhed. “Are you from Georgia?”

  Cat grabbed his wrist to still the white-hot heat he was evoking so she could answer. “Born and raised. You?”

  He slid up the bed, kissing the side of her mouth. “Yep. Moved to New York for college, loved it, stayed. Did you go to college?”

  “For about a year until I almost died of boredom and dropped out.”

  “What did you want to be when you grew up?” he asked, tracing her nipple.

  Uncommitted to everything but the wind in her hair and the sun at her back? “Free.”

  His hand stilled. “Was someone holding you captive?”

  Cat smiled up at him. “Not literally. I just didn’t want to end up like my mother. Single parent, tied to a house she worked long hours in order to keep, bills up to her eyeballs.” Damn, Cat. This isn’t psychotherapy. It’s sex. She’d said too much. So she redirected. “What did you want to be?”

  “Chuck Norris.”

  Laughter spilled from her lips as she gazed up at him, the dim light from the lamp enhancing his sharp cheekbones. “Like all good boys should. Did you get good grades in school?”

  He gave her a guarded look. “Yeah. I did. Did you?”

  “No. I didn’t. I graduated by the skin of my teeth. Ever get in trouble with the law?”

  “Nope.”