by Tawny Weber
“I usually end up on bartender duty at the Spring Fling,” she said, shrugging as if not ever being asked out on a date since the broken foot fiasco didn’t bother her.
“Oh.” Bev didn’t say another word. A deep frown etched on her face, she did some twisty fun thing with a few braids, a flip here and a tuck there and turned Eden’s heavy blanket of usually blah hair into a kicky style.
“Wow.” Eden twisted one way, then the other, her grin getting bigger with each turn. “This is so cool. It’s casual, sexy but still me. How do you do that?”
“I keep telling you, I’m good.” Bev stepped back and peered through slitted eyes at the style, then shrugged. “If you’d let me do more than give you a trim, you’d find out. You could totally rock a shorter style. Something sassy.”
“I don’t think I’m the sassy type,” Eden admitted. Although she was doing a pretty good impression right now. Cute top, with just a hint of sheer to show her red bra. Sexy skirt, just tight enough to remind her to sit like a lady so as not to show off her thong. And killer shoes. She eyed the black pumps with their red soles and white polka dots and wondered how many steps she’d make in them before she twisted something.
“You know, there are other shoes that would go with the outfit. Flats would work.”
Eden grinned at the worry in Bev’s voice. Geez, a few minor twisted ankles, a broken bone here and there and a girl got such a rep.
“I’ll be fine. Since you’re giving me a ride into town, I don’t have to drive in them. I’ll only have to walk from the car to the club, and back again.”
Eden would have rather driven herself, but with her car at the Larkin’s Body Shop, her only transportation at the moment was a ten-speed bicycle.
“Why isn’t Cade picking you up?”
“He called earlier to change the time and mentioned that he’s at ICU visiting his dad. I figured it’d be easier to meet him in town instead of making him drive here, then back there.”
“So it really isn’t a date,” Bev said with a relieved sigh.
“Nope. Just two friends getting together for a welcome-home drink.”
And, if Eden had her way, it would mark the beginning of a very hot, very sexy, very intense, and more importantly, very short affair.
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, Eden walked into the Oceanside Bar like a pageant queen on a slick catwalk—with slow, careful steps and pure concentration. What had she been thinking, suggesting they meet for drinks here?
“Eden?”
Ignoring the shocked looks, she called her hellos, but didn’t slow down. If she did, she’d have to get the walking momentum going again, and that might not happen.
She should have hit the liquor store and invited Cade over to her place. It’d be less nerve-racking to try and seduce a guy in private, wouldn’t it? Of course, then he could leave as soon as he’d accepted her welcome, thanks and cold brew.
Eden’s foot slipped, her ankle taking a sharp left while her foot went to the right. Damn. She quickly regained balance, hoping nobody had noticed, then hurried her mincing steps to the bar’s entrance and its lovely carpeted floors. Bev had been right. Flats would have been much smarter.
“Eden?” This greeting didn’t carry that air of shocked amusement. Nope, Cade’s voice was filled with pure, masculine appreciation.
And he looked just as good as he sounded. Dark jeans, a forest green button-up shirt and a charming smile made him the sexiest guy in the room. Of course, she was pretty sure he could have been wearing fatigues or grease-stained coveralls or nothing at all and still have taken the sexiest title.
Oh. Nothing at all. She gave herself one second to enjoy that image, then stepped forward to join him.
“Hi,” she greeted with a smile, reaching out to give his forearm a quick rub.
“I’m sorry I’m late—there was a dog emergency. Not the medical kind, but the howling kind. I wasn’t sure if your grandmother was staying at the Wayfarers Inn to be close to your dad, but just in case she’d gone home, I wanted to make sure it was quiet for her. So, you know, I had to settle them. The dogs,” she finished painfully.
Staring into Cade’s wide eyes, she watched him try to process her babbling. Well. There you go. She hadn’t fallen on her butt, but had managed to make an ass of herself anyway.
She wanted to groan. She was supposed to be sexy. Seductive, even. She’d have turned on her exceptionally high heels and walked right back out of the room, except that, well, yeah, the heels were exceptionally high. And Cade did look really good...
Too good to walk away from after just one strike.
“Okay, then,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve got us a table already. Let’s have a seat and you can run that by me one more time.”
She glanced toward the dimly lit, secluded tables at the back. But they were all taken. Eden did a quick survey of the ocean-facing deck, looking for an unclaimed spot there. Nothing.
“Right over here,” Cade said, gesturing toward the first-date section. The not-sure-you-want-to-see-it-through seating area. Where there were plenty of people-watching opportunities to distract from boring conversations, no hint of romantic potential and easy access to all escape routes.
Well.
Her inner seductress wanted to huff herself into a pout, then crawl into a corner. But Eden was too practical for that. She’d invited Cade out for a “welcome home, thank you for rescuing me from the tree” drink. He didn’t know he was about to be seduced.
Yet.
So she followed his gesture, swaying a little more than usual thanks to the high, high heels, and made her way through the questioning looks and outright shock to their very public table.
Maybe the skirt was a little shorter than she’d realized? When Cade held out her chair, she glanced over her shoulder to offer a smile of thanks as she gratefully—if not gracefully—slid into it. And saw the look in his eyes.
Smoldering hot.
Thigh-clenchingly intense.
The kind of look a guy offered just before he stripped a girl naked.
Her breath caught tight in her chest. Eden wasn’t sure what to do, what to say. She wanted to turn the rest of the way around, wrap her hands around his shoulders and climb up his long, hard body. She wanted to shift upward just a little, and try out that kiss from yesterday again. But this time with tongue.
She wanted to make him wish he’d gotten one of those dark, secluded booths, dammit.
Before she could give in to any of that temptation, he straightened. She had to force herself not to whimper when he moved away to round the table.
Then he sat down.
The look in his eyes was gone, as if it’d never existed. Instead, his gaze straddled the line between neutral and friendly. Like, now that he’d thought about seeing her naked, it just wasn’t that interesting.
“Hey, Eden, I didn’t know you were the buddy Cade was meeting,” the waitress said, stepping over with a friendly smile for both of them. “What can I get you?”
Buddy? Eden, her teeth hurting from being clenched so tight, debated. She could be obvious and order a Screaming Orgasm or a Suck, Bang, Blow. Or try for sophisticated and order a glass of Chablis from the Naked Winery.
After a second, though, she sighed and went for the old standby. “A pomegranate margarita, blended. Thanks.”
“Another beer,” Cade added, lifting his bottle. As soon as the waitress left, he gave Eden one of those friendly, distant sort of smiles that she was sadly used to here at the Wayfarers. But never from him.
Despite the heat she’d have publically sworn was flaming between them the day before, he was suddenly acting like he barely knew her. What happened to treating her like she was a cute kid? Or his personal rescue victim. Neither role was one Eden particularly cared for—especially since neither one would get her into his pants any time soon. But they were better than being treated like a vague acquaintance from back in the day.
Determined, calling up the same stubb
orn focus she’d used to put herself through veterinary school, to build a business from the ground up in her hometown, in order to save the family property instead of moving anywhere easier, and to face down countless jokes at her expense, Eden squared her chin. She wanted Cade Sullivan, and by damn, she was going to have him.
“So what’ve you been up to lately?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. “Graduated high school, college. What else?”
“What else have I done since I graduated high school seven years ago?” she asked, snark overriding her seduction plans for a brief second. Thankfully her margarita arrived before she could say anymore. That gave Eden a second to mentally regroup. By the time Cade had said thanks for his beer, she’d decided on a plan.
It was one she figured Cade would approve of. Ready. Aim. Fire.
Ready.
She took a deep breath, the kind that added a little interest to the filmy fabric of her blouse, donned her sexiest, most seductive pout and leaned forward.
Aim.
“Do you know what I haven’t done in, oh, I can’t even remember how long?” she asked in a husky tone. The kind she’d use to share pillow talk, sex secrets and her favorite fantasy. The one that involved a naked Cade, the lake at midnight and a little light bondage.
Cade blinked. The neutral, aren’t-you-a-cute-stranger smile faded. He leaned back a little, like he wasn’t sure what she might do next.
Fire.
“I haven’t gone to the cliffs at night to watch the ocean,” she told him. Unlike the lake, which had always been
Cade’s private love nest on his own property, the cliffs were just a mile away and open to the public. They were also a notorious makeout spot. She gave it a second for the words to sink in, for the visible tension to leave his shoulders, before reaching across the small table and running her fingernails gently over the back of his hand. “I love the power of the water at night, don’t you? The crashing intensity. The uncontrolled, wild excitement. When was the last time you were on the cliffs, Cade? When was the last time you felt that kind of...excitement?”
Eden leaned back in her chair, lifting the margarita and sliding the bright pink straw between her teeth. Her eyes locked on his, she gently pursed her lips around the plastic and sucked.
“Mmm,” she murmured before giving him a slow, inviting smile.
She put everything into that curve of her lips.
The heat of every fantasy.
The strength of every drop of sexual knowledge she had.
The hopes of every birthday wish she’d had since she was sixteen and first saw Cade Sullivan naked.
* * *
CADE WASN’T SURE what’d just happened.
One second, he was rolling nicely along, Eden playing her assigned part as the cute girl next door. The next, with just the flutter of those long eyelashes, she’d sent his body into overdrive.
This wasn’t SOP.
And he was a guy who, once he’d decided on a course of action, followed standard operating procedures. His standards. His plan.
Neither of which included sporting a hard-on in the Wayfarers bar for a girl he’d already deemed off-limits. A girl who, whether she knew it or not, needed his help to keep from losing her home.
“Nope.” He had to clear the desire from his throat before he continued. “No cliffside visits for me.”
“That’s too bad.” Eden tilted her head to one side, a long silky strand of hair sliding over her cheek and down her throat like a caress before she tucked it away behind her ear. Her eyes, rich and dark, didn’t leave his as she took another sip of her margarita.
Damn, she was good at that.
He licked his lips. Were hers as tasty as they looked?
Then something touched his leg. The slightest bump, then a slower, firmer press of her foot against his calf.
Cade damn near jumped out of his chair.
When had he lost control?
When had Eden become the kind of woman to take control?
And when had the entire idea become such a turn-on?
“So how’s business?” he asked, shifting his legs a safe distance from hers. “You’re working with animals, right? At the vet’s or something?”
“I am the vet,” she told him, slipping out of the seduction role for a second to give him a resigned look. “Maybe you missed it yesterday when you dropped me off? It’s on my business card, too. The one I gave you with my phone number. You used it to call me to change times for this evening.”
Cade winced. He wasn’t sure which was better. To admit that he hadn’t noticed anything except her the previous day. Or that he hadn’t bothered to look at the card because he’d had her phone number committed to memory for years.
“So, really? You’re a vet?” That was a safe topic. And a pertinent one, if he was going to figure out a way to help her pay off his father. “That’s hard to believe.”
“Why is it so hard to believe? Don’t you think I’m smart enough? Good enough? Capable of keeping anything more troublesome than a dandelion alive?” She rolled her eyes before offering a disappointed shake of her head. “I didn’t think you were the kind to buy into rumors. Just because I’m a little clumsy—and honestly, how it is that the few accidents I do have these days only happen when you’re around is beyond me—does not mean I’m not great at my job.”
Ouch.
Sore subject?
He might not live here anymore, but Cade knew the Ocean Point social games well enough to recognize a victim of them when he was lusting after her.
“That’s not what I meant,” he corrected with a frown. It was probably better that she thought he saw her like everyone else. But he didn’t like being lumped in with the crowd, nor did he want her believing anything but the truth. Even if the truth meant he’d have to work a little harder to control his urge to grab her and kiss her like crazy. “I just meant you’re really young.”
“I graduated veterinary school a year ago, then interned in Sacramento for six months before opening my own clinic,” she said, her chin lifting a fraction as she gave him a disappointed look.
“So you don’t have to do four years of residency at a local veterinary hospital in order to practice?” he teased.
“Maybe if I’d gone into veterinary surgery,” she said, relaxing enough to smile at him again. “My focus is on companion animals.” At his questioning look, she added, “Pets.”
“Cats and dogs.”
“Mostly, yes. I’ve worked with small farm animals, too. Not that there’s much call for that around here,” she said with a shrug.
“Didn’t I see a goat at your place yesterday?” he remembered.
“That’s Jojo,” Eden told him. Then, after a hesitant look, she pulled her cell phone from her purse. A couple of taps and she held it up to show off a picture of the goat and an elderly man. “She belonged to a guy named Lloyd Flanders. He passed on a few months back and nobody knew what to do with her, so she came to live with me.”
“Was he a friend?”
“He was a curmudgeonly old grump who lived in a senior center and kept a goat for a pet,” Eden said, laughing and suddenly looking even sexier than she had sucking on that straw. “I volunteer at the Gentle Hands society. It’s a non-profit group that brings together pets and the elderly. Or, in this case, finds homes for pets when their elderly companions pass on. Pets are a wonderful way of keeping people involved in life. They bring a lot of joy and love and even a number of health benefits. But they grieve like people do when they lose someone.”
He didn’t know why, but hearing that was like a punch to the gut. Cade stared at his beer for a second, trying to reel in the images flashing through his mind. He knew what that was like. The pain of losing someone you cared about, the intense emptiness that ate away at you, leaving a hollow shell that felt like it could never be filled.
Suddenly, he was feeling mighty empathetic toward that goat.
“I’m sorry,” Eden said suddenly, reaching across th
e table to brush a gentle caress over the back of his hand. “I didn’t mean to bore you. I know not everyone is an animal fan.”
“You didn’t bore me,” he denied. But she had given him an idea. If he could get his grandmother to adopt a pet, and to use Eden as her vet, he’d bet Catherine would persuade a few of her friends to do the same. It wasn’t brilliant as far as finance schemes went, but given that Cade had spent most of his life trying to avoid educating himself in anything having to do with his father’s profession, it wasn’t a bad start.
First, though, he had to tell her about the loan.
Cade grimaced. He’d faced guerrilla insurgents with more enthusiasm than he could muster up right that second.
“So how’s your mother doing these days?” he asked, figuring that was as good a segue as any. Right up until a rarely seen fury flashed in Eden’s eyes. She looked like she might chew the flame off the tabletop candle.
Whoa. He quickly changed the subject back to animals, asking about the cat she’d found the previous day.
Ten minutes later, he’d have been hard-pressed to offer up proof of her claim that not everyone was an animal fan. While it’d all clearly been a guise to gather dirt for gossip, four people had stopped at their table under the guise of asking Eden various vet-related questions, from what her hours were to did she treat pigeons. A couple of groups had made their way over to welcome Cade home and used the how is business, are you setting him up with a pet gambit to try and see why the two of them were together.
When a large party, mostly made up of people he’d gone to high school with, came through the door, Cade gave up. There was no way he could talk to her about the loan here.
“Would you like to go?” he asked. “Maybe somewhere quieter where we can talk.”
Eden sucked in her bottom lip for a second, then released it so the soft pillow of flesh glistened temptingly. Her lashes fluttered and soft color washed her cheeks before she nodded.
There she was. That sweet girl next door. Some of the tension that’d gripped Cade, mostly in the southern regions, eased.
Then she lifted her drink and wrapped those lips around the straw again, giving a long, gentle suck. Cade was pretty sure the instant rush of blood to his dick might be a health threat.