“And what should the lucky chosen one expect going in?” Extraordinary sex?
“Are you—” His tawny eyes held a sensual heat that unleashed a hot river of want in her.
She’d been ready to jump into that fire last night, but now, with the rational light of day, she needed to have a better idea of exactly what to expect…if she decided to go there. “Strictly rhetorical. You know I have that pansy-ass affinity.” Sweet sanity but he had nice arms—dark hair sprinkling his forearms, well-formed biceps. She curled her toes around the stool’s metal-rod footrest.
“How disappointing.” His eyes held a watchfulness that was both exciting and disconcerting.
“I’m sure you’re devastated. I’m also sure you’ll manage to recover. You strike me as resilient. And I’m waiting with bated breath to know what a woman can expect from you.”
“I have a four-week policy. I don’t see anyone for more than four weeks. It keeps things clean and simple.”
He actually seemed serious. “For whom?”
“For everyone.”
“I take it you don’t believe in love.” Sunny was vaguely disappointed that Cade was just another bachelor too cynical for love.
“I firmly believe in love. I just don’t want any part of it.”
“Please. You can’t stop there. Because…?”
“Falling in love is like skydiving with a malfunctioning parachute. Sooner or later you come down and hit the ground.” She caught a glimmer of something in his eye. “I just prefer not to ever jump out of the plane.” He levered himself off of the stool and stood.
“Is that what you tell all your potential girlfriends?”
He rounded the counter into the kitchen. “I spare them the analogy. We just go over the four weeks.”
“So, you just announce, ‘You’ve got me for four weeks,’ and they say, ‘Okay’?” Why in the world would any woman agree to that? A fork clattered to the tile floor and he bent over to pick it up, the sweatpants clinging to his fine male booty. Come on, Sunny, you know exactly why women would agree to that, a nagging little voice inside her chided.
He straightened and shrugged, putting the fork into the dishwasher. “Pretty much.”
Was he calculating or just brutally honest? “That’s brilliant on your part.”
“I wouldn’t say brilliant.” A faint frown furrowed his forehead. “More along the line of fair.”
He really, truly didn’t get it. “Ha. It’s more like waving a red flag at a bull. I’m guessing every one of them has vowed to be the one that’ll drive you to break your four-week rule.” A ridiculous jealousy arrowed through her. They probably catered to his every whim, jumped at his every command, each one of them trying to prove in that four-week span that he couldn’t live without them come week five. Blech. She didn’t want any more breakfast. She pushed her plate across the counter to him. “Thanks, it was good. Whether you know it or not, you’re the ultimate dating challenge for them.”
“Maybe that’s just your take on it.”
Men! “Trust me. That’s exactly what all women think.”
“What about you? Are you inspired to make me break my four-week rule?”
She wasn’t sure whether that was a challenge or an invitation. Either way, wasn’t this what she wanted? Her body screamed a resounding yes. Her brain, thank goodness, was still working and uttered a quiet yet emphatic negative. Not on those terms. “I don’t think so. I don’t do well without Christmas presents.” She stood and pushed her stool in. “I like to both give and receive. I can’t see that it would work out well for either one of us.”
* * *
Sunny put aside the to-do list and stood up from the bar stool when she heard Cade coming down the stairs. She’d brushed her teeth and then headed back downstairs while he showered and dressed. Having an entire floor separating them while he was naked struck her as a very prudent move.
“I’ve got a quick question for you,” she said. “Do you have a computer with an Internet connection I could use?” Hey, he was the one who’d bundled her out of her house last night without any of her stuff, even though in retrospect it had been a wise choice not to drop her at Joanie’s or the dive bar.
He nodded toward the den. “Laptop with Wi-Fi connection’s in there. So’s the TV.”
She’d skip the TV but the laptop with a Wi-Fi. Nice. “Thanks. So, you’re working a case today?” Sunny said.
“Yep. That’s what I do,” he said, walking toward her.
Sunny leaned against the kitchen doorjamb, determined to be civil even though it seemed beyond him. Decked out head to toe in black, showered but unshaved, he epitomized a badass in a bad mood.
“Do you ever let people ride along with you? Not that I’m asking to go,” she tacked on at his don’t-even-friggin’-think-about-it scowl. “I’ve got plenty of work to do myself. I was just curious.”
“No. I work alone. Linc and I occasionally pair up.” He opened a small door on the side of the stairs that she hadn’t noticed before.
“I thought bounty hunters rode shotgun together a lot.” The door revealed a coat/storage closet beneath the stairs.
“You’ve been reading those Stephanie Plum books or watching Dog the Bounty Hunter on TV.”
“I like the Plum books. Stephanie and Lulu make a good team.” Stephanie and Morelli made an even better pair. Stephanie and Ranger? That was trouble.
“I don’t know. Never read them. My sister does. They’re just characters in a book.”
Well, she supposed he didn’t need to read about fictional characters when he lived it every day.
He tugged his shirt over his head and she didn’t even pretend not to stare. If he was stripping, she was looking. No harm in looking, well, except to her pulse rate.
Broad shoulders, broad chest with just the right amount of hair scattered over it and down his belly so that he looked like a real man but not so much that he looked like monkey man, trim waist, nice flat six-pack abs. Sweet mercy. Sunny figured she was lucky she didn’t puddle on the floor at his feet. Altogether it was a knee-weakening expanse of smooth skin except for a small puckered scar on his side.
She’d seen shirtless men before. But none so well-built in such close proximity before. She desperately searched for a brain cell to find a conversational topic.
“How’d you get that scar?”
He pulled a white vest off of a closet hook. “An FTA with a gun got off a lucky shot. Fortunately, he had bad aim. Now, depending on the case, I don’t leave home without this.” He put it on and velcroed it into place. “Kevlar.”
“Has it ever stopped a bullet before?” The thought made her faintly nauseous.
He grinned. “A couple of times.” He pulled the shirt back over his head and tucked it into his pants.
Next came a shoulder holster complete with a very lethal-looking gun. She swallowed as he buckled the holster on. Then he clipped on a small canister of mace and what looked like a gun but had a funny cartridge on the front around his waist.
“What’s that?”
“Taser.”
Next came handcuffs. Her heart pounded, this time for an altogether different reason. He looked very macho suited out like that. Who knew she had such an…affinity for macho? Cade Stone was hell on her blood pressure.
“You wear this stuff every day?”
“Definitely not. It depends on the cases I’m working.”
“This case you’re going on, it’s dangerous?”
“Dangerous is a relative term. You could consider it dangerous to leave your house.”
“It was yesterday. So then on a relative scale, how dangerous is this case or is there a privacy issue where you can’t discuss it?”
He shrugged into the leather bomber jacket he’d worn last night. “No privacy issues. They skip bail and it’s public knowledge. This morning I’m looking for Lewis Clancy. Lewis didn’t bother to show up at court two days ago on an Assault and Battery.” He closed the closet door.
/>
“Assault and Battery?”
“Lewis has a nasty temper and a worse disposition.” Cade’s smile was a feral baring of teeth, a predator preparing for the hunt. An answering heat stirred in her. “His girlfriend expected him to show up because she’s the one that posted his bail in the first place, but Lewis was a no-show. Not only is he a mean SOB, he’s a player. The bail-posting girlfriend eagerly spilled the new girl’s address. Lewis will be piled up in bed, sleeping off a hard night of partying.” Cade’s lip curled in a not-nice smile. “He won’t be happy to see me.”
Sunny tried to swallow some of her trepidation. Now all of sudden Cade didn’t look quite as invincible as he had two minutes ago. “How old is Lewis? How big?”
“Twenty-six and a little bigger than me, but I can take him. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Maybe I’m worried about Lewis.” Liar. “You’re pretty tricked out there.”
“When I go in, I like to go in ready.” He picked a pair of sunglasses off the small table that butted up to the staircase. “I’ll pull a car out of the garage for you. It’s a beater that I drive in on snow days when I don’t want to chance the ’Vette. I’ll leave the keys in it. If you take it, try not to ram anyone today.” He could’ve kept that sarcastic comment to himself. “Help yourself to whatever you want in the fridge or the pantry.”
He turned toward the front door and she followed him.
“When should I expect you back?” The later, the better, as far as she was concerned. She just wasn’t sure exactly when she should start to be concerned.
“Missing me already?”
“Hardly. Just curious as to how long I get to have your fabulous house to myself.”
“Late afternoon. Early evening.”
If the guy with a bad temper didn’t knife him or shoot him first.
“Um, try not to get yourself killed today. It’d be really weird for me to be here if you get yourself dead.”
“When you put it that way, I’ll try extrahard to avoid being killed. I’d hate to carry around eternal guilt over inconveniencing you.”
“I’d appreciate it.” And because she didn’t know what else to do, she shook his hand. His hand practically swallowed hers and a tingle shot up her arm.
A frown creased his forehead. “What’s that for?”
“It’s for good luck and a thank you. I’m not sure that I’ve said thank you and I should. You know…for everything.” Yeah, he wasn’t exactly prince charming but he had rescued her after a fashion yesterday, not that she’d asked for nor particularly wanted rescuing, thank you very much. But he had brought her into his home and for all that he was gruff and surly, at least no photographers were peering in the windows at her.
“Surely you can do better than that.” It came out as a sexy drawl that seriously undermined her common sense.
He planted his hands on the door behind her, trapping her between him and the front door. Well, not exactly trapping because they both knew she could easily duck beneath his arm and away…if she wanted to. But God help her, she seemed to have totally abandoned all semblance of reason because she didn’t want to escape.
Heat rushed through her, tightening her nipples into hard anticipation, pooling into a wet warmth between her thighs.
He lowered his head. “If I get sloppy today and don’t make it back home, I’d like to take more than a handshake with me to my final reward.”
She, who’d always liked her men somewhat “tame,” was incredibly turned on by the ruthless element of the hunter. He made her hot. The gun, the handcuffs, the taser and the mace. The Kevlar jacket. The whole I’m-a-badass package left her wet and quivering for his touch.
He kissed her. Hard, fast but thorough. Only his mouth had touched her, but her entire body was on fire.
“Sunny.” His breath stirred against her cheek. She opened her eyes. His expression remained inscrutable, but his eyes smoldered. “Last night you slept alone because you’d had a hell of a day and I’d promised myself I’d keep you safe. When I get back today, I can take you home, I can take you to a friend’s, or you can stay here.” His gaze slid over her like a lover’s touch. “But you won’t sleep alone.” His husky voice was almost hypnotic. “And I can’t guarantee you’ll get much sleep.”
She moistened her lips. “Four weeks?”
He inclined his dark head. “Four weeks.”
“What about Christmas? The no-holiday hiatus.”
He trailed his finger along her jaw, wreaking further havoc with her pulse. “I’m willing to make an exception. Plus, you know the deal. Your choice.”
“And if I say no?” She tried to focus on the conversation rather than the mesmerizing heat in his eyes and his touch.
“You could say no.” He leaned in and nuzzled the same path his finger had taken along her jaw, his mouth warm and sensuous, his stubble a delicious rasp against her skin. He trailed kisses down her neck and she slanted her head to the side, biting back a moan. He closed his hand around one of her breasts and brushed his thumb over her stiff peak. He gently nipped the sensitive juncture of her shoulder and neck and she cried out, her whole body trembling with desire. He straightened and dropped his hand to his side. “But we both know you won’t.”
Sunny was still dazed when he closed the door behind him.
Chapter 10
“I hope the other guy looks worse,” Linc said with a laugh when Cade walked into AA Atco a couple of hours later.
“Trust me, he does,” Cade said. Lewis Clancy had landed a kick that busted open Cade’s right eyebrow. By the time Cade had wrestled him into cuffs, Clancy was very, very sorry.
Marlene hurried over to fuss over Cade. “That needs to be stitched up.”
“Stitches are for pansy-asses,” Martin said, rumbling out of his office.
“He needs stitches.” Marlene stood her ground.
Cade ignored them both and headed to the bathroom. He closed the door behind him.
“Do you need any help?” Marlene asked from the other side.
“No. I’m fine.” Blood had dried over his eye and down the side of his face. He grimaced in the mirror. He looked like he’d just had his ass kicked. It could’ve been worse considering he’d found Clancy still strung out on crystal meth.
Cade grabbed a couple of paper towels and washed the dried blood off with cold water. What would Sunny say when she saw his face? Would she make a fuss over him? Offer to get him an ice pack, make a big deal over him getting hurt in the first place? He’d sensed her concern this morning, read it in her eyes.
He’d thought about her all morning. Even when he was busting Clancy, she’d been in the back of his mind. Want for her gnawed like a constant ache inside him, too strong to ignore.
He opened the mirror-fronted medicine cabinet. They kept a well-stocked first-aid kit for just this type of thing. He washed out the cut with hydrogen peroxide—that stung like a son of a bitch—applied antibiotic cream, and closed the cut with three butterfly bandages. Good enough.
When he came out of the bathroom, Linc was gone and Marlene was on the phone. Cade strolled into Martin’s office, closing the door behind him.
Martin looked up from a crossword puzzle. “You knocked?”
Cade chose not to sit. Instead he leaned against the doorjamb. He cut straight to the point. “Marlene isn’t a good idea.”
Martin casually leaned back in his chair and propped his booted feet on his worn desk. He clasped his hands behind his head and pretended to study the ceiling. Finally he looked at Cade, beetling his eyebrows in mock perplexity. “Funny. I don’t recall asking you. Anyway, it’s a little like closing the gate after the horse is out of the barn isn’t it?”
Cade kept his face expressionless. Martin wasn’t going to get the best of his temper. “I distinctly recall Marlene mentioning not being cut out for casual sex. You were there.”
“Marlene’s a big girl. She can make her own decisions.” He folded his hands over his still-flat b
elly.
Cade made a split decision, based on years of dealing with the old man. Appealing to Martin’s vested interests would be much more effective than appealing to his sense of rightness because Martin wrote his own rules in that department. “We need her here, Martin. We’ve always been careful not to mix business and pleasure. We can’t afford for her to walk out when this is over.” Sunny’s comment that the four-week rule would entice most women to prove it wrong echoed in his head. He’d never thought of it that way, but unfortunately, that had Marlene written all over it. He didn’t want to see Martin break her heart.
“Son—” Cade gritted his teeth; he was damn sure Martin called him that just to remind him of his paternity “—this is none of your business.”
“Marlene is my business.” Cade smiled and he knew it wasn’t pleasant. “If you hurt her, I’m going to scatter your ass from one end of Poplar to the other.”
Martin rolled a pen between his fingers. “You’ve been looking for a reason for a long time.”
“Don’t give me one now.”
“You could give me a little credit,” Martin said without any of his usual bluster, suddenly looking every year of his age.
It was an overture.
Cade ignored it. He’d learned to be strong a long time ago. “You’d have to earn it first.”
Cade turned on his heel.
“Close the door on your way out,” Martin said with a quiet weariness from behind him. Cade walked out, pulling the door closed until it clicked.
Marlene was elbow-deep in the file cabinet, one of the never-ending aspects of her job. She looked over her shoulder at Cade. She frowned at his patched brow.
“You probably needed stitches but I’ll save my breath. How’d it go last night? How’s Sunny? What’s she like?”
Sexy. Mouthy. Distracting. And for the next four weeks…his. “She’s a pain in the ass.”
Marlene quirked an inquiring brow.
“There was a little problem last night when I dropped her off at her house.”
The Big Heat Page 9