by Luna, David
Cade was the epitome of everything Braden had ever been attracted to. The thought scared him, but it also intrigued him. He hadn’t had feelings like this in more than a year and a half. In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt this pull, this energy, around anyone. Sure, he’d felt attraction before, but this, this felt altogether different. It felt like he had an internal hum resonating through his body when he was near Cade. When Cade touched him, even if it was just briefly, he felt electricity whirring through his veins.
He wasn’t used to being pursued. When he was attracted to someone, he usually forced his shy nature aside in order to make the first move. He thought it was because he didn’t like being alone so he took matters into his own hands, but he knew enough about himself to know that it was also because he needed a measure of control in making the choice of who to approach. Therefore, the fact that Cade was the one essentially hitting on him and pursuing him had him off kilter. However, this time Braden wasn’t feeling the stress of making any moves, and it felt right, letting Cade take the lead. He felt some measure of control, because he knew he could say no whenever he wanted to, and Cade would back off. He had no idea why he felt like he could trust that about him, but he felt sure that he could.
From what Cade said, if he could be believed, he was feeling something similar. No matter how many ways he looked at it, Braden couldn’t figure out any reason at all that Cade would lie to him about it. He wouldn’t gain anything. He was best friends with Cooper, not to mention business partners. He was gay and out. He was going to protect and investigate the stalker situation for free. Cooper and Maya were remarkably alike, and Maya was a great judge of character, so he already felt he could trust Cade to be truthful about most anything, just because Cooper trusted him implicitly. If anything, lying would not only be illogical, but it would risk his relationship with Cooper, if he ended up hurting Braden, because Maya would be out for blood, and Cooper was an extremely protective older brother.
While it didn’t make sense to Braden that someone like Cade could be interested in someone like him, it made even less sense that he’d lie about it. In fact, he had been so completely forthright about everything so far, that Braden could do nothing but admire him and believe him, doing anything else seemed disrespectful. The things that Cade had said took an amazing amount of courage to tell someone you’ve known for months; let alone someone you’ve known for less than 48 hours.
This feeling of trust towards a man who was interested in him was so completely foreign and utterly inexplicable that he felt overwhelmed and yet strangely euphoric about it, which put a huge smile on his face. Cade knocked on the door frame before walking in. He’d changed into some plaid pajama bottoms and a tight white t-shirt. He looked delicious, and Braden caught himself, before he said something like that out loud, or licked his lips, or did something equally ridiculous and embarrassing.
Cade stopped in the middle of Braden’s room as if dumbfounded. He shook his head. “God, that smile. I could look at that smile every day and still never get enough of it. I don’t even…. What was I…. Oh, I brought you some water. Do you need to take pain pills?”
Braden blushed and tried not to smile even wider as a result of Cade’s compliment. “No, thanks. I’m just a bit groggy and really exhausted still, but I don’t have any pain right now. I’ll take the water, though.”
“OK. So you don’t need me to rub your temples or hold an ice pack to your head. I’m trying to figure out any other reason you might need me to sleep in here with you again. Zombie apocalypse? Killer bees?”
That surprised a laugh out of Braden, and he felt comfortable enough to flirt back in response. “Sadly, I don’t remember much of last night, but I’m almost 100 percent positive I would have thoroughly enjoyed being held in your arms all night, even without the imminent threat of zombies or killer bees.”
Cade, eyes wide, lifted both arms, looking at them like he’d never seen them before. “Yeah? These arms?”
Braden chuckled. “Yeah, those are the ones.”
“So that means I can stay, right?”
Braden smiled flirtatiously and shook his head. “Nope.”
“Damn.”
Braden smirked. “I think you’ll live. My guest bedroom has a pretty nice bed in it.”
“Right, but it doesn’t have you in it.” Cade sighed dramatically. “I suppose I’ll muddle through.” He leaned forward, caressed Braden’s cheek, kissed his temple and whispered softly in his ear. “Sleep well, Braden.”
Braden shivered from the touch, the kiss, and the sexy whispered words and couldn’t help but watch as Cade left, giving him a fantastic view of his tight round ass. Braden sighed as he lay down and got comfortable. There was no stopping it; he was going to have dreams, really good dreams, of that perfect ass, among other things.
Cade woke up around 5 a.m., headed to the electric kettle to heat up some water for his coffee and heard a noise in Braden’s room. Curious, as he hadn’t expected Braden to be awake, he walked in there and caught Braden doing yoga or some sort of sexy, flexible… something. He propped his shoulder on the doorjamb, crossed his arms over his chest and rested one ankle over the other, getting comfortable, as he intended to watch Braden do…whatever it was he was doing.
He was already in full on running gear, which seemed so incongruous with what Cade thought of as Braden’s hipster, metrosexual vibe that he could do nothing but grin and watch him while he contorted his body into positions that really shouldn’t be physically possible. Frankly, it was giving him a semi, and a couple more downward dog, upward dog combos and Cade was going to embarrass himself. He must have made some sort of noise; his guess was a whimper, because Braden jumped and swung around towards him.
“Jesus, Zavier, you scared the shit out of me!”
Cade rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and smiled. “Sorry, I…. You’re really bendy.”
Braden huffed out a laugh. “Bendy? I guess it comes with the territory. In order to be able to run as much as I need to, I have to make sure my muscles stay loose, so there’s an enormous amount of stretching. Oh, and yoga, and Pilates.”
“Pilates? I don’t know what that is, but I can see it’s helpful, you know, with being… bendy. So I take it we’re running today? I guess a little stretching is in order for me as well. Are you going to take it easy on me?”
“So, you weren’t exaggerating when you said you’d be my shadow? You’re really going running with me?”
“Exaggerating? I’m afraid not. I’m taking this really seriously. You should as well. This stalker thing is no joke. I’ll do my best to be as unobtrusive as possible. I’m sure you like your solitude; I can even run behind you if you need space. As much as I want to get to know you and see where that takes us, I don’t want to use this situation to insinuate myself where I’m not wanted. Please believe that, Braden.”
“I do believe that. And, we are getting to know each other. So I guess I’ll have to take it easy on you, won’t I? I don’t really have the energy after the migraine to go full tilt anyway.”
“Alright, so do you want to eat first? If not, let me go get ready.”
“I was going to make some breakfast quick before I left, so why don’t you go get ready and I’ll fix us something. We won’t be running until around 7. I need to get over to the café and make my first batch of fresh scones and muffins. While those are baking, I make croissant dough and some other batters for later in the day. I run while the dough is rising, then I come back for my second batch of baking. While I’m running, you can run beside me, but I need that time to empty my head and relieve my stress, so I usually don’t talk much and most of the time I have my buds in. Sorry.”
“That’s fine Braden, don’t apologize. Whatever works best for you. We’ll need to have a discussion sometime later today about the stalker, there’s no away around that, but if you’re willing to talk while you’re baking, that will work for me.”
Braden nodded. “Can we have t
hat talk after we run?
“Yeah, of course.”
“Thanks. Do you like eggs?”
Cade smiled. “You’d be hard pressed to find food I don’t like. Now, MREs I will gladly do without for the rest of my days, but real food? I’m a glutton.”
“All right, eggs it is.”
Cade stepped into the kitchen wearing compression shorts covered by long loose basketball shorts, and a loose wicking tee. Braden took notice of the tattoos on his legs as well as his arms and found his mouth going dry. He turned away, forcing himself to focus on breakfast instead of this giant sex god, walking around with beautiful artwork covering half of his body.
After eating breakfast, just before they walked out the door, Cade stopped Braden. “While I’m protecting you, I’ll always need to be on your right side so that my right hand is free to draw my weapon. You probably won’t remember that, and there’s no need for you to, I just wanted you to understand why I may sometimes reposition you or myself to ensure that’s the case. I may also situate myself behind you, on that side, as well.”
Braden hadn’t thought about the fact that Cade would be armed, though it made perfect sense. He was a little uneasy knowing that, but he supposed it was better he did than be surprised by it later. They walked over to the café. For the first half hour he inventoried what was needed, got to work prepping his work area and getting all of his ingredients out. Cade brought his iPad and got some work done while Braden, buds in his ears, made several batches of scones and muffins and put them in the ovens to bake. After that he started on some other batters and bread dough and set them aside for when he returned from his run. Taking out the first batches of scones and muffins from the ovens, he placed them on the counter and looked up at Cade’s loud throat clearing. He took out his buds when he saw the look of yearning on Cade’s face.
Braden chuckled. “Give them a couple minutes to set and cool so you don’t burn your mouth and then take whatever you want.”
Right around that time, Cade heard a loud bell ring and watched Braden pick up a cloth from the counter to wipe his hands. He walked towards the back door, but Cade stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Is that the back doorbell?”
“Yes, Layla is here. She comes in to get the café set up with the baked goods and gets the coffee started, and in another few minutes, Zoe will arrive to get the register drawers in so they can open the doors at 7 a.m.”
Cade assured him, “Go ahead and keep working, I’ll let her in.”
Layla looked surprised to see him and took a step back.
“Sorry to surprise you, Layla. I’m here with Braden, come on in.”
“OK,” Layla practically squeaked as she slid past him as quickly as her little feet would carry her and went to the break room to lock up her stuff, before putting on her apron. She grabbed one of the trays Braden had filled with the fresh baked goods and was about to make her escape when Cade reached out and snagged one of the scones from the tray and gave her a wink and a lazy, flirtatious smile. She raised her eyes that were now wide in shock to Cade and let out a startled little “meep” before practically running to the front of the cafe.
Cade chuckled and took a bite of the scone and stopped in the middle of the kitchen in bliss, making a deep rumbling sound of sheer happiness when the flavors burst on his tongue. He looked over at Braden, who was pulling out a few more pans of baked goods from the oven and shaking his head in exasperation.
“You’re gonna scare the girl to death. She’s already a little jumpy around me, now she’s got gigantor to contend with, too? She’ll expire on the spot, if you keep flirting with her!”
Cade laughed and lied through his teeth. “I’m harmless, and I wasn’t flirting! She was taking my scone!”
“I saved you a scone and a muffin, right by your iPad.”
“Oh good, this one won’t be enough, and don’t think you’re gonna get away with calling me Gigantor without some retribution.”
“Retribution? Like what? And, would you prefer gladiator, the Jolly Green Giant?”
Cade’s deadpan face and raised eyebrow was almost comical. “If I was green, I’d be the Hulk, thank you very much. I’ll think of something for retribution, and yeah, Gladiator is better and much more accurate.”
Braden threw up his hands in surrender and went back to work, mumbling about hot giants with huge egos. Pretty soon, Braden was taking the last tray out of the oven and the back doorbell rang again. Looking through the peephole, Cade glanced back in surprise, Braden grinned. “Tattooed, pin-up knockout. Remind you of anyone?”
Cade raised his eyebrows when Braden laughed at the look on his face, shrugged and opened the door to the woman that could only be Zoe. They took stock of each other for several moments and then both of them grinned like loons, each apparently didn’t quite believe they were looking at the other.
“Well, aren’t you something, Miss Boop.”
“Not so bad yourself, G.I. Joe.”
“What gave me away?”
She sauntered by him and poked his left arm, directly on the spot where he had his Special Forces tattoo that was somewhat obscured within a bigger tattoo. Impressed, and liking her sassy attitude, he followed her in, after closing and locking the door and admired the gorgeous and vividly colorful tattoos she sported on her arms. He made a mental note to ask her who the artist was, as they were extremely talented and he’d need a local tattooist.
He watched her approach Braden, who smiled and tilted his face down for her to kiss. “Hey, Boop.”
Zoe hugged Braden around the waist. “Hi, Sweets. This big lug here to take care of you?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Good. Can’t have anything happen to our boy.” She smiled coyly at Cade and leaned over to his plate and stole the scone.
“Hey!”
“Oh stop, there’s more where that came from, big guy. Try the chocolate ones.”
“You guys are going to give me a complex. Between being called Gigantor, big guy, and a big lug, I’m feeling rather self-conscious!”
“Gigantor? Love it! Braden, you slay me.” Still laughing, Zoe bit into the scone, winked at him cheekily and swished her hips into the office.
Braden smiled as he loaded up the last of the trays, and Layla came back in to grab another one to take to the front, avoiding Cade’s eyes. Braden pulled off his apron and once again looked like the distance runner he was instead of the baker. Cade stood and picked up his iPhone. He left his iPad next to the plate with the muffin. Braden asked Cade if he was ready and they both headed out of the café. Stretching for a few minutes in silence, they both strapped on their iPhones and earbuds and went for a run.
After a couple miles, Cade caught Braden watching him and had to ask what was going on. Getting Braden to actually tell him what was on his mind was like pulling teeth. He had the ridiculous notion that Cade wouldn’t want to hear what Braden said about his running form. Apparently his shoulders weren’t relaxed enough and he wasn’t keeping his elbows at a 90-degree angle. Once Cade convinced him that he wanted to fix his form and actually listen to Braden’s advice, Braden was very forthcoming on how to go about it.
Cade was pretty happy with the end results, because he actually felt better physically than he usually would after a long run was over, with the improvements Braden had suggested. Braden obviously knew what he was talking about, because everything about his running form was perfection. Cade was able to keep up with him only because Braden was still feeling wrung out from the migraine. They ran a little over four miles, and Cade had no problem running that distance, but he knew that Braden was keeping his pace much slower than he normally would. Cade felt that once Braden realized that he very much wanted Braden’s advice, things were much more relaxed and companionable the rest of the way.
What bothered Cade was Braden’s reticence to tell him what he was thinking. He seemed afraid to give his opinion, like Cade would berate him or be angry with him for voicing his tho
ughts. He had a feeling the past relationship that Maya had warned him about was what made Braden so cautious to voice his opinion. Without blatantly coming out and asking Braden that point blank, which he had a feeling would just make this fledgling friendship they were starting come to a screeching halt, Cade had to be sure he let Braden know with his actions that he felt his opinions and feelings were very important. He never wanted Braden to feel like he had to hesitate to tell him anything. He also wanted Braden to lighten up a little and feel more relaxed around him.
They both showered after their run and met up in the kitchen where Cade could do nothing but enjoy looking at Braden. He’d put on a pair of black rectangular glasses and tied his hair up in some kind of messy bun. He wore some brown leather well-worn ankle boots, with dark wash fitted and cuffed jeans, an old and very faded Beatles t-shirt with a plaid cotton button up shirt layered on top. The rolled up sleeves showed off a very wide leather cuff-like bracelet, that upon Braden’s wrist turning, Cade realized was a very familiar McCade Watch. He smiled wide and tucked that piece of information away for later, not to mention, a discussion with his family regarding offering a new type of band.
He was beginning to realize that Braden had a really sexy style that he never knew he’d be so utterly enamored with. His own sense of style was practically non-existent. His mother called it “military chic”, as most of the men in the family were soldiers or sailors and shared the same exact military palette. Not to mention most of the men were over 6’4” so a lot of their clothing had to be tailored. More often than not, he was wearing a pair of tactical pants with a comfortable cotton shirt. He’d never cared one way or another about clothing and wore what was comfortable and practical. In fact, he’d never really been interested in fashion as it related to his past partners, but he could now see that Braden was very fashion forward, while still maintaining a completely relaxed feel about it all. He knew if he commented about Braden’s appearance, he would blush and get uncomfortable, so he merely gave Braden a very admiring look, which no one could misinterpret. “Glasses?”