“Shall I swoon?” Nati joked, ignoring her better judgment to join him.
She sat facing him at the end with the sloping back. With one leg curved on the seat between them and the other foot remaining on the floor, she dropped her head against the upholstered slope and put her forearm to her brow.
“Somehow you don’t seem like the swooning type,” he said, reaching over to take her free hand to pull her upright. “But I do hate that you went through what you went through,” he said quietly, holding her hand between both of his and rubbing the back of it with his thumb.
“But now it’s time to move on. No more crying over spilt milk,” she said dryly.
“Is there anything I can do to make things better? Can I invest in your shop, or help you get a place of your own, or a car? You still need a car....”
“Things are fine. They don’t need to be better,” she assured him. “My car will be fixed next week. My shop is in the black. And I like living close to my grandfather—I missed six and a half years with him, who knows how much longer I might have with him. Plus, my place might be small, but it meets my needs.”
He shook his head as if he thought there was no reasoning with her but smiled a smile that hinted at admiration. “I do like a girl with pluck,” he said. “And if we were still doing business with the Pirfoys we’d stop—how could I trust people dumb enough to let you get away?”
“Well, sure, there’s that...” Nati joked, making him laugh.
Which was when it struck her that she didn’t want to talk anymore. What she really wanted was for him to kiss her. That was what she’d really wanted since the moment she’d spotted him standing outside her door tonight. Or actually, since the moment he’d stopped kissing her the night before...
It was what made him so dangerous for her to be around.
But right now she didn’t care. Her emotions were raw and she was a little in need of human comfort after talking about her experiences with Doug and his family. She just wanted Cade to kiss her...
He was studying her, searching her eyes, holding her gaze with his, but Nati wasn’t sure he was getting the message.
Then he shook his head again and repeated, “Plucky...” as he tugged her toward him for the kiss she’d been waiting for.
Their lips met delicately at first. But it wasn’t long before the kiss changed to something a whole lot more sensual.
Oh, she loved kissing him! He was just so good at it!
With her eyes closed, Nati drifted far into that kiss, into the pleasure of it as it gradually grew deeper, as their mouths relaxed and lips eased open more, as their tongues intertwined.
Cade slid closer to her. He let go of one of her hands and stroked the side of her face, his fingers combing up into her hair as the heat of his palm infused her cheek so wonderfully she couldn’t help angling her head in that direction, into that caress.
Then he ran his other hand ever so lightly across her hip before running it down her thigh. He lifted her leg over his so he could move closer still.
A small, quiet voice in the back of Nati’s mind told her to stop this before it went any further. But she just didn’t want to hear it. Instead she raised her own hands—one to the column of his thick neck, the other to press to his chest.
She could feel muscle and power behind his polo shirt. And she liked that. Doug had been very thin, very lean, slight almost. But Cade had just the right amount of brawn to make him the essence of masculinity. And right there and then Nati drank it in and reveled in this man who was all man.
As their kiss deepened yet another level, Nati reclined against the backrest, lounging there, with Cade above her. His tongue tamed and taunted and teased.
She again ignored the little voice of caution in her head as things began to come awake, alive inside of her. Things that had been sleeping for a very long time. Yearnings. Yearnings for more. Yearnings to feel Cade’s hand on more of her body. Yearnings to feel more of Cade beneath her own palms.
Her nipples were taut by then, making demands of their own that flooded her with even more desires. Her mouth went wide and she chased his tongue with her own, causing a rumble of laughter from his throat.
She found the hem of his shirt and insinuated her hands underneath it, laying them both on his broad back.
Skin. Oh, forbidden skin! Sleek and silky and warm over more muscle, over sinews and tendons and broad, tight shoulders.
Nati reveled in the feel of his bare back, in running her hands along every inch of it and indulging herself in the purely primitive allure of skin against skin. Meanwhile, their kiss became an even more primal act.
Cade trailed his hand down from her cheek. To her neck. Her shoulder. Down her arm where merely the heel of his hand brushed the outer swell of her right breast.
It was almost nothing. And yet it was enough for her nipples to grow harder still, like twin diamonds that felt as if they might poke right through the tight camisole that served as a bra today.
Did he have any idea how badly she wanted his hand there?
He was still leaning over her, lost in that hot, steamy, plundering kiss, but their chests weren’t touching so she doubted that he knew what he was arousing in her.
Then he covered her breast with his hand and he couldn’t have been left guessing. Even through two shirts her nipple nestled into his palm.
With exactly the right pressure, the right firmness, the right everything, he kneaded her straining flesh, working it like a sculptor worked clay, sending waves of pleasure through her.
Oh, but he was good at that, too!
He reached his other arm over her head, resting it on the back of the fainting couch so he could come nearer, so he could kiss her even more soundly—if that were possible—while the hand at her breast slipped away to find a path under her shirts.
Nati couldn’t muffle the tiny moan of delight when he did, when his fingers first touched her naked side, when his hand drew a tingling trail up to recapture her breast. It felt so good that she arched her spine and raised her other leg to drape it over his, leaving her straddling him, fighting not to writhe beneath the touch of that hand at her breast.
His hand worked a marvelous madness. Nati was carried away to a place where nothing existed but the two of them.
And yet it was at that moment that the little voice in the back of her mind somehow gained volume.
This wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the place. This wasn’t a man she should be letting herself get carried away with....
And while she wanted to deny all of that, she couldn’t. She’d just told him about what she’d gone through with Doug, with the Pirfoys, and in telling him she’d relived enough of the feelings to remind her of why she had to be cautious. She needed to be careful so soon after her divorce, but especially with a man who was even further out of her league than Doug had been.
It wasn’t easy to deny herself. To call a halt to that kiss. To everything.
She had to, though. She knew that kissing, touching wasn’t going to be enough if she let this go on much longer, and that making love with him there, on a customer’s fainting couch in her workroom, was not something she could let happen.
So the first thing she did was place one of her hands over his where he touched her breast, stopping him in his tracks.
Then she ended the kiss, drawing away from him and opening her eyes.
“Maybe not the best idea,” she whispered in a raspy, ragged voice.
She watched as Cade—eyes closed—drew a deep breath and with one final, longing caress of her breast, drew his hand out from under hers, out from under her shirts. Then he sat back and finally opened those brilliant blue eyes, nodding his concession as if he wasn’t yet able to speak.
He curved an arm under each of her knees and lifted them, bringing them together in fro
nt of him. With her feet flat to the seat, nearly touching his crotch, he merely hugged her calves while he propped his chin atop her bent knees and smiled a bit blearily.
“I can’t help myself when it comes to you, Nati,” he confided quietly, as if it wasn’t something he should be admitting to either of them.
He sat up straight and let go of her. Still straddling the fainting couch, he stood up and stepped over it.
“Come on, walk me out so you can lock up behind me,” he said, holding out a hand to her.
She was so desperate to feel Cade’s touch again that she didn’t care if it was wise or not to take his hand.
He kept hold of her as they went from workroom to storefront to the door. Once they were there, he gazed down at her, his expression full of obvious disappointment that things had ended.
“So. The Scarecrow Festival—I’m thinking that sounds like fun,” he said. “Any chance you can get away from the shop and tour it with me?”
Say no....
“Maybe,” she said instead.
His smile broadened. “And who knows, I might even put in a bid on a scarecrow during the auction.”
Nati laughed at that notion, not believing him. “Because it’s what everyone needs,” she joked.
“You never know.”
Cade kissed her once more—a kiss filled with barely bridled passion—but cut it short. It wasn’t soon enough to keep Nati from being swept up in the moment all over again though.
“Thanks for the pizza,” he said in a husky tone.
“Thanks for the help,” Nati whispered back.
With another kiss—this one chaste—he squeezed her hand and released it so he could open the door and go back out into the night.
And that was when Nati realized that she was standing there stiff as a board, willing herself not to want that man as much as she did.
While still wanting him so much she could hardly breathe...
Chapter Nine
“Sold! To the man in the turtleneck sweater!” the auctioneer called.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Nati said with a laugh.
She and Cade were outside of Arden’s Old Town library early Saturday evening where the scarecrows were being sold to the highest bidders and he’d just bought hers.
“You’re afraid of it,” she reminded him, thinking back to his reaction to her scarecrow when he’d first come into her shop.
“It’s grown on me,” he claimed with a grin. “And I have the perfect place for it. Why don’t you come home with me and I’ll show you?”
Cade had arrived at her shop at three o’clock. For two hours he’d talked and joked around with both her and Holly. He’d encouraged customers to buy some of Nati’s wares, and petted and played with the dogs of several of Holly’s customers. He’d generally made those two hours fly by for both Nati and Holly, who was clearly charmed by him.
At five o’clock Holly offered to watch both shops for the last hour they were scheduled to remain open and encouraged Nati and Cade to go to the auction.
Now Cade wanted her to come home with him.
After what had happened between them in the workroom last night she’d been too wound up to merely go home and go to bed. In an attempt to work off some of that unexpressed energy, some of those unsatisfied desires, she’d stayed at the shop and worked until nearly four in the morning, completely finishing the design on his grandmother’s hope chest.
She’d also spent that time telling herself that once the hope chest was finished, she could stop seeing Cade. That this could now come to a natural conclusion—exactly what she knew should happen.
In fact, she’d gone into today half hoping he wouldn’t show up for the festival.
Of course the other half of her had spent the entire day watching for him and hoping he would show up, but such was her dilemma over the man.
Still, she honestly thought that the smartest thing she could do was get out of harm’s way. She’d been firm with herself and made up her mind that today was the end. One way or another. That if he didn’t show up, last night would be the last she saw of him, that she would even get the hope chest back to his grandmother during Cade’s work hours next week so she didn’t run any risk of seeing him again.
And if he did come to the festival, then today would be it.
Then she would put all her efforts into trying to forget she’d ever met him.
And kissed him.
And done more than kiss him.
She’d ignore the fact that she still wanted to do so much more that it almost burned her from the inside out....
Which was why she knew she should say no to going with him to his house now.
But somehow there didn’t seem to be anything natural about concluding things right at that moment. In fact, it felt very unnatural. It felt cut too short. And she just couldn’t make herself do it.
Plus she was curious about what he was going to do with the scarecrow. And it occurred to her that they could also load his grandmother’s hope chest into the back of the shop truck and bring it with them, getting that out of the way. Then this truly would be the end of her association with the Camdens. Today. Tonight.
“I am wondering what you have planned for my girl,” she said in a tone that was both intrigued and suspicious.
“Something good...”
“And since the hope chest is finished and you’ve already paid for the work, I could get it back to your end of town in the process—”
“And there’s something else I want to tell you,” he said, adding to the intrigue. “Something pretty big and important.”
Nati arched her eyebrows in question but he shook his head. “Nope, I’m not telling yet.”
“So I have to come?”
“You don’t have to, but it would be good if you do.”
The glint of mischief in his eyes increased her curiosity and made up her mind once and for all.
“All right. But this better be good,” she threatened despite the fact that deep down she was thrilled to have found an excuse to spend a few more hours with him.
* * *
After loading the hope chest into the back of Nati’s truck, Cade had strapped the scarecrow into his passenger seat and left Nati to finish closing up her shop and join him at his house a bit later.
Before she headed out, she went into the store bathroom to run a brush through her hair, and to freshen her lip gloss and blush.
She’d dressed today with the thought of seeing Cade so she was wearing her best, most expensive jeans, with a fit that was slimming and made her rear end look better than any pair of pants she owned.
To go with the jeans she was wearing a black lace knit shirt that also fit like a glove. The lining was flesh-colored, giving the illusion that she was showing more skin than she actually was. It had long sleeves, a square neckline, and a scalloped hem that barely reached the low waistband of her jeans. With the slightest movements, it exposed a hint of midriff.
Then Nati did the one thing that gave the outfit a little extra fire power—she took off the flat shoes she’d worn all day and slipped her feet into a pair of black suede heels she’d brought with her today just in case...
She shouldn’t, she told herself when the mere feel of the spiky three-inch heels made her feel like a new and much more daring woman.
Stick with the flats. They’re frumpier. Safer. Tonight can’t go where last night went....
But as good as her rear end looked in the jeans, the addition of the heels made it even better. It was the first time since her divorce that she’d ventured into spike-heel territory, and she just couldn’t make herself go back to the frump. Not tonight.
“Watch yourself,” she warned her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She turned around, cranin
g her neck to get a look at her own rump and what the addition of the heels did to it, and then turned to face the mirror again.
She put on the black cashmere shrug she’d worn as a coat today and stuffed her flat shoes into her bag. Then she locked up the shop for the remainder of the weekend, and headed for Cade’s house.
This one last time, she reminded herself.
Tonight and it was over...
* * *
“Okay, your dolly is back in the truck. I’ll leave the hope chest in the entryway until Louie and I get it to GiGi’s. Now you can come out back with me to see where your other creation will live.”
“You put me in the backyard to literally scare away crows?” Nati asked as Cade led her from the entry to his kitchen and then ushered her outside.
“Not quite,” Cade said in a self-satisfied tone.
Nati stepped out into the yard. She’d often gazed out at it through the dining room window when she’d been texturing his wall.
It was a beautiful yard—but not especially large. Well-manicured hedges lined the brick wall that acted as a fence. In the center of it all was a detached patio—a large square paved in slate with a brick fire pit, surrounded by wrought-iron chairs and tables and a love-seat-sized glider with fluffy cream-colored cushions. The entire patio was shaded by a redwood roof supported by vine-covered redwood posts. Along one side of the patio, there was an enclosed space containing a grill, an outdoor oven, sink and wet bar. The cooking and entertaining area put Nati’s home kitchen to shame.
The scarecrow had been positioned in the enclosed area overlooking the fire pit. Nati also noticed that the stage had been set for tonight. There was a fire in the fire pit and a table near the glider had been set with plates, wineglasses, an open bottle of wine and take-out containers of food.
“Hmmm...” Nati mused. “Should I get out of here quick, before your guest arrives, or did you have more in mind for me tonight than delivering the hope chest and showing me what you did with my scarecrow?”
Corner-Office Courtship Page 14