He used the knuckles of one hand to lift her chin, raising her face to his. With a sexy, sexy smile, Cade sought out her mouth once more. As her hands traveled over each inch of his broad shoulders, his honed pectorals, his flat, flat belly, he tugged her lower lip between his teeth and taunted her with the tip of his tongue.
Nati kissed him back with every bit as much hunger, every bit as much urgency. She moved her palms along his sides to his back, following its ever-widening V to his massive shoulders. Then she drew her thumbs down either side of his spine, letting her fingers dip inside his waistband to where the curve of his rear end began.
At the same time, his hand finally traveled south, from her neck to her shoulder to her lace-covered breast.
Desire swelled her chest into his grasp but still it wasn’t enough. Nati cursed all the lacy fabric that came between her skin and his touch.
But Cade wasted little time before bringing his hand around to her side and reaching under the scalloped hem of her shirt. His palm glided upward to cup her breast through her bra. Then he found his way past that, too.
His touch was as divine as it had been last night. Her nipple turned to a nib of oh-so-sensitive glass that strained for his every whim as he caressed and kneaded and massaged and manipulated her.
And still she wanted more. More. More. More...
Her shirt came off. Then her bra a moment later. Cade unfastened the button at her waistband, unzipped her jeans and slid those off, too, leaving her in only lacy bikini panties. He swept her into his arms and unceremoniously deposited her on his bed.
But he didn’t join her there yet. As Nati again reveled in the superb sight of him, he rid himself of what remained of his clothes, giving her only a brief glimpse of just how magnificent he was before he came onto the bed with her.
He stretched out beside her and kissed her again, more slowly now, savoring it, savoring her, as his hand found her breasts—first one, then the other, in tender squeezes that seemed to keep pace with the beats of her heart and only built the anticipation.
Then his mouth trailed to her breast. He was tender at first, then more insistent as he sucked her nipple far into the dark cavern of his hot, moist mouth and circled and flicked that tight crest with his tongue.
While he did that, his hand traveled down her stomach to slip between her legs.
Nati couldn’t keep from writhing as his long fingers explored and found entrance. He drew them in and out slowly.
She reached for him in turn without much preamble. He was long, thick and unyielding; the majesty of him only increased her desire.
Shifting onto her side, she brushed one of her legs up against his thigh. She could tell that she was getting to him, too, because a low rumble sounded in his throat.
Then everything stopped for a moment while he rolled away to his nightstand and found protection. When he returned, he kissed her again with a languid hunger, then came down on top of her and insinuated himself between her pliable legs.
It was such a wonderful weight, to have him there above her.
Nati’s arms went up and over his shoulders, her hands pressed to his back, as he came fully into her with slow purpose.
Nature really did take its own course from there as they moved together in perfect cadence. Perfect, rhythmic cadence that swept Nati into a world where there was only Cade and the feelings, the sensations, he was bringing to life within her. Feelings and sensations that got stronger and stronger, building, growing, getting bigger and better with every thrust.
Faster and harder he plunged until Nati couldn’t keep up any longer. She could only hold tight to him as wave after wave washed through her, lifting her higher and higher until she was held aloft in the golden glow of an unbridled ecstasy that she’d truly never experienced the likes of before.
She knew she was digging her fingers into Cade’s back but she couldn’t help it. Her own back came away from the bed, as every inch of her froze in that sublime surge of passion and pleasure that sent a small, high-pitched sound from her arched throat. Every muscle in Cade’s body tensed and froze, too, letting her know that he was reaching a peak of his own.
He pressed deeper and deeper into her—so far that it wasn’t possible for him to press any farther, embedding himself in the core of her. They were melded together in a way that Nati wanted never to end even as it began to. As her own body began to relax and concede exhaustion. As the curve in her spine, the arch of her neck eased and laid her flat to the mattress again. As Cade started to breathe and unwind, to rest more of his weight on her.
For a moment they both stayed that way, basking in the aftermath, their bodies molded perfectly together.
Then Cade pushed his upper body away from her to rest his forearms on either side of her head, and kissed her brow. “I swore I was going to behave tonight,” he confessed.
“Me, too,” Nati answered with a tiny laugh.
“You just get to me, you know?”
The same way he got to her. “I’d apologize but you get to me, too.”
He smiled a weary smile and kissed her on the mouth before he said, “I’d like to get to you a whole lot more.”
Nati laughed again.
“Will you stay?” he asked as if everything in his life depended on it.
“I don’t think I could drive home,” she admitted. Her lack of sleep the previous night and what they’d just indulged in had caught up with her.
“So if I just keep you exhausted you’ll never leave? I think I can do that,” he said with laughing insinuation as he slipped out of her and rolled to his back. He pulled her over to lie close beside him, both of his arms wrapped tightly around her.
And in the warmth of that embrace, her head pillowed by one of his pectorals, Nati could no longer resist slumber.
But even as she gave in to it, she was thinking about Cade, about what they’d just done, about the intentions she’d brought with her tonight and then discarded.
Yet in those few minutes right before sleep took her she knew without a doubt that even though she had gone against every vow she’d made to herself, it had been worth it.
Chapter Ten
“I’ll admit I was hoping to find out that leaving Northbridge was the best thing that ever happened to the Morrisons,” GiGi told Cade on Sunday as the two of them sat in GiGi’s kitchen making a salad. “Which doesn’t seem to be the case.”
No one else had arrived for dinner yet. Cade had come early in order to tell his grandmother that his mission with the Morrisons was complete and what the outcome had been.
“But,” the elderly woman continued as she stood up, “I’m at least glad to know that they did all right, that Jonah had a good and happy life, that he’s happy now. And I appreciate that you found a way to help his granddaughter become a success from here on—working with Mandy ensures that she’ll do very well.”
On her way to the refrigerator for more salad fixings, GiGi paused to kiss Cade on the cheek.
“Thank you. You did exactly what I wanted and now you can go back to business as usual,” she said.
Cade had no idea what there was about his expression that gave him away. But one look at his face and his grandmother reared back, raised her eyebrows and said, “Unless you don’t want to go back to business as usual. Maybe you like this girl....”
His report to his grandmother had been like any business report. He’d stated facts, tracing the repercussions of what H.J. had done in foreclosing on the Morrisons’ farm in Northbridge through the generations. He had not said anything about what had happened between himself and Nati personally. Certainly he hadn’t told his grandmother that Nati had spent last night with him. That they’d made love repeatedly. That Nati had somehow managed to slip out before dawn this morning without waking him, without leaving so much as a note, and that he�
�d been in one hell of a quandary ever since.
But apparently just like when he was a kid, GiGi could see right through him.
“Do you like this girl?” his grandmother asked.
“She’s...great,” he said. It was the truth, even though he said it with reservation in his tone.
Sensing his hesitation, his grandmother said, “But she doesn’t have much on her own. Jennifer and Aggie didn’t have much on their own so they were angling for a way to soak you.”
“But unlike Jennifer and Aggie, Nati is as honest as the day is long,” Cade said, denying there was any similarity among the three women. “I tried to talk her into raising her prices, they were so low. I couldn’t even get her to charge mileage for coming across town to my house. And she’s already experienced the perks of money through marriage. But rather than fighting tooth and nail for anything in her divorce, she settled for a pittance. Hell, she didn’t even expect me to pay for everything when we were together—she bought me ice cream and pizza.”
“So she’s not like Jennifer and Aggie,” his grandmother concluded. “But do you think she might have some kind of secret axe to grind because of who you are?”
“I poked around at that issue more than once,” Cade said. “Her reaction was always the same—there was no anger. She believes that the way the Morrisons’ lives played out was the way they were meant to play out.”
“She’s an upstanding person who doesn’t seem to want anything from you—or us,” GiGi summarized. “She’s ‘great,’ but...what? You just don’t like her?”
Cade laughed, though it was wry and pained because to say that he didn’t like Nati was so far off base. The truth was that he liked her too much. So much that it really did worry him.
What if he’d missed something the way he’d missed seeing the other women for what they were? Those two storms had been tough enough to weather. But with Nati? He didn’t know what he’d do if he was wrong about her. He didn’t know if he’d survive...
Somehow his grandmother sensed that, too.
Sweeping by him on her way back from the refrigerator, she pinched his cheek. “My big strong grandson is mush for this girl and shakin’ in his boots, isn’t he?” she said with a laugh of her own.
Cade scowled at her.
“Those two little gold diggers knocked you for a loop, Cade. They bruised your poor fragile male ego and now you’re just not sure someone will want you for you.”
“I don’t think I’m quite that delicate,” Cade scoffed. “But how the hell am I supposed to be sure a woman doesn’t just want me for the money unless the woman has money of her own? It didn’t even occur to me before Jennifer’s and Aggie’s antics that it was something I had to watch out for.”
His grandmother smiled a serene smile as she sliced carrots. “Maybe that’s my fault. I tried to raise all of you kids to be humble, to believe that you weren’t any better or worse than anyone else. I didn’t think to teach you that folks who have less than we do could be a threat. Maybe I should have taught you to be more suspicious. But still, now you just have to trust—yourself, Nati, your own instincts—”
“The instincts that failed me twice now?”
“The instincts that tell you if a person is right or wrong for you—you knew Jennifer was wrong for you, that’s why you broke up with her. You didn’t have any way of knowing that she was plotting behind your back and that breaking up with her gave her an open door for that breach-of-promise suit. And even with Aggie—you’d only been going out with her for a short time, it was nothing serious until she made it that way by saying you were the father of her baby. You might not have had the instinct to run yet, but you also weren’t completely sold on her, either.”
That was all true enough.
“What do your instincts tell you about Nati Morrison?” GiGi asked as if she already knew the answer.
Still, Cade thought it over, really exploring what he knew of Nati before he said, “That she’s genuine and unaffected, which makes her a little like you,” he admitted. “That she’s sweet and kind and honest and good-hearted and hard-working and—”
“And she’s beautiful—oh, what babies the two of you would have!”
Cade rolled his eyes. “Was this just some matchmaking thing you had up your sleeve?”
“How could that have been?” GiGi said a bit too innocently. “I’d never even met the girl.”
“But you’d talked to that friend of yours who had hired her before. Did you know more about Nati than you’ve let on?”
GiGi merely smiled. “It’s not me we’re talking about now. It’s you. And the fact that you like Nati Morrison. More than a little, maybe...”
Waking up this morning to find that she wasn’t in bed with him had left him with an empty feeling. And since then he’d missed her so much it nearly had him doubled over. There wasn’t any doubt—he liked her more than a little.
“It’s all so awkward,” he complained. “You and your old flame—how is that supposed to work?”
“Just fine,” GiGi said calmly. “Don’t let me and my old flame stand in your way.”
Was she hoping that Cade’s getting together with Nati would bring Jonah Morrison back into her life?
It made him wonder if he was seeing through his grandmother a little, too.
GiGi broke into his reverie before he could be sure. “For what it’s worth, I say just think about this girl—separate from the others, separate from any thoughts of money. Just think about the girl and how you feel about her. Then go with your instincts, Cade.”
The elderly woman took the salad to the refrigerator and added, “Now I want to put on a little lipstick before everyone gets here so I’ll leave you to it.”
Which she did, abandoning Cade to the big empty kitchen with only his thoughts of Nati.
But there wasn’t a whole lot of thinking he needed to do, he realized within moments after his grandmother had left.
When he thought about Nati purely in her own right, he didn’t suspect her of gold-digging. She might not have much, but she’d already proven that money and material wealth weren’t what was important to her. What was important to her was her family, her friends—the same things that were important to him.
And when he thought about the way he felt about her?
If they weren’t so right for each other they wouldn’t have come as far as they had, as fast as they had. He wouldn’t have spent every minute he was away from her since they’d met thinking about her, daydreaming about her, just wanting to be with her again. He wouldn’t have felt as if a part of him was missing every minute they were apart. He wouldn’t have so completely lost sight of everything and everyone else whenever he was with her, as if she was the world for him.
The absolute truth was that money—his having it, her not having it—didn’t matter.
What was important was that the minute they’d met it was as if everything had fallen into place. They were just two people who fit together seamlessly. In bed and out of it. It was a rock-solid foundation from which everything else could blossom—a life together, kids, everything that old H.J. had built his empire for. They were just two people who made each other happy.
In fact, she made him happier than he could ever remember being. He thought—he hoped—that he made her equally as happy.
He knew that he wanted to keep making her happy—and money didn’t factor into it. For them, happiness would be about so many other things; the money was only incidental.
He wanted to spend every minute of the rest of his life with her. He wanted never to wake up another morning—like he did this morning—without her.
And he didn’t know how he was going to get through Sunday dinner without telling her that...
He left the kitchen and stood at the foot of the stairs.
“G
iGi? I’m not staying for dinner,” he called.
“You know how I feel about that,” his grandmother yelled back in warning. “Sunday dinner is mine.”
“I can’t help it. I have to go.”
There was a moment’s pause before GiGi called down, “I’ll set a place for her next week...”
Cade laughed as he turned and nearly ran out the front door.
* * *
Top to bottom, inside and out, Nati’s apartment was spotlessly clean. Cleaning it had occupied every minute since she’d slinked home from Cade’s house just as the sun was rising. Cleaning was what she did to regain her balance when things felt as if they were spinning out of control.
She’d come awake at five this morning. Naked, snuggled against an also naked Cade, wanting him for the fourth time as badly as she’d wanted him the first. And wondering if there was a way to stay right where she was for the rest of her life.
That was when she’d realized that things were spinning out of control.
And it terrified her.
Out of control, vulnerable and helpless—that was how she’d felt during her divorce. It was how she’d felt until only recently. Now she was feeling that way all over again.
So she’d eased herself out of Cade’s arms, out of his bed, and snatched her clothes to dress in the hallway. Then she’d slipped out of his house in too much of a hurry to retrieve her shoes from the patio, driving home barefoot.
She’d arrived before her grandfather was up and could see her walk of shame. Right away, she’d thrown herself into frantic cleaning, spending the day purposely reliving the worst memories of her marriage, of her miscarriage, of her divorce, in order to remind herself why she could not give in to her growing feelings for Cade Camden.
A hot shower and a nearly punishing shampoo ended the afternoon. Then, dressed in gray and pink pajama pants and a warm long-sleeved T-shirt, she decided she’d better at least have a piece of toast since she hadn’t eaten all day. She was just going to the kitchen when there was a knock on the outside door to her apartment.
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