CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CADE
I hated traveling for business on weekends, but this time, I was grateful for the plans.
In the past, New York often annoyed me. The city had too much traffic, too many people, and too much rigmarole involved in getting anything done, but that time, it didn’t.
I welcomed the dinner with the venture capital team looking for my business, the round of golf in Westminster on Sunday, the charity dinner Sunday night for Presbyterian Hospital, and the back-to-back meetings the rest of the trip; I barely had time to breathe, let alone think.
Which kept my mind off Bella. Mostly.
Dancing with her at the fundraiser had been so unexpected and so diverting. I’d had my share of dance partners in life and never ran short on that front, but dancing with Bella felt effortless, as if her body was made for me and only me.
And damn it, I should have kissed her when I had the chance.
But I didn’t. Couldn’t. One kiss would unravel me, and I wasn’t ready to lose control like that. Not yet. Still, by the time my meetings broke for lunch on Thursday, I couldn’t take it any longer. I placed a call to Lois from the New York Athletic Club.
“Everything’s fine here,” I told Lois from an ancient telephone room tucked off the main dining area. “But can you do me a favor and get Bella set up for a meeting tomorrow night? I have some things I want to go over with her about the Promenade.”
It was an easy cover.
Lois agreed and said she’d have an update on the meeting details when I landed at the airport in the morning. True to her word, she did. Four thirty, my office. Last meeting of the day.
But Bella was almost half an hour late.
“I’m sorry,” Bella said, her voice calm but not quite contrite as Lois ushered her to the open seat across from mine at the polished conference table in my office. “I had a few things come up unexpectedly.”
I tilted my head, my fingers tapping once, then twice, on the edge of the table. “And?”
She held my gaze, unflinching. “It was important,” she said, her words clipped but not defensive, as if she owed me nothing further.
The air between us tightened, her nonchalance clashing with the tension coiling in my shoulders. I exhaled through my nose, forcing myself to let it go, but the irritation lingered. “Was it as important as this meeting?”
“Yes,” she replied, and how she said it made me swallow hard. I’m being an asshole, and I know it.
Bella pulled her seat up against the table and regarded the binder in front of her. “This looks like the same binder you gave me before.”
“It is. Open to page fourteen.”
She followed my instructions, which led her to a page of exterior paint samples. She glanced at them, then looked up at me. “Where are you going with this?”
“Which ones do you like?”
She didn’t look down. “Any of them.”
“For me, it’s between choice one and five. Between those two, which would you choose?”
She flicked her eyes to the pages then back up. “Either one.”
“You have to pick.”
She still glared at me. “One is taupe, and the other is darker taupe. I don’t think visitors to the Promenade will have strong opinions about either one.”
“Oh, really?”
Now, she regarded the samples with some forced interest. “Even with these examples, I can hardly tell the difference.”
“We have to get everything exactly right,” I said. “No mistakes. Everything down to the smallest detail.”
She scoffed, her eyes narrowing with irritation. “Come on, Cade.”
“Come on, what?”
“This can’t be why you asked me here.” Bella slammed the binder shut but didn’t push it away, her fingers gripping the cover tightly. “Lois said it was urgent. She insisted I drop what I was doing to be here. Now you’re telling me you dragged me here to discuss... variations of taupe?”
“What could be more important than the Promenade?”
She shrugged her left shoulder and glanced at the view through the panoramic window. “Like I said, I had some things come up with my sister.”
“What?” I pressed.
“Things.” She returned her attention to me. “Anyway, if you want my opinion on taupe or taupe, then I would go with number five.”
It was a half-hearted statement, and I narrowed my eyes, hearing the disengagement in her voice. It was also disrespectful and more than rude. Didn’t she know the value of other people’s time? Of my time?
“Could you be any more uninterested?” I asked.
“Like I said, I’ve had a rough day.” She pushed the architectural deck away. “And listen, if this is the reason you wanted to invite me here, then I must ask, why didn’t you want to do this over the phone? Would have been easier.”
“Sometimes, an in-person meeting is more effective.” Plus, I wanted to see you.
“Fine, I’m here.”
I glanced at my watch. “I hate it when people are late. Hate it.”
“Sometimes people are late,” Bella said, her voice tight, like she was biting back something sharper. “They can’t always help it.”
I crossed my arms. “I don’t conduct my business that way. Never have, never will. I respect that other people’s time is valuable, and I don’t waste it.”
She sighed, the sound heavy with exasperation, her fingers flexing briefly on the table as if to steady herself. “I’m sorry I was late, Cade. I am.” The words were clipped, each one laced with a barely concealed edge that didn’t sound apologetic at all.
I tilted my head, studying her. “You don’t sound sorry. You sound annoyed.”
This conversation was veering off course, nothing like what I’d expected when she walked in. Still, I wasn’t backing down. We were here now, so we might as well hash it out.
Her eyes flashed, a spark of irritation breaking through her usual composure. “Because I am,” she replied, then seemed to catch herself, her jaw tightening as she leaned forward slightly. “But not necessarily with you.”
I raised an eyebrow, caught off guard by the heat in her voice. “With what, then?”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, as if she were weighing whether to let me in on whatever was simmering beneath her cool exterior. The tension in her shoulders said she wasn’t ready to give ground just yet. But finally, she spoke.
“Lilly’s school called me today. She’s having a rough time with some of the girls in her class.”
“Like bullying?”
“I’m worried there is more going on that she’s not telling me, more that she’s kept from me.” Bella shook her head and gave me a sheepish grimace. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bother you with this kind of stuff. It’s not your problem.”
“No, it’s okay that you told me,” I replied, leaning across the wide table and feeling an urge to be closer to her, to be near her. No wonder she was late. Her sister was the most important part of her life. Could I be more of an ass? “Was that why you were late?”
“I was on the phone with some of the administrators.” She reached for the marketing packet and fiddled with the corner of the cover. Her next words were so quiet I almost didn’t hear them. “Cade, what if her friends found out about FanZone?”
“They didn’t.”
She bit her bottom lip.
“They’ve never failed me,” I insisted. “I pay them too much for that.”
She laughed, and I thought I saw a tiny bit of something in her expression that looked like relief. “Like I said the other night, you didn’t have to do all that for me.”
“I wanted to.”
We stared at each other for a long beat. Again, I felt the strangest shift between us, as if something primal, something needy, was growing And I knew I wanted more of it. Much more.
“If this is all you need from me, I should probably go,” Bella said.
I leaned forward slightly, my gaze locked on hers, a slow warmth curling in my chest. “Yes,” I murmured, my voice low and deliberate, almost a caress. “You probably should.”
The way I said it made it clear I wanted the opposite. I wanted her to stay, to linger in this moment with me, and I was almost certain she could hear it in my tone and see it in the way my eyes didn’t leave her.
She didn’t move right away, her lips parting as if she might say something more, and for a fleeting second, I thought she felt it too. But then she stood, smoothing her skirt with a grace that drew my attention despite myself.
“I know details are important to you, Cade, and I like that,” she said. A faint smile played at her lips, and the way she said my name sent a quiet thrill through me. “I’m glad you don’t leave anything to chance.”
“Thanks,” I said, my voice softer than I meant it to be.
I rose too, mirroring her movement, my pulse kicking up as I searched for a way to stretch this moment, to keep her here just a little longer.
My office, my table, my time with her all felt too short, too fleeting.
“Let me walk you out.” I stepped closer, close enough to catch the subtle scent of her perfume, something light and intoxicating that made it even harder to focus.
Her eyes flicked up to mine, and for a moment, her smile widened, just enough to make me think she wasn’t in as much of a hurry to leave as her words suggested. “You don’t have to,” she said, but the way her gaze held mine, bright and knowing, told me she didn’t mind if I did.
“I want to,” I replied. I crossed around the edge of the table, then gestured to the doorway, and when she pushed past me, I seized on the opportunity to place my hand on the small of her back.
I was a gentleman, of course, but I couldn’t deny the electricity I felt when I touched her again.
I couldn’t explain it, either, the way the heady mix of her presence did something to me that I’d never felt before, something I never thought I’d feel.
Taking over my dad’s empire left little time for relationships and absolutely no time for love, but here I was, wishing I could clear my schedule just to spend time with Bella Moretti, a woman barely half my age and far more troubled than anyone I’d ever allowed in my orbit.
But maybe that was part of her allure.
“Thank you for everything,” she said when she reached the door. “I know I say that a lot, but I mean it. You’ve done so much for me, and you certainly didn’t have to.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
She smiled, her eyes sparkling with a mix of gratitude and something more. “Actually, Cade, I think I owe you everything.”
Before I could utter a word, she stepped forward, erasing the last whisper of space between us. Her lips pressed against the tender junction between my lips and my cheek, a kiss that felt like a promise of more to come.
It was all I needed.
In the next breath, my lips found hers with a hunger I hadn't known I possessed.
The kiss deepened almost instantly, escalating from a gentle brush to a full-blown exploration.
Her taste was intoxicating, a sugary mint, sweet and sharp, and I drank it in like a man parched for affection.
My hands naturally found the nape of her neck, fingers threading through her hair as I cradled the back of her head, guiding her closer.
The world around us seemed to slow. Our movements synchronized in a dance of desire and discovery. There was nothing else at that moment—just the sensation of her the taste, the touch, and the shared breath.
It was glorious.