Chapter 4
4
DANE
C assady was all woman.
That was the name of the beautiful woman seated beside me at the bar. Cassady. And Cassady was going to town on a burger.
Even when she bit into an onion ring, she didn’t take dainty little rabbit bites like the women I usually dated. No, this was a woman who liked to eat. Cassady was my kind of woman.
This wasn’t a date, though. I had to keep reminding myself of that. I’d shown up here by invitation and plopped down on the barstool, and now we were getting to know each other like it was a date.
“All my life,” she said in answer to my question about how long she’d lived here. “Grew up in Seduction Summit. Went to Seduction Summit schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade. I worked at the diner in high school. After high school, I got a job in Adairsville, working for a real estate agent. Gradually, that led to property management. When the job opening came up here in Seduction Summit, it was perfect for me.”
“How long have you been doing that?” I asked.
“Just six months. Rental cabins are kind of new here, but I guess you’d know that.”
I held in a sarcastic remark. No need to be rude to her. It wasn’t her fault. Besides, she was probably all too aware that the locals weren’t happy about all the cabins being shoved into the bare land around our property.
At one time, I could walk out on my front porch in my underwear with my cup of coffee in the morning just to enjoy the peace and quiet. I would never have done that, of course, but just knowing I could was nice.
Nowadays, I couldn’t even burp without my neighbors knowing about it. That was an exaggeration, but not by much.
“So, how’d you end up at the wrong house this morning?” I asked.
I’d been curious about it, and this was the only way to find out. I could pretend it hadn’t happened. Maybe she was embarrassed that she stumbled upon me naked. It certainly didn’t bother me.
“It’s all my fault,” she said. “I transposed two of the numbers. It was 3485, not 3458.”
“Easy enough to do,” I said. “Was your boss mad?”
She shook her head. “He’ll never know. Unless you tell him.”
She looked over at me. This was a test. Did she have my loyalty? Hell, even if I wasn’t trying to get into her pants—well, she was wearing a skirt, so maybe I should say underwear—I wouldn’t tell her boss her secret. My loyalty was not to the business owners who were making this town a living hell for those of us who came here looking for peace and quiet, that was for sure.
“Your secret’s safe with me,” I said.
Her gaze held mine in a long stare that did something to me. That something happened to my cock, which had been ready to stand at attention at a moment’s notice tonight.
No, this time she was affecting other body parts. My heart was beating a little faster and my stomach seemed to be doing flip-flops.
She broke the stare to grab another onion ring, dragging it through the pond of ketchup she’d made on her plate. I took a second to catch my breath. This was ridiculous. She was a woman. But she was unlike any woman I’d ever met.
“So, are you one of the guys who chops down trees for a living?”
That was an interesting way to put it. I waited until I swallowed to speak.
“Joined the crew five years ago. Chopping down trees was the whole reason I came to Seduction Summit. A guy I’ve known since boot camp moved here, told me about all the jobs. Seems a bunch of us have settled here. Seduction Summit is becoming a regular military base—only for veterans who fight trees instead of for our country.”
“Makes sense.”
I frowned, reviewing what I just said. It didn’t make much sense to me. In fact, it sounded like I was rambling.
I had to ask, “What makes sense?”
“That you were in the military. Most of the guys around here were.”
“I look like a military guy, huh?”
“Yep.”
She took another big bite of her burger. She didn’t say any more on the subject.
So again, I had to ask, “Is that a good or a bad thing?”
I had to remind myself the silence was because her mouth was full, not because she didn’t want to answer. I waited patiently, watching as the bartender flirted with one of the servers at the end of the bar. The server didn’t look interested, but that wouldn’t stop the bartender. I’d seen it every time I’d been here. I’d intervene if necessary, but most of the women seemed able to take care of themselves with this guy.
“You’re definitely the type of man I’d want fighting for me in a war…or whatever it is you guys do. In fact, you look like you would’ve been special operations.”
“Nope. Just ordinary old military duty.”
I was always downplaying it like that. I wasn’t sure why. I guess I’d never been the type to broadcast anything I did. I didn’t want attention or praise for my military duty. It was my duty. Plus, I’d gotten paid for my years of service and even had a pension.
“Nothing ordinary about it,” she said. “You should be proud.”
“I am.” I nodded. “But I was also lucky. It was an honor.”
I didn’t go any further with that. No point in sounding like a cheeseball, making a speech about joining the ranks of thousands of years of soldiers who fought for our country.
She looked at me seriously. “Thank you for your service.”
“You’re welcome.”
Silence followed that interaction. Things had gotten a little awkward, and I couldn’t pinpoint why. I knew it had something to do with the fact that we were discussing me, and I needed to turn the conversation back around to her. But I’d already asked about her work.
“So, what do you do for fun?” I blurted.
Crap, that was a question I should have asked earlier. I sucked at this. I hadn’t dated in a long time. I was out of practice.
“Go to dinner with friends,” she said. After a brief pause, she added, “Go to lunch with friends. That’s about it. Sometimes we go shopping, but we’re all pretty busy with work. I’m trying to save to buy my own place. Apartment life sucks.”
“You live in Adairsville?” I asked.
As much as Seduction Summit had grown, we were nowhere close to having apartments. This just wasn’t a town that would support that kind of housing. We didn’t have enough full-time residents.
“I’m hoping to eventually buy one of these smaller cabins,” she said. “Maybe we’ll be neighbors someday.”
“I’d like that,” I said. “You could sneak into my cabin and find me naked again.”
Too soon. I definitely shouldn’t have mentioned that. I fully expected her to look down shyly. Maybe not even speak to me after this. It wouldn’t surprise me if she changed the subject, at the very least.
“Yeah, about that,” she said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Is that weird? You’re the first naked man I’ve ever seen.”
She just shrugged at that and grabbed her glass, taking a long sip of tea. I had to remind myself that what she was drinking was non-alcoholic. This wasn’t lowered inhibitions or liquid courage. This woman was confident, assertive. She knew what she wanted, and she went after it—just like me.
Maybe I’d finally met my match.
“You’ve never seen a man naked before?” I asked. “How is that possible? You’re in your late twenties, right?”
“Twenty-three,” she said. “I guess the suit makes me look older.”
It wasn’t the suit. It was everything about her—her confidence, her self-assuredness, the way she held her head high when she walked… I had dated women my age all throughout my twenties and thirties and yet, I’d never met a woman like her. No one, at any age, had carried themselves with this level of self-assuredness.
“It’s always guys like that one.”
It took me a second to realize she was nodding toward the bartender. I followed her gaze. The guy was cracking jokes with one of the construction guys I recognized from around town, also former military. Every joke landed flat, even though he was obviously trying to come across as one of the guys.
“No offense to him,” she said.
I doubted the bartender would take offense, even if he heard the remark, but I completely understood what she meant. The bartender appeared to be in his mid-to-late twenties and likely had very little experience with the opposite sex—not for lack of trying, of course.
“So you’ve never been with a man?” I asked.
I kept my voice low as I spoke. That also meant I had to lean closer to her, taking in her intoxicating scent. She smelled like apples. I wondered what the story behind that was.
“Nope,” she said. “It’s on my birthday bucket list.”
“Birthday bucket list?”
“I turn twenty-four in three months. I have a list of things I want to accomplish in my twenty-fourth year. One of them is getting laid.”
I nearly spit out the swig of gin and tonic I’d just swallowed. Somehow, I managed to gulp it down and catch my breath as I processed what she’d just said.
“What else is on your bucket list?” I finally asked.
“Save up ten thousand dollars toward the down payment on my cabin. Read twelve books—one a month. And take a run on my treadmill every morning before work.”
I had to admit, out of all of those, having sex for the first time was probably the most fun. But I’d never had a bucket list, birthday or otherwise. I didn’t have much right to speak on it.
“You can knock that first item out tonight,” I said.
After the words were out, I realized how they sounded. I didn’t mean to offer—although I’d certainly volunteer myself for the duty.
No, I meant that she had the power to pick out any single guy she wanted and have sex tonight. Hell, she could get it out of the way with the bartender. All she had to do was leave her phone number on the bar with her paid check, and the deal would be all but done.
But that thought clenched my gut for another reason. It felt like a kick to the abdomen. I didn’t want her to sleep with the bartender. Or anyone else. I didn’t want her to sleep with anyone but me.
But I’d never been with a virgin. Well, unless my first time counted, since it was her first time too. We’d been awkward and nervous, and it was almost embarrassing to remember.
But now, as a man who knew what he was doing in bed, I’d never taken a woman’s virginity. And that was an important distinction. It would be a big responsibility, and I wouldn’t want to mess it up.
“Are you offering?” she asked again.
Her question froze my movements. I’d just picked up my drink glass, ready to take another sip. As I raised the glass to my lips, a dozen different responses ran through my head. I took a hefty swig, finishing off its contents, then set the glass down and stared straight ahead.
“Yes,” I said. “Let’s do this.”