Chapter Six #2
After observing me for a few moments, maybe to see if I was just kidding—sadly I wasn’t—he turned back to his buddies. “I’m heading out. I’ll catch up with you guys next week.”
There were some fist bumps and a few “laters.”
“You ready?”
“Ready?”
“To go?”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to leave too. I can find my way out just fine.”
“You sure? ’Cause the last time I saw you exiting a building you were in handcuffs.”
“Such a funny guy.” I grinned.
“Such a beautiful smile.”
That’s not what I expected him to say. His face didn’t hold one bit of regret.
How could he say that to me without thinking of her?
I wanted his attention, but with him standing in front of me, giving it so freely, I felt nothing but guilt.
It wasn’t a kiss or anything physical, it was a compliment, but that compliment in that moment felt as intimate as his lips on mine or his hand grazing my breast. Not that I thought about his hand on my breast …
Who was I kidding? Of course I thought about his hand on my breast.
I need to do the right thing.
“Okay, I’ll let you escort me from the building.” That wasn’t the right thing.
Cage chuckled. “Sounds so formal, but all right, let’s go.” He nodded toward the door.
It was formal. It had to be formal.
No touching.
No flirting.
No kissing.
No grazing my breasts.
He pressed his hand to the small of my back, and just like that, he broke rule number one. We made it to the lower level before anyone stopped him for an autograph and picture. I kept walking like we weren’t together.
He tugged at my ponytail as I exited the building. “You didn’t have to run off on me.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t. This isn’t my running leg, it’s my sexy leg. I mean—”
“Your sexy leg, huh?”
“No. I didn’t mean it that way, like I think I’m sexy.
It’s just the one that looks more like an actual leg, not that you can tell with my jeans and boots covering it.
It’s the leg that makes me feel sexy. Gah!
” I shook my head and tried to keep a few steps ahead of him so he wouldn’t see my flushed face.
“That sounds bad too. The leg doesn’t actually do anything to make me feel sexy, like vibrate or something weird like that. Not that I’m suggesting vibrating things make me feel good.”
“They don’t?” He chuckled.
I unlocked my door and turned before getting inside. “I’m so embarrassed.” Slapping my hands over my face, I tipped my chin down.
“I think you’re refreshing.”
A few creepers began to inch their way closer to my vehicle, pens and camera phones in hand. I tugged down on the bill of my hat. Cage opened my door and I climbed in the driver’s seat. He blocked their view of me with his large frame then ducked his head inside.
“Give me your number, Lake.”
Why did he have to destroy the perfect image I had of him? The man of my dreams was not a cheater.
“I can’t.”
“Again?” He laughed, shaking his head.
Years ago when he asked for my number I said the same thing but for different reasons—lives at risk and all that jazz.
I sighed. “I like you. I’ve liked you for longer than is probably healthy, given the minimal amount of time we’ve spent together, but I like to win the guy fair and square.
I don’t want to be the dirty little secret.
And if you’re willing to cheat on one girl, then you’re willing to cheat on any girl, and that just makes me sad because I’ve had you on this huge pedestal since we first met.
Now that you’ve asked me for my number, you’ve just been knocked down quite a few notches, and while you’re still incredibly sexy—excessively so really—I think what you’re trying to do here is just ugly. ”
“Cage, can we get your autograph?” one of the groupies asked, standing directly behind him.
He turned, not looking the least bit upset about their intrusion, and autographed a purse, a hat, and a shirt, although not on the bust where the skank requested he sign it. After a few quick pictures, they took off in a fit of squeals and giggles.
“So…” he turned back to me “…you won’t give me your phone number this time because of my ‘girlfriend?’”
I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t even like her.
The night of Everson’s party she acted like Trzy was the plague and anyone who doesn’t like Trzy will most likely not like me, so she can choke to death on her uppityness for all I care, but that still doesn’t mean I want to take her cheater boyfriend. ”
Cage narrowed his eyes a little. Why did he have to smell as good as he looked? It was like sitting at the dinner table staring at my favorite dessert and listing all the reasons I should not eat it. I wanted to eat him. Yes, that’s what I thought. I. Wanted. To. Eat. Him.
“Trzy is your cat?”
“Uh huh.”
“And I’m the cheater boyfriend?”
I shrugged, giving him the if-the-shoe-fits grimace.
He nodded slowly, eyes pinning me with a world of thought behind them. “Well, here’s the thing: I don’t have a girlfriend, so either you’re going to give me your number or you’re going to kiss me again. What’s it going to be?”
Poof. There went my panties.
Two big gulps later … “She wasn’t your girlfriend?”
“She was.”
“But she’s not now?”
“She’s not.”
“Why?”
The one! He was available. It was too much to take. Inside I died a little. There was a ninety-nine percent chance of me blowing my second chance at one of my two ones, which was a mathematical phenomenon.
He smirked. “You’re nosy.”
“I am.” I bit my lips together.
“We weren’t that serious, and I wanted to ask for Lake Jones’s number without being a cheater boyfriend.”
I continued to bite back my smile along with my need to run, jump, and scream. On the outside I remained Iceland. Okay, maybe not Iceland because there were cooler places than Iceland.
Antarctica. I was just that cool.
“Choose.”
“You choose.” My grin broke free before I could catch it.
Cage inched his head toward mine. The kiss, he wanted the kiss. All the air got sucked out of the car. My lungs called 9-1-1 while the gallop of my heart made it impossible to hear anything but my own pulse. I closed my eyes.
“I want your number,” he whispered over my lips without touching them.
What a sadist. My libido self-combusted. I would need a 5-in-1 to scrape it off my leather seat later.
My eyes popped open. His danced with amusement.
“My number?”
He nodded, not moving an inch from my face like he dared me to kiss him.
“I’m not going to kiss you,” I whispered. Shoving him into the back seat and having sex with him was another thing, but I could do that without kissing him.
“No?”
“No.”
He moved back and my lungs screamed YES! as they drew in a breath. Cage retrieved his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and handed it to me.
“I’m leaving for Beijing in a few days.” I typed my name and number into his contacts.
“Really? What for?”
I handed his phone back to him. “My job. In layman’s terms, I test robotic legs.
The company has engineers all around the world who make prototypes for amputees.
Jerry Chu, twenty-eight and just barely over five foot with an affinity for answering all questions with ‘excellent’ or ‘you’ll see,’ has two new prototypes to fit me—one for swimming and one for rock climbing.
So basically I’m going to China to swim and climb. ”
“You rock climb?”
“I do a little bit of everything. That’s why my boss, Thaddeus Westbrook, hired me.
Different limbs for different activities which is nothing new, but his are unique.
They ‘sense’ or respond to my muscle reflexes.
You could call them smart limbs, of sorts.
Although, the one I had on this morning was too smart for its own good when it landed on the security guard’s shin. ”
“Jailbird.” He grinned, looking at my mouth.
“Shut up.” My eyes shifted to his lips, begging him to just kiss me.
“Is your sexy prosthetic also smart?”
I laughed while rubbing my hand down over it. “No, she’s clueless. My smart ones are not sexy. Thaddeus says function before fashion. He hopes to someday make physical disabilities obsolete.”
“Big dreams.”
“Yes, but he’s wicked smart, so I don’t doubt him.”
Cage shoved his phone in his pocket. “Well, safe travels.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
I waited for him to shut my door, but he just stared at me. No one looked at me like Cage Monaghan. I thought it the first time we laid eyes on each other, and years later it still felt the same. He looked at me like people looked at puppies, cooing babies, ocean-view sunsets, and … miracles.
Not one ounce of pity.
Not one reservation.
Not one hint of anything but total admiration.
“I’ll call you.”
“Pfft.” I rolled my eyes. “You won’t remember me in the morning.”
“I won’t forget you when I’m dead.” He shut the door.