One

Chapter Ten

IMPULSIVITY

The blue depths of the Olympic pool haunted me, along with the bystanders snapping photos of the girl with a fin leg swimming laps. I had to remind myself that the near drowning incident the previous year, when Thad saved me, was a weak moment. I wasn’t that girl anymore.

In the afternoon we were at the climbing facility.

Fit the leg.

Climb the wall.

Make adjustments.

Climb the wall again.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Three days passed with no word, no “later” call from Cage. I said too much. My mouth and brain functioned independently. Jerry and Thad tap danced on my last nerve. They bickered like a married couple after fifty years of marriage.

“We’re going to dinner, love. You coming?” Thad asked, like he and Jerry hadn’t just been on the verge of killing each other over a sensory setting on the new leg.

“I think I need a break from…” I smiled “…people.”

“You mean us.” Jerry didn’t have to look up from his computer. The guy was perceptive. Heterosexual and perceptive.

Thad narrowed his eyes in a say-it-ain’t-so way.

“You both are just really …”

“Really?” Thad prodded.

“Draining.” Jerry deadpanned, eyes still focused on his screen. “We suck the life out of everything and everyone around us, Thaddeus.”

“Is this true, Lake?”

I grimaced, lifting my shoulders. “It’s not entirely false.”

“Fine.” Thad’s chin jutted out. “Go. We’ll just see you tomorrow. We don’t need you cock blocking us tonight anyway.”

“For the last time! I’m. Not. Gay!”

I bit back my grin while Thad rolled his eyes. “Not with each other, you idiot! With women at bars or clubs. We don’t want to look attached if we want to get laid.”

“Oh.” Jerry peeked up from his computer. “Sorry.”

I had a better chance of spontaneously growing a new leg before Jerry would get laid, but I kept that theory to myself.

I had many theories. They were correct half of the time.

“Well, I hope you and your cocks have a lovely night.” I grabbed my purse and slipped on my shoe.

“Funny, love. Only not really. Enjoy your freedom. I’ll be knocking on your hotel room door early tomorrow morning. Try to be at least a little coherent when you open the door.”

“Sorry, I don’t have ‘masseuses’ coming to my room late at night to read me a bedtime story and release my tension from the day.”

“I’ll come to your room, Lake.”

“I get it, Jerry, you’re not gay. Wouldn’t care if you were. But stay the hell away from my hotel room.”

“Oh, love, the sexual tension between you and Jerry could trigger a major earthquake. For the sake of twenty million people, try to control yourselves.”

I needed a raise.

“Go to Capital M, tell them I sent you. They’ll seat you right away. The nighttime view of Tiananmen Square is excellent. Do you have a company credit card? Make sure Thaddeus pays,” Jerry instructed.

I grinned. “I never travel without it.”

Thad shook his head.

Jerry Chu’s name didn’t mean anything to me when I first met him, but the staff at Capital M treated just the mention of his name like the secret code to a buried treasure. As promised, the nighttime view of Tiananmen Square was most excellent.

My vibrating phone drew my attention away from the view and my table filled with too much food and expensive wine. Thad’s credit card, of course.

Cage: Do you speak Chinese?

I grinned.

Lake: Sorry. Who are you again? I vaguely remember some guy with your name.

Cage: I’ve been busy.

Lake: Sorry, your royal quarterback-ness.

Cage: Are you mad at me?

Yes. No. A little. Why didn’t he call?

Lake: I’m just tired and stressed from spending so much time with my boss and his runt of a sidekick, and the TV sucks at my hotel. I’m bored.

Cage: You should go sightseeing.

Lake: Been there. Done that. This isn’t my first rodeo in Beijing.

Cage: They have the rodeo in China?

Lake: har har har

Cage: Where are you?

Lake: Capital M. Too public for phone sex, so don’t even ask.

There it was, exhibit A of Lake says the most inappropriate things.

Cage: Wow … I uh …

Lake: Joking. I have a weird sense of humor. Sorry.

Cage: What are you eating?

Lake: Nothing, but there’s a duck and maybe some sort of dumplings on my plate and a really expensive bottle of wine on the table since my boss pays for my meals.

Isn’t that terrible? I’m already feeling regretful.

The whole starving-people thing weighs heavily on my conscience.

I should have just grabbed a bag of pretzels at the hotel and called it a night.

We continued to text for almost forty-five minutes before I tossed Thad’s credit card on the table. Cage felt like somebody I’d known my whole life. The conversation came easily.

Lake: Catching a cab back to my hotel. I’m tired. Fact: I haven’t slept well since my accident. I feel chronically sleep deprived. I don’t even call what I do falling asleep. It’s really just passing out after hitting a wall. I seem to go from 100 to 0 in a matter of seconds.

Cage: That sucks.

I signed for the bill then made my way to the entrance, dodging people and tables while my head was down staring at my phone.

Lake: Enough about me. What are you doing?

Cage: Just enjoying the evening.

Lake: It’s not evening there.

“I know.”

I hit that wall. I had to have hit that wall.

It was a dream. It had to be a dream. I had to be asleep.

The mirage standing next to a taxi by the curb in front of the restaurant was the man of my dreams. He smiled.

I remained static with my jaw unhinged. I needed to wake from my dream, but I didn’t want to, it was too good.

“Of all the places in the world, you had to come here for work. Do you know how impossibly difficult it is to get here? A passport wasn’t good enough.

I had to expedite a visa. Security violated me on so many levels I’m certain I’ll forever be emotionally scarred, and don’t even get me started on the impact this little detour could have on my career. ”

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

I needed a better response than a blink. Each time I thought he’d disappear because he wasn’t fifteen feet from me. There was just no way it was possible.

“You said if I was in the neighborhood …”

I nodded slowly. It was progress, another sign of life.

“You, you’re … oh my God. You came to Beijing for me?”

Cage returned a guilty shrug like it was no big deal. I was amazed every time a guy returned my phone call. Flowers sent my heart into arrhythmia. Following me to Beijing? Complete cardiac arrest.

“Here’s the thing…” he walked toward me “…I should have just kissed you at the baseball game. And after I scooped Trzy’s shit, and again at the airport.”

Gulp.

He brushed his thumbs along my cheeks then slid his hands back to cup my head. I had to look like the newest addition to The Blue Man Show. I wasn’t breathing. There was no oxygen to be had.

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

Gulp.

“Hi,” he whispered over my lips a split second before he kissed me.

I died. The end. Story over.

I vaguely remembered something about public displays of affection being frowned upon, or illegal, or maybe punishable by death in China. It was worth the consequences.

My heart thundered embarrassingly loud. That moment was the one that could have triggered the earthquake. Millions of lives were at risk. Was one kiss worth it?

Yes. Oh. Dear. God. Yes!

I wasn’t the world’s leading expert on kissing, but I knew what I liked, and so did Cage Monaghan.

He took his time feeling my lips with his.

It wasn’t until he’d felt every inch of them several times over before just the tip of his tongue teased my upper lip.

I loved that moment when the feeling turned into tasting.

I loved the way his hands fisted my hair, holding all of his tension so his lips could remain slow and patient.

More than anything, I loved that as he deepened the kiss, bringing my body flesh to his, his heart hammered against his chest just like mine.

Eventually the need for air trumped the need to kiss. My lungs were such spoil sports. Cage grinned, rubbing his lips together. I grinned too.

“Hi,” I whispered.

“Can I offer you a ride back to your hotel before I head back to the airport?”

My eyes popped right out of their sockets. “What? Airport! You just got here.”

Cage gave me the textbook what-is-your-point look.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I rubbed my hands over my face. It had to be a dream or a nightmare. I needed to wake up. But when I removed my hands he was still there.

“You applied for a visa and flew to China just to kiss me?”

He nodded. “Totally worth it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well, yes … no …” I shook my head. “I don’t know. Who does that? Who flies halfway around the world to kiss someone they’ve seen five times in their entire life?”

“So you’re counting?” He smirked.

“No.”

Yes. I counted every second we spent together since our very first encounter.

I counted the smiles.

The dimple appearances.

The times his eyes wandered down my body.

The butterflies in my stomach.

Every touch. Every look. Every moment that felt like our connection had existed before we ever met.

Yeah, I counted. Every. Single. One.

“Lake?”

I looked up from my absentminded staring at the ground between us. “What?”

“I’m kidding. I didn’t fly here just to kiss you.”

I smiled. “That would be crazy.”

“Probably.” He turned and opened the back door to the cab. “But I would have,” he said as I slid in the back seat.

There was only one thing left to do. I clenched my fists at the center of my chest like a super hero ripping off their street clothes, but I ripped open my chest instead and silently said, “Here’s my heart, just take it.”

“You’re awfully quiet for someone who thinks so loud.”

I turned toward him as the taxi fought through the evening traffic. “You’re here and I’m … speechless. Are you sure you don’t have something else going on? Meetings? Therapy? Training?”

He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, a smile grew along his handsome face.

“I think Beijing would be a very odd place to hold meetings, therapy, or any sort of NFL training. Is it so hard to believe that I came here just to see you?” He lifted his head and opened his eyes, pinning me with an intense stare that demanded an answer.

“Well … yeah, it is. Not that I’m not worthy of being followed halfway around the world.” I flashed him a flirty smile. “It’s just that this is a grand gesture of epic proportions. Are you that guy? The one who’s OTT with everything?”

“OTT?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Over the top.”

Cage chuckled and looked out his window.

“No. I’m the guy who decided to put my career first the day I was drafted.

I’m the guy who basically hands a girl a dating agreement that says it will never be anything more than casual because football comes first. I’m the guy who would rather watch game footage than porn.

I’m the guy who is focused one hundred percent of the time. ”

He looked back at me and time seemed to pause while we just gazed at each other.

“You flew to China to kiss me,” I whispered.

Cage nodded, but his playful smile vanished. It was as if the reality of his rash behavior finally caught up to him.

I reached between us and took his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. “I won’t tell the ‘guy’ you were just talking about. This will be our little secret.”

He stared at our interlaced fingers. “Thanks. He’d be really pissed at me for being so impulsive.”

“He sounds like a real downer.”

Cage’s smile returned and all was right on our side of the world again. “He’s just focused. Other than that, he’s a pretty good guy.”

“Yeah?”

His eyes met mine. “Yeah.”

By the time we arrived at my hotel, Cage seemed to be his jovial self again.

“Did you get a room here? And if so, how did you know I was staying here?”

The cabbie retrieved Cage’s suitcase from the trunk.

“I didn’t know where you were staying, and I don’t have a room anywhere yet. I only made the necessary plans to get here.”

We stopped at the front desk, but there were no rooms available, not even for an American celebrity.

“You’ll stay with me.”

“What? No.” Cage shook his head.

The guy flew to China to kiss me, but he was too chivalrous to stay in the same room with me. Man, I loved him before it ever made sense.

“I’ll just go to another hotel.”

“No way.”

He smirked.

My skin heated from his what-are-you-implying look. “I’m just saying, it’s silly when I have this suite that my boss is paying for and it’s not even that late. We could still do something tonight.”

Cage’s smirk deepened.

“And by something I’m not implying anything like …”

“Like?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to jump you. I don’t mean any of it in a sexual way.”

Yes, in a strip-me-down-and-bury-your-head-between-my-legs sort of way. That was exactly what I meant because I needed sex and I needed it with him. Sweat began to bead along my skin.

He quirked a brow. “Jump me?”

“I just mean we can share a room without having sex, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Cage took a quick scan around the lobby. “You think I’m worried about having sex with you?” he said in a hushed voice.

“No, I just don’t want you to feel obligated to have sex with me. The kiss was enough.”

It wasn’t enough. Oh my word, I wanted so much more.

What had happened to me? When did I become such a liar?

There must have been something in the Minneapolis water, probably pesticide runoff, and nothing was safe to drink in Beijing, at least that’s what Thad told me.

First Shayna and then Cage. What was my deal with all the lying?

“This is the craziest conversation I have ever had.”

I sighed. “Just come.”

His eyes widened.

I shook my head. “Come up to my room, er … just …” I’d been transported to junior high again where every word meant something sexual in the eyes of immature, giggly girls. How did I become that girl again at twenty-four?