Chapter 16 #2
“I didn’t know about the letter,” she whispered brokenly, twisting her hands together. “And I wasn’t trying to use you or your family. I was only trying to keep my business, to keep my people employed. I should have explained that to you, even without the letter. But I was a coward, and I’m sorry.”
She saw him coming and stood her ground.
He wrapped her in his arms and put one leg around hers to keep her from breaking away.
His mouth closed in on hers with a type of dominant possessiveness she’d never experienced but had dreamed of over and over again.
With him, only him. “Cade,” she breathed.
Their tongues clashed this time, thrusting in a pantomime of sex. She breathed into his mouth, “We have to stop.”
He gripped her skull and tilted her head for access to her neck, kissing his way to her jawline and then her neck. “No.”
“Cade, stop.” This she managed more firmly.
For a split second, he froze. Then, with the superior control of a man on the edge, he stepped away. “My apologies, Ms. Graystone.”
“Call me Emma.”
“I’ll call you Emma when you kiss me the way you used to.”
“I know what I need, Cade, and it’s more than great sex with no foreseeable lifespan. I’m the woman who has to have longevity, commitment, certainty. Can you offer that to me? Do you trust me to live this life with you? Do you believe that I will love you and this place as much as you do?”
The emotional vacancy on his face as he turned gutted her. “Good night, Ms. Graystone.”
THE DAY OF the wedding dawned bright and clear. Winds were out of the southwest at a very mild seven miles per hour. The high was forecast at seventy-one degrees, and there was a zero percent forecast for rain.
Cade and his brothers dressed at Emma’s former cabin following fierce threats of emasculation if any of them set foot in the main house.
He’d just tied his bow tie when Eli came into the bedroom and shut the door. “Cold feet?” Cade teased. “Because if she’s going to castrate you for seeing her before the wedding, can you imagine what she’d do if you backed out?”
Eli’s wild eyes met his.
“I was kidding,” Cade said softly, only to accept the ring box when Eli shoved it at him. “Why are you giving this to me?”
Eli took a shaky breath. “I’ve already talked to Tyson. He understands.” Eli popped his neck. “Why do they make these collars so tight, anyway?”
“To prepare you for marriage?” Cade asked innocently.
“Shut up. You’re not helping. This is harder than it was to ask her to marry me.”
Concerned, Cade didn’t comment. He did, however, wave his hand impatiently for his brother to get on with it.
“Okay, okay.” Clearing his throat, he crossed his hands in a military at-rest position.
“Cade, we’ve had our differences. I missed out on a major part of your life I should have been here for.
” Eli paused and found a place over Cade’s shoulder to focus on.
“We didn’t get on when I first came back, and I get it.
But I want you to know that I’m incredibly proud of what you managed to accomplish in spite of my absence.
” Then he gestured to the ring box. “You’ve grown into the kind of man I wish I’d had the strength to become.
Going into this new phase of my life, I’d be honored as hell if you’d be my best man and stand up there with me to encourage me to do just that. ”
Words failed Cade. Completely. His throat tightened.
Could this kind of emotional response send someone into anaphylactic shock?
He closed his eyes and, taking an unsteady breath, nodded.
“I’d be honored, Eli.” Then he cracked one eye open and glared at his brother.
“In the future, I suggest you don’t make momentous decisions like this at the last minute.
I mean, I could’ve had a mani/pedi scheduled. Then what would you have done?”
“Flown solo, minus my wingman.” Eli tagged him in the shoulder. “Would’ve sucked.”
“Yeah, it was a gamble.”
“But you’re not going to let me suffer this in silence.”
“Suffering in silence isn’t, um, my thing.” Cade stared at Eli for a moment before gesturing at the ring box. “Are you sure about this?”
“About what?”
“Me. Wanting me. To be your best man today. It’s not conventional, I know, how it all happened. Don’t you have friends you’d rather stand up for you?” Cade clutched the ring box with a death grip. “Why me?”
“I want you as my wingman. I want you to stand up before God and all our nosy neighbors, and look fierce if anyone seems like they’re going to object when the pastor calls out the option.” Then he reached over and took Cade by the bicep, his face serious. “All humor aside?”
Cade nodded, mouth too dry to speak.
“Man, you’re my brother.” Eli opened his mouth to say more and shook his head, his eyes red, a shimmer of tears catching the light. “You’re my brother.”
Tears threatened, and Cade only tilted his head back and let the emotional cards fall where they may.
His brother thought a lot of him as a man. But he hadn’t been much of a man last night with Emma. She’d deserved some assurances, and he hadn’t been able to give them to her.
He’d watched his father turn into a bitter, angry man because of love, and he’d vowed never to become his father.
But here was Eli, ready to profess his love and give everything he was and had to Reagan.
Did Cade believe Eli would become their old man?
No, he was a better man than their father ever had been. And so was Cade.
So he’d put himself out there. He’d make sure she never had to wonder if he’d been coerced or acted out of guilt or whatever other crazy stories she might concoct. She would know that this was where she belonged. With him.
A soft knock sounded on the door, and they both called, “Come in,” at the same time.
The door pushed in and Cade stopped breathing.
Emma wore a fitted gown of dark chocolate that had been somehow gathered at the sides so it created a draping effect to the knees where it then flared out.
She reached behind her for something and Cade couldn’t help but gasp.
The gown was backless—from the top of her shoulders to the sway of her bottom—nothing.
Cade let out a single whistle.
She brought boutonnieres into the room, a pretty flush staining her pale skin. “Stop. You’re going to make me self-conscious.”
That was fine with him. Maybe then she’d put on a shawl.
Cade stepped toward her. “Will you pin mine on for me?”
She silently moved in close enough he could smell her. Without a word, she pinned his small calla lily boutonniere on his lapel. Then she repeated the same procedure for Eli.
“Where’s Tyson?” Cade’s voice was gravelly.
Emma laughed, the sound only reinforcing his arousal. “He’s on the front porch waiting to escort Reagan ‘at the Commander’s commanding command.’” She crossed to Eli and took his hand. “She’ll be starting down the aisle at exactly one o’clock, so you’d better take your place, Eli.”
The eldest Covington paled. “Yeah. Take my place.”
She cupped Eli’s cheek, and Cade was overcome with such strong emotion for her that he fought the urge to take her free hand, to thank her for comforting his older brother. “She’s beautiful, Eli. She’s positively vibrating with the intensity of love she has for you.”
“You sure?” Eli asked in a rare show of insecurity that made Cade’s gaze snap toward his brother.
“I’m more sure of this than anything in my life.”
The comment, meant to reassure, cut Cade to the quick.
He hadn’t been the man she deserved, but he vowed to change for her.
Not next week, not tomorrow, not later today, not after the ceremony.
Now. Today was a day for making vows that lasted lifetimes.
Eli and Reagan would make their vows publicly.
He’d see to it that he and Emma took theirs however they had to.
Days like today, where the heart was entirely sure of itself, shouldn’t be squandered.
She left the room, calling out that Eli had fifteen minutes to get to his place in the event hall. Cade was to radio Tyson when Eli was in place. Then the bridal party would start from the house.
With the kind of grace few women possessed, she shut the door behind her and sashayed up the path to the house.
Cade knew because he watched her take every step until she was through the front door.
“You okay?” Eli asked.
“Not really.” Cade stuffed his hands in his pants’ pockets and loosed a cynical laugh. “Not at all. She’s been here days already. I’ve managed one stolen kiss she told me to stop. I did because I respect her, Eli, but I didn’t want to stop. I want her as lost to me as I am to her.”
His older brother smiled softly, the gesture full of understanding. “I get it.”
“Yeah? Then what do I do about it?” Cade asked with something caught between desperation and demand.
“You up the stakes—for both of you.”
An idea took form in Cade’s head. It meant putting himself out there, putting his pride on the line, but she’d be forced to respond.
He was all in.