Chapter 11
Cade
It might not have beenthe night I’d envisioned, but it was a night worth waking from with the contented feeling I was graced with.
Wrapped around me like some spider monkey, Aspen had finally quit flopping like a fish out of water around three. It had taken some work, but once I’d wrapped myself around her, she had settled. It seemed the more secure of a hold I had on the woman, the less she moved around. Just as well; I had yet to find a member of the opposite sex who enjoyed being held and did some holding of her own right back as we lay together. To be honest, I slept better that way too.
A foot made its way up my calf, between my legs, so I gave Aspen a squeeze to let her know I was coherent and jokingly added, “You’re not going to run off for the bathroom first thing, are you?”
A snort. “You’re in luck,” she announced, then burrowed deeper into my side, tucking her head into my neck so her nose nuzzled my chin.
“Sleep well?” I asked.
“Yes. Thank you. I haven’t slept this well in…well, since you were…”
“Me neither,” I confessed, giving her a squeeze before my hugging arm set forth with a soothing pattern over her shoulder and arm.
Minutes were filled with silence, but none of it was awkward, until the woman lying in my arms shifted.
“Is this weird?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“This. Us. How fast this happened?” Her hand waved between us, her gaze fastened to my chin instead of looking into my eyes.
“You mean how quick I was to maul you, then bring you to my bed, where I left you for a few minutes, came back, and you were sawin’ logs?”
She slapped my chest, making me laugh, then rolled onto her back, covering her face with her forearm. “Ugh.”
I rolled to a hover above her. “It’s okay, Pen.” I kissed her open palm. “We might have fooled around.” I kissed the pulse point on her wrist, then nipped it, causing her body to quake with a shiver, then I shifted her arm above her head and held it there loosely so she could free it if she felt the need to. She didn’t.
“Cade.” She swallowed hard, her green eyes growing bright.
“As I’ve observed in the short time we’ve known each other, we wouldn’t be us if someone or something didn’t get in our way during those times,” I explained.
And right then, my phone rang with an incoming call.
Fucking Murphy!I thought about the law that seemed to dominate all the intimate interactions we’ve had thus far.
Anticipation gave way to humored curiosity as Aspen’s brow arched and her body shook with silent giggles. “North Woods Law?”
Dropping my head to her collarbone on a sigh, I groaned as I pushed up and sat on the edge of the bed. “We’ll talk about how you know that when I’m done with Bryce, seeing as I know you don’t have a television.”
“I’ve got internet most of the time,” she explained. “Who’s Bryce?”
“Brycen. He’s one of the guys at Nightshade.” I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and thumbed to the right to accept the call. “Yeah, Babyface?” The grin I has when Aspen snorted a laugh was short lived.
“We need you.”
I turned to look at a relaxed Aspen watching me, and a sense of disappointment hit me square in the chest. “Right now?”
“D’s got a lead on that missing kid and doesn’t want to waste time,” he said. I couldn’t blame Dalton for his take on this particular case. “Expect to be gone a few days.”
“Renegade?” I asked.
“No need this time around. They have their own hounds.”
“You’re gonna have to give me some time to find?—”
Aspen’s warm hand landed on my bicep, turning my focus back toward her. She wore a look of understanding. “I’ll look after him if you need someone.”
“Bryce, hold on a sec.” I muted my phone. “You sure? It wouldn’t be for more than a few days.”
She shook her head. “Take as long as you need. It’ll be nice to have Molly behaving more like herself for a while. I think she missed Renegade more than I thought.”
I missed you too,I thought.
And I knew I’d miss her some more while I was away on business.
“You’re sure?” I asked again, as I heard Brycen on the other end of the line say, “Yo!”
“Definitely.” She punctuated her answer with a huge grin.
I hit the button to unmute my phone. “Bryce? It’s a go. Tell the boss man I’ll be at headquarters in a little over an hour and I expect the entire file and a full debrief when I get there.”
“Roger that.” With no more fanfare, the man hung up and I dropped my phone onto the nightstand before letting myself collapse backward, my head landing on Aspen’s belly.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” she whispered, her hand mindlessly playing through my disheveled hair.
“I’ve nothing to hide from you, Pen,” I said, then turned, pushing myself up before crawling overtop of her, and settling myself down over her sleep-warmed body, cradling her legs between mine.
“Cade—”
I shook my head to stop her words. “Nothing to hide.” I held her eyes with intensity to make my point clear, until she offered me a small nod of capitulation.
“We should talk about Renegade,” she whispered, which caused my gaze to shift to her lips, giving me all sorts of ideas; ones I was going to follow through with someday soon. It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to handle or take care of my dog. She had her own after all.
“Later.” My voice sounded like gravel, then I leaned down to taste her mouth briefly before adding, “Just five more minutes.”
Leaning up, her arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders and her mouth connected with mine.
Glad we’re on the same page.
Aspen
Five minutes turned into ten, then fifteen, until we’d hit the twenty-minute mark and the urge to do more than simple dry-humping over our underwear had become overwhelming.
If I wasn’t careful, I could get lost in a man like Caden Summers.
You can’t.
But it would be so great if I could. He was sweet, caring, attentive, and all man. And he was clear with the fact he wanted me. That shotgun in his tight briefs couldn’t lie; and his eyes...those eyes only spoke the truth, his body enunciated it, and his mouth…
“We can’t keep doing this,” he pecked me on the mouth, “or else I won’t leave.” Another peck, this time over one eye. “And I really don’t want to leave you like this,” he nibbled at my jaw and continued, “wanting and unsatisfied.”
I didn’t want it to end that way either, but on a sigh, I agreed half-heartedly. “We should get up.”
A horn blared at me before a car blazed past, just shy of five minutes of leaving Cade’s house.
After loading up my Jeep with Renegade’s toys and food, even his favorite bed, the man of the house had pushed me against the side of my ride, then proceeded to kiss me dizzy, as if he was making love to my mouth.
Hell, it’s all I’ve been able to think about since I’d left his place; hence why my current driving tactics resembled that of an eighty-year-old lady’s snail speed.
Checking my mirror to peer into the back seat, Molly and her man were cuddled comfortably across the bench. Looking at Renegade, a dog who most definitely mirrored his owner in personality, I knew I was in trouble.