I might have pulled away, but I didn’t let her go just yet. I still held her close.
“You taste good, Anya Winters.” My voice sounded raspy, filled with need for her.
“You taste good too,” she answered breathlessly.
I smiled down at her and gave her a brief kiss. “Still think you feel nothing?”
Her lips parted, but she didn’t say anything.
“Can’t say no forever, Anya. I see you saying yes to me in the very near future.”
I grinned and stepped back. Good thing I moved back too because the door opened, and two of the maids came in. I took the chance to slip out, but not before looking back at Anya first.
She still looked shocked.
Chapter 7
Anya
“I brought you a rabbit’s foot.” Shawna smiled. “Actually, there’s two. One for you and one for Halle. Granny said they were fresh.”
She held out a gift bag to me, and I winced, stepping back.
“Fresh, like fresh from the rabbit?” I gasped and couldn’t help but laugh, although it wasn’t funny. I imagined her grandmother grabbing some poor bunny and chopping the feet off. It was a horrible thought.
“She said fresh.”
“She killed a rabbit?”
“No, silly.” Shawna rolled her eyes at me. “You crazy? Do you think my granny has rabbits hopping round her house, so she can grab one and chop off the feet when she wants to make a charm?”
I pressed my lips together because yes, I did think that.
“So, where did she get the feet from?”
“The magic shop, and they got it from the butcher. The animals there are treated with dignity and ethically harvested. Not like some of them battery chicken farms.” Shawna sat down on the sofa and set the bag on the table.
It was late, but she still came round to see me. It was Wednesday evening, a whole three days since I’d soul-kissed Caine.
I hadn’t seen much of him because that leak in the basement had turned into a burst pipe. Another expense which he covered and fixed.
It kept him busy. Admittedly, I was also avoiding him. I went to the hospital when I knew he wasn’t going to be there, and I did everything I could not to see him at work.
Why?
I’d never been kissed the way he’d kissed me before, and I didn’t even know people could kiss like that.
“Caine,” Shawna suddenly blurted. I instinctively looked around although that was stupid. He wasn’t here. We were at Aunt Halle’s house, and he was supposed to be at the motel closing up the office.
“What about him?”
“You’re thinking about him.” She giggled.
“What makes you say that?”
“Gurrrrl, the way you look says all.” She ran her fingers through the fine microbraids in her hair. It was her new hairstyle for the summer, which looked super cute on her.
She reminded me of Brandy, the R&B singer. Shawna didn’t look dissimilar either. She had the big brown eyes and the diva pout, same dark brown skin tone too.
I hadn’t told her what happened with Caine yet, and I didn’t plan to. It was on my mind though. A lot.
It shouldn’t have been because it was my own stupid fault for kissing him. I should have seen past the trick and not allowed myself to be tempted into a kiss that I felt I needed to repent for.
“And you’re thinking about him again.” She laughed a little louder.
“I…”
“What? Anya, the man is gorgeous, and don’t give me that crap about him being the horrible Donoghue boy. What I love about you is that we have the same taste in men. Which means we don’t limit beauty or handsomeness, awesomeness. We’ll go for a guy if he suits whether he’s black, white, Chinese, Asian, or alien. I’m pretty certain we’d go for a little green guy in a spaceship if he looked like Brad Pitt or Idris Elba.”
She was a hundred percent right. That was us. I had friends in Chicago who weren’t like that and friends that were. We were of a different level though, and I couldn’t have agreed more. Shawna and I might not have seen each other a lot for the most part of any year, but she was my best friend.
So… I knew what her next question would be even before she said it.
“I’m waiting for you to tell me what’s wrong with him.”
There it was.
“He’s a playboy, and he’s cocky and full of himself. And we have that whole past going on that doesn’t sit well with me.”
“I was there. I remember. Do you want to hear what it looked like from my point of view?”
“Sure, fire away.” I was interested to hear this.
“It’s simple. Guy likes girl. Guy teases girl to no end.”
“I don’t believe that. He always had the prettiest girls on his arm.”
“Anya, he was eighteen and would have been arrested if he’d gone for you at fourteen. Please, you know that’s right.”
“Okay, past aside, he’s still a playboy. He told me he’s not a relationship guy.”
She gasped. “You devil. You didn’t tell me you had such a talk with him. What else happened?”
“I… kind of kissed him. A little bit.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and laughed. “Oh my gosh, I was right! He does like you.”
“Shawna. I don’t need a man in my life right now. I have too much going on, and I really don’t need a man like him either. Too pretty for his own good and hyped up on sex hormones, probably from being at sea for too long.”
She narrowed her gaze at me. “Are you kidding? That’s shit talk. What girl refuses an ex-Navy guy? Anya, he’s hawwwwwwt. Hot, hot, hot like pepper soup, or something hot like that.”
I started to laugh. She was hilarious.
“I agree, he’s a super-hot hunk. I’m just worried.”
“My friend, I’m going to tell you that sometimes a little distraction is good. It’s a good thing. That guy has sex written all over him. You’re going through a lot right now. It couldn’t hurt to have a seriously hot guy ease your worries away even for a little bit. Also, don’t you dare keep such a thing away from me again.”
“I promise I won’t.” Which meant I should probably tell her everything else. “Caine’s paying for Halle to stay in the hospital.”
The humor in her expression fell.
“Say what now?” She gasped, leaning forward, and rested her hands on her knees.
I nodded. “Yeah, he insisted. He’s paying for everything. It’s over fifty grand.”
Her mouth dropped. “Wow, so he’s not a mean rich guy at all.”
“Not by a long shot. I’ve never met anyone like that. He said she was like mother and father to him, so he’ll provide whatever she needs.”
“That’s amazing, Anya.”
It was. I just wished I didn’t feel so useless. “I should be able to take care of her. She sacrificed so much to all sorts of things for me, but it’s like I haven’t done anything yet. Nothing worthwhile.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true, Shawna. I haven’t. I was all fired up to be my own boss and be this entrepreneur in my own right. Heck, I even wanted to start my own makeup line. But here I am, sitting here looking like I just graduated from college.”
“Granny always said that everything happens for a reason, and we don’t just happen on things at different times in our lives.”
“I can’t see any good in this.”
“Here’s an idea. You’ve always been happy in Wilmington. I’ve never heard you speak of being happy anywhere else. Every time I went to visit you in Chicago, you looked miserable. I heard a woman compliment you on your nails the other day, and a few others on your skin. I know you mix up all manner of herbal creams for yourself, and I wonder why you don’t harness that in some way. There’s also the woman who loves your lavender stuff. What about setting something up at the motel?”
I stared at her and thought about it. A prestigious motel on the coast of Wilmington with a day s
pa.
That was an amazing idea.
“My gosh… I could do it. I could start off with some beauty treatments, and a sauna and steam room wouldn’t be that hard to set up. I even knew where we could do it.”
There was an area right by the swimming pool that could be used. It was the size of a tennis court. Right now, it was just paved with nothing on it. Halle didn’t use the area much for anything.
“Yayyy.” Shawna clapped.
“I’ll ask her. I can’t see her saying no. I’ll ask and see what happens.” I couldn’t believe it. I felt hopeful.
The door rang, and I wondered who that was.
“I’ll just go get that. Thanks for the idea. You are fabtastic.” She truly was. She blew me a kiss.
As I got to the door, I saw the outline of a man. I immediately knew it had to be Caine from the shadow of his figure. The shadow showing his muscles.
It was dark, but I could see the shadow of his spiky hair against the glass of the door.
I opened it and got my confirmation right there.
His mouth slid up into a slow, easy smile that made my knees turn to water.
“Making late-night calls?” I couldn’t hide the nervous quiver from my voice.
“I promised my aunt a thing or two.”
“Your aunt?”
“Yes. My aunt. You know this.” He looked over my shoulder and must have heard Shawna. “Who’s here?”
“Why?”
He got a curious look on his face. “’Cos if I’m coming in, I’m not leaving tonight.”
I laughed at him. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“Not so much. Just stating fact.” He held up a bag I only just noticed. “Chinese. Halle said it’s your favorite.”
“You brought me Chinese food, at eight o’clock at night?”
“Wanted to make sure you eat something decent. Seeing as how you’re avoiding me at the motel.”
“No.” I said that a little too quickly.
He reached out and brushed the edge of my chin, then, in true bad-boy style, leaned in close and hovered just over my lips like he was going to kiss me.
I was paralyzed to his touch. At that point, I couldn’t have done anything, even if I wanted to.
“No?”
My breath hitched somewhere between my heart and my sternum. “Caine, you’re trouble.”
“Yes, Miss Thing, I most certainly am, and for some reason, I can’t get you and your fine ass out of my head.”
“You should try harder.”
“I don’t want to. Do you really want me to?”
What a good question. A question that could only be asked by someone who knew me, a person who knew my weaknesses. A person who knew my weakness happened to be him.
He ran his finger along the edge of my cheek and smiled.
“No,” I said breathlessly.
He chuckled, deep and low, then lowered his lips to mine, which welcomed his kiss. This one didn’t start slow like the one the other day. No. It didn’t. It was intense from the start. His lips captured mine, and his tongue tangled desperately with mine, like he couldn’t get enough of me. Just when we started to get lost in the kiss and the moment, he pulled back. But… just like the other day, he continued to hold me.
“If your friend weren’t here, I’d be in your panties tonight.” It sounded like a promise.
A promise I found myself wanting.
Desperately.
He handed me the bag with the food and backed away.
Neither of us said anything more.
My skin buzzed, and my lips burned, still swollen from the heat of his kiss.
As I watched him jump on his motorcycle and speed away into the night like a demon, I wondered if maybe Shawna was right.
Maybe Caine could be a healthy distraction.
A hot, sexy, steamy distraction.
Screw the past.
Chapter 8
Caine
Focus and concentrate.
Stop…
Don’t think about Anya, and definitely not now.
Not now while Halle was talking to me about her treatment plan.
She looked good, heaps better than last week. But that was down to being given the nutrition she lacked from not taking care of herself properly.
The problem was still there. It was still very much there, and when I got here, the doctors were talking to her about surgery. It was now an option they were considering.
“You look worried,” she observed, resting back against the stack of pillows the nurses had piled up for her.
“I am. I am very worried. I know that doesn’t help you, but I can’t lie.” I straightened and glanced habitually toward the door to check if Anya would be coming.
I figured she’d come in the morning for visiting hours. I wasn’t normally here at this time, and I knew she’d been avoiding me.
“She’s coming later.” Halle smiled, then chuckled, bringing her dainty hands to her cheeks.
“Who is?” I feigned ignorance.
“Oh, please, boy.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “My little niece, who’s not so little anymore. I see the way you look at her. Forgive me, when you get to my age, you just say whatever the hell you want. Especially when you’re right.”
Damn. I didn’t realize I was that transparent.
“Right.”
“You like her. You’ve always liked her.”
“How did you know?”
“I know a lot of things. My crystal ball told me.”
“Does your crystal ball tell you if she may like me too?”
“She may do if you don’t play with her.” It sounded like a warning.
I didn’t need clarification, and I understood. I would have most likely said the same thing if I were her.
“I won’t.” I didn’t intend to mess Anya around. I felt that we both wanted fun. That wasn’t playing. It was just two adults indulging in each other.
She knew straight up that I wasn’t a relationship guy. That wasn’t me because I didn’t want to be the kind of man who disappointed his woman. Or rather, I was scared to be that way and cause the kind of hurt my father had caused my mother.
The thought of doing that to another person got me. My father had hurt my mother so badly she took her life. It was unexplainable, and I could only imagine what she must have gone through in her final moments. I might have thought she knew about him cheating, but that aside, I knew she really, really truly loved him.
I couldn’t be like him, make promises I couldn’t keep.
“Caine.” Halle’s voice took on a serious edge.
“Yeah.”
“It’s looking like I may have this surgery. If I make it through, I want to co-own the motel with you, so you can get a portion of your money back somehow someway.”
I shook my head and smiled. “I watched you clean my parents’ home for years. I wished you wouldn’t. You were too good for that. You were always too good for them. That motel is only to be run by you. You don’t owe me anything.”
She reached out her hand, and I took it. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You already have. Halle, remember when you caught me smoking pot?”
She straightened and smirked, frowning just like she had back then. “I was mad as all hell.”
That was putting it mildly. Shit, I’d thought God had come for me in the form of Halle.
She’d slapped me in my face and threw her slippers at me. I had to jump through my bedroom window to escape her wrath.
“Yeah, you kind of were. Then, do you remember when you caught me with Senator Johnson’s daughter?”
Now she sat up and wrinkled her nose.
That wasn’t my finest moment. I couldn’t even remember what the girl’s name was, but Halle caught us both naked, the girl on her knees about to give me a blowjob. She threw the girl out of the house and told her parents the girl needed to go to church, but that was the end part. That came after she blasted me to kin
gdom come and chased me through the house with her mop.
“Boy, you better have some kind of point you coming to, considering we were just talking about my precious niece.”
“The point is, you were the only person in my life who gave a crap about me. I remember those moments and others because those were all things that could have affected me in one way or another. I could have gotten addicted to drugs. It would have been easy because my parents weren’t exactly around to stop me, and I could have had women going in and out of the house. No one else was there to stop me. I may be this rebellious guy most people see, but I am who I am today because of you.”
She looked at me in awe.
“Thank you, son. I’m proud of you, Lieutenant.”
“Thank you. I feel honored to hear that.”
“Caine.” The seriousness returned to her face. “If I don’t make it, I mean if I don’t make it through this, can you look out for my girl? We’re all each other has. She has me, and I have her.”
“You know I will. Took her Chinese last night.” Although I had also been hoping to get lucky. “And you’d better make it. I need you.”
She smiled. “Just in case. There’s no harm in planning for all eventualities.”
“Let’s just have faith you’ll be back to your old self again.”
She nodded. “I’m trying. Tell me what else is new. What else have you done since you came back?”
“Well, Dad came by the house the second day I was home.”
Although she kept her composure, that look she always had when Dad was mentioned washed over her face.
It was an uneasy look that didn’t sit well with me. It made me wonder what might have happened between them. I knew working for him couldn’t have been easy.
I felt uncomfortable too because she didn’t know the real reason for Mom’s death. I’d wanted so badly to tell her, but I couldn’t. Didn’t want to. Talking about it would make it real, and I would have to face the truth that Mom really did kill herself. It felt like the minute I said what really happened, I couldn’t go along believing the lie Dad had concocted.
“How did that go?”
“Not good.” She at least knew Dad and I didn’t get on well, and we weren’t close.
Kiss From a Rose Page 6
