Notorious (NeXt Book 1)

by K. M. Scott

  I finally let myself giggle at his description of that night, amused at how self-effacing he can be. “Are you and Alex around the same age? You said you were both ten, but you can’t be born on the same day to brothers, can you? What are the odds of that?”

  Cade shakes his head. “No. I’m three months older. Alex just seems older than me because he’s more serious. Always has been. You should have seen him that night with his brother. I thought he was going to kill Cash he was so mad. Not that I wasn’t mad, but Alex looked like he was going to rip him apart limb from limb.”

  As we walk, I try to imagine the man who was so nice and who came to my rescue when Sabrina hurled that not-so-veiled insult at me at the table that angry. “You know, I can’t see him being like that. He was so sweet when he came over to introduce himself to my friend and her sister tonight. He didn’t have to come out at all since we’d only met that once last week, and then he was kind enough to say he and I were peers professionally, which definitely isn’t true.”

  “Alex meant that. He thinks you are colleagues,” Cade says, but I sense in his voice he doesn’t believe it either.

  That’s okay. I know my level when it comes to what I do. And everything else, for that matter.

  “Well, that’s very nice of him, but I think he was just being chivalrous after my friend Meadow’s sister made a dig about my dessert making compared to his being a chef. She’s not my biggest fan.”

  “Screw her. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I trust Alex on this.”

  For a moment, I don’t know what to say. Cade seems uncomfortable after that brief outburst too and puts his hand on my arm to stop me from walking. Facing me, he lowers his head like he’s embarrassed.

  “Sorry about that. She’s your friend’s sister, so saying that wasn’t cool.”

  God, he’s cute. I imagine this man could talk the birds out of the trees, and the ones who didn’t want to leave, all he’d have to do is give them one of his sad looks with those dark brown eyes of his and they’d willingly do as he asked.

  “You don’t have to be sorry. I don’t like Sabrina much at all. The feeling’s mutual too. She doesn’t think highly about any part of me, but I don’t usually say much to her in my defense when she takes her swipes at my job or how I look because I would never want to hurt Meadow. So no need to be sorry. I appreciated how Alex set her straight in his very professional way, and I appreciate what you said. Truth be told, I silently thought the same thing when she made fun of my dessert making tonight.”

  Cade’s face brightens at hearing I’m not offended by his attack on Sabrina. “Okay, then back to screw her then.”

  We begin walking again, and thankfully, more people start to fill the pathway around us. Not that I feel like he’s an ax murderer. I don’t know if I ever felt that way, but no matter how good looking he is or how nice it felt to hear him come to my defense about what I do, I don’t really know much about Cade. Better to be safe than sorry with an almost perfect stranger.

  Breaking the silence, he says, “You know, you shouldn’t think what you do is any less than any other chef. I admit I didn’t understand what you do at first, but Alex set me straight. He’s serious about food, and he says you’re an artist. That’s pretty impressive considering what your canvas is.”

  Excited to tell someone about the rose cupcakes I made today, I begin to explain what they looked like and how I sculpted the frosting to look like real flower petals. Halfway through my description, though, I stop myself.

  “God, you probably don’t want to hear about peach colored roses being my inspiration for these silly cupcakes,” I say quietly, embarrassed that I let myself get so wrapped up in telling him about those stupid petals.

  “No way,” he says with a smile. “I loved listening to you talk about them. I was trying to imagine them the whole time you were describing them, but I’m not really creative, so I’m probably thinking all the wrong things. I don’t honestly even know what a peach rose looks like. Is that a color or how they smell? You probably think that’s pretty stupid, huh?”

  “The peach is the color. I took a picture with my phone. Would you like to see it?”

  “Absolutely!”

  I reach into my purse and grab my phone, happy I changed my wallpaper the other day from that hot guy Meadow and I saw in that movie last month to a sunset scene. A few taps on the screen and the image of my cupcake creations from this afternoon comes up.

  Turning my phone so Cade can see, I point at the frosting petals. “That’s the peach rose cupcakes. I saw them online a couple days ago and wanted to try my hand at making them. I love how they turned out, and from the way customers at the restaurant grabbed them up, I think they were a hit.”

  Cade stares at my phone for a long moment and then looks up at me and gives me a smile. “You really are talented, Hailey. I couldn’t do that if I had someone standing beside me giving me step-by-step directions, much less from only seeing a picture online. I bet they tasted incredible too, just like that cookie I had the other day.”

  I sheepishly admit the truth of how many I sampled before putting the rest out for customers. “Although I shouldn’t have, I ate two of them, and although I’m completely biased, they were delicious. I made them as vanilla cupcakes this time and used a special ingredient. Sour cream. People sometimes get turned off when they hear that’s part of my vanilla cupcakes, but it makes them taste so good! I’m thinking next time I want to try to make different flavors for each rose color, so peach cupcakes for the peach roses and vanilla for the white ones.”

  God, I meant to just say I ate two damn cupcakes, and there I go again giving him every last tedious detail on cupcakes. Dr. Thorpe is right. Without practice around people my age, I’ve started to forget how to behave. I’m turning into a middle-aged woman before I reach twenty-five!

  Looking away, I try to hide my embarrassment. “I’m sorry. This must be so boring for you walking around and talking about cupcakes.”

  “Not at all. I’m enjoying this a lot. You’re passionate about what you do. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Cade says.

  When I don’t look over at him because I just feel so awkward still, he takes my hand in his and stops me from walking. Surprised and unsure what to say or do, I don’t have a choice but to face him. I haven’t been this close with a man since Malcolm, and my brain seems to shut off as I look at Cade now.

  “Don’t be ashamed for who you are. I’m having a great time listening to you talk about all of it—the cupcakes, the ingredients, even the color peach. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent years listening to my best friend talk about food like it’s something to be worshipped. I don’t know. But if you’re worried you’re boring me, let me tell you, you’re not.”

  “Maybe you could tell me something about you. I feel like I’ve been monopolizing the whole conversation, so you tell me about who you are for a while.”

  With a nod and one of his sexy smiles, he agrees to talk about himself, which will keep me from blabbering on about cupcakes and clue me into who Cade March really is. I know he’s good-looking and very tolerant of my food obsession, but is there more to him?

  As we begin down the pathway again, he keeps his gentle hold on my hand. At first, I wonder if I should pull away, but I push away that instinct that comes from fear.

  “What do you want to know? I went to school up north and graduated with a degree in business. It’s the last thing I want to do in life, though, so I haven’t used it much since I came back to town.”

  “But you own a club, so that must be useful for you to know all you learned in college,” I say, instantly wishing I could brag about going to school without having to explain what happened.

  His hand tightens around mine slightly for a moment before he eases his hold. “I guess, but real life is never the same as what you learn in school. I went to school because I had to. I graduated because I had to. I work because I have to.”

  Turning to look over
at me, he smiles. “See, that’s why listening to you talk about what you do is so interesting. You want to do that. You love what you do, and it shows when you talk about it. I don’t love what I do, and I know how I sound when I talk about it.”

  I want to hear more about his club, but since he clearly doesn’t enjoy his work like I do, I quickly change the subject. “Well, what do you do when you’re not working?”

  With a chuckle, he answers, “I’ve just now decided I’m the most boring person in the world. I don’t do much when I’m not working. Alex and I hang out on his days off, and sometimes our other cousins join us and we go jet skiing. Alex’s father has a boat, so we go fishing too.”

  He looks at me and winces. “I think we should go back to talking about cupcakes or you’re going to decide you never want to see me again because I have no life.”

  I give him a sympathetic smile and try to think he’s a boring guy who does nothing. I can’t, though. He’s not boring at all, and if I’m not careful, I’m going to find myself letting him past all those walls I’ve so carefully constructed this past year.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cade

  The time I spend walking along that path with Hailey and talking like we’ve known each other forever is the best hour of my day. I knew my instincts weren’t wrong about her, even if she ran away from me the other day.

  She’s every bit as incredible as I’d built her up to be in my mind. Passionate and committed to her work, she’s also sweet and sexy and not that shy once she gets talking.

  All I had to do was make the effort and it paid off. Now I want to see how far we can take this thing between us.

  We get back to her car and I sense she’s nervous because she’s gone quiet on me again. She lowers her head, fixing her gaze on the ground while I talk about anything that pops into my mind so our time together doesn’t have to end. I’d much rather stand here talking gibberish than go to the club to serve drunks for the rest of the night.

  “So what do you think about doing this again? How does tomorrow night sound?” I ask as I take a step closer to her.

  But she doesn’t look up at me when she answers, “Tomorrow night? I don’t know.”

  “You had fun, didn’t you? You got to hear about me pissing the bed and how my family is one step away from insane ninety percent of the time. And I got to find out about what makes peach roses peach, which I guess I should have known by this point in my life, but to be honest, I don’t think most guys know exactly what the color peach is. We lump that in with salmon and colors like mauve, which I have no idea what it looks like but I’m guessing it’s like peach.”

  Hailey finally lifts her head and looks at me, smiling at my color ignorance. “Mauve is not like peach,” she says with an adorable giggle. “As for salmon, I guess I can see why you might get that confused with peach.”

  I take another step toward her, shrinking the space between us to only a couple inches. She really is so beautiful right now looking up at me with those crystal blue eyes that seem to sparkle under the streetlight above where her car is parked.

  “Now I know the surefire way to get you to talk is to show you how stupid I am about something. Good to know.”

  She tilts her head like she isn’t sure if I’m being serious or not and she wants to decide before saying anything else. “I don’t think you’re stupid about colors. You’re just a guy. Guys think of things in basic colors. Black, white, blue, red, green, yellow and maybe orange is pretty much all men consider when it comes to colors, so you’re no different than anyone else and definitely not more stupid.”

  The way she tries to make me feel better about being so utterly ignorant about something she understands so well charms me. I’m not even sure she realizes how sexy it is that she’s sweet like that.

  Still, I like the banter that’s part of the chase with any woman, so I put on my fake sad face and tease her about saying I’m no different than anyone else. “So I’m just like every other guy you’ve ever met? Ouch. That hurts a guy’s ego, and we’re practically all ego, you know.”

  Instinctively, she waves her hands in front of her, brushing up against my chest since I’m so close now. “I didn’t mean it that way. No, I don’t think you’re like everyone else. I don’t. Really.”

  Leaning down, I stop her explanation with a kiss I’ve been dying to sneak since she started talking about those delicious sounding cupcakes nearly an hour ago. Her lips are soft, and although I’ve been nearly hard for the past few minutes, just the touch of her mouth on mine makes my cock stiffen so it’s pressing against the front of my pants.

  She returns my kiss with a soft kiss of her own and lets her palms graze my ribs as with each second that ticks by she relaxes more and more. I lift my hand to caress her cheek, but that startles her and she quickly pulls away.

  “I should go. It’s getting late,” she says, looking down at the ground again.

  “Tomorrow night then.”

  My making a date for us without her agreeing makes her lift her head, but I don’t see anger in her eyes when she looks at me. If anything, I see fear. Why? She can’t still think I’m an ax murderer, can she?

  “I don’t know if I can, Cade,” she says in a shaky voice.

  “Why? You had fun. I know you did. You smiled. You laughed. You talked about things that make you happy. Sounds like the kind of time you’d tell people about and say I’m a fantastic guy. I know I’d tell people I had a great time tonight and you’re definitely a fantastic woman. So what’s the problem?”

  Her eyebrows draw in and she frowns for the first time since she accused me of stalking her here in the parking lot tonight. I instantly hate that frown on her. I hate that I had some part in putting it there even more.

  “I’m not really good at things like this,” she says shyly.

  “Talking and walking? Don’t sell yourself short. I think you’ve mastered those quite well,” I say with a smile.

  My attempt at a joke doesn’t get me a smile in return, but at least her frown eases a little. “I have, yes, but everything that comes after that with someone I’m not good at.”

  “I can tell you you’re great at kissing, so put that in the mastered column with walking and talking.”

  She lets out a heavy sigh and finally says what I suspect has been on her mind since the day we met. “Why are you interested in me? I don’t drive an expensive car like you do. I work in a little restaurant that’s nothing like the one your family owns and I doubt it’s as impressive as your club. I’m not the type of girl who a guy with a red Jag wants, so why do you keep coming around?”

  Taking her hand, I bring it to my mouth to press a kiss against her knuckles. “I like you because you’re you. I don’t know why I was interested in you that day I saw you looking out the kitchen window at me. I just was from that day. I don’t care what kind of place you work in. I think you’re interesting and fun, and you’re talented at what you do. You’re also beautiful, and why wouldn’t a guy with a red Jag want you?”

  “Because I don’t have legs that go on forever. Just regular legs on my five foot five body. My hair isn’t gorgeous and most of the time it stays up in a ponytail. Look at the way I’m dressed. Red Jag women wear little dresses that show off the goods. I’m in a navy blue sundress that’s nothing special. I just wonder if someone like me belongs talking to someone like you,” she says before pressing her lips together, as if she needs to stop herself from saying anything more.

  Hailey isn’t wrong. I’ve spent most of my life chasing after women who look like they should be in a red Jag. I’ve had a lot of them too, but they want me for what I have, especially how much money I have. The fact that this is the first time she’s even mentioned my car and still hasn’t asked me to take her for a ride tells me what I have doesn’t matter to her.

  Maybe that’s why I like her. Because she doesn’t want anything anyone else has from me before.

  “I like the way you look and the way you dress. To
be honest, I don’t care what you do with your hair or what you wear. From the first moment I saw you, I wanted to know more about you. Then I found out you were just like Alex, except way prettier.”

  Hailey smiles at my joke, so I continue. “I figure if he and I can get along famously for all these years as best friends, maybe you and I can be together and have a good time. You’re both into your work in the same field, and while I don’t do much with food other than stuff it into my mouth, I like being around someone who cares that much about what they create that they could talk about it for half a mile.”

  “You have a way of putting things that makes me want to say yes to you. Are you like this with everyone?”

  I think about the talk with my father earlier and can’t stop myself from grimacing. He’s going to bust a blood vessel when I finally get to the club tonight, and I’d be willing to bet all my trust fund that he won’t want to say yes to anything I say to him.

  “Sadly, no. My charm and persuasive abilities do not work on everyone. I like that they work on you, though. Tomorrow night we can go for another walk again or do anything you want. You name it and we’ll do it.”

  “Okay. I’ll text you since I have your number,” she says, giving away that she kept my note.

  If she’d thrown it away, I might have to do a lot more persuading, but knowing she decided to keep it, even after running away from me that day, tells me things might be going better than I had thought.

  “Text or call me anytime. Until tomorrow night, thanks, Hailey.”

  Confusion fills her expression. “For what? All we did was walk and talk a little while.”