“Right. Yeah, okay.”
Wes’s mouth twisted. Her eyes had gone unfocused and she was kneading the top of her thigh.
Was she having second thoughts? Did she actually want a relationship but was too afraid to go for it?
Goddamn, taking things slow was annoying as hell.
Wes waited until Kaylee finished her sandwich. He grabbed the trash from the table and dumped it in the nearby canister.
Kaylee glanced at her phone and tucked it in her pocket. “I better get back. Hunt’s watching the kids.” She made a face. “If I leave him there for too long, I return to booby traps.”
Wes grinned. “That sounds about right. So I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Sure.”
Score. It was a date. Even if Kaylee didn’t know it.
* * *
Wes picked up Kaylee from her place and drove them to his one-room cabin off Pioneer Trail. She could have driven herself, but this way he got to spend more time with her. Plus, she’d been so busy trying to figure out if dinner meant something more, she hadn’t complained when he said he’d pick her up.
Wes crossed the kitchen and grabbed another of Kaylee’s favorite foods—cheese spread and crackers. He walked to the bar-height table and handed her them, along with a bottle of beer, while the steaks marinated.
He drummed his fingers and watched Kaylee slather her cracker with cheesy goodness, little moans erupting from her throat—getting him juiced up for other activities.
The table took up a quarter of the space in his place, the bed nearly half. Which was fine, because that was where the magic happened. And if he was lucky, he’d get lucky. With the woman he—
Not loved.
Cared about. No need to go all crazy the way Adam had for Hayden, or even the way Levi was around Emily.
Jesus. Just because his older brothers were settling down, that didn’t mean he had to do the permanent thing. Wes wanted to lock things down with Kaylee, sure, but not forever.
He frowned. If he didn’t lock things down permanently with Kaylee, she’d date someone else…and that didn’t sit well. Not. At. All.
He gave himself a sharp mental shake. Not going there. Still working on convincing her to call him her boyfriend.
“There’s something that’s been bothering me,” he said, attempting to puzzle out her aversion to dating him in a serious way. He guessed their past was a strong influencer, but there had to be more. “You mentioned that McDouche—”
She rolled her eyes. “Eddy.”
“—was there for you after we broke up.”
She shook her head. “It was almost a year before I felt good enough to date, and then I met Eddy.”
Wes’s jaw clenched. He popped a cracker in his mouth, breathing deeply through his nose. Thinking of Kaylee going through all that medical stuff on her own made him want to break something. “Right. So, why did you date him and not some other guy? You never used to put up with idiots like Eddy.”
She stole the cracker he’d spent several seconds spreading cheese on, and took a bite. “He was nice at first. And Eddy isn’t hard on the eyes.”
“If you’re into that sort of thing,” Wes grumbled.
“But you’re right.”
He looked up. “I am?”
She set the cracker down, and Wes brought his beer to his mouth, waiting impatiently for her to continue. “Eddy isn’t the kind of guy I’d normally date. I think we connected because he can’t have children either.”
Wes choked on his beer. “Excuse me?”
She shrugged. “He suffered a lacrosse injury goofing around without proper gear. It severed his—”
Wes slammed down his bottle. “Stop. Right there. I don’t need the details. Just hearing you mention balls and injury makes me queasy.”
She shook her head, exasperated. “I never mentioned balls.”
“It was implied.”
She shrugged and popped the rest of the cracker in her mouth.
His hand formed a fist. He didn’t know why her having this bond with Eddy pissed him off, but it did. “So you could relate to each other.”
“Neither of us was going to be disappointed when the other couldn’t have kids, so yeah, we could. At least, that’s what I thought. But now… Now I’m not sure Eddy’s the type of person to have children. I don’t think his infertility meant as much to him as mine did to me. I almost wonder if he used it...”
“To get close to you?”
“Yes.”
Considering the kind of guy Eddy was, Wes would bet his left nut it did. Not that he was willing to give up one of his boys.
“Sometimes…” She screwed her lips together.
“Sometimes?”
She took a gulp of beer. “Sometimes I wonder if he dated me because I was vulnerable and easy to manipulate. I was so desperate to connect with someone who understood what I was going through that I ignored problems in our relationship.” She dropped her head in her hands. “I called a few of our mutual friends… Eddy had quite the harem going. I was such an idiot for not seeing what he was doing.”
“Kaylee.” He grabbed her hand, and she looked up. “Whatever he did, it wasn’t your fault. That’s who he is. It has nothing to do with you.”
She nodded, but pulled her hand away slowly, wrapping her arms around her waist.
Wes stood and went to the fridge to grab Kaylee another beer. He replaced the one she’d almost finished. He should have never brought this up, but it did explain a lot. “So you were never on equal footing with this guy. And now you’re afraid the same thing will happen with us.”
Her body stiffened. “You walked all over me too.”
He set his hands on the table and leaned down. “No, I didn’t. You were always the most important thing to me. I was never with another woman. I’ve told you this.”
“It didn’t feel like equal footing the last six months we were together. There were obvious physical things going on with me. I was sick. And you had no idea.”
“That was because I was an idiot. I’ve explained that.”
She unlatched her arms from around her waist and straightened her back. “I’ll never again put myself in a position where I’m not a priority.”
“And you never should.” He thought about the work he had ahead with the tournament, but pushed it aside. He could juggle Kaylee and his work schedule. He had to.
“You’re right. I won’t. Because I’ll never let us go farther than we are now. I learned from our past.” She gave him a shaky smile. “Friends with benefits, right?”
Fuck no, but he wasn’t stupid enough to disagree with her. No matter what she said, they were a hell of a lot more than friends. “For now.”
Before she could utter a response, he latched his mouth onto hers and kissed her until she was clinging to him. He lifted his mouth from her briefly. “There’s more for us, Kaylee.”
Chapter 23
Wes was talking crazy. There wasn’t more for them. It was too risky, and Kaylee wasn’t sacrificing any part of herself she couldn’t stand to lose. She wasn’t budging on the relationship bit, and he’d figure that out soon enough.
Wes ran his hands down her shoulders and grabbed her elbows, urging her up.
“What about dinner?” she asked when his mouth had traveled to her neck. She angled her head back, because his lips felt incredible.
He guided her toward the massive bed, which was kind of hard to miss, given he lived in a shoebox.
Leave it to the trust fund kid to live in a five-hundred-square-foot cabin.
Considering the looks of his place, Wes’s bed was the nicest thing he owned. But she couldn’t complain, given she was currently receiving the benefits of his commitment to the bedroom.
The back of her knees hit the soft mattress and he ran his hands down her ribcage, dipping in at her waist and stopping at her hips. “I like the idea of having you in my bed.”
So far they’d spent their sexy time at her place.
He picked her up a few inches off the ground and tossed her on the mattress.
“Wes!” she said, but she laughed and ducked for cover as he leapt onto her, supporting his weight with his arms.
“Yes, Kaylee?”
“We haven’t eaten. I thought you were making me dinner.”
He nuzzled her neck and did some sort of swirly thing with his tongue. “Oh, I plan to. But this is a brand-new mattress.” He ran his hand seductively over the comforter, his mouth and face nuzzled in her neck as he murmured against her throat. “Breaking it in should be our first priority, don’t you think?”
His hand homed in on her breast, and she grabbed his ass. She’d forgotten how fun and totally hot sex could be, until she and Wes started sneaking around Club Tahoe these last couple of weeks. “I like having sex with you,” she said with a sigh.
He lifted his head and quirked an eyebrow, a grin on his face. “I like having sex with you.” He kissed the tip of her nipple through her cotton shirt, sending a spark through her belly.
She pulled up his head by his silky, dark hair.
“Yes?” he said, drawing the word out, humor in his tone as he met her gaze.
“I mean, you make me feel beautiful. When we’re together—” It was on the tip of her tongue to say that things felt right for the first time in years, but she couldn’t say that. He’d read into it. She didn’t want more than what they had right now. “You’re special to me. That’s all. I just wanted you to know that.”
His grin faded. She was certain he was about to say something—probably about them being more than sex buddies—so she broke the spell and shoved him over.
Wes rolled easily onto his back and Kaylee climbed on top, straddling him.
His hands landed on her breasts. “Girl on top works for me.”
Good thing Wes was easily distracted by boobs.
She let her hands roam his chest, content that the conversation hadn’t veered too far in the wrong direction. She ran her palms down his stomach and under his T-shirt to the ridges of his muscled abs. She trailed her fingertips to his hipbones and teased them farther south, over the sculpted muscles that tapered into a V that was so totally hot.
Wes’s body jerked—at least his erection did. He turned into a very malleable male when her hands were on him.
“Any farther south and I’ll be flipping you over,” he said. “But don’t let that stop you from your exploration.” He folded his arms behind his head and grinned as she unhooked her bra. And then his hands were on her breasts again and his expression had gone serious. “I will love these forever, Kaylee. They’re mine.”
She laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“The only thing ridiculous is that your pants are still on.”
Ignoring him, she flipped the button of his jeans, unzipped his fly, and slid his pants down to the tops of his thighs.
His gaze turned half-lidded. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop. I’ll give you oral five times a day if you’ll just keep going.”
“That’s not a bargain. You’d do that anyway.”
“True.” His eyes flared. “I love the taste of you.”
A streak of arousal hit her where it counted and she slid down his body, suddenly eager for what she had in mind. “I remember the way you taste too.” She pulled out his thick, long erection, and he groaned as she stroked him. “And feel in my mouth.” She sent him a naughty grin.
Wes stared, hardly blinking as she ran her tongue over the top of his erection. She took him in as far as she could go, swirling her tongue and sucking him.
His breathing increased and his hands balled at his sides. “Fuck.”
His head dropped back, and she watched him while she stroked him. Would have been smiling too at how much he seemed to be enjoying this, if her mouth weren’t so busy. She wasn’t kidding when she’d said she thought he’d grown. Wes was big. Or bigger than she’d been used to these last few years.
Kaylee worked the length of him with her hands and her mouth and her tongue, until she felt her body being lifted.
Wes pulled her up and flipped her over, covering her. And then his mouth was on hers, hot with hunger.
Kaylee hadn’t stopped loving Wes—might never stop. But that didn’t mean she trusted him with her heart. It wasn’t the wisest thing to have sex with him when she had no intention of going farther, but she couldn’t help herself. He was persuasive, and she cared deeply for him.
He stopped kissing her only to remove their clothes quickly and efficiently. And then he was inside her, staring into her eyes as though he cherished and loved her.
If anyone had asked Kaylee four years ago what it took to have a good relationship, she would have described this. Not the sex, but the way Wes looked at her, wanted to be with her, touched her with such devotion. But she was older and wiser now. She needed more than what he was currently offering. Needed to be someone’s priority.
Wes wasn’t dating anyone else—Kaylee knew him well enough to trust him to be monogamous—but she wasn’t sure she could trust him after he’d put his professional aspirations above her the last time they’d dated. And therein lay the problem. She wanted Wes to accomplish his dreams—had always wanted that for him. It was why she’d let things go on as long as she had in college without complaining. But in the end, putting her needs aside had almost destroyed her.
She wouldn’t risk it.
“You’re distracted.” He frowned. “What the hell could you be thinking about at a moment like this? I’m about to explode, but I need you to come first.”
“I’m thinking about you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Better be about how close you are to coming.” He flipped them over until she was on top again. His thumb touched the apex of her thighs, swirling a slow and steady rhythm against the pulse beating there.
She moaned and pressed her hands to his chest, rocking on him and letting the sensation bring her higher. He was hitting her in the right spot, and every time she dropped down, pleasure swirled through her. Her muscles contracted and a cry escaped her throat.
Wes let her ride it out, and then his hands gripped her hips as he thrust inside her. He came seconds later, his movements slowing, chest heaving.
Kaylee curled up on him, feeling the pounding of his heart as his body came down.
“Coming inside you never gets old.”
“I’m glad you’re happy,” she said, but Kaylee was convinced she got more out of this new form of a relationship than Wes did. He was so eager to please her, and what girl could turn that down?
He pressed his large palm to her lower back and tucked her close. “Why wouldn’t I be happy? Spending time with you is always good: laughing, having sex on the golf course, watching you take care of the tyrants known as children at Club Kids. And you fit exactly right against my body. Nothing could be better.”
She closed her eyes. Why was he being the perfect guy now when she was so leery? “You’re a great guy, Wes.”
His stilled and then said, “I’m great for you.”
Chapter 24
Wes realized he’d been pushing things a little hard in the get-Kaylee-to-be-my-girl department. He eased back. But only just. He’d stopped talking about how great they were for each other and focused on showing her. So far, she seemed more relaxed, to the point that she’d stopped worrying about what anyone thought and allowed him to bring her around as though they were dating. Even though technically—according to her—they weren’t.
“Are you sure you want me to go?” Kaylee asked as they got dressed at her place. They’d gone to her parents’ cabin after work to get cleaned up.
Fine, she’d gone home to get cleaned up, and he’d gone to seduce her in the shower.
“Of course.” Wes pulled a T-shirt over his head, followed by a long-sleeved Henley. “The tournament week begins tomorrow and we’re going over final details. No heavy drinking. We all need to be on our game in the morning.”
“And are you on
your game?” she asked as she slipped on low boots with her jeans. “You haven’t been practicing as much. Does that worry you?”
He gave her a mock frown. “I wasn’t nervous until you mentioned it.”
She grinned. “Sorry. It’s just, this is what you’ve always wanted.”
He sank onto her bed and tied his shoes. “It was. But I like working at the club.” He chuckled. “Never thought I’d say that. When I first stepped up my role at the golf course after our father died, I was crawling out of my skin to get away. Sounds strange, but everything changed when I started giving lessons to Bella.”
He finished with his shoes and leaned on his thighs. “It was amazing to see a little kid kill it out there. That was true talent. I’ve always been athletic, but Bella’s got magic. For once, I was excited for someone else’s career. Teaching Bella made me realize how rewarding training could be. I still don’t get much out of teaching people with no skill, however.”
“Like me.”
He flashed her a naughty grin. “You are an exception.”
“Because I get naked with you?”
“Exactly.”
She tossed a throw pillow at his head. “You’re bad.”
He deflected the pillow with an exaggerated karate move. “Anyway. As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted. It might have taken the tragedy of my father passing for me to try something new, but it was a wake-up call. I’m not kidding myself with this sponsor’s exemption. It’s an incredible opportunity, but it’s not going to result in a tour career. I’ve never consistently scored low enough to make it on the circuit. I’m going to go out there and have the time of my life, but I’ve got other dreams I’m focusing on now.”
“Training little Bella?”
He stood and pulled Kaylee up with him. “Training Bella and others like her is one of them.” He kissed her on the lips and grabbed her hand before she could ask him about his other dreams.
Daring Wes: Cade Brothers Series Page 14
