by Sandra Owens
She was about to melt into a puddle right at his feet. “Good morning, Cody.” Well, the control over her voice hadn’t lasted long. She sounded like she’d lost all the air in her lungs.
“Come on. Let’s go feed you.”
“Right. Breakfast. That’s what I’m here for.”
He chuckled as he started to close the door. “No, you’re not, but we’ll talk all about that.”
“Wait.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t think you should leave your dogs out if we’re not there to keep an eye on them.”
“They’re trained not to approach strangers without my okay, nor will they eat anything without my permission, but yeah, better safe than sorry.” He whistled, and they immediately came bounding up the porch and inside. “Come with me, darlin’.”
Yes, she’d go with him wherever he wanted to take her. She’d never been in his house before, and curious, she glanced around. The living room was small, the only furniture a sofa, two comfortable looking theater chairs with a table between them, and a large screen TV mounted on the opposite wall. Underneath the TV was a small stack of boxes.
“Still moving in?”
He eyed the four boxes. “I guess I should get around to doing something with those.”
In the kitchen, a pub table was in front of the bay windows. He’d already set it for their meal. “Is that champagne?”
“Yeah. I thought you could handle one glass before work, but if not, no problem.”
There were strawberries in the bottom of the flutes, and the champagne was golden and bubbly. “Yum!” She headed straight for the table. From the corner of her eye, she saw the hint of a smile on his face. “I’m impressed that a man would have champagne and strawberries. I mean, you didn’t invite me here until late last night, so you had to already have this, right?” She took a sip and moaned from the crisp, cold taste.
“Sorry to disappoint, but I found an all-night store. Sit and enjoy. I’m making you French toast and bacon.” He tilted his head as he looked at her. “Is that okay?”
She heard the uncertainty in his voice, which sent a little thrill through her because she interpreted it to mean that serving a woman breakfast wasn’t a usual thing for him. His nervousness was endearing. It would have been a definite turnoff if he’d been confident of making a conquest of her.
“It’s so okay that I think you deserve a kiss.” Without waiting for a sign that a kiss would be welcomed, she walked straight into his arms, and covered his cheeks with her palms. The man’s lips were soft and seeking. She’d initiated the kiss, but when he took over, she let him.
She had bounced around from foster home to foster home in her youth, and as a result gave up control to no one. Ever. And although there was something different with Cody, where she was able to let him set the pace, she couldn’t resist testing him.
He made a slow slide with his hands down her back, his fingers coming to rest on her hips. His tongue tangled with hers, demanding dominance. She gave him that for a few moments. When she felt like she was drowning, she clamped her teeth down on the tongue exploring all the corners of her mouth.
She peered up at him, needing to see his reaction. Searing heat shimmered in his eyes. The man could take whatever she threw his way. With a last tightening of her teeth, she let go and leaned back, waiting to see what he would do or say.
“Christ, darlin’.” He sucked in a breath as he took her hand and pressed it against the bulge in his jeans. “I think he’s permanently stuck on hard.” Letting go of her hand, he narrowed his eyes. “You bit me. I liked it.”
“I liked biting you. I have some other places in mind to bite you.” She went to the table and took a seat, hiding her smile.
“I’m screwed.”
He said it so low that she didn’t think he meant for her to hear, but it was the best compliment she’d ever been paid. “I’m ready for my French toast and bacon.”
The man actually saluted her. “Yes ma’am. I’m on it.” He made a show of adjusting his jeans. “Just gotta figure out how to walk normally again first.”
Riley laughed when he funny walked to the refrigerator. “I could grow to like you, Cody Roberts.”
Her sexy-as-all-get-out neighbor turned, and the expression on his face was nothing but serious. “As God is my witness, that’s my wildest hope, but you might change your mind once you get to know me. I want you like the very devil, Riley, but I have some conditions before we fall all over each other in bed.”
Conditions?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Riley’s face blanked, all the mischief and fun that had been there gone in a flash. Cody mentally regrouped. He should have waited until after they ate to bring up his conditions, but she’d rocked his world with that kiss she’d initiated, and he’d totally lost his bearings. And the thing was, he’d learned something new about himself, something he never would have guessed.
He liked her being the aggressor. Who knew? Although he’d been celibate for—he did a quick calculation in his head—close to six months, he’d been with his fair share of women. Every single one of them had been like putty in his hands, looking to him for direction on what he wanted from them. That hadn’t seemed boring before, but now it did.
“What conditions?”
“Nothing big, just some things we need to agree on.” He walked to her chair and put his hands on the back, leaning toward her until their faces were only inches apart. Damn, she smelled good. “Let me feed you first, then we’ll talk.”
She shrugged. “It’s your party.”
Regretting that he’d spoiled the mood, he rose and went to the fridge, taking out milk, butter, and the eggs he’d already whipped. He tried to think of something amusing to say, but he wasn’t an amusing man. As he worked, he listened to her talk to his dogs. She was good with them, but being that she was a veterinarian, it was a given that she loved animals.
“Your feast, darlin’.” He slid a plate in front of her, grabbed the second one from the counter, and took a seat across from her. Trained not to beg for food, Sally and Pretty Girl lay on their bellies at his feet.
After pouring a generous amount of syrup over her French toast, she took a bite. “Oh, yum. This is delicious.”
At least he’d done something right. “Where are you from originally?” he asked.
“Everywhere and nowhere.”
At the flash of sadness in her eyes, he wished he hadn’t asked, but her answer intrigued him. He waited to see if she would explain.
She sighed. “It’s not my favorite subject, but I don’t make it a secret. I grew up in foster care, bouncing from one home to another. I was considered a difficult child.”
“I’m sorry.” Although as a kid, he’d sometimes wondered if his parents were aliens from another planet, he’d still known that in their own way they loved him, and he’d had a stable home. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her.
“Yeah, well, it was what it was. Where are you from?”
“Vermont. My parents are professors at a liberal arts college. I was as foreign to them as they were to me.”
“But they loved you?”
Her question sounded like a plea, as if she couldn’t bear the thought of another child not loved. “Yeah, they did.” The conversation had taken a turn he hadn’t expected. He never talked about his personal life to anyone, yet he was telling her.
With a groan, she pushed her plate aside. “I usually only have coffee and yogurt for breakfast.” She grinned. “Now I just want to crawl back into bed and go back to sleep with my full tummy.”
“I’m glad you liked it.” He hadn’t been sure if she would, but French toast had seemed safe enough.
She glanced at her watch. “I have about thirty minutes to spare you. Tell me about these conditions of yours.”
“More champagne?” he asked, suddenly reluctant to speak about the list he’d made in his head last night.
“Tempting, but no. I have a surgery at ten.�
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“Okay, here’s the thing.” He slipped off a flip-flop and stroked the fur on Sally’s neck with his foot. He’d always found touching his dogs calming, and at the moment, he was damn nervous. What if she didn’t agree to what he needed? Was he willing to let her walk out if she didn’t? All he knew was that he wanted her like he’d never wanted anyone before. That both excited him and scared him.
Just spit it out. “Okay . . . I’ve already told you that I’m messed up. I’m not a man you want to fall in love with, so rule number one, don’t fall for me.”
She burst out laughing.
Well, that wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. “I’m serious.”
“I’m sure . . .” More laughter. “I’m sure you are. Go on, what’s the rest?”
A bit offended that she hadn’t protested rule number one, he said, “Why is that funny?”
She gave a shake of her head, as if indicating he was an idiot. “Like anyone can control their heart. I don’t plan to fall in love with you, but if it happens, it happens. Deal with it.”
Damn, he liked this woman. “For your own sake, I hope you don’t. Next, if we sleep together—”
“When. When we sleep together. It’s going to happen, Cody, so you might as well get used to the idea.”
Oh yeah, he definitely liked her. “Okay, when we do, whether it’s here or at your house, no spending the night together.”
“That’s a bummer. I like waking up with a man in my bed.” She tilted her head and studied him. “So, why not?”
Although he didn’t want to tell her, it was only fair she understood. “Because I have nightmares, and sometimes I wake up not knowing where I am. I’m afraid I might hurt you.”
“That’s a good reason. Next?”
It was that easy with her? No delving into his psyche, wanting him to spill his guts? “This is the last one. There will be no others for either of us for as long as it lasts between us. I don’t share. When either one of us has had enough it will end. No fights. No tears.”
Her lips thinned. “Had enough?”
Christ, he was a moron. That last sounded good in his mind when he’d thought of it last night, not so much when he said the words aloud.
She stood, put her hands flat on the table, and leaned her face toward his. “I should warn you that when someone puts conditions on me, I have a tendency to do the exact opposite. That goes back to the foster homes where there were always conditions on my behavior if I wanted to stay. Most times I didn’t, but I won’t bore you with my poor, sad childhood. I’ll do my best to abide by your rules, but I have one of my own.”
He managed not to squirm with those hazel eyes focused on him, while at the same time he was aroused by how the gold flecks in them seemed to flare like a lit match. She was pissed, and being a typical man, all he could think about was burying himself to the hilt in all that fiery heat radiating from her. Her, I want her! his dick screamed, snapping to attention.
“And that would be?” Surprised his voice hadn’t come out sounding like a croaking bullfrog, he gave in and squirmed. He should’ve put on sweatpants, not jeans.
“That the time we spend together isn’t only in bed. We go out on dates like a real couple.”
“I don’t date.”
“You do now, so ask me out.”
He opened his mouth to argue, then remembered the party Kincaid was giving Ryan and his fiancée. “There’s a dinner party next Saturday at my boss’s house for one of my teammates who’s getting married.” Not liking being stared down at, he stood. Much better. “Would you please be my date?” Her smile was like the cat who ate the canary, and who could blame her? She thought she’d gotten one over on him, and he let her have the win. She didn’t need to know that he’d planned to ask her.
“So we don’t see each other until then?”
That was unacceptable. He slipped around behind her, curled a strand of her long hair around his hand the way he’d been fantasizing doing, and tugged her head back. With his mouth brushing her ear, he said, “No, darlin’. That’s the beginning of our going-out-together agreement. At the start of our conversation, you wanted to know when we were going to have sex. The answer to that is tonight.”
“Oh,” she said.
How could one short word sound so breathy? He pressed his erection against her sweet ass. “Yeah, oh. I’ll even feed you dinner first. Seven on my porch sound good?”
She tilted her head back, resting it on his chest, and peered up at him. “Sounds really good.”
“Then I’ll see you tonight.” He wanted to kiss her, but if he did, he knew he wouldn’t stop, and she needed to go to work. He settled for nipping her earlobe, swallowing a smile when she closed her eyes on a sigh. When she tried to turn in his arms, he stepped back. “Go to work, Riley.”
She shook a finger at him. “You’re a cruel man, Cody Roberts, sending me off without even a kiss.”
“You want a kiss?” He grinned at how vigorously she nodded her head. “Then be here at seven.” She needed to go while she still could. It was only by one tenuous thread of control that he didn’t go caveman on her, throw her over his shoulder, and carry her to his bed. If he even got that far.
“Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.” She tossed her head, let out a huff of aggravated air, and then walked away.
Cody trailed behind her, giving up on keeping his gaze off her ass. Tonight he would see her bare naked, and that particular part of her anatomy was high on his list to touch. At his door, he expected her to turn, to say something, maybe try one last time for a kiss. She didn’t. Just kept right on going. The woman was still pissed. He chuckled, and apparently she heard him because she lifted her middle finger without looking back.
That made him laugh. He’d been fascinated by her from the first time she’d done that, and red flags waved a warning as he stepped onto the porch to survey the street. No car turned the corner, aiming to run over her. That she was under his protection as any neighbor who was in danger would be wasn’t the reason for the flags demanding his attention. That he’d never met anyone like her, never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Riley, had agreed to date her when his head wasn’t even sure it wanted to face another day . . . All of that was almost too much to take in.
“I am so screwed,” he said to Sally and Pretty Girl, both of them sitting at his feet, watching their new friend walk away. At hearing him, they lifted brown doggy eyes, looking up at him as if they totally agreed with his assessment.
He eyed the dogs. “You two could argue the point.” After Riley drove away, he went back inside to make a list. Wash the sheets, buy beer and limes. Figure out what to feed his . . . what exactly was she to him?
Riley pretended not to notice Cody watching her as she left. He made her feel safe. She would have welcomed a man like him when she was in foster care, fighting off advances from those whose supposed job it was to protect her. With Cody guarding her, she dared whoever was trying to hurt her and the animals under her care to bring it on.
She’d almost walked out when he’d given her his conditions. Like she’d told him, she didn’t do well with rules. There had been too many times when the “house rules” laid down by her foster parents had no other purpose than to put her at their mercy. If it wasn’t the mother seeing Riley as no more than a slave—someone to clean the house, wash the clothes, do the dishes—it was the father or an older son eyeing her in a way that creeped her out, even when her young self hadn’t quite understood why.
It wasn’t until living with Pat and John Haywood that she’d felt safe and wanted. If only she’d found them before she’d had to watch Reed die in her arms. He had been her first love, and she’d failed him.
Going there only led to depression and guilt, so she pulled her mind from that dark part of her past, and thought about Cody. It was clear that he was haunted by something, but she’d managed to get past his first wall of defense. How many walls he’d erected that she’d have to blast her way past, she di
dn’t know, but in her heart, she believed he was worth the trouble. And the man was trouble. There was no doubt about that.
She turned into the parking lot of her clinic, and when she saw Jeff and Marla pacing at her front door with their cat, Rascal—with only his head showing from the top of a towel they had wrapped around him—she wanted to scream. Not again.
It was going to be a bitch of a day.
“Stud Two’s here,” Brooke said from the doorway. “If you’re going to keep Stud One, can I have Stud Two?”
Riley rolled her eyes. “You really need to stop calling them that.”
“Well, it’s true. Anyway, can I?”
“I think that’s between you and Mike. Have him wait in my office. I’ll be there in a sec.”
She washed her hands, slipped off her lab coat, and headed down the hall. At the doorway, she stopped. Brooke stood close to Mike, both of them laughing. They made a cute couple, and Riley checked her jealously meter, happy to see that it registered zero. It would be a complication if she were attracted to both Mike and Cody.
“Hi, Mike. Thanks for stopping by,” she said, entering her office. He and Brooke jumped apart, and then Brooke mumbled a good-bye as she left.
He turned from watching her pretty assistant leave. “Brooke said you had another animal come in sick today.”
“Poisoned.” She walked around her desk and picked up the lab report she’d gotten back that morning. “This is on Max, a cat I couldn’t save. He belonged to a little girl who cherished him. Who would do something like that?”
Mike took the paper she held out. “I don’t know, Riley. I see some crap in my job that makes me question humanity, but then I meet someone like you who cares. That tells me the world isn’t such a bad place after all.”
“You care, too,” she said, softly. As she had before, she wondered why she wasn’t attracted to him instead of Cody, who by his own admission was a hot mess.
