by Sonya Weiss
Casey frowned as she plucked a seasoned fry from her plate and dipped it into ketchup. “Not every woman who uses the service has marriage in mind. That’s not always the end goal. Some of the women I take on as clients are looking for companionship, and we match them with men looking for the same thing.”
“I thought the service was for women only.”
“No, I do cater to women, but I have both men and women as clients. Everyone who wants to join agrees to an in-depth background check as well as a psychological test. We have a 97 percent success rate.”
“That’s a heck of a record.” Kent was impressed.
Casey sipped the sweet tea. “That’s because I’m the one matching the couples, and I have a sixth sense about the people who belong together.” She set her glass down. “It’s kind of funny…or, I don’t know, maybe sad that I can match everyone else but can’t find romantic success in my own life.”
He hated how Dominic had shredded her self-confidence. “You’re forgetting me,” he said, spreading his hands wide. “I mean, you lucked out, babe.”
She laughed, as he’d intended her to. There was nothing wrong with Casey.
They finished up their meals, and Casey argued with him that he shouldn’t order the diner’s peach pie for her because she would have to work out longer if she had a slice.
“You’re perfect as is.” He wrapped his arm tightly around her. A friendly hug. That’s all. But then she half turned, and his watch caught in the material of whatever that thing was that she had across her shoulders.
“Stop. This is my favorite wrap, and you’ll pull it.” Casey thrust her chest out as she twisted, bumping her breasts against him.
The movement startled him, and he knocked over his water glass, which headed straight toward his groin. He tried to leap out of the way, remembered he was still caught, and overcorrected himself. The force of his lunge sent him sprawling against Casey, knocking her down onto the bench seat. She landed on her back with him squarely on top of her. His arm was trapped under her body. He tried to pull it out.
Casey grabbed his arm. “Will you stop! It looks like we’re…” She lifted her butt slightly from the bench and wiggled her hips, trying to shimmy out of whatever had him caught.
He pressed his free hand down on her hip. There was only so much of that he could take. “Hold still.” He finally managed to untangle his watch, and they both sat up. All around them the noise in the diner had dropped to a hushed whisper, and at first, he thought it was because everyone assumed he and Casey had been having a heavy make-out session. Then he felt a sense of unease. He turned to look over his shoulder and just as quickly turned back around.
His ex, Rebecca, had entered the diner. He’d thought seeing her again wouldn’t matter, that as his body had healed, so had his heart, but one glance was enough to bring those old emotions right back to the surface. Anger, heartache, and shame as her words slapped at him. Cripple. Half a man. Not attracted to you anymore. Who would be?
Casey rested her hand on his thigh, and he looked at her.
“I have your back,” she said quietly.
Rebecca reached the table and indicated the booth seat across from them. “May I?”
He hesitated, then nodded, only because they were the focus of attention from everyone in the diner, including the investor.
She sat and clasped her hands together. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she said, “I’d like to speak with you alone, please.”
Kent stopped Casey when she moved like she would leave. “Whatever you have to say, go ahead with it.”
Rebecca glanced at Casey, clearly irritated by her presence, but then looked back at Kent. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I’ve wanted to tell you that for months, but I couldn’t find the courage. I’m hoping that we can start over and at least be friends.”
Minnie brought their bill and blatantly stood by the table, making no move to drop it off and leave discreetly. “Rebecca. Staying long?” Though her words weren’t unkind, Kent caught the slight edge to them.
Rebecca shook her head and pulled a napkin from the dispenser. She wrote for a second, then pushed it across to him. “This is my new cell number. I’d like to find time to talk.”
Kent slid the napkin back to her. “Let’s just leave the past where it belongs.”
He took the bill for their meals from Minnie and walked to the front to pay. The awkwardness of seeing his ex again weighed heavily on him. As they walked away from the table, Casey gave Rebecca a stiff smile. He could imagine she was biting her tongue to keep from giving his ex an earful like she had once before. She didn’t know that he’d heard her telling Rebecca off the day she’d hurled those ugly words.
Casey tried to hand him some money to pay for the food, but he refused, and after that, she didn’t say a word during the transaction. She was silent until they got into the truck. While he was pulling out of the lot, she said, “Maybe you should talk to her and get closure.”
“The relationship ended. That’s closure.”
“No, it isn’t. You haven’t had a serious relationship since her. I can’t remember the last time you dated a woman longer than two weeks.”
He sent her a long look.
Casey raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, I get the message. You don’t want to talk about the past.”
Kent definitely didn’t want to talk about it. He preferred not to dwell on the time in his life that had been so difficult to get through. His gaze drifted to her shoulders, remembering them tangled up in the booth. “We really did look like we were going at it right there in the diner.”
She grinned, and then he laughed and shook his head.
“Don’t stop,” she said when he drove them back toward her office. “Get on the interstate.”
“Okay.” He shot her a quizzical look. “Want to tell me why?”
“I saw a flyer at the diner for a medieval fair in Chester. Let’s go.”
“Casey—”
“It’ll only take a couple of hours. I can be back at the office in plenty of time.”
“Why would I want to go to a medieval fair? That’s your sort of thing, not mine.”
“I know, but I enjoy watching stock-car racing with you just because you do. You’ll like the fair, because you’ll be spending time with me and I’m great company.”
She was teasing, but it was true. Casey was good company, and spending time with her would probably help to clear his head after what had gone down at the diner. But every second he spent with her was another second he took a chance things would heat up.
She rubbed his shoulder. “We could both use a break. It’ll take an hour or two at the most. Come with me.”
It became harder to breathe. Kent clenched his jaw. Tell her you have to go home. Make something up, but get the hell out of here.
She gave his arm a gentle squeeze, making him feel alive.
He should take her back to the office and leave. It was the smart thing, the friend thing to do. He glanced at her. She pushed her hair away from her face, her full, kissable lips curving into a tentative smile.
“Let’s go to the fair,” he said. He shouldn’t, but he wanted to be with Casey. He’d deal with the repercussions later.
Chapter Seven
“It looks like fourteenth-century England,” Casey said as they walked into the space set up like a small village. Booths selling everything from sword replicas to clothing lined the path. Despite the fact that they’d just eaten, the smell of food lingering in the air made her mouth water.
They walked all the way to the end of the displays and looked at everything. On the way back, she dodged a man wearing a period costume and accidentally bumped into Kent. “Sorry,” she said.
He looked at her—gorgeous face, beautiful eyes, serious expression—and the village and all its associated sights and sounds vanished. She wished looking into his eyes didn’t cause brain scramble. “I know I just ate, but whatever they’re c
ooking smells delicious. It’s making me hungry again.”
“Me, too,” he said, then nudged her. “Recognize them?”
Casey saw several people from the town milling about, and a couple of them kept looking their way.
“Yes, and we’re being watched. Isn’t that your captain’s sister?”
“Sure is.”
Wordlessly, Casey walked past the last booth, not even registering what was for sale until she reached a small gathering of trees. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked you to help me. I was desperate and didn’t think it through. I put you in a bad spot.” She bit her lip, then said, “I’m so sorry for—”
He put his index finger against her lips to stop her. “Come here.” His voice was a low, sexy growl. “Closer.”
Her heart beat a crazy rhythm when she did as he’d instructed.
“Now put your arms around my neck, and we’ll give them something to really talk about.”
Casey did as he said, and her arms instantly heated from the warmth of his skin. She had to remind herself this was for show. Not for her.
“Now what?” she asked.
His hands slid around her waist, his fingers spanning her body. He lowered his head and whispered against her lips, “Let’s make it good.” He grinned, and the dimples flashing coupled with the sizzle pouring through her veins made her dizzy.
Casey couldn’t think straight. She’d lain awake until the wee hours, because every time she closed her eyes she saw Kent’s face. Images of the two of them over the years had kept her brain from being able to relax. Kent eating the brownies she’d burned when she was sixteen, telling her they were great even though her brothers had made fun. Him covering for her when she’d put a dent in the garage door because she’d pulled into the driveway too fast. The day she’d decided she’d wanted to switch colleges and had been afraid of disappointing her parents and he’d told her to do what made her happy. How had she missed how amazing he’d always been?
She ran her fingers across the front of his shirt and bunched the material. “It’s hard to breathe.”
He tightened his hands on her waist, and desire flashed in his eyes. A rush of heat hit Casey, and her body throbbed. If it was this good before he’d even kissed her, what would it be like when he did? She had a fleeting thought that maybe a storm was brewing. Then his lips touched hers, and lightning struck. He kissed her deeply, as if he was trying to drain the last drop of something he couldn’t get enough of.
She didn’t care that they were being watched. Didn’t care that it was supposed to be for show. She held on to him for dear life, not wanting to let go until he sated the need running through her body.
When his tongue slipped in to find hers, Casey pressed her fingers into the back of his neck. She didn’t know if she’d urged him closer or if he’d made the move. All she knew was that she was caught in a vortex of desire, wrapped up in Kent past and Kent present.
He tasted like mint and warmth, their shared history and uncertainty. She wanted to run her hands across his broad shoulders, wanted to hold on to him until they both had nothing left to give. His mouth moved to the side of her neck, then lower, moving across the front of her body to kiss the skin exposed at the opening of her dress.
Casey gasped and cried out his name.
Kent pulled back, breathing hard and fast. “Well…I think I can safely say this will be the topic around town for a while.”
“That was…” Her lady bits wanted to cartwheel that here, oh my god, here was a man who knew how to kiss and did he do encores?
She cleared her throat, trying desperately to find her “thanks, friend” voice, but it had run off the second his lips were on hers.
“Yeah.” He exhaled and looked across at the rides. “Want to ride the dragon?”
“Great.” Cringe. She sounded too perky. Like a post-kiss tour guide. And over here we have the flushed face of Casey Bradford, who got the crap kissed out of her and isn’t sure how to act now.
They joined the throng of people boarding and slipped into one of the rows.
Kent put the bar down across them and rested his arm along the back of the seat. Casey worried what he was thinking about the kiss. Or, worse, if he wasn’t thinking about it at all. If he’d dismissed it easily.
“How high does this ride swing?” she asked, not wanting him to know she was still stuck on the kiss. The ride took off in that second, shooting straight up, and Casey closed her eyes.
“Open your eyes. You don’t want to miss this,” Kent cajoled.
Casey opened her eyes and let out a rush of breath. They were high enough to see above the trees all the way to the river on the other side. The water sparkled, and in the slight wind, leaves fell from the trees like a rain shower. “It’s amazing.”
They rode in silence until the ride stopped and the world crashed back in. “I should get back to the office,” she said.
“Yeah, I have to get some stuff done, too, before I pick you up tonight to go to my cousin’s.”
She nodded and took a step forward to head toward the parking lot. When she did, her foot twisted, the heel of her shoe snapped off, and she would have face planted except for Kent catching her.
“That was almost a new set of front teeth,” she muttered. Putting her hand on Kent’s arm, she hopped on one foot as she pulled her shoe off. She let out a yelp as she stepped hard on a rock. “Ow, ow, stone bruise.”
“You can’t walk barefoot to the truck.”
Casey didn’t like the looks of the long trek across the gravel path, but her foot throbbed. “Got a wheelbarrow handy?”
“Better.” He stooped in front of her. “Get on. I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
Oh no. “I can’t.”
“Come on. It won’t be the first time.”
No, but it was the first time since he’d kissed her, and mashing her body up against his was not going to calm her lady bits. “That was years ago, and I was a lot lighter,” she protested.
He stood to his full height and flexed his muscles. “Do you know how much the gear I wear at work weighs? Let’s go.”
Casey climbed onto his back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Years ago she hadn’t had this funny feeling in her stomach when he carried her. She was positive this wasn’t the way she should feel about a friend. She was also positive that if Kent knew what she was thinking, he’d drop her on her butt and take off like he was racing to a fire. So much for faking it…
…
Casey arrived back at work that afternoon just as the phone rang. She leaned over the desk to answer it, surprised to find Kent’s mom on the other end.
“Your cell phone went straight to voicemail,” Lynn said in her usual upbeat tone.
“I turned it off to charge it. I must have forgotten to turn it on again. Is everything okay?”
“Of course, dear. I wondered if it would be all right if I popped by?”
Casey did a mental check of everything she needed to get done by the end of the day, but worry over what Kent’s mom wanted got the best of her. “Sure. You’re welcome to come over.”
After Lynn promised to be there soon, Casey got busy with work and lost track of time. When the bell on the door jingled, she went to find her mom in the greeting area having a conversation with Kent’s mom. Her footsteps slowed as she neared them. She could smell an ambush a mile away. They were here to talk about what a great couple she and Kent made. Or to talk about grandchildren or they’d heard about the kiss already. She frowned when they both continued to smile at her innocently. A little too innocently.
“What?”
“We know you’re going to the wedding with Kent so we thought we’d surprise you with a new dress.”
“I really do have a lot to get done.”
Her mom tapped her wristwatch. “We can be at the Dress Haven and back in less than half an hour.”
Casey gaped. Mentioning the Dress Haven was bringing out the big guns. She loved the clothes
there, but they were way out of her price range. Temptation reared its head in the form of the beautiful red dress, perfect for fall, that she’d coveted while window-shopping last weekend. After a moment of mentally dressing herself in it, she came to her senses and shook her head.
Wagging her finger for good measure, she said, “I know what you’re trying to do. Buying me a sexy dress won’t speed up my relationship with Kent.”
Her mom looked at Lynn. “Did I mention your son?”
Kent’s mom shook her head. “No, you didn’t.” She gave Casey a hurt look. “I know how hard you’ve been working, and I know what kind of trouble the business is in. You probably haven’t been able to splurge on yourself in a while.”
That is an understatement.
“You do need a dress for the wedding. We’re only thinking of you, darling,” her mother said.
“Oh.” Casey narrowed her eyes. “This has nothing to do with Kent?”
“Not unless he’s interested in wearing a dress,” Lynn said.
Rubbing her forehead, Casey said, “I’m sorry. I assumed…” She bit her lip. What harm could going along with them do? The dress was gorgeous, and it would be a cold day in the tropics before she would be able to afford it or any other nice thing for a while.
“I thought I’d also buy you a pair of heels to go with the dress,” her mom said.
Casey groaned. Her mother was baiting the hook, and she was being reeled to shore. “Let me lock up.” She walked over to retrieve the front door key and thought she heard furious whispering going on. She whirled around to check, but the women looked back at her with bland expressions. Wondering if she was hearing things because she had a guilty conscience about fooling them both with the fake relationship, Casey picked up her purse and ushered everyone from the building.
…
Kent walked into the store and headed straight for his mom. She’d called and made it sound like a matter of national emergency. He removed his sunglasses and stuck them in the collar of his T-shirt. “Mom, you said you needed my help.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?” She didn’t seem to be in any obvious distress. In fact, there was a guilty expression on her face.
