Every Night Without You: Caine & Addison, Book Two of Two (Unfinished Love series, 2)

by Violet Duke

  He spent the next minute or so trying to tamp back the rush of blood in his ears enough to hear the music they were supposed to be dancing to.

  “Caine?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t think we’re doing this friends thing correctly.”

  He drew her in closer. “I think you may be right about that.”

  An obnoxious tap on his shoulder put a quick end to that line of discussion. Just when it was getting interesting. And dangerous.

  “My turn to dance with the belle of the ball,” called out Marco, commandeering Addison’s hand and twirling her toward him.

  Laughing, she gave him a hug and studied him both curiously. “Why aren’t you in your police uniform, too?”

  “A lot’s happened after you left, sugar. Caine got his brothers to hire me after I left the force. Been doing security work for them ever since. We’re basically besties now. Total BBFs—best bros forever.”

  Her lips twitched to the side in amusement. “You two are very much alike. Throw in my friend Alec and you three could be musketeers.”

  Caine shot her a horrified look at any scenario grouping him with Alec and Marco.

  Admittedly, the former Creek Hills cop now working for Spencer Securities was one of their most requested private security detail now, for some of their biggest functions and clients. Caine definitely respected him. But the guy liked pushing his buttons almost as much as Alec did.

  “I don’t care that you’re in a committed relationship, dude. You peek down the front of her dress one more time, and I’ll be replacing the fuzzy dice in your car with your balls.”

  Marco grinned at her. “See? Best buds.”

  Addison’s shoulders shook with laughter. “He was just looking at my tattoo, Caine.”

  Caine continued to glower.

  When Marco just waved and waltzed her away, Alec came up and offered him a beer. “Do you like need a hug or something, too?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Was it entirely necessary to threaten the man’s testicles? It’s not like he’s even batting for the same team as you.”

  That made Caine finally turn to face him. “Shit, you’re good. I can count on one hand the number of folks who know Marco’s gay. He hasn’t even come out to his family yet.”

  Alec shrugged, in a rare showing of modesty. “I’ve been keeping tabs on all of you for years. Back to my question. The fact that he’s into dudes doesn’t lessen the crazy jealous thing even a little?”

  They turned to see Addison laugh with delight over something Marco said.

  Caine scowled. “If you were in my shoes, would you be any less jealous?”

  Alec replied matter-of-factly, “I wouldn’t have invited the laughing hyena to begin with.”

  Huh, maybe they were more alike than he thought.

  “Would you poach her from me?”

  “In a heartbeat. I’d step right over your body before your blood had a chance to get cold.”

  Caine wouldn’t put it past him. “You really are a jackass.” Despite everything, he found himself smiling. “No Georgia tonight?”

  “She didn’t want to come. In fact, she looked pretty upset about the entire thing.”

  Right. A night in a room full of cops from Rick’s precinct wouldn’t be high on her list of fun date outings.

  Caine swiped a fancied-up pig-in-a-blanket hors d'oeuvre from Alec’s plate. “So did you think about my proposal?”

  “It’s going to take a lot more than one black-tie dinner to get me to join your little Scooby squad, but I’m down for comparing notes and working together to protect Addison.”

  “Good. Then you can start by telling about the guy who tailed my SUV almost the whole way over here tonight.”

  Chapter Ten

  A week later, with the partial license plate Caine had managed to get of the man tailing Addison the night of the of the fundraiser, Drew was eventually able to track down the driver.

  Turns out, it was an old P.I. acquaintance that Alec had known back in the day. Definitely not hired by David, according to Alec.

  When Caine asked then who had hired him, Alec responded simply that he’d need to have another ‘semi-friendly chat’ with his buddy and then twenty-four hours to verify the intel.

  In the spirit of plausible deniability, Caine didn’t ask any follow-up questions.

  As Caine was discovering more and more, while he did everything by the book, Alec ignored the book altogether. But he got results, there was no denying that. And truth be told, Caine was starting to actually respect, hell, even like the guy.

  That is, when he wasn’t being so damn irritating.

  “So…” sing-songed Alec, in his now daily call to Caine. “Tonight’s the big night, huh?”

  Honestly, it was a testament to his self-control that he hadn’t assaulted the man with a weapon yet. “Dude, would you shut up about that. I’m sorry I ever mentioned it.”

  He really was. Ever since he’d made the giant mistake of telling Alec what he’d been doing the past couple of nights, the man had been like a dog with an annoying new squeaky toy.

  And to think, this all started simply because Caine had been sticking to his plan about keeping his distance from Addison.

  Well, sort of.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, you have plans tonight?”

  “Nope, another lazy night home for me. You want to have dinner over the phone again?”

  It wasn’t as weird as it sounded.

  As he’d explained to Alec, it’d all happened by accident, the night following the fundraiser. He’d called while she’d been eating, and they’d ended up talking—or video-chatting, rather—through her entire meal.

  His next night off of work? Coincidentally, same thing.

  Then, it became a thing.

  Now, two more video chat dinners later and here they were again.

  “I was thinking Chinese take-out tonight. Max and Gabe are stopping by a little after midnight with some new equipment I wanted to check out so I figured I’d order extra for them since they’ll be coming directly from the airport.”

  “Chinese sounds good. Hey, if the guys aren’t meeting you until that much later, do you want to come over and Netflix a movie or something? Kylie and a bunch of kids on the property are having a reading marathon challenge in the teen lounge downstairs until midnight—supervised, of course—so I could even bring the takeout and movie to you if you want.”

  Way too dangerous. For a number of reasons.

  “My place is a mess,” he hedged half-truthfully, looking at his formerly meticulous master bedroom, which now looked like a bomb had detonated in it, thanks to Hurricane Alec going through his files the other day. “Why don’t we watch the movie by video chat too? Your pick. We’ll load it at the same time, and video chat and eat while we watch it.”

  Her amused voice grew intrigued. “You’re serious. You want to watch a movie together, but from our own apartments?”

  No. I want to take you to bed and do everything I wanted to do to you that last night before you left…plus all the thousands more I’ve imagined since.

  “It’ll be fun. This way, you can stay in your PJ’s and stay comfy all night.”

  “Actually, that does sound kind of great. Okay, I’m in. What time are we doing this?”

  “Around seven?”

  “I’ll call you back when I get settled in.”

  Of course, just when he was congratulating himself on another successful distance-keeping night planned with Addison, a text from Alec came rolling in:

  >> Remember, fifth date rules. If this turns into phone sex, practice safe phoning. No glove, no love. Left some protection for your phone while I was there the other day.

  Well, that explained the random box of plastic wrap that had been on top of his TV.

  The ass.

  At a few minutes to seven, Addison finished removing the last of her make-up and scooped her hair up into her bedtime ponytail.
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  She dialed Caine’s number and then propped her phone on her nightstand when he answered. “Hey. I’ve got the movie all loaded up and ready to go. Let me just go get my food from the kitchen. Be right back.”

  Chinese takeout box of noodles in hand, she settled back into bed. Wearing her comfiest yoga pants and tank for an in-bed movie night with Caine was already climbing the charts as one of her greatest nights in recent memory.

  “I decided to order some Chinese too—”

  She stopped and did a double take when she found Caine seemingly in suspended animation on her phone screen. He was staring intently at her, looking as peaceful as he did pained.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, more concerned than alarmed.

  “You took off all your fake tattoos.”

  She blinked, startled. It hadn’t even occurred to her to keep them on.

  With tomorrow being her day off, she’d planned to spend the day at home relaxing. If there were any site emergencies to deal with, she could always just throw on one of her jogging sweatshirts with the zippered high collar and thumb hole sleeves to cover all traces of her missing tattoos, which she usually did more and more when the weather got cooler. Partly to save money, but mostly because having a bunch of artwork stuck onto her skin wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world.

  That said, until now, she’d always left her tattoos on during her video chat dinners with Caine. But tonight, she hadn’t even thought twice before removing them.

  She wasn’t sure what to make of that.

  The rough, uneven breath he expelled on screen redirected her thoughts back to his reaction to seeing her au naturel for the first time in seven years.

  “Sweetheart, as sexy as you are with your make-up and tattoos, without it…” Another low, gruff sound echoed out of his chest.

  She couldn’t help herself. “Without it…what?”

  “Without it, you’re so damn pretty you make me forget all the reasons why I need to stay away from you.”

  It was a gritty, near reverent remark that had her insides doing triple axles.

  Addison discovered in that moment that he was absolutely right. The distance between them was rather imperative. Because if he were actually there in the room with her, she’d want to do something she really probably shouldn’t.

  “I know I’m probably going to regret asking.” His voice had dropped a husky octave lower. “But what thoughts are going through that busy brain of yours?”

  She hesitated, chewing on her lip in debate, before eventually answering, “I’m thinking I want to show you something.”

  “Show me.” Not a request. But not a demand, either.

  Suddenly as shy as she’d been when she’d first met him, she attempted her go-to move of expertly changing the subject. “How about we watch the movie first, and then—”

  “Show me.” A little more demanding this time. And packed with a current of electricity she could practically feel sparking through the phone line.

  Slowly, she dragged her blanket off to the side. And pulled her yoga sweatpants up her leg. Just enough to reveal the outside of her ankle.

  “You’re showing me one of your real tattoos?”

  The deeply masculine pleasure in his voice had her wanting to show him a whole lot more.

  “I could…take a photo of it for you with my phone.”

  “No. Just hold your phone closer to your ankle.”

  Why did that make this so much sexier than a screenshot?

  Having a hard time keeping her hand steady, she braced her wrist against a pillow and let him look his fill.

  “It’s a basket of apples,” she supplied helpfully.

  “With three decorated Easter eggs in the bunch,” he finished with a warm smile she could clearly hear.

  She propped the phone back up in front of her so she could dive back under her blanket. Not that it would help all that much. Caine had an uncanny ability to make her feel stark naked.

  And not in a bad way.

  “Why not an Easter egg basket?”

  Only a handful of folks had seen her without her boots on over the years, and thus, the tattoo. And they’d all asked her the same thing. Well, all but Alec, that is. As was the case with the matching Easter egg keychains she and the kids carried, he’d never once asked about her real tattoos. For everyone else who did, she’d always give a vague answer prevaricating the meaning of the apple-picking basket a bit by saying it had to do with their love of urban gardening, while balancing it with a partial truth about the three eggs amongst all the apples in the basket representing their embracing their unique differences.

  “After about a year of ordering all the fake tattoos from that artist I told you about, one day, she told me since I was such a good customer, she’d do a real one for me on the house, if I wanted.” Lifting her gaze back up to his, she chuckled lightly. “Took me at least a year to get up the nerve to agree, and then another year to figure out what I wanted her to design for me.”

  Peeling back the blanket again, she ran her index finger over the colorful, intricate details of the dainty tattoo, which, in its entirety, was no larger than the size of a credit card. “I’d known from the beginning that I wanted to do the three Easter eggs.”

  Caine’s eyes crinkled at the corners affectionately.

  And she felt her heart fill up every open cavity of space in her chest.

  There was something so…amazingly intimate about knowing that Caine—more than anyone else in the entire world—understood exactly why those three hand-drawn eggs were so special to her. “But the apple basket was more of a game day decision.” She smiled, remembering the morning she’d finally decided on this particular design. “On the wall of my friend’s tattoo parlor, there was a photo of a tattoo she’d recently done that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. It was this gorgeous tree that had lost most of its leaves, with a single red apple laying at its roots. I remember finding the meaning of the tattoo as beautiful as the artwork…but, obviously, not applicable to me and the kids.”

  The reminder of why that was had her tucking her leg back under the blanket, and needing a moment to regroup.

  Caine’s deep voice through the speaker was like a balm on her soul. “Of course it’s not applicable. You and the kids are the furthest thing from the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree.”

  She gazed at his fiercely adamant features, loving that he saw it that way, too. “When that saying first echoed in my head after seeing the tree tattoo, I remember instantly thinking that Kylie, Tanner, and I didn’t just fall far from our roots, we’d fallen from the branches as a whole different fruit…heck, not even fruits at all in the context of that metaphor...”

  “You fell from the tree as Easter eggs.”

  His words rang so proud and sure, so absolute, she felt her emotions catch in her throat.

  “One day, I want to see that tattoo in person.” His eyes locked on hers. “Along with the second real tattoo you mentioned.”

  Her hand automatically shot to the blade of her hip.

  His blazing hot gaze followed. “How many people have seen that second tattoo, honey?”

  Well, that was a loaded question.

  Knowing exactly what her answer would be confirming, she stalled, half-hoping he’d let the subject drop.

  He didn’t.

  Eventually, she replied, barely louder than a whisper. “Aside from the tattoo artist…none.”

  His eyes flared. And a look she couldn’t begin to describe crossed his features a charged moment later. It wasn’t merely possessive, it was primal. Only a thousand times more intense.

  “We better start our movie, sweetheart. Because if we don’t, I’m going to sit here thinking about that tattoo for maybe another five more seconds before I break and head over to your apartment and claim the right to be the first man to see it.”

  She flicked her TV on.

  But she’d been sorely tempted not to…for a torturous four and a half seconds.<
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  It took her far longer than that to get her brain un-fuzzed enough to realize she’d turned the movie on in Spanish by accident.

  “So,” Caine asked, after they both finished eating, “of the new make-up, clothes, the whole nine yards, is there any part that’s more transformation than disguise now?”

  Addison pursed her lips in thought. “The colored tips in my hair, I adore, but I’m not a huge fan of the silver streaks—they sort of make me feel like an X-Men character.” She smiled and wiggled her toes under the blanket. “I’ve grown to love my stiletto boots, especially the steel-toe nut-kicker ones. Can’t imagine myself going back to sandals or heels after that.”

  Her eyes drifted over to her closet. “Beyond that, the outfits and things are a little much for me. Except…” She blushed.

  He was totally going to regret asking, he was sure of it. “Except what?”

  “There is this black leather and lace bustier I wear sometimes. It’s not slutty or edgy or anything. Well, maybe a little edgy, but more pretty than anything else because it has this scallop edge detail that falls right over my bra-line, not that it can be worn with a bra, but—”

  “Jesus Christ, stop. I get the picture.” Did he ever. It was all he could do not to imagine Addison in her favorite thigh-high stiletto boots and a sex-kitten leather and lace bustier, with nothing except for that blush adorning the rest of her.

  She looked startled for a second, but then her eyes started to dance, just the tiniest bit.

  “You’re enjoying torturing me.” Despite the fact that he was now hard as a rock, he let loose a small smile. He’d forgotten how fun it was to flirt with Addison.

  “No,” she denied quickly. “Well…not exactly. I think I just like knowing that I still have some effect on you.”

  He was thunderstruck. “Did you think it’d wear off or something?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Sweetheart, I assure you, it didn’t. You affect me just as much as you did back in Creek Hills.”

  After a slight pause, she admitted softly, “Same here.”

  He was damn pleased to hear it. That said, the quiet confession did require him to shift the angle of his phone so she couldn’t see how much of an effect those words had had on him.