“Marry me, Cade.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“This doesn’t mean anything.” Cade repeated the words like it was a mantra while she unpacked her bags.
Jax had insisted she bring all of her belongings to his penthouse but Cade refused. To avoid having their first argument as a…what the hell were they? No, putting a label on it wouldn’t help her at all. It wouldn’t help the situation. Neither did his suggestion.
“Marry me, Cade,” he had said. Not asked. Said! Told!
She’d responded by pushing him off and calling him ridiculous, calling the whole idea preposterous and beyond insane. If Jax’s phone hadn’t rang to remind Jax Zee was waiting, they would have gotten into a full-blown argument.
Jax had helped drag a couple of her bags to the car, where Zee had stood by that morning, seemingly wary of the surroundings. Cade had waited to see which side Jax would sit in so she could stay away from him. A little distance would do them good. When they reached the apartment, she refused help from either of the men and brought her bags into the elevator by herself.
“You’re talking to yourself again, Cade,” Juliette spoke, snapping her friend out of whatever state she was in.
Cade glared at Juliette, seated on the edge of the bed in the guest room. In a way, Cade was thankful her friend was around when they got there. She didn’t want Harley thinking anything was off. But who was she kidding? Nothing got past Harley. The kid was smart.
Juliette and Harley stayed in their pyjamas the entire morning after breakfast. Jax didn’t seem to care that Juliette had taken over his kitchen, and made no moves to leave his place, even after she had clearly overstayed her welcome. Zee was uncomfortable. It was almost comical how often Juliette had ignored Zee’s signs to take a hint and leave. It should have been enough to make Cade laugh or at least calm her down, but it wasn’t.
Jax and his marriage idea nagged in the back of her head, even as Cade excused herself and went into the guest bathroom to take a much-needed shower. But when she was done, her mind was still reeling from what Jax had said.
“What’s up, Cade? You only talk to yourself when you’re irritated at something you don’t want to talk about.” Juliette plopped back down on the bed, still in her pyjamas, stretching over the fluffy pillows.
Could Cade tell her? Should she?
Cade eyed the open bedroom door, then her relaxed friend. It was escape or talk. Cade walked over to the door and quietly closed it before joining her friend on the bed.
***
“Do you think she’ll say yes?” The voice was clear over the phone.
Jax pulled at his hair. It might be a bit too long now. He would need a haircut soon. He wondered how Cade would want it to look. Did she like his hair this length or should he go shorter? She certainly enjoyed tugging at it last night.
Ah, Cadence. He wished she would just give in.
Her silence in the car and as they reached the penthouse jarred him. It was stupid of him to expect her to jump into his arms and shower him with kisses while she said “yes, a thousand times yes!” That only happened in the movies. And so, Jax couldn’t help but call his very close friends.
“I don’t know,” he breathed into the phone.
Luke laughed first. “You could have thought of a more romantic way of asking.”
Marco added, “Yeah, take her out of her flooded apartment and throw her in the jet and bring her to Paris or Rome, then propose.”
“You guys are morons. I don’t know why I called you.” His friends and the rest of the band members were en route to their next concert destination. In less than a day, Jax would have to join them.
Would that be enough time to convince Cade to say yes to his question?
Surely, she could see the merit. If she didn’t take his money as payment for watching over Harley while she was gone, she could lose her permit to stay in Canada. It had already been proven that his and Harley’s life turned into shambles when she wasn’t around. They needed Cadence. He and Harley did.
Harley. She would be crushed if Cade had to leave again. They’d just gotten her back.
“Jax, you still there?” another voice came through the other line. Jax recognized it as JP’s. Out of all of them, he was the only one who found true love, gotten married, and had kids with Beth. Even after and years together and three children, JP’s love for his wife never waned. Jax should have directly called him if he needed sound advice.
Jax coughed once. “Yeah. Can you take me off speakerphone? I need to talk to JP.”
Grumbles filled the line, followed by JP’s relaxed tone. “Calm down, guys. This is serious talk.” Then JP addressed Jax, “Are you serious about this?”
“Yes, I’m serious about Cade. It will work. If we get married she’ll be able to stay in Vancouver with us—”
JP interjected, “She will never agree to it. You’re stupid to think she will. Jax, why do you think I married Beth?”
Jax grumbled under his breath. “I don’t know. Because she was pregnant?”
“Are you—” JP inhaled deeply. “No! That’s not the reason. I love her, Jax, I loved her then and I love her now. That’s why I married her. You have to think things through. Marriage is no joke, and it isn’t a means to getting a green card or whatever Canada’s version of it is. You have to ask yourself, Jax. Do you love Cadence?”
***
Harley was beyond the moon. Everything was shaping up to what she had hoped. She hadn’t caused the flooding in Cade’s apartment, nor did she expect her father to come home earlier, but it all worked out smoothly.
They were just following their hearts’ desires, and Harley was thrilled to be a witness.
But when Cade and her father arrived later that morning, Harley noticed right away the tension between them. Or rather, the cold shoulder Cade had given Jax. What had happened? She thought they would return announcing that they were a solid item and would soon marry. That was what people in love did.
Cade checked on how Harley got on during the night with Juliette, then proceeded to disappear in her bedroom, taking her bags with her.
Harley sent her father a look, wondering if he could shed any light on the situation, but he just kissed the top of Harley’s head and told her he was going to shower and change. Harley would have asked Zee for information, but the man’s lips were sealed. So she turned to Juliette.
“Did I miss anything?” Har muttered.
Juliette shrugged. “Trouble in paradise or maybe they’re just pretending.” During breakfast, Harley and Juliette had bonded over their love for 1D music. Harley even made Juliette promise to go with her to their next concert, whenever that may be as her Uncle Bruno told her that he could pull some strings.
“Pretending? I don’t know. I think it’s the other one, which isn’t good. How are they going to fall hopelessly in love if they’re fighting after one night?”
Juliette pursed her lips, and then ruffled Harley’s already messy hair. “Oh, kiddo. You watch too many Disney movies. It’s not always happily ever after, you know.”
“But they’re perfect for each other!”
With a finger pressed on her lips, Juliette shushed Harley. “Don’t worry. I’ll go check on Cade and you go see your Dad. Between the two of us, we will get these two together.”
Zee clearing his throat caught both their attention, but Juliette was having none of it. She sent him a challenging look, a brow lifted, and her hands flew to her hips. Zee only shook his head in response then sagged back onto the couch where he’d been watching, and obviously listening to the girls at the dining table.
Harley watched as Juliette walked over to Zee, squeezing his cheeks between her hands before planting a kiss on his lips. It made Harley giggle. Zee was besotted by this woman. Then Juliette climbed the stairs to have a chat with Cade. Harley followed after, passing by the closed guest bedroom where Cade would be staying, went farther down the hall, and then knocked on her father’s door.
He had just gotten off the phone. His face was in his hands and he seemed bent out of shape.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Her father waved her in and Harley joined him on the small settee in his bedroom. “I was just coming to see you.”
“You were?”
“Yup. I need your help.”
“You do?” Harley adjusted her position so she could look into her father’s eyes.
“I need you to help me ask Cade to marry me.”
Harley’s heart jumped. She wrapped her arms around her father and kissed him on the cheek. “Of course! Of course! When? Today? This week? When?”
“Hold on,” Jax held his hand up to give her pause as his phone rang. When he looked at the screen, the smile on his face fell. “It’s your mother,” he told Harley before answering.
Fiona’s voice was loud enough for Harley to hear. She was in hysterics, shouting and crying over the phone. It would be just like her mother to ruin the best day of her life.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Just when Jax thought things were finally falling to place, he received a call from hell itself, a.k.a. his ex. He could swear Fiona had some kind of bug planted in his penthouse. It wasn’t too far-fetched considering what she had done previously.
“You’re sleeping with her!” she screamed.
Jax had to keep the phone an arm’s length away to avoid shattering his eardrum. “Fiona, you have to stop yelling. I can’t understand what you’re saying,” he lied, but it worked. Fiona took a deep breath and blew into the phone. “Now, what are you talking about?”
“TMZ has photos of you coming from the airport early this morning and heading straight to your whore’s apartment. You said you weren’t fucking her, Jax! You told me it wasn’t true and now they have pictures? Don’t even try and deny it. I’m looking right at your face!”
Jax tugged at his hair. It felt greasy at his fingertips. He could use a shower, preferably with Cade. “Fi, you know as well as I do how accurate those reports are.”
Fiona continued, “Turn on your fucking computer or your TV and start watching. It’s you. They have a clear shot. And they have tons of it with you going into her apartment and not coming out for hours. You’re even wearing the same clothes! What the hell, Jax? Imagine what this will do to Harley.”
That did it. Her mention of Harley and how it would affect his daughter was a kick in the teeth. “Do not bring Harley up, Fi. Don’t push it.”
“You’re thinking with your dick, Jax—”
He had it. He ended the call abruptly. Let Fiona fume. He could deal with her tantrum later. If she was telling the truth about the tabloid reports, then there were people he needed to call to deal with it. His first call was to Bruno. His agent picked up at the first ring.
He sounded exhausted. “Jax, I was about to call you.”
“Fiona got to me first. Is it true?” By the tone of his agent’s voice, it wasn’t good news. Fiona could very well be telling the truth.
“Didn’t you see them at the airport? They followed you from LAX right to Vancouver. Those are easy enough to handle, but with you coming out of Cade’s apartment, helping her with her bags?”
“Shit,” Jax muttered under his breath. “They have Cade too, I assume.”
“Yeah, ’fraid so.”
“She’s not going to like that,” he said the words more for himself than for his agent on the other end of the line. “Do some damage control. I’ll have to talk to Cade about this.” Jax rubbed his forehead with his hand, frustrated how the day was going.
Not only was Cade seemingly pissed off at him for proposing—granted, he could see why she hesitated—now they had to handle paparazzi too.
“Are we confirming or denying?”
“Ah, man. I’ll have to ask Cade. If it were all up to me, I would tell them we are together, but Cade is a bit…”
“Yeah, of course. She’s new to this.” Bruno sighed. “Let me see what I can do from here, and call me back when you’ve had the talk. Good luck, my friend.”
Yeah, he needed all the luck he could get with Cade. “Thanks.”
Jax contemplated his next steps. The longer he delayed it, the worse it could get. His phone rang again, and he turned it off when Fiona’s number showed up. With heavy feet, Jax dragged himself out of his bedroom and stood in front of the guest bedroom. He could hear Harley’s animated voice, followed by Juliette’s chatter. Why couldn’t his life be easy for once?
He lifted his hand, poised to knock when the door opened, and Harley and Juliette stood in front of him.
“Hey, Dad, you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Har commented.
Jax ran his hand over his face and hair again. He must look a fright. It wasn’t going to be easy talking to Cade. “I need to talk to Cade.”
“She’s in the shower,” Juliette told him, dragging him into the bedroom, and pushing him in front of the ensuite bathroom. “I’m sure she won’t mind if you join her.” Juliette winked at him, and right behind her, Harley quietly giggled.
Cade would probably drop kick him if he dared to try, but oh was it ever a huge temptation. “I’ll wait until she’s done,” he told the girls, who were already out of the room, and the door closed behind them.
Jax stared at the bathroom door. He could hear movements behind it. The shower wasn’t running. Was she done or was she just getting in? He tried not to think of Cade naked in the room, under the hot shower. He tried not to visualize her lathering up her flawless, toned body. He was stuck thinking about those sensual sights.
Then the door opened. Cade gasped, clutching the bath towel tighter. “Jax!” She looked around and noticed that no one else was in the room with them. “Where are Harley and Juliette?”
“They left.” His eyes focused on one drop of water falling from the side of her cheek down to her neck, pooling slightly over her collarbone. He’d give anything to suck on that skin at that moment. Jax took a cleansing breath and inhaled Cade’s glorious smell. He pinned her under his gaze.
“Jax,” she said again. There was a slight warning tone in her voice, but he could see the smile playing on the corners of her lips. Her lips. Cade’s lips. He ached to taste them once more. To taste her, all of her.
Jax stepped forward, circling one arm around Cade’s waist and grabbing at the top of the towel with the other hand. He leaned forward, ghosting his lips over the damp skin on the curve of her neck. Cade pulled on her towel, but not as hard as he thought she would. He followed the line of water droplets along her neck and shoulder. Cade leaned her head back, giving him more access to the column of her throat. She sucked in a breath in a hiss when Jax continued down her sternum, pushing the bundled towel down. It puddled around her feet, leaving Cade fully exposed and all his.
Jax kept moving towards her, and Cade continued to walk back until her behind hit the cold marble tiles on the wall. He reached for her hands and lifted them over her head, trapping her wrists with one circle of a hand. And his other hand travelled down to massage her breasts, down to her waist and way past her navel. He found her wet, and not just from the shower.
“Jax.” It was an exhale, rather than a whisper. It didn’t matter that his name was all she could say at the moment. He wanted her to scream it.
He released her arms and they wrapped around his neck as Jax swallowed Cade’s mewl with a kiss. He reached behind her head and cradled her in his hand, tangling his fingers through her wet hair, while his other hand formed circles over her sensitive spot. He was ready. She was ready. They were both heated from not only the steam in the room, but from their own desires.
Jax pulled his shirt off, and secretly enjoyed the whimper from Cade when he took his hand away from her. Cade watched him the entire time. She helped with the button of his jeans, hurried and impatient with her movements. His pants dropped in a thump on the floor, together with his boxers. He gazed right into her eyes, and swore that he could live in them forever.
Cade pulled him closer, gr
abbing his bottom with one splayed hand, then she nipped at his bottom lip, releasing it for a second, then slamming her lips with his again. It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t soft. Their teeth clashed against each other; their tongues danced.
Jax lifted her right leg and propped it over his hip. Before he entered her, he asked, “Say my name again, Cadence.”
Her pupils dilated as she whispered, “Jackson.” It was followed by a loud gasp as he pushed in without warning.
In the heated moment, Jax didn’t care about his ex, the paparazzi, or whatever else was outside the bathroom. With every inhale and every exhale, all that mattered was Cade, her happiness, her satisfaction, her pleasure. Her moans grew louder, as did his. His movements quickened. He pumped harder, and she gripped him tighter until he lost all of his senses and gave in. He gave her everything, offered her his all.
They collapsed down on the floor, over his clothes and her towel, trying to steady their breathing.
Jax knew he couldn’t lose Cade, not now, not ever. But he needed to be honest with her.
“We need to talk, Cade.”
***
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about it right away.”
Cade stomped from the bathroom all the way to the lone dresser in the bedroom and took out clothes. She huffed as she got dressed. She tried to ignore Jax as he walked toward her, naked. Boy, did she try, but failed.
“Can you please get dressed so we can talk about it properly?” she pleaded, pulling her jeans over her thighs.
Jax walked back into the bathroom and picked up his clothes, but he didn’t put them on. Instead, he turned on the shower, then threw his clothes into the laundry bin.
“What are you doing?” Cade asked, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Taking a shower,” Jax replied, looking relaxed as he threw her a wicked smile. “Want to join me?”
Cade threw her hands in the air. “I already had a shower. Jax, you said we needed to talk about this.”
Harley (West Coast Rock Star #1) Page 15
