by Paige Tyler
Too bad she hadn’t given him a reason to pull them down, he thought. Then again, it was probably just as well, because he would have had a really hard time concentrating on actually spanking her. He was getting hard just thinking about it.
Cade swore under his breath and backed out of the bedroom. Get a grip on yourself, man! You’re a U.S. Marshal, not just some guy looking for a hot lay! It was his job to protect Riley Barnett, not bed her.
Annoyed with himself for even having those thoughts, Cade went back downstairs and checked the doors one more time. Emptying his pockets, he dumped everything including his cell phone onto the coffee table. Then he slid his gun holster from his belt and set it down on the table as well.
Sitting down, he lie back on the couch and, pillowing his head on his arms, closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.
But thoughts of the beautiful Riley Barnett sleeping just upstairs kept him awake long into the night.
Cade was still asleep when his cell phone rang the next morning. Immediately reaching for it, he flipped it open and held it to his ear.
“Cutler,” he said.
“It’s Conner.” The man’s voice was gruff in his ear. “Everything going well?”
Cade couldn’t help but notice that the Deputy Chief didn’t actually wait for him to reply before continuing.
“Riley Barnett’s a low priority, so it’ll take us a little while to find a more permanent place to put her,” the other man said. “The bean counters really don’t like the idea of spending the money to move her again when there’s no definitive threat. I know that you could give a crap about that, but nevertheless, it means that you’ll be stuck with her for awhile longer.”
“How much longer?” Cade asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
Conner sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a week or more. You have a problem with that?”
Cade’s jaw tightened, but he knew better than to voice his displeasure to the Deputy Chief. The man would only take that to mean that he couldn’t do the job. “No problem, Sir,” he told his boss.
Conner grunted, obviously expecting Cade to complain, and surprised when he hadn’t. “Good,” he said curtly.
“I’ll be in touch.”
Cade flipped his phone closed with a sigh. A week or more at the safe house with Riley, he thought. God, that was going to feel like forever. He wondered how many chick flicks that would equate to.
A thought suddenly occurred to him then. He didn’t have any clothes with him. Hell, he didn’t even have a toothbrush. He was going to have to go back to his apartment, he realized. Which posed a problem of a different kind; he couldn’t leave Riley at the safe house while he went all the way back to Seattle. Who knew what kind of trouble she would get into if he did? Of course, if he had another Marshal backing him up on this like he was supposed to, it wouldn’t be a problem, he thought. But he didn’t. He was completely on his own, which meant that he’d have no choice but to take her with him. It wasn’t exactly procedure, but what else could he do?
Cade was in the kitchen when Riley came downstairs. Last night had been the first time she’d slept well in a long time, and as much as she didn’t want to attribute it to the Marshal’s presence, she knew he was the reason. He might have a nasty habit of spanking her, but she couldn’t deny that he made her feel safe.
He glanced at her as he poured coffee into mugs. “I talked to my supervisor this morning,” he told her. “It’s going to take a while to get you set up with a new identity, so until then, we’ll be staying here.”
Riley nodded, but said nothing as he handed her one of the mugs. Well, at least she’d get a few more days in the Pacific Northwest before they moved her off to wherever it was they decided to put her, she thought.
“The thing is,” Cade continued. “I don’t have anything with me other than what I’m wearing, so we’re going to have to take a run up to my apartment so I can get some things.”
She frowned at that. It was a bit unusual that the Marshals weren’t sending out anyone to relieve Cade. Maybe there was a budget crunch or something at this time of year. Or maybe it just showed how low of a priority she really was to them, she thought bitterly. But she supposed she couldn’t blame Cade; it wasn’t his fault. She was sure it sure wasn’t any picnic for him, either, and couldn’t help but wonder who he had peeved off to get stuck on this assignment all by himself.
So, after a breakfast of whole-wheat toast and coffee, they drove up to Cade’s apartment in Seattle. At least it was nice to get out, she thought. At first, Riley simply enjoyed the scenery, but as they neared the city, she found herself thinking out loud.
“Do you know where they’re going to be relocating me?” she asked, turning her attention from the window to Cade. His hair was a little tousled from sleep, but even with bedhead, he still looked incredibly handsome for this early in the morning.
He gave her a sidelong glance. “Not yet,” he said. “But in all honesty, I doubt they would tell me even if they knew.”
She sighed and looked out the window again. “I hate having to move,” she said. “I really liked living in Seattle.”
Cade said nothing for a moment. “Where did you live before this?”
Riley turned away from the window to look at him again. “Indiana, first, and then Wisconsin for about a year,” she said. “After that, I lived in Iowa for a little while, and then Utah. They were okay, but I really like the Pacific Northwest the best. I’ll miss it.”
Beside her, Cade nodded. “I know what you mean,” he said as he took the exit that led into downtown Seattle.
“When they assigned me to the Seattle office, I wasn’t too thrilled with idea of moving here. I thought it was going to be gray and rainy all the time, but when I got here, I decided that the place was actually pretty great.”
Her lip curved into a small smile. She hadn’t been too keen about moving to a place where it was cold and rainy all the time, either, but then she’d been pleasantly surprised to learn that it didn’t rain all year round, but was sunny and warm for the spring and summer months.
“You’re not originally from around here then?” she said to the Marshal.
He shook his head. “I grew up in Dallas,” he told her.
Her smile broadened. “I thought I detected a slight accent.”
Cade chuckled. “That’s not an accent,” he told, giving her an offended look. “It’s called a drawl.”
Riley had to laugh. “My mistake,” she said. “A drawl, then.”
He glanced at her. “Speaking of accents, you don’t sound like a typical New Yorker.”
“That’s because I grew up in Connecticut,” she explained. “I moved to Manhattan after I graduated from college.”
Turning onto a side street, Cade pulled up outside an apartment building. Though it looked like it had been built decades ago, inside it was well-kept, and Riley thought it very charming as he led the way up the stairs to the second floor. Cade’s apartment had a breathtaking view of Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains beyond, and Riley found her gaze drawn to the window the moment she stepped inside.
“I’ll just be a couple of minutes,” Cade told her as he closed the door.
Riley nodded absently as he strode across the living room and disappeared down the hallway and into what she assumed was his bedroom. As bachelor pads went, it was nice, she thought as she looked around. There were the requisite television, CD player, and various other electronic equipment, of course, but there were no piles of dirty clothes on the floor or dishes in the sink like she had would have expected to see.
Maybe that was because Cade didn’t live alone, she thought. Maybe he shared the apartment with a girlfriend.
That would make sense, considering how clean and put together the place was. For some strange reason, though, the notion of Cade having a girlfriend bothered Riley. Which made no sense. It wasn’t like she was jealous or anything. Actually, she didn’t even like him. That being the case, she
pushed the errant thought aside. Besides, it made sense that the Marshal would have a girlfriend; he was too good looking not to. But as Riley let her gaze wander around the living room, she couldn’t help but admit she was relieved to find that there weren’t any obvious feminine touches anywhere. Maybe he didn’t have a girlfriend.
Catching sight of the framed photos on one of the shelves on the built-in bookcase along the wall, Riley gave in to her curiosity and walked over to look at them. One was of a smiling, older couple standing in front of what looked like a horse corral. The man was wearing a cowboy hat and had his arm around the woman’s shoulders while she leaned into him slightly. From the man’s angular jaw and the woman’s warm golden-brown eyes, it was easy to figure out that they were Cade’s parents.
Riley turned her attention from that photo to the one beside it. This one was of Cade and another man that could only be his brother. Besides being tall and broad-shouldered like the Marshal, the man also had the same dark hair, chiseled features, and golden-brown eyes that Cade did. A girl would have a hard time resisting either of them, she thought.
A noise behind Riley interrupted her musings, and she turned to see Cade coming out of the bedroom, overnight bag in hand. Embarrassed to be caught looking at his personal things, Riley flushed and quickly set the picture fame back on the shelf.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean to...”
But Cade only shrugged. “That’s okay,” he said.
Riley tucked her hair behind her ear. “Is this your brother?” she asked, glancing at the picture.
Cade set his suitcase down on the floor and walked over to stand beside her. “Yeah,” he said. “That was taken a couple of years ago out at my parents’ ranch.”
She nodded. “Does he live in Texas then?”
“Madoc?” Cade shook his head. “No. He’s a U.S. Marshal out in Denver.”
Riley looked at him in surprise. “Your brother’s a Marshal, too?”
His mouth quirked. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d guess you’d say I’m following in his footsteps, though I’d never admit that to him.”
She smiled, her gaze going back to the photo again. “You two sound like you’re close.”
“I suppose you could say that,” Cade replied. “We fought like crazy when we were younger, and we’re still competitive as hell, but there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other.”
Riley’s thoughts automatically went to her own family, and she chewed on her lower lip. “My sisters and I are really close like that, too,” she said softly. “Before I was in Witness Protection, I’d get together with at least one of them every weekend. Sometimes, they’d come to Manhattan and we’d go shopping or see a show, and then, sometimes, I’d go up to Connecticut to spend the weekend with one of them.” She shook her head. “God, it seems like a lifetime ago.”
Beside her, Cade furrowed his brow. Once again, he realized how hard being in the program had been for Riley.
He suddenly had an almost irresistible urge to take her in his arms. Then, surprised that he had felt that strongly for her plight after what she had put him through, and unsure what to make of it, Cade cleared his throat. “We should get going,” he said.
Over the next several days, Cade and Riley fell into a routine of sorts. With little to keep them occupied, they spent the time either watching television or reading the books they had brought with them. By the afternoon of the second day, however, they had exhausted both forms of entertainment, so they had ended up talking instead.
Riley was a lot more open than he thought she would be, especially considering how they hadn’t gotten off to a great start with each other. Not only did she tell him about herself and her family, as well as the small town in Connecticut where she had grown up, but she also confessed to him about how nervous she’d been moving to Manhattan after she’d graduated from college, and how she had feared she wouldn’t be able to make it at the financial firm where she’d gotten hired.
And as Cade listened to her talk, he found himself reassessing his opinion of her again and again. Despite what he had first thought when he’d met her, Riley Barnett was actually a lot more likeable than he had ever expected her to be.
In turn, Cade found himself opening up to Riley about his own life. Not just about his childhood back in Texas, either, but about what it was like growing up in a family where becoming a Marshal was almost a forgone conclusion. He’d never even been able to talk to anyone about the doubts he’d had when he’d applied to the Marshals Service, but to his surprise, he found himself telling Riley about all the fears and reservations he’d had when it came to living up to his family’s expectations. He would have liked to have thought that the only reason he was talking this freely to Riley was because there was nothing else to do at the safe house except talk, but the truth was, he found her extremely easy to talk to.
And she wasn’t hard on the eyes, either, he had to admit. The other night, he’d gotten a glimpse of her in those little shorts and tank top she slept in. The sight had brought him to a full stop just outside her bedroom door.
She’d been leaning over the bed, straightening the sheets when he’d walked by on his way to the shower. The position had pulled her skimpy shorts even tighter and given him a glimpse of her absolutely awe-inspiring ass cheeks. He’d almost groaned out loud, and probably would have if he hadn’t thought she would hear. So, instead, he’d taken a cold shower, and then gone back downstairs where he spent half the night staring at the ceiling.
For her part, Riley was becoming just as enamored with Cade. She was amazed by how well they were getting along. She hadn’t spent this much time talking to a guy in five years. Even though she and Cade came from different backgrounds, they shared a lot of the same viewpoints and had a lot more in common than she would have thought possible. Not only was family very important to both of them, but they also had the same taste in things like movies and books. They were also both into physical fitness, particularly jogging.
Of course, talk of getting out and running reminded Riley even more of how she hated being cooped up in the safehouse. But then something dawned on her. Cooped up in a safe house or not, it was the most fun she’d ever had with a man, and she had to admit that Cade really wasn’t such a bad guy. When he wasn’t spanking her, of course.
The thought of the spankings he given her made Riley blush, and she quickly focused her attention on the cards in her hand. Cade had found the deck in one of the drawers in the kitchen that morning and asked if she’d wanted to play a game or two. Riley didn’t play cards that often, unless one counted solitaire, of course, but she was up for something new, so she’d eagerly joined him at the kitchen table.
They started out with gin rummy, but after a few games, Cade suggested poker.
“I don’t know how to play,” Riley said.
He looked up from shuffling the cards, surprise in his golden-brown eyes. “You’ve never played poker?”
“I never learned,” she admitted with a shrug.
He shook his head. “Well, you can’t spend this much time with a man from Texas and not learn how to play poker,” he told her with a grin. “It would be considered a crime against my cowboy heritage.”
So, Cade spent the next several hours teaching her. Though Riley had to admit she was having a difficult time paying attention to most of what he was trying to teach her, especially when he came around to her side of the table to look at her cards. With the hard wall of his chest pressing against her back as he leaned over her, she couldn’t seem to focus on anything but how amazing he felt. How she managed to learn the first thing about playing poker under those circumstances, she couldn’t even begin to guess, but after a dozen or so hands, she had finally begun to get the hang of it.
“You know,” she said as she picked up one of the M&M’s they were using as chips for the game and popped it into her mouth. “These are great, but we have nothing in the way of real food to eat for dinner tonight.”
&n
bsp; On the other side of the table, Cade stopped shuffling the cards to look up at her. “Really?”
She almost laughed. “Really,” she said. “We have been here for almost a week, you know.”
He shrugged. “We’ll just order pizza again.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I’m sick of pizza,” she told him. “We had it three nights this week already. I’ve got to have something different. Besides, we’re out of milk, too.”
He sighed. “If I go to the store, will you promise to stay put this time?”
Riley felt her face color at the memory of what had happened the last time Cade had gone shopping, or more precisely, what had happened after he’d come back. “No more runs to the video store,” she said, and then added,
“Promise.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed warningly. “You’d better not,” he told her.
Riley watched as he got to his feet, her gaze traveling down the length of his body and back up again. Since going y his apartment to pick up some clothes, Cade had traded in his business suit for jeans and a button-up shirt, and though she had to admit that while he looked extremely handsome in the suit, he looked even more gorgeous now.
Especially the way those tight jeans showed off his great butt.
Blushing at the direction of her thoughts, Riley pushed back her chair and stood up, then followed Cade to the door. Once it closed behind him, she leaned against it and breathed out a sigh. God, what a hottie! She could really fall for a guy like him. Darn it, why did she have to move again just when she’d found someone she liked?
Though Cade didn’t think Riley would be foolish enough to leave the safe house again, he wasted no time getting what they needed at the grocery store. Even so, it was almost dark by the time he turned down the street where the safe house was located. As he neared the house, he saw a dark SUV just pulling away from the curb.
