by Susan Meier
Confusion nudged at him again. He didn’t worry about what women thought…
But this was Piper. His partner. And she was fantastic in the sack.
“I’d like a bouquet of flowers.”
“Just a bouquet or an arrangement?”
“Just a nice bouquet I can give to…” Oh, crap. He didn’t give a damn what the town, the gossips, thought, but Piper did. “To my mom.” Now he’d have to get twice as many flowers and give half to his mom and half to Piper. Just in case Isabelle asked his mom how she liked the flowers.
She ripped a hunk of white paper from a long, fat roll on the wall behind the counter. “That’s nice. How is your mom?”
“She’s good.” Still waiting for his deadbeat dad to sign a financial document that would give her her freedom, but he wouldn’t say that.
She pointed at a refrigerator that held all kinds of fall-colored flowers. “What would you like?”
He winced. “You can’t pick something?”
“I could…but it’s just nicer if you choose.”
He frowned and looked at what was available. “Don’t you have any pink?”
“Pinks are usually more for summer…” She turned and motioned for him to follow her into the greenhouse behind the counter. “But I still have some back here.”
Rows of gorgeous flowers greeted him. Pinks, yellows, reds.
“I like those.”
“Zenia! They are pretty.”
“I’d like a big, fat bouquet.”
She smiled and began snipping.
It took fifteen minutes, but eventually she created a bouquet big enough that he could split it between his mother and Piper. He got the odd, funny feeling in the pit of his stomach again, but he ignored it.
After delivering a bouquet to his surprised mom, he made spaghetti and meatballs, showered, and put on a dress shirt and jeans. He drove to Buzz Hanwell’s street, parked a few car lengths down from his garage, tucked the flowers under his arm, and walked up the shaky steps to Piper’s apartment door. He knocked once and waited.
By the time she answered the door, the flowers were slipping out from under his arm. The handles of the spaghetti pot burned his fingers.
She grabbed the flowers. “Cade. What are you doing here?”
He walked through her living room and set the pot of spaghetti on her dining room table. “I make a mean meatball.”
She laughed. “I don’t doubt it.”
“I know you said you wanted the night off, but I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something wrong.”
She glanced down at the flowers in her hands. “So you bought me these?”
“And made food. I covered both bases.”
She laughed. “Are you really this clueless about dating?”
“No. Believe it or not, I’m usually suave. But we’re not really dating.”
She shook her head.
And he saw that weird look come to her eyes again. It stabbed his heart and tightened his gut with a fear he’d never felt before. Fear that he was losing her.
“We could be dating. We’d just have to face a couple of really mean gossips.”
When she wouldn’t look up, he put a finger under her chin and raised her head until their gazes met.
“You’re not ashamed of me, are you?”
“No!” She shook her head. “Cade, I don’t want to go public. Not because I’m ashamed of you, but because I worry about how I’m going to handle it when you leave.”
She set the flowers on the table, left the room, and returned with two plates, some utensils, and napkins. Motioning for him to sit, she said, “I know it’s right for you to go back to Montana. I know we’re just having fun.” She smiled stupidly and caught his gaze. “Actually, I’m having some of the most fun of my life. But when you leave and I’m sad, I don’t want people saying you dumped me or I dumped you. I don’t want people to know I’m sad. I just want to be left alone.”
He actually followed that. “Okay.”
Her eyes met his. “Really? You understand?”
“Totally.”
She pulled in a relieved breath. “Thanks.”
Before she could pick up the spoon to serve herself some spaghetti, he caught her hand. “We do need to talk a bit about what’s going to happen when I leave.”
Her eyes saddened. “Now?”
Hoping this would cheer her up, he said, “There’s the matter of the fact that we both own the store.”
“I told you I’ll buy your half.” She picked up the serving spoon. “I’ve already been talking to Josh Montgomery at the bank in Wildore,” she said, referring to the loan officer at the bank in the next town over. “He explained how we’ll determine the market value of the store and they’ll give me a loan for half, using my half of the store as collateral.”
He caught her hand again. “You don’t need to get a loan.”
“You’re going to let me pay you in installments?”
“Actually, Piper, I’m thinking about just giving you the store.”
She set down the spoon and faced him. “What about your deposit for the ranch?”
“I have it.”
It should have felt wrong or uncomfortable to admit his family’s secret, but he trusted her. They weren’t just lovers. They were partners. He’d seen how she handled herself at the store with customers and staff. He knew how she felt about gossip. He could tell her the whole story and know she’d keep it to herself.
In fact, telling her might actually be fun.
…
She stared at him for a second, studying his serious eyes. “You can’t just give me a share of a business that’s equal to a couple hundred thousand dollars.”
He grinned and dug into his spaghetti. “Sure I can.”
She picked up her fork. “No. You can’t.” She took a bite of spaghetti then groaned when it tasted like pure heaven. “This is fantastic.”
“I don’t cook a lot, but I do have a few specialties.” He took another bite, savored it, then said, “This is one of them. I make my own sauce.”
“Well, it’s perfect, wonderful, amazing, but you still can’t give me your share of the store.”
“Piper…I’m supposed to be keeping this under wraps, but…my family made out pretty well in my grandfather’s will.”
She blinked, not quite sure what he meant.
“Anyway, if I leave before the year is up, you get the whole store. Maybe I’ll just take off the day before the year is up and save us all a lot of paperwork.”
She stared at him, her brain firing off conflicting messages. On the one hand, she didn’t want to think about him leaving. On the other, his agreeing to work at the store suddenly made no sense. “If you don’t need O’Riley’s, then why are you working there?”
“Would you believe me if I told you it was because I’m really enjoying what we have?”
Oh, man. She’d love to believe that. But she wasn’t so naive. “I want to, but it’s not very practical.”
“I can’t pull anything past you.”
She said nothing, just took another bite of spaghetti. And another. And another. If he was going to ignore her legitimate question, she would ignore him.
Finally, he sighed. “All right. Fine. I’ll tell you. But I’m telling you in confidence. Deal?”
The fact that he trusted her with a secret did funny things to her heart. A few months ago they were bitter enemies, now he wanted to give her a store and share secrets.
“I won’t tell a soul.”
“My parents’ divorce isn’t final because my dad won’t sign a financial agreement. We haven’t publicly announced that we got a lot of money from our grandfather because we don’t want our dad to go after it. I’m working the store, making it appear that I need the down payment, to keep him off the scent.”
She shook her head. “You really think that’s going to work?”
“It has so far.”
“Really? You said your dad hasn’t signed
the agreement.”
He nodded.
“Probably because he’s guessed there’s more to the estate than what you guys are saying. Your dad’s a banker. Don’t you think he’s going to figure this out?”
Cade pursed his lips then raised his gaze until he met hers. “We’re not just talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars here.”
Not following, she frowned.
“Even we hadn’t anticipated how much money my grandfather had.”
She laughed. “What? He have a billion dollars or something?”
Cade said nothing and her mouth fell open.
“Oh my God.”
“My dad has no right to see the estate papers. No legal standing. The only leverage he has is the divorce Mom wants. Since he hasn’t signed the version of the agreement that we were sure he’d sign, we know he’s trying to figure out Pap’s estate. So we’re trying to throw him off the scent so he’ll take a few hundred grand and leave Mom alone.”
“It’s kind of sad that you have to do that.” She said the words coolly, calmly, but her brain had jumped to overdrive. This guy she was sleeping with wasn’t just wounded, he was rich. Really, god-awful rich. Probably so far out of her league, she was insane to even be sleeping with him.
“We don’t care about the money. What we want is our mother to be free of him. But we also won’t make him wealthy in the process.”
“Understood.” Really, really understood. She was simple Piper, drugstore clerk turned grocery store owner. She’d lived in this town all her life, would probably retire here. And he wasn’t just going to Montana; he could buy Montana.
They couldn’t be more different if they tried.
They finished their spaghetti. Piper finally remembered to put her flowers in water and hunted for a vase under the sink.
Confused, overwhelmed by his news, she didn’t know what to expect. So after the flowers were safely in a tall crystal vase filled with water, she wasn’t surprised when he grabbed his Stetson and walked to the door.
She followed, working not to look thunderstruck. He was rich. He’d trusted her with a secret. And he wasn’t just out for sex from her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come over—and talked. Shared secrets. Confided.
At the door, he kissed her long and deep and when she would have thought he might not be leaving after all, he pulled away.
“I’ll see you tomorrow in that overlap hour you hate so much.”
She blushed and played with a button on his nice blue shirt. “I don’t hate it.”
He kissed her again. “Good night.”
“You’re really leaving?”
“I’ll be back tomorrow. You said you were tired and I respect that. But…” He shrugged. “I wanted your company.”
Piper closed the door feeling a little dizzy. How the hell was she not supposed to fall in love with that? He wanted her company? Sheesh. Swoon. Even her inner bad girl got a little sappy over that.
Now more than ever, it was imperative that she keep all this in perspective.
Chapter Sixteen
At work the next day, he was back to being sexy Cade. But instead of her going to his house, he came to her apartment again. They made love, then she heated surprisingly good Chinese food that she’d found in the freezer section of their store.
When his food was gone, he yanked her into his arms. “Now that we’re all fueled up, are you ready for round two, or would you like to watch a movie?”
She pulled back so she could see his face. “Watch a movie?”
“Yeah, I downloaded a comedy this morning. I have my laptop in the truck. I can hook it up to your TV and we’ll be in business.”
She rose. “Let me get a shirt.”
He tugged her back down. “I have to totally dress before I go to my truck. You have a minute. Finish eating.”
She relaxed, but an odd sensation filled her. She’d never before jumped to please a man, but with Cade everything was different.
Twenty minutes later they were dressed. He brought his laptop in from the truck and set it up. They sat on the couch. He pulled her close to him and the sensation of rightness that roared through her stole her breath.
She watched the movie, working to steady her heartbeat and trying not to let her thoughts get away from her, but she couldn’t deny the obvious. She wasn’t just getting feelings for him. He had feelings for her.
The next night, she made sure the evening was all about sex. But when he came to her house the night after that, he brought steaks and grilled them on the little deck off her kitchen, even though it was raining. He also hadn’t parked up the street. Finding an open space near Buzz’s house, he’d taken advantage.
People saw him run through the rain to her steps, saw him on the deck, holding an umbrella while steaks sizzled on her grill. They saw him race back inside.
He didn’t seem to notice they were becoming a couple. And if he did, it didn’t bother him.
Maybe she was blowing all this out of proportion?
The next night, she didn’t hide her car. She pulled into the driveway of his grandfather’s house. He came out on the porch to greet her, kissing her soundly before he pulled her inside.
And he’d cleaned. The smell of furniture polish met her when she stepped into the entryway.
He walked behind her to help her remove her coat. “I figure if we’re going to watch some TV tonight, the sofa shouldn’t shower us with powdery dust when we sit down.”
She turned and gaped at him. “You used a vacuum?”
“And I polished the end tables.” He grinned. “Washed the windows.”
Her heart cartwheeled. “Are you trying to impress me?”
“I impress you in the bedroom. This other stuff is all about making you happy.”
“Oh, Cade! Don’t like me! You’re leaving! And you’re making it so I’m going to miss you.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “You’re already going to miss me.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he gave her a swift kiss. “And I’m going to miss you.”
It was the nicest, sweetest thing he’d ever said. She held his gaze. “You like me.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“I like you too.”
He said, “There you go,” and headed for the kitchen and whatever he had cooking on the stove.
She couldn’t even smell it. Her brain was too busy being numb. But through dinner her heart sang.
The next day at the store, when he laughed as he helped Bunny Farmer bag groceries in a particularly busy minute, her inner good girl pointed out that he was beginning to like it here. And maybe, just maybe, he’d stay.
Her heart stuttered at the thought.
That night, she actually considered coaxing him into spending the night…the whole night…sleeping with her. But he jumped out of bed when the numbers on her digital clock displayed a twelve and two zeroes and she knew that what she was beginning to see as genuine affection—which she might even on a particularly optimistic day label love—he saw as part of an intimate, albeit temporary, relationship.
She had to keep her inner good girl away from her daydreams and get back on the same page as Cade.
Now.
Really.
Not just because she didn’t want to get hurt, but because her falling for him wasn’t their deal.
So that night she brought him dinner. He always cooked and she always heated up something frozen, so that morning she made fried chicken and macaroni salad, two things she could serve cold.
He thanked her by kissing her senseless and having her top off in under thirty seconds after he took their dishes to the kitchen.
She sank to the sofa under his weight, so bubbly happy that she’d pleased him that it took her a second to realize she wasn’t keeping up her end of the sex deal. With a light nudge on his shoulder, she got his attention. Another nudge sent him rolling to the floor.
He landed on the carpet with a laugh. “Really? You wanna do this on the floor?”
>
Shirtless, she flicked the snap on her jeans and removed them and her perfectly gorgeous red panties, then she straddled him. A few tugs on his shirt pulled it from his jeans and he helpfully whipped it off.
He smiled at her. “You didn’t think this through, did you?”
“It all seemed so sexy in my head.”
This time he moved her off. She sat on the floor while he got rid of his jeans. When he was naked, he knelt behind her and began kissing her neck as his hands reached around and fondled her breasts.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind.”
He pinched her nipples. “You don’t like it.”
“Oh, I like it.”
“Then what?”
“You know how you tell me I’m always supposed to say what I want?”
“Yeah…”
“Then lie down.”
His smoky laugh filled the living room.
When he didn’t do as she said, she turned and put her hand to his shoulder, knocking him slightly off balance.
With a laugh, he did as she asked and she straddled him again. “Now isn’t this better?”
He laughed. “Seriously, you think all men don’t know why women like to be on top?”
She wiggled against him. “Then you’d think you’d let us be on top more often.” With that she bent and ran her tongue along his collarbone while he grabbed her behind. He squeezed, sending delightful sensations spiraling through her.
Then he moved his fingers to her clit, and she stopped kissing his chest. Her insides shivered. She blinked.
He grinned at her.
She caught his chin and jiggled his face. “Stop that. This is supposed to be my turn.”
“When it comes to sex, it’s supposed to be everybody’s turn.”
With that, he smoothed his fingers along her sensitive nub again, flipped their positions, and rammed into her. Her orgasm was instantaneous, intense. The waves of pleasure seemed to go on and on before he came, too. Then he flipped her again, putting her back on top.
“You were saying.”
She gaped at him. Her mouth open. Her breath steamy puffs.
“Where the hell do you learn things like this?”
He shrugged. “Internet. Books. There are lots of resources if you really want to know something.”
