“The Sykes brothers and their girls out on the town?” I laughed as Oscar pulled out his phone and started dialling.
“Yes. I like the sound of that,” Caden said, staring at me intently.
I told myself I was just imagining the way his eyes took me in, that hungry look in them, and the epic innuendo in his tone. But whether it was actually there or not, I reacted to it. I felt hot, my skin tingled, itching for him to touch me. I was feeling rather naked in my crop top and shorts. God, if only I was his girl…
“Yeah, Peter. Hey it’s Oscar…” he said as he wandered up the stairs.
“Coffee?” I asked Caden, needing an excuse to break the stare.
“Sure,” Caden replied with a lazy smile.
I went into the kitchen and opened the cupboard. “Oh, I’m seriously rearranging this place, or I’ll start hiding mugs where I can reach them.”
I heard Caden chuckle from behind me. “Here. Let me.”
He stood close behind me. While one hand reached up to get the mugs, the other rested gently on the bare skin of my waist and I felt goose bumps break out across my skin and a shiver run up my spine.
But this was still all totally normal behaviour. On his part. I didn’t react this way when Carter, Oscar or Luther got coffee mugs for me. Thank God, or I’d be going to jail and… Well, no. The whole thing was just too gross to think about. I couldn’t even do it hypothetically.
Caden passed me three mugs, then both hands slid around my waist so he was hugging me from behind, his cheek resting against my head. My heart thudded in my chest and I had trouble thinking. Thankfully, I relied so heavily on caffeine that I could probably work the machine in my sleep.
Still nothing out of the ordinary on his part. He hadn’t hugged anyone much since he’d been here since he’d been hobbling around on crutches, but he’d put his arm around me on the couch a few times. It was like old times, nothing different. And yes, I was going to keep telling my heart that until it calmed down.
“I missed you,” he said as I filtered coffee into the cups.
I smiled and rubbed one of his hands. “I missed you, too. It’s nice to have you home. Any idea how long you’ll be?”
“In a rush to get rid of me?”
I laughed and spun around in his arms. I don’t know why I was surprised when his face was so close to mine, or what I’d been expecting, but I almost forgot what I was going to say. He watched me, an amused smirk turning up his luscious lips.
Okay, thoughts like that, not helping…
“No, of course not. If it were up to me, I’d hold you tight and never let go.” Was that something I’d have said before? Did that say too much? Too late now.
“Never let go, huh?” He smiled and he watched me carefully, that look back in his eyes. “A guy might never leave if you keep saying things like that.”
“If only,” I laughed. “Now, out the way so I can get the milk.”
He leant against the counter next to me. “You’d really have me stay?”
I gave him a withering look. “Of course. You think if it was any of the other boys, I wouldn’t want them back home? I’m stuck with those losers in my life, Cade – although I wouldn’t have it any other way – but I chose you. So, you just have to suck it up that I want you around.”
He laughed and another shiver ran through me. “I think I can manage that.”
“You sure? I’m still a pain in the arse to the people I love. Some things don’t change, remember?”
I looked at him with a smile. He was giving me a weird look, like something had changed and he wasn’t sure whether he was pleased by it or not. Finally, he broke out in a grin.
“I wouldn’t have you any other way, Lu.”
I swatted him and we both laughed.
7
Caden
I’d used every excuse I could to touch her, to make her laugh, to spend time with her. None of the boys seemed to think anything of it, and I wasn’t surprised. Lucy and I had always been close and they had no reason to think anything had changed.
Truthfully, nothing had changed except my determination to tell her how I felt. Sure, I was going about it in the slowest way possible and I was putting it off as long as possible, but I was going to do it. I was going to go back to work free of secrets…sort of. As free of secrets a guy who worked with secrets could be.
I’d been watching Lucy all week and I saw she responded to me on some level. It was small, but it gave me hope. I hadn’t forgotten this other guy she’d mentioned. Though, if I’d been Tommy, I wouldn’t have brought it up, I just would have taken her however I could have her. Still, with a boyfriend and another guy on her mind, making her amenable to hearing I loved her was going to be no mean feat. I’d dealt with worse on a day to day basis.
Now that I’d been given the all clear to ditch the moon boot, I had much better movement with which to foster the attraction I thought I could see in her eyes. I had to think the lust in her eyes was more than just wishful thinking, otherwise I was going to make a total arse out of myself. The things we do for love, eh?
Oscar had got us a table at the restaurant the night before and we’d had a great time. I’d sat next to Lucy and taken every opportunity to touch her knee or the back of her hand. She’d responded as I’d hoped, taking my hand now and then, leaning her head on my shoulder. It had been a truly great night, the Sykes brothers and their girls. If only she was actually my girl.
Carter, Oscar and Luther were all at work and Lucy and I were sitting on the couch. I flicked through television stations idly while she leaned up against me and read her book. My arm was around her shoulder. I went to use that hand to itch my nose and realised, at some point in the last however long we’d been sitting here, one of us had taken the other’s hand.
Well, I wasn’t going to mess with a good thing. I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb and she returned the gesture.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Hey?”
“Leg’s okay?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
She laughed, put her book down and rubbed my leg. “Because you keep twitching and shifting. You sure it’s all right? I can move?”
“No, you’re–” I stopped as I looked up and saw a guy standing in front of us, his face like thunder.
“What’s…” Lucy followed my gaze. “Tommy?”
So, that was Tommy. I thought he looked vaguely familiar.
Oscar called out, “Luce, look who I...found…ah, I see we’re all here…”
Lucy sprung off the couch, her book falling in a heap on the floor. Tension was high and I had no idea why. I mean I knew Lucy and this guy were fighting, but something seemed super charged. Like he’d just caught her with her hands down my pants or something.
“You want a beer, man, or…” Carter walked in and looked around.
“Beer would be great!” Luther called from outside.
“Oh, great,” Lucy muttered. “Everyone’s here.”
Tommy looked at me, then back at Lucy, took a deep breath and walked back out the front door.
“What’s that all about?” Luther asked as Lucy called Tommy’s name and pushed past them all after him.
I shrugged and looked out the window. The others crowded around as well. It wasn’t the first time we’d all stared out the window while Lucy had been out the front with a boy. It was, though, the first time I suspected a break up was imminent, rather than a kiss.
They were obviously having some sort of very heated discussion, walking backwards and forwards and waving their arms around.
“Did you bring any of your spy gear? Something we could listen in with?” Carter asked.
I laughed. “No. Shut up and let me concentrate.”
“Because, of course he reads lips,” Luther said sarcastically.
I ignored them and tried to make out what they were saying. There was something about how she was in love with
another guy, so obviously the idiot was still hung up on that. I couldn’t see what she was saying, but Tommy kept pointing back to the house, even when he was walking around in crazy circles.
“What are they saying?” Carter nudged me.
“Shut up,” I snapped as I thought I caught his last sentence.
He’d just told her they were done, he was done playing second fiddle to a guy she’d never let go of. He mentioned something about sex I didn’t want to read to heavily into, but it reminded me of what Lucy had said when they’d all thought she was pregnant; she’d only slept with him once, and it hadn’t been recently. That had my interest, but not as much as that last sentence of Tommy’s. Unless I’d suddenly lost the ability to read lips, or they had some code language, he’d just told her “I hope you and Caden are very happy together” before storming off.
We heard Lucy’s response. “I’m sure we will be!” She clapped her hand over her mouth and turned to the house for a second, before the roar of Tommy’s car made her turn back.
She watched him screech away, then stormed into the house. I knew she’d caught us spying on them, she was well and truly standing in the doorway before we were all scrambled up from our positions. But she didn’t say anything. Instead, her face was pure fury.
“Five years I wasted on that arsehole. Five fucking years!”
“You watch your language, Lu!” Luther yelled in his best Dad voice as she started up the stairs.
“Fuck you, Luther,” she yelled as she stormed up the stairs. I jumped as her bedroom door slammed.
“Ah shit,” Oscar grumbled, looking at his phone. “I have to get back to work sooner than planned.” He looked up the stairs, then back at us.
“Oh, hell no,” Carter said, taking a step back.
“Shotgun not,” Luther said, shaking his head.
Oscar looked at me. “Looks like you’re up, mate.”
“What?” I was still reeling from what I was pretty sure Tommy had said, I had no idea what Oscar was talking about.
“Someone’s gotta go talk to her. You’re up.”
“I…” I looked between them and they were all nodding.
“Come on, it can’t be worse than hostage negotiations?” Carter tried to smile.
“Shit.” I shook my head in defeat then nodded. “All right. All right.”
Carter and Luther high-fived and Oscar gave them a disapproving look.
“You owe me,” I said to them as I started up the stairs.
“She’s your sister too, bro. We’re just reminding you how much you love us!” Carter sang as I made my way up the stairs.
I paused outside Lucy’s room, but couldn’t hear anything so I knocked.
“Oscar, I’m really not in the mood for one of your wonderful brotherly talks right now,” she called.
“Uh, Oz had to go back to work…” I said slowly.
She opened the door, grinning. “And he sent you up?”
“I was too slow to object.” I smiled.
She laughed. “Come in then. I’ll go easy on you for your first time back.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I walked into her room.
Not much had changed since I’d left. The feature wall was blue instead of hot pink and there were more recent photos around, but otherwise I could have gone back in time.
“You want to talk about it?” I asked.
“There’s not much to talk about. He dumped me.” She shrugged and dropped onto her bed. She smiled, seeming to see my hesitation, and patted the bed next to her.
I sat beside her and noticed the pictures on the bedside table. One was the picture Oscar had sent me when I kissed her cheek, and the other was the picture of my team I’d sent her a few years ago. I picked it up and ran my thumb over Petrelli.
“Damn, I miss him. Sometimes I forget, being home again, but then I close my eyes and I live it all over again.” I shook my head and put the picture back, fighting against the tightness in my throat.
She took my hand and my heart skipped a beat. Even in the depths of sadness, she was the light in my life. But surely I’d imagined Tommy saying my name? How could I even broach that with her without having to discuss the fact we were all spying on her?
“He sounded like a great guy, and I’m sure his girl was right, I know you would have done everything you could have for him.”
I shook my head, not sure how to make her understand. “I lost it, Lu. After he died, I just fell apart. Mortality was staring me in the face and I freaked out. For the first time in four years of field work, I knew none of us were going to make it.”
“But you did, Cade.”
“Not because of anything I did.”
She crawled into my lap and hugged me tight. I held her close, my face nuzzled in her neck. She smelled so good, like strawberries and fucking… I don’t know if happiness had a smell but, if it did, it would be her.
“Cade, you made it out, you took bullets and a bomb and, hell, you fell off a building to get each one of them home safe to the person who loved them. You got home safe to the… You can’t tell me it wasn’t because of anything you did.”
I breathed her in deeply, all too aware of how she was affecting me. I was hard and I knew it. If she got any closer to me, she’d know it too.
“This conversation was not supposed to be about me,” I laughed shakily, needing to take my mind off how she felt against me.
“Well, tough luck. It sounds like you need to talk more than I do.”
I pulled away only far enough to look at her. “Lu, you were with the guy for five years, you’re not upset?”
She shrugged. “He had a point. I mean, I guess a part of me loved Tommy, he was familiar and he loved me. But…it’s kind of hard to miss someone when you miss someone else more…”
She cleared her throat and turned to the bedside table. Her leg pressed up against my cock and I knew she’d felt it. Seriously, if there was ever a time to get control of it, it would be now. I so didn’t need her to know I had it hard for her minutes after I’d just watched her long-term boyfriend dump her. When she turned around, she was holding the picture of us on the beach. She was blushing, but said nothing about the situation in my pants. She held the picture up in front of her.
“What are you showing me that for?” I asked when she didn’t say anything.
She buried her face behind the picture and I heard her mumble. I smiled as I heard the words, but schooled my expression, pulled the picture down and made her look at me.
“What was that?”
She flushed harder. “I said, this is one person you have to come home for.”
Maybe Tommy had said my name after all? Or, maybe she meant it like she’d mean it with Carter or Oscar or Luther? The way she’d coloured, I seriously doubted the latter, but then again, wishful thinking can be a bitch. If I was her and thought of me like a brother, I’d probably flush pretty red if I’d felt my hard on too.
Her phone buzzed and she leant into me to reach it. I prayed for the strength not to just push her down on the bed and take her then, and thankfully my prayers were answered. She checked her phone behind my head, her cheek pressed to mine. I dipped my nose into her neck and breathed her in. I was sorely tempted to plant a kiss on her neck and figured it was pretty harmless, so I did.
She chuckled and rubbed my back while she finished whatever she was doing. Then she’d thrown her phone back on the bed and was looking at me.
“Are you okay, Cade?” she asked, taking my cheek in her hand. I leant against it and closed my eyes.
I couldn’t look into her eyes any longer without kissing her. “Yeah, I’m good. I mean, I will be. Petrelli’s not the first friend I’ve lost, though he was the closest. And he won’t be the last. Don’t worry about me.”
I finally looked at her again to find she was giving me a strange look. “I’ll always worry about you.” Then she brightened, gave me a big kiss on the cheek and slid
off my lap. “Right, Brit’s coming around. She’s convinced I need time to wallow.” She made a face and I smiled. “So if you no longer need my services, I shall need you to vamoose.”
“Oh, I’m done with your services…for now,” I said with a wink.
She grinned. “Well, you can have me later, but right now apparently I need girl time.”
My cock twitched at her words. Even if she hadn’t meant it that way, my body still responded to her. I let her usher me out, marvelling at the fact that she’d just been dumped, and yet she had comforted me.
I make a terrible brother…
8
Lucy
“All right, all right. Don’t rush me,” I giggled as Brit and I headed down the stairs.
“We have to hurry. I don’t want Josh to have any time to pick someone else up before we get there. He’s all mine to–” She huffed when she ran into where I’d frozen on the steps.
Caden was wearing dark grey jeans, white shoes and a white button-up shirt. It was undone and Carter was pointing at something on his chest. I know I’d seen him shirtless when he’d first arrived, but this was something else. He’d obviously been working hard with his rehab, his muscles were bulkier and he looked firmer. The memory of him against me earlier came flooding back and I remembered exactly how hard he’d been. I didn’t know what it meant, but I was happy to explore it.
“Well, that’s a sight I’d be happy to look at every day for the rest of my life,” Brit said, nudging me.
“Holy shit…” I breathed, trying to backtrack Brit up the stairs behind me.
But she wouldn’t budge and Caden’s stormy eyes lifted as though he heard me. His smile turned to shock as he saw me and six other eyes followed his.
“Oi, do you actually think you’re going out like that?” Luther stood up and pointed at us.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Yes, I do.”
“I don’t think so, Lulu.” Carter shook his head. “Get upstairs and change.”
Caden (Loving the Sykes Book 1) Page 5
