The black panties I dropped in that coffee shop all those weeks ago.
Turning back, I dangle them in my fingers. Cade doesn’t look surprised at all; he just regards me with his Annoyed Scowl.
“You kept these?” I demand, sounding petulant even to myself. “You told me you threw them away.”
“I lied,” he grits out.
“Why?”
“Because you’ve never been just the nanny, Willa.” My chest lurches as I look back at him, feeling suspended in time. “You’ve always been more. The woman I wanted but wouldn’t let myself have.”
“I could really use that drink now,” I say, still staring at him.
“No. You’re going to stand here and listen to me.” He prowls toward me in a way that sets my heart racing. My blood heats in my veins.
When he’s standing right in front of me, he tips my chin up and forces me to look into his eyes. “I’m not mad about whatever Talia told you because I don’t give a fuck about her and her antics. I have Luke. Wouldn’t trade him for the world. How that came about doesn’t even matter anymore because I truly just do not care.”
My heavy breathing acts as a backdrop to the deep rasp of his voice.
“Do you know what I care about though?” His fingers bite into my skin. “You, Willa. I care about you. You have nothing—and I mean nothing—to be jealous of.”
“But she’s had everything. Everything I didn’t even realize I wanted, and she just took it all for granted and walked away. And now she’s here acting all entitled, and I’m so jealous that my teeth ache with it. I have never, never felt like this, and I want it to stop.” The last part comes out pleading, like he can take away the ball of anxiety lodged in my chest.
“You don’t want what she’s had. You want more. You deserve more. And I’m going to give it to you. Nod if you understand me.”
With a deep sigh, I nod, eyes locked on his. Heart racing in time with his. “But she—”
He cuts me off. “I thought I told you to stop and listen to me?”
“You did but—”
“If you can’t stop running your mouth with that self-sabotaging bullshit, I will shut it for you.” His hand cups my cheek tenderly. “I love Luke. You love Luke. And the three of us feel right together. Tonight she’ll be gone and you’ll still be here. At the end of this summer, you’ll leave, but you’ll be back. Because there’s no way in hell that this ends here. I won’t allow it. We’re going to figure this out. You got me?”
I swallow hard, searching his dark, serious eyes, his furrowed brow, the look of intensity on his face. The little voice in my head says he’s joking, but I know Cade well enough to know he wouldn’t joke about this.
“But—”
In the blink of an eye, he’s adjusted his grip to pop open my jaw and stuffs my panties inside. My irises widen as he works the fabric in and I stand stock still, too shocked to stop him. Too turned on to want to.
“There are no buts about it, Red. Now get your palms flat on the counter and bend over.”
I still stare at him wide-eyed, a little shocked by how quickly this conversation has flipped. With a gentle hand on my shoulder, he turns me away, and I let my hands slide across the bare countertop.
“That’s my girl,” he murmurs, pushing down between my shoulder blades so that my torso presses against the counter, the edge of the cool marble biting into my hips. “Teasing me with this dress all afternoon. The only thing I can think about is bending you over and checking what you’re wearing underneath.”
I moan against the fabric in my mouth, hips shimmying as I arch my back in a silent invitation for him to check.
“Should I check?” His calloused fingers run up the back of my thighs, taking the hem of my favorite dress with them as they go. Goose bumps erupt across my back, and I hear his breath hitch when the soft fabric clears my bare ass and bunches at the base of my back. “Filthy girl. Walking around out there with no panties. You were hoping I’d check, weren’t you?”
I press my cheek flat against the cool marble and look back at him, his eyes fixed on my ass. I nod. Because yeah, I wanted him to check. Wanted him to haul me into the bathroom and fuck me against the wall. Fuck the nerves right out of me.
But I’m here, bared to him in the open of his kitchen with a party happening only a few hundred meters away.
His hands massage the globes of my ass, and I lift my head to see out the window and check if anyone might be coming.