“Sounds like he’s speaking okay to me,” Baron challenged.
“See, it works!” I chirped, hyperaware that my underpants were on the floorboard. I quickly covered them with my shoe. Going to jail without underpants was too embarrassing to contemplate. Even more embarrassing than the call I’d have to make to my father wherein I admitted that he was right and Caden Wilson had in fact turned me into a criminal.
“Just write a damn ticket so we can leave,” Cade grumbled. I wanted to throttle him. He wasn’t helping.
“Stay in the vehicle,” Baron told me. “And you,” he said to Cade, “get in.”
For a few sweaty seconds I thought Cade would argue, but he opened the driver’s side door and climbed in.
Baron rested his hand on the door frame. “I’m going to let you off with a warning because I’m a nice guy.”
“Thank you so much.” I brightened.
“You’re welcome.” Baron frowned as Cade turned the key in the ignition. Headlights illuminated the grass and trees before us. “If I catch you out here again, doing therapy, you’ll find out I’m not always such a nice guy.”
“We hear you, bro,” Cade said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. If I wasn’t concealing my panties with my shoes, I’d kick him for that.
“You’re lucky, Wilson,” Baron said, proving he knew exactly who Cade was. “If it wasn’t for her, your ass would be mine.” Cade, wisely, didn’t respond. Baron patted the car and smiled at me. “Rena’s doing well?”
“She is,” I said cautiously.
“Good.” Baron pointed his flashlight beam toward the exit and stepped back. “You kids behave, now.”
Cade rolled from the grass to the parking lot through the now-open gate and then we were on the road.
I exhaled a breath of relief, sagging in my seat for a different reason. “That was a close one.”
“Did you have to mention speech therapy?” Cade growled.
“What did you expect? You were begging for a ticket.”
He clenched his teeth. I saw a muscle in his cheek tic. “Maybe I don’t want everyone to know I can’t talk.”
“Well, you’re talking now,” I pointed out.
“It comes and goes. You know that,” he called over the wind cutting through the car. The air wasn’t frigid but it certainly wasn’t warm. Rather than ask him to put the top up, I reached for the blanket and covered my legs and arms.
I held back my hair with one hand to keep it from whipping my face and watched my driver’s scowl in the passing headlights.
He was right. His ability to speak came and went depending on the moment. But we’d been successful at widening the gap in between. That had to count for something. I wasn’t sure if it was my meager attempt at exercising his tongue, or more his own returning confidence, but I believed he was on the road to a full recovery.
“Are you taking me home?” I asked at a red light. If he turned left, we’d be heading to my apartment. A right would take us to his place.
“No.” Under the streetlamps, heat flashed in his eyes. “You’re coming home with me.”
Chapter Sixteen
Tasha
Cade parked in the garage, lifted the cooler and my backpack out of the backseat, and gestured to the door leading to his room.
“Your dad’s here.” I pointed at Paul’s car.
Cade shrugged. “And?”
“What if he tells my dad that I spent the night?” I wasn’t sure how much deeper the shit pile went if I continued to defy my father, and I wasn’t eager to find out. “We should go to my place.” I hadn’t been thinking before when he told me I was coming home with him. I was too busy giving thanks that we weren’t in the back of a police cruiser.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“My dad?” My voice climbed a few octaves.
“Mine.” Cade smiled. “Go up.”
I sent one last hesitant glance over to Paul’s car before going up to Cade’s room. He followed, setting the cooler on the counter and turning on a light switch. Then he kissed me and told me he’d be right back.
I dug through my pack, pleased to find a change of clothes in the bottom for the gym at work. I had even packed underwear and a sports bra. A small win, but I’d take it.
Cade returned as I was checking my messages. I didn’t have any, text or otherwise.
“What’d he say?” I asked. But I didn’t give him time to answer. “What did you say?”
“I said don’t tell Morton, and he said okay.” Then his smile turned wicked and he added, “I also told him your dad told you to stay away but you couldn’t resist me.” He pulled a hand over his spectacular chest, the gesture both cocky and confident.
“Thanks a lot.” I rolled my eyes.
“Just telling the truth.” He took my hand and pulled me off the love seat and walked with me to the bed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I tried to sound stern, but the wispy quality of my voice wasn’t incredibly convincing.
“Trust me.” He grinned as he slipped my shirt over my head. Then he took off my bra and reached under my skirt. His eyes darkened and his grin disappeared when he discovered I wasn’t wearing anything beneath it. Which meant—
“Oh my God.” I grabbed his arm, my eyes swiveling to the door leading to the garage. “I left my panties in your car.”
“Lucky me,” he said before closing his lips over mine.
Tonight I had been busted for trespassing in a public place, my underpants were in Cade Wilson’s car, and I was practically naked and planning to stay overnight when my father forbade it.
“I am not this girl,” I told him, my hands flat on his chest.
“You’re my girl.” He ran his tongue over my bottom lip and then nipped it lightly. As he kissed his way down my throat, every one of my defenses dropped. I never imagined being anything other than Cade’s nemesis. Now I was his girl? His lips closed over one nipple and suckled, and my mind went on vacation when he slipped off my skirt.
“Climb in.” He peeled back the blankets and I did as he asked, leaning back on my elbows to watch him undress. Grabbing one side of his T-shirt, he peeled it over his head, revealing a hard-muscled torso and all those sexy the tattoos tracking up one arm. He kicked off his shoes and socks, then stripped out of his jeans. I rolled to one side and propped my head on my hand, enjoying the show.
He climbed into bed, wasting no time pressing every inch of his hot, naked skin to mine. My heart pounded in a hectic rhythm when he kissed a path from my collarbone to my breasts, pausing to flick the tip of each nipple with his tongue.
I breathed his name, or maybe it was still echoing in my mind from earlier. He dragged his tongue down my belly and to my thighs, and then slicked his tongue along my folds. Still sensitive from his earlier ministrations, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I came on contact.
He didn’t linger. Instead, he climbed my body to press a kiss to my lips.
“I’ve heard you come,” he said. “You’re loud. Loud enough to wake my dad from the other side of the house.” His lips curved in amusement like he was teasing. I honestly didn’t know if he was or not. In the park I had sort of lost my mind. Was it my shouts of completion that had tipped Baron off to our whereabouts?