Damn. Hot.
“I bet I’m a mess.” She swiped the hollows of her eyes.
“You look good enough to eat. But I already did that.”
She kissed the smile off my face.
Done with our shower, we stepped out. I scrubbed a towel over my head and body in record time. She wrapped a towel around her hair in that fancy way girls do, and then propped her foot on the toilet seat to dry her leg. She put that foot on the floor, then dried her other leg and straightened to dry her stomach and then both arms.
It was a show I could watch all day.
“I can’t get enough of you,” I said.
“Really?” She sounded surprised.
So was I. I hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat.
“You’re not bored with me yet?”
Her sincerity cut me. I knew where that worry came from, and I didn’t like it.
“No.” I rested my palms over the towel hiding her body.
“You dated a lot before me, Cade,” she said, pointing out a time in my life I wasn’t proud of. I’d been angry with Brooke and, yes, I’d slept around. Those girls hadn’t meant much to me, but I hadn’t meant much to them either.
“Brooke and I started dating when we were fifteen,” I said, not wanting to talk about any of it. But I figured if Tasha and I had a prayer of staying together, I’d have to own up to my past. “After high school came college. We were gonna get married. She was it for me.”
Tasha winced. I pulled her closer.
“She left and I decided to forget her.”
“Did it work?” she whispered, pulling the towel off her hair.
“Not at first.” I pushed some of her blond hair away from her face. So beautiful. “Not until you. I can’t remember anyone before you. And I don’t want to.”
Sympathy leaked into her expression. “Cade.”
I gave her a soft kiss she returned. Then I told her what I’d come here to share.
“I’m not going back to school, and I have you to thank.”
Her brows knit in confusion.
“I’m going to work with cars. Maybe open my own garage someday.” It wasn’t much to offer the woman standing in front of me, but I knew she didn’t care about money. She’d given up her fancy car to her father without much of a fight. She hadn’t mentioned it since.
“If it wasn’t for Brooke, that’s the path I’d be on. The wrong one.” I tipped her chin. “The accident led me to the right one.”
Halfway to kissing her, she pushed my chest. “But school…”
I shook my head. “It’s not for me.”
Rather than kiss me, or tell me she was happy for me, she continued to hold me at arm’s length with her hand in the center of my naked chest. Her expression was stern, if not pitying. Like I was a baby bird that had tumbled from the nest and was now peeping for help from a nearby bush.
“You are great with cars,” she said, her tone bordering patronizing. “It’s healthy to have a hobby.”
My thundering heartbeat caused the blood slosh against my eardrums. I only heard snatches of what she said next. Shallow platitudes like “don’t want you to give up on yourself” and “make something of your life” and the worst one: “never stop chasing your dreams.”
When she finished with “lawyers make great money,” my stomach soured like I’d been punched in the kidney. I blinked her into focus, more alarmed than before. I’d been so sure I knew her, so sure she was nothing like Brooke. I was wrong.
Tasha Montgomery didn’t want to live a blue-collar life with a blue-collar paycheck. Tony Fry’s family had connections with the NFL. She and Tony had probably had a future planned that reeked of cash.
She was still talking when I interrupted.
“When I approached you at the frat party, do you know what I was trying to do?”
I watched as she recalibrated, likely puzzling out how we’d gone from my dropping out of college to this.
“I was trying to get in your pants,” I said. “I knew Tony was a player—everyone did. Except for you, apparently.”
Anger darkened her brow. I didn’t care. I was so pissed off by her reaction and her trying to talk me into doing what I didn’t want to do, I just kept talking. And what I said next was ugly, but it felt damn good. It made me feel in control of my own life. My own future.
“I figured you were an easy lay.”
“Cade.” It was a warning shot I ignored.
“I was going to take you home, fuck you, and sneak out of your dorm room the second you fell asleep. You rich girls are the same. You like to sleep with the tattooed guys. You settle down with the wealthy ones.”
My words had picked up speed. My voice was steady, strong. A strange sense of power poured over me. I was back.
No hesitation lingered at the base of my throat. It was like my speech problems had become my own personal lie detector. When I knew what I was saying was true, the words came out smoothly. Just like my next ones did.
“I thought I knew you. I thought you were different. You’re not. You’re the same money-hungry chick who wanted a few good fucks before you scraped me off for good.”
Her hand cracked across my cheek, stunning me so much that all I did was stand there and blink. I ignored the sting on my face but didn’t spare her a murderous glare.
Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, but I steeled my heart against them. A sliver of doubt oozed in, one that questioned if I’d made a terrible mistake. I ignored it and walled up, knowing I couldn’t afford to backslide again.
“You are a coward.” She poked me in the chest. “You’re not going to be a lawyer because you’re scared shitless you’ll walk into a courtroom and choke.”
I loomed over her, grinding my teeth into dust. She was wrong. I wasn’t afraid. Not anymore. My nose was almost touching hers, but she wasn’t the least bit intimidated by me.
“I thought we connected,” she said, some of the fury leaving her eyes.
“We did. Then you found out I wanted to be a mechanic and that wasn’t good enough for you. I’ll never be good enough for you.”
I waited for her to say I was wrong.
I prayed I was wrong.
Tasha
“Get out.”
I’d heard enough. I couldn’t believe how far south this evening had gone. When Cade arrived tonight, we’d kissed our way through the kitchen, down the hall, and then tumbled into bed. We made love with me on top, and after, we talked and laughed and kissed. By the time we moved to the shower, I had the rest of the evening planned. We’d go to bed naked, watch a movie, snuggle, and sleep in late tomorrow.
I hadn’t expected him to drop a bomb on me about not going back to school. And then that bullshit about me not caring about him because of money. What was cutting me to the core was that I thought tonight would be the night he made a different proclamation. I wasn’t so naïve that I expected an I love you, but if he’d asked me to be his girlfriend I would’ve said yes.
“Goodbye, Tasha.” He left the bathroom, stripping off his towel on the way. He dressed, not bothering to dry the water from his back. He muttered something about how he should have known. The words I’d smothered came rolling out of my mouth, uncensored.