“Okay.” I nod, still unable to drag my gaze from her. “I’ll send it to you.”
She peers down, her dark lashes contrasting against her fair skin. “Do you have to go back to work now?”
I shake my head. “Not right now, no. I have some stuff to do but I can do it later. Why?”
“Let’s go back to your house,” she decides, an uncertain look appearing on her face. “I mean, if you’d like to.”
“Are you kidding me? You read my mind,” I say, holding my hand out to her. She takes it and I bring it to my lips, placing a soft kiss there. “After almost losing you, it made me see things more clearly. I don’t give a fuck if the timing isn’t right. I don’t give a fuck about anything, except for you. If you want me, I’m here and I want to be with you. I hope you feel the same way or I’m going to look like a total dumbass right now, but it’s the truth.”
I know that I’m opening myself up to being vulnerable, and this is the first time I’ve done that with a woman. Cara could hurt me. She could decide she wants to be alone, or even reconnect with her ex. She could move away. She could, frankly, want nothing to do with me after we fuck a few times.
I don’t know how this is going to end, but I want to spend the time with her that I can have. I’d never regret that.
Her answer is to kiss me. “I don’t know what the hell we are doing, Decker, but I’m done overthinking it and worrying about it. I want you. Now take me home.”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice.
We’re almost at the front door, hand in hand, when Clover appears behind us and calls out, “Excuse me, you two lovebirds, are you forgetting that people are out to kidnap Cara? You can’t just leave without saying anything! Cara, I’m going to kill you.”
“There’s nowhere safer than with Decker,” Cara responds to her best friend. “He’s an ex-cop; he knows what he’s doing.”
I wonder if she knows how those words make me feel. Any man would love to hear his woman say that there’s no place safer than with him.
Nothing could make our chests puff out any more.
“I’ll have her home in a few hours,” I reply. Clover sighs, but agrees. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“Fine, go have dirty sex,” Clover calls out as we step outside. “But pay attention! They could already know where Decker lives, or they could have someone following you.”
“We know,” Cara replies.
Sometimes our baser needs trump all else.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cara
I know we shouldn’t be here, but you know what? That makes it even better.
We don’t even make it to the bedroom. As soon as he parks his car in his driveway, it’s like an alarm goes off and we’re all over each other. He carries me with my legs around him to the front door and even pushes me back against the brick wall near the door, we’re kissing and teasing each other before we make it in. If we didn’t have people after us, I would have told him to just fuck me right then and there, at the front of the house.
That’s how much I want him.
We end up on the kitchen counter, me lying back on the edge, before we finally get to the bedroom.
Decker, now naked and sprawled out on the bed after we’ve had sex twice, a satisfied expression on his face, makes me happy. And the orgasms he gave me—even happier. I don’t have any regrets. In fact, I want him to take me again when I’m able to move.
He’s right; with everything that has happened, I don’t want to think about the what-ifs. I just want to live my life how I want it, and I want to be unapologetic about it. We might work out, we might not, but either way this is what I want right now.
And I’m taking it.
Future me can worry about the repercussions.
He reaches out to take my hand into his, absently stroking my knuckles. I know I said I wouldn’t make the first move again, but I kind of did by telling him that we should come here. When he’s affectionate, along with the little speech he gave me back at Clover’s, he lets me know that he does feel the same way as me.
I’m feeling good about us.
Which, in turn, makes me feel a little bad about Rhett, who is in danger and has been sent away, while I’m enjoying myself with a new man. I know he’s not going to be happy; Dad is right about that. But I can’t keep living my life for other people.
Decker, as if he can tell I’m thinking about another man, rolls over and pushes my hair out of my face. “Can I get you anything? Something to eat or drink?”
I shake my head and turn so we are facing each other, up close and looking into each other’s eyes. It’s quite an intimate moment. How bad is that? We’ve had sex multiple times, but this moment makes me feel more vulnerable.
“I’m okay, thank you. I think I got what I needed.”
His lip twitches. “You and me both. I’ve been wanting you again so bad, you have no idea. You drive me crazy.”
There’s something about him that I can’t explain, so I know what he’s talking about, because I feel the same.
The want. The needs. It’s all consuming.
“Then we’re even,” I whisper huskily.
He kisses me and rolls me on top of him, and then he makes love to me slowly, thoroughly, and without inhibition.
If he wants me to get attached to him, he’s doing a good job of it.
* * *
I check in with Clover to let her know that we are safe and everything is okay. Decker has an epic security system for his home, so just like Clover’s, it’s another safe space. Or, at least, as safe as I can get.
We order in Chinese food and eat it naked in bed, talking about everything and anything.
“So you finished a whole degree in marketing and advertising and then realized you didn’t want to do it? That sucks.”
“Yep,” I reply, sighing. “Some people have to learn things the hard way. It seems I am one of those people. Although it feels nice having another degree under my belt as security, if for whatever reason I decide not to teach anymore.”
“You mean you can brag about having two degrees?” he teases.
“More like so my parents can,” I laugh, putting my takeout container and fork on his side table. “At least you swapped to a similar enough career; mine was completely different.”
“A woman of many talents,” he compliments, green eyes dancing with amusement.