A Lifetime to Find Love (2 page)

“Tess, it’s not a big deal.  It just surprised me.  We both had a lot to drink tonight.  It’s really my fault. Rowan did tell me not to let you drink too much.”

“Nice!  So how many drinks did I have?” She winced at the idea of overdrinking.  She couldn’t hold her liquor very well, which is exactly why she usually stayed home if she were going to have more than one drink.   She prided herself on having at least some semblance of self control.

“Two,” he said, with a sexy smile that made her want to push him back into that chair. 
Between his eyes and that smile, oh, and let’s not forget his body, I’d be willing to throw all self respect out the door and rip the man’s clothes off.
 

“Oh yes, that second drink would have certainly turned me into nothing but raging hormones.” 
No, that would be you standing there, looking all sexy as hell and acting as if you don’t even know you are.

Cade just stood and stared at Tessa.  He’d never thought of her as a sexy woman, not until they’d come back to her place and she hiked up her skirt and then it was as if she were someone other than his best friend’s little sister.  Suddenly, he saw her as a woman with entirely too much sex appeal and apparently too much sex drive, instead of the little pest she used to be when they were growing up.  Shaking his head, he realized what he was thinking!  He had to get out of there fast before either of them did something they would both regret.     He couldn’t allow anything to happen between them.  Rowan would never forgive him.  But damn, now that he truly looked at Tessa, as a woman and not his friend’s sister, he found her incredibly sexy and wanted to do more than just look at her.  He didn’t hear anything she said, his attention was on her full, pink lips and all he could think of is what it would feel like to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless.  He couldn’t allow himself the self indulgence to find out though. 

“I should go,” Cade said hesitantly.  Part of him really hoped that she would ask him to stay, but he was relieved when she agreed and showed him to the door.

“Thanks for going out with me tonight.  Sorry you didn’t get lucky…I mean with another woman…I mean, sorry you didn’t have any luck…”

“It’s okay, Tess. I know what you meant.  I’ll talk to you later.”

With a quick hug, Cade was out the door in a flash.

Chapter 2

If she could have thrown the phone across the room, Tessa would have done it, but apparently she’d gotten more than a headache last night from being catapulted across the room.  The piercing sound of the phone combined with her headache and now sore shoulder just put her in a pissy mood altogether!  And the fact that she hadn’t gotten any sleep because she couldn’t get Cade out of her thoughts added to her bad mood.  God, what was wrong with her?

“This better be good,” she said as she picked up the receiver.

“Well, good morning to you, too, sunshine.  Late night?”  Rowan’s voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard.  He was entirely too chipper for seven in the morning.  Had he lost his ever loving mind?

“Couldn’t you have called a little later?  It’s Saturday!  What the hell are you calling me this early for anyway?  I swear, Rowan, if you weren’t my brother!”

“If I weren’t your brother, what?  And can’t I call you just because I love you, little sister.  So, how was last night?  Did you get lucky?”

“Rowan, not everyone goes to the club just to get lucky.  Some of us actually go just to have a good time.”

“Yeah right, sis, since when?  I will take that as you didn’t get lucky.  That must be the reason for your cheery mood. ”

Tessa just snorted into the phone and waited.

“Well, since you’re up now, let’s go out for breakfast, my treat.”

“No way, I’m not even out of bed.”

“Okay well, I’m standing outside your door so get out of bed, let me in, and shower so we can go.  I’m hungry.”

Without a word, Tessa clicked the off button on the phone and slid out of bed, stumbling to the door.  If he weren’t her only sibling, she would seriously consider hiring a hit man to take him out.  However, being that she did love her brother, she’d put up with him and his early morning wake up calls.  Unlocking the door and sliding the chain from its hook, she opened it to let him in.  He was just too damn happy in the mornings.  He’d always been that way.  It had irritated her as a kid and it irritated the hell out of her now.  No one person should be that happy she noted as his grin grew bigger, as if he had read her mind.  How they were conceived by the same parents amazed her.  They were such complete opposites; it was hard to believe they actually grew up in the same household.  As he walked into the house, he grabbed her and pulled her close for a hug.  Wincing from the pain in her shoulder, she gasped and pulled away from his embrace.

“Wow, you look like death warmed over,” he said, with a crooked smile as he took inventory of her appearance.

“Thanks brother, I know I can count on you to be a straight shooter,” she ground out, rubbing her shoulder.

 “Are you alright?”

“Yep, I just tweaked my shoulder last night, that’s all.”

“How did you do that?”  He quickly switched from brother to doctor. “Let me look at it.”

“That’s what a hard floor will do and it’s not a big deal, I’m fine,” she blurted without even thinking and shifted away from him.

“A hard floor?  What the hell, Tess?”

There was no way she was going to explain this one to him.  If Rowan had any idea at all what took place between her and Cade, he would never forgive either one of them.  Changing the subject as quickly as possible, Tessa told him to give her ten minutes and she’d be ready to leave for breakfast.  She stepped out from the bathroom, dressed and ready to go, when she noticed Rowan sitting in the very chair she had straddled Cade in last night.  She would never be able to look at that chair the same way again.  She would definitely have to get rid of it; put it out on the curb for someone who just so happened to drive by and realize that they needed a chair such as this one.  That chair and the things she had tried to do with Cade would forever be imprinted on her mind.  Hell, she’d have to put Cade at the curb with that chair.  How would she be able to look at him without having images of what could have been last night?  As her thoughts rattled on and on about the chair and the possibilities of what could have taken place in it, she was drawn back to reality by Rowan’s voice.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened to your shoulder?” he asked.

“Nothing. I just slipped and landed on it I guess.  I didn’t even realize I hurt it until this morning when someone decided to wake me up entirely too early. I probably just slept on it wrong.”

“Hmmm,” was his only reply, and then something happened that never had between her and Rowan.  There was an uncomfortable silence. Never, in the entirety of their existence, had there been a silence like this between them.  Oh, there were times when they had been in the room together for hours on end and not spoken a single word, but this was completely different.  And it was really starting to weird her out.  What she wouldn’t give to be able to read his mind at that moment; to know just what he was mulling around in there.  She couldn’t take it any longer and just wanted to get the hell out of there.  All of a sudden, her nice cozy three bedroom house felt like a cardboard box with just the four sides and they were closing in on her. 

She blurted out, “Well, let’s go get me some breakfast.  And I don’t want some greasy McDonald’s breakfast.  Since you woke me so early and made me get out of bed, you are taking me to a sit down restaurant where the cooks know what a breakfast is supposed to taste like.”

“You got it.  Let’s get out of here,” Rowan said.  He started to walk towards the door, and then paused.  “We should probably call Cade and let him know he left his wallet here last night though.”

“What?” she practically yelled.  Excuse after excuse that she could give Rowan started flooding her mind. There really was no reason to panic.  Rowan knew her and Cade were together last night.  And it wasn’t as if it were a big deal that Cade had come over.  He’d been over before with Rowan thousands of times.  However, he never came over unless Rowan was with him; never by himself.  It wasn’t even a big deal, was it?  They hadn’t actually done anything.  She just didn’t want Rowan to know that he had come over after they left the club.  All that didn’t matter now that he held Cade’s wallet in his hand with a questioning look. 

“Why do you have Cade’s wallet in your house, sis?”

“I can only assume that he must have dropped it last night when he brought me home.  I can’t imagine that he would leave it here intentionally.” That was her explanation, but by the look on Rowan’s face he wasn’t buying it.   Why had Cade taken the wallet out of his pocket and left it behind?    She didn’t go around taking her wallet out of her purse while visiting people in their homes.  It just didn’t make any sense.

“He would have had to actually taken it out of his pocket to have dropped it.”

“Okay, so then he must have taken it out for some reason.  Geez, Rowan, I don’t know why you men do half the things you do and you’re asking me to try to get into the mind of Cade and figure out why he left his wallet?  Damn, he’s
your
best friend, don’t you know why he would leave his wallet here?”  That had come out a little more defensive than she wished, but she knew that tone he was using and she didn’t like it.  It was the,
I’m the big brother and you will do as I say and answer when I ask you something
voice.  And she’d be damned if she answered anything else that had to do with last night.

“Oh, I know him alright, that’s why he better hope to God he didn’t pull it out with the intention of using this condom I found on the floor.”

Tessa just stood open mouthed at that statement as she looked at the unopened condom in Rowan’s hand.  Cade’s wallet?  A condom?  Oh Lord, what were they thinking last night?  All of a sudden the headache that had finally eased away during her hot shower just came back full force along with a now sour stomach.  There was no way she was going to be able to skate around the subject of last night’s events now.  Her brain had stopped focusing on Rowan’s statement, and for a brief moment she indulged in the thought of Cade actually pulling a condom out of his wallet while in her home.  So many naughty thoughts raced through her head at that point.  Then the shock of it hit her.  It wasn’t so much the condom itself.  Guys carried them around all the time just in case they got lucky.  And that was it!  The getting lucky part!  So, Cade had thought he was going to get lucky with her.  He had actually thought of having sex with her last night.  Oh holy begeezus!  But when exactly did he pull it out, the condom that is?  Why couldn’t she remember the important parts from last night, damn it?  She hadn’t even remembered them driving home; she did remember having pulled up her skirt for him and all of God’s creation to see the very center of her.  She remembered the dancing at the club and then the cursed event of being tossed across the room.  And if she hadn’t been so aggressive with him and surprised him would they have actually done the deed right there in her home, in that blessed chair?  As frightening a thought as that was, it was also very promising.  Yum, just the thought…

“Well, are you going to answer me?” Rowan yelled at her which brought her out of her thoughts.

“I’m sorry, what was the question?”

“I want to know what happened here last night.  So, are you going to tell me or should I just call Cade and find out what the hell he was thinking, trying to seduce my little sister?  Jesus, if I had known for one second that he would try something with you, Tess, I never would have suggested you call him.”

Oh Shit!
  Now she really felt bad.  Here Rowan was blaming Cade for something she’d done.  Although, she did have to concede that he took the condom out.  Damn it!  Now she couldn’t get that one detail out of her mind; Cade had actually wanted to have sex with her.  Just the thought sent shivers down her spine and heat racing through her body and pooling between her legs.

“Rowan, it’s not what you think.  Cade didn’t do anything wrong…”