Meeting His Match (A Match Me Novel) (Entangled Lovestruck) (8 page)

Chapter Eleven

Caine tried to relearn how to breathe while his world broke apart and realigned itself. He’d known he wanted Addison around more, but he hadn’t really thought about what that might mean. The sex had only cemented it. She brought something to his life that he’d never experienced before, and he was going to move heaven and earth to convince her to stay. Permanently.

He stroked a hand down her side. She smiled without opening her eyes, looking relaxed for the first time since he’d met her. “You’re beautiful.”

“And you’re being charming because you just got laid.” She caught his hand and brought it to her lips. The sweetness of the gesture charmed him even more than the sex had. Because
this
was what he’d been searching for—someone to share his house with, to make it into an actual home. Exactly like she’d done from the moment she moved in.

“I’m always charming.”

“Whatever you have to tell yourself.” She smiled and it struck him that she had freckles. How had he never noticed that? He shifted down her body and she lifted her head. “What are you doing?”

“Counting.”

She frowned. “Counting?”

“Yeah.” He touched the one on her collarbone. “One.” Then a small cluster on her chest. “Two, three, four, five.”

“Stop it!” She slapped his wrist.

“Six, seven.” He moved to her hip. “Eight. Nine.”

“Oh my God.” She flopped back to the bed. “This is humiliating.”

“I disagree.” He kissed her thigh. “Ten.”

“What happened to my being in charge?”

“That was then. Eleven.” He kissed her other thigh. “This is now. Twelve. Thirteen.” He moved higher, licking the spot where thigh met hip. “Oh look—”

A howling echoed through the house. Caine glared at the door. “That damn dog is a nuisance.”

“Something’s wrong. She wouldn’t freak out over nothing.” Addison wiggled out of his grip and grabbed his dress shirt. Before he got his boxers on, she had the damn thing mostly buttoned up and her panties back in place. He wanted to enjoy the view of her in his shirt, her pale skin wonderfully contrasted with the dark blue fabric, but she was already out the door and gone. He cursed and yanked on his pants. If there
was
something wrong, the idiot woman was rushing headlong into trouble.

He heard her talking and picked up his pace, hurrying down the stairs, and broke into a run when a male voice spoke, too. He skidded around the corner and nearly hit the wall. When he saw the scene in the formal living room, he kind of wished he had. He scrubbed his hand over his face, but it didn’t change.

There was his father on the floor, pinned in place by the giant mop dog, with four puppies in his face, yipping. And there was a half-naked Addison, trying to reason with the dog. Caine took a deep breath and marched into the room. “Dad, I’m sorry.”

Addison whipped around so fast, she almost fell. “Did you just say
dad
?”

“Get this beast off me this instant.”

She spun back around. “I’m so sorry! Gollum, get off of him. This is your grandpa, not a bad man.” Gollum didn’t look too impressed, but when Addison snagged her collar, she let herself be urged off her prey. Caine didn’t think he’d seen his old man quite so out of sorts in his entire life. His father struggled to his feet, his black suit rumpled beyond repair. He glared at Addison, but she was too busy ushering the parade of dogs out the back door to notice.

When he turned that look on Caine, he knew he was in trouble. “What’s going on here?”

A thousand excuses and plausible reasons for this tripped over themselves to get out of his throat. It had been like this ever since he could remember. His father would pin him with one of
those
looks, and he’d do whatever it took to make things right, no matter who was at fault. It had gotten to the point where all he did was make his father happy, no matter the cost. It’s how he had ended up in the position he was now, CEO of McNeill Enterprises. He didn’t necessarily regret that decision, but it was hard to love it when he hadn’t really had a choice.

His father looked at Addison again. “Who is that?”

Before he could think up a good response to that—telling his father that she was his matchmaker would just open up a can of worms he wasn’t ready to deal with—she smiled and offered her hand. “I’m Addison St. Claire. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Trust her to handle the situation as if his father hadn’t just basically caught them in bed together.

He looked at her outstretched hand like it was covered in muck, but he had too much of the South in him to ignore the courtesy of a handshake. He let go as soon as politely possible, and Caine didn’t miss the way he wiped his hand on his pants. Christ. He stepped between them before his father said something unforgivable. “What can I help you with, Dad?”

“Your secretary said you were on a date.” He didn’t quite peer around Caine, but he looked like he wanted to. “I thought for sure you’d be home by now. I didn’t expect you to have
company
.” The way he said it made it sound like she was a two-bit hooker.

He had to get him out of here—the sooner the better. “Why were you looking for me so late?”

“It’s not late.
I
was still in the office.”

And their mother was no doubt entertaining her lady friends, or engaged in some sort of nonprofit party planning. She wouldn’t miss him during his late evenings—she’d stopped throwing a fit about it somewhere around the time Caine turned ten, and started throwing herself into her own activities.

His parents’ relationship—or lack of one—was the main reason he hadn’t been too keen to settle down anytime soon. Sustaining a marriage when he worked the hours he currently did was impossible. Either the woman would end up hating him, or she’d become a stranger like his mother had.

But now, standing here facing the clear disparity between his father and himself, he had to wonder. There must be a better way, one that didn’t involve isolating the people he was supposed to care the most about. His father hadn’t made a single sports game or extracurricular activity from the time he was in grade school until he graduated from college. He’d always been working, to the point where Caine never expected him to show up, even if
he
made sure to be there for every varsity football game Brock played in high school. His little brother had deserved more than that, but that was all Caine was capable of giving him.

Was he willing to miss out on his own kid growing up?

Addison’s hand on the small of his back snapped him out of it. Whatever the future held, it wasn’t going to be decided tonight. First, he had to deal with his old man. “Is there a problem?”

“Gloucester is threatening to pull out of the Richards account.”

Why the fuck hadn’t he led with that piece of information? “What? They’re set to break ground in a few months. They can’t back out now.” If they did, it’d be disastrous. It’d set them back God knew how long, and cost him an arm and a leg.

“Maybe if you were in your office when Richards called, you’d have found a way to head this off before it became such an issue.”

Damn it, but his father was right. He had to fix this. Now. He turned to Addison. “I’ve got to take care of this.”

She smiled, looking for all the world like she actually understood. “Go. I have plenty to occupy myself.” She headed for the hallway leading to the room she’d taken over as her own sometime in the past week. His father started to speak—no doubt to lay into him again—but he held up a hand. “I’ll take care of it.”

By the time Caine caught up with her, she was already in the room and opening her computer. “Hey.”

She raised her eyebrows. “That was a quick fix.”

“Not quite.” He pulled her to her feet. “I wasn’t about to leave without my good-bye kiss.”

Her eyebrows inched higher. “Good-bye kiss.”

“Yeah. It’s in the contract.”

“I don’t remember signing a contract.”

“I’ll have Agnes email you a copy.” He grinned. Even thirty seconds in her presence was enough to loosen the stress threatening to pull him under. He still had to deal with it, but it would be easier to do knowing that she was here, waiting for him.

“You do that. I’d like to know what I signed on for.”

Everything
. He hauled that word back by the skin of his teeth and kissed her instead. They hadn’t even had a chance to talk, so his telling her that he had no intention of letting her go would only scare her. And a scared Addison would fly half of New York’s eligible women down here to date him. It wouldn’t change a damn thing, but he didn’t feel like jumping through hoops that could easily be avoided.

Knowing his father was in the next room kept him from following through on the way she melted against him. Not to mention he had one of his biggest contracts this year threatening to fall through. He refused to let that happen. The Richards account would bring nearly two hundred jobs into an area of Manchester that desperately needed it. Plus, it was the first project in years that didn’t involve him traveling the South to put things together, since it was being built in his hometown.

He pressed a kiss to Addison’s forehead. “I wish I could say don’t wait up, but it might end up being a late night if my old man isn’t exaggerating.”

“Like I said, I have work I’ve been neglecting since I got down here. Take care of your business and I’ll be here when you’re done.”

Did she have any idea what those words did to him? He searched her face, but she seemed genuinely earnest. Like she had no idea she was offering him the world. He kissed her again. “I’ll call you later.”

“Go, before you father comes in here looking for you and Gollum takes offense again.”

With a laugh, he went.

…

Addison set to work on her computer. First, she pulled up all the profiles she’d spent the last week ignoring. It had been months since she wanted to match people with their soul mates. Now it was all she could think about. There were clients who needed to find their love and she was just the person to help them. She smiled as she remembered the look on Caine’s face before he left. He really was something. Things with his father hadn’t gone particularly well, but there was plenty of time to fix that before she left.

She frowned. Did she still want to leave? Things that looked so simple before suddenly weren’t simple at all. It seemed cliché to say that the sex changed things. But it did. With her body still tingling from his touch, how was she supposed to be thinking about leaving? She frowned harder. Caine wasn’t hers. It didn’t matter how much she enjoyed him, it couldn’t happen. Knowing that shouldn’t hurt quite so much, but it did.

Needing a distraction from the trap her mind had become, she opened up her client files. She might be a hot mess in her personal life right now, but she could at least help out people she was working for. Addison got to work bringing up different files and looking at them all at once.

It was something she’d done ever since she started her matchmaking business, to be able to see all clients at once and see if anything stuck out. It didn’t always work, but sometimes two people would jump out at her and that would result in a spark on their first date. It was that first spark that had made her love this business initially, but that love had waned over the years. Who knew it would take a grouchy CEO to snap her out of it?

She didn’t know if she should be thanking or cursing Caine for twisting her up as much as he had. Either way, it wasn’t going to help her tonight. She stared at her computer screen until the faces blurred, but all she could think about was the look in his eyes when he’d pushed into her. There was more than lust there, more than just desire in the damn near reverent way he touched her.

And she’d responded. God, had she responded.

She wasn’t getting any work done tonight, no matter how good her intentions were. With a sigh, she shut down the computer and opened the back door. “Gollum! Leo, Don, Raph, Mikey! Time to come in.” She smiled as they obediently trotted in, a little parade of white. Gollum immediately herded the pups into the giant bed Addison bought them the other day, and then settled in. “Good night. Sleep tight.”

She climbed the stairs, her mind wandering. It was only when she got to the top that she realized she had no idea where she was supposed to sleep. Would it be too presumptuous to go to his bedroom? Or would she be sending the wrong signal if he came home and she was in her own? She stood there, frozen in place, until Gollum came up and nudged her hip. This was silly. Caine probably wouldn’t be home until morning, if then, and she was exhausted. What she needed was sleep—not to be sitting here obsessing about hurting his feelings. If she had half a brain, she’d get on a plane and never look back. But Addison couldn’t make herself leave.

She didn’t even want to try.

Chapter Twelve

Caine didn’t get home until late the next morning. He was pretty sure he had sand in his eyeballs, and his entire body felt as if he’d just run a marathon. But it was worth it because he’d talked Gloucester out of backing out of the deal. Apparently the man had been feeling neglected because Caine was focused on other things. Gloucester was more high-maintenance than any woman he’d met, and he was certainly more high-maintenance than Addison.

Thinking of her brought a smile to Caine’s face. Ending the night with another lovemaking session instead of his being called off to work would have been more preferable by far. Once definitely wasn’t enough.

He smiled as he pulled into his driveway. Before this week, after a long night, he would have spent a few hours on his couch at his office. Now? Now he couldn’t wait to get home. It was more than sex—though the sex was pretty fantastic. Addison brought something to his life that he hadn’t even been aware he was missing. Looking back, everything was stark. He’d been so damn miserable, and it was only her busting through the wall he’d built around himself that allowed him to see it.

He never knew what he’d find when he walked through the front door, and damn it, he enjoyed that. Had she taken pity on some other animal and adopted it? She could say that Gollum was to improve his image all she wanted, but that only required one dog. Addison had adopted an entire family because she couldn’t bear the thought of a mother being separated from her pups.

Her fierce protectiveness was just one of the many things he found himself drawn to. He had a feeling he’d find even more the longer they spent together.

Christ, he needed sleep. It wasn’t like him to sit here and wax poetic about anyone, even a woman as interesting and engaging as this one. But a lot of his personal rules had changed since Addison came into his life. It was enough to make him wonder what else would change if he convinced her to stay.

He half expected her to be in the room she’d taken over as her own, but she was nowhere be found. The dog, however, was all too happy to see him. He let her and her puppies into the backyard, and then set out to find Addison. It was late morning, so he’d expected her to be up. He’d never been so happy to be wrong.

He found her in his room. Caine stopped just inside the door, a feeling he couldn’t describe welling up in his chest. She slept in
his
bed last night. What was it about this woman to make him feel so possessive and out of control? He wanted an answer, but at the same time, he wanted to spend the rest of his life figuring it out.

Rest of his life? That was a hell of a long time to spend with someone he had known only a week. Surely he couldn’t actually be thinking about forever with her?

And yet…he was.

He stripped off his shirt, taking his time. The sight before him was something to be enjoyed—not rushed. She was exquisite, all that pale skin against his dark red sheets, the tumble of her hair nearly the same color. He made quick work of his pants, and then climbed into bed with her. She rolled toward him but didn’t wake up as he settled next to her. If
this
was something he could expect to find in his bed on a regular basis, he might be willing to reconsider his reluctance to settle down permanently. He brushed her hair from her face, tracing her cheekbone with his thumb.

She smiled without opening her eyes. “You’re home.”

“I’m sorry it took so long.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I know all about business emergencies.” She opened her eyes. “The stories I can tell you would curl your hair. You think working with contractors is bad? Try working with a pair of people who are so determined not to like each other that they actively sabotage a date.”

“Sabotage a date? I don’t know a damn thing about that.” He grinned and pulled her into his arms. “I was in the process of doing something delightful when we were interrupted last night. Let’s get back to that.”

“Don’t you need to sleep?”

“I can sleep when I’m dead. And unless you have plans you’re not telling me about, I’m safe for the moment.” He rolled on top of her, pinning her wrists above her head. She sighed like this was a serious chore, but the smile tugging at the edges of her mouth told him just how much she was enjoying this. That and the way she leaned up for a kiss. He lost himself in the feeling of her mouth yielding to his, her body soft beneath him, the little tremors in her muscles telling him better than words she was just as affected by this as he was.

Don’t leave
. He fought the words back. If he wanted Addison to stay, he had to give her a reason. A woman like her wasn’t going to be permanently swayed by sex, no matter how hot the chemistry sparked between them.

But it was a start.

He kissed his way down her collarbone, resuming the path he’d taken last night. Her skin was soft beneath his mouth, her body shivering with each lick. He moved over her ribs, spanning her waist with his hands. She was a tiny little thing, something that was easy to forget when she was filling the room with her presence. She offered so many contradictions, and those only seemed to become more pronounced the more time he spent with her.

He spread her thighs and settled between them. “Thinking about this was all that got me through the night. The entire time Gloucester was making his demands, I was thinking about touching you here.”

“That’s terrible!”

“What do you expect? I was interrupted before I could taste you again last night.” He kissed the spot where thigh met hip, loving the way she shuddered. If he’d ever been with a more responsive woman, he couldn’t remember one. Hell, every other sexual experience he’d had to date paled in comparison to this. This was special. Unique. Something worth fighting for.

Before she could say anything else, he gave her center a long lick. She tasted better than he remembered. There were too many things he couldn’t say yet, so he pushed away everything but her hands in his hair as he drove her wild. He could spend all day drawing those little sounds from her mouth. Each one reminded him that
he
was the only man she’d been with in years.

If he had his way, he’d be the only one she’d be with for years to come.

Her shaking body gave away how close she was to the edge. It wouldn’t take much to push her over. He slid a single finger into her and crooked it, making her nearly come off the bed. She lifted her hips, her breath sobbing out as she offered him more. He couldn’t have said no if he wanted to. He was starting to think he could deny this woman nothing.

Caine draped her legs over his shoulders, the move spreading her wider for him. He gentled his touch to the lightest of licks over her clit. She whimpered, trying to arch into him, but he wasn’t about to let her take control. This time he was in the driver’s seat.

“I want to be inside you…feel you coming around my cock.”

Her entire body spasmed at his words. “Yes, please, I want that, too.”

Needing to do just that, he moved back up her body and blindly reached for the condoms in the top drawer. Addison kissed him as he rolled one on, her body arching up to meet his. He slid into her slowly, relishing the connection. Caine pumped once, twice, gauging her reactions. When one angle made her go wild beneath him, he propped himself on his elbows and worked at re-creating it.

Her head thrashed from side to side. “God, that feels so good.”

It did. Too damn good. He gritted his teeth, determined to drive her out of her mind before he let go. Her fingers dug into his ass and she kissed him with a desperation that matched his own. Then she was coming, her core milking him until he couldn’t stop himself from driving into her, chasing the pressure building in the small of his back. His orgasm hit him like a freight train, and he groaned her name as he came.

He slid to the side and kissed her one last time. “The things you do to me.”

“God, you’re insatiable.” She smiled. “But you need to get some sleep. You’ve been up all night.”

“Just a few hours. I have to check in again with Gloucester this afternoon to ensure nothing else goes wrong.” As happy as he’d be to spend the entire day with her in bed, he was after more. Which meant it was time to implement the
more
. “Why don’t you let me take you out this evening?”

“Out?”

“Yes.” He paused, wondering why this felt so incredibly important after everything they’d experienced in the last twenty-four hours. “On a date.”

She flinched, just a little, but managed to dredge up a smile. “That’d be wonderful.”

Funny, but normally when he asked out a woman he knew for a fact was interested in him—something he couldn’t misinterpret when it came to Addison—they didn’t cringe. “I promise not to bite.”

“I bet you say that to all the ladies.” She scooted out from beneath his arm. “Get some sleep. I still have work to do if I’m going to be jaunting about with you tonight.”

There was something off about her response, but she kissed him and walked out of the room before he could pinpoint the issue. Caine debated chasing her down and figuring out what the problem was—and doing whatever necessary to ensure she didn’t fly in another woman while he slept—but exhaustion tugged at him. If she wasn’t in the sharing mood right now, which her quick exit seemed to indicate, she wasn’t going to appreciate him chasing her down and demanding to talk. He’d get some sleep and allow her a chance to find her footing again before tonight.

Tonight she wouldn’t have the opportunity to run from him when he asked her what was wrong.

…

Addison managed to spend the rest of the day very carefully not thinking. She was getting pretty good at it. There was a healthy dose of panic sitting at the back of her mind, patiently waiting for her to let her guard down, but she refused to give in. No matter how uncertain the future felt right now, she truly was enjoying her time with Caine. Everything else would work itself out in the end, and it would most definitely
not
blow up in her face.

Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she’d actually start to believe it.

She took extra time to shower, letting hot water beat some stress from her tired muscles. As expected, this house had excellent water pressure. Everything about this place was excellent. Hell, everything about Caine was excellent, too. What was a mere mortal like her supposed to do in the face of all that personality and drive? She hadn’t stood a chance.

She still didn’t.

She washed her hair with the flowery-smelling shampoo, and couldn’t help wondering if it belonged to a woman who had been here before. She didn’t like to think she’d been wrong about his lack of social life, though she could admit to herself that the reasons
why
it bothered her weren’t professional ones. She was up to her neck and sinking fast when it came to the man. When she’d met him that first day, she hadn’t expected to be so wrong about him. He might be as miserable as she’d thought—it took one to know one—but there was so much more going on beneath his gruff exterior. The thread of unexpected tenderness was what really got her. Every time he touched her, it was as if he was holding the most breakable thing in the universe and he didn’t want to hurt her.

Which just went to show—he saw and understood a lot more about her than was entirely comfortable.

She dried off and headed to the closet. As she always did the rare times she traveled, she had unpacked as soon as she got here. What seemed like a lot of clothes before now felt like not nearly enough. What does one wear on a date with the millionaire, especially one she
liked
? Surely not the same thing she’d worn to the interview? She didn’t know.

But she knew someone who would.

Addison picked up her phone and dialed the number from memory. As expected, Reagan picked up quickly. “Hello, sweetie.”

She sounded entirely too chipper. Addison frowned. Regan couldn’t have known what would happen when she sent her down here. That was too diabolical, even for her friend. Except… She pushed the worry from her mind. Right now she had bigger fish to fry. “I don’t know what to wear on a date.”

There was a long pause. “A date?”

“…Yes.”

An even longer pause. “And who might this date be with?”

Did she admit it? Normally Regan wouldn’t be judgmental about such things, but Addison’s instincts had been wrong from the beginning when it came to Caine. Maybe she was wrong about this too. She cursed herself. Why would she have called if she didn’t trust Regan? Now was not the time to doubt herself. “Caine.”

Her friend didn’t miss a beat. “What have you got with you?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. She should have known Regan wouldn’t interrogate her when there was a fashion emergency on the line. “A bunch of professional dresses.”

“That’s not going to work.”

Which was exactly the problem. “Yeah, I know. Hence the panicked phone call to you.”

“I’m trying not to enjoy this too much.” She laughed. “But I never thought I’d see the day—Addison going on a date.”

“Please don’t blow this out of proportion. It’s just one date.” Even speaking that aloud felt like a lie. This
was
a big deal, whether she liked it or not.

“And when was your last date?”

Regan already knew this. She was the only one other than Grandmother that Addison had told about Lee, though she’d taken a very different approach. “Six years ago,” she mumbled.

“So, my point stands. This is big deal. What time are you going out?”

She hadn’t actually asked. She’d been too worried about getting out of Caine’s bed before she gave in to the temptation to touch him again—and before he followed through on the look he’d given her when she left the room. The one that said he knew something was wrong and he had no intention of letting it go. “I’m not sure.”