One Lucky Deal (28 page)

“Come on.” Candace nodded for him to go with her to the door.

“Where are we going?” Tad asked, not moving from his spot.

“Out.” She grabbed his hand and forced him to follow her outside.

“I’m not dressed to go out.” Tad let her drag him with her. She grabbed his keys and whistled for all the dogs to follow them out too.

“Where we’re going you won’t need your clothes.”

That tugged a grin from Tad’s stubbornly serious face.

Most of the dogs jumped up into the back of the truck, but Charlie needed a little help and because he was so much smaller, he got to ride in the cab. Candace drove them down to a little inland lake that connected to their Great Lake by a small stream. The place was happening when she was a teenager during the summer but for some reason that trend had faded. It was completely deserted now.

Tad looked over at her and gave her that half grin that she found so incredibly sexy. He’d obviously been out here. Granted, she’d gone to school in Glenn Hill and Tad had gone to school in the Hollow, but every kid in the county had known about this hidden lake.

“Take me up here to get me naked?” Tad asked, shooting her that sexy grin again.

“Maybe.” Candace smiled and hopped out of the truck. She left the lights on, though, because it had started to get dark. She took Charlie out with her and pulled down the tailgate and let the other dogs out. She sat Charlie down in the dirt. “Be good,” she told them all rather firmly.

“I hope that doesn’t apply to me too.” Tad’s eyes heated, and Candace’s belly flipped. She was so grateful. She’d been concerned that maybe they had lost this.

“No.” Candace shook her head and pulled her shirt off. “You’d better be bad.” She kicked her shorts off. “Very bad.” She left her shoes and took off running for the water. Stripping out of her bra and bikini-style underwear, she left a trail for Tad to follow.

*

He kicked his clothes off as fast as possible and dived after her into the mild lake water. He caught her and lifted her up out of the water and tossed her back into it. Candace screamed and sank in deep.

He lost sight of her and his heart jumped with anxiety until he felt her movement between his legs after it was too late and she came up behind him and shoved his head under the water. Then she swam away as quickly as possible.

Most of the dogs were jumping in and out of the lake, swimming around enjoying the cool water on a hot night. Charlie was barking from the shore. He kept putting his paw in and testing the water but then backing up and barking. He finally got tired and went to lie down in the warm sand.

Tad reached out and grabbed Candace by the hips. She tried to splash him away but he wasn’t letting go of her. She kicked, screamed, and laughed. He hadn’t had so much fun in so long. It felt good just to have a good time with her.

“Shh.” Tad laughed. “Or someone will call the cops and Officer Joe will have to come out here and arrest us.”

“Oh God. We’re breaking so many laws too.”

“Public indecency.” Tad ticked off on his finger.

“I don’t know if that counts since technically we’re parked on private property.” Candace continued to laugh since he was tickling at her hips. She reached down and tried tickling him back.

“The water is public property,” Tad told her and tried not to laugh from her attempt at tickling him back. “We’d definitely get disturbing the peace, though. You are too loud.”

He knew she couldn’t stop the bubbling of laughter that was escaping her lungs. “I’m sorry, but you won’t stop.”

“I’ll stop.” Tad grinned and lifted her out of the water to throw her again but her damp skin caught the light from his headlights. He stopped and just held her there.
God, she is something else.

He let her slide back down his body. Her laughter had stopped and her eyes were wide. When her nipples dragged over his chest, she moaned. Tad couldn’t help himself. He brought her face forward and kissed her hard, stealing the moan right from her mouth.

He’d missed this.

And her.

“Candace—” Tad pulled his mouth from hers, and she pushed a finger over his lips to hush him.

“Not now.” She shook her head. “Please.”

Tad nodded. He reached for her hand and held it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her finger and then one to the center of her palm. “Okay,” he whispered. Then he kissed the racing pulse at her wrist and wrapped his arms tightly around her, bringing his lips back to hers.

*

It was easy; all Candace did was wrap her legs around his waist, and Tad’s heated erection slid inside her. She whimpered against his mouth, and he lulled her to quiet with his lips. Candace opened her mouth to speak but she couldn’t.

She knew in the pit of her stomach that this was it. He rocked into her and she felt him, with each thrust, invade another little piece of her heart. His hips were unhurried but he remained deeply imbedded in her. She pressed her hands to his face. She relished the feel of his skin against her palms, his body against her body.

Half his face was illuminated by their headlights. His gray-green eyes sparkled brilliantly in the stray rays of light. The water lapped against their skin as their bodies moved with each other beneath the surface. The floral scent of night-blooming flowers mingled with his scent, and the combination seemed to make the moment that much more precious.

Her gaze never strayed from his. She was so light and felt so safe in his arms. He had complete control. He held her hips, and all she could do was grind against him and clutch around him. Her wet hair began to dry in the breeze and she shivered against the mixture of the cold wind and his rough hands.

Her world was consumed by him. He was all she could see. He was all she wanted to feel. He was all she wanted—period. Fighting back the emotion that began to choke her was hard enough to do, but she couldn’t do it with his eyes boring into her soul.

Candace sighed his name and urgently pressed her lips to his. She locked her legs around him, driving him deeper inside her. Tad groaned into her mouth and brought his hand between their bodies to roll her swollen clit with his perfectly callused thumb.

Her head was swimming. Her heart was filling and sinking at the same time. She wanted Tad like she wanted her next breath. It had become such a part of her that it was unconsciously second nature and partly pure survival. She would wither and die without this—without his breath mingling with hers, without his bare chest pressed up against her breasts.

Tad pulled away from her mouth. He grasped a fistful of her wet hair, forcing her neck back so he could look down at her. He looked at her with such need that she couldn’t understand why this ever had to end. She didn’t want this to end.

She wrapped her arms around him, forcing his face to the crook of her neck. He kissed her shoulders and her jaw. He didn’t say anything but the sound of his irregular breathing was enough. The more she thought about never ending, the faster and harder she could feel it start to come over her.

Her skin was tingling. Her back was straining. Every muscle in her entire body was hardening, tightening by the second. She clutched him, his back, his skin. Tad must have known how close she was even though she was fighting it with everything she had. He grabbed at her hips roughly and brought her against him deep and hard.

She couldn’t hold on. “Tad—” It came out of her in a strangled cry. Candace came in his arms. She gripped him and couldn’t seem to get close enough. She shook so hard against him that he had to wrap his arms tightly around her and shush her until she calmed down.

*

Tad’s heart caught in his throat just watching her, hearing her, and feeling her squeeze him. After feeling her gush around him and claw him so hard he thought she’d been trying to climb inside of him, he couldn’t slow his pace. He was consumed by her—obsessed.

“Candace—” Tad looked at her. He could feel it. He knew what it meant. He wanted to keep her—own her, treasure her. He just couldn’t tell her that. His mouth opened as he went to try. “Candy, I—baby, I—” He just couldn’t make it come out of his mouth.

“Tad…” Candace whimpered against his lips. It was everything about her and it was also just the way she said his name.

“What do you want?” He meant now. He meant later. He just wanted her to say him. He just wanted her, that’s all, just her. “Tell me, baby.”

“More,” she begged. She tipped her head back and gasped as he pummeled deeper into her. “Just give me more.”

“I am. I will.” Tad moaned against her throat. “I’m trying.”

“There,” she pleaded. “There, Tad. Now.”

He dug his toes into the wet sand beneath his feet and bit back his own groans and thrust into her harder and faster. He felt her legs shake against his hips. He watched her lower lip quiver. Her eyelashes fluttered uncontrollably, and when she tipped her head back and cried out into the night their dogs howled along with her.

“Oh God, Candy.” He grasped her hair as he sucked and nipped along her neck, letting himself get lost in her residual spasms. He came right out of his skin. He lost his footing; his knees weakened. They fell deeper into the water together, both of them gasping for air. They clutched each other and didn’t let go for what could have been hours.

*

They kissed until Tad’s lips were blue from it. She had chills from his skin and was shivering from the breeze blowing over the water. The temperature finally dipped.

Tad pulled away and led her to the shore. The two of them picked up their clothes. Candace hopped into her shorts and pulled on her shirt. Tad just stepped back into his jeans. Charlie rode in the cab and the wet dogs rode in the back and would dry from the wind by the time they’d get home.

The rumble of the truck, the breeze, the smell of Tad and summer filling up the cab was going to lull her to sleep but she wanted to be awake. She didn’t want the night to end.

“Do you remember that night at camp?” Tad asked softly.

She didn’t have to ask which one because she knew which one he’d be asking her about. It was the last time they’d sneaked out to meet each other and they’d stayed out all night. They’d been awake to see the sunrise. It was probably, until the whole aurora borealis thing and for some reason tonight as well, the most romantic night of her life. Funny how the top three were all with Tad—it was likely that so were the top five, maybe even the top ten.

“Yes,” Candace responded. She didn’t ask why he thought of that night, and he didn’t divulge his reasoning, either. Candace knew, though, that there was a smell, the way the wind was blowing through the tall grass, or the fact that there was an obvious tingling of farewell in the air that had them both thinking back to that long-ago night at camp just before everything fell apart.

Chapter 22

They went home and climbed into Tad’s bed together. They talked for a long while about the time they just shared. They swapped stories about the week they had both just survived. They laughed together and it all felt so nice.

The house smelled like paint and she was starting to really enjoy it. The dogs’ feet sounded different on the hardwood floors and she liked that too. The house was breezier and cleaner even though it was a mess. She wondered what else he had planned and so she asked, “What more are you going to do?”

Tad’s arm was beneath her head and she traced the lines of his chest. “I want to get new cabinets for the kitchen. I’d like to completely redo the bathroom. Why, is there something specific you have in mind?”

She didn’t know why he was asking her that. She had thought to ask the most pressing questions a thousand times, but if this was their last challenge then this was probably their last night and she figured the dreaded talk could just come in the morning. Tonight she just wanted to lock this to her memory. She wanted to remember how it felt to be with Tad because this time if, or rather, when they walked away from each other there was little chance of them getting back together.

“No,” she finally answered and snuggled up under his chin. If she stayed awake too much longer the thought of the night ending was going to really get to her, so she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths that were full of his scent, and eventually she fell asleep.

*

Tad watched her sleep for awhile. Her face was different when she slept—softer, sweeter, and it was also missing what made her face worth looking at. He couldn’t see those big blue eyes, even if he could admire the length and curve of her lashes. He also couldn’t see that wide smile of hers or that faint little dimple in her cheek. He loved that dimple. He liked everything about her, even the stuff that drove him insane, but looking at her now, he suddenly couldn’t think of any of those things.

He didn’t remember closing his eyes but when Tad opened them in the morning she was gone. His arms were empty and so was the bed. Nothing in his entire life had hurt like that. If that’s how all the women he’d left or chased off after sex had felt, he deserved this right now.

Not even the satisfaction of winning that challenge took the edge off, because although they hadn’t talked yet, something about waking up alone felt an awful lot like a breakup. Tad rubbed his chin and shoved the covers off him.

It was his day off, but since Candace had gotten up without saying good-bye and left for work, Tad figured he might as well go off to work himself. He looked around at all that he’d done on the house but it obviously wasn’t enough, which made him come to the conclusion that the house hadn’t been the problem in the first place.

He was.

* * * *

Candace came home after work and had to give herself a pep talk at the door. “Okay, Candy. This is your house. You have to go inside. Did you just call yourself Candy? You’re losing it. You’ve lost it.” She shook her head and pushed open the door and stepped inside. The dogs came running. She let them sniff at her hands and afterward she gave them each a full rubdown. She forced herself out of the entryway because she knew she was just stalling for time.

“Hey,” Tad called from the kitchen.

“Hey.” Candace smiled back, but hers was nervous.