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Cade Landry might be arrogant, and overwhelming, and cynical, and tightly controlled when it came to his emotions as well as his work ethic—but all those things also made him exciting and fascinating...and really hot.
‘Dig in,’ he said as he placed the loaded plates on the breakfast bar and climbed onto the stool across from her.
She didn’t have to be asked twice. She cut into the perfectly cooked steak, put it in her mouth and let the meaty juices dissolve on her tongue.
‘Delicious,’ she moaned.
‘Yeah,’ he said, his gaze roaming over her in a way that made her skin tingle.
The sweet spot between her thighs—which only he had ever found—rejoiced right alongside her taste-buds. She stiffened, acknowledging the danger. Apparently, Cade Landry’s culinary skills were as seductive as all his other skills....
They ate in silence. She polished off most of the enormous steak and made inroads into the potato and crisp salad. But once he had cleared his plate, she was forced to admit defeat.
‘You done?’ he asked.
‘Yes, thanks, it was very good,’ she said as he scooped up the plates, cleaned the remnants of her meal into the waste disposal and loaded the dinnerware into a state-of-the-art dishwasher.
‘So, I think I’ll head to bed,’ she said, trying to lessen the sexual tension threatening to devour her almost as efficiently as he had demolished his steak.
Because watching the man do domestic chores was stupidly sexy, too. Who knew?
The confidences they’d shared about their pasts, their childhoods—and the fact they had both, in different ways, been abandoned by their mothers—threatened a level of intimacy which she needed to process before she did anything daft.
This still wasn’t a real relationship. She had to remember that. He’d only offered her more than the other women he’d dated because she carried his child. An accidental conception didn’t make them a couple.
But as she got off the stool to head to her bedroom, the delicious steak she had devoured now sitting like a brick in her stomach—her emotions churning right under it—he strode around the kitchen counter and snagged her arm.
‘Wait up, Charlotte.’ He tugged her around to face him. ‘Don’t run out on me again,’ he said, and she heard the tension. ‘Thisdoesn’t have to be a stunt relationship, not when we both want each other so much.’
He rested a hand on her hip.
She could move away from him, tell him she didn’t want him with the same urgency, the same need. But how could she? When her sex was already aching to be filled. The need to protect herself from any romantic delusions, though, was still paramount.
‘I’m not sure that’s smart,’ she said.
‘Why not?’ he asked as emotion swirled in his eyes.
Because I’m still a little scared I could end up needing you too much.
She pushed the terrifying thought away this time. One thing she’d always been was a realist. Even as a little girl. He wasn’t offering love, and she didn’t want it. Because that would leave her more vulnerable, and she was vulnerable enough already.
‘I’m scared of becoming a burden or a responsibility,’ she said.
And wanting something I can’t have.
That was how she’d always felt as a child. Because of the mother who had been too sick to acknowledge her, the father who had never cared about anyone but himself. And the big brother who had treated her for so much of their lives as a duty to be managed.
Cade swore softly, still holding his hand on her hip his body vibrating now with the same frustration she felt.
‘That’s not how I see you, Charlotte. You’re witty and vibrant and infuriating and sexy as hell. I don’t want to take your independence away from you... But I’ve gotta tell you, living here with you, knowing my kid is growing inside you and being unable to touch you, is driving me nuts.’
She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. She saw the need and the passion which matched her own. And felt herself melting.
‘You can touch me, Cade. Iwantyou to touch me. As long as we’re clear that’s all this is. Nothing more than an itch we both enjoy scratching.’
He cradled her cheek, and she saw the flash of triumph—the aching desire. And felt oddly hollow inside.
But she knew she had to stand firm.
