One Lucky Deal (30 page)

“I love how your skin feels against them,” Candace murmured. She brought her hands up to cover his, her gaze still locked on his face.

Tad was caught off guard; he was usually the one doing the talking when they were like this. “They’re rough.” Tad’s gaze left hers and slipped down her body to where his hands were cupped over her breasts, his thumbs stroking their inner swell. “You’re soft.”

“I love it,” Candace whispered and rocked against him.

This time it was with nothing separating them. Candace arched her back to the pleasure and pushed her breasts up and out. He’d never seen her quite like this—so brazen, so sexy, and the whole time those blue eyes kept boring into his soul. Tad ground out her name before closing his mouth over one sweetly puckered nipple.

“I love that too.”

“Good.” Tad’s lips dragged against her wet nipple.

“Do you know what else I love?” Candace asked, leaning forward and cupping his face.

Tad’s heart lurched. She sure was throwing that word around an awful lot. This was supposed to be sex. This wasn’t supposed to climb so deeply inside him. He needed to make her close her eyes; he needed to get her to close her mouth. Yet he couldn’t, because the things she was telling him were prying him apart and he needed them like he needed his next breath.

“What?” Tad’s voice was so affected he was hoarser and raspier than he’d ever been.

“This,” Candace whispered against his lips. He felt her shift her hips. He felt her wrap her fingers around his dick. He groaned in appreciation when she angled her hips, guided her warm, wet opening over him, and slid down around his shaft. He inhaled sharply.

“More.” Tad all but growled against her mouth. He fisted his hand in her hair and wrapped his arm around her back tightly. Candace complied and sank completely down around him. She opened herself up so far she let him inside her deeper than he’d ever been—he could have sworn he was now touching her soul. “Candace…”

She gave him a sexy devilish smile and gently corrected him. “Candy.” Jesus, she was killing him. Then she began to move against him in a rhythm that made him weak all over. He found himself so close … so close … to losing his damn mind.

“Aw, baby—agh, God.” Tad grasped Candace’s hips roughly and forced her to stop moving. He went to flip her over, but Candace held onto him with her thighs, tightening them and herself around him at the same time. He swore. She grabbed the headboard behind him. “I want you under me.” Tad went to urge her over again but Candace resisted.

“Why, Tad? So you can be in charge of this? So you can be the one to drive me wild, to make me lose control so that you can always hold back just enough?”

His stomach sank and his heart caught in his throat. “Maybe,” he admitted. But she had him, she had his number, and she called him out.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Candace rolled her hips against him, drawing a long groan from his throat. “Not tonight.” With that, her hands were on his shoulders for leverage, and his grip on her hips eased even though the tightness in his jaw increased instead.

She kissed his mouth and he welcomed it, welcomed her mouth and that delicious candy-sweet tongue. She tasted better than anything. She felt perfect in his arms. He splayed his hands possessively up her back and wound them into her silky-smooth hair.

Candace broke the kiss to string a line of them up his jaw to his ear where she murmured, “I love that I’m the only brunette.”

Tad clenched his eyes shut and tightened his hold on her. He dropped his mouth to her shoulder where he bit into her flesh.

“I love that we did this,” Candace whispered. “I so love that we did this—
are
doing this.”

He couldn’t listen to her unsteady breathing and that word come out of her mouth one more time. Tad brought her lips back to his but Candace fought it, opting to stay pressed against his mouth while she remained talking.

“I love how you wait days to shave. I love how it feels against my skin.”

Tad couldn’t tear his gaze from hers now, either. Her eyes were so blue and beautiful. Tonight they seemed too deep, deep enough to drown in, and for the first time in a very long time he couldn’t think of any reason he shouldn’t do just that.

With every word, with every lift and shift of her hips, he was nearing that edge. He wasn’t at all sure she was anywhere near close. She wouldn’t let him get her under his control. She wouldn’t let him lay her down and allow him to take her there. She kept him under her hips where she showered him with these strange confessions.

Her gaze deepened on his and he nearly lost it all then. Her voice changed too—softened, sweetened. There was a note of reverence in her voice that drove straight through him. “You’re so good. You’re such a good man. I’m so proud of you, Tad. I trust you and I love who you’ve become.”

That was all Tad could take. He brought her mouth fully to his and kissed her hard and deeply. He tried so hard but he couldn’t help it. When he finally gave in to her, into his pleasure, he gripped her hips and let a loud, raw groan escape from his mouth. He bent his head to her shoulder and stayed there until he was completely drained—until his hips stopped jerking.

He was humbled … and embarrassed. Never had he gotten off before Candace had.

“I’m so sorry, Candace,” Tad whispered against her glistening skin.

“Don’t be.” She cupped his scruffy cheeks and forced him to look at her. There was that smile again.

“What?”

“Candy,” she whispered to him again. “I hate that I love it when you call me Candy.”

And there was that word again, and damn if his heart didn’t perk up every time she uttered it.

“Well, Candy,” Tad murmured and flipped her to her back, not giving her enough time to complain about it. “It’s my turn.”

“Hey.” She smiled brightly. “You won’t hear any objections from me.”

Chapter 23

Candace was right. Tad spent the whole night making up to her, and he never heard any complaints. Later, after she’d come so many times he’d lost count, and after he’d had to be inside her one more time, they lay on his bed with the sheets crumpled and the fitted sheet tugged up at the corners. Her head rose and fell on his chest with each of his deep breaths.

He was glad she didn’t get up and leave. He tugged her right in close to his side and curled his arm around her. He was so exhausted he didn’t open his eyes. “I meant what I said earlier, Tad,” Candace whispered. He felt her breath against his damp skin. He knew when she lifted her head to look at him, and not just because he missed the weight of her on his chest but because her gaze burned into him. She sighed. “I love you.” It was shameful and cowardly, but he let her believe that he was asleep.

* * * *

In the morning Candace woke up in Tad’s bed. She knew it was his because his sheets smelled differently even though both of their sheets were washed in the same detergent. His smelled like him, like man and soap.

She knew before she opened her eyes that he wasn’t beside her. He was hardly ever beside her in the morning. They’d won the challenge, though. Tad shouldn’t have gotten up and gone to work, but when she made her way to the kitchen where it smelled like coffee, she glanced out the window and noticed that the truck was gone. She couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d go so early in the morning.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and turned to head back out of the kitchen when the alphabet letters on the fridge caught her eye. Her heart nearly stopped. Her eyes stung. She read it over and over again and couldn’t quite seem to believe it. Then she suddenly wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

It was simple. It was straightforward. But, damn it, it was spelled out in alphabet letters on their refrigerator!

I LOVE YOU TOO.

“That damn coward.”

* * * *

Candace got dressed as quickly as she could. She didn’t bother with the dogs at all. She grabbed her keys and rushed out the door. Gravel was flying when she pulled into R&T Auto Repairs, and sure enough, Tad and Reed’s trucks were parked side by side.

She climbed out of her car and marched into the garage. It didn’t take long to find him. They weren’t even very busy. The sight of him nearly made her lose her nerve. He looked too damn sexy in his coveralls. The top half was tied around his waist. He was in just a greased-up stained white T-shirt, his hat was on backward, and a rag was dangling from his back pocket.

“Candy?” Tad’s eyes widened at the sight of her. “What are you doing here?”

Then the sparks were back. “You cannot go and tell a girl like that, Tad. What the hell was that?”

“At least I told you,” Tad said, immediately defensive.

“Barely!” Candace shouted.

“What are you saying? You’d rather me do it here?” He motioned to the garage around them.

“It’s got to be better than how you did it.”

“What’s going on, guys?” Reed came out of the office looking horrified that the two of them were back to fighting and in the middle of his garage, of all places.

Tad looked down at the ground, his hands on his hips, his chest heaving angrily. Jesus, even pissed off at him she still wanted him—clear through her and straight down to her toes.

Candace spoke up for him. “He professed his love for me.”

“Well, that’s great. I thought that’s what you wanted. Isn’t that what you wanted?” Reed cocked an eyebrow at them.

“Yes. Yes. It’s all I want, but I want him to say it to me, not spell it out with alphabet magnets and leave the message on our fridge.”

“Oh.” Reed laughed.

Gail, who had stepped out of the office at all of the commotion, said, “See this is exactly what I was afraid this whole deal would get you.”

“What the hell?” Tad barked. “Reed knew you wanted me to tell you…” He paused because he was having obvious difficulty saying the words. “To tell you … that.”

“Yes,” Candace admitted.

“Jesus, Candace.” Tad cursed and moved around her to face Reed. “How long have you known this?”

Shea, who was chuckling in the corner, piped up and said, “Longer than you, pal.”

“You too?” Tad turned and looked behind him at the kid. “Who else?”

“Not too many of us,” Shea reassured him. “Just about all of Whisper Hollow.”

Sisters
. Candace silently cursed.

Tad stared at Candace, and she would have felt immediately guilty about that, but she was still a little too upset.

“You want to know how I feel about you?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay.” Tad stood there, chest heaving, with his hands on his hips. “You drive me crazy, Candy, absolutely batshit crazy.” He shook his head and his jaw visibly clenched as he moved around her again. This time out the open garage doors to the parking lot. He pulled the rag out of his back pocket and began wiping at his hands.

Candace was hot on his heels. “Tad!” she hollered after him.

“Oh, here it goes.” She heard Gail sigh behind her. If Tad hadn’t been moving away so quickly, she might have turned around and told Gail to butt out this time.

“Tad!” Candace grabbed his arm, and he finally turned around to face her. “Talk to me.”

He pulled his arm from her grasp. “Maybe I’m just not good at that.”

“Good at what?”

“Talking.”

Candace’s heart stuttered in her chest. “Tad…” She cupped his face and shook her head. “Yes, you are. You’re so good at that.”

“No.” Tad shook his head. “No. I can tell you things about yourself, things about other people. Apparently I can talk to you about damn near everything but…”

“But?” Candace waited for him to answer but he didn’t. “But how you really feel about me?”

Tad nodded.

Candace’s anger had pretty much completely dissipated. Her heart was beating so fast it was at a near hum. Her throat was dry. He loved her. He’d spelled it out and yet she still needed to hear it. Taking a note from Tad, she managed to whisper to him, “Try.”

Tad shook his head and moved to the door of his truck. He had the door pulled open and Candace slipped between him and the truck. She didn’t want him to leave without having this all out once and for all.

“Just tell me,” Candace begged. “Here, I’ll make it easy.” She smiled. “I love you. Now just say it back.”

“Candace, you’re so bossy. If you hadn’t stormed down here you could have waited and let me do this my own way.”

Tad made a move for the truck, and Candace firmly cemented herself between him and the opened door. He leaned way over her. The scent of his sweat and garage teased her nose. When he pulled back he was holding a Tiffany blue box in his hand. Candace gasped and placed a hand over her banging heart.

“Don’t worry. It’s not what you think it is.”

Candace did love him but even she heard herself sigh with relief at that.

“I think maybe this could say everything better than I ever could have.”

Tad lifted the lid on the box. It was a beautiful key and key ring with a few charms dangling from it. Candace loved it but it didn’t clear anything up for her at all; in fact, it just brought up a host of new questions.

“I’m sorry, Tad, but I’m not following.”

He inched closer, nearly boxing her in before speaking to her. “I’m giving you a key to my house.”

She couldn’t help the confused smile that spread across her face. “That’s great, Tad, but I already have a key. I already live there.”

“Yeah, I know.” He looked so nervous. She wished she understood why. Gail had told her about how he’d lost nearly everyone in his life. Maybe that’s what was bothering him. Maybe he thought he was going to lose her too.

Candace reached out and rubbed his chest and felt how fast his heart was beating under his breast. “Tad.” She smiled and subconsciously tried to breathe for him. “Relax.”

And he did, a little.

“I’m a sure thing,” she told him. “So tell me, why give me a key I already have?”

“Because I want you to stay.” Tad clenched his eyes shut and took a step back. “I know it’s not much. I know that the house isn’t much, but it will be soon, I hope. I know I’m not such a great catch for the long haul but I’m willing to try—with you.”

Candace was struck by him, his thoughtfulness, this sudden vulnerability that she found in him, and the fact that he was currently lacking any smirky confidence. She’d never seen him like this.