Loving Cara (19 page)

“It made you uncomfortable?” she asks sweetly.

“It pissed me the fuck off,” I reply calmly, and watch her face as I kiss her knuckles again. “I’d rather not repeat it.”

“Caveman much?” she asks dryly, but her hazel eyes smile at me as she leans in to kiss my cheek. “I love you, babe. No creepy tourist with a shot of tequila is going to change that.”

“Good to know,” I respond wryly, and help her gather the beer bottles and Ty’s gin and tonic off the bar, then follow her back to our pool table.

Jill and Zack are gone, and Ty is working the table by himself, frowning and brooding.

“What’s wrong with you?” Cara asks him. “We’re having fun.”

“I’m having fun.” He shoots a ball in the side pocket.

“You’re frowning.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” Cara props her hands on her hips and watches Ty.

“No, I’m not,” he repeats with a half grin.

“Why are you lying to me?”

“Josh, do something about your girl. She’s harassing me.” He laughs and runs around the table as Cara chases him.

“I’ll show you harassment, Sullivan!”

“Don’t make me sue you!” he taunts her, barely evading a punch to the arm.

“You don’t scare me!”

“Harassment and assault!”

As I laugh at their antics, I spy Zack and Jill out on the dance floor, slowly moving in each other’s arms. The song is slow and sexy and they are all over each other, completely wrapped up in each other.

Jill has had a good amount to drink tonight, but Zack hasn’t had a drop.

He leans down and murmurs something in her ear. She smiles and nods, and he clasps her hand in his as he leads her off the dance floor. As they pass by us, Z doesn’t look our way, but Jill catches Cara’s gaze and waves at her with a wink.

Cara stands perfectly still, watching with wide eyes as her best friend leaves the bar with my brother.

I hope he knows what he’s doing.

“What the fuck?” Ty steps forward, as if to follow them, but Cara grabs his arm and holds him back.

“Zack’s not an asshole,” she reminds him calmly. “And Jilly’s a grown woman. She’s fine.”

Ty glares down at her and then sighs deeply and pulls his hand down his face. “If he hurts her, I’ll skin him alive.”

“No, you won’t.” Cara grins at him and pats his arm soothingly. “Don’t be such a worrywart.”

But she glances back at the door they just left from, worry of her own evident in her hazel eyes.

“You always were a pain in the ass,” Ty mutters.

“Yep.” Cara saunters back to me and her beer. She winks at me and takes a drink from the bottle. “Are you gonna teach me to play pool, or what?”

My dick immediately comes to attention at the thought of Cara bending over this table and me bending over behind her.

“Sure, you wanna learn how to play?”

“Sure.” She shrugs and grins.

“I’m out, guys.” Ty passes Cara his cue and gives her a hug before clapping me on the shoulder and waving good-bye.

“Don’t go,” Cara pouts, her lips pursed.

“No, do go.” I wave him off, ready to spend some time with my girl.

“Rude.” She glares at me.

I shrug and laugh. “Now I have you to myself.”

“Okay, then teach me how to do this.” She positions the white ball on the green felt of the table, lining it up to hit a green stripe in the corner. I lean back against my stool and watch her lean over the table, her ass pulling the cotton of her dress tight, and she shoots, completely missing.

“Josh?” She looks back at me over her shoulder.

“Yes, baby?”

“Help.”

“Put the cue down, Cara.”

She frowns and lays the cue on the table and turns to me.

“Come here.”

My arms are crossed over my chest, hands tucked firmly under my biceps as I lean on the chair, my feet shoulder-width apart.

“What is it?” She comes to stand directly in front of me.

I stare down at her for a moment, taking in her wide amber eyes, glassy from a little too much beer, and her long blond hair, tucked behind her ears now, showing off the hoops in her ears.

“You don’t want to play pool?” she asks with a raised brow.

I shake my head no, my face perfectly calm.

“What do you want to do?”

I lean in, still not touching her, and whisper directly into her ear, “I want to take you home and fuck the hell out of you all night long.”

I pull back in time to see her mouth drop in surprise, and then she sends me a sassy smile. “What are we waiting for?”

With a laugh, I bend down and lift her onto my shoulder, my forearm looped over the back of her thighs, careful to make sure the hem of her dress is covering all the necessary parts so I don’t have to kill anyone for looking up her skirt, and carry her out, to the delight of the patrons still in the bar.

“Hey!” She slaps my ass and then braces herself on my hips as I slap hers back.

“Stay still, baby.”

“I was right, you are a caveman.”

“At least I’m not dragging you by your hair.”

“No, but can you still pull it later?” She giggles, earning another slap on her ass.

“Absolutely.”

“You sure slap my ass a lot, caveman.”

“I fucking love your ass, baby.”

*  *  *

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask, and come to a stop in my bedroom.

“Packing?” She glances back at me over her shoulder and offers me a small smile. “Did you get your morning chores done?”

“Yeah,” I automatically respond, surprised the sound came out over the lump in my throat.

She’s leaving me.

“I took Jill to the airport this morning. Just got back a bit ago.” She’s calmly folding her clothes and placing them in a box, and I can barely wrap my mind around the words coming out of her mouth.

“Okay.” I shove my hands in my pockets and rock back on my heels. What do I say? There’s no way in hell that I want her to go, but it’s too soon to suggest we live together.

Although, I love having her here, in my home, in my bed.

She belongs here.

“Cara!”

We both turn toward the door at Zack’s calling Cara’s name from down the hallway.

“In the bedroom!” she calls back.

He stomps into the bedroom, his jaw tight and hands in fists, but otherwise not showing any emotion. “Where is Jillian?”

Cara frowns at him in confusion and tilts her head to the side. “On an airplane.”

“She left?”

“Yeah, her flight was this morning. She said you left before she woke up this morning.” Cara raises an eyebrow at him, clearly wanting to know more.

“I had to be home when Seth woke up,” he mutters, and runs a hand over his head, scrubbing his scalp with his fingertips. “She didn’t mention that she was leaving today.”

“I’m sorry, I figured you knew.”

“Thanks.” He turns and leaves the room, and a few seconds later we hear the front door shut as well.

“Well”—she cringes and offers me an apologetic smile—“that didn’t go well. Jill wasn’t very forthcoming about what happened last night.”

“You can’t figure it out on your own?” I pull her against me, her stomach against my pelvis. “I could show you.”

“Ew.” She wrinkles up her nose and then laughs.

“That’s not what you said last night.” I slap her ass. “In fact, I believe your exact words were ‘Harder.’ ”

“Those were my
exact words
?” She laughs and leans her forehead against my chest.

“Well, it might have been something more like ‘Harder, Josh, you’re the best I’ve ever had and I can’t believe what a sex god you are.’ ”

She’s laughing in earnest now, shaking her head and slapping my chest gently. “I know I didn’t say that!”

“You were drunk, it’s okay.” I nuzzle her neck and laugh with her. “I love it when you laugh.”

She pulls back to smile up at me, and my gut clenches just as it does every damn time she smiles at me like that, as if she can’t get enough of me and I hung the moon especially for her.

She takes my breath away.

I lean down and rest my forehead against hers and take a deep breath. She cups my face in her hand and I lean into it. “Love the way you touch me.”

“Love to touch you,” she murmurs, and pushes her hand up into my hair, combing it through her fingers.

“When are you leaving?” I ask softly, watching her face carefully.

She frowns and clears her throat, almost as though it’s hard for her to get the words out. “Tomorrow after my lesson with Seth.”

Tomorrow?

“Why?” I ask bluntly.

“Because my house is done, Josh. Thank you for letting me stay here, and everything you’ve done for me. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” The last few words are said in a soft whisper, and her thanking me pisses me off.

“You don’t need to thank me. I wouldn’t have had it any other way, Carolina.”

She smiles sadly and kisses my cheek. “I know.”

She pulls away from me and returns to folding her clothes and placing them in that damn box.

“I’ll be back every morning for Seth’s lessons. I won’t be able to stay for lunch this week though because I’m helping out downtown with the Huckleberry Festival. I’ll be serving ice cream.”

“I love huckleberry ice cream,” I murmur, and watch her pretty hands fold her underwear. I have to ball my fists to refrain from plucking the underwear out of her hands and unpacking the rest of her things and making her stay here with me.

“I hate it,” she responds with a wrinkle to her nose. “It’s disgusting. I’m a chocolate-ice-cream girl, so I figure I’m safe serving the ice cream. I won’t be tempted to eat it and gain a million pounds.”

Just tell her, you idiot. Tell her to stay. Tell her you don’t want her to go, that she is your world and you can’t imagine going one day without waking up with her by your side.

“Cara . . .”

She stops what she’s doing and turns to me, her hazel eyes big and smiling, biting her lower lip, and I can’t get the words out. Instead I pull her to me again and bury my face in her hair, gliding my hands up and down her back, hugging her close.

“Josh? What’s wrong?”

“I love you.”

She pulls back and narrows her eyes as she watches me, looking for what, I don’t know. She finally drops her shoulders and sighs in defeat, but offers me a wobbly smile.

“I love you too.”

CHAPTER

Thirteen

CARA

I’m sitting in my favorite chair, a cup of hot tea in my hands and Daughtry singing “Tennessee Line” over my sound system. It’s late in the evening, and my home is cool, thanks to the air-conditioning unit my parents had installed ten years ago when the summer heat was becoming too much for them.

It’s everything that I love about my house, and I hate it.

I glare at the cell phone in my hand and wish for the fortieth time in the past fifteen minutes that it would ring. I haven’t seen Josh since this morning when he came in the house to wake me up and say good morning before he was called back out again because of an emergency. Louie called, frantic, having found several calves killed in the pasture by what they think are wolves.

I already miss him.

Finally my phone beeps, and my heart jumps into my throat, hoping and praying that it’s a message from Josh.

Jill:
Hey! How does it feel to be home?

Me:
Fine.

I take a sip of my tea and lean my head back against the cushion just as another text comes through.

Josh:
Being in my bed without you just feels wrong.

I grin and set my mug aside, settling in to text him back, although I can’t help but be a little peeved that he’s texting and not calling.

Although everything he does right now pisses me off because he didn’t ask me to stay, and even that is ridiculous because I know it’s too soon and I’m being an idiot.

Me:
I miss you too.

Josh:
I love you.

I want to text back with
Then call me! Come see me!
but I just set my phone aside and lean my head back again with a deep breath.

Yes, it’s irrational to want Josh to ask me to move in with him, and it
is
too soon, but I love him and I enjoy being with him.

God, I’m needy.

I’m dozing in my chair when the doorbell rings, startling me. Maybe Josh is surprising me?

I hurry to the door and fling it open with a big grin on my face, then feel my shoulders fall.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Gee, it’s great to see you too,” Ty mutters with a chuckle.

“Sorry, come on in.” I stand back and let him inside before shutting and locking the door. “Have a seat.”

“Thanks, I will.” He flashes me his cocky grin and plops down on my couch, crosses his ankles on my ottoman, and makes himself comfortable.

He’s still in his black slacks and white button-down from work today, but his sleeves are rolled up, showing off the bright colors of his ink.

“No suit today?” I reclaim my chair.

“Naw, no court today.”

I nod and take a sip of my tea.

“Why are you here?” I ask with a raise of my brow.

“Saw your light on.” He shrugs and leans his head back on the cushion of the couch, looking at the ceiling. “Thought I’d come by and see how you are, since it’s your first night home and all.”

“I’m good.” I shrug and take another sip of tea. “It’s good to be home.”

“Why do you look like someone just killed your puppy?” He turns his head on the cushion so he can look at me.

“I’m tired. I’m helping Mrs. Baker get ready for the Huckleberry Festival this weekend.”

“I loved her in school. Did you have her?” he asks with a grin.

“I did. She hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Are you serving the ice cream again this year?”

“Yes. I’ll give you two scoops, just like every year.”

“You’re so good to me,” he mutters with a sleepy smile. “If Josh hadn’t snatched you up, I might have tried to lure you in.”

I frown at the mention of Josh’s name and take another sip of tea.