Sexy SEAL Box Set: A SEAL's Seduction\A SEAL's Surrender\A SEAL's Salvation\A SEAL's Kiss (40 page)

So her pushing him away?

It was the best thing she could have done for both of their sakes.

“Are you saying you don’t want to go to the party with me?” he asked, totally aware as the words left his lips that he’d crossed the line.

“I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s a really good idea,” she told him, her words slow and careful, as if she were measuring each one before she let it cross her tongue. “It’s not like it’s two buddies going out for a drink, you know? If we went to this event—because the dance isn’t just another country club party—we’d be making a statement.”

“You mean the gossips will go crazy talking about us, making up all kinds of stuff and trying to outdo each other with their brilliantly manufactured insider information?”

Eden’s lips twitched and she rolled her eyes as if to say he was being ridiculous. Good. He was glad she could see how stupid it was to let other people factor into whether or not they went together.

“Exactly.”

“Exactly, what?” Cade frowned. Was she agreeing with his gossip assessment? Or had she tapped into his thoughts and was reassuring him that she’d be totally on board with having a no-strings relationship with him in front of the entire town?

“The gossips would go crazy over the news that you were dating me. They already are, actually. It won’t matter that it’s a pity date thrown out in another of your routine rescues.”

Cade wasn’t sure which phrase sent his pissed meter through the roof. Pity date, or routine rescue. Both were pretty damned insulting.

“You think that’s all there is between us? Pity rescues?”

She winced, then lifted her palms and gave him a sad look. “What else is there?”

He’d had it. He was so tired of denying his wants, turning away from his needs. He was sick of being the nice guy, dammit.

“What else is there? Do you need a reminder,” he asked, giving in to the need to pull her close again. He took her lips before she could voice the protest he saw in her dark eyes. It only took a few seconds before passion blurred her gaze and she kissed him back.

He couldn’t get enough of her.

His lips shifted, his mouth angling to take hers deeper. Why was this a bad idea again?

His need for her overruled everything.

Even his ability to think.

“Stop,” she whispered, her mouth still moving against his.

“No.”

His hands skimmed her hips, up her waist and cupped her breasts. He groaned, reveling in the wonder of her softness. Her fullness. He squeezed, loving how she filled his palms, making his body ache for more.

He angled his body closer, so his hardening length pressed tight against her hip. She moaned, soft and low, making his fingers tighten before he slipped one hand over the curve of her waist to tug the soft fabric of her T-shirt away from her jeans.

Before he could find flesh, though, her hand shot up and grabbed his wrist. Eden pulled her mouth away from his. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared for a second before giving a regretful moan. She brushed her lips against his, super-fast, then ripped herself from his arms to scurry a few feet away.

“I can’t... Here... Um...” She shoved both hands through her hair, loosened now that he’d tossed her ponytail holder somewhere on the floor. “I work here.”

“So? We can do other things here, too,” he reasoned, reaching for her again. His fingers barely skimmed her waist before she skipped away.

“Nope. Not here,” she said shaking her head. She didn’t look like she wanted to stop, though. Her eyes were eating him up like candy, the heat in them enough to melt his shorts.

“Why not?” he finally demanded, wanting to hear her tell him to his face that she wasn’t interested. Because her nipples were still saying the opposite as they pressed, hard and pebbled, against her T-shirt.

Before she could say anything, the front door opened. In came a handful of women, a gaggle of kids and, weirdly, the goat.

They all stopped, looks of shock and speculation chasing over their faces.

“Hey, Eden,” one of the women greeted. A chorus of hellos followed. “We’re here for the 4H meeting. Thanks again for letting us use the back room.”

“Sure.” Eden look flustered for a minute, then shook her head like she was tossing off a fog and gestured to a wide set of doors. “It’s all set for your meeting. Just lock up when you leave.”

The women slanted curious looks their way but didn’t ask questions as they herded the kids toward the room. He did see one give another a hip bump and a giggle before glancing back and blushing.

Looked like another segment of Ocean Point had something to talk about now.

“When is this over?” Cade asked, wondering which would come first, talking himself out of sex with Eden, or exploding from pent-up frustration. If her meeting ran more than fifteen minutes, either one was distinctly possible.

“The 4H meeting?” Eden glanced back as one attendee led the goat into the room before looking at the clock. “They should wind up around four-thirty.”

“They?”

“I’m not in the 4H,” she said, her shrug a little wistful. Cade wondered why she wasn’t, since she was totally into animals. Was it anything like why she wasn’t a part of the Oceanfront snob patrol, even though she had the family pedigree to qualify?

“So you don’t have to stay?”

“I usually don’t.”

The girl with the goat and the one with the wicked hip bump both stood in the doorway, pretending to inspect the dog food display. Cade was pretty sure they were tilting sideways, considering how close they were leaning to try and eavesdrop.

“Let’s go,” he suggested, wondering if it sounded like begging to everyone else in the room or if that was just in his head.

“Go?”

“Yeah,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the door.
“Go.”

* * *

“W
HERE
ARE
WE
GOING
?” Eden’s nerves were jumping all over the place as excitement, fear and anticipation wound through her system. She wanted to show a little pride and pull away, proving she wasn’t a pushover. That she wasn’t going to let him give her another wildly intense, mind-blowing orgasm and then just waltz away without a word.

“Let’s go somewhere private. Your place is close,” he suggested with a wicked smile, his fingers twining through hers.

Eden glanced toward the house for a considering second before sliding her eyes to the cars parked in front of the barn-slash-veterinary-clinic-slash-4H-classroom.

The house was close. A little too close to the barn-slash-vet-clinic filled with kids and curious adults. Many of whom she was sure had their noses pressed against the window at that exact moment.

She couldn’t deny that she’d enjoyed reaping the benefits of the gossips this week. Cade was better than an ad, a coupon and a social-media blitz all rolled into one. But maybe it was time for a little caution. Because it wasn’t just her reputation on the line here.

She was horribly afraid it might be her heart, too.

“How about we walk?” she countered, unable to deny herself more time with him despite the risk. She gestured to the path that traversed between both their properties. “We can take the lakeside trail. It’s always so pretty along there.”

“You want to go to the lake?” he asked, his voice dropping. It wasn’t until she saw the flash of heat in his green eyes that she remembered. If he hadn’t been holding her hand, she’d have used it to smack herself in the forehead. The lake was his spot. Initiations, sexual escapades, good times. She knew that. She’d fantasized about it so many times that the suggestion must have popped out of her subconscious.

Eden clenched her teeth in case some of the butterflies in her stomach escaped. Here it was, her only birthday wish of the last handful of years, ready to come true. All she had to do was let it.

“You sure you want to revisit the lake?” he asked, his words teasing and low. So low that he had to lean closer, so his warm breath washed over her, to deliver them.

Had he seen her all those times? Did he know she used to watch him there? Nerves flickering, Eden licked her lips. She gave him a wide-eyed look, then glanced toward the woods before asking, “What’s wrong with the lake?”

“You don’t have very good luck there, do you?”

“I beg your pardon?” What? Was he the only one who got to get lucky at the lake?

“Two years ago, I had to rescue you there, remember? Kenny Phillips was rolling naked in a batch of poison oak, trying to scare you away from sex.”

Well, there it was. Now Eden knew she
could
cringe and laugh at the same time.

“How do you know I didn’t scare him away from sex?” she asked, saying aloud what was usually whispered behind her back. “Word is he’s never been the same, performance-wise.”

Cade shrugged, his hand tightening as he helped her climb over a large fallen log in the path. “I don’t know what you saw in the guy, but from what I recall, Kenny never was what I’d call a go-getter. He was second string, junior varsity, class presidential runner-up. You know, the kind of guy who never could go all the way.”

Eden pressed her lips together to keep from admitting that those comments could easily be applied to Kenny’s lovemaking skills, as well. After all, she’d broken the guy’s foot. It’d just be rude to add insult to injury, even two years after the fact.

“I can’t believe you showed up when you did two years ago,” she said instead, still wondering how that’d happened. She hadn’t even known he was coming home, so it wasn’t like she’d had her rendezvous there in a subconscious attempt to send him some sexually charged message. “What are the odds?”

“I’d say the odds were pretty good since you’re my, what’d you call it? Routine rescue?”

Eden grimaced. She should have known he’d throw that back at her. But she couldn’t deny it. And, if she was honest, she didn’t really want to. It was kinda nice, having her own personal hero.

“I didn’t mean for that to sound so dismissive,” she said quietly, following the pressure of his hand as he pulled her off the path, through the overgrown—but poison oak free—grasses toward the remote lake. “I really do appreciate you being there to haul me out of trouble. Or to step in when it seems like someone’s picking on me.”

“You’re talking about the Spring Fling?”

“It was a sweet gesture,” she said earnestly. It really was. Even if it made her feel like crawling under a rock. Eden sighed. She just wished, just one damned time in her life, that someone could want her for her. Not for what they could get or out of obligation. “But it’s only going to put you in an uncomfortable position. That’s a lousy thank-you for all the help you’ve given me.”

He grimaced. He looked like he was going to say something—agree or protest, she wasn’t sure. But before he could, they stepped through the tight ring of trees to the clearing surrounding the lake.

Eden hummed in appreciation, a combination of sensual energy and relaxation wrapping around her like a sexually charged, but cozy, blanket. The setting was gorgeous. A serene blend of earth tones gave a gentle background to the mossy green water. Rocks as tall as her hip, rounded by years of weather, stood sentinel. Sunlight glinted through the overhead leaves, warming the cool glade with a soft glow.

“You’re the one who was looking uncomfortable. The gossips are a pain but you don’t have to let them bother you. Why do you deal with snobby chicks like that Janie?”

Because she kept hoping for acceptance. Belonging. History.

Since the first two sounded pathetic, she went with the third.

“My family helped found Ocean Point. On both my mom and my dad’s side, they were integral to everything, from founding the library to creating laws. My great-grandfather actually donated the land the country club is built on. That all makes me a part of the Oceanfront set,” she said. No need to add that because her family was broke, her father gone and her mother dancing on the crazy side of irresponsible, some of the set would happily ignore that history and let her fade into a footnote in the town ledger. Cade already knew all that.

“Why not just move away?”

Huh?
Eden blinked a couple of times, trying to process the idea. “I can’t leave Ocean Point.”

“Why not?”

“Because this is my home.”

He just arched one brow. Panic grappled and clawed its way through Eden’s stomach. Her life might not be everything she wanted, but she’d always lived it here. She might not fit perfectly, but at least her rut was dug in and familiar.

“Every place has its games and rules and drawbacks,” she said with a shrug. “But here, I know the players, I can work the rules and sidestep the drawbacks. But more importantly, there are things here worth doing all that for.”

“Like?”

She narrowed her eyes, realizing he wasn’t just being argumentative. He really didn’t see the benefits of his home town.

“Like knowing everyone, having those ties that go back. Not just to kindergarten or T-ball. But all the way back, generations. Like the familiarity of the places. Knowing where to get steak on Saturday or jam in the summer. Knowing who tells the best jokes and where to go for a good drink.” She gestured to the lake. “Knowing the best makeout places, and learning from years of experience so you don’t damage yourself while having a good time.”

As she’d hoped, that made him laugh. Cade’s entire face lit up, the remnants of anger behind his eyes fading as he looked around the lake with an affectionate smile.

“Best makeout places, huh?”

“Word is, this is yours,” she said, not only ready to change the subject, but desperate to see what kind of magic happened when the lovemaking was done right.

“You don’t say?” he asked, shifting around to face her, his hands cupping her hips and his gaze intent on her mouth. “You know better than anyone that gossip isn’t always reliable.”

“Word is,” she repeated in a whisper. Eyelids heavy, she stared at his mouth, reveling in the soft fullness of his lips and hint of stubble that kept his face just this side of pretty.

His fingers were gentle as he reached up to glide over her cheek, tucking her hair behind one ear, then leaning down to brush his lips over her jaw.