Somewhere Along the Way (4 page)

Her request took Luke by surprise. He’d been asked the question a hundred times, but usually it was part of a tedious conversation.
What is it like to be from such a wealthy family? Do you really work? Why?
“What would you like to know?”

“I know it’s none of my business, but . . .”

Luke propped himself up onto one elbow. No matter what she asked, he wanted to answer. She wanted to know him better. He certainly wanted to know her. All of her. Intimately. Repeatedly. Then once again until they were both too exhausted to continue. “Ask me anything.”

She searched his face before answering. “I’m curious about your brothers. You said they don’t get along. If they’re anything like you, I can’t imagine that.”

Her interest seemed sincere, and it occurred to him she probably had no idea he came from an immensely wealthy family. There was no reason for her to know. His family was well-known in New York, but he doubted many out in Ohio knew of them. It was refreshing to simply be looked upon as a man and not a doctor who chose his own schedule because he’d donated a wing to the hospital. “My oldest brother, Gio, has been the head of the family ever since my father died. Honestly, probably before then. Some people think he’s stern, but he sees himself as our protector. He always has. My next brother, Nick, is the exact opposite. Or, at least, he was for a very long time. He’s coming around. You’d like him. He could charm candy from a baby. And he’s hilarious. My youngest brother, Max, is a true independent soul. Tracking him down is practically a family pastime.”

“They don’t sound so awful.”

Luke frowned. “Did I say they were?”

“You said they were exhausting.”

Nodding, Luke said, “I did, didn’t I? They can be. Gather them together for more than five minutes, and sometimes I feel like a lion trainer trying to keep the peace.”

Cassie tucked a curl behind her ear. “How do you think they’d describe you?”

Luke didn’t want to answer that. He knew. They’d told him often enough. Finally, he said, “Unrealistically optimistic. It’s not a label most surgeons wear proudly.”

“I’d guess not. But it’s probably a good trait for a brother to have.”

As lost as he felt, Cassie’s version of him was more than a little appealing. She had a way of taking what he least liked about himself and making it sound normal, if not admirable. Luke fluffed his pillow then flopped down onto it, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m coming to the conclusion it’s not a good trait in any situation.” He turned his head so he could see Cassie. “What about you? You said you don’t have family. Was there an accident?”

Cassie pulled the blanket tighter around herself. She closed her eyes. “No. Sorry, Luke. Can we talk in the morning? I’m tired.”

So, she didn’t want to discuss her family. It made him even more curious. He knew next to nothing about her except she’d moved from Detroit a couple years ago and started a new life in Defiance. Even though her eyes were firmly shut, he knew she was still awake. “There is nothing you could say that would shock me, Cassie. Or make me like you less.”

Cassie punched her pillow and rolled away from him. “Said like a man who has never spent a day in hell. Goodnight.”

Luke wanted to apologize. He wanted to ask her a hundred questions, but he covered his eyes with his arm and told himself to go to sleep.

Hell came in many forms. Emotional. Physical. Combinations of both.

He had no right to ask her to describe hers if he was unwilling to share his.

Not yet.

Cassie woke to the morning sunlight; the room was warm even though the fire had gone out. Power must have returned sometime during the night. She walked to the window and pushed back the blue curtains. A path to her front door had been cleared. She walked through her small kitchen. From the window, she saw the back path had also been cleared.

Luke’s coat was hanging by the door, and there were gloves on the kitchen table he must have worn while he shoveled. He was back inside, but where was he?

Cassie put a pot of coffee on, then called the restaurants that had open orders for the cupcakes. Two were closed because of the weather. One was open.

“We have everyone busy shoveling us out. Could you drop them off to us?” asked Bonnie Duvall, the owner of one of busiest coffee shops in town. Bonnie and her husband, Greg, had been the first in town to put in an order from Cassie’s Creations. There wasn’t much Cassie wouldn’t do for them.

“Absolutely. How soon do you need them?” The storm had ended. Her street looked passable, if not yet clear.

“Before eleven?”

“See you then,” Cassie said. She checked the time on her phone. She had just enough time to shower, pack up her SUV, and make the delivery. She went to the closet to grab a dustpan and broom, but it was missing.
Figures. Everything got confused yesterday, but I’ll put it all back in order today.

Cassie stepped into her snow boots and decided they were also anti-glass boots until she located the dustpan. She headed up to the second floor of the house. Luke’s door was open, and Cassie thought she heard the sound of his voice inside, but she didn’t let herself stop. She raced into her room, closed the door behind her, and locked it.
No surprises today.
No mooning at him. Yesterday was the result of an extremely emotional day for both of us. I’m sure he’s just as relieved as I am that nothing happened last night.

Cassie looked around her bedroom and realized the glass from the night before had been cleaned up. The broom and dustpan were leaning against the wall near a small wastebasket. Cassie’s eyes misted. She wasn’t used to being taken care of. Tilly offered her help now and then, but that was different. She was a friend. Luke was . . . nothing.

And leaving.

So what if he picked up a little glass?

Shoveled for me?

Men will do anything to get into a woman’s bed. They turn on the charm until they get what they want. Then, wham, they’re gone.

She gave herself a stern look in her bathroom mirror.
Your days of being naïve are over. Let it go. Let him go. Don’t do this to yourself.

She took a short, hot shower, blew her hair dry, and threw on jeans and a blouse. She considered putting on makeup but stopped herself.
It’s better if he doesn’t find me attractive. He needs to leave. Today.

Squaring her shoulders, she walked out of her bedroom with the intention of telling him she’d prepare a quick breakfast for him, but he’d have to eat alone because she had a delivery to make. She’d write up his bill, give him directions to the airport or a local hotel. And that would be the end of it.

Her resolve wavered when she saw him in the hallway. He was dressed in jeans as well, with a dark blue T-shirt that clung to his muscular chest in the sexiest way. His easy smile almost sent her scurrying back to her room. “Morning, Cupcake.”

Unable to take her eyes off him, Cassie waved toward the stairs absently. “I have a delivery to make.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said and strode over to where she was.

Cassie swallowed hard. “You stay and eat breakfast. I have to go.” She couldn’t focus when he was so close. He smelled of soap and a light aftershave that made her want to lean in closer.

He slid a hand beneath the hair on the nape of her neck and pulled her forward a step. Without a word, he gently claimed her lips. Cassie was too shocked to respond at first. She put a hand up between them, then gave herself over to the pleasure of his mouth on hers. Of the beat of his heart against her hand. He broke off the kiss before it deepened and brought his hands to her waist as if to pull her fully against him. “That and a coffee is all I need . . . for now.”

“Cassie,” Tilly’s voice rang through the house. “Are you here? I saw your car outside.”

Neither Cassie nor Luke moved at first, frozen like two guilty children. Cassie whispered, “That’s my neighbor, Tilly. She has a key.”

Luke gave her a sexy smile that brought a flush to her cheeks. “Good to know.”

Cassie called to Tilly, “I’m upstairs. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Just checking in to see how you made out in the storm. We lost power. I figured you did, too. Did you get your baking done?” Despite Tilly’s age, she was fast on her feet. She was halfway up the stairs when she saw Luke and stopped dead. “Well, look at you two.”

Cassie jumped back from Luke. “Tilly, this is Dr. Andrade. He’s in town for Emma’s funeral.”

Tilly looked back and forth between them. “Dr. Andrade. I’ve heard good things about you.”

Luke went halfway down the stairs to meet her and offered his arm to Tilly. “Please, call me Luke.”

Tilly took his arm and began to descend the stairs with him. “He’s a doctor, Cassie.”

“I know,” Cassie said with a grimace. Tilly wasn’t known for keeping many thoughts to herself, but Cassie couldn’t see a way to break the two apart.

Tilly gave Luke’s arm a pat. “And so strong. Are you the one who shoveled Cassie out?”

Luke winked at Cassie as the three of them entered the kitchen. “I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

Tilly caught Cassie’s blush and a wide smile spread across her face. “It’s so nice to have a man around here again.”

“Again?” Luke asked. Although his tone was casual, the look he gave Cassie was that of a territorial male assessing if he had competition.

Cassie poured Luke a cup of coffee and handed it to him abruptly. “It’s a shame you have to get back to New York this morning, Dr. Andrade. Let me get you that bill you asked for.”

Tilly made herself a cup of coffee. “You’re leaving so soon, Luke?”

“Apparently,” Luke said dryly, taking a sip of the piping hot brew.

Cassie bent over the small built-in desk in the kitchen and wrote out a bill for one night. “I’m giving you a discount since a full breakfast is usually included in the price of the room.”

Tilly made a disapproving sound. “What? You’re not even feeding him?” Tilly sat down at the kitchen table. “He’s easy on the eyes. Sweet as your pecan pie. And he has a job. Men like that don’t come through this town every day. If I were your age, I’d show you what to do with a man like that. And it’s not starve him half to death.”

Cassie rolled her eyes toward the ceiling in mortification. Luke looked pleased with himself. He sat next to Tilly and said something to her that made her blush and swat him. “Cassie, you’re a fool if you run this one off.”

“I’m not running him off,” Cassie said impatiently and put a completed bill on the table beside Luke. “He has patients waiting for him. Don’t you, Dr. Andrade?”

Luke sat back in his chair with a sexy cockiness. “Usually the answer would be yes, Cupcake, but I’m technically on vacation this week. So, I’m not in much of a hurry to go anywhere.”

Tilly’s smile grew as she watched their exchange.

Cassie glared at him, but Luke smiled back at her shamelessly. She grabbed her coat off its hook and snapped, “I have a delivery to make. Tilly, do you want me to drop you off on my way?”

Tilly stirred creamer into her coffee. “I don’t mind keeping Luke company while you’re gone. He and I can just sit here and get to know each other until you get back.”

Cassie froze midway through buttoning her coat. “Dr. Andrade, can I speak to you for a minute?”

Luke didn’t budge. “Luke.”

“Luke,” Cassie said between gritted teeth, “could you help me carry a few things to the car?”

Tilly slapped the table gleefully as Luke stood up. “That’s a great idea. Take him with you. Feed him while you’re out as a thank you for helping you shovel. Don’t worry about me. I’ll putter around here until you two return.”

In a forced pleasant tone, Cassie said, “You know who I saw outside a few minutes ago? Myron. He might still be out there. Should I tell him you were looking for him?”

Cassie shared a long look with Tilly, a standoff of sorts. Tilly blinked first. “Oh, fine. I can see why you’d want your privacy. I don’t need a ride, though. My son can pick me up. If he complains, I’ll remind him why he’s my chauffeur now.”

Luke told Tilly it had been nice to meet her. He shrugged on his coat and didn’t seem to mind at all that Cassie piled box upon box of cupcakes into his arms. Did he have to be so damn nice?

She grumbled to herself as she walked out of the house until she caught him watching her with interest. She opened the hatch and secured the boxes in the back of her SUV without looking at him again. “You don’t have to come with me.”

He stepped closer and waited until she raised her eyes to his. When she did, he said, “I want to.”

She searched his face for a sign of what he was thinking. “You know you can’t stay here tonight.”

He caressed one of her cheeks gently. “Because you don’t trust me? Or yourself?” He brushed his thumb lightly across her bottom lip then brought his other hand up so he was cupping her face. “Is it because you know this will happen?”

By the time his lips closed over hers, Cassie had gone onto her tiptoes to meet him halfway. It didn’t matter that she knew it was a bad idea. Unlike the brief, almost chaste kisses they’d shared earlier, this one was explosively passionate. Cassie gripped the front of his coat desperately, clinging to him as desire shook through her body. She opened her mouth to him, inviting him to deepen the kiss and moaned with pleasure when he did.

His tongue flicked across her lips, then plunged to meet hers, circling it in a primitive, sensual dance. The cold was forgotten along with any care about someone watching. His hand moved to the nape of her neck, tightening possessively. Cassie writhed against him, reveling in how he seemed as blown away by the kiss as she was.

When he broke off the kiss, he laid his forehead on hers and closed his eyes as if gathering strength. Their ragged breaths were visible in the cold air. Cassie struggled to reconcile her scrambled thoughts.

She didn’t want this.

But, oh, how she wanted this.

He raised his head, and she couldn’t look away from his truly spectacular brown eyes. At first she’d thought they were almost black, but in the bright light of day, she saw warm flecks of amber. He was a man who became more beautiful each time she looked at him.

“You don’t know what you do to me, Cassie. I want to take you, right here, right now, in the middle of all those damn boxes. You make me feel alive in a way I didn’t know I was missing. How do I walk away from this?”

Cassie tried to catch her breath. She believed him because he’d articulated exactly how he made her feel. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t while looking into his eyes. “What’s the alternative? I don’t want to be your vacation fling.”

“It would never be like that,” he denied hotly.

She gently removed the hand he had on her face, but continued to hold it. “That’s exactly what it would be. It’s all it could be. My life is here. And you have a job and family waiting for you in New York. There is nowhere this could go.”
This is where I tell him I might be pregnant. Right now.
Cassie let herself soak in how good it felt to be desired by Luke. She knew everything would change in a moment. “And there’s something I need to tell you . . .”

“If it’s about the man Tilly mentioned, I don’t care about him. He’s not here now. Give me tonight, and I’ll make love to you until you can’t remember anyone before me.”

Cassie cocked her head to one side. She hadn’t been with anyone since she’d moved to Defiance. Tilly had probably been referring to the previous owner of the bed and breakfast. “Simon was—”

Luke pulled her to him and growled, “I told you, he doesn’t matter.”

He’s jealous.
Luke had that primal, possessive look on his face again that sent Cassie’s heart into a wild beat as her body quivered with need. He held her to him, and she couldn’t resist. She needed to feel him. She slid a hand down between them and boldly caressed the bulge of his engorged cock through his jeans. He sucked in an audible breath.

Luke leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Oh, Cupcake, you’re torturing me, but don’t stop.”

Lost in a daze of desire, Cassie struggled to regain control of herself even as she continued to stroke him. He was so hard, so big. Her panties were soaked at the idea of how he would feel inside her. “We shouldn’t do this.”

He kissed her neck hotly. “Or this.”

Cassie arched her neck to the side. He kissed his way down it, then pulled the top of her coat open and rained kisses across her collarbone. Breathlessly, Cassie said, “I don’t know how to say no to you.”

He raised his head, his breathing as ragged as her own. “Then say yes.”

A man’s voice startled both of them. “Is my mother inside?”