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Felecia sat in the middle of her darkness, surrounded by the cool darkness and damp from her own tears. She had messed up. She had ruined everything.

  When Kaeden accepted her offer to go to her church with her, she had gotten so excited that she tried on her newly altered wedding gown and spent an hour going through her chest. She had to rush to get ready for church and hadn’t carefully put everything away.

  And Kaeden saw it. And Kaeden got scared. And Kaeden left.

  Sniffling, she looked up through puffy eyes at the small bit of light coming through the door and illuminating her dream wedding dress. And the light glinted off the pearls and intricate beading, making it seem to glow and glisten in the darkness.

  Mocking her.

  Taunting her.

  Na-na-na-na-na.

  “Why, Lord? Whyyyyyyyy,” Felecia wailed as she threw her head back and cried like she’d lost her best friend.

  Chapter 16

  Jade was waiting on Darren when he walked through the doors of their Wild-n-Out offices. She sat in his office and waited for him. When he strolled in and saw her sitting there he paused.

  “So how are we going to handle this, Darren?” she asked. “Because this is not just about you and me, it’s also about this business.”

  “You created this,” he said sarcastically.

  Jade allowed herself a ten count. “Listen, you and I are done. Truthfully, we never should’ve even tried to date.”

  Darren snorted in derision.

  Jade felt her annoyance at him increase and the first bud of dislike bloom. “Do you think you and I can work and run a business together with all of this ridiculous animosity that you have?”

  He locked his eyes on her. “So you want out?” he asked her.

  Jade locked her eyes with his. “I am sorry if you feel betrayed and hurt. But that does not give you the right to talk to me disrespectfully in my face or behind my back. And the next time that it happens, you will buy out my share of this business and run it by your damn self.”

  Darren laughed. “Is that right?”

  Jade rose from his chair and came around his cluttered desk. “I’m not playing, Darren. I’m trying to have patience because I understand that you are hurt.”

  “Listen, I could care less about what you do,” he told her, easing past her to sit behind his desk.

  “You had no right confronting Kaeden, and you had no right spreading my business all over town.”

  Darren looked up at her. “Never do anything that you’re ashamed of,” he advised her. “Are you ashamed of your one-nighter in the woods, Jade?”

  “Are you jealous of it?” she flung back. “Are you mad because it wasn’t you?”

  His expression closed up. “Don’t say anything to me unless it’s work related.”

  “Then keep my name out of your mouth,” she told him.

  “Get out of my office.”

  “Gladly,” she told him, turning to leave. This wasn’t how she wanted the conversation between them to go down, but sometimes life was more about reaction than action. She paused at the doorway. “I’m so disappointed that you thought scandalizing my name was necessary. But I mean it, if you disrespect me again, I’m out.”

  He said nothing at all.

  Jade just shook her head before she walked out and closed the door behind her. She grabbed her purse and keys, leaving the office to hop into her Jeep. She needed air. She needed to get away from Darren before she choked his neck like a chicken.

  Jade slid on her shades and enjoyed the wind blowing her dangling earrings as she drove. She wished she had a tour to do that day, but things had slowed down a bit. Even though she’d put in a good workout at the gym that morning, Jade steered her Jeep in the direction of Dairyland. A banana split would not hurt her exercise regime, and it would make her forget her troubles.

  As she pulled to the light she glanced over at Kaeden’s office. “I really should apologize for Darren’s behavior,” she said aloud, hesitating for just a second before she checked the rearview mirror, reversed a bit, and then turned the Jeep onto the long driveway.

  What if his girl/fiancée/whatever had heard the rumors? Maybe showing up really wasn’t a good idea.

  “Why am I here?” Jade wondered aloud as she looked through the windshield of her Jeep at the offices of Strong Accountings.

  Because I want to see Kaeden.

  She threw her Jeep into reverse just as she saw Kaeden’s BMW make the turn onto the driveway. She slammed on her brakes with her eyes still locked on the outline of Kaeden’s figure in his car. Her heart pounded wildly just to know he was near.

  He steered his vehicle off the driveway and pulled up beside her before climbing out. Jade felt nervous as she shifted her eyes to watch him, thinking he looked handsome in his black shirt and black slacks. The bruise on his cheek had darkened and her hand itched to touch it.

  “Jade,” he said, standing near her vehicle. “Something I can help you with?”

  She peered into his handsome face through her shades. “Is Felecia here? I wanted to talk to you about…about the fight.”

  “She doesn’t work here anymore,” Kaeden said. “Well, we don’t see each other anymore either. So…”

  Jade knew her surprise showed on her face.

  “What about the fight, Jade?” he asked.

  “I just wanted to apologize for that. He was wrong to confront you and wrong to spread what happened that night in the woods all over town. I feel partly responsible and I wanted to say I’m sorry.” Jade pushed her shades atop her hair.

  Kaeden nodded. “I’m cool. Are you?”

  Jade nodded as she tapped her manicured fingers against the steering wheel. “We broke up,” she confessed, accepting the relief she felt at the thought.

  “Is that why you were crying that day?”

  Jade locked her eyes with him. “No, not at all. It was for the best.”

  Their eyes stayed locked for a countless length of time.

  Kaeden nodded before he pointed to his gold watch. “I better get in and start my day. Thanks for stopping by.”

  Jade smiled. “Okay. Bye, Kaeden.”

  He turned and jogged up the steps, unaware that Jade’s eyes were glued to his buttocks as she reversed down the drive.

  Kaeden and Felecia were done? As done as she was with Darren?

  Jade pushed her foot down on the brakes.

  What if this Mr. Seems to Be Wrong for You is actually Mr. Right for You, Jade?

  Jade gripped the steering wheel and shifted her foot to accelerate forward. She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t think. She didn’t second-guess.

  Jade pulled to a stop next to Kaeden’s car and hopped out to run up the stairs and into the office. “Kaeden,” she called out.

  He walked to the outer office, a ledger and a pen in his hands. “What is it, Jade?” he asked with patience and lots of distance.

  “That night, what happened between us—”

  Kaeden held up his hand. “Just let it go, Jade.”

  She stepped forward. “That’s just it. I can’t let it go. If I could I would, Kaeden. But I can’t let it go. I can’t forget. I can’t help feeling like it was the best ever.”

  Kaeden released a heavy breath as he watched her.

  “You don’t understand, Kaeden,” she stressed. “Before that night I hadn’t been intimate with anyone in over a year, but I forgot all of my restrictions, all of my inhibitions with you. I’m still trying to figure it all out, but what I do know is that once you touched me, it was over and there was no going back, Kaeden.”

  Kaeden stared at her, and something about the look in his eyes thrilled her.

  Jade was going for it. Life was about risks, and when it came to Kaeden she was willing to take the risk. She was listening to her soul. “Okay, I lied,” she confessed as she stepped up to stand before him. Inwardly she smiled at the smug look on his face. “The only other thing I know for sure is I want to feel that way again.”

  Ka
eden’s eyes dropped to her lips and then back up to her eyes.

  “Can you make me feel like that again, Kaeden?” she asked, rising on her toes as she lightly grasped his face with her hands.

  “Hell yeah,” he told her before he dropped his ledger and pen to bring his hands up to grasp her soft buttocks and press her body close to his.

  She gasped just before he passionately captured her mouth with his. Being in his arms. Being kissed by him. Just being near him felt so right. Jade squeezed her eyes shut to keep them from filling with tears as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave in to their passion.

  Kaeden growled as he sucked her tongue. He bent his legs and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist with a purr in the back of her throat as Kaeden walked them over to the desk to press her body down atop the hard wood. Jade tugged the hem of his shirt from his pants and then tore at them, causing the buttons to fly and his shirt to fall open, exposing his chest to her eyes and her eager hands.

  “Hurry, Kaeden. I need you,” she whispered in complete honesty into the heat between them.

  He looked down at her with his chest heaving, his eyes missing nothing. “What are we doing, Jade?” he asked.

  Jade’s eyes were glazed with desire. “Huh?” she asked.

  “What is this? Another hit it and split it or what?” he asked, leaning down to place his hands on either side of her head. “See, I don’t want to be confused or lost in the sauce like I was the last time or like Darren was.”

  Jade sat up on the desk. “So what do you want, Kaeden?”

  “More than sexing the hell out of you on a desk, Jade. I want to take you on dates and spend time with you and get to know more about you than how good you are in bed.”

  Kaeden wanted to take the risk just like she did, and that excited Jade.

  “I haven’t been able to forget that night either, Jade,” he admitted. “And I was mad at you because I woke up that morning wanting to get to know you better. I still want that.”

  “When and where?” Jade said without a thought or a moment of hesitation.

  Kaeden smiled before he bent his head to plant a kiss to her lips. “Tonight. Dinner. I’ll pick you up at six,” he whispered against her lips before kissing her again.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said, lifting her hands to lightly tease his nipples and stroke the flat silver hairs of his chest. “So does this have to wait until later?”

  Kaeden nodded before he hugged her upper body close to his. “Yes.”

  Jade groaned in disappointment and Kaeden chuckled as he stepped back to look down at his shirt. “You want that thing bad, don’t you?” he teased with a huge grin as he pointed at his ruined shirt.

  “Hush,” Jade said as she rose to her feet and smoothed her short and frayed jean skirt down over her thighs. “I better let you get back to work since you on a strike.”

  Kaeden’s eyes took in the way the short skirt only emphasized the strength and the shape of her deep mocha legs.

  Jade walked to the door, only now realizing someone could have walked in on them. “So we’re really gone try this, huh?” she asked, opening the door and then turning to look at him.

  “It’s worth a try, right?” he asked.

  “And the wedding’s off?” she asked.

  Kaeden shook his head like something was a shame. “I’ll explain all that foolishness tonight.”

  “Then yes, it’s worth the try,” she told him softly before walking out of the office and closing the door behind her.

  Kaeden smoothed down the lapels of his black linen blazer as he inspected his appearance in the mirror. He kept several changes of clothes in the unused and sparsely furnished bedroom above his office, and he was glad he didn’t have to drive all the way to his house and back to pick up Jade.

  He paused. He still couldn’t believe it. He was taking Jade Prince out on their first date. And he felt as nervous as a teenager. Nervous but happy.

  This was what he had wanted from the first moment he laid eyes on her and definitely after the first night he made love to her. This was almost more exciting than being intimate with her. For so long he’d wanted Jade Prince in his life—and not just in his bed.

  He grabbed his car keys after he made sure his black silk shirt and distressed jeans were wrinkle free. He’d even skipped his beloved glasses and wore the dreaded contacts because he remembered her saying she favored him without the spectacles.

  Glancing at his Gucci watch, Kaeden left the bedroom and jogged down the stairs. He quickly turned off the office lights and locked up before he made his way to his car.

  As he drove down Highway 17 toward Holtsville, Kaeden wondered if they were making the right decision. They were so different, but one thing he agreed with Jade about was the connection they shared that night. He fully believed that it was like nothing either of them had ever shared.

  Of course he still had questions:

  Was she only interested in him now because Darren had ended things?

  Had Darren ended things?

  Was is true that she had been celibate for a year before that night, meaning she hadn’t slept with Darren?

  Was she truly looking for some good sex or something more?

  Would a full-blown relationship between them work? That was the most important question of all.

  Pulling into the front yard of Jade’s cottage, Kaeden turned off his cell phone and left it in the console of his car. He hopped out and grabbed the bouquet of lilies he’d brought for her.

  He had barely made it to the small stoop before the front door opened and the doorway was filled with Jade. She completely took his breath away in the wide-leg peach pants she wore with a cream off-the-shoulder shirt and gold accessories. Her makeup was done, enough to enhance her beauty but not too much to make him feel like he needed to ID her. “You look good,” he told her with pure appreciation dripping from his baritone voice.

  “You too, Mr. Strong,” she told him, reaching up to pop the collar of his shirt.

  “Can I kiss you?” he asked as his eyes took in her full glossy lips curved into a smile.

  Jade tilted her head and looked up at him. “Careful, they’re like Lay’s potato chips—you can’t have just one,” she teased in a soft voice.

  Kaeden stepped up close to her and dropped the flowers onto the swing before he softly placed his hands on her face as he looked down into her eyes. His heart swelled as he looked at this woman he had admired from a distance for so long, and now here she was. “You know I could fall for you,” he whispered against her lips before he lowered his head and captured her mouth for a kiss.

  “Then let’s fall together,” she told him huskily, then brought her hands up to grab his lapels as she traced the outline of his mouth with her tongue before she opened her mouth wide and allowed his tongue to twirl with hers.

  Kaeden shivered and felt goose bumps race over his tall frame as her hand massaged his neck beneath his collar. He shifted his mouth down to kiss her neck and he felt her shiver. “We have to stop this, Jade, or soon I won’t be able to,” he whispered fiercely in her ear as she eased one hand down between them to massage his lengthening erection.

  “Maybe I don’t want to, Kaeden.”

  He released a heavy breath as he tilted his head back and looked up at the darkening skies. “I thought we were gonna discover more than this physical thing between us?” he asked, not sounding confident himself.

  Jade stepped back until she was standing just inside her living room. “I have a refrigerator full of food and drinks. I have a very comfortable couch for conversation and getting to know one another. And…I have the best bed ever for something we both want. Now, are you coming in?” she asked him.

  Kaeden knew that once he stepped over that threshold, he would strip them of their clothes and try to bury himself deep within Jade. There was no reasoning beyond that threshold. He reached for her hand and pulled her back out onto the stoop even as his dick throbbed. “We b
oth know there’ll be some conversation—straight dirty, and some eating—but not the food in your fridge.”

  “Okay,” she acquiesced as she pulled the door closed and turned to lock it.

  Kaeden picked up the bouquet to give to her, and he liked the pleasure he saw in her eyes.

  “They’re beautiful, Kaeden.” She looked up at him. “I can’t remember the last time someone gave me flowers. Thank you.”

  She kissed his cheek sweetly before she walked past him. He watched the movement of her buttocks in her pants before she climbed into his BMW. He rushed over to close the door for her.

  Chapter 17

  Jade took another sip of her wine and watched over the rim of her glass as Kaeden watched her from across the table. They were having a good time. The small and intimate seafood restaurant was the perfect locale for a romantic dinner. The food was good. The flirting was fun.

  “You do know I couldn’t stand you the first few days of the camping trip?” she told him as she sat her wine goblet down onto the glass tabletop. “I wanted to wring your neck.”

  Kaeden laughed. “So what changed your mind?”

  Jade shifted her eyes away and shrugged slightly. “I liked that you put your brother in check for me. His lame game was really working my nerves. You were my knight in shining armor.”

  Kaeden leaned back in his leather club chair as he played with his own glass of rum and Coke. “I was more mad that he had the balls to say something to you when I really wanted to,” he admitted.

  Jade placed her head in her hand. “Oh, you were feeling me the whole time, huh?”

  Kaeden picked up his glass and took a sip. “I’ve been feeling you since the first time I laid eyes on you in church.”

  Jade looked at him in surprise. “Really?”

  Kaeden nodded. “You fine as hell, Jade.”

  She smiled and scrunched up her nose at him. “Aww. Thank you…but why didn’t you ask me out?”

  Kaeden laughed. “You would’ve acepted?” He balked in disbelief.

  Jade shook her head and smiled. “I just needed to see past the glasses and the suits and the way I thought you were so quiet and shy. But once I did, once I did, man, you got under my skin and I couldn’t understand or explain it.”