Wednesday, December 21
Suddenly coming awake and sitting up in bed, Cade glanced at the clock. It was now twelve forty-five in the morning, and while not as intoxicated as when Ethan and their father had brought him back in here, he was still intoxicated enough not to be entirely rational. Something, while sober, he was quite good at. Even when dealing with one of his bigger arguments with Emma.
Placing his feet on the floor, he stood and headed for the door out to the hall. He’d almost made it to the kitchen when he stopped, a smirk crossing his lips. “I’ll teach her to go out with weaselly, little momma’s boys,” he chuckled to himself.
Turning, he headed back the other way, this time stopping at the door to the bedroom right before the one he always used when staying at the main ranch house, instead of his own a couple of fields over. Glancing around, he doubled checked to make sure no one was coming, then opened the door, letting himself into Emma’s bedroom.
“I’ll just mark my territory,” he mumbled to himself. “Then when she’s rolling around in this bed, she’ll smell me, and she won’t be able to think of going out with any other guys. She’ll only be able to think of me.” Of course, this rationale might have worked if he were a dog. Which he wasn’t. But, once again, he wasn’t known for thinking the clearest while drunk. That was part of the reason he never drank more than two beers. Slowly.
Flipping the covers back on her bed, and somehow missing the fact Emma was lying there asleep, he quickly unfastened his jeans, and shoved them, with his boxer-briefs, down to his ankles. Noticing a bottle of lotion on her night table, he squirted some into his palm. Already growing ready, for his planned activities, from the images in his head of her standing before him, naked, he started stroking himself. With the images in his head quickly becoming more erotic, and his breathing more shallow, he stroked himself faster, soon groaning loudly. Soaking through her nightgown to her skin with his release, he was just finishing up when she come to with a screech of surprise.
“Cade, what are you doing?” she shouted, jumping out of bed to grab her robe.
Turning back to face him, while only holding the robe in front of her like a shield, she found him just then pulling his jeans back up, his still semi-erect member hanging out there for her to see. She gasped, slapping her hand over her eyes. Deciding she would rather be able to see what he was doing, due to a lack of trust at the moment, she immediately dropped it back down. He was apparently still drunk after all. “Cade, what is wrong with you?”
Opting not to speak, he just grinned widely. He finished fastening his jeans then, and turned to exit the room, leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open.
~~~~
Pacing back and forth in the middle of her bedroom, Emma punched the green button on her cell phone once more, immediately switching to speaker phone. And waited. “Come on, Samantha Wade, answer the phone.”
“What have I told you about calling me Samantha?”
“Well, this is the fifth time I’ve dialed your number. What took you so long to answer?”
“It’s five thirty in the morning. I was asleep.”
“Yeah, probably dreaming about Ethan.”
“I don’t want to talk about Ethan right now,” she huffed. “And why aren’t you still asleep, and dreaming about Cade? You normally would be.”
“Because Cade woke me up at nearly one in the morning, and I want to talk about that,” she snapped. “Rather, I need to talk about that.”
“Wow, why so aggressive? I’m guessing it wasn’t for something fun.”
“I’m pissed at him right now.”
“Well, then talk.”
“No,” she grumbled, shaking her head despite her friend not being able to see. “This is not something I want to discuss over the phone. We have to have this conversation in person.”
“What? Why?”
“We just do.”
“I’m still in bed.”
“Get over here. Now! And I know you. You’ll stop for coffee. Bring me some.”
“Can’t you just go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee?”
“It’s not about the coffee, and I’ve not left my bedroom yet,” she answered in a near whisper. “And I don’t intend to until you get here. I don’t want to risk running into Cade yet.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Just get here already.”
“Alright-alright,” Sammy sighed. “I’m getting out of bed. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Thirty minutes later, finally walking through Emma’s bedroom door, the pretty brunette handed her friend a to-go cup of coffee from the local coffee shop. “Okay, spill it. What’s got you acting like a psycho this morning?”
“That moron got up and wandered in here in the middle of the night to pee on me.”
“What?” Sammy frowned.
“Oh, you heard me.”
“Exactly what time in the middle of the night?”
“Nearly one. Why does that matter?”
“Well, while not exactly excusable, from the amount of alcohol Ethan told me he had consumed, he was probably still drunk. We didn’t get you back home till almost eleven last night.”
“Really?” Emma scoffed. “What? My bedroom looks like a bathroom, and my bed looks like a toilet?”
“Okay,” Sammy squeaked out, fighting to hold back a laugh. “Maybe he was marking his territory. He was rather furious about your date with the momma’s boy.”
“That’s not funny,” Emma huffed, walking over to plop down on the bed. “Especially since all he’d have to do is tell me he wanted me, and I’d be all his. For good.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” Sighing, Sammy walked over to sit down beside her. “I’m sure he was just still drunk, and didn’t realize he was in the wrong room. You know the kind of screwball he can be when he’s drunk.”
“I’m not buying it.”
“Why?”
“Because once he was done, and had his pants pulled back up, he left with a huge grin on his face. Like he was proud of himself.”
“He was grinning when he left, you say?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure he peed on you?”
“Well, it was wet and warm. What else would it have been.”
“He might have really been marking his territory. How asleep were you?”
“He woke me up out of a sound sleep,” Emma frowned. “I went right back to sleep after I cleaned up. I guess fighting Jeffery off for the hour or so it took till you and Ethan finally found us wore me out more than I realized. As angry as I was, I shouldn’t have gone back to sleep so easily.”
“Did Jeffery have a chance to put anything in your drink last night?”
“I never had anything to drink except one drink of coffee. He already had it in the car when he picked me up. He said he picked it up for me because he’d gotten himself one. It had so much sugar and creamer in it, I couldn’t drink it. And some kind of hazelnut flavoring. I hate that stuff. It was all I could do to swallow the drink I did take. I nearly spewed it out all over the dash of that fancy car of his. Anyway, why?”
“It could explain why you went back to sleep so easily. Maybe it was a delayed reaction, or something. Like your adrenaline from being so angry saved you from passing out. Did he say anything strange at any point?”
“Everything that fool says is strange,” she scoffed. “Never mind any of that. I’m not going back out with that idiot for any reason. What does how asleep I was, have to do with Cade’s behavior from last night?”
“Okay, we’re probably just lucky you didn’t drink more than the one drink of that coffee. There’s no way of knowing what he slipped in there. That’s probably why it had so much sugar and creamer in it. He was probably trying to hide the taste of whatever drug he’d put in there. Of course, I remember hearing him order coffee for himself once. He had them put so much sugar and syrup in it, it would have kept a five-year-old awake for a week. He should probably just stick to hot chocolate and soda pop.”
“Never mind Jeffery, please!” Emma begged.
“Sorry,” Sammy cringed. “Where’s the nightgown you had on last night?”
“In the bathroom floor where I dropped it before getting cleaned up and crawling back in bed.”
“Okay, just a second,” Sammy whispered, quickly heading to Emma’s personal bathroom.
Around five seconds later, Sammy reappeared in the bathroom door, nightgown in hand. “Sweetheart, he did not pee on you.”
“Of course, he did.”
“Nope,” Sammy breathed, shaking her head. “He found a better way to mark his territory. You may not have been having fun, but he was.”
“I am not his territory,” Emma huffed, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Oh, I’m certain he would disagree with you on the matter.”
“Whatever,” Emma grumbled, shaking her head. “If he didn’t pee on me, then what… Never mind,” she hissed, finally realizing her mistake. “I must have been more asleep than I realized. Maybe Jeffery really did try to slip me something.”
“Yes, there’s a good chance he did, but he’d have had to put enough to knockout a horse in that one cup of coffee, for one drink to put you out like that. I wonder if he’s smart enough to realize, something like that could have killed you,” Sammy grumbled, shaking her head in disgust. “But on to happier topics, judging from the size of the stain on this nightgown, Cade’s been holding back for quite a while now. Like the whole last four years.”
“Not according to Macy Lewis.”
“Oh, I told you, she’s been making crap up about Cade the whole time. He never even speaks to her. I saw her try to talk to him in town one day. He literally crossed the street and went way out of his way to avoid her. He is not actively sleeping with her, nor has he ever slept with her in the past.”
“Whatever,” Emma mumbled in a near whisper.
Noticing the look on her friend’s face, Sammy stepped over to lay a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know if this is better, or worse.”
“I would think you would consider it better.”
“Why? Would you want Ethan coming into your bedroom in the middle of the night, and… relieving himself, in that way, all over you.”
“Well, no, but it looks like, Cade’s feelings for you are starting to get the better of him. Or at least his sexual desire for you. And you are definitely making him crazy. We both know, Cade doesn’t normally drink like that, for good reason. I have the feeling things are about to get pretty chaotic for a few days around here.”
“I want love and marriage. Not just sex.”
“Oh, you’ll get the whole package with Cade, Sweetheart. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Yeah, still not sure if this is better or worse.”
“Why?”
“How am I supposed to look him in the eyes after this?”
“Like you always have before,” Sammy shrugged. “He’s the one that done something embarrassing. Not you.”
“But he done it to me.”
“Yeah,” Sammy nodded. “You have been presented with the perfect opportunity.”
“The perfect opportunity for what?”
“To put the thumbscrews to Cade Warren. Make him squirm for a little bit.”
“To what end? Wouldn’t that just make things more difficult?”
“What things?”
“You know what things,” Emma huffed.
“Oh, that,” Sammy laughed. “No, because after you make him sweat for a while, you’ll tell him how you really feel. Trust me. You know Cade can handle it.”
“Yeah,” Emma hissed. “I’m about to faint just thinking about it.”
“What are you going to do when he finally admits he’s in love with you? Are you going to faint then as well?”
“Probably. Well,” she shrugged. “That’s if he ever admits such a thing. I still have my doubts.”
“Oh, he will. I suspect you’re about to get your fondest wish. For Christmas no less.”
“What’s that?”
“Cade,” Sammy answered with a quick bob of her eyebrows. “All of him.”