Sitting at the kitchen bar once more, this time with the world’s worst hangover, and a strong cup of black coffee in front of him, he was hoping to get down, with the aspirin he’d already taken, before his head split open, Cade groaned and dropped his head to the counter when Emma come through the door. He had his back turned to her and didn’t actually see her. But he hadn’t needed to. When she walked in from the hallway, her scent, the same scent from the mistletoe incident four years ago, wafting with her, he’d instantly grown hard enough to practically drill through the counter he was leaning on. The raging hard-on he now had straining at the zipper of his worn jeans was almost enough to make him forget his hangover. But only almost. He was certain, with the condition he was currently in, he wasn’t ready to deal with her.
“What are you groaning about already?” Emma huffed. “You’re not the one that got woken up in the middle of the night, last night.”
Sitting back up slowly, he took several deep, calming breaths before turning to look her in the eyes. “I’m sorry. I have the worst hangover of my life right now, and I’m no longer certain what time zone we’re even in. What are you talking about?”
“You,” she growled, stepping closer to poke him in the chest. “Come into my room at nearly one in the morning.”
Both Cade and Emma had become so intent on their interaction with each other, they missed Ethan and Sammy slipping silently into the room with them. The other pair just passed a look between them and propped against the wall by the door. And listened.
“I’m sorry, I don’t recall that,” he grumbled, his cheeks staining bright red.
“I’m not buying it,” she shouted.
Cringing due to her excessive volume, he held his hands in the air, and made a motion indicating he wanted her to speak softly. “Please,” he begged in a whisper. “Speak quietly. I feel like someone is trying to split my head open with a wedge and maul, like they were splitting firewood. This conversation already has me seeing stars.”
“You still need to explain yourself.”
“Look, I was smashed out of my skull last night,” he grumbled. “I don’t remember a thing.”
“So, you don’t remember coming into my bedroom after midnight, dropping your pants to your ankles, and… ejaculating on me?”
“No,” he grumbled, his cheeks growing even more heated. “I told you, I was drunk. Very drunk.”
“Unbelievable,” she huffed, throwing her hands up. “I want to know what the heck you were thinking.”
“Then you’re going to have to talk to drunk me,” he replied with an unfortunate chuckle, drawing such a furious glare from her, she reminded him of a fire breathing dragon for a couple of seconds.
“I tried to last night,” she hissed through her teeth. “You just walked out with a stupid grin on your face.”
Shrugging, he done his best to appear unconcerned. “I guess you’ll have to wait till I’m drunk again. Not that I really intend to ever get that drunk again in this lifetime.”
Lowering her lashes, she stepped closer, the furious dragon coming back, and jabbed him in the chest. “That’s not funny, Cade.”
“Neither was you going out with Jeffery Moore when we were supposed to be putting the Christmas tree up for your mother.”
“Mom knew I was on a date,” she grumbled, her eyes instantly dropping to the floor.
“I’m not sure I buy that.” There was something her mother had said last night that made him suspicious of her claim, but right then he wasn’t recalling it. His head was just hurting too much at the moment.
“Well, she did,” she replied, this time managing to look him in the eyes.
“Well, did she know who your date was?”
“What does that matter?”
“My dad, nor your mom, either one, like Jeffery Moore. I’m sure they both would have advised against you going out with him.”
“I’ll go out with whoever I want. Besides my date last night has nothing to do with you coming into my room to… pleasure yourself.”
“You never know,” he smirked.
Glaring at him like she wanted to stick her size eight cowboy boot up his butt sideways, and might have tried, had she been wearing them, she stepped back, and took a few deep, calming breaths before continuing. “Since you can’t tell me why you come into my room to make yourself happy, why were you drinking like a deranged fool to start with?”
“I needed to relax,” he shrugged, then immediately regretted the action when his head started throbbing anew.
“Yeah, I’d say you accomplished that,” she huffed, spinning on her heels to leave the kitchen before she tried to strangle the crazy idiot.
Ethan and Sammy quickly following her back out into the hall, stopped her before she could make it back to her bedroom.
“Can you believe that?” she growled, throwing her hands in the air. “He can’t even remember going into my room.”
“Nah, that’s crap,” Ethan laughed.
“Why do you say that?” Sammy grumbled, her eyebrows shooting up into her hairline.
“I’ve seen my brother drunk like that before,” he shrugged. “He may not do it often, but he never forgets what happened while he was drunk. No matter how drunk he is.”
“Grr,” Emma growled, turning to storm the rest of the way to her room.”
“You were a lot of help,” Sammy frowned.
“I think it’s better she knows the truth. She needs to confront him again. Just maybe after he’s gotten over his hangover first. He looked like his eyes were trying to permanently cross every time she raised her voice at him. That’s not going to make him very cooperative.”
“Okay, I can see your point, but why wouldn’t he want to just tell her the truth anyway? He’s bound to know she’s going to keep pushing until she gets the answers she’s looking for.”
“Whatever had him going in there last night, he’s probably embarrassed by it. I really can’t think of a reason for him doing what he did that wouldn’t be embarrassing.”
“Yeah, probably so.” Sammy cringed at the thought. “I did say something to her earlier about him marking his territory. How close do you think I am with that line of thinking?”
“Probably, painfully so,” he chuckled. “Her going out with Jeffery Moore last night might have been a breaking point for him. He’s been slowly going crazy for the last four years. And that was without her truly trying to date a lot.”
“Is this breaking point you’re talking about going to be a good, or a bad, thing?”
“Well, he doesn’t give up easily, but I guess will have to wait and see.”
“We can always help things along if we need to,” Sammy grumbled thoughtfully.
“I’m game,” he nodded. “However, right now, I’ve got to get to work. I figure it’s going to take Cade longer than usual to get out there, so it’s going to be a long day. Are you going to check on Emma?”
“Of course.”
“Good,” he grinned, leaning down to give her a quick smack on the lips.
“Hey,” she screeched in surprise.
“Bye,” he grinned again, quickly heading back through the kitchen door.
Finally, letting her smile spread across her face, Sammy turned and headed for Emma’s room.
~~~~
Barely noticing his brother walking back through the kitchen, Cade still sat where the other three had left him. Now he was mumbling to himself about his conversation with Emma just minutes earlier. One of the things he was mumbling about, being the fact that he did remember ejaculating on her. Ethan merely waved at their father as he headed for the backdoor, doing his best to fight an outright laugh at the look on the older man’s face as he kept going.
Still mumbling to himself several minutes later when he swallowed his last drink of coffee and stood to his feet, he had yet to realize he wasn’t alone in the kitchen. He’d just closed the dishwasher and was turning toward the backdoor when his father finally spoke to him.
“Good morning, Cade.”
“Dad!” he shouted, just managing to stop his fist from making contact with his sire’s jaw.
Ezekiel smirked, not even phased by the near punch, and moved over to take a seat at the bar. “You always could pull a punch nearly as fast as you could throw one.”
“I realized, at an early age, I was going to have to learn how, after I figured out, I was going to lean toward punching first, and asking questions second. Of course, that’s something that only happens when I’m startled.” Cade frowned in thought, wondering how much of his ramblings his father had heard. “Why are you in here? Most days you’d already be out, working.”
“Most days, so would you.”
“True,” he nodded, the nervous feeling in his stomach growing stronger.
“So,” his dad nodded. “We’ll start with, now I know why you were drunk out of your head last night. And there’s a couple of things I’m still trying to decide if I believe, much less want to know.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I’m certain you do,” Ezekiel snorted. “Sit back down. We need to talk.”
“Can it wait? I’m already running behind. You’ve always taught us to carry our own weight.”
“Sit!”
“Yes, Sir,” Cade shouted, immediately doing as he was told.
Eyeing his oldest son thoughtfully, Ezekiel took the time to consider what he wanted to say before speaking. “Did I hear you correctly?”
“I don’t know,” Cade swallowed, “That depends on how long you had been standing there, and what you think you heard.”
“Okay,” the older man nodded. “Let me make myself a little more clear. Did you go into your stepsister’s room last night, and ejaculate on her while she was sleeping?”
“Please, do not call her my sister,” Cade growled. Jumping up, he started to pace, literally pulling at his hair. “Don’t even use the term stepsister. She is not my sister. I have never seen her that way, and I’m certain at this point, I’m never going to.”
“Okay, no referring to Emma as your sister,” Ezekiel nodded, starting to get a much better idea just how close Cade was to his breaking point.
“I’m a complete idiot when I’m drunk.”
“Yeah, I know,” Ezekiel snorted. “That’s why you don’t normally drink more than one or two beers at a time.”
“She’s never going to forgive me for this.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. You may have to grovel a little bit, but I bet she’ll forgive you.”
“Right,” he snorted, shaking his head.
“Why don’t you start with apologizing, and explaining you were a drunken idiot?”
“I already did that.”
“Well, you could finally tell her you love her and ask her to marry you.”
Stopping in his tracks then, Cade turned and faced his father, his eyes showing surprise.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I realized four years ago we’d eventually reach this day. The only thing I find surprising about all of this, is that it’s taken this long.”
“How?”
Ezekiel just shook his head. “I’m certain you know how. I’m not sure her mother realizes the road you’re on with her yet. Of course, it could just be denial, but she’ll know soon enough, I guess.”
“I hadn’t really thought about how she would react to all this,” he sighed heavily. “I knew you would be cool with it, but Momma Jane might think it’s a little weird.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Ezekiel replied. “I’ll handle it if a problem arises there. I think I already know, but just to be sure, what are your intentions where Emma is concerned.”
“Well, I’m planning on giving her this,” he whispered, pulling the box with the engagement ring in it out of his pocket. “If she’ll take it.”
“Is that your grandmother’s ring?”
“Of course. I certainly don’t have anyone else I want to give it to.”
“When?”
“Christmas morning.”
“Well, you bettered work on that apology. It’s the twenty-first now. You’re going to have to give her a few days to cool off. Otherwise, she might throw it at your head.”
“I’m not sure apologizing is going to be enough. Even with a marriage proposal.”
“Why?”
“Because I lied.”
“About what?” his father grunted.
“I remembered last night with complete clarity.”
“So?”
“I told her I didn’t remember anything.”
“Why would you have done that? We all know how crazy you get while you’re drunk. You’re kind of like an untrained toddler, only with adult-sized antics.”
“I may be even crazier than you realized. Even more than you realize after what I did last night.”
“What are you talking about now?”
“I clearly remember telling myself I was marking my territory. Of course, I also thought I was just going to be marking the bed. Not her. I am a complete idiot,” he added, and quickly went back to pacing.
“Yes, you really are,” his father frowned.
“Thanks for the encouragement,” he bit out sarcastically.
“You might ought to leave the marking your territory bit out when you apologize.”
“Really?”
“No!” Ezekiel answered in a near shout. “If you leave that out, it may very well come back to bite you in the butt later. It’s likely to just spew out of your mouth at a really inopportune time. It’s better to start with a clean slate.”
“Great,” he whispered with a small nod, plopping back down in his chair. “She’s going to kill me.”
“No, she’s not. You’ll work things out.”
“Hopefully.”
“The biggest question is whether or not you work it out before she goes out on another date with one of the idiots around here.”
“Jeffery Moore,” he snarled with a crack of his knuckles. “I really want to break that fool’s neck.”
“Don’t worry about him. Ethan took care of him. If he actually tries to show up at our door again, he’ll prove he really has a death wish.”
“Why would Ethan have taken care of him?” Cade growled, already rising back to his feet.”
“Sit!” Ezekiel growled.
“Dad!”
“It’s already been handled. He just tried to take liberties she wasn’t willing to give.”
“I’m going to kill him,” he snarled, rising once more.
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ve already spoken to his father. He was threatening to press charges. Rather, he was trying to extort money from us. Your brother busted him up pretty good. He has a broken nose, among other injuries. He also mentioned a cracked rib or two. Anyway, I explained his son had a busted face because he was trying to force himself on my stepdaughter. Which Jeffery basically admitted to Ethan. He said something about needing to get ‘a little aggressive’. He’d even taken her phone when she tried to call you. Which Ethan found in the pocket of Jeffery’s coat, like Emma said he would. I farther explained, if he didn’t want counter charges brought, they’d drop the matter. Since it would be three against one, with Sammy there as well, he was smart enough to realize they didn’t stand a chance in court.”
“It should have been me busting his face.”
“Well, you were drunk. Just be grateful your brother was there in your stead, and Emma wasn’t hurt. Moving on,” Ezekiel growled. “I have one more thing to say.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re my son, and I love you,” Ezekiel eyed him hard. “But if you hurt that little girl, you’re going to be answering to me. Do you catch my drift?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “But at this point, I’m far more likely to be the one getting hurt. Not her.”
“I also recommend you stay away from the alcohol until you’ve worked things out.”
“That would definitely be for the best.”
“Just as long as we understand each other,” Ezekiel nodded. Standing up, and throwing his shoulders back, he almost looked like he was heading into battle. “Now, time to go talk to your step… Excuse me,” he grinned over at Cade, and started over. “Time to go talk to Emma.”