Chapter 8

 

The bell above his door sounded, a noise he was starting to get used to. Besides, it would’ve come in handy that morning when Kate was half naked on his desk. Dammit. He shook his head, ridding the image of her in tiny slivers of dark green lace and plastered a smile on his face to greet whoever just walked in.

Terry waltzed in, wearing too high heels and a leopard print track suit. Her matching sunglasses covered most of her face, but there was no denying it was her by the big red hair, fluffed to new heights. She’d be the last person he’d expect to walk through his door unless she was there for something other than bike shopping, which seemed more likely.

His smile faded as she teetered over to him. “What can I do for you, ma’am?”

“Don’t call me ma’am.”

“Okay. What else can I do for you?”

“I want to buy a bike.”

Caleb slapped his hands together. This he could handle. “Who is the bike for? A grandson? Granddaughter?”

She pushed her sunglasses onto her head and raised her chin. “For me.”

If Caleb had to guess, he’d say she hadn’t ridden a bike in decades. He wasn’t one to question a sale, but he also didn’t want to be responsible if Terry wound up injured.

“Dr. Stevens, you know him? Drake? Anyway, he told me I’ve gained a few pounds and should look into exercising. I told him I haven’t exercised a day in my life, and my husband’s not complaining about my extra curves. Then he started rattling off how being overweight can lead to all this nonsense, so here I am. I need a bike.”

“Maybe Dr. Steven’s meant something a little easier, like walking.”

“I walk every darn day of my life. That’s not exercising. It’s boring. Now riding a bike, feeling the wind in my hair, that sounds more like it. Now what do you say? Can you help me or not?”

“What kind of bike are you looking for?”

“A red one.”

“Okay. We have red cruisers, mountain bikes, road bikes, fat-tire bikes.”

“As long as it’s red, I don’t care.”

“Where do you plan on riding?”

“Up and down my block. Nothing crazy.”

“Then a cruiser would probably be best for you. I’ll show what we have, and if you find something you like, we can discuss customizing it.”

“Customizing?” Terry raised her hands in front of her. “Wait just a darn minute. Does that mean I can get it in leopard print?”

“We can do anything you’d like. A red bike with a leopard print seat. A leopard print bike with red or black accents. A basket on the front. A horn. Can even customize the pedals for you or get you a matching helmet. Just depends what you’re looking to spend.”

A smile spread wide across Terry’s face, making her look like a kid who just hit the jackpot on Christmas morning. “If I’m going to get healthy, I’m going to do it in style, so I don’t care how much it costs.”

“My kind of customer,” Caleb said with a laugh. She was willing to spend the money and also get creative. It was a challenge and one he was happy to accept.

She opened her purse and pulled out a wad of cash the size of a brick. “Would this be enough?”

“Geez you walk around with that much money in your bag?” Caleb pressed his hands to hers. “Put that away. Better yet, go to the bank and deposit it.”

“Who needs a bank? Can’t trust them anyway. They’ll rob you blind if you’re not careful, you know.”

“It’s the opposite actually. Banks are there to protect your money.”

“Charging you all kinds of fees and making me pay them for keeping my money. Psh. What kind of business is that? I’ll keep my own money, thank you very much.”

“Maybe don’t carry so much of it around with you.”

“You want me to leave it at home where my husband can get it? It’d be better off with the bank thieves.”

Caleb pushed a palm into his eye, feeling the start of a headache coming on. “Okay then, maybe don’t pull it out like that. You never know who you can trust.”

“Are you saying I can’t trust you?”

“I’m just looking out for you.”

“Well, aren’t you just the sweetest thing. It’s okay, though. I have pepper spray in my bag, and I know how to use it.”

Caleb almost jokingly asked if it was leopard print but didn’t want to put any crazy ideas into her head. “We’ll discuss payment after we figure out exactly what it is you want and need.”

Terry shoved the wad of cash back into her bag. “Sounds like a deal. Now let’s talk.”

Two hours later, Caleb was exhausted. Terry’s order would be enough to get him out of the red this month so the exhaustion would be well worth it. Besides, he actually liked Terry. She was a little over the top, but she was funny as hell, and he could tell she had good intentions. A big heart who loved and cared deeply for her family, friends and all the people of Red Maple Falls.

She had dropped so many names he was tempted to ask her to draw up a chart that broke down all the townspeople. It was a small town, but there were so many people he still hadn’t met. And while that was his intention all along, avoiding society, keeping to himself, the longer he was in Red Maple Falls, the more he wanted to become part of the community.

He looked at the ceiling and smiled. “Shut up,” he said, knowing damn well wherever his brother was, he was laughing at him at this very moment.

***

Kate walked toward her studio with a to-go bag from the Happy Apple. She’d decided to get a head start on the growlers for Mason’s brewery and she’d completely lost track of time. She didn’t realize how late it was until her stomach started to rumble in protest.

Luckily, Terry was always up for a to-go order and whipped her up a couple—even though Kate insisted on only one—of her sweet potato and apple stuffed pork chops with a balsamic and orange glaze. Kate’s mouth was watering thinking about it in the bag.

Then Terry told Kate all about the new bike she was getting and how amazing Caleb was as Kate tried not to let her own opinion show on her face.

Twenty minutes late, Kate was finally on her way back to her studio. She was just about to head up the front steps when she noticed the lights still on over at Caleb’s place.

She’d barely seen him since the morning he stripped her down to her underwear and given her the best orgasm of her life. He probably only tried to apologize because they were neighbors who were bound to see each other from time to time.

Guilt or not, there was no denying it was a mistake, two people caught up in a moment that never should have happened.

But it had happened, and no matter how hard Kate tried to forget about it, she just couldn’t.

Caleb had only been in her life for a very short time, but in that time, she’d gotten used to seeing him, and she missed their bickering and the rare smile that lit up his whole face. Missed the way his eyebrows would draw together when she’d get mad at him. And how amazingly delicious he smelled.

She didn’t like being at odds with people; it simply wasn’t her, and she hated the uneasiness it caused her. So even though she might’ve regretted it, she took a deep breath and walked past her shop and toward The Chain and Spoke.

After all, Terry had given her an extra pork chop. It was only right to share since he had shared his pancakes with her not too long ago.

The bell sounded above her as she entered the shop. She wondered if she was the last person he expected to see, if he would be happy to see her, or act as if she was bothering him.

He emerged from his office and came to an abrupt stop when his eyes met hers. He looked good—almost too good—in a pair of navy-blue shorts and a white polo. His hair was a little messy as if he’d run his hand through it one too many times, probably from dealing with Terry. She wanted to ask him about it—about how he’d been and if he’d made any new sales, but the words wouldn’t come to her.

Instead she stood there, staring into those dark brown eyes that made her knees weak. He stared back, the intensity in his gaze growing with each second that passed.

Finally, Kate found the strength to break away from the magnetic pull Caleb had on her. She looked down at the to-go bag then held it up. “Hungry?”

“I could eat,” he replied.

Kate nodded, and he turned toward his office without another word, but waited for her to follow. She got to the doorway, and her eyes focused on the desk, memories of what they’d done there flooding her mind.

Her skin heated as visions from that steamy morning flashed into her head. She swallowed down the rising desires and focused on the anger she had felt when he’d left her naked and alone. She didn’t want to stay mad, but it was easier to control the yearning within her that was desperate to taste his lips, to feel his heated skin beneath her fingertips and his large hands digging into her hips while he plunged deep inside her.

She sat down in the chair across from him on the other side of the desk and placed the to-go bag on top, trying her hardest not to look into his eyes. One glance of that smoldering gaze and she’d melt like glass against a flame.

He clapped his hands together as he peered over the bag. “What do we have?”

It was only four little words, but Kate was relieved that they were tension free. He might’ve been the one who walked away, but that didn’t negate the fact that she knew what they’d done was fueled purely by frustration and a weird sexual chemistry that sparked to life every time they came in contact with each other. What they’d allowed to happen between them was both of their faults, he just happened to be strong enough to realize it first.

Hopeful that they could put it all behind them, especially now that it was out of their systems, she smiled up at him and reached into the bag. “Sweet potato and apple stuffed pork chops with a balsamic and orange glaze.”

He grabbed his chest and fell back into his chair. Kate laughed, surprised to see a fun, softer side to Caleb. Her grandmother’s words echoed in her head. Maybe there was more to Caleb than met the eye. Maybe he was hiding a big heart beneath the tough exterior.

She looked up, catching that smoldering gaze, and despite everything, she wanted to peel away the layers. She wanted to know all the sides of Caleb James—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“That sounds amazing,” he said.

“It is.” She opened the to-go container and licked a bit of the glaze off of her finger. “It’s my favorite.”

Caleb’s eyes lingered on her finger in her mouth, and she quickly removed it, busying herself with finding the plastic utensils at the bottom of the bag. Just because she was willing to try and figure out who Caleb was beneath the surface didn’t mean she was ready to shed her inhibitions again, even if her body throbbed for his touch.

She wasn’t surprised to find two forks and two knives and wondered how long Terry had this whole thing planned.

Caleb cleared his throat and shifted forward in his chair. “I thought the apple pancakes were your favorite?”

Kate handed him one of the sets of utensils and sat down. “My favorites consist of a top ten and at least five runner-ups.”

“That sounds like a pretty extensive list.”

“What can I say? I love good food.” She picked up one of Terry’s homemade dinner rolls and held it out to him. “Dip this in the glaze.”

He took the roll and looked down at the glaze pooling around the pork chops. She was starving and didn’t wait for him as she drenched her bread.

“Trust me,” she said before biting into balsamic and orange heaven. She closed her eyes savoring every delicious bite and when she finally opened them, Caleb still hadn’t dipped or eaten his bread. He was staring at her with a hot intensity that she felt right down to her core.

***

The faces she made while eating something she enjoyed were so close to the faces she made when she climaxed that Caleb had a hard time concentrating on anything but the fluttering of her eyes as they completely closed, the slight curve of pleasure tugging at her lips, and that sensual moan that instantly made him hard.

Kate stared at him now, but he couldn’t move. Something about her made all common sense fly out the window. Visions of what they’d done on this very desk flashed in and out of his mind. He tried to ignore the dip in her shirt that he knew covered perk pink nipples—the same pale shade as the morning sky before the sun rose.

She shook her head, strawberry blonde strands falling free from behind her ear. He fought the desire to reach across his desk and tuck them back in place.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked, taking another bite of her roll.

He loved how carefree she was. She bit into her food with no reservations, didn’t second guess what he might think of her. He’d always dated girls who ate like rabbits picking at salads that contained nothing more than lettuce, because do you know how many calories are in those dressings you love so much? And croutons were basically the devil of the food world. Carbs were bad and should be treated as if eating them would give you the plague.

Not Kate, though. She ate carbs like they were going extinct, and she’d never see them again.

“I mean if you’re not hungry.” She went to grab the container that housed the food, and he grabbed her hand, not expecting the wave of hot electric current to spread through his arm and right to his groin.

He was hungry all right, but not necessarily for the food. “I’m hungry,” he said, the words gruffer than he anticipated.

She blinked up, her bluish green eyes searing through his. “Then you better eat. Growing up with five siblings, everything is fair game until it’s in your mouth.”

“You wouldn’t,” he challenged.

“Is that a dare? Because I never back down from a dare.”

“Really? I pictured you more of a truth kind of girl.”

“I like to live dangerously every once in a while.”

Caleb attempted to swallow down the building desire to show her just how dangerous they could be together and dipped the roll in the glaze before taking a bite.

“Smart man,” Kate said with a sexy smirk.

She wasn’t kidding. “Wow, this is amazing.”

“Told you. You have to try her turkey with apple and pecan stuffing. It’s like an orgasm on a plate.”

Caleb choked on the pork he’d just put in his mouth, and Kate laughed before handing him a napkin.

“After everything that happened on this desk, I wouldn’t have taken you as a prude,” she said matter-of-factly.

He was surprised she was bringing it up. From the way she had dismissed him when he had gone to apologize, he’d assumed she wanted to pretend it never happened. Now she brought it up like one would the weather.

At every corner this girl was full of surprises. It was an intriguing yet dangerous combination. Still, guilt tugged aggressively at his gut for walking away and leaving her half naked and alone after a pathetic apology.

“About that,” he said and ran a hand over the short hair on his face.

“No.” She shook her head. “No apologies.”

“How do you know I’m going to apologize?”

“I can see it in your eyes.”

“And what exactly are you seeing?”

“Remorse and guilt, but you shouldn’t feel either of those things. It’s not like you took advantage of me.”

“I would never.”

“I know. It’s just something that happened, and it was pretty damn great actually, so I don’t want to look back on it knowing you regretted it… because that would hurt worse than you walking away.”

She was amazing. This beautiful woman who looked at the world with honesty and a boldness that he admired. He didn’t walk away because of regret. He walked away because she scared him. Because when he looked at her, he didn’t just feel it in his pants, he felt it in his heart. If she could affect him so deeply in such a short time, there was no knowing what she could do to him in the long run.

“I don’t regret it,” he finally admitted. If she could speak bravely then he at least owed it to her to try.

Her eyes widened, her soft lips parting. “You don’t?”

He shook his head. “The only thing I regret is walking away. You didn’t deserve that, and for that and that alone, I am sorry.”

A smile tilted at the edge of her lips. “In that case, for that and that alone, I accept your apology.” She was quiet for a moment then met his gaze. “Just don’t ever do that again.” The hurt he heard in that simple statement was enough to have him agreeing, even though he should’ve been making it clear that none of it would ever happen again. But even he knew that would be a lie, because no matter how hard he resisted her, she would find a way to break his resolve.