Hard Edge - Tess Oliver Page 0,43

it’s different, Kenna.”

I looked up at him with an unmistakable dose of skepticism.

He straightened. “You don’t believe me.”

“Just wondering how many girls you say that to.”

He dropped his arms and stepped back. “Only you. But I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t believe me either.” He turned to walk away, but I grabbed his hand.

“Listen, buddy, you don’t slam a girl up against the wall, ask her to drop her panties and then walk away.” I pulled him back to me. “You finish what you started, Caden Stratton.” I kissed his mouth. “No condom. If I can’t believe you, the only man I’ve ever truly wanted, then there’s no hope for me or my heart.”

“The only man you’ve ever truly wanted?”

“That’s right. So my entire happiness is in your hands. No pressure.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. His hands wrapped around my ass, lifting my feet from the ground. I swung my legs around him. He braced my back against the wall as he pushed his cock inside of me. A guttural sound of erotic pleasure rolled up from his chest. It made me ache even more for him.

I knew I was getting myself in deep and falling hard for him, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.

Chapter 18

Kenna

I carried the grilled cheese sandwiches outside. Caden was sitting on one of the two lounges drinking a beer and watching the water. Moonlight made the surface of the ocean look like shiny black slate. A pale gray, ghostly looking mist loomed in the distance.

I handed him a plate. “Grilled cheese, my specialty, which isn’t saying much since all it takes is the ability to smear bread with butter and turn on a stove flame.”

He picked up half the sandwich and took a bite. “Hmm, but you smear well.”

I straddled the second lounge and sat down. “Is it just my imagination or is there a massive wall of fog out there on the horizon?”

“Cool, isn’t it? I keep expecting some ghost ship to pop through it. That explains why my leg feels as if an elephant is standing on it.”

The only real remnant of his broken femur was a thick scar on his thigh. I rarely saw him take a misstep or complain about pain. It seemed he’d been lucky.

“I never did hear many of the grisly details, which is probably for the best. Grady called me a few days after to let me know that you’d been hurt and that you were in the hospital. He was really worried about you.” I thought back to the conversation. Grady’s voice had been shaky as he told me that Caden might walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

My mention of Grady had quieted him. He gazed out at the ocean again. “I had a dream last night. I was in the desert, a few of my army buddies were there, and”—he shook his head— “we were playing some weird video game with tigers and sharks, only there was no television. They were all holograms, and I looked over and Grady was playing the game too, teasing me about be a fucking loser because my shark turned into a marshmallow. No fucking idea where the hell the dream came from, but Grady was alive and well and laughing. When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to remember that he was gone. I closed my eyes hoping I could get back there to the dream. It seemed so real. He seemed so real.”

“I imagine we’ll both have plenty of those dreams for a long time to come. Have you talked to your dad at all?”

“Yeah, he’s doing all right, considering. Sally’s a mess though, and my dad doesn’t function well on his own. Talked to my mom too. Walt’s son, Jack, is moving to Vermont with his wife, so Walt needs someone to help at his lumber yard. Of course, my mom is already devising a scheme to have me take over the business for Walt when he retires. Can’t you just see me running a damn lumber yard?”

I swallowed a bite of sandwich. “There are worse things to consider.”

Caden nodded but didn’t look too convinced. “Anyhow, my main reason for bringing it up is that my mom and Walt are going on a trip to Georgia to see Walt’s family next week. She asked me if I could housesit, feed the cat, water the plants and whatever else she puts on