“I’m hoping she’ll enjoy more than that soon.” He waggled his eyebrows at me, and my only response was a blush staining my cheeks. Harmless flirting. Without any sort of depth. That’s what I should have been pursuing. Rodney gave me butterflies but didn’t knock my socks off. Cade, though, he’d corrupted the butterflies, scared them away, and brought lightning in as a replacement.
Handbook be damned when it came to people hooking up on team-building work retreats. I had a feeling most were thinking about the same thing because we were all around the same age, intelligent, and very good-looking.
Rodney went on to tell the team why he was involved in data security, but I didn’t really hear him because my eyes were on the corner cabin. Would he want one of these women? Would he indulge if he got the opportunity? It made me hope he wouldn’t leave those walls, and I hated the way my jealousy flared when I realized Cade’s light was off.
And from the wooded shadows, I felt him before I saw him. Close.
Hovering.
Listening and analyzing everything we said.
Rodney finished up by looking at the event coordinator. “And since I’m the last to introduce himself—”
“Not quite the last.” Cade stepped out from where I’d felt him, and some of the girls gasped when they saw him.
Most of the guys were dressed in sweats and hoodies, so it shouldn't have been a shock to see him dressed in that too. Even I was in Rodney’s baggy hoodie. But Cade in black jogger sweats and a hoodie to match hit different. His athletic build filled them out perfectly, and he looked almost approachable.
He rocked back on his heels and introduced himself. “Cade Armanelli. Head of data security for the United States government, the Pentagon, and Stonewood Enterprises.”
Heather cleared her throat. She didn’t want to prompt anything from him, I could tell. Instead, she shuffled her papers around. “Well, I’m so happy to have you all introduced. Like I said, please feel free to eat at any of the grilling stations or have a beverage. My number is located on your itineraries under Ms. Heather if any of you need anything at all.”
She walked up to Cade and gave him a hug, murmuring she was glad he made it. The freaking man smiled at her, and I swear it was more genuine than when he looked at anyone else.
Jealousy unfurled inside me. I figured Heather, as our event coordinator, would hurry away, but she took a seat right next to Cade, like she’d saved those last two chairs across from me for them. No one knew we were hooking up, but damn, in that moment, I could have sworn the whole thing had been orchestrated to push every button on my emotional panel, a ploy to get me to blow a gasket. The bartender brought them glasses filled with amber liquid. It was like Cade had them all trained already, like he was being catered to above all of us.
With a beautiful blonde as his right-hand woman.
Predictably so, I guess. He was a billionaire mogul and our boss, after all.
The very one I’d told myself I hated only a few days ago. He was an enemy, not a friend.
Still, if we had to answer the questions, then so should he. The fire snapped, and the bugs buzzed around me as I got up to grab another drink. “So, what made you get into data security, Mr. Armanelli?” I asked. “Heather made all of us answer the question. You should too.”
He smirked at me as if calling him by his last name was ridiculous. Then, as I grabbed my beer and marched back to my seat, Rodney swept me up and pulled me into his lap.
Cade’s smile died. It dropped off his face like a weight falling from a skyscraper. That lightning in my stomach, the one he commanded, struck as I saw his glare take over.
“Ms. Hardy, I’m so glad you asked,” he murmured as his eyes watched Rodney’s hand on my thigh. My legs were bare except for the small skirt I’d thrown on, but that was basically covered by Rodney’s sweatshirt. “Data controls us all. When I was younger, it was a way to escape. Now, I make sure nobody can escape it.”
Melanie combed a hand through her long hair and flicked it over her shoulder, smiling at him. “I love that. It’s so heroic, all the work you’ve done.”
She did know he was a mobster, right?
Heather laid a hand on his forearm, and I saw her move her wrist back and forth, wiggling it enough that we all saw how the diamonds on a bracelet she wore sparkled in the night. “Cade’s done so much good for the nation.” She giggled then. “And for us. Cade? Remember when you got me this bracelet?”
I thought I saw Cade’s jaw tick and his amber eyes seemed to avoid mine in that moment. “I recall.”
“Cade, are you shy?” She smirked and I swear she met every single one of the women’s eyes as if to stake her claim on him. “This is what I mean. He won’t say that he gifted me a bracelet after we hung out a few times and he knew I would be able to set up events well for him.” She poked him. “You never give yourself enough credit.”
“How generous of him,” I blurted out and almost slapped a hand over my mouth. But Cade’s eyes caught mine and held me hostage, as though he was ready for me to lash out.
Cade hummed, not responding to my barb as he laser-focused on Rodney’s hold around my waist. “Izzy, I heard your story as I was walking over from my cabin. You ever prove to that specific someone that you weren’t what you had tattooed on yourself?”
He had to know that story was about him. The first time he’d seen me, he hadn’t realized how broken I still was.
No one knew the reason behind it. I’d hidden it away and pretended my actions were just the terrible choices of a dumb child.
That was part of the story. Just not the whole thing.
Yet that day, he’d called me an addict and I’d been gutted in a way I wasn’t used to. My friends were addicts, the person I’d loved had been an addict, but not me. My parents babied me, my siblings tiptoed around me, and my friends enabled me. No one outright called me on my shit by digging a verbal knife in and then twisting it when I wasn’t ready.
No one but Cade.
“I’m not sure there’s anything to prove. I am what I am. It’s why I got it tattooed on me. You have tattoos also.” I pointed to his hand, the lettering and black ink snaking up toward his forearm. “I’m sure they mean something to you too.”
He dragged his thumb over the letters and nodded. “I either enact the chaos on my hand or I leash it. We control the data, right? So, we make the rules.”
Rodney chuckled. Heather leaned in and whispered something to Cade.
Did she think he was available? That he’d be interested in a woman like her? Was he? To me, that woman had no demons, had no rebellion locked inside for him to push out. But maybe I was just a plaything, and she was more his style.
For some reason, the thought wreaked havoc on my heart.
After more chitchat, and Rodney rubbing my arms up and down as the fire got dimmer and dimmer, people started to retire to their cabins. I heard Heather whisper to Cade, “I’ll see you later, then.” She kissed his cheek, and he let her.
He even nodded like he intended to go meet her somewhere in the woods for a rendezvous. If he brought her back to the cabin, I would truly lose it. The jealousy that slithered through me was fierce as it wrapped around my lungs and stole my breath.
“Want to go to bed?” Rodney whispered, and I glanced at Lucas as he yawned.
“You two keep it PG tonight.” Lucas hugged me and whispered, “Text me if you need anything.” Then he headed off, and the dominos kept falling. The last few people stood and stretched, not willing to go too far with drinking or staying up late since Cade was in our presence.
Cassie and Penelope said good night, but I saw Penelope slip Cade a note before she walked down the darkened dirt path that led to our cabins.
“Yes,” I jumped up. “I definitely think it’s time to go to bed, Rodney. Walk me?”
With only Cade still sitting and Rodney getting up from behind me, I took in the man I’d avoided the whole day.
The fire illuminated his skin, licked at the Italian tones of it, and highlighted the jagged edges of his cheekbones. “Ms. Hardy, I’ll walk you back to our cabin. I need a word before you turn in for the night.”
Rodney stopped and turned, his eyes studying Cade and then me. Cade didn’t hide the way he stared at me, how his gaze tracked up and down my body slowly, like he wanted Rodney to know he was staking a claim.
“I got her, Cade.” Rodney’s arm was around my neck, insinuating he was going to hold me through the night, implying we were a couple used to this stance.
Cade nodded once, then twice, before he got up.
He walked slowly over to us, then his hand went to my waist. Both Rodney and I watched how he slid it around me. Then he jerked me forward so hard I stumbled into his chest. I would have stopped him, but the look in his eye told me now wasn’t the time to fuck with him.
I could practically feel the stare down happening over my head. “I’ve got her.” Cade made it clear.
“I’m down to stay if you two are into that,” Rodney offered, but his arm had fallen from me, willing to give me up. Most people would with Cade’s dark glare on them.