I must have forgotten to set my alarm before I went to bed.
The alarm had been important, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the reason. I looked at Cade, and his eyes focused on the sheet fisted in my hands and held in front of my chest. A chill ran down my back, raising goose bumps. I shifted and may have turned my bare back toward him slightly. I saw his eyes go to the curve of my spine, and he swallowed.
The devil made me do it.
And by devil, I mean my uterus.
He took a step toward me, and I smiled gleefully for a few seconds.
Then I remembered why my alarm had been so important . . . and why he was even here.
Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving plus my parents.
Thanksgiving plus my parents plus me naked in a room with Cade.
That equaled disaster.
My seduction plan forgotten, I slid off the bed, careful to keep the sheet wrapped around my body. “Shit. What time is it?”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Almost nine.”
SHIT.
Right on cue, the buzzer on my apartment rang. I heard my mother call through the door. “Mackenzie, sweetie!”
And then, because I was the dumbass who couldn’t remember to lock her apartment, I heard the door swing open, followed by another “Sweetie?”
It was like one of those God-awful zombie movies, where you can hear them coming and you have nowhere to go. You just have to make peace with getting your brain eaten.
Mom was the zombie, and if she walked in here to find me naked with a boy, even a Golden Boy, both our brains would end up barbecued.
“Um, just a second, Mom!”
Shit. I went to run my hands through my hair, but forgot I was holding a sheet, which then slipped.
Cade made a noise in the back of his throat, and turned away. My hormone-riddled body really liked that sound, but this was not the time!
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
I must have uttered at least one of those out loud because Cade said, “It’s okay. I’ll go out and talk with them while you get ready.”
“You don’t understand! If you come out of my room, and then I go take a shower, my parents are going to assume you and I are sleeping together.”
“So don’t take a shower. You look beautiful just how you are.”
His eyes slipped down to take in my sheet, and he didn’t even look sorry. Where had all that guilt gone?
Down girl. Still not the time.
“I smell like smoke and alcohol and sweat, which is just as bad. Plus, bed head looks just like sex hair.”
He stepped up and rested his hands on my shoulders. It was meant to be reassuring, but it was bare skin on bare skin, which didn’t relax me at all. As twisted as it was, something about this whole situation still had me turned on. A small part of me liked that we could get caught, even if there wasn’t really a “we,” and no actual sex had been had.
“I’ll tell them the truth,” he said. “You overslept. I just got here.”
“Yeah. Like they’ll believe that.”
His thumbs stroked my shoulders softly, and my body almost wilted.
“I’ll make them believe. I promise.”
He stepped away like he hadn’t just caressed my bare skin, and I wasn’t naked beneath my sheet. His expression was calm and unreadable. It was like he wasn’t affected at all.
Were some men of a different species? Did they have different DNA that enabled them to be so much better than other guys?
I resisted the urge to drop my sheet again just to get a reaction out of him. I closed my eyes, and nodded. I kept my eyes closed as he slipped out of the room so that I wouldn’t do something stupid. I stood there, frozen and turned on, even after I heard him greet my parents.
It was going to be a long day.
15
Cade
For the second time in this apartment, I had a very awkward problem at a very inappropriate time.
If given the choice between facing Max’s parents like this and jumping into an active volcano, I would have to make a serious pros and cons list.
I took a few seconds to focus, even though I knew a few seconds would never be enough to get the sight of Max out of my head. She was exquisite, and my self-control was a thin line at the moment. Even now, I was fighting the urge to go back in there and kiss her, which was not helping me fight the other problem I had going on.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, adjusted myself as best I could, and walked down the hall into the living room.
Please God don’t let Max’s mother try to hug me.
Max’s mother gave a shrill squeal when she saw me. “Cade! I didn’t know you were here.”
She was wrestling a turkey out of a cooler, and left it to come toward me for what I could only assume was a hug.
I moved like she was one of the Philadelphia Eagles coming in for a tackle, and darted around her.