Need You Tonight

TEN





Tessa had no idea what to wear on her date when she had no idea what said date involved. What if she wore jeans and he showed up in a suit or she wore a dress and he wanted to go hiking or something? But before she could deliberate much more, her cell buzzed. She grabbed it from her dresser and read the text message.

Will be there in half an hour. Wear a casual dress or skirt and bring a sweater or jacket. See you soon. -K

The message was simple and to the point, but her skin tingled with heat as if he’d told her to show up naked. God, it wasn’t even fair how easily he affected her. It was as if all her teenage hormones were reappearing after a decade-long nap. She wasn’t the type to get swoony and fluttery over guys. Tessa had never had that sensation around Doug. She’d cared for him and had enjoyed the attention he’d given her, but he hadn’t made her stomach twist and dip.

But Kade could inspire that with one stupid text message. What had gotten into her? She used to hate when Doug told her what to wear. Why was this any different? Maybe her silly reaction was just the result of a lethal combination of Kade’s good looks and a practiced charm that could melt the panties off any woman in a ten-mile radius. He was that guy. The guy who could get any woman in his bed, but who never really showed anyone what lay beneath all that flash and urbanity.

Normally, it’d be the guy she’d steer farthest away from, the heartbreaker. But in this case, that type of man may be exactly what she needed. The perfect one-night stand—or two-night stand as the case may be. She needed fun in her life, an adventure. Like she’d told him that night at the restaurant. She wanted to use him and be used. Maybe it wasn’t ladylike or proper to want that, but she was nothing if not intensely practical. They both had needs the other could fill tonight.

As long as she kept that in perspective, she needn’t worry about the rest of it. She slipped into a casual flowered dress and tossed a white cardigan over it, then went into the bathroom to finish her makeup. After she was done, she locked up her little rental house and sat on the porch swing to wait. The evening had a touch of coolness to it but the breeze soothed her still feverish skin. Maybe by the time Kade arrived she wouldn’t look like some blushing virgin waiting to go to the sock hop.

Her phone rang, lighting up the inner pocket of her purse. She pulled it out and groaned when she saw the name blinking on the screen. The last thing she wanted to do was answer, but she knew if she didn’t, he’d call all night and interrupt her date. She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello.”


“Where did you store my grandfather’s gold watch?” Doug barked, not bothering with a greeting. “You didn’t take it, did you?”

She took a breath, forcing her teeth to unclench. “Hello, Doug, how are you? Yes, this is a bad time actually. Thanks for asking.”

“Don’t be smart, Tessa. Just tell me where it is.”

“I have no idea. You never gave it to me. You showed it to me and then I didn’t see it again.” She stood, the swing squeaking from her hasty dismount, and started to pace the length of the porch. How had she tolerated this man for all those years? How had she not seen how cruel and hateful he’d become? She didn’t want to think about what that said about her.

“That’s crap. I know I gave it to you to put in storage,” Doug said, breaking her from her morose thoughts.

“Doug,” she said, trying to keep her tone even as she continued to pace the warped, wooden boards creaking beneath her feet. “I can’t deal with this right now. I have a date and am about to walk out. Maybe check the lockbox in the guest bedroom downstairs.”

“I already—” But he didn’t finish the initial thought. “You have a date?”

She almost laughed at the incredulity in his voice. Half of her wanted to say—Yes, with a ridiculously sexy man who made me come more times in one night than you did for most of our marriage. “Yes, last I checked, I was no longer married and free to do that.”

He sniffed. “Already on the prowl, huh? How much money does he have? Because I know you’re not spreading your legs for some guy who can’t afford your Prada habit.”

“Go to hell.”

He cursed back at her, his voice getting louder as he gained steam, and now she could hear the slight slur of alcohol lacing it. Fun. She’d learned early with Doug that his a*shole gene amplified when under the influence of his evening scotch. “Come on, tell me. Millionaire? Billionaire? I know that’s what gets you wet. Not big cocks, but big bank accounts.”

The ugly words made her want to gag. “You’re disgusting. Don’t you dare talk—”

But before she could finish her threat, the phone was plucked from her hand. She spun around to find Kade. Anger shimmered off him like heat waves rising off the road.

“Kade, I—”

Kade held up a hand to halt her and put the phone to his ear, a murderous look in his eyes. “Hello, Doug.”

Tessa could hear her ex-husband’s booming voice come through the phone with crystal clarity in the quiet evening. “Who the f*ck is this?”

She closed her eyes, dying of humiliation. The last thing she needed was for Kade to get pulled into her ugly divorce shit. “Kade, please, don’t.”

But Kade gave her a stern I’ve-got-this look. “Doug, this is the guy who isn’t going to allow you to disrespect Tessa. Do not call this number or bother her again. Talk to her through her lawyer. And if you ever dare speak to her again the way you just did or attempt to bully her, I will personally fly to wherever you are and shove your tongue down your throat. Do we have an understanding?”

His tone was calm as water on a windless day, but the icy ferocity behind the words rocked Tessa back on her heels. She braced herself for the explosion from Doug. No one talked to him that way.

“Who the f*ck do you think you are?” Doug shouted into the phone. “She’s my goddamned wife.”

“No, she’s your ex-wife,” Kade reminded him, the utter stoicism in his voice probably driving Doug to the brink.

“Oh, so you’re the date, huh?” Doug challenged, his snide tone obvious. “Hope your bank account is big, friend, because that bitch only has one reason to date anyone.”

Tessa tried to reach for the phone, mortified at the exchange, but Kade stepped back. Cold fury had settled in those blue eyes. “This conversation is over. Your communication with Tessa is over. Contact her again, and you and I will have a problem.”

He laughed. “You think I’m afraid of you?”

Kade’s grim smile sent a chill through her. “You should be.”

With that, Kade ended the call and handed back her phone. She took it, trying to keep hot tears at bay. Embarrassment was like a living, breathing entity holding her in its claws. “Kade . . .”

“Get rid of this phone and number. I’ll get you a corporate-issued one tomorrow. You don’t need him having access to you like that.” The words were clipped, the residual anger from the call still clear in the tight set of his jaw and shoulders.

She stared down at the phone like it was a rattlesnake that had bitten her. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that, that he—”

“Hey,” he said, closing the distance between them and sliding warm palms to her upper arms. The hard edges of his expression softened and melted away as he looked down at her. From ruthless to kind and considerate in two seconds flat. “No apologies for things that aren’t your fault. I heard what he said to you. He’s an abusive a*shole who gets off by tearing you down. Don’t give him his thrills anymore. Cut him off.”

“He’s not going to stop calling. He’ll get the new number.”

“And you charge him with harassment if he does. He has no right to abuse you like that.”

She blew out a breath. “It’s not really abuse. It’s just how he is. He’s angry about what happened with the divorce. He thought I’d—”

“Tessa,” he said, cutting her off with that firm voice of his. “It’s abuse. He hits and cuts you with words for his own enjoyment. He tears you down and makes you feel worthless. That can be more damaging than a punch. Believe me, I know.”

She stared up at him, seeing a flicker of old pain in his eyes. But she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the idea of Doug being abusive. She’d seen abuse. Before her mom had disappeared for good, Tessa had watched her mom’s boyfriend knock her around. She’d sworn she’d never let a man do that to her. She would not become her mother. But here she was, feeling like shit over what some guy had said to her even when she knew the accusations weren’t true.

“This is definitely not how I wanted our evening to start,” she said finally. “Now you know why I wanted to keep things to one night. My life is messy.”

His hands coasted up her arms to cup her shoulders, his gaze capturing hers and holding it. “You think I care about your a*shole ex-husband?”

She looked away. “You don’t understand. Doug can cause lots of trouble when he wants to. I’m glad you didn’t tell him your name. Finding ways to humiliate people who he thinks have wronged him is a favorite pastime of his.”

Kade’s expression darkened for a moment, but as quickly as the shift was there, it was gone. “Baby, I’m about as scared of him as I am of a yapping puppy.”

She pressed her lips together. He didn’t get it. She’d learned early to not cross Doug. The man was like a dog with a bone when he perceived a slight by someone. He’d do everything he could to take that person down a notch.

“Tell me what’s going through that head of yours.”

The gentleness in his voice and the heat of his palms against her face nearly unraveled her. She swallowed back the emotion that wanted to show itself. “I came here to get a fresh start. But every time I feel like I’m catching my stride, my past rears up and bites me. God, those things he was saying on the phone . . . I can’t even imagine what you think.”

Hope you have a big bank account. Doug’s words to Kade rang in her head, and she wanted to fold in on herself. Kade probably had gold diggers fawning after him all the time. Now she’d look like another trying to cash in.

Kade didn’t say anything for a long time. But when she looked up, expecting to find judgment on his face, she found determination there instead. “I chose to get involved. And what I think is that your ex is a piece of shit and a bully.”

“I’m not what he says I am,” she whispered, her throat tightening with the embarrassment of it all—memory and a little guilt. Because part of her knew those gold-digging claims weren’t entirely baseless. Sure, when she’d married Doug, she’d cared for him, maybe even thought she loved him at some point. But when things started to go bad, she hadn’t tried to leave. She’d put up with his jibes and coldness because it was too scary to consider being on her own. She’d ignored the signs of deception—the way he never wanted her in his home office, the late night calls, the password locked computer and cell phone. If she had really looked, the clues that he was hiding something were there.

But the routine of her life, the posh luxury of her days had blinded her. Seeing him for what he was would’ve meant losing the only security she’d ever had, would’ve taken her admitting that she was there for the money, that her life, her friends, and the love she’d thought she’d found were a bedazzled pile of bullshit. So she’d refused to see it. Convinced herself she was content. She’d drowned herself in her shallow lifestyle. If she hadn’t caught him cheating, she’d probably still be wasting away her days shopping and lunching with women who were f*cking her husband behind her back.


Thinking of that version of herself made her stomach roll and pitch.

“Baby, I know you’re not what he says you are. I’m the one chasing you down for another date, remember?” He smirked. “If you were a gold digger, you’d be the worst one ever.”

She laughed, quickly swiping at her eyes. “Maybe I’m just an evil genius at playing hard to get.”

“The truth comes out!”

She peered up at him. “So you still want to do this tonight?”

He hooked an arm around her waist and gathered her against him. “I’ve thought of little else since last Friday night. Now I have a nice, warm car waiting for us. Are you going to stop dawdling and get in with me, or am I going to have to throw you over my shoulder, Neanderthal style?”

She lifted a brow and scanned over his perfectly pressed charcoal slacks and pale pink shirt. Every inch of him screamed money and urbanity. “I’m not sure you could pull off Neanderthal.”

“Mmm, that’s where you’re wrong, beautiful,” he said, cupping the back of her neck and running his thumb along the hollow of her throat. “Don’t let the wrapping paper fool you. My thoughts when I’m around you are about as caveman as it gets. In fact, it’s taking everything I have not to strip you down right here and take you against your front door until that wrinkle of worry in your forehead disappears and you can’t even remember that phone call.”

A little gasp passed her lips, and her body went on high alert.

“So are you going to get in the car or do you need me to carry you?”

Her gaze darted to the darkened street and yellow porch lights. “Let’s not give the neighbors anything to talk about.”

He slowly backed her into her door anyway. Her shoulders hit the wood and a shiver radiated outward, tightening her nipples and awakening things much lower. He kissed the curve of her neck, shielding her from the street with his body, and his hands crept down over her backside, gathering her skirt in his fingers.

“Kade,” she whispered, teetering on the edge of letting him do whatever he wanted even though anyone could step outside and see them.

“Shh, Tess. You wanted me to take control tonight. Let me.” He hiked her dress up higher in the back, teasing the bottom edge of her panties with his fingertips. “Take these off. You won’t need them.”

She let out a little squeak when he tugged at the elastic and pulled her panties down over her ass. The skirt slid down to cover her bare skin as he worked her underwear further down. They were stretched over her mid-thighs when a car turned onto the street. Headlights flashed over them and she froze. She tried to reach for her panties, but Kade captured her arms against her sides.

“They’ll see,” she whispered.

Kade lifted his head and brushed his mouth against hers. “They’ll see a guy with his date. They can’t see anything else. I wouldn’t risk embarrassing you. It’s important that you know that.”

Her gaze flicked up to his, questioning.

“I like pushing boundaries, Tessa. It’s how I’m built, and I think it’s what you crave, too. But you have to trust that I have your back. I won’t do anything to embarrass you or risk your safety.”

The gravity with which he made the declaration had her heart hammering against the walls of her chest. He’d said he wanted to have kinky fun with her tonight, but she really had no idea what that entailed. The definition of kinky was so broad and her experience so slight, that she was getting the distinct impression she’d signed on for something more than whip cream and fuzzy handcuffs.

But hell if she could find it in her to stop things here. Despite the warning bells dinging a chorus in her head, she was wild with curiosity. What was this man about? What put that dark glint in his eyes? And what in God’s name was he going to do to her?

“I’m not so good with trust,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady as he ran teasing fingers over the bottom curve of her ass.

“I don’t blame you. All I ask is that you try and let me show you I’m worthy of it.”

His hands roamed, and she closed her eyes, her body already revving for him to take it further. Maybe they didn’t need to go out at all. She had a perfectly comfortable bed right on the other side of the door. “I’ll try.”

“Let your panties fall to the ground, then.”

The command sent a zing of forbidden thrill through her, and she wiggled, working her underwear down her legs as discreetly as possible. When they hit the floorboards and she stepped out of them, Kade bent and swept them up with swift precision. He tucked them in his pocket. “Very good.”

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth as the cool night air swirled up her dress and kissed all the tender damp parts beneath. “Do you want to go inside?”

He took her hand and backed up a step, tugging her with him. “And ruin all the anticipation? Of course not. I’m here to take you out.”

“But—” She glanced down at her fluttering skirt, feeling as if the whole world could tell there was nothing beneath.

He brought his hand to her mouth and pressed a kiss to it. “Trust.”

She forced the knot in her throat down and nodded. “Okay.”

But as she followed him down the porch stairs and to his car, she knew he was asking for more than she was capable of giving. She didn’t even trust herself. How could she trust him?