“A princess asleep in the forest?” He held up my shoes, dangling from his fingers. “Shall I call you Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty?”
I smiled, my heart leaping in my chest to see him, but I wasn’t surprised that he was there. I’d known he’d find me, as he always did.
I sat up, running my fingers through my hair in case there were any leaves or grass in it. “I don’t feel much like either at the moment,” I said.
“That’s all right,” he said, sitting down next to me. “After all, I’m hardly Prince Charming.” I noticed he hadn’t even bothered to change his clothes before coming after me.
“How’d you find me?” I asked.
He cocked an eyebrow. “You seriously think I wouldn’t have a way of tracking my brand-new car?”
I laughed lightly. Of course. Should’ve known. He was close enough that I could lean my head against his arm, strong and solid beneath my cheek.
“How’d it get to this point?” I asked after a while.
Kade’s sigh said he knew exactly what I was talking about. “Who the hell knows?” he said quietly. “It just… did.
“I gave Blane the DVD Tish brought,” he continued. “Thought we’d use it as blackmail rather than you going to the cops.”
“Will that work?”
“James values his reputation more than he wants to put Blane away. I think it will.”
“Can’t we get more evidence for what he did to Kandi?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I added the phone records, that will help, but I don’t know if we can do any more without dragging Blane into it again. If James will drop the charges, that may have to be enough.”
That made me sad. Kandi wouldn’t see justice for what had been done to her.
“Blane’s not going to go see James himself, is he?”
Kade shook his head. “Nah. I’ll go see Junior later.” He turned and looked down at me. “I wanted to check on you first.”
“I’m fine,” I said.
His smile was without humor. “Of course you are.”
Just then, I spied a basket sitting on his other side. “What’s that?”
“I thought you’d be hungry, so Mona packed some food. She insisted on putting it in an honest-to-God basket.”
“A picnic?” I said, delighted. I crawled to the basket and opened it. “It’s been ages since I went on a picnic.”
“You like eating in the dirt, bugs getting on your food, and grass sticking to your ass?”
I laughed, pulling out the containers Mona had packed. “Now who’s the princess?” I teased.
Kade grinned at my joke, the genuine smile wiping away the hard edge in his eyes. I quickly glanced away, my heart hurting because he looked like that so rarely.
“So let’s see,” I said, removing lids. “Fried chicken, grapes, cheese, strawberries, and brownies. Yum.” I reached farther into the basket and pulled out a cold bottle of white wine. “It seems she remembered everything,” I said, my eyebrows climbing. Surely, Mona wasn’t playing matchmaker?
“Except silverware,” Kade said, peering into the basket.
“You don’t need silverware with fried chicken,” I said, rolling my eyes.
I handed Kade a corkscrew from the basket and he opened the wine. We ate, passing the wine back and forth like teenagers sneaking a bottle of booze. I teased him about his reluctance to get his fingers greasy with the chicken.
“You are such a baby,” I said, grinning. I clambered over to him and held up a chicken leg. “Some things are meant to be a little messy.”
His grin turned wicked. “I don’t mind messy. In fact, I have a whole list of activities that are meant to be messy. Coincidentally, they all involve you. Clothing optional.”
My pulse quickened and my smile faded.
I was really going to miss him.
Kade’s grin melted away, too, as we stared into each other’s eyes. I dropped the chicken leg, leaned forward, and kissed him.
I could taste the wine on his tongue and I buried my fingers in his silky hair. My body pressed against his and his arms crept around my waist to pull me closer.
When he lifted his head, we were both breathing hard. My hands moved to cup his face. The soft shadow on his jaw was a gentle abrasion against my lips as I pressed my mouth to his cheek. I brushed kisses along his jaw and down his neck, my fingers moving to the buttons of his shirt.
“What are you doing?”
“You have to ask?” I murmured against his skin, freeing more buttons.
His hands grabbed mine, stilling them.
“I heard you and Blane arguing,” he said. “Is this about getting back at him?”
I couldn’t blame him for asking. The way the three of us were tied so closely together, it was an obvious question.
“This has nothing to do with him,” I said, looking into his eyes. “It’s about us. You and me.”
I reached behind me and slid down the zipper of my dress. Standing, I dragged it over my head and tossed it aside. The look on Kade’s face made me glad I’d worn a lace bra and panty set that was the palest ivory, nearly matching my skin.
I straddled his legs and settled myself on his lap. His hands automatically moved to my back. I pressed my mouth to his once, twice, then looked into the ocean-blue of his eyes.
“Are you going to make me ask?”
My question seemed to break through Kade’s stunned immobility, his mouth taking mine with a fevered desperation.
It was an easy decision, wanting Kade to make love to me. I loved him, though I couldn’t tell him that. Blane and I were over, and there was no future for Kade and me. I had a brief moment of regret. That day I’d first seen him in the courthouse… Maybe if I’d said something then—
But what was past was past and I couldn’t change it. What I could do was make a memory.
Sunlight filtered through the trees as the last of the clouds drifted away, bathing us in a warm glow. Kade’s hair shone like a raven’s wing in the light. His hand brushed my hair as he kissed me. I pushed his shirt off his shoulders and down his arms. His hands left me briefly while he shrugged off the garment, then were back and sliding up my back to unhook my bra.
I broke off our kiss, smiling softly at him as I tossed aside the scrap of lace. Our bodies pressed together and my breath caught at the feel of his skin against mine. Hearing Kade’s groan, I guessed he felt the same.
He touched me so carefully, so reverently, as if I weren’t real, that I might disappear at any moment. His head bent to my breast, the heat of his mouth closing over my nipple. The gentle suction of his mouth sent a direct current along the nerve tracing between my legs and I moaned.
Kade licked and stroked and caressed me as though we had an eternity together, until I felt as though my skin was on fire from the inside out. My panties were long gone, removed at some point by Kade, and now I lay on my back, his hand between my legs.
I clutched at his shoulders as he kissed me, the strokes of his fingers making my thighs tremble. His mouth moved to my breast again, his tongue doing things that made me whimper. His hand moved faster between my parted thighs, my knees bent and open shamelessly wide.
Kade’s head lifted and I felt his eyes on me, but I couldn’t stop the wave of intense pleasure that crashed over me and I cried out with the force of it.
When I opened my eyes, Kade was watching. Embarrassment struck and heat flooded my cheeks.
“You look like a goddess,” he said roughly. “The sunlight on your skin, your breasts. Your hair like a river of gold against the grass. This”—his hand moved, a long finger still inside me—“hot and wet for me, like liquid silk.”
I found his belt and loosened it, undoing the button and sliding the zipper down. Kade helped me get rid of his pants and my mouth ran dry at the sight of him, fully naked in the warm sunshine.
The breeze rustled the trees, cooling my overheated skin. I went willingly into Kade’s arms, our mouths melding in mutual need.