But even the women who hadn’t been motivated for the wrong reasons had lost his interest in a month or two. The lifestyles reporter at the local paper had taken to calling him the Time Share Bachelor because his relationships had ended on such a predictable schedule. He never strayed, but he never
stayed either. Sometimes he wondered if his divorce had rewired him to only be capable of the temporary. So perhaps it was best for all involved that Contessa walked away from him tonight. Clean. Easy. No attachments or regrets. Everyone could look golden in a one-night stand. A flawless fantasy night for both their memory banks.
Kade sighed as he carried an armful of bowls into the kitchen to rinse them out, unable to shake his desire for more time with Contessa despite his perfectly valid internal arguments. They’d spent hours together. He’d taken her twice. It should be enough. Plus, she was vanilla for God’s sake. This wasn’t like meeting some girl at The Ranch where he could imagine all the dirty things they could try out and mutually enjoy. Contessa, despite her little glimmers of bravado, had a shyness about her, like she was almost awkward about sex. When he’d pinned her hands above her head, her eyes had gone as wide as a virgin’s on prom night. She may’ve been married, but clearly her husband hadn’t given her any more than the basics.
A damn tragedy, that. Because the kind of eager responsiveness she’d shown upstairs proved the woman was built for pleasure, starved for it. And everything in his body was giving a battle cry to be the man to feed her. But there was no way in hell he was going to chase her for the chance. He didn’t chase. Period. He’d spent too many years when he was a kid doing that crap, and it only got you humiliated. Chasing. Pining. Fantasizing about girls he couldn’t have. Only to be turned down so she could go be with the jerk who treated her like shit.
Never again. He’d learned. Girls who wanted to be chased, wanted to be in control of you. And control is one thing he’d never relinquish again.
“Need any help?”
Kade looked up from dumping the last of the food into the trash bin, finding Contessa wearing a sleepy-eyed half smile. He shook his head, his whirling thoughts calming at the sight of her. “Nah, it’s been a while since I’ve been on clean-up duty in a kitchen, but I haven’t forgotten how to do it.”
“So are you a chef?” she asked.
He smiled, amused that she hadn’t bothered to ask his position up until this point. It was a nice change of pace. Most women knew his whole resume before ever saying word one to him. “I went to culinary school, so technically, yes, I could be a chef. But that isn’t my current position. I own this place.”
And many, many others. But he didn’t need to volunteer that at this point. He kind of liked her not knowing the whole restaurant mogul aspect of his career. No matter what, it changed how people interacted with him once they knew.
“Wow, impressive,” she said, though she sounded more wary than impressed. “So you were totally cheating when you said you wouldn’t have to pay for anything. Technically, you’re paying for everything, down to the electricity keeping this light on.”
He grinned. “Are you going to convict me on a technicality?”
“Totally.”
He sighed. “Tough jury. Well, I have handcuffs in the car. Let me finish cleaning up and then you can take me in.”
She laughed. “Somehow I don’t think you’re kidding about having handcuffs.”
He sent her a sly grin but went back to rinsing off the last of the dishes. Actually, he didn’t have any in the car, but at home . . . At home he had enough restraints to bind her in a hundred ways and never repeat a method. “A gentleman never reveals his secrets.”
She went quiet for a while after that, and he began to regret the off-the-cuff comment. The girl had just gotten out of a marriage where her husband was keeping the biggest secret of all, and here he was joking about secrets.
He wiped his hands on a towel and turned to her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean, with your husband—”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, cutting off his apology. “You’re fine. Truly, I wasn’t even thinking about the situation with my ex. Just about our agreement for total honesty.”
Total honesty. Like not even giving her his real first name or the scope of his job. He was doing stellar on that all around. But she was looking so pensive that he couldn’t help but walk over to her. He put his hands on her arms, rubbing the chill bumps there. “What’s on your mind?”
Her gaze slid to the right and down as if there was something eminently more interesting on the floor. “I’m trying to fight the urge to ask you a supremely embarrassing question, but one that I need an honest answer to.”
Uh-oh. That sounded like a no-win trap if ever there was one. But what was he supposed to say to that? “Well, since you’ve already declared that we’re not going to see each other after tonight, I’d say you probably have nothing to lose by asking.”
She took a deep breath, her teeth pressing into her bottom lip, and her gaze still locked on anything but him. “When I caught my husband cheating. He told me it was partly my fault, which I know is bullshit.”
“Total bullshit,” Kade agreed.
“But he said I was boring in bed,” she rushed on. “And I can’t help but wonder if maybe—”
“That fucker.”
Her attention snapped upward, surprise in her eyes.
He cupped her face in his hands. “Baby, I don’t know much about you. I don’t know your last name or what you do for a living. I don’t know if you take cream in your coffee or if you prefer tea. But I can tell you one thing for sure. There is nothing boring about you. Tonight was amazing. You were amazing. And if that idiot ex-husband of yours didn’t know what to do with a gorgeous woman and all that passion you have brewing right beneath the surface, then that’s on him.”
All the tension sagged out of her, and she closed her eyes, nodding in his hands. “Thank you.”
The soft response and her obvious relief nearly undid him. What kind of asshole made a vibrant woman like this doubt herself? He half wished her ex was here right now. Kade would let the guy watch as Kade took Contessa right in front of him, let him watch how glorious she was when given pleasure by a man who knew what he was doing.