“No probably about it.” Kade hooked both his ankles around the legs of her chair and dragged her and the chair forward until she was braced between his knees. He laid his hands over hers on the arms of the chair and leaned into her space, his expression full of temptation and illicit intention. “I do know what to do with you, to you. Give me a chance to show you, Tessa.”
She stared back at him, captured in the spell he was weaving around them, her body warring with her common sense. Everything about Kade called to her—his voice, his smile, the way he looked at her as if she were the most decadent meal of his life. He was temptation wrapped up in an unfairly sexy package, like a tropical vacation to her midwinter life.
“You don’t understand. My life is all kinds of complicated right now. I’m juggling so much already—a new town, night school, trying to find a career, my list. And now with this job it’s going to increase a hundred fold. I don’t have the ability to add one more potentially complicated thing.”
His gaze softened. “It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, I can make it exceptionally uncomplicated.”
“Sex is always complicated,” she replied, but there was no punch in her protest.
“No, sex is complex. Relationships are complicated. Friday night was as simple and straightforward as it gets.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You call that simple? That was like a three-ring circus compared to my former sex life.”
“This further proves how neglected and sheltered you’ve been,” he said, his tone full of graveness but humor crinkling the corners of his eyes. “I can show you complex. Complex, kinky, deviant. Pick your poison.”
She smiled, remembering his words from the other night. I’m a kinky fucker. “Sounds like I’d need to create a whole new page of the list to cover all that.”
He leaned back to grab something on his desk and then reached for her hand. Before she could figure out what he was doing, he stamped the top of her hand.
She glanced down to see his signature in blue on her skin. “What’s this?”
“My full endorsement of that idea. Make a new list. Put me on it.”
She laughed. “You’re weird, Kade Vandergriff.”
“So I’ve been told. But for the sake of my fragile ego, let’s label that as charming instead.”
She shook her head, unsure what to think of this quirky man. One minute he could intimidate her right out of her clothes, the next he could make her feel like she was hanging out with someone she’d known forever. When she’d walked into this office and had seen him sitting behind his big desk in a big office with his finely cut designer suit, she’d had a hard time not dropping him into the same box as Doug. Wealthy, arrogant, and powerful. A guy who spent his life looking down at everyone around him from atop some self-righteous golden pulpit and only taking an interest in someone if it could serve his own plans or image. But as the conversation went on, she was realizing Kade had a completely different vibe, one that seemed out of place considering his station in life. And it was making her want to know more.
“I don’t know what to say to all this,” she said honestly.
“Yes. That’s the word you’re looking for, I believe. And look, I get that you’re unsure because I’ve thrown a lot at you today. But let’s make this as simple as can be. I’m asking you to spend another evening with me. No strings or expectations. Just another night to relax, explore, and enjoy each other. Preferably without fire and life-threatening smoke inhalation involved. If afterward you don’t want to get together again, that’s your call. I would never hold that against you.”
The tune he was singing was a pied piper’s song to her system. Relax, explore, and enjoy. She didn’t even know what relaxing felt like anymore. Friday night with him had been the closest she’d gotten to that state in as long as she could remember. But she sensed there was fine print hiding in his words. He was saying she could walk away, but he wasn’t expecting her to. That easy confidence unnerved her. But she couldn’t make herself close off the option just yet. “What exactly would you want to check off my list?”
His thumbs traced over her knuckles as he watched her with careful eyes. “What experiences or fantasies do you have knocking around in that head of yours?”
Being under his heavy gaze was like being chained to the chair. It made her realize how little her ex-husband had really looked at her. That kind of rapt attention was potent. But she didn’t know how to answer Kade’s question. Sure, she had some fantasies. Who didn’t? But there was no way she had the guts to say them aloud. She’d mentioned a few to Doug once, and he’d looked at her like she’d lost her mind. No way was she risking that embarrassment again. “I don’t even know. I didn’t have room to think outside the box in my previous relationship. Doug had . . . issues about those things.”
“Issues?” He asked leaning back and giving her a little space.
She shifted in her chair, uncomfortable with sharing this much but somehow unable to shut up. Kade’s focus on her was like feeding her truth serum. Maybe she’d contracted Sam’s TMI disease. “He expected his wife to have the proper image—conservative, God-fearing, a lady. A Southern belle for his congregation to adore and admire. But it wasn’t just a public role. That expectation applied in and out of the bedroom.”
A sour expression crossed Kade’s features. “Meanwhile, he’s screwing around on you.”
“Yep.” Saying it aloud sounded even more depressing than knowing it. Her entire sexual history centered around a man who, after the first few years, had barely been interested in her beyond taking her out to be on his arm for photo-ops and church services. He took care of her in the sense of buying her nice clothes and giving her anything monetary she needed, but the little spark she’d thought they had between them had died a quick death after they’d married.
From the start, he’d liked the idea of Tessa being a lady, proper and sweet and respectable. Even in high school before he’d started pursuing the business of religion, he’d wanted to pr
eserve her virginity until they were married. Back then, it’d seemed chivalrous and romantic, but she hadn’t realized where that motivation had come from. And once they had wed, sure, they’d had sex, but it had always been in the most traditional sense possible—in the dark, in bed, missionary style. Anything else was deemed trashy. I don’t want to fuck my wife, Tessa. I want to make love to her.
And Tessa had gone along with it, feeling guilty for even craving anything different. He’d made her wonder if her desires were somehow some defect from her “white trash” genes. But she’d eventually understood where Doug’s logic had come from. His mother had developed a colorful reputation of bed-hopping with wealthy men after her divorce from his dad. And when Doug was a freshman, a sex tape of his mother and a local congressman had been leaked to the press, complete with the details of all the sordid acts they’d done together. Tessa knew the scandal had torn Doug to pieces, causing him to switch schools and miss most of that year. When he’d finally told Tess about it after they’d been dating a while, he’d vomited after.
And she’d felt awful that he’d had to go through that. But it hadn’t meant she’d stopped hoping that he’d be able to come to terms with that and loosen up a little. That things would get better. But of course, they hadn’t. Instead, he’d apparently chosen to fuck other women who were not his wife to fill in the gaps. She got to be the expensive, untouched china in the display case while the other women served more base needs.
Kade wouldn’t put her in the china case. He wanted her like she was Friday night—lustful and bold and dirty. He didn’t want to polish and display her; he wanted to unhinge her.
And maybe that’s exactly what she needed.