Page 125 of Family Affair

Chapter 28

Her scream ripped through the silent house, scaring the daylights out of Chap who had made himself cozy next to Cade on her bed. He bounced on the mattress in his mad scramble to get down and out of earshot, disappearing in the living room in a flash of fur.

She screamed until she ran out of air and stopped only to drag a whistling breath in.

“Stop it,” Cade snapped and he sounded mad.

But she was madder. “Stop it?Stop it?You just took ten years off my life! What were you trying to do, give me a heart attack? Blast it, youscaredme!”

He was sitting on her bed, booted feet and all, propped up with her pillows, arms crossed at his chest. His expression was thunderous.

“Where were you?” he asked in a silky, raspy voice.

“I wasout.” She marched over and grabbed his feet shoving them down, off her comforter. “Get off my bed! I didn’t invite you here. And how did you get in, anyway?”

“I told you to change the fucking lock!” he roared and got up, his boots adding an extra inch to his already impressive height. “I opened it with my truck key.”

“So you broke into my house. Fine, you proved your point. I’ll change the locks. Now, get out.”

“Not so fast, love. First, let’s hear what you were up to.”

“I had some business to take care of,” she purred, “don’t worry about it. Go, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

It was a wrong thing to say. His eyes flew to hers and a wild, murderous energy pulsed out of him, blasting her with a tornado of emotions.

“Cade…” She put up a hand to ward off the onslaught, but he didn’t ease up.

He took a step closer. “Tell me, did you have fun on your errand?”

“Yeah. Loads of fun.” She shuddered remembering Andy’s hands all over her, the scare that she wouldn’t be able to escape the lounge, the stern, cold features of Detective Willis in the shadow of his hat as he walked down the aisle.

She looked at Cade’s furious face, his shapely brows in a severe scowl, and thought that she shouldn’t feel this overpowering yearning. At the very least, she should be on guard around him.

Manipulatingbastard.

She needed time to think about what she learned today without him standing over her.

“Cade, do us both a favor and leave.”

He ignored her request and took another step closer, “I can smell a men’s cologne on you from here.”

“It’s yours,” she promptly improvised.

“Not wearing any. I think you’re confusing me with someone else.” Another step. “Maybe with that asshole, the Bulldogs fan. Or with his ripped buddy, with a stupid mermaid tattoo.”

Her stomach bottomed out and she was freefalling.

“You mean, you saw me?” she couldn’t do anything more than whisper.

He closed his eyes, halting his stalking. “Coco, what scares me the most is that you honestly think I didn’t.” His eyes snapped open. “I hope I made it easy on you to follow me. I tried to stay within the speed limit.”

So he had known from the start? Her cheeks flamed. “And you let me follow you all the way to Kitty’s,” she accused.

She had stressed, and agonized, and allowed her body to be pawed, and he had known all the time.

“I was curious to see how far you’d go. I admit, you blew away my expectations.”

“I hate you.”