She got in the limo in a sour mood. It didn’t help that her phone didn’t have a single new text lighting it up. Maybe he’d changed his mind and decided to hang with Daphne after all. Even if he wasn’t interested in her romantically, Daphne still had to be more fun than “Fat Marilyn,” right? Maybe he was regretting his pushiness toward her. He could have anyone. Why was he working so hard to get her?
Kylie stewed for a few minutes, staring at her phone, wanting a text to appear. As five minutes dragged into ten, and then twenty, she contemplated texting him a snotty little remember me? sort of text.
But she knew Daphne, and she also knew how hard it was to sometimes detangle from her when she wanted you there. So she was patient. Sort of.
Just when her patience had reached its limits, the door to the limo opened and Cade slid in. The driver got in the front, and before Kylie could snap out some quip about how long he’d spent, his arms went around her and he pulled her close to him.
“Can I hold you for just a moment?” he asked.
And all of Kylie’s anger melted, because of all things she’d expected to hear coming out of him tonight, that wasn’t it. She nodded. His arms tightened around her and he buried his face against her neck.
She remained still, unsure what to think of this.
“She’s using again,” Cade murmured against her skin, and Kylie caught the notes of sadness in his voice. “I can tell by the way she acts. She says she’s clean, but she’s on something. And every time I tried to bring up the topic, she changed it.”
Her hand went to his hair, and she stroked it. However turbulent and strange her own relationship might be with this man, she understood his frustration and unhappiness at seeing someone he cared for destroy herself. “I figured.”
“You can’t even talk to her right now. She just . . . refuses to hear it. Any of it. She acts like nothing is wrong, but she’s not the old Daphne.” His hands hugged her tighter. “The woman there tonight? I feel like she was a stranger. And it shouldn’t surprise me, but every time . . .”
“You still hope for the best. I know.” She felt that way with her nana. Every time she saw her, she went in hoping that this would be the time Nana would smile when she saw Kylie. Would feel real love and affection for her. Would view her as a grandchild and someone to love and not just an unhappy burden that cost money and a reminder of everything she’d lost. She knew how devastating it was to get your hopes up, only to have them dashed over and over again. “You can’t be blamed for having hope, Cade.” Her fingers brushed through his soft, soft hair. “You can be sad you want more for her than she wants for herself, but you can’t get angry that you hope she’ll change. The day we stop hoping is the day we stop caring, I think.”
He lifted his head from her shoulder and gazed into her eyes. “You sound as if you’re speaking from experience.”
“Maybe I am.” She tried to give a halfhearted little shrug. He didn’t need to know about her personal sob story. Not tonight. So it was time for a distraction. “Does this mean I can have my panties back now?”
His eyes gleamed with that wicked edge she’d seen in the janitor’s closet earlier that night. “Not a damn chance.”
FOURTEEN
Kylie existed in a state of anticipation as the limo pulled up to the same hotel as the one she’d escaped from this morning. She’d left him hanging midsex over twelve hours ago . . . and she suspected it wasn’t going to happen again.
And honestly? She wasn’t sure she wanted it to happen again.
Their interlude in the janitor’s closet had pretty much proven to her that all Cade needed to do was snap his fingers and her panties would practically melt off of her, legs springing open in eagerness for him. She wanted him more than anyone she’d ever dated in her life. It wasn’t just because the sex was greatand it was fabulous. It was that Cade made her feel . . . well, beautiful. He never looked at her with that strangely questioning look that the limo driver had given her. He never made her feel like she was the ugly one in the relationship. He always made her feel desirable and perfect at his side.
Of course, that was what made this off-and-on relationship with him difficult. Because the more she tried to push him away, the more she wanted. The more she craved.
His arms were still around her when the limo stopped, though they hadn’t spoken in several minutes. He was probably tired, she told herself. She knew she was. Her head hadn’t stopped throbbing all day, and she’d been drinking water by the gallon in an effort to wash away her hangover. The weight of her new wedding ring was still heavy on her finger, and she couldn’t resist twisting it occasionally, as if to remind herself that yes, it existed, and yes, she was married to Cade, however drunkenly spontaneous the ceremony had been.