You'll Think of Me Page 2

  As Cade saw the truck in question, he bit back a growl. He’d intended to purchase the exact vehicle when he came home. Not now. It appeared the plans he’d made for his return were about to fall into the garbage heap. She’d even remembered the lift kit!

  When Melanie stepped up to the fender and patted it, he paused. She looked damn sexy next to his—well, her truck. She always did like rusty trucks over girly cars.

  Damn Sexy. Like a model in those muscle car magazines.

  The mental image of her lying naked on the hood, waiting for him sent a jolt to his cock. His muscles twitched to throw her on the hood and pump into her until they both screamed. God, he needed to get his brain out of sex mode.

  Melanie held up the keys. “Either of you want to drive my baby? I put her through her paces the other day out on Biddle Road on Hanson’s makeshift dirt track. The four wheel drive is a blast in mud.”

  Rhett jumped forward, ripping the keys from her fingers. “Cade’s test driven this thing so many times, he should own it, but since he dicked around, I can’t give him the satisfaction.”

  The slight breeze made Melanie’s skirt flutter around her thighs, giving Cade tantalising glimpses of her smooth, tanned flesh.

  Like he’d won the ultimate prize, Rhett pumped his fist and sprinted to the driver’s side door. Melanie slipped her hand into Cade’s, making his heart surge.

  “Cade, I know there’s stuff on your mind and this isn’t the place to discuss it, but I’m here for you.” Her low voice weakened his thick defences.

  Gaining strength from her touch, he squeezed her hand. “Like I said, we’ll talk—later.”

  She stared at the ground and let her fingers slip away from his. “You’re a good man who will make a lucky woman very happy.” She paused and watched a jet take off in the distance. “I can’t be just friends. Maybe you and Ginny can be happy together.”

  Cade wobbled on his feet. Can’t be friends? That had to mean something more than… He squinted as she walked away with her head still down. Did they have a chance? He didn’t want to share her with Rhett, but if it showed her the trust and desire she needed, maybe she’d come back to him. Despite his earlier comments, Ginnifer Larkin was the furthest person from his mind. He moved his feet to catch up to her, knowing their conversation was far from over.

  “Are we going home, or fighting on the parking garage roof?” Rhett called. “I only got two weeks before I go to Kansas and I don’t want to spend it keeping you two from throttling each other.”

  Melanie squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Toss your bags in the backseat, boys. I happen to know there’s enough room for all three of us up front.” She yanked open the driver’s side door and slid across to the middle of the bench seat.

  Cade stayed close to the hood as he limped around the vehicle. When he looked into the cab, Rhett proceeded to show Melanie his new tattoo of a viper curling around his bulging bicep. She giggled and traced the design with her index finger. Even so, he felt her probing gaze like a branding iron. Cade didn’t deserve her compassion although she gave it free of charge.

  With a grunt, Cade opened the truck door. He stepped up onto the side pipes, slid into the truck and slammed the door. When Melanie shifted to buckle her seatbelt, her gaze lingered along his body. Light and desire smouldered in her eyes. The sudden pink staining her cheeks told him exactly what she thought.

  Innocence be damned; she still wanted him.

  The image of her flushed body writhing between him and Rhett sent a rush of heat straight to his dick. She’d been a naughty girl when they had made love before. He yearned to toss her in the back seat and fuck her senseless, or at least until she confessed her undying devotion. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind before he did something stupid. Damn his hormones. He’d made love to her plenty of times in the past. Hell, he loved sex with her. Because of her, he’d given up the ménage lifestyle. Since she left him, he’d been with other women, but without emotions involved. Could he bring emotion into the equation and be the man she needed?

  Rhett backed out of the space and sped through the parking garage. “She’s got great horsepower. I like this. Friday afternoon traffic shouldn’t be too tough yet.” He paid the small fee and headed out onto the freeway. “Here we go!”

  Cade laced his fingers with Melanie’s. He wondered if she still wore the tiny ruby ring he’d bought for her on their second date. As she patted Rhett’s thigh, Cade saw the jewellery in question decorating the ring finger of her left hand. Maybe there was hope for them yet. His cock strained behind his jeans. Lust like he’d never known skated through his veins. He curled his hand into a fist and closed his eyes. The memory of her gazing up at him while he made love to her mouth drove him insane with desire. God, he needed to take her.

  To clear his head of the lust thoughts, Cade opened his eyes and stared at the landscape. Anything to help distract how her body made him feel. Feelings—who really put stock in emotions?

  He tried to ignore their small talk about truck accessories. Cade knew the gizmos on the truck. Hell, he’d coveted the damn thing for a year. As he glanced at the endless cornfields billowing outside his window, his mind drifted to the night he met Melanie. A smile curled his lips as a memory of her smooth body swathed in moonlight flicked across his mind. Could he regain the love they once shared? He wasn’t sure.

  Until he told her the truth, the next few days would be torture, plain and simple. What if his confessions made her run? Their life as sex partners was off the charts. Why ruin something so good? He’d be alone and nothing would change. But, what if she understood his private hell? He couldn’t be so lucky.

  Dammit.

  * * * *

  Two hours later, Rhett pulled into the driveway of the house twenty minutes from the base, over in Butler. He parked the vehicle in front of the garage, next to Cade’s rusty maroon Chevy three-quarter-ton truck. Rhett opened the door and paused before he glanced over his shoulder. “You have company.”

  “Oh?” Melanie climbed across the seat and perched in Cade’s lap as she peered through the open window. Her skirt shifted high on her thigh, yet her modesty remained intact. Cade caressed the smooth skin, needing to touch her everywhere. The light scent of her vanilla body spray tickled his nose and made his mouth water.

  As she peered out the window, she placed his hand back on the seat, yet made no move to shift and cover her own body. “That’s the Heather James Ginnifer mentioned. I promised her I’d find out what happened to her older brother. I’m supposed to do a photo essay on him for the Gazette. Did they recover Senior Airman Lance James yet? Or is he still missing?”

  Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he cupped her cheek. How should he put this? Lance was closest to the bomb and there’s nothing left but twisted scrap metal and lumber? No. We can’t find him because we aren’t sure which body parts were his? Hell. His guts twisted. “He was part of a roadside bombing and he’s still listed as missing. I can’t tell you anymore. I wasn’t there.”

  He chided himself. How could he feel so turned on by her one moment, and so depressed the next? Great, now he couldn’t get in the mood without destroying it. A sense of self-loathing and pity coiled low in his belly.

  Melanie chewed the corner of her mouth and nodded like she understood way more than she let on. “I suspected as much.”

  “Well, what do we do about her?” Rhett huffed. “I wasn’t in the mood for a foursome, but, to use Cade’s words, I could be convinced.”

  Rolling her eyes, Melanie kissed Cade’s nose. “Gotta love Rhett’s sense of self preservation. Always thinking with his dick.” Clicking her tongue, she opened the door and slid out of the vehicle. “I’ll talk to her. Go inside and get cleaned up. Pizza will be here in an hour and I still want to tell you both my news!”

  She waved her hand and strolled off in the direction of the porch.

  Missing her warmth immediately, Cade watched her and marvelled at her concern for others and the sexy way her ass wiggled when she walked. Closing his eyes, he thought back to the last time they had sex. She’d screamed his name and vowed her undying love. If he remembered right, she’d damn near shredded his back with her nails—not that he cared—and had allowed him to take pictures of her nude body, which he’d used to maintain his sanity every moment he spent away from her. He sighed, wanting to kick himself for turning the once emotional relationship into just sex all those years ago. He felt a punch on his biceps and winced, not from the physical pain.

  On the driver’s side of the truck, Rhett folded his arms and leaned on the hood “Stop looking at her with puppy dog eyes. Someone might get the impression you love her.”

  As Cade eased out of the truck, he glanced at Melanie as she embraced Heather. He wanted those arms wrapped around him. He wanted to hear Melanie’s soothing voice as she told him his shambled life would find order once more. His heart broke. “I think she wants me, but she doesn’t love me.”

  “Who? Heather?” Rhett slammed the truck door. “You’re right. She probably thinks you’re an old fogey. To that sweet little girl, your thirty-three is ancient.”

  “Shut up, wise-ass. The little girl you refer to is twenty-six. You and I are only a year older than her brother Lance. That doesn’t make us decrepit, but our fifteen years of service in the Air Force does. We’ve been all over the world, stationed in more states than I can count, been with more women than we deserve, and what do we have to show for it?” Cade grabbed his bag. He sure as hell felt like an old fogey. His skin itched where the shrapnel scars continued to heal. The bombing played in slow motion in his mind, making it hard to deal with life in the present.

  “Maybe we don’t have the prerequisite wife, three kids and a house in the ‘bu
rbs, but not everyone needs a stereotypical dream to be happy. Scars don’t matter when someone loves you. Give Melanie her credit and level with her. I think you’ll be surprised. Although she’s a lover, she’s also a fighter with one mean adventurous streak.”

  Cade slammed his door and started after Rhett. “Adventurous streak? Wait.” His heart pounded. What the hell did Rhett know about her adventurous streak? Shit, they needed to talk—and fast. “Did you have sex with her?”

  With a grin, Rhett shrugged out of his hold. “I guess you have to figure it out.”

  Chapter Three

  Cade replayed Melanie’s statements and Rhett’s cryptic advice in his mind for the next half an hour. He thought about Melanie’s perfect form as he scrubbed in the shower. Later, as he dressed, he gazed at her picture on his dresser. In the shot, she wore a green sequined gown and she smiled over her shoulder, reminding him of a sexy angel. He groaned. The image of her licking and sucking his cock the night she’d presented him with the self-portrait sent a shiver of desire coursing through his veins. Yeah, he wanted her now as much as he needed her back then. Maybe more.

  After he kicked the door shut, he flopped down onto his bed.

  Hell yes, he used her picture to get off.

  With a Cheshire grin, he retrieved one of the nude shots of Melanie out of his duffle bag. She lay draped across a chaise bench with one arm over her head and the other cupping her breast as a silent offering. His mouth watered as he visually groped her soft curves. Closing his eyes, he remembered when he’d met her eight years back in Georgia while on leave visiting Rhett. A wry grin tugged the corners of his mouth and he began to stroke his cock through his jogging pants.

  At the time, he had wanted to leave the stupid bonfire. Rhett lay passed out on the banks of Liddell Creek, after way too many beers. As Cade decided what to do with the drunkard, he saw Melanie. Her pale skin glowed in the bright moonlight. Straw-coloured tresses cascaded around her shoulders like a halo. And that body! Gentle dips and swells in all the exact places a woman should be curvy.

  Cade licked his dry lips and tugged his pants down to massage his engorged dick. Ignoring the noises in the hallway, he continued the daydream. What did this beautiful creature in the sundress taste like? What secrets did she hide? He needed to know—now and not with Rhett as backup. When she sat with her friend on the edge of the dock and kicked her bare feet in the water, he fell head over heels. He jumped fully clothed into the creek to cool his fevered body. Before he could speak to her, a drunken reveller shoved her into the chilly water. Cade snagged her up in his embrace and damn if she didn’t feel good there. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. My hero.

  The waves of the self-made orgasm crashed within his body. “Melanie!” After a moment, he opened his eyes. His skin tingled and his nerve endings sizzled. Even thinking about her could make him come. How the hell could he get her back into his arms for good?

  While he stared at her risqué picture, he remembered their parting words when he left for the Middle East for the first time. Seven years ago, tears wetted her cheeks, but she stayed strong. I’ll always think of you. Promise me you’ll think of me. And he did. Every day, many times a day until the never-ending nightmare came. Then he could hardly close his eyes without seeing the darkness. Dammit.

  Once he stood, he grabbed the discarded towel to clean himself off. As he tossed it into the clothesbasket, he felt an odd kinship with it. He felt just as unwanted. Why couldn’t he rid the devastation from his mind? He shoved the nude picture under his pillow for later. After he crossed the room, he stopped and caressed the frame of her self-portrait.

  The same question played on a continuous loop in his head—why?

  Then there was their last night together three years prior. He’d remember her parting words for the rest of his life. I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted only me for the rest of your life. No. You slept with the slut. I thought I knew you, but I had no idea. He could still see her chin quivering as she tried to hold her emotions in check. You want sex? Fine. You want my heart? Not until hell freezes over and your dick falls off! Point made, she’d slammed the door.

  Cade clenched his fist and pounded it on the dull oak surface of the bureau. He shook with anger and unshed tears. Yes, he enjoyed threesomes because he didn’t have to think or feel. He got the release and then went on his merry way, but to cheat? No way in hell. He never slept with Anna. Never wanted to. Though he’d spent time with Ginnifer, she was no more than arm candy for a couple of lousy dates. He refused to sleep with anyone other than the woman he loved. Shit. And he still couldn’t find the words to tell Melanie how he felt. She’d never accept his wounded spirit and broken body, especially if he couldn’t handle his scars.

  Twisting the knob to open the door, Rhett appeared in the doorway, clad in nothing more than a low-slung terry-cloth towel. “Are you mooning over her again?”

  “Don’t you know how to knock?” Cade unclenched his hand. The anger ebbed and embarrassment took over. He glanced at his friend. Girls went crazy for Rhett’s aloof attitude. He could easily draw any woman, including Melanie, with his good looks. If Cade were her, he’d choose the man without scars, a man whole in body and spirit. She deserved so much more than Cade could give her.

  “I heard you shout.” With a shrug, Rhett shifted his feet. Water dripped onto the carpet leaving dark little maroon circles. “What’s up with you?”

  Cade narrowed his eyes. ”There’s nothing up with me. I…I’m thinking about Melanie. She’s—”

  “What am I?”

  Both men turned to see Melanie standing in the hallway, obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. A broad smile kinked her coral lips. “So? What am I?” Her whisky-coloured eyes flashed with mischief as she poked Rhett’s chest. “As long as it’s all good, I can’t wait to find out.”

  As Rhett put his hands up, he dipped his head. “This was a testosterone conversation, Miss Nosy.”

  Cade pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. Maybe now would be the time to snag her and have the conversation they needed to get things headed in the right direction. “Melly—”

  Laughing, she folded her arms. “When you decide my place here, tell me. But until then, get dressed and meet me downstairs. The pizza’s here.” She slipped under Rhett’s outstretched arm and left them alone.

  Cade waited until he heard her footsteps fade down the stairs. His shoulders slumped. Too many raw emotions floated around in his system. He couldn’t think about food when all he wanted was to curl Melanie against him all evening long and bury himself in her sweet heat.

  Rhett nodded at Cade. “You’re wearing jogging pants and a T-shirt. Aren’t you going to tell her about your wounds?”

  Cade shook his head. Just looking at the damage to his own body made him want to puke. Melanie would probably run away or, worse, laugh. “I thought I’d keep it to myself as long as possible. She doesn’t need to know what happened.”

  A frown marred Rhett’s face. “You mean the honourable discharge or the scars? You earned your discharge for bravery, which makes you great in my book. Plus, she’s going to love having you around, once you tell her you’re permanently home. That might salvage the relationship.”

  “What I did wasn’t great.” Cade dropped his gaze to the floor. “I should’ve done something more.”

  As much as he wanted to forget, the afternoon of the bombing at the base and the harried expressions of his men as they’d gotten into defensive positions. He forced the raw emotions down to the pit of his stomach. He pounded his fist into his thigh. I don’t deserve to be home alive when they perished. Real men didn’t cry or talk about immature feelings, did they? But if he didn’t talk to someone soon, he’d have an ulcer.

  Rhett sighed. “Look, I don’t know how you feel. I’ll never understand because the bombing didn’t happen to me. I wasn’t there. But I know ignoring the aftershocks won’t make it go away. You’ll have to deal with it eventually. She’ll understand and support you, and I have your back.”

  To change the subject, Cade tossed a shirt at Rhett. He didn’t need any more greeting card advice or damned pity. “What do you suppose the surprise is?”