“So you never… you’re not into No—Professor Ryan?” God I love it when he calls me Professor Ryan, now that I know how rosy his cheeks get when he has an orgasm, and how his voice thins when he’s begging for more of me.
Tara laughs. “Oh honey, no.” She produces a tube of lipstick, and I’m not even sure where it came from. She starts rolling crimson over her lips, half focused on Cade when she adds, “not to mention, Noah’s been pining over you for ages.”
I cut my gaze to him and find his eyes on me, cheeks pink, throat red. “He has, huh?” he asks her while looking at me.
I finish reading the texts and hand the phone back to her. “I think he’s interested but honestly, a little nervous.”
“Nervous?” she balks. “Why?” The truth is, while Tara is dating her way through the faculty and staff at the university, she does a great job of keeping her life private. And I am one of her only confidants.
Cade clears his throat. “Jesse Makris got divorced two years ago. And he shares a three-year-old son with his ex-wife. The split was contentious. I’m fairly certain that he’s anxious to introduce anyone to his life, and have it not work out. I think that’s what it is. He’s seeking stability.”
Tara and I both stare at him.
“What?” he asks.
“How did you know that?” Tara prods. I want to know, too. Everyone likes Cade but I’ve never seen Cade be a confidant to anyone, the way I am to Tara, and vice-versa. My skin heats at the idea that there’s another layer to Cade that I’ve yet to see.
“He’s a family friend. He knows my uncle, and cousin. I think they sold him his house, post-divorce.” He shrugs. “We have a drink here and there sometimes.” He looks nervously up at Tara who is aggressively shaking her ankle, her shiny black pump dizzying me. “I could, uh, invite you? We could all go?”
Tara gets to her feet and swipes the phone from my hand. “You’re a gem, Cade.” She blows us each a kiss and pulls the door open to leave, but I stop her for a moment.
“Hey–” I look at Cade, who seems to know exactly what I’m asking, and nods. I smile at my friend. “He and I are… dating.”
She smiles. “Good for you two.” Her emerald eyes pinch down on Cade. “If you think of anything else you can tell me aboutJesse,”she fans herself, “let me know. Noah has my number, get it from him and text me.” Shelooks directly at me now. “Stay on him to set up the drinks.” Then she’s gone.
Cade smiles. “We’re dating.”
I bob my head. “We are. So that means I’m sleeping over tonight.”
Cade sighs. “Good. I’ve slept like shit the last few nights without you.”
We pickedup our favorite Thai food, and it’s been growing cold in the Styrofoam clamshell for the last hour and a half while we’ve been literally making out and dry humping each other like teenagers.
It all started with Cade paying and tipping the guy at the register. He’s also the owner, which everyone downtown knows, and he works like a million hours a year practically, with his wife by his side. They have the best food, but they’re also the best fucking people. Like, ever. I send them a Christmas gift that’s better than what I send my folks. Seriously.
I went to get some napkins from the condiment bar, because sometimes the sauce leaks and no one wants the responsibility of running a load of dishtowels at nine o’clock at night so the tamarind sauce doesn’t stain.
He didn’t do it because I was there, and in fact, he did it when he thought I wouldn’t see. Which only makes itthat much hotter. Generous, humble and private? Better than a good ass—but he’s got that, too.
Cade put two hundred dollars down on a sixty dollar tab. And if that wasn’t enough, he told Mr. Lek to tell his daughter good luck on her treatment. I’d watched the whole exchange with a frantically beating heart and when I’d asked him what they talked about, he didn’t even mention the money. He just said that Mr. Lek’s daughter, Mali, was starting chemo, and that he’d been trying to patronize their establishment more frequently, to help with treatment costs.
That brings us to here. Cade’s house.
We somehow managed to get back upstairs, to his bedroom, but I won’t lie. It’s been a blur of moans, gnashed teeth and twining tongues, grabby hands and broken breaths. It’s been goddamn hot, because Cade is so hot.
I shove his chinos down, and get to work on my own belt, shucking my jeans past my hips. Cade’s glasses lie crooked on his nose, and I hook them with a finger, tugging them off. He grabs my wrist. “Wait.”
I nudge my nose along his, and kiss the apple of his cheek. “We can go slow.”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m not scared, Noah.”
I kiss him again, loving the way his bottom lip is flared and pink from me. “It’s okay if you are.”
He slaps my chest. “I’m not scared. It’s more like… I’m a thirteen-year-old boy with my firstPlayboyand—yeah, we need to go slow still. I’ll get used to this—and you—and I’ll, I’ll be able to last longer. I will. But right now I’m just so–”
“Excited,” I finish, winking at him before pressing my mouth to his, licking at his insecurities and swallowing them down. “And I think that would be aPlaygirl, wouldn’t it?”
He shakes his head. “Technically, neither. It probably would’ve been like, aReader’s Digestwith a piece on a young Salman Rushdie or something.”
