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Oh.
Among the many photos of the ball and the after-party, it seemed that my kiss with Cade had garnered quite a lot of attention. I’d been tagged in several photos posted by various different people, showing him holding me in his arms, our mouths fused together, completely oblivious to the rest of the world. The pictures actually gave me butterflies—seeing real, photographic evidence of me and him, how wrapped up we were in each other. I screenshot a couple of the best images, happiness filling me as I thought about the night before, how he’d proved to me that he wanted us to be together.
“You’re falling for him, aren’t you.” Kinslee’s words were a statement rather than a question.
“Yeah,” I said softly, my voice shaky.
She gave me a long, searching look. “I’m happy for you. Just…be careful, okay?”
I nodded, then a horrible thought occurred to me. “Fuck. Kins, what if my mother sees the photos? Or Arlo? Or anyone involved in their deal. I’m not going to be able to talk my way out of this.”
“You’d better hope they don’t see them. But do you really think they’ll care?”
I sighed. “I do. Mostly because of this deal thing Arlo’s got going on, and he doesn’t want anything to tarnish his reputation. Plus, my mother’s already implied how distasteful it would be if anything was to happen with Cade, not that I particularly care about her opinion. I just don’t want to mess anything up for Cade. Or for this deal.”
“Right then.” She put down her hot chocolate and clapped her hands together, making me jump. “Let’s see how far the influence of the Four stretches. Hopefully a few calls, and we can make these pictures disappear.”
“Great idea.” Wasting no time, I jumped up and dashed out of the room, racing into the kitchen. Where were Caiden and Zayde? Basement gym, maybe?
I threw open the door to the stairs that led down to the basement, hearing the distinct sound of gloves on leather. Good.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I sucked in a breath, taking a moment to appreciate the sight in front of me, my sexy as fuck man, his gloved hands pounding the set of pads that Zayde was holding up, both of them in shorts with bare torsos. Yeah. I stood there watching them a bit longer than I should have.
“Alright?” Zayde noticed me standing there drooling and raised a brow, and Cade stopped punching, spinning around to face me, his chest heaving from the exertion. Droplets of sweat trailed down the planes of his body, towards his IV tattoo that I could just see the top of above the waistband of his shorts.
So hot.
“What’s up?”
I dragged my eyes away from his abs with an effort, meeting his amused gaze, and told them both about the pictures as Zayde put the pads away and Cade removed his gloves. He came to stand in front of me. “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it.” He dropped a swift kiss on my nose, then leaned in closer. “You’re such a little tease, giving me those horny eyes. You make it really bloody difficult for me to keep my mind on my workout.”
“What you gonna do about it, huh?” I licked my lips, then stood on my tiptoes to press a kiss against his smiling mouth, before staring up at him, waiting for his reply.
“I’ve got a few ideas. But they’ll have to wait for later.”
“Break it up, for fuck’s sake.” Zayde’s irritated voice came from behind Caiden.
“Workout time is sacred,” Cade whispered loudly, making me laugh.
“Sorry, Z. I’ll leave you both to it. Thanks for sorting it, though.” I left them to the sounds of Zayde muttering about putting a pin code lock on the basement door and rejoined Kinslee on the sofa.
A while later, the boys came in, picking up their phones and disappearing off to make some calls.
“All sorted?” Kinslee asked, when they finally returned. Cade sank down next to me and tugged me into his lap, sideways on, so my legs were stretched out across the sofa cushions. I curled into him, his body all warm and freshly showered, and he kissed the top of my head before replying to Kinslee.
“Yeah. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, really. Most of the photos were of the ball, and everyone’s selfies from the after-party.”
“What’s the fucking fascination with selfies, anyway?”
I turned to face Zayde. “Z. Has anyone ever told you that you’re a moody bastard?”
He gave me one of his trademark blank, icy looks, but there was no malice behind it. Still made me shiver, though. Just a bit.
“Leave the poor man alone,” Kinslee said. “Come on, Zayde, show me how to play this game.”
Cade and I both watched, fascinated, as Zayde actually took the time to explain to her how to use the console controller, and once she got the hang of whatever shooting game they were playing, he seemed to relax, more or less, the tension gone from his jaw, and his mouth no longer set in a hard line. We stayed like that for a while, the two of them becoming competitive in the game, while Cade and I spoke about nothing of consequence, just enjoying this bit of time we had before we had to go back to reality.
We didn’t get to relax for long. Around twenty minutes later, Weston and Cassius burst in the door, Weston carrying a cardboard box in his arms, covered in parcel tape. He placed it down on the coffee table.
