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He glared right back at her. “Last time I checked, phones make outbound calls too.” He took a step toward her.
“I wasn’t going to call someone who wasn’t interested,” she said.
“Neither was I.”
They stared at one another, and Ginny’s anger started to ebb away. “What happened?” she asked.
Cayden opened his mouth to say something, then promptly bit it closed again. She’d never known him to keep his mouth shut when he had something to say. He’d told her multiple times that he was interested in her, and that he wanted their relationship to be more than him escorting her to fancy parties.
He looked away, the indecision plain on his face despite the low lighting in the room. Watching him, she could feel his tender heart and his sexy vulnerability. She tasted him on her lips again, something that had been haunting her since their New Year’s kiss.
“Let me tell you how it looks from my end,” she said, her voice powerful but not loud. “You came to my New Year’s Eve party. We danced and laughed. We kissed, and it was amazing. Then you left, and I went on vacation. When I got back, you didn’t call. The one time we spoke, you said you were worried about Trey, the Sweetheart Classic, and the horses-of-all-ages sale at the ranch.”
She stopped and took a long breath, blowing it out slowly as if she were doing one of her yoga exercises. “I figured you were quite busy, so I left you alone, thinking you’d call when things wrapped up. You didn’t.”
Familiar nerves ran through her. Ginny had grown up with a cruel father and a proper mother, and she knew what inadequacy felt like. She’d been inadequate since the moment of her birth, and it was something she had not overcome yet.
With Cayden, though…he’d always made her feel like royalty, like her life was a gift to him personally. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed that—neededhim—until he was suddenly gone.
“I apologize,” he said stiffly, still not looking at her.
“You apologize?” She took several quick steps toward him and touched his chest. “Look at me.”
He swung his head toward her, but ducked it, not truly meeting her gaze.
“You don’t say, ‘I apologize.’ That’s somethingIsay.”
“I don’t know what you want from me,” he said.
“I want the truth.” She pressed her palm against his chest again, not really pushing him, but needing to get his attention somehow. “Tell me what happened.”
He lifted his eyes to hers, anger and danger there. “I don’t want to tell you.”
“If you met someone else, just say so.”
“I didn’t.”
“You broke your phone, then.”
“No.”
Ginny’s desperation spiraled out of control, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking at his mouth. Oh, that mouth. It had claimed her so completely, and she couldn’t comprehend what could’ve happened to drive him away.
He’d kissed her like no man ever had, and Ginny wanted him to do it again right now.
Without thinking or second-guessing herself, Ginny put her hands on his shoulders and tipped up onto her toes. She pressed her mouth to his and kissed him, a sob working its way through her stomach.
He stood very still for a moment, then two, then his hands ran up her arms and into her hair. A growl started somewhere in his throat, and his mouth softened, receiving hers and kissing her back.
The rough version of Cayden disappeared after a few seconds, and he turned the kiss sweet and sensual, dragging it on and on until he finally pulled away, his chest heaving as he breathed hard.
Her heartbeat sprinted in her chest, and she couldn’t open her eyes and look at him. If this was all she got of Cayden Chappell, she wanted it to end with a kiss like this. One filled with passion and yet respect, with love and desire, and with all the tenderness of a man who cared about her.
She dropped her hands from his face and opened her eyes, and he cleared his throat and stepped back. She wasn’t going to apologize, because she wasn’t sorry for what had just happened.
“The only other thing I could come up with was that you’d been in a terrible accident and had been in a coma the last few months.” Her voice hardly sounded like hers, especially at the end when her emotions got the best of her.
“Ginny,” he whispered, stepping into her personal space again and gathering her right against his chest.
