AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re nuts Ava, you should be expecting everything!” She shook her friend with excitement. “Everyone knows Kade doesn’t date women in Rainbow Springs. If he asked you out, he must really like you.”
Ava released a long patient breath. “Sophie he doesn’t really know me. I’m sure he asked me out because I wasn’t impressed with him.” That much was true. She knew he could easily spot her attraction to him but she hadn’t angled for more than his help with her studio and that either surprised him or bruised his ego, hence this ridiculous proposition.
“That’s even better.” She shrugged, “This way he’ll know you’re not interested in him for his money.”
She couldn’t deny she was impressed by his success but it was his face and his body that had her most intrigued. Too intrigued. “Don’t get your hopes up, Soph.” Or mine.
Ava listened and tried to dress while Sophie continued to prattle on about how cool it would be if she and Kade got married and had gorgeous coffee & cream babies. It was impossible to block out her chatter so Ava tried to redirect it. “What do you think,” she asked and twirled in a borrowed red cocktail dress that hugged her waist and flared out at the hips.
“I think I’m coming over tomorrow morning for all the dirty details!” Sophie laughed and pulled a pair of red wedges with silky red ribbons from her closet. “Wear these and you’ll be happily married in six months.”
If only you knew, girl.
Kade waited, a bit impatiently, for Ava to arrive at the restaurant he’d chosen for their first date. He wanted to pick her up but she told him, “I don’t know you well enough for that.” He smiled even now, thinking about her answer. Normally he would have fought her on it but he understood a single girl had to be diligent about her safety. His gaze drifted to his watch yet again even though she wasn’t late. Yet.
He was used to women playing games and making him wait in hopes of blowing him away with some grand entrance. It never worked and it only served to piss him off. He hoped Ava wasn’t one of those women and quickly shook off the thought. Unlikely. She was an artist so chances were good she frequently lost track of time. “Holy hell,” he muttered when he caught sight of the vision in red sashaying his way. He stood to greet her.
“Hi,” she said softly when she was a few feet from him.
“Hi,” he barked out and cleared his throat. “You look beautiful,” he said, this time his voice was low and deep. Seductive.
She blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Thanks. You, uh, look pretty great too.”
Kade laughed and pulled her chair out. When he sat his laughter had subsided. “Thank you Ava. I can’t remember the last time a woman complimented me.”
It was her turn to laugh only it came out more like a snort of disbelief. “I sincerely doubt that Kade.” She refused to believe women let a moment pass without telling him exactly how mouth-watering he looked.
“Mouth-watering, huh?” He tried to hold in his laughter since she clearly hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but he couldn’t. “You’re good for my ego.”
When he flashed that smile at her, both dimples winking and those green eyes reeling her in, Ava knew this man could wreak havoc on a girl’s libido. Her smile was sweet, “I doubt you need any ego massage from me. After all you are the Man of Steele.”
Kade groaned as she mentioned his nickname. It was an unfortunate moniker that had stuck thanks to a particularly talkative bed partner of his. He knew he should be flattered but he wasn’t. His bedmates knew he was more than capable of pleasing them so the whole world didn’t need to know. “I guess you heard about that too.”
She chuckled but said nothing as the waiter approached. They ordered drinks and when the waiter left she leaned in conspiratorially, “Don’t worry Kade, your virtue is safe with me.”
He stared at her for a few seconds and then laughed. For the second time since she arrived. That had to be a personal best for his dates. “I’m wounded,” he clutched his heart with a smile, “you have no plans to ravish me this evening?”
“No not this evening.” Her face was totally deadpan and her smile broke when he tried to fight his laughter. “I like you Kade Steele, you’re a funny guy.”
Kade liked Ava too, a strange twist of events he hadn’t anticipated. She’d ordered a dark ale to drink, not wine, and she made him laugh. So far this was the strangest, most fun date he’d been on and the food hadn’t even arrived. “Thanks Ava.”
She took a sip of her beer and licked the foam from her lip. She did a damn good job of ignoring the groan coming from the other side of the table, thank you very much. “So what should we talk about? Stock market? Football? Babes?”
“Babes?” His face was going to ache from smiling so much but it was worth it. “If I said babes, what would you say?”
She shrugged. “I spent about six months doing fashion photography in Europe so I can talk babes all day,” she gave him a cheeky wink that was so unlike her she felt her skin heat with embarrassment.
“I thought you did portrait photography like your grandmother.”
Her eyes widened. “You knew my grandma?”
His eyes lit with amusement. “Who do you think did my ‘stuffy outdated’ headshots?”
She cringed as he repeated her words back to him. “Luckily you don’t know how to take a bad photo.”
He laughed. “Nice save.”
“Thanks.” They placed their orders and she spoke again, “I spent the years before Grandma got sick traveling the globe as a photojournalist. I covered the flooding in New Zealand, the drought in Zimbabwe and the refugees in Syria before coming back to Rainbow Springs.” She took a long sip of her beer. “Sorry I tend to ramble about my work and I haven’t dated in awhile so I’m a tad rusty.”
