Page 106 of Finding Forever

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’m not...greatwith family events.”

“You were fine at the last one,” she pointed out. Although, come to think of it, hehadkept himself slightly separate from his siblings that afternoon. And then there had been all that strange awkwardness over his name.

She nibbled on her top lip—considering the wisdom of opening upthatparticular can of worms again— and his gaze sharpened on her mouth with the intensity of a hawk homing in on a rabbit. The probing stare unsettled her so much that she said the first thing that popped into her brain, which—unfortunately—happened to be the subject she’d seconds ago decided not to broach.

“Does this have anything to do with the Niall slash Cade thing?”

His jaw tightened and she braced herself.

Ugh, here we go again.

“There is no NiallslashCade thing.” His tone was a lot milder than she’d been expecting.

She chewed the inside of her cheek.

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

“I don’t believe you, though.”Aargh, why did her mouth randomly decide to just spew out things without her permission like that? It was really annoying.

“I can’t control what you choose to believe,” he said with a careless shrug. “Just please—for the love of God—do not bring it up in front of my father tonight.”

She was going to let it go, honestly she was, but that comment only fueled her curiosity further.

“Why not?” she asked, then dramatically squeezed her eyes shut and—with her palms up and in a breathless, pleading voice—added, “Please-don’t-be-cross-with-me-I’m-just-trying-to-understand-you-better.”

Nothing.

Just a drawn-out silence that had her opening one eye tentatively to search his face.

He was staring at her in amusement, that soft, warm glow back in his eyes.

“You’re trying to understand me better?” he repeated, he sounded…oddand his voice wobbled on question. Maybe that’s what was odd, the wholly out of character uncertainty she could hear in his deep, velvety voice.

She opened her other eye and dropped her hands and smiled at him, hoping he could see her sincerity in that smile.

“Of course, I am, Cade,” she replied softly.

“Butwhy?”

“When you’re shipwrecked on a deserted island with only one other person, it’s in your best interests to get to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Don’t you agree? How else will we know how to allocate which task to whom?”

“I’m just used to doing all the tasks.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Cade,” she scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I could weave a mean thatch roof from palm fronds. I bet you’d do a terrible job and our roof would leak.”

He smiled again, another stunner, and without warning cupped his hand around the side of her neck, his thumb moved to tilt her chin upwards.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” he told her in an urgent undertone, the smile disappearingto be replaced by a brooding intensity that sucked the air out of the room and made it impossible for her to breathe.

She wet her lips with her tongue and his smoldering gaze dropped to her mouth.

“It drives me fuckinginsanewhen you do that.” His voice was a low rasp that sent a delicious shiver down her spine and instantly tightened her nipples and clit into hard, throbbing knots of sensation.

She moaned, the sound husky with desire and it was all the permission he needed.

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