Page 26 of Confusing Cade
“Well, I hope the meal is at least tolerable,” I replied, my words coming out steadier than I felt, though I was still distracted by that unexpected allure clinging to her.
What the hell was wrong with me? This was Isabella Moretti, the woman whose family my father had helped destroy, the one whose FanZone account had haunted my dreams for months. And yet, here I was, fighting the urge to close the gap between us, to bury my face in her hair and breathe in every cell of her.
We fell into an awkward silence, the kind that hummed with unspoken tension, every second stretching out as we waited for the elevator. I could feel her presence beside me, the subtle shift of her weight, the way her breathing seemed to sync with mine in the quiet hallway. When the doors finally dinged open, we stepped inside together.
The confined space amplified everything from the faint rustle of her dress against her legs, to the warmth of her body mere inches from mine. I pressed the button for the first floor, hyperaware of how close we stood, our arms almost touching. My mind raced with forbidden thoughts—what her skin wouldfeel like under my fingers, how that citrus-lavender scent would intensify if I pulled her against me.
The elevator began its descent, and I stole a glance at her reflection in the polished doors. Her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes were fixed ahead, but I swore I caught a flicker of something in them, a mirror of the heat building in my veins. We rode down without speaking, the silence charged, heavy with what neither of us dared to acknowledge.
“Did you park in the front?” I asked to break the silence when we stepped into the lobby. It was a dumb, generic question, but I struggled to think of something worthwhile to say. The fact was, Bella had surprised me so much during the last few conversations, and I was off kilter. I wanted to know her better, and that was something I’d never expected.
“Yep.” She gestured to the parking garage entrance. “So, um, I guess I’ll head home.”
“I guess you will. Goodnight, Bella.”
She smiled. “Goodnight, Cade.”
Bella turned on her heel and walked toward the lot. I stayed rooted to my spot, staring at her ass as the distance widened between us.Damn, she has a good one too. Even better in person.Then, just as she put her hand on the glass door, she turned back to give me one last grin.
And I couldn’t look away.
CHAPTER TWELVE
CADE
“Oh, fuck,” David said.
“Yeah, exactly.”
We had seats at the bar at The Little Violin, a restaurant for the see-and-be-seen in Palm Beach. After dinner adjourned, we stuck around and ordered beers, waiting until our well-heeled guests left before commiserating about how the meal had gone. David thought the group liked the proposal of a forty-thousand-dollar investment in their real estate app. I thought the offer was too low for their liking.
But now we’d moved on to the topic of Bella.
“So, youlikeher,” David concluded.
I shook my head. “No, I’m saying she’s hot, and she looked it walking away.”
“Like most girls on FanZone.”
“Not like that. Not in a cheap kind of way.”
David sipped his beer. “This is... um... interesting.”
“I want to be friends with her,” I said, staring at my sweating glass of dark ale. That wasn’t entirely true, and I wasn’t surprised when David laughed.
