Page 3 of The C Agreement

TWO

RAYNE

Our plates were cleared,and another round of drinks was brought to our booth. As our server walked away, Cade’s phone buzzed against the table, and the screen lit up.

I was too far away to read what it said, but my brother looked at it and frowned.

“I see you’re planning to leave us soon,” he said to his best friend.

“Not soon.” Cade shrugged. “But I have plans for when this dinner is over.”

“Yeah, ‘plans,’” Beau said with air quotes. “He’s leaving us to have sex.”

I took a drink of my margarita and smirked. “You sound jealous,” I teased my brother.

“I am.”

Em’s jaw dropped.

“I barely get to see the guy, and he’s going to leave me to get laid,” my brother added before his wife could yell at him.

My sister-in-law put her hand on her chest. “You scared me for a second there.”

Beau threw his arm around her. “Em, you know I don’t want to have meaningless sex with a bunch of strangers. I only want to be with you.”

“She’s not a stranger,” Cade protested.

We all turned our eyes to him with eyebrows raised.

While my brother was a one-woman man—Em and Beau had been together since high school after all—Cade was the opposite. In all the years I’d known him, he’d never gotten serious with anyone. He blamed his parents’ failed marriage, which probably did factor into his permanent single status, but it probably didn’t hurt that he was attractive and got his fair share of women. If I was sexy and gorgeous, I would probably play the field more myself instead of dating the first guy who showed interest after each failed relationship.

Cade gestured toward his phone. “She literally sent me a text; therefore, she can’t be a stranger.”

“Yeah, because hookup sites don’t exist,” my brother said mockingly. “Just because she has your phone number doesn’t mean you’ve met her yet.”

“I’ve met her.”

“So, what is she then?” I asked.

Cade sighed. “She’s one of my regulars,” he admitted.

It was my turn for my mouth to fall open. “You have regulars?”

“Yes. I have a certain number of women I can call up when I want to have sex. We have a mutual understanding that it’s ascratch my back, I scratch your backkind of thing.”

“But that’s only when he can’t find someone to take home from the bar or club,” Beau said.

“Or if I don’t feel like going out,” Cade added.

“Wow,” I said.

I had seen him in action. He was tall, muscular, and handsome. All he had to do was give hisaw-shuckssmile, and women were ready to go home with him. And yet that wasn’t enough for him. He hadregulars.

Cade fell back against the bench seat. “I like sex, okay?”

I wished I’d liked sex that much.

My brother took a sip of his beer and smiled. “I bet—”

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