The One and Only (Heart of Hope 7)

I decided that it must be my presence that made him feel this way. What else could it be? Feeling awkward discussing your wedding with the girl you cruelly dumped, Mr. Cad

e Kirkpatrick? Well, good! You deserve it.

“My fiancée and I will be getting married in early September at my family’s lake house,” Cade said.

There was a loud snap, and I felt my hand get wet. I didn’t realize that I had accidentally snapped my pen! I looked down and there were ink splashes all over the notepad and on the table, though thankfully, not on my laptop and clothes. This was one of my favorite dresses.

The lake house.

I’d heard those words and just…snapped. They echoed in my mind and I felt my chest fill up all again, with deep sorrow just like on the day Cade had left me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice sounded faint and distant. I stood up. “I need to clean up this mess, my pen—”

“Are you all right?” Cade was at my side in an instant, as if he had teleported here.

Gently, he took the two halves of my pen from my hand and pulled a cloth handkerchief out of his pocket, wiping the ink off before it could slide down my hand and drip onto my clothes or the floor.

The closeness of his body made my skin buzz. His touch was firm but gentle, how it had always been, and I felt my body feeling flushed, a Pavlovian response. A long time ago, he had touched me like this, and I had taken it for granted. It was like the last nine years hadn’t been a miserable existence. I felt like I was eighteen again, a girl in love, unable to resist her.

Cade was staring at me with concern. “Are you all right?” he repeated.

I gulped. He’s not my boyfriend anymore, the voice in my head reminded me, as I looked at his face, full of concern. Cade was getting married to someone else. He was engaged.

I pulled my hand away and excused myself to rush to the bathroom, leaving Cade to be even more confused and concerned. Why was he being concerned now when he hadn’t cared for me at all this past decade?

In the bathroom, I scrubbed my hands in the sink until my skin felt raw. “Get a hold of yourself, for God’s sake,” I snapped at myself in the mirror.

After five minutes of vigorous scrubbing, there was still a small stain that would have to just fade with time. I dried my hands off and looked at myself in the mirror again.

“Should I end it now?”

I could do it. I could tell him that I didn’t have time to plan his event in such a short timeline. That I had already booked other clients, that his wedding would take too much time.

But that would backfire on me. Whether I liked it or not, I needed this job. I’d been excited when I’d first gotten the call and had been preparing myself for it. This was my one chance to get top-tier contacts. These were the people whose large summer homes lined the lake and who drove cars that cost more than my house. I had to get my head in the game.

Cade should mean nothing to me. He’d obviously moved on and it was in my best interest to move on as well. This was just a job—a really big one.

I will do this.

3

Cade

I stood at the window, looking down at the street and trying to breathe slowly to calm down my racing heart. Seeing Laura again was like being doused with cold water when you’re in deep sleep.

Actually, being doused with cold water would probably be a good idea, at the moment. It was like no time had passed. The rush I felt when I looked at her, the way my cock throbbed….

Just one look at her and everything I’d ever felt came rushing back. I’d thought that occasionally missing her and dreaming about her was bad, but to see her in front of me, I could hardly control myself! I wanted to grab her and ravish her.

She had become even more beautiful with the passage of time. When we had been eighteen, we were both young—just a boy and a girl. Now, though—she had become a woman. Her curves accentuated her body even more now, her face glowed with confidence, and the way she dressed was very fashionable and stylish. She looked like a thorough professional, which was so different from when we’d been teens—she had been a quiet, shy girl that only a few people in high school noticed.

When the pen had snapped in her hand, I’d ran across the room to be by her side before I could even think! As we’d talked, she seemed to get more and more distressed, which she was struggling to hide.

I don’t love my fiancée, I wanted to scream out loud when I was standing next to her, the ink dripping of her hand. The urge to wipe off the ink, to kiss her knuckles and her full lips, had been too much for me.

Fuck. I knew that part of this urge was because I was still in love with her, after all this time. But I’d never felt such a powerful urge to be with anyone ever in my life, to seize someone and kiss them and hold them tightly so that you never let go. I felt almost dizzy with my desire!

Surely, she felt it too, didn’t she? I had seen her shudder slightly as I had handed her my handkerchief. My heart raced, imagining how easy it would have been to pull her close to me and kiss her tender, supple lips. I could flirt, and enjoyed flirting, even though I hadn’t had the opportunity to do it in a while—but I had never felt such a strong urge to seduce anyone before.