Southern Seduction & Pleasure in His Arms

“I don’t think I can ever get enough of you, Maggie.”

She smiled. “Good. Now go have a seat in there.” Maggie nodded toward the living room. “I cut off my cable, but we can Netflix and chill.”

“We already chilled,” Caden reminded her.

“Well, then, we’ll chill again.” Maggie grabbed the two plates of brownies she’d set aside for them and brought them into the living room, where she’d placed two glasses of white wine before hiding the bottle in the back of her fridge. She knew Caden was a man of wealth and would laugh at her screw-top grocery store wine. Two round candles she’d lit sat on the coffee table in front of them, giving the area a nice gardenia scent.

Caden fitted himself against the corner of the couch. His large, muscular arm hung on the back and against the pillows. “This is nice.”

“Are you about to call my tiny apartment cozy?” Maggie bit her bottom lip, trying to ignore the heat of embarrassment rising from her neck. She was well aware the mansion he grew up in was three times the size of this place. Caden must have wondered why she downsized.

“I like it,” said Caden while glancing around. “I used to have a place like this.”

“What? When you were in college?” she teased, pushing his bare shoulder.

“It doesn’t matter when. I dig the whole atmosphere you’ve got going on,” answered Caden. “I like seeing you like this more than on the top of tables at parties popping champagne.”

So, he really did scour the internet for images of her. The clip in particular was from New Year’s Eve years ago, and without having to explain herself, it was the start of a new year. Who didn’t celebrate? “Was that me or the hologram?” Maggie asked him.

“Speaking of the hologram,” Caden began, taking a bite of his brownie. He closed his eyes.

Maggie’s insides beamed. Her mother used to say the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. Maybe she was right after all. But was she trying to get to his heart or to the head of his mother’s pageant? Ever since her aunt had planted the idea, Maggie couldn’t let it go. She wanted to try for that position.

“Damn, this is good.” He pointed at the dessert with his fork.

“Thanks,” she said. “So tell me, Caden, how is the sports agency world treating you?”

Aware she’d changed the subject, Caden shook his head. “Being a sports agent is fulfilling.”

“You just had a few prospects go up in the draft, didn’t you?”

Eyes wide, Caden set his plate down on the coffee table. “I’m impressed. I didn’t peg you as a sports fanatic.”

“More like a cousin fanatic,” she answered. “You’ve met Erin, but her sister and our cousins have a company together.”

“The Hairston Sports Authority,” he replied, then added with a wink that fluttered her heart, “I like to keep tabs on the competition.”

“So are you sleeping with the enemy?” Maggie asked casually, pinching a piece of brownie off with her fingers.

Caden stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand. Without thinking, she curled her cheek into his touch. “We haven’t slept yet.”

“We fell asleep once,” Maggie said. “I distinctly recall collapsing in the bed together and waking up alone.”

The corners of Caden’s eyes crinkled. “If memory serves me correctly, you were the one who said you didn’t want any attachments.”

“I was dumb.” She shrugged her shoulders and sat up. “But I’m not anymore.” What she didn’t bother telling him was how his brothers trashed her and her tiara colleagues after she rebuffed their advances. What was more embarrassing, ironically, was that one of the comments said something about her sleeping with anyone she could to win. She’d been ashamed by their accusations but more so because she had indeed slept with Caden.

She and her roommate Rochelle and a group of other contestants had their own naughty giggle parties and talked about the men they wouldn’t mind sleeping with. Maggie always wanted Caden. She made sure they made eye contact and flirted wordlessly with him until she got his attention. In her defense, she hadn’t known prior to going back to her hotel room with him who he was. He was just some hot college guy in a Stanford sweatshirt. What pissed her off now was living up to his brothers’ expectations.

Caden’s hand slid down to her shoulder for a little squeeze. “Me either.”

Maggie realized he’d misread her words and went into deep thought about Chase and Jason. She’d heard Kit suspended them in the wake of suspected inappropriate behavior. Nothing had been proven, other than rumors of contestants claiming to have been hit on by them.

“So tell me more about your business. I read about you in the paper,” Maggie prompted with a push of her hand on his thigh when he raised a questioning brow at him. “What? People read newspapers, including me. Are you guys in trouble for not representing women?”

Coughing, Caden sat up straight. “What?”

“I’m curious. Why don’t you represent women or even have one working in your office?”