While It Lasts (Sea Breeze 3)

“You brought up the licking Cage, not me.” I waited to see how he’d react this time.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” he drawled and took a step toward me. Okay, so maybe I hadn’t made him nervous. Guys like Cage probably didn’t get nervous. “If you really want to talk about licking, I’ll happily oblige.”

Oh, my. Now, I was nervous. Cage reached out and took my left hand in his. The warmth from his callused palm made my entire body tingle. “Only problem with talking about licking with you is that it gives me ideas. I start thinking about things I shouldn’t be thinking about. Things that will only torment me ‘cause I’ll never know just how sweet you taste. I may be a lot of things Eva, might even be a few of them names you called me but I’m not gonna touch what belongs to another man.”

I opened my mouth to say something and stopped when Cage lifted my left hand to his mouth and kissed my ring finger. Then his tongue darted out and just barely skimmed the top of my hand. He grinned wickedly.

At some point, I’d stopped breathing. When my lungs started burning I took a deep breath and Cage let my hand fall back to my side. “Sorry, I had to take one small taste.” Then he winked at me and turned toward the door.

I stood silently as he walked back outside into the summer heat.

Chapter Six

Cage

I drove as far away from that damn barn as I could get. When the lake came into view, I pulled over and jumped out of the truck. Then I started for the water. I needed to cool the f**k off. I’d wanted to stop Eva from anymore of her flirty little remarks and damned if I hadn’t just screwed myself. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I started unbuttoning my jeans.

“Hey, if you plan on stripping give me time to get gone first.” I spun around to see Jeremy walking over from his side of the fence. Not exactly who I wanted to see at the moment. My head was all kinds of screwed up over his future sister-in-law.

“It’s hot,” I replied. The annoyance in my tone was unavoidable. I was pissed. I had no reason to be but I was. Why hadn’t I just banged Becca Lynn and took the edge off? It would have given me physical relief and pissed Eva off. If she went back to hating me then she’d stop hunting me down and saying shit she had no business saying.

“Yeah, it is. We don’t get much of that gulf breeze out here like y’all do down on the coast.”

I wasn’t in the mood to talk about the weather.

“You working?” I asked before I told him to run the f**k off so I could strip.

“Nah, I’m done. Going fishing with my dad this weekend. Thought I’d come down here and check out the fence line before we headed out.

Just his dad? He’d never mentioned his brother. Not once. That was odd.

“Your brother going too?”

Jeremy’s easy smile vanished. “Uh, no.”

“He not live around here? I’ve never seen him at Eva’s.”

Jeremy stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and his frown deepened. “What do you know about my brother?”

“Nothing except he’s engaged to Eva.” What was the deal here? Why the weirdness about his brother? It was a simple question.

“Eva tell you that?” Jeremy asked still frowning.

“Yeah.”

Jeremy let out a deep sigh and shook his head. Something was way off here.

“I really shouldn’t tell you this because it’s Eva’s story to tell. Still, you at least need to know the truth. Eva was engaged to my brother.”

They broke it off? Except, she was still wearing the ring. Was she mentally off? Was that what I was missing here?

“Cage, my brother is dead.”

That had not been what I was expecting. I had almost been convinced Eva was a little unstable. I sure wasn’t expecting to hear she was wearing the ring her dead fiancé gave her.

“He was in the army. About eighteen months ago, a bomb near Baghdad. Him along with four other soldiers. He’d proposed to Eva on his last leave.”

Well, shit.

“She still wears the ring,” I said, trying to wrap my head around this.

“Yeah, she does. They grew up together. We all did. He was my twin. But he and Eva were inseparable. They were so alike.”

I didn’t have a response for this. What could I say? I was sorry? That seemed too shallow. The guy had lost his brother. Eva had lost her fiancé. Sorry wasn’t exactly deep enough.

“Do me a favor and don’t tell her I told you. She isn’t over it. As you can see she still wears the ring and don’t get me started on that badass Jeep she has and won’t drive.” He stopped and the concern in his eyes was clear. He didn’t want Eva upset.

“I won’t tell her I know,” I assured him.

“Thanks, man.” He started to turn and walk away when he stopped and looked back at me. “Remember this the next time she acts like a complete bitch. She hasn’t given you a fair chance but I’ve decided it’s because she’s attracted to you and it scares her. I doubt she ever gives you a break. Just ignore it.”

She’d started to give me some sort of break in the barn earlier. Sure as hell wish I’d stayed around to find out what it was now that I knew this. I’d run because I was real close to kissing her pretty little lips. Her being engaged had been a red flag. Then there was my scholarship I had to think about. But truth be told, if Eva pushed hard enough I’d break.

“Hey, Jeremy,” I called out and he stopped again. “She ever smile?”

I’d been waiting to see her smile. I thought maybe it was just me she didn’t smile around. After hearing this, I wondered if she ever smiled anymore.

“Haven’t seen her smile since the day before we got the call about Josh. It was the weekend and I’d decided to surprise everyone by coming home from Vanderbilt. I remember walking in the door to the kitchen and Eva was sitting at the table with Momma looking over wedding magazines. Both of them squealed and jumped up to hug me. We got the call the next morning.”

My chest hurt. I wasn’t a real emotional guy. I’d had a shit life for the most part. Even so, the picture he’d just painted of a happy Eva with her life ahead of her then having it snatched away … hurt me.

“What’s her smile like?” I asked

Jeremy looked wistful for a moment. Then replied, “Incredible.”