Page 130 of Caged

“Yes, sir.” I winked. It was fun riling her up. Images of how a riled up Cate would act in the bedroom flashed throughmy mind.Nope, can’t think like that. My body didn’t get the message. It didn’t care that it hurt to kiss her or that our busted up ribs would make sex painful instead of pleasurable.

Luckily, one look at her father was enough to kill my desire.

During lunch, Cate practically drooled over my fries as she picked at her salad.

I pushed my plate in her direction. “Go ahead, you know you want one.”

Her dad chuckled when she grabbed two and shoved them in her mouth.

“Have as may as you want.” I said. I’d warmed up all the fries and the third sandwich, knowing I’d eat whatever she didn’t want.

“I’m trying to be good. The doctor said I should ease my way back to my normal diet.”

I grabbed a knife and cut my sandwich in half. “Here.”

She looked at her dad, then back at the plate. “I probably shouldn’t.”

“Eat as much or as little as you want. I’ll finish the rest.” My wink brought a blush to her lightly freckled cheeks.Damn, that’s sexy. I’d never considered a woman’s blush sexy before, but I had a feeling I’d be discreetly adjusting my pants whenever I saw Cate blush.

“I don’t want to steal your lunch,” she said, reaching for it.

Her eyes rounded when I grabbed the other plate off the counter.

“What? I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry.” She laughed before taking a small bite. “So good.”

Her father watched, amusement written all over his face.

We talked until Cate started yawning, and I encouraged her to take a nap.

“Will you come back for dinner?” she asked.

“I can. I’m all yours after I give my father his phone back. It’s blowing up.”

Cate made a face. “Who’s calling that wouldn’t know you have his phone?” She realized how silly it sounded and corrected herself. “Right, there are probably a ton of people who wouldn’t know.”

She was right on both accounts, everyone at SSI knew, but clients and friends didn’t. Knowing my family might be texting me, I ignored the calls and voicemail alerts and opened the text app. It felt weird looking through my father’s messages, but my only purpose was to find for the ones meant for me.

Like the family group chat Jamie started.

Jamie: Jay, Dad wants to know how things are going.

Jack: That’s what you’re going with?

Meg: We all want to know.

Ma: Leave him alone so he can focuson Cate.

I typed in a quick reply, letting them know I’d fill them in later.

Jack: That bad, huh?

Meg: Or that good!

Meg, the resident hopeless romantic was right. It was that good.

There were other messages meant for me, from AJ and Doug, because of course they knew why I was here, wishing me luck. A small town wasn’t so different from a spec ops unit—everyone knew everyone else’s business. I replied with a quick thanks, then forgetting it wasn’t my phone, I read the next message.

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