“Of course I can. I can teach you whatever you want.” I peek an eye open and glance at the TV, watching Cade’s character run in a circle. “Getting used to the toggle?”
He sighs, his massive chest rising and falling. “I’m almost there. I can run forward, jump, and shoot pretty quickly. It’s just turning that has me all…well, turned around.”
I chuckle. “It took me a while to get it too. Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it.”
Cade likes me to teach him things, but only once, then he wants to figure it out himself. I’ve shown him how to use the toggle and how I move through the levels, and he watched me like a hawk.
“I’m having a housewarming party this weekend,” I tell Cade, exhaustion settling around me. I shake myself so I don’t fall asleep mid-sentence. “Sawyer will come over. He’ll probably ask about the recliner since I kept talking about it—well, you—the whole way home from Blossom’s. What should I say?”
I’ve thought about how I would break the news to Sawyer about what Cade really is. It’s not important that I do, but Sawyer is like a dog with a bone when it comes to mysteries. He’ll ask where the recliner is and if I say I gave it away or got ridof it, he’ll ask why. Sawyer knows when I’m lying, he always has. Even the tiniest of fibs, he sniffs them out like a bloodhound.
I fucking hate him for it—especially when it’s something like helping his girlfriend plan a surprise party, and he asks if I know what she’s up to, and I tell him no but then immediately spill the secret when he gave me that ‘I know you’re lying look’ and make him promise to act surprised. I felt terrible about that, but he did well acting surprised and his girlfriend is none the wiser.
Cade shrugs, still rubbing my back. “Tell him what I am. My kind aren’t a big secret. No one would believe someone if they told them they were involved with a shifter, anyway. But if you don’t want to lie to your friend, even by omission, tell him what I am.”
I look up at him, searching his face. “You sure? I can figure out some story to tell?—”
He places a rough finger over my lip. “I’m sure. He’s your friend, and I’d like him to be my friend one day. I don’t want to start our friendship on a lie.”
My heart soars with happiness. I want Cade and Sawyer to be friends as well. Walt tolerated Sawyer and vice versa, but they were never friends. Walt was always jealous of the time I spent with Sawyer, even if Sawyer came over to watch a movie with me in plain view of Walt. He’d always say Sawyer was taking up a lot of time I should have spent with him. It was annoying, and I had to constantly put my foot down, telling Walt I wouldn’t give up my friendship with Sawyer because he was insecure. It worked so well that he ended up cheating on me.
“That’s sweet, Cade. Okay, I’ll tell him when I see him again. What if he doesn’t believe me?”
“Have him come over and I’ll shift for him. If he’s not too freaked out, he and I can get to know each other.”
“He won’t. Freak out, I mean. Sawyer is pretty chill, rolls with the punches. As long as you’re a good person, he won’t have any problems with who or what you are.”
Cade pulls me higher on his chest, so my nose is pressed right to his pulse point where he smells the strongest. I drag in a lungful of his scent, smiling as it does funny things to my head. I’ll never get over how good he smells, how it makes my head all fuzzy and makes me want him to plow me into the mattress.
Right now, though, his aroma just makes me feel relaxed. My body feels like mush as he holds me and kisses the top of my head.
“You can rest,” Cade says. “I’ll wake you in a few minutes so you can shower.” He plants one more kiss on my forehead before his scent gets stronger and I’m lulled into a dreamless nap.
I wake up,still lying on Cade’s chest. God, he smells like heaven. I inhale deeply, holding his scent in my lungs, then blow it out. “You smell like my paradise,” I murmur.
Cade tips my chin up. “Did you have a good nap?”
I nod and lie back on his chest. “Yeah. It was exactly what I needed. Now it’s time for a shower.”
Pushing off Cade, I trudge to my room and get my items for a shower and hustle into the bathroom. I step under the warm spray, washing the long day off my skin. I feel gross for lying down on Cade after a full shift, but I really couldn’t keep my eyes open. And he’s so comfortable. Even though he’s all muscle and hard ridges, it felt so cozy to rest on him. His warmth enfolded me, almost putting me in a trance.
My heart soars as I think about the man waiting for me in the living room. So far, he’s proven to be kind, selfless, and nice to talk to. But…what else is he?
There’s so much I don’t know about him. Since I’m wide awake now, we can talk and I can get to know him better. We have plenty of time—since he’s said we’ll be together for the rest of our lives—but there’s no time like the present to learn more about him.
After I wash myself, I get out of the shower, put on my pajamas, and look at myself in the mirror. My cheeks are rosy, a high, bright blush warming my skin. Cade makes me nervous, but in a good way. Like butterflies dancing in my belly every time I’m around him.
It’s a feeling I never want to go away.
Stepping out of the bathroom, I toss my clothes into my bedroom hamper, then go to the living room, where Cade is pecking away at my laptop. “What are you studying?”
“The specs for the video game you have. The one where you don’t see the character, but can see their weapon?”
“First-person shooter games?”
“Yeah, those. I wanted to learn more about it. It was made in only eighteen months. Apparently, it usually takes about three years? That’s pretty fast. And from what I read, it’s one of the best on the market.”
I smile at him, impressed. While I love video games, I never felt the need to look them up to see how they were made or when they were developed.
