Cane: 55 minutes. Time is ticking.
I smiled and headed for the shower.
Fifty minutes later, I was standing in the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring. My heart began to race as I made my way toward the door.
“Who is it?” I called, standing on my tiptoes to see through the peephole.
“There better only be one man coming to take you out tonight,” Cane said from the other side.
He was standing on the doorstep, looking more handsome than I had ever seen him. A tight black shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, a white T-shirt peeking out of the bottom. His hands were shoved in the pockets of dark jeans and he wore white sneakers.
He looked young, carefree, and divine.
I smoothed out my dress before popping open the door. Cane slowly removed his sunglasses from his face when he saw me.
“Hi, beautiful girl.”
He reached out, his fingertips lightly touching my skin right below my ear, sending shivers down my spine. He slowly let them drift down my neck, and a wave of goose bumps followed in their wake. He took a step forward through the threshold.
“I told you that you would be here,” he whispered in my ear. I leaned my neck over to give him access. He stood and laughed. “Come on. You look beautiful and we have places to be.”
“Where are we going?” I was curious about what he had planned. We had never been anywhere together, and he had told me he didn’t normally take women to dinner.
“You’ll see.”
This should be interesting.
I grabbed my purse, set the alarm, and then shut and locked the door behind me. Cane held the door to his black Denali open, and I stepped inside the cool, clean cab.
He got in beside me and grabbed his sunglasses out of the front of his shirt, sliding them over his eyes. He smiled sexily, threw the car into reverse, and jetted through the neighborhood until he hit the exit for the freeway.
“Holy hell, Cane,” I cried as he zipped through the traffic. “You’re going to kill me. Stop. Seriously. Or I won’t get back in here ever again, I swear to you.”
Cane threw his head back and laughed. “Well, being as we just got on the same page, I’ll behave. It’s too soon to have you threatening to leave me.” He slowed to a more agreeable speed and turned on the radio where Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock sang about pictures. I relaxed back in the seat, watching the cacti fly by, feeling entirely at peace and reveling in it.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“I got a lot of shit done if that’s what you mean. How was your day?”
I sighed. “It was good, I guess. I wasn’t quite as productive as you, apparently. I just still feel so, I don’t know. Off, maybe. At least when I’m alone.”
He scowled. “I hate that you feel that way, baby. I wish I could do something to show you that everything is okay.” He reached across the console and grabbed my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles.
“When I’m with you, I believe that. But for some reason, when we’re apart—”
“I get it. I feel the same way.” The corner of his lips turned up in a grin. “It’s fucking crazy, but with you, I feel really … centered? I don’t know what word to use. I just feel like everything is in focus when we’re together. I can concentrate at work. I know what needs to be done.”
Warmth blossomed in my chest. “I know what you mean.”
“Crazy, right?”
I nodded.
We rode in silence for a while, Cane stroking my hand before linking our fingers together.
Finally, Cane turned south toward the mountains, and I became curious. I held my tongue until I couldn’t take it anymore. “Where are we going?” Everything you would traditionally consider as date material was getting farther and farther behind us.
“Patience is a virtue,” Cane said.
