While It Lasts (Sea Breeze #3)(20)

His eyes were too ridiculously pretty to belong to a guy. Especially a guy with abs like his and back muscles… oh, I liked those back muscles.

“It’s not fair that your eye lashes are so long and curly. Girls spend a lot of time and money trying to get eyelashes like yours.”

Cage laughed and reached up and ran his thumb under my left eye. “Yeah, well my eyelashes have got nothing on your eyes. They’re f*cking incredible.”

Oh. Wow.

“I wish I hadn’t run off last night,” I admitted as he continued to caress my cheekbone, then my jawline.

“It was a good thing you did. I was close to losing my control.” His voice had dropped to a husky whisper that made me shiver.

“Maybe I wanted you to lose control.”

Cage’s grin returned. “You’re drunk, Eva. I can assure you that the sober Eva doesn’t want me to lose control. She wants me to keep my distance.”

Was that true? No, it wasn’t. The sober Eva was just so determined to live by her own set of rules.

“Drink the water,” Cage nudged the glass toward my mouth.

I took a small sip and the cold taste of water on my tongue was refreshing. I hadn’t realized how dry my mouth was. I took several longer swallows when Cage reached up and took the glass from me.

“Now take the aspirin,” he ordered, holding the pills up for me. Obediently I opened my mouth and he placed them on my tongue. He brought the water back up to my lips and I swallowed the pills with ease. I didn’t even taste them in my throat. Maybe I should just get drunk every time I got sick and needed to take pills. Maybe I just needed Cage to give them to me.

“Good girl,” he said as I finished the rest of the water. “Now, lie back down but scoot your cute little ass over against the wall. I have to fit in this bed too.”

Looking up at his wide shoulders and long legs I began wondering if that was going to be possible. I really didn’t want to sleep in the house tonight. I wanted to be with Cage. But was I making it hard on him to get good rest?

“I’ll make it work. I happen to know exactly how to sleep in bed with a girl comfortably,” he assured me. I scooted over until my whole left side was touching the wall. “Now roll over on your side.”

I did as he instructed. Then the bed dipped down with his weight and he slid in behind me. One warm arm wrapped around my stomach as he tucked himself against my back. This was nice. Really nice.

“Cage?”

“Yeah?”

I wanted to feel close to him. I didn’t want the lies between us anymore. But the thought of saying Josh’s name while drunk and snuggled up against Cage seemed wrong. I couldn’t do it. So, instead, I closed my eyes.





Chapter Nine


Cage



After a week of waking up with the sun, my eyes easily popped open before the sunrise was complete. Eva was making some soft purring sound in her sleep. Her legs had gotten all tangled up with mine at some point last night.

The smooth silk of her skin sliding against my calves was hard to resist. But I’d managed. I wasn’t a complete angel though. I couldn’t help myself. When she’d grabbed my arm with her hand and pulled it up closer around her my hand had been left to palm her left boob. So, yeah, I’d copped a feel. But damn, I’m a man. They were real nice too. Soft but firm and her nipple had been nice and hard even in her sleep.

The erection I had pressed into her ass probably wasn’t going to go over real well when sober Eva woke up. As much as I hated to, I eased my arm from around her and untangled my legs from hers. As quietly as I could I slipped out of bed. Grabbing a pair of jeans, a work shirt and my boots I left the room to go get dressed. I didn’t want to wake her. She really needed to sleep that shit off. I’d be willing to bet that was her first drunken experience. She’d been so damn cute. If only sober Eva liked me as much as drunk Eva did. With a sigh, I pulled on my jeans and laced up my boots. It was time to get back to the cows.

Stepping out into the morning sun, I wasn’t surprised to see Jeremy there. I wondered if he’d even gotten any sleep worrying about leaving Eva with me. I had to question his common sense a little. I would’ve never left Low with a guy like me while she was drunk and not thinking clearly.

Jeremy was pacing back and forth in front of the barn door with a worried frown. His hair looked like he either forgot to brush it or he’d been running his hands through it so many times that he’d messed it up good.

“Thought you had to leave early this morning,” I said in greeting.

Jeremy stopped pacing and closed the distance between us. He almost looked brave enough to take me on. “Dude, please tell me you didn’t—“

“I just gave her aspirin, some water and slept beside her.”

“She okay? Did you do anything to her? Is she sick? DAMMIT, I shouldn’t have left her. Josh would be furious with me. She was vulnerable and I just left. I can’t just leave.” He stopped his tirade and starting pacing again.

“She’s fine. I took care of her. She’s nice and safe. No harm done.”

Jeremy shook his head and kept pacing. “No. No, she isn’t okay. She ain’t ever gonna be okay. I’ve been waiting for her to be okay for eighteen months. I know Josh would want me to stay and look out after her. I’ve been doing what I know he’d have wanted for a year and a half. I gave up my scholarship to Vandy. I lost a semester of school. I went to this dumbass cowpoke community college just so I could stay near her. But I can’t keep doing this. I want to live again. I will miss Josh for the rest of my life but I don’t want to keep mourning him.” He stopped and put his hands on his hips. His eyes looked glassy like he was trying to hold back tears. “I can’t stop my life for her anymore. But I’m afraid that if no one is here to catch her when she falls, like last night at that damn bar, then she will crash and burn. I’d never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her. She always had Josh. He was her best friend, her protector and he made her feel complete. But I’m not Josh.”