Can't Shake You (13 page)

“Oh, her head’s spinning already,” Carissa spoke up. “She’s just a master at the whole calm exterior bit. Must be the CPA in her. Always so quiet and collected.”

Maddie snorted. “Quiet? Dan will tell you differently, believe me.”

Carissa and Jenny both laughed.

“All I can say is I’m glad the two of you are catching a flight immediately after the reception and not spending the night in the hotel with the rest of us. No one but Dan needs to hear you screaming his name all night long.” Carissa winked and then handed Jenny a bottle of bright fuchsia polish.

“Oh, please. You say that like you’ve heard it before.” Maddie rolled her eyes.

“I have. I lived with you for two weeks when I first moved to town, remember?”

A crooked grin twisted one side of her friend’s mouth. “So I like to sing my man’s praises. Sue me. At least I’m getting some.”

Jenny groaned. “I probably would be too if it weren’t for that damn Heath—” She broke off quickly, wide eyes snapping up to Carissa. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry.”

A couple years ago, Carissa might have been too. But the truth was, Reed and Jenny had been each other’s slump lovers for years, way before Carissa had come along. That they’d rekindled their here-and-there fling of convenience after Carissa and Reed had broken up really hadn’t come as a surprise. Nor did it bother Carissa. Jenny had become a good friend and she’d respected Carissa enough to back off when she started seeing Reed. Of course, she'd also thought it necessary to ask Carissa’s permission to start sleeping with Reed again a few months back, which was just plain weird for Carissa, considering her relationship with Reed consisted of similar substance.

“You know I don’t care,” she said. “I mean, I don’t need details or anything, but what you and Reed do is your business.”

“I appreciate that. Not that it matters right now. Rumor has it he’s all hot and bothered over the bartender at McCauley’s.”

All three women shared a sigh and a few moments of silence as Jenny went to work on first Maddie's feet and then Carissa's. Maddie reclined back in her chair and closed her eyes, moaning softly every few moments, clearly enjoying herself.

Carissa was glad to see her friend taking a load off. Maddie had been working so diligently to get everything in order for the wedding and because of Carissa’s obligations at the flip, she hadn’t been able to help as much as she’d wanted. So, she savored the small, meaningful moments like this, knowing that she hadn’t let her friend down entirely.

As Jenny nudged Maddie’s toes back into the water and turned her attention to hers, Carissa's phone rang in her lap. The familiar ringtone forewarned her it was a call she didn’t want to take right now—or ever—so she let the cell ring one more time before sending it to voicemail. Today was about relaxing, not having it out with her older brother.

“You can’t hide from him forever,” Maddie spoke up, her voice quiet and slightly slurred as she continued to lounge like a languid cat. “Besides, of all the times to actually answer when he calls, this would be the one. You know...ten years and all.”

Right. Carissa was certain Cade was indeed calling because tomorrow marked the ten year anniversary of their mother’s passing. But he wouldn’t want to reminisce and share bittersweet stories about their childhood and the woman they both loved more than anything in the world. No, Cade would much rather remind her of the shitty daughter she’d been, shutting their drunk, broken father completely out of her life.

Since she'd already done enough of her own chastising over the years, she didn’t feel the need to subject herself to her brother’s cruel torture as well. Which meant she wouldn’t call him back. She never did.

Then her phone chirped, alerting her to a text message. Persistent today, wasn’t he?

Miss you. Love you. Call me
.

Well, hell. Carissa didn’t want to feel anything at the sight of Cade’s kind words, but she did, dammit. Smack in the middle of her chest.

“Everything okay?” Maddie asked, with one eye open.

“Yep. He’s just checking in.” Crap, her voice didn’t squeak, did it?

“You know I invited him to the wedding.”

“I labeled the invitation.”

“I invited your dad, too.”

“
What?
”

Like she hadn’t purposely betrayed her, Maddie lifted a shoulder. “He’s one of my dad’s best friends. And I spent all that time at your house while we were growing up.”

Carissa blinked. She’d spent a lot of time at her house growing up, too. Didn’t change her bitterness over the fact that, after her mother’s fatal accident, her father turned into a chronically inebriated recluse who’d abandoned his remaining family for the bottle.

“Don’t look at me like that, okay? Besides, you know he won’t come.” Maddie’s nonchalance seriously grated on Carissa’s nerves. How could she be so totally
whatever
about the one thing that kept Carissa up at night?

Okay, so maybe her falling out with her dad wasn’t the
only
thing that continually interrupted her REM—ehem a certain Marine—but it was for damn sure the most painful.

When the bells on the salon’s front door chimed, Carissa shook her head and dropped the conversation. She’d expected Maddie, of all people, to take her side in this. She needed
someone
to support her, because, as time went on, even she’d begun to question how she could go on, completely cut off from her dad and the place she’d once called home. Right now, she felt it, knew without a shadow of a doubt that she’d done the right thing by severing ties with Clay Brandt. Her heart simply wasn’t strong enough to endure that continual beating and, if she would have hung on, she knew the man would have ripped the organ right from her chest.

But other days these memories were harder to rationalize. She had a feeling tomorrow, the anniversary of her mother's passing, would be one of them.

“Ooh, pedicures. Fun.”

Carissa glanced up to see Ellie Morris approach. Her gorgeous blonde hair fell all the way down to her butt and her green eyes were just as big and happy as her boobs. Like Jenny, Ellie had been born and raised in River Bend and, after college a handful of years ago, she’d returned to her reign as town sweetheart. Except she really wasn’t all that sweet. At least not in Carissa’s eyes, because, a few months ago, rumor had it that she’d been very
dirty
with Josh.

Carissa dug her fingernails into her palms to keep the feline claws at bay.

“Hey, El.” Maddie smiled as the woman came to stand beside Jenny. “What’s the latest juice?”

Ellie, a journalist for the local newspaper, chuckled. “Mrs. Schmidt had a heart attack yesterday, but she’s doing fine. Kevin Thomas got pulled over for DUI last night and, because it’s his 4
^th
offense, he’s sitting in the clink. Oh, and I might've recently got a booty call text from your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”

Carissa growled and, if it weren’t for Jenny’s grip on her foot, she probably would've pounced.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Ellie asked, turning to Carissa with a saccharine smile.

Down, girl. He’s not your man.

But seriously, how recently were they talking?

She swallowed down the bitter jealousy and forced her own sugary grin. “Just a tickle in my throat.”

“Well,” Maddie began, her tone amused, “next time you service Josh, you should hint about the wedding. He needs a date. Or at least someone to make sure he shows up on time and tucks in his shirt.”

“Ooh, that’d be fun. I’ve always wanted to bang the best man.” Ellie waggled her eyebrows and grinned.

Bile rose in Carissa’s throat. She knew what her sexual encounter with Josh meant—more or less
nothing
. A one-time deal. Just a quick scratch across an old itch. But the thought of him dating, let alone sleeping with, Ellie didn’t sit well. At all.

Jenny laughed as she nudged Carissa’s foot out of the water and began on Maddie again. “Who are you bringing to the wedding, Car?”

Maddie snorted. “
No one
. I think she’s trying out for Celibacy Apprentice or something. She had a totally gorgeous man ready and willing to nail her to the freakin’ wall last night and she chickened out.”

“I had heatstroke!” Carissa lied, despising this situation more and more with every passing second.

“Right. And obviously you’re feeling better, so you should come out with us later. Andrew’s in town for one more night.”

Damn, she’d walked right into that one, hadn’t she? “Uh...”

“Exactly.
Chicken
.”

Carissa might’ve been annoyed, except the soreness between her legs reminded her she was definitely not afraid to have sex with a gorgeous, sexy as hell man.

And apparently neither was Ellie.

Crap.

Funny how it didn’t bother her one iota that Jenny had been sleeping with Reed for years, but the thought of Josh and Ellie together for a night or two made her wanna lose every bit of fattening food she’d ingested that morning.

She was being ridiculous. She had no ties on Josh, no control over what or
who
he did. She also couldn’t stop Cade from calling and trying to reach out to her. And she couldn’t change that Maddie might feel obligated to have or even
want
to have her father at her wedding.

By now she should be used to setting aside her own feelings for those of others. She’d been doing it for the better part of the last ten years.

She pulled back her shoulders and reminded herself that she had more important things to worry about than things should couldn’t change. Namely having a place to live. The rest was just needless distraction that would get in the way of finally doing something for herself. And she deserved that, didn’t she? To make herself her number one priority?

She shifted in her seat and that delicious ache at the apex of her thighs made her smile. Yeah, she deserved it, all right.

***

J
osh rolled back into Cameron County early Sunday evening. Normally, drill weekends left him feeling relaxed and satisfied. Like he’d been useful in some elemental sort of way. Hell, it was part of the reason he’d volunteered to courtesy drill with the Omaha reserve unit in the first place. That and his time with the Corp. had quickly begun to dwindle.

Come September, his IRR would be up and he’d be back to civilian status. He’d been looking forward to that moment for the last two years. Only now, the impending departure had him feeling a little restless and a lot bittersweet.

But the end of his military career wasn’t the only thing that had him wound tighter than a snake.

A certain feisty little brunette with the most mesmerizing, whiskey colored eyes he’d ever seen was partly to blame, too.

She’d been on his mind all weekend. Over and over again, he’d replayed their time together. Three years ago meshing with Friday night. The brazen desire in her eyes. The shameless need she claimed only he could remedy. The disappointment on her beautiful face when he’d reminded her it would never happen again.

Shit.

He should have never given in. He could have held her off if he’d really wanted to, but they both knew he didn’t. Even in those few conflicted moments, when he’d tried to think with something other than his dick, he hadn’t given a damn about what was right or wrong.

All that had mattered was having Carissa one more time. Letting her fill him up with the most amazing, heady desire he’d ever felt, riding the high for a few moments, and then letting her sap it all from his body again like the greedy, sexy little vixen she was.

He’d loved every second of being with her and just the memory had his cock stirring.

No way, man. You know what they say about playing with fire.

Yeah, he knew all right. Which was why, despite Friday night being absolutely stellar, he was not going to sleep with Carissa again. Ever.

“H
old on a sec, I gotta check on dinner.”

Maddie laughed on the other end of the phone as Carissa jogged to the kitchen from her bedroom, where she’d spent the last several hours packing. “You’re nothing if not consistent, chica.”

Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, Carissa pulled out the oven rack and stuck a knife into the crusty top layer of the chicken pot pie. “Who am I to stray from family tradition? Today of all days.”

“Hmm, another reason you’d make some man a very nice wife someday. If only, you know, you’d actually
date
.”

“Hey, I’m perfectly content eating my own Sunday night leftovers for the rest of my life. You know there’s always dessert, too. And this week it’s your favorite—peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.”

Maddie groaned. “You better save me some.”

“Don’t I always?” Carissa shut the oven and set the timer for fifteen more minutes, when a knock sounded on her front door. “I gotta go. Lori’s here with the rest of my boxes. Ugh, I am so over this moving crap.”

“You sure you don’t want me to come help?”

“Positive. Go snuggle your man.”

Maddie sighed. “Well, you don’t have to twist my arm on that. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Carissa clicked off the phone and tossed it onto the couch as she made her way to the door, sidestepping half-packed boxes. She didn’t bother to check the peephole or hide that she wasn’t wearing a bra when she swung the door open, since she’d fully expected Lori to be standing on the other side.

Only the person looming in her hall wasn’t Lori. Not unless she’d somehow morphed into a tall, dark, brooding man wearing a Marines t-shirt and combat boots.

Keenly aware that the mere sight of him had her nipples tightening into hedonistic little nubs, Carissa crossed her arms over her chest and desperately tried not to show any outward surprise. “Hi,” she said easily, an impressive airiness to her voice.

“Hi.” In contrast to her lighthearted greeting, Josh didn’t bother to disguise his uncertainty or the dark tension warring within him. The crease between his brows deepened as he stared down at her, his blue eyes hard and penetrating.