The Neighbor's Son (The Forbidden Love Series: Book 1) (5 page)

By now, Cade had already unbuttoned and
unzipped my shorts. His fingers were sliding down the front of my
lace panties and were dangerously close to my throbbing pussy. I
was on the verge of combusting. I knew that if his fingers touched
me there, I wasn't going to be able to stop whatever came next. I
had to stop him before we reached the point of no return. If I let
him continue, I knew I’d regret it forever.

“
I’m sorry. I can’t do
this,” I blurted, gripping Cade’s wrist and yanking his hand out of
my underwear. My heart was beating fast, I was afraid it’d stop. I
wanted to feel him inside me more than anything in the world. It
was all I could think about ever since I first laid eyes on him. I
felt bad for Cade because he wanted it to happen as badly as I did,
but I couldn’t go through with it. Without making eye contact, I
used my hands to gently push him off me. Cade didn't resist. He
didn't say anything either. He was probably too shocked and
confused by my sudden change of mind. With my gaze still down, I
zipped up my shorts, swam over to the pool steps, and climbed
out.

“
I think you should go,” I
said once I had reached the edge of the pool. My back was still
toward Cade. I didn't give him a chance to object. With my wet
clothes leaving a trail of pool water behind, I marched into the
house to look for my purse. I found it in the living room. After
grabbing a wad of cash out of it, I made my way back to the pool.
Cade was already out of the water. His shorts were back on and he
was drying his upper body and hair with the towel I brought out for
him earlier.

Without making eye contact, I tried to
hand Cade the money. “Here. This is for the deck work."

Cade stared at my clenched fist without
taking the crumpled bills. “But I haven't finished the job
yet.”

“
I’ll hire someone else to
finish the work. Please take the money and leave. I need you to
leave now. Please.” I finally made eye contact with him and my
heart broke. There was so much hurt and confusion behind those baby
blues, I felt like the absolute worst person on the planet for not
being able to control my urges. I was the grown up, not him. I
shouldn't have let things get as far as they did. Cade didn't
deserve to be humiliated like that.

Cade just stood there, motionless,
speechless. His gaze flickered to the money in my hands for a
second before returning to my face. His lips curled as if he was
going to say something but no words ever came out. Instead, he
grabbed the money out of my closed fist, picked up his sneakers off
the ground and slowly made his way back to the deck. I could hear
him gathering his tools but didn't turn around until I heard the
kitchen door open and close. That's when I knew he was
gone.

I let out a sharp breath and went back
to the house to change into dry clothes. I was furious with myself
for being so reckless and promised myself it would never happen
again. From then on, I was going to avoid Cade Fisher at all costs.
If something around the house needed fixing, I was going to hire
someone else. The moment Cade and I shared in the pool was
incredible, better than any fantasy I ever had about him, but it
was wrong and should never happen again.

My reputation was very important to me,
and so was my job. I was a high school teacher at a private,
religious school. If anyone at the school or the parents of any of
my students found out I was fooling around with someone young
enough to be one of my students, it wouldn't have ended well for
me. I knew of a teacher there who had an affair with one of her
former students. He was of legal age and their age gap was a lot
narrower than mine and Cade’s. But none of that mattered. She was
shamed and fired when some of the parents complained. I couldn’t
let that happen to me no matter how gorgeous Cade was or how badly
I wanted him in my pants.

CHAPTER
V

Later that same day, I found myself on
a date with Kevin Reese, the guy my friend Gloria had set me up
with. Fifteen minutes into the date, I knew I shouldn't have agreed
to it. It was, without a doubt, one of the most boring dates I had
ever been to. The guy was not a creep like some of my previous
blind dates and I was thankful for that. Unfortunately, Kevin was,
like I had suspected, very dull. He talked about his insurance job
like it was the most exciting thing in the world. Just when I
thought the conversation couldn't get any more boring, he switched
to talking about his bowling league. I pretended to listen. I
smiled and nodded politely at his lame anecdotes, but in my head, I
was counting the seconds until I could get the hell out of
there.

Boring conversation aside, Kevin seemed
like a very decent, honest guy and wasn’t hard to look at. His
dirty blond curly hair looked good on him and so did the full beard
he was sporting. His eyes were an interesting shade of blue. They
didn’t make me want to go swimming in them the way Cade’s did but
they were pretty and so was his dimple-free smile. That being said,
I didn't see a second date in our future.

While Kevin spoke enthusiastically
about his high bowling score, all I could think about was Cade. I
kept replaying the pool encounter in my head. No matter how hard I
tried, I couldn't erase the memory of his heavy, calloused hands
roaming all over my body. My skin was still burning from the feel
of his lips branding every inch of it. I also kept picturing the
hurt, confused look on his face afterward when I humiliated him and
threw him out of my house. I was always going to hate myself for
that. However, I still believed putting a stop to that affair
before it started was the right thing to do.

"Hey! Easy there," Kevin quipped when
he saw me gulp down my second glass of chardonnay of the night.
"Save some room for the food." He was right. I was drinking too
much. We hadn't even had our entrees yet. But the conversation was
so boring, I had to dull my senses out with alcohol to make the
evening more bearable. I forced a smile and fought the urge to look
at the time on my phone again. Kevin looked nervous and I think he
sensed I was not enjoying myself. “You know... I’m so glad you
finally accepted to go out with me."

"You are?"

"Yes. I was dying to meet you. Gloria
has been saying so many great things about you, I was starting to
wonder if you were real."

“
So...did I live up to the
hype?”

“
Yes," he replied
enthusiastically. "But I must say, Gloria actually undersold you.
You’re a lot more beautiful than she described.”

“
Thank you,” I
mouthed.

"I just wish you were having a better
time."

I felt bad for Kevin. He was trying. He
was making an effort. The least I could do was make an effort too.
Perhaps Kevin was the guy I needed to be obsessing about instead of
Cade. Kevin was age appropriate, had a good job, and seemed like an
all-around good guy. So what if I didn't feel butterflies in my
stomach? Maybe those would come later. Maybe not everyone was meant
to feel the whole butterfly in the stomach thing. Maybe I was one
of those people. "I'm having a good time. I'm sorry if it looks
like I'm not. I'm just a little distracted about work."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded and changed the subject.
"Gloria tells me you have a son..."

"Yes. His name's Charlie." Kevin pulled
his phone out of a pocket on his jacket and showed me a picture of
the adorable toddler. Once he started talking about the boy, he
wouldn't shut up. I thought that was cute. We also talked about our
exes and the challenges of being newly divorced. He, too, was
having a hard time getting back on the dating scene after his
divorce. We bonded over that. As the night went on, I felt at ease
and even found Kevin's geeky-ness sort of endearing. In the end,
the evening did not turn out to be a total disaster.

After dinner, Kevin drove me home. We
decided to skip the movie because I had a lot of papers to grade
that night. He walked me to my door and I was grateful he didn’t
attempt to kiss me. I was starting to like him, but I wasn't ready
to kiss him yet. I did agree to go on another date with him. I
figured he’d continue to grow on me and I needed someone to help me
get my mind off Cade Fisher.

CHAPTER
VI

After saying goodbye to Kevin, I took a
nice, long, relaxing shower and slipped into a pair of pink pajama
shorts and a white tank top. I dried my wet hair with a towel and
threw a short silk robe over the shorts and tank top ensemble
before making my way to the kitchen. There, I made myself a cup of
green tea and opened a box of cookies. I was dead tired from not
being able to sleep well the night before, but I couldn't go to bed
just yet. I had too much work to do.

An hour or so later, I was still
sitting at the dining room table, drinking tea, munching on oatmeal
cookies, and reading through history papers. I still had two or
three papers to grade when the doorbell rang. I craned my neck to
gaze at the wall clock behind me. It was a quarter after eleven.
Thinking that it might be a neighbor in need, I rushed to open the
door.

My heart almost jumped out of my chest
when I pressed my eye to the peephole and found Cade standing on my
porch. With his hands stuck in his jeans’ front pockets, he stared
at the ground while shuffling his feet. I thought about not opening
the door. I figured he'd go away if I stayed really quiet. But then
I realized he probably knew I was home because all the lights in
the house were on. Damn it. I started pacing back and forth in
front of the door, not knowing what to do. Cade wouldn't leave. He
kept ringing the bell non-stop. After a while, he switched to
knocking, loudly and repeatedly. Afraid that one of my nosy
neighbors would see him on my porch in the middle of the night, I
decided to open the door.

“
What are you doing here,
Cade?” I whispered, stepping out onto the porch. My eyes flickered
back and forth between his face and the dark street behind him.
After making sure no one was watching us, I focused my attention on
the beautiful man-boy.

“
I need to talk to you,”
he said, the somber look on his face matching the even tone in his
voice. I couldn't help but notice that he looked extra yummy that
night. His thick, dark hair was no longer falling on his forehead.
It had been loosely spiked up and looked extra shiny and very
stylish. He was wearing a tight, black t-shirt and a pair of loose
jeans that were snug enough in the right places. He looked
gorgeous. I wanted to do things to that boy, things I had never
dared do to a man, things I had only heard or read about. But he
was still forbidden fruit standing on my porch in the middle of the
night. I needed to get rid of him before people saw us and started
spreading rumors.

“
We have nothing to talk
about,” I said, my tone cold, unwavering. “It’s late. You should go
home.”

“
It'll just take a second.
Please.”

I let out a sharp breath. It was clear
he wasn’t going to leave until I let him talk. So I stepped aside
and motioned with my head for him to come inside. He smelled as
good as he looked. A delicious mixture of cologne and sweat wafted
through the air as he stepped around me to get inside the house. He
looked so tall, so imposing strolling through my living room, it
was easy to forget he was just a nineteen-year-old kid.

“
You better make this
quick. I need to get back to work,” I said after shutting the door.
I stood in front of it, facing Cade. With my arms folded over my
chest, I stared at my feet. I couldn't look him in the eye. I kept
picturing him naked in my pool, kissing me, touching me, making me
feel things I had never felt before. I was getting wet just by
listening to the sound of his goddamned voice. I was afraid he’d
see how badly I wanted him if I let him see my eyes.

“
I just wanted to
apologize for my behavior this morning,” he breathed. I snapped my
head up and my gaze met his. My mouth hung open. That was not what
I was expecting him to say. “It was wrong of me to kiss you and
touch you the way I did. I’m sorry. I’d also like to come back and
finish the work I was hired to do.”

I drew in a deep breath. “Thank you for
apologizing, Cade. But I don’t think you working for me is a good
idea. I will hire someone else to finish the job.”

Cade closed the distance between us
while grabbing something out of the back pocket of his jeans.
“Well, in that case, I have to give you your money back.” He pulled
several bills out of his wallet and handed them to me.

I shook my head while staring at his
hand. My arms stayed folded in front of me. “No. It’s okay. Keep
the money.”

“
I can’t keep this money.
I didn’t earn it. Please take it back. If you’re not going to let
me finish the job, at least take the money back.”

I let out another heavy breath. He was
a stubborn one that Cade. I reached out and grabbed the money out
of his hands. I figured he wasn’t going to leave me alone until I
did.

“
Thank you,” I mouthed
before stepping to the other side of the room to set the money on a
coffee table.

When I turned my gaze back to Cade, I
found him staring intently at me. It was as if he was trying to
read my thoughts. His once vibrant, sparkling blue eyes were now
clouded with frustration and pain. I felt awful for him, but I
believed I was doing the right thing by keeping him away from me.
Getting involved with him would’ve been a huge mistake.
Huge.