He impulsively kissed her forehead, then he slipped on a pair of pajama bottoms and padded down the hall to open the door.
“Ever heard of charging your phone?”
Cade scowled at Luke Preston, a good friend, and a damn handful. Not to mention, he always had a mouthful of shit to say.
“What the fuck do you want, Preston?” He moved to his kitchen to put on some coffee while Luke invited himself inside and shut the door, his diamond earrings glinting in the morning light.
Cade turned on his cappuccino machine. He could hire people to do this shit, but their presence disturbed him. He was not a big people person. “If I didn’t take your call, asshole, then I sure as hell am less inclined to take your visit,” he told Luke past his shoulder.
His friend was surveying his kitchen as if for clues. “We’ve been speculating on the reason you missed poker night for the first time in, oh, roughly ten years.”
“Speculate away.”
“There’s money involved.”
Cade cocked a brow. “How much?”
“A hundred K. Daniel says you were at work. Graves says you can’t stand my fuckface anymore. And I say…” He peered in the direction of the hall, where all was still and quiet, then nodded at the basket full of fresh vegetables on the center of the kitchen island. “I say you finally broke your ten-year celibacy streak and were fucking. So. Am I right or am I right?”
Cade wasn’t about to tell one damned whit to Luke, but then he heard Genghis pad down the hall, and by the little shuffles behind him, Cade bet his ass Ivy was following.
She appeared in his line of vision, draped in one of his white dress shirts. It looked huge on her, reaching way past her knees, and something happened when he saw her.
Holy shit, it was like she belonged to him. He wanted to protect her and coddle her and kiss her and screw the breath out of her, all in the same heartbeat.
Realizing Luke Preston stared at her with widening blue eyes made Cade itch to smack his fists into his friend’s face. Luke’s expression wasn’t lecherous, by any means, but Cade could just not bare to see how any living, breathing man could look at honey-haired, honey-colored Ivy and not want to bang her brains off.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling at them both, especially at Cade. His heart swelled like an overinflated helium balloon.
“Well, well, well, Cade’s got himself a kitten,” Luke drawled, patting the dog’s head when he went over to sniff him. “Hey, Genghis Khan, are these two holding sex marathons every hour or what?”
Cade set a bowl with food down for Genghis, and was about to snap at his friend to mind his own billion-dollar business, but Luke had already straightened to stretch a hand out to Ivy. “I’m Luke, a very good friend of this asshole.” He grinned. And she grinned back.
“I’m Ivy. It’s nice to meet you, Luke.”
“Let me guess? You’re Cade’s girlfriend? Don’t ask me how I know, I just know things,” the infantile, stuck-in-sixth-grade Luke said.
Cade wanted to point out perhaps he suspected she was his “girlfriend” because this was the first woman he’d brought to his apartment in ten years, but he actually found himself waiting, while his lungs held back his air, to hear Ivy’s reply.
Well? Was she?
“Oh, no.” She laughed, the sound a little raspy in the morning, which made Cade remember his bedroom and everything they’d done there last night. “I’m just a…” Her eyes flicked to Cade’s, then back to Luke. “Just a friend.”
Clearly Luke wasn’t buying it. He was a connoisseur, after all. Especially of women. “Friend? With benefits?” Luke prodded.
Cade glowered. He was not so modern as to have a friend with benefits. Ivy was his lover. Hell, she was just his. Period.
But she seemed to have other ideas.
“Not even that,” Ivy said, shrugging nonchalantly. “I’m his plaything. Isn’t that fun?”
“Loads of fun, baby. I have a plaything of my own. Her name is Peyton. Do you want to meet her?” Luke pulled up a picture from his iPhone.
Cade was instantly at Ivy’s side, not sure whether Luke’s iPhone pictures of his lady were way too pornographic or not, but then he peered down and saw Luke’s lady and remembered he’d already seen this picture. She was dark and pretty and, frankly, she was an angel to put up with this dude.
“She’s beautiful,” Ivy murmured. When Cade set his hands on her hips, she leaned back against him and turned her head into his neck, her voice dropping for him. “Would you like me to make some breakfast for you two? I was about to make my shake anyway.”
Cade’s groin heated when he saw her lips were so close, and suddenly he didn’t give a shit. He brushed them with his own, then found himself licking her while he gave her ass a little squeeze.
“Ahhh! She cooks!” Luke said, jerking them back to look at him. “A homey little kitten. What an interesting woman you are, Ivy.”
“She’s not cooking for you,” Cade growled. “Man, don’t you have anything else to do than ogle other people’s playthings?”
“No worries, dude. I’m too in love with mine.” He lifted his phone and took a picture of Cade standing just beside Ivy. “The guys will love this. Sorry, but I needed proof—otherwise no one would even believe there’s a woman on this earth willing to spend time with merry little you, Cade. Now I’m one hundred K richer and it’s only nine fifteen. Not bad for a slow day.”
“Don’t come back, Luke.”
His friend laughed. “Invite me to the wedding!” he called before the door slammed shut.
Cade fell quiet as Ivy busily prepared her vegetable drink, her legs lean and slender under his buttoned shirt. He watched as she added all kinds of vegetables to his blender, the finished product looking green and disgusting. While it stirred, she’d put some bacon and eggs on for Cade, which smelled far, far more appetizing.
He scowled when she poured her green shit drink into a tall glass. “That shake is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen.”
Her lips curved. “Good thing you’re not drinking it, then.” She lifted it to her lips, took a sip, then her slim eyebrows drew together in thought as she handed it over. “Try it.”
“Like hell.”