Taken by the Buck Page 3

  “Crashing people’s houses?” I said. He nodded.

  “I work at a restaurant. And go to school, but only in the spring, since I was waiting to shift.”

  Cane pressed his lips together like he was going to laugh. I don’t know why he thought this was so funny, but it was infuriating. “What do you study?” he asked.

  “Early childhood education.” I couldn’t wait to hear what he thought about that.

  “You want to be a teacher?” He raised his eyebrow and I nodded. Apparently he thought that was a solid choice. “You’re really into this kid thing, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t you want them?” Cane’s life was drastically different than mine, but at some point, I figured he’d want to settle down and have little Canes. He couldn’t be a rock star forever, he was already questioning it.

  “Someday, but I want to live my life first.” He’d stopped looking at me like I was crazy, that was an improvement. “Don’t you do anything fun? You know what they say about all work and no play.”

  “I like swim and run. I do triathlons. And hang out with my friend Daphne. She shifted this year, too.” I’d totally forgot. Today was Halloween. “Tonight is The Mate. I’m supposed to be there, with her.”

  Tears burned as they rolled down my cheeks. Cane took my hand, rubbing thumb over my fingers. “She’s going to be okay,” he assured me. “Do you want me to bring you to her?”

  I pulled my hand away. “You keep trying to get rid of me.”

  Cane shook his head. His hand had fallen on to my leg, and he didn’t move it. “No I’m not. You’re crazy, but I think I like you.”

  “Stop it.” I knew he was teasing, but still. There was only so many times I could hear it before I started to believe it. “And I think I like you, too.”

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “It’s ten twenty-five. I haven’t had any beer. I think that deserves a quick halftime peck.”

  It would be so easy to lean forward and let Cane press his lips against mine. I wondered if he tasted as good as he smelled. Minty, or would it be totally different? At least I knew he wouldn’t taste like beer. But I was already breaking a promise to myself with this bet. “No way.”

  “What?” Apparently Mr. Rock Star wasn’t used to hearing no.

  “I told you, I want to be a teacher, and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, is this trophy mentality everyone has now. Not everyone can get a prize because they tried.”

  “Is that right?” Cane rubbed his lips together. He had to be doing that on purpose.

  “Yes.” The next fourteen hours were going to be absolute torture. “I believe in rewards based on performance. You can’t show up and expect a prize. You need to complete the task.”

  Cane leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair. “Chloe, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

  My whole body tingled. Now I had to hope he would make good on his promise.

  Chapter Seven

  CANE WAS RIGHT. I HAD no idea what I was getting myself into. He was still laying on the couch when I finally got out of bed. I’d stayed in the bedroom as long as I could, because if I was in the same room with him, I couldn’t trust myself not to let him kiss me.

  The cabin only had a small kitchenette, totally open to the living room. “Do you want coffee?” I asked. I couldn’t tell how awake he actually was.

  I counted the beers in the fridge. Fourteen. The same as there had been twenty-three hours before.

  “Yeah.” Cane pushed the comforter back and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He rambled over to the kitchen counter, his hair sticking up every which way. That tingly feeling was back. “Want breakfast? Or brunch?” he asked.

  “Whatever’s on the menu.” My hands shook so hard as I poured the coffee into the mugs, I was afraid I was going to burn myself. “Listen, Cane, I know I said last night that—“

  “You’re not backing out of this are you?” He raised an eyebrow as he pulled some fruit out of the fridge. “It’s a kiss, Chloe.”

  But was it? I was turning my back on everything I believed in for some guy I’d known less than a week. To be fair, I’d never met anyone like Cane. And I’d spent a lot of time watching him on YouTube. But I couldn’t let that sway me.

  The truth of it was, I really wanted to kiss him.

  I shook my head, still not sure what I was going to say. “I think you’ve completed the challenge.”

  Cane crushed the orange he’d been ready to section, juice ran from his fingers on to the counter. He didn’t notice right away, his eyes locked on mine in a slow burn as I leaned against the counter. He shook himself out of the trance, rinsed his hands off before wiping everything on the counter into the sink.

  His hands, still damp, were on my waist before I had a chance to figure out what he planned to do, he had me up on the counter. He brought one his hands up to my chin, studying me like he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted. My heart pounded in my chest, if I wasn’t locked in his gaze, I would have checked to be certain that my heartbeat wasn’t actually moving my T-shirt.

  Cane slowly dragged the back of his fingers along my jawline, and then traced the ribbon around my neck. “What made you put this on when you were a doe?”

  How he expected me to even think right now was beyond me. “It was my grandma’s idea.” I touched the ribbon, grazing his fingers as I thought about how much I wanted to tell him. I’d already felt shy about this, and talking about the bow made it worse. “She thought my mate would know it was me right away.”

  Tangling his fingers in the loop of the bow, Cane touched my neck. “Are you close with her?”

  “My grandma?”

  He nodded.

  “She raised me.”

  “Mine too.” He looked back up at me, sad. “I think your grandma is a pretty smart woman.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I knew right away I was never going to meet anyone like you ever again.”

  Before I had a chance to ruin the moment with a million questions, after all, he’d called me crazy more than once in the last couple of days, Cane leaned close, brushing his lips against mine. I froze. I wanted to blurt out that I’d never done this before, but it came out as a gasp.

  I had no idea it was the perfect thing to do. Cane caught my bottom lip between his teeth, nipping slightly. He pressed me in closer, moving his lips against mine. He tasted so good, like vanilla and warm pastry, and like something I’d never experienced. That scent had a taste, and it was addicting. I mimicked his movements, terrified I was messing everything up. He started to rub my back and I sighed, inviting him in. Cane was almost as shy as I was, his tongue stroking against mine slowly, like I might reject him.

  That would never happen.

  We only stopped because we couldn’t breathe. Cane rested his forehead against mine, his hands back on my waist. “You can touch me, you know.”

  I’d been leaning back on my hands ever since he’d sat me on the counter. I looked down at them, white from trying to grip the counter, then back at him. One by one, he pulled my hands off the counter, and placed them around his neck. “That’s better.” Satisfied with his work, he started nipping at my lips again.

  I tried to move back, but Cane wouldn’t let me.

  “You’ve never done this before?” His eyebrow raised against my forehead.

  Gods. I was that bad. “How’d you know?”

  “Because,” he smiled against my lips, “My grandma read me the story of The Mate when I was a little boy, too. And I know that does wait for their mate.”

  And that wasn’t Cane. I pushed away from him, but he had me trapped on counter, my legs straddling his body, his hands firmly on the small of my back.

  “I shouldn’t have done that,” I murmured, feeling bad about everything. That I’d blown some imaginary promise I had to some person who I was probably never going to find. That I’d led Cane on. That I probably made him feel like crap, too. That I’d really wanted to kiss him. And that I felt bad about, well, everything.

  “Did you want to do it?” Cane backed away from me so I could slide off the counter. I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or amused.

  “Well, yeah.” It made me even madder that his argument was perfectly valid. Wait a minute. “You knew about the herd?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” I whacked him with the dishtowel from the counter. “You made me feel like I was crazy.”

  “I don’t know.” Cane raked his hand through his hair, fighting his smile. “You did freak me out. And you’re cute when you’re flustered.”

  I’d give him cute. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my borrowed sweatpants so I’d stay still. “So do you believe me?”

  “Of course I believe you. You shifted while I had my hand on you.” That grin was maddening. “And you won’t go away. So I know you’re real.”

  Oh. “Do you want me to?” I hated that my voice broke. “You keep saying it.”

  “Go away?” Cane raised his eyebrows and I nodded. He stepped back into me, resting his chin on the top of my head as he wrapped his arms around me. “No. I like having you here. In fact, I was thinking of what was going to be the prize tomorrow.”

  I pulled away enough to meet his eyes. “What do you mean?” I didn’t realize this was going to be a daily thing.

  “You’ve got to up the ante.” Something dangerous swirled in his eyes before he opened the refrigerator door. “Or else it’s beer for breakfast.”

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked. He already had his hand on a beer.

  Cane shrugged, like it was obvious. “Do you play video games?”

  “Not really.”

  “Maybe that’s what we should do today.” He put the beer
back. “So I can teach you about leveling up.”

  I followed him over to the couch. “Oh no.” He shook his head when I sat at the opposite end, pillow in lap. "You’re coming over here with me.”

  Scooting over, Cane put his arm around me and handed me a controller. I rested against his back and he started explaining his favorite game to me. It took place in middle earth, there was a lot of history and a really complicated caste system. I was beginning to miss the football reruns.

  My eyes were glazing over, and all I wanted to do was kiss him again. “Don’t you have any where we can shoot people?” The irony of my request wasn’t lost on me.

  Cane laughed. “I thought you might like one that was more sophisticated.” He hit a couple of buttons and then didn’t even have to explain Assassins After Dark to me. I hit the little button on my controller that shot zombies. Once we got down to it, it was actually pretty fun. Cane took two out of three, then put down his controller.

  “You’re pretty good at this.” His beard tickled my cheek. “But what I really want to know, is what am I working toward tomorrow?”

  I had been hoping he forgot about his challenge. “Kissing doesn’t cut it anymore?”

  “Nope.” He drummed his fingers on my thigh. I should probably have pushed his fingers away, but the little tap dance was totally distracting me. “Unless you can say that you don’t want to do that again until tomorrow.”

  Prying his fingers off my leg, I turned around and kissed him. He was totally caught off guard, so it was more like a head butt then a kiss, but once we synched with each other, Cane led me down on the couch and kissed me in a whole different way than he had before. Slow and lazy, every so often he’d pull away, enough to kiss my eyelids or cheeks. I loved the way his body crushed mine against the cushions.

  “Don’t stop,” he practically purred. I’d tangled my fingers in his hair, and it was soft as his beard. I pulled it by mistake and let go, but apparently, Cane liked it.

  “I don’t know what you like,” I murmured against his cheek.

  “I like you.” One final peck and he peeled himself off of me. “I’ve decided what tomorrow’s prize is.”

  “Don’t I get any say in this?” I asked as I crawled back up in to sitting position, smoothing my hair. “You need to up your game, too.”

  Cane’s face lit up, and his mouth opened, but finally, I had him speechless. “Do I now?”

  “Yup.” I was beginning to really like this little game. “No more football repeats.”

  “Oh, you play dirty.”

  If I only knew what the rules were. “You tell me when the game starts what’s going to happen. If it was a live game, it would be totally different. But seriously, can we watch a movie or something?”

  “Absolutely.” Cane nodded in concession. “But I get to kiss you someplace else tomorrow.”

  Chapter Eight

  WE MIGHT HAVE HAD THE weirdest start to whatever this was, a cohabitation, a friendship—I don’t think I’d go as far as a relationship—in history. Cane shot me, told me I was crazy, and teased me mercilessly. But when I touched him, it felt right. It made me forget about all the frustration had built up over the last few days. Actually, forever. I’d been tired of turning down dates, explaining that I had to wait for The Mate. There were some guys I really liked that I never gave a chance. Now, I wondered what I’d missed.

  I melted against Cane as we watched movie after movie as afternoon faded into night, and woke up against his chest. Pulling back, I considered going into the bedroom. I really should have, but watching him sleep, his lashes fanned above his cheekbones, totally relaxed, put me into a trance. I couldn’t resist touching his lips, lightly so I wouldn’t wake him. They curved up in a smile and he pulled me against him tighter in his sleep. Nope, I wasn’t going anywhere. I knew I’d already missed too much.

  When I woke again, Cane was kissing me. “Good morning.”

  “Hey.” I sat up, it was too easy to get carried away like this. Cane had tried to slide his hand under my T-shirt a couple times last night while we watched moves, and I pushed him away every time. I wanted to give in, my resolve was fading, but not yet.

  “I didn’t think you’d stay all night.” Cane dragged me back down to the cushion, rolling to the side so he could pin me down, and kiss my neck. His beard tickled. I moaned, it was supposed to be a protest, but some things didn’t work out as planned. “But I’m glad you did.”

  “Cane, I need to talk to you.” I wriggled up the arm of the couch, not realizing how cold the cabin had become overnight. The fire had died out, Cane had kept me warm. I was cold a lot now. As a deer, my body temperature ran higher than it did as human. All this shifting confused my system.

  His hands burned the skin above my sweatpants. The bottom half of his face was buried in my neck, and all I could see was his eyes, which were on fire. “Now?”

  “Yes,” I sighed and peeled myself away from him. “You said you knew the story of my herd. So you know that we only do...this...with our mate.”

  Cane wiped his fingers over his lips, thinking about what I said. He sat back with his knees up against his chest. “So let me get this straight. You’re only supposed to shift for your mate. You shifted when I touched you. You sound like you plan on staying until spring.”

  I nodded. He wrinkled his brow in confusion.

  “You liked it when I kissed you.”

  “I did.” I hugged the blanket against my chest, mad at myself for leading Cane on. “But I’m not ready for more. I know you’re used to women who will do anything you ask them to—“

  “How do you know that?” The teasing look was back in his eyes, and I could finally exhale.

  “Because I’ve watched a lot of Altered Haze stuff on YouTube,” I confessed. So much for not acting like a fangirl. “And there was one video that some girls were playing Truth or Dare with Darrell and Ben, and it a lot of things had to be blurred out.”

  “That was nothing.” He chuckled, and got up off the couch. “Want some coffee?”

  “Yeah.” I slumped against the cushion in relief. “You’re not mad?”

  “Nope.” His back was to me as he scooped coffee into the top of the pot. His sweatpants fit him a whole lot better than they fit me. He looked back over his shoulder. “Now you’ll have to ask me for it.”

  Ugh. He had to be cocky and ruin the moment. I almost assured him that wasn’t going to happen, but I knew he’d never buy it. I didn’t even believe it. I didn’t respond to him, instead I flipped on the TV, but there wasn’t anything I wanted to watch.

  “Thanks.” Cane had brought over a cup of coffee, and we drank it in thick silence. “Didn’t you have a girlfriend in New York?”

  He eyed me. “You’re awfully interested in New York, aren’t you?”

  “Does it bother you to talk about it?” He bristled every time I asked him. “You were all over the internet, so I didn’t think it was any big secret.”

  “You only saw what we wanted you to see.” That faraway look was back. “We couldn’t keep up that pace all the time, it would ki—“ He didn’t even finish the word.

  “I’m sorry.” I set down my coffee cup and crawled toward him, almost forgetting my declaration from minutes before, and picked up his hand. “It’s been the two of us in this cabin for almost a week, and I’m curious about your life, that’s all.”

  “That’s not my life anymore.” He lifted our hands, studying the way our fingers intertwined. “My life is here now.”

  “What do you want it to be?” It had to be more than this, watching football games that already happened and trying to get into my borrowed sweatpants. His face darkened, and I knew he didn’t want to talk about it. But he had to let the sadness out or else it would never go away. I ran my fingers along his jawline.

  I wanted to know who he really was. When he wasn’t in front of a camera, and he wasn’t hiding behind being an impossible flirt, I knew the real Cane was begging to let out.

  “Everything told me to come home, even though it didn’t make any sense. I walked away from the whole thing.” Every time Cane talked about the band, it was like he was talking to ghosts I couldn’t see. “I’d never thought about anything past the band. I never thought it was going to end.”