Katherine Garbera - The Bachelor Next Door

“I know. This is kind of a-man-who-was-once-a-boy question.”

He grinned. “Well, I was a boy once.”

“Somehow I suspected you might have been,” she said before blurting out, “Andy asked me to let him join peewee football.”

“That’s up to you,” Rafe said. Cass knew he didn’t want to be caught up in their lives.

“Rafe, I don’t want Andy to grow up being a little wimp because I never let him try things. But I also don’t want him to get hurt, and football is dangerous. I’ve heard tales from other mothers in the PTA.”

His light eyes were piercing in their intensity. “Injuries happen, Cass. But participating in a sport helps develop discipline.”

Silently Cass heard the censure from their first meeting. Discipline was something Andy lacked. Her son ran wild when he wanted to, and Cass knew she was to blame. “Can you suggest an alternative to football?”

“Let me think about it.” He stood up before tugging her to her feet. “You need to get out of the sun for a while.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’re turning pink, lady.”

She ran her eyes over his almost bare body. His olive skin had merely deepened in the late-October sun, but if she stayed out much longer she’d look like a lobster. “I’m going.”

She held tightly to Rafe’s fingers as he led her across the steep roof to the ladder. She glanced down before taking her first step onto the aluminum ladder and felt the world tip on its axis. She closed her eyes as dizziness swamped her.

“I think I’ll stay up here for a while longer.” Maybe the rest of her natural life. She could watch Andy grow up from the roof.

“Come on, little coward. I’ll help you down.”

She stiffened and drew away from Rafe, but didn’t release his hand. “I’m not a coward. Anyone with common sense would be wary of falling.”

“I know, Cass,” he said in the gentlest tone of voice she’d ever heard him use. “I’ll go down first.”

Rafe surrounded her completely as they descended. She should have felt only cherished, safe and protected. But she also felt the first dangerous spark of passion. Her nipples tightened against the lace of her bra, and her body ached.

She leaned into Rafe’s chest and stopped climbing down. He paused, too, a harsh groan coming from his throat, and he rubbed his chest against her back.

“Rafe?” she asked, not sure what she wanted or what she was asking for. Only that she would regret that “something” if she never experienced it. Rafe made her feel alive. Like a woman who’d been frozen for a long time and was only now encountering her true self.

His lips brushed the nape of her neck, and electric shivers coursed through her body. He was warm and hard behind her, and she felt as safe as she would have, flat on the ground. She sank back against him, wanting more than this time and place could offer them.

“Cassie,” he murmured as he ran his lips along the length of her neck. His hands were still secured around her waist, but she’d felt his fingers making forays toward the bottom of her breasts.

Tundra barked loudly, breaking the moment as nothing else could have. Cass felt her face heat with a blush of shame. What could she have been thinking to react so shamelessly in a man’s arms? Especially this very experienced man’s. This man who had women at his beck and call and who was more worldly than Cass would ever want to be.

Rafe was moving again. In a moment they were safely on the ground. “Cass, you okay?”

His voice was sincere and kind and, dammit, she hated how weak and vulnerable she felt. “I’m fine. See you tonight.”

Cass left before he asked questions she didn’t want to answer. She was achy and shaking when she entered her air-conditioned house. She had a bad case of lust for a totally inappropriate man. What the heck was she going to do?

Rafe always wore jeans and a Magic shirt to all the games he attended. He figured Cass wouldn’t have thought to buy herself and Andy one, so he brought shirts for them. He looked forward to showing Cass part of his world.

Rafe also anticipated his good-night kiss. There was no question that he was going to claim one. Her mouth was tempting the hell out of him, and tonight he would know the feel of it under his own. He would know the feel of her in his arms.

Introducing Cass to sports had the side benefit of helping little Andy convince his mom that participating in a game was okay. Though Rafe cautioned himself against caring for the little boy, he liked the kid.

Rafe froze as it suddenly hit him that he was involving himself in this family’s life. He’d sworn not to let himself care for anyone after the death of his family, and he’d lived up to that until now. Until Cass Gambrel had tempted him to care. But along with the temptation was a niggling sense of warning. Mama, Papa and Angelica had depended on him, and he’d let them down. Firmly pushing the faces of the past out of his mind’s eye, he knocked on the door and heard running footsteps on the stairs.

“I’ve got it.”

Rafe grinned. Andy was a lovable kid.

“Hi, Mr. Santini. I thought you’d never get here.”

Rafe handed one of the T-shirts to Andy.

“Wow, thanks, Mr. Santini. Mommy, he’s here,” the boy yelled up the stairs.

“I know, sweetie,” Cass said from the top of the stairs.

She looked as he imagined she would. Casual, comfortable and chic. Not that she would think of herself in those terms. She wore a light green polo shirt and khaki pants.

Rafe was counting on Andy’s help to get Cass to change into jeans and the T-shirt he’d brought for her. “You look nice, but I brought you a shirt to wear tonight.”

Cass walked carefully down the stairs, stopping next to Rafe. He held up the shirt, measuring it against her. He’d gotten the smallest size available, but he had a feeling it would still be too big on her.

“I don’t know. I look funny in T-shirts.”

“Please, Mommy,” Andy cajoled without any prompting from Rafe.

“Come on, Cass. Everyone wears them.”

“Okay, I’ll go change.”

Twenty minutes later they were on their way. Rafe drove Cass’s Volvo through the downtown traffic. Andy sat in the backseat and talked about everything under the sun from school to television then back to school again.

Rafe tried to concentrate on the traffic and driving, but the image of Cass as she’d looked coming down the stairs was burned on his brain. Her jeans were time-worn and faded, hugging every feminine curve tightly. He’d had to ball his hands into fists to keep from reaching out and caressing her sweet rear end.

The T-shirt had draped over her curves and clung to her breasts when she’d put on her jacket. For a moment lust had hit him so hard that he couldn’t breath. He’d stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at her.

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