Her initial shock at seeing him gave way to horror. “You what?”
“I just asked you out,” he told her, a sheepish look on his face. “I’m sorry, are you already seeing someone?”
“I, what? No!” She shook her head. “I’m not seeing anyone.” She looked around the greenroom, and was chagrined to see that Ginger and Snoopy were both watching her talk to Cade. It was going to get back to Daphne for sure. She grabbed his arm and dragged him toward one of the couches set up for Daphne’s guests. “Daph’s on stage right now,” she said loudly. “But when she’s done, I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.”
“I’m not here to see Daphne,” he said, taking her hand in his.
Oh boy. Kylie closed her eyes, willing herself not to panic. “Cade, you can’t imagine what trouble this is going to cause.”
“Trouble?” His blond brows furrowed and he glanced around, as if just now noticing that several people were watching them. He leaned in. “Can you not talk here?”
“Understatement,” she told him with a faintly apologetic look.
“Then come to dinner with me,” he said. “We’ll talk there.”
“I can’t,” Kylie said automatically. “That would be very, very bad.”
“Worse than talking here?”
He had a point. She looked around, biting her lip anxiously. The crowd began to roar, a sign that Daphne’s show had just started.
“I’ll have you back before curtain call,” he promised.
God, she was so weak. “Come on, I’ll show you out,” she said loudly. If she left her purse here, no one would notice she was gone, right?
Cade grinned, and her heart skipped a little beat of happiness at the sight of that. “Thank you.”
When they got to the front of the concert venue, he raised a hand and a limo driver at the curb nodded at him and moved to open a door. “After you,” Cade said.
A limo? “Why is there a limo out front?”
“Because everyone thinks that a limo belongs at the front of a concert instead of waiting in the parking lot,” he said with a devilish grin. “Hop in.”
This seemed like a spectacularly bad idea, but she seemed to be running low on spectacularly good ones.
So she got into the limo, because it was either that or have a messy confrontation back in the greenroom, right?
Cade got in after her. “Closest restaurant, please,” he told the limo driver. Then he turned and looked at Kylie for a long moment. “I have the most intense urge to kiss you hello right now.”
Oh. She clamped her thighs together, willing her pulse to stop beating in her girl parts. “You can’t kiss me,” she told him desperately. “We shouldn’t even be seeing each other. Daphne—”
“I’m not interested in what Daphne’s doing or saying,” he said, his voice curiously flat.
“No, you don’t understand,” Kylie said. “She was on some bad drugs the other night. She didn’t even remember you were there. When I told her, she got really upset and started crying. She still wants you and I know you want her, right? She said she was going to give up the drugs.”
“Kylie,” Cade told her softly and leaned in closer. “I’ve known Daphne for years. Ask me how many times she’s promised to give up the drugs.”
“How many times?” she asked, fascinated by the tanned skin of his jawline, his firm mouth so close to her own. They really, really should have been sitting further apart.
“Dozens,” he told her. “Now ask me how many times she’s actually given them up for good?”
“How many?”
“Never.” He shook his head. “It’s always promises with Daphne, but she never follows up on them. Never. And I’m tired of waiting for a day that will never come.”
“How do you know it’s not different this time?” Daphne had seemed sincere to Kylie. In fact, she’d cried for hours and had been so miserable that Kylie couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
“Because I know Daphne,” he told her. “And I’m not interested in seeing her tonight. I wanted to talk to you.” He looked down at her hand on the seat of the limo, and took it in his own. “And about what happened between us.”
A warm flush crept up her cheeks. “You mean our evening of spectacularly bad decisions?”
Cade grimaced, but he didn’t let go of her hand. “That bad? How drunk was I?”
He didn’t know? She tilted her head, considering him. “You don’t remember?”
“Only bits and pieces.”
“So you don’t remember dressing up in my clothes and letting me put makeup on you?”
His eyes got round. “What?”
“Or the part where you cried like a baby and sucked your thumb?”
Cade threw back his head and laughed. To hear his pleasure at her joke made Kylie smile, and she relaxed a little. He shook his head and chuckled at her, then wagged a finger. “For a moment, I thought you were serious.”
“So you really don’t remember? You seemed pretty sober.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Cade murmured. “In college, it used to drive my friends crazy because I’d never really seem that drunk until I fell over and couldn’t get back up again. But I’m pretty sure I was loaded.”
“You must have been if you took me home,” she agreed.
Cade’s brows furrowed and he looked over at her. He squeezed the hand in his. “I’m not saying I don’t regret things—”