Dr Pepper.
One of the sandwiches disappeared on the way back to the stairwell. The rest
vanished only in a few minutes as Cade sat on the third floor landing and
considered what he'd just done to the heavy aluminum tray with his thumb.
Damn. Mandi hadn't been exaggerating at all. He considered his time with
Beth and shuddered. One wrong move... one unrealizing squeeze while he'd been...
Oh, hell.
He'd been wrong when he'd said to Mandi that he expected to be dangerous to
women in a week or so. But she hadn't corrected his estimate. Because they'd
been arguing, or because she'd figured about the same amount of time?
Was he ahead of schedule or something? Reaching for the bent-pipe safety
railing of the stairs, he squeezed. At first nothing happened, so he squeezed a
little harder. The tubing crumpled in his hand.
Staring at the damaged pipework, Cade knew he couldn't continue with Beth.
He'd been extremely lucky not to have hurt her this morning, no damned doubt
about that.
Then it struck him that he hadn't mashed any of the sandwiches and he
remembered Mandi having mentioned the same phenomenon the night before. She'd
said, 'You didn't squash your burger, did you?' Or something like that.
Maybe he could continue with Beth. If he was very gentle, very careful...
Wait one. He was describing all but a very few moments of their time together
the night before. And this morning had been one long, easygoing, session. No
hard riding at all, except when she'd been on top.
"That's it," he softly said aloud to himself. "Slow and easy unless she's on
top. That ought to work."
He'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed Mandi's presence descending
between the stairwells until his last thought had essentially seemed to solve
his dilemma.
As he sipped the last of his Dr Pepper, she floated to a stop directly
behind him and cleared her throat with a grin, obviously expecting Cade to jump
out of his skin.
Cade drained the cup and said, "Hi, Mandi," without so much as a flinch.
Annoyed as hell that she hadn't startled him and determined not to let him
see her failure, Mandi concealed her irritation as she flitted upward enough to
clear the handrail, then settled to the steps just below the landing so they'd
be more or less eye-to-eye.
Glancing around, she asked, "Is there some reason you're sitting in the
stairwell?"
He pointed to the crumbs on the napki