If Warren only knew what he was planning he would not have given him the address, Cade chuckled to himself as he rang the doorbell of Erin's apartment.
"Who is it?" he heard her ask from the other side.
"Someone who wants to apologize," he replied sweetly and held up the bouquet of red roses he had just bought. He heard the door chain being removed and the door unlocked and revealed a mildly surprised Erin staring at him.
"What is this?"
"Flowers for the beautiful," Cade answered sweetly as he gave her the flowers. "I sincerely hope you can forgive me the brutish behaviour and maybe join me for dinner?" He held up the Indian take-away he had brought along.
"What on earth? Have you hit your head or something, Cade? You don't seem to be quite yourself."
"Ah well, I had a chat with Warren and he gave a few words of advice about how to court a woman properly," he replied sheepishly.
"Always the gentleman, Warren is. And what else did he tell you about proper behaviour?" Erin asked humorously as she studied the sheepish expression in Cade's face.
"A lot of things, and very useful too, I hope." He reached for her hand and held it to his mouth as he kissed her skin lightly. "He told me a woman liked to be worshipped and invited to fine dinners with good wines." He pointed at the bag right next to him. "That's why I brought white wine to go with the Tandoori, of course."
"Oh?" Erin replied while staring at Cade as still in shock by his complete turnaround.
"May I come in?"
"Sure, why not. As long as you behave, I might take the chance."
"Of course I'll behave. Warren taught me that dinner only included good food and intellectual conversation. And no sex before date number 15. Or was it 25? He's old school after all."
"Poor Warren. I must have cost him a fortune to court Emma, then," Erin laughed as she went to put the flowers in water.
Cade opened the wine bottle and poured them both a glass. "Here you go," he said and gave her a glass.
"Mm, smells good," she said and took a sip. "Very nice. What is it?"
"French. Borgogne district. The best there is. If you would join me we could spend the honeymoon there."
"Didn't Warren say anything about being too forward, Cade?" Erin said laughingly.
"Nope, he must have forgotten. All right, you can pick the destination then. Only make sure the beds are soft and the food is good."
"Stuff some food into that mouth, will you?"
"Okay. I found out you liked Indian so I brought some Tandoori."
"My favourite. Who told you?"
"A little bird called Stella."
"That traitor. What else did she tell you?"
"Nothing important," he replied while laying out the food.
"Tell me!"
"She only described what she would do to a certain part of me if I hurt you. Nothing worth mentioning," Cade shuddered visibly.
"Ah, so that's why you've located some manners, is that it? Afraid that poor little Stella will castrate you?"
"She was quite persuasive, let me tell you. Now, dig in."
She did and they both enjoyed the meal as the conversation floated easily back and forth and covered their favourite movies and books as well as tales about their travels.
***
Erin laughed heartily as Cade talked about Warrens troubles at their latest hunting trip and how he had managed to fall into the ice-cold river and how it taken three men to pull him ashore again.
"Poor Warren. He's not much of an outdoors man, is he?"
"Nope, too comfortable with Emma's home-cooking, would be my guess. He's gotten soft."
"Well, I'm sure you use every opportunity to take him down a peg or two."
"That's the least I can do when he does the same for me. Warren is the only one that can make me feel like an ill-mannered school-boy in about 30 seconds time."
"I think I know what you mean," Erin smiled at him. Then she cleared her throat as in taking a break before charging into more difficult territory. "So, you have quite gotten over that prank I pulled on you earlier?"
"Which one?" Cade smiled knowingly as he noticed her face getting red.
"Uhm, well...you know which one I'm talking about."
"Yes, that one. The cockteaser prank. Actually, it's one of your best so far, but I would say the nude photos were a close second." Erin just coloured even more and seemed quite ashamed for a while.
"You didn't like the coffee-prank then?" she suddenly asked.
"Nope, you ruined the taste completely. I still haven't gotten over it. I'm still drinking instant cappuccinos ever since you started sabotaging my coffee."
"Uhm well, I did have some help in that department, you know."
"I know. Otherwise you would never have gotten anything done." He paused for a while before sitting back in his chair. "This reminds me that the score is totally in your side, by the way."
"What do you mean?"
"If I count every prank you pulled on me, compared to the one's I pulled on you, I would say you're still leading with about 20 points."
"Well..."
"So perhaps it's about time for me to even the score," he said and slowly bent closer to her, looking into her eyes and keeping her spellbound.