“Liar,” he chided softly. “You know very well that I want to kiss you.”
“You’re the one who said we don’t know each other anymore. I don’t assume anything about how you’re feeling or what you’re thinking,” she said. Now her gaze dropped to his mouth.
Damn. He really had assumed they’d be arguing a lot more. Fighting. Hashing the past out. Maybe angry fucking in the kitchen. Instead, every time he was with her he felt soft. Protective. Proud. Amazed. Happy.
“You’re right,” he said, moving his thumb from her chin to her bottom lip and stroking back and forth. “We both need to be very clear about what we’re thinking and feeling. And wanting. And needing.”
The tip of her tongue darted out to wet her lip, but touching his thumb in the process. He felt the jolt to the soles of his feet.
“You first,” she said.
“Okay.” He looked into her eyes. “I think you are completely different from the girl I was in love with in high school. That girl was confident and daring and knew who she was and where she fit.”
She sucked in a little breath and almost pulled back, but Cam caught her upper arm, holding her in place.
“Now you’re a grown woman who’s a little broken, a little hurt, but even if she’s not sure where she fits, she knows what she wants and is willing to work her ass off for it. You’re creative and sweet and a little too humble and you’ve never been more beautiful. Seeing you keep trying, keep working, keep wanting in spite of years of being taken for granted and overlooked kills me and inspires me and makes me want you so much more than I ever did when you were sure of yourself.”
He saw the shock in her eyes but knew he had to keep going.
“I thought I could encourage you to yell and argue and push and fight but… instead, you make me… softer. I’m quieter and more patient and more open just since being around you. I’ve been knocking heads and fighting and being a pain in people’s asses for the last ten years. I thought I liked that. It made me strong. No one overlooked me or got away with anything. I thought I was tough.”
He gave a soft huff of laughter and shook his head.
“But I had no idea what tough was. Tough is being ignored but not leaving. Tough is being overlooked, but knowing you have something to contribute. Tough is being able to see long term in spite of the short-term shit you have to plow through. Tough is… you.”
Whitney pressed her lips together and blinked rapidly, but she didn’t say anything. He was glad she wasn’t arguing with him. He wanted her to hear this. All of it.
“You’ve been knocked around, emotionally, by people you loved and trusted and looked up to, but you’re still here. Most people would have said fuck it and walked out by now. That’s sure as hell what I would have done. Making a lot of noise and trouble as I went out. That’s what I have done in some situations. But you believe in something deeper and bigger—this town or these people or your family legacy or… something—and you’re still here.”
Her eyes were shiny now and Cam thought maybe she was on the verge of tears. But he knew she wasn’t sad.
He shook his head. “After just a few weeks being around you, I just want to be quiet and hear old stories and watch TV reruns and bake cookies.” He gave a short laugh as the words came out without him really planning them. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, exactly, but you are showing me how to be a fighter in a whole new way. Just by being there and taking care of things behind the scenes, quietly, being supportive and letting someone else… you… do the ass-kicking. I’m shocked but, I like it. I really do.”
She took a shaky breath. “The stories and reruns and cookies are Didi,” she finally said, her voice husky.
“No. Those are all the by-products of the things you’re making me feel,” he said, not letting her make light of it. “You’re showing me how to be in for the long haul and how to be a part of something bigger by being the guy behind the tough girl.”
She swallowed hard.
“Even back in high school you understood that. I was ready to give up my scholarship and even college to stay here with you, but you understood the big picture, even then. You knew I had to leave. You realized that putting up with things sucking in the short term would matter for the long term.”
“You make me sound a lot more insightful and smarter than I am,” she said softly.
“Maybe you don’t think you’re those things, but that’s just because your brain isn’t recognizing it. Because it comes from your heart,” he said.
She just looked at him for several ticks from the clock on her desk. Cam let her look. He hadn’t planned on saying any of this. He hadn’t put most of this to words even in his own head before this. But it was all true. He’d spent the past ten years fighting and being hardheaded and driven. Now he felt… content. With her. Not because Whitney was content. She clearly wasn’t. She had a lot of unfinished business here. But because he now knew that what he needed to do was be here so she could finish that business.
That didn’t seem as strange as it maybe should.
“How you feel about me and my ideas here matter more than anyone else’s,” she finally said.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” He sincerely wanted to know. He wasn’t the CEO or CFO of the company and he was already a huge fan of hers. “You’ve already won me over,” he told her with a smile.
“I think because…” Her brow furrowed. “Well…” She was clearly thinking it through.
Cam grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
“No. Honestly.” She pressed her lips together, then said, “Okay, it’s sad, but, there’s not a lot of difference between my personal life and my work life. Hot Cakes has always been a family business, so it’s always been a part of my home life too. But it’s also because I’m a workaholic and don’t have a lot of friends. I simply can’t separate Hot Cakes into any kind of compartment. It’s a part of everything.”
She drew a breath. “But with you, I suppose I want you to feel like all the extra time you’re putting in helping with Didi and everything is worth it. That believing in me is worth it. That makes this personal in a way it’s never been before.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she waited for him to respond. He couldn’t for a second as his heart actually kicked painfully against his ribs.
Finally he moved his hands to hold her face. “Well, then, it’s very important for you to hear me say that it’s all fucking amazing,” he said gruffly.
Her smile was bright even as her eyes were shiny with tears again. “Yeah?”
“Very much so. It’s very worth it to me to see you happy and proud of yourself and feeling fulfilled.”
She looked legitimately touched by that. “Thank you, Cam.”
“You’re welcome.”
She gave a soft laugh. “I can’t believe this.”
“What?”
“This. Us. The fact that you’re helping me do more at Hot Cakes, of all places, and you’re involved with my family and…” She shook her head. “Just all of it.”
“We couldn’t have been here ten years ago,” he said. “I realize that. I had to grow up to get past the company and your family and the details to see the big picture of you and me. You were right.”
She smiled sadly. “I had no idea that we’d end up here, Cam. I’m glad we did, but I had no way of knowing that it would work out. It wasn’t about you and me. Me breaking things off was just about you.”
“You sent me away for me.”
Whitney nodded. “You couldn’t have stayed here. That was a ridiculous idea.”
“You did it because you wanted me to be happy.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
“Because you loved me.”
She swallowed hard. But nodded again.
“I totally get that now.” His voice was thick and he hoped she could see what all he meant by that.
Suddenly she leaned in,
putting her lips against his and wrapping her arms around his neck.
His hands went to her waist, squeezing and bringing her up against him more fully. Nothing had ever felt as right as this woman did in his arms. Resisting her was getting more and more difficult every day and when she touched him… he was a goner.
Whitney opened her mouth with a little sigh and Cam immediately swept his tongue against hers. His hands moved down to cup her ass and press her against his growing erection.
She gripped the front of his shirt, arching closer, making a frustrated sound at the back of her throat when it wasn’t close enough. She turned, tugging him with her, until the backs of her thighs were against her desk. Then she pulled her mouth from his.
But only long enough to give him a sexy, mischievous smile, and to slide her skirt up her thighs.
His heart thundered and his cock hardened as she wiggled the navy blue skirt up high enough that he could see her panties.
Yellow. Bright freaking sunshine yellow. That was what his girl wore under her boring freaking skirt.
Then she pushed herself up onto her desk and spread her knees.
He was there immediately, stepping between them, pulling her ass to the edge of the desk, and cupping the back of her head, his fingers gripping her hair with just a slight tug as he tipped her head back.
He pressed his aching hard-on against the hot, wet center of those cheery-as-fuck panties and ground into her as he kissed her deeply, making her gasp and moan into his mouth.
The vision of knocking her day planner and the boring black pencil holder and matching lamp to the floor so he could lay her back and fuck her on her desk was vivid in his mind. He wanted to do things to her that she would think about during every single conference call and meeting she had in this office from now on.
Cam reached out and sent the pencil holder skittering over the surface of the desk, pens scattering, before it thunked to the floor.
Whitney jerked her head to look at it, then back to him.
“What was that?”
“I’m going to—”
His phone started ringing.
And he was jerked back to reality and how this was all way friendlier than he’d intended to be.
The phone kept ringing.
He sighed.
He thought about ignoring it, but he couldn’t. The ring tone was the theme song for Magnum, P.I. The original, of course.
Whitney started laughing. “You gave her her own ring tone?”
Yeah, the moment was gone.
He grinned as he reached for his back pocket. “Of course.” He swiped to answer and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey, Didi.”
“I’m ready to go,” she announced. “It’s almost time for yoga.”
It was, indeed. He looked at Whitney. Then at Whitney’s lips. Then at Whitney’s yellow panties. Then at the pencil holder on the floor. Then back to the panties. Dammit.
“We need to stop at the store on the way home too,” she said. “I told Maggie I’d bring salad and I need lemons for my lemon vinaigrette. Don’t forget.”
He grinned in spite of being cock-blocked by a seventy-two-year-old. “Got it.” Didi might have her times mixed up and she might forget things once in a while, but she didn’t forget everything. She and Maggie had talked about that salad three days ago. “I’m on my way.”
“Hurry up.” Then she hung up on him.
Grinning, he looked at Whitney. Holy hell, she looked so hot with her blouse pulled loose from her skirt and her hair mussed and her cheeks flushed. “I need to go.”
Whitney was watching him with a strange expression. It was part amused and part puzzled and part affectionate, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“This is all so… weird,” she said.
It was. And a little terrible, he thought, as she slid off the desk and smoothed her skirt down.
“It’s all good,” he told her.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “It seems to be.”
“So go, kick some more ass and I’m going to go… relax and meditate with some kittens.” He grinned and stepped back.
Immediately he missed the feel of her body heat and her scent.
“Okay.” She stood watching him for a moment. Then she stepped close and pressed her lips to his again.
The high heels put her at the perfect height.
Screw it.
He cupped the back of her head and tasted her deeply for a moment.
When they separated they were both breathing a little harder again.
Whitney licked her lips. “See you later.”
“Yeah.” He glanced at the pens scattered over her desk. “Sorry about the pencil holder.”
She let out a little sigh. “Worth. It.”
He grinned. He didn’t know what was going on with them exactly. But he knew that his feelings were real and they were growing and he fucking liked everything about how things were between them.
Except there wasn’t nearly enough naked time.
That was his fault. Well, maybe not fault. That was his doing. And he didn’t regret it. If he’d been sleeping with Whitney this whole time, it would have been hard to separate loving having her in his bed and making her want him again and just… loving her.
It hit him hard.
It had been teasing around the edges of his consciousness for a while now. Like when he’d realized that she maybe really had loved him even as an eighteen-year-old kid and that he maybe hadn’t actually felt the same way. But now it was clear. He’d fallen back in love with her. In the midst of 3 a.m. viewings of Magnum, P.I. and baking cookies and watching her bloom and seeing her have quiet, happy moments with her grandmother because she wasn’t stressed and pressed for time and weighed down by a million other things. Like guilt.
It was ironic that it was Hot Cakes that had brought them back together, but here they were and it felt good. Right.
Giving into the urge, he leaned in and kissed Whitney once more. Just a quick, sweet kiss on the lips, then he looked at her with the knowledge that he’d see her at home later. And maybe they could sneak in some quiet time before Magnum, P.I.
* * *
Whitney took a deep breath as she pulled her phone out and stared at the screen.
She never did this.
Never.
It was completely foreign territory.
Her phone was used for emails and the occasional call when she was away from her desk and pulling up her boarding pass when she was traveling.
She almost never texted.
And she never texted like this.
She wasn’t even sure she was going to do it right.
She swallowed. But she really wanted to.
Opening her contacts, she scrolled to the one she needed and pulled up the number. Then she typed, I got done early today and I’d love to just have some fun tonight. Are you up for something?
She stared at the words.
Then she frowned.
And typed, This is Whitney, by the way.
Then she sat and waited. And wondered if she should have said something else. Or said it differently. Was that enticing at all? Was it stupid? Is this how people started this stuff?
Finally, after about four years—or maybe about two minutes—she saw the little dots dancing, indicating she was going to get a response.
LOL. I know it’s you! And dammit! I’m so sorry! I’ve got plans.
Whitney felt her heart drop to her stomach. But she forced herself to actually smile, even though Piper couldn’t see it, as she typed back. No worries! Of course you do. This is really last minute. Sorry!
Don’t be sorry! Piper replied. I love that you’re done early! That’s awesome! I would love to do something but I’m… out at the alpaca farm.
Whitney paused with her thumbs over the keys and reread that. Piper was at the alpaca farm? As in Drew Ryan’s farm? Uh-oh.
We were going to talk about all of this, she finally typed back, suddenly feeling less silly about texting Piper f
or an impromptu girl’s night. Her nerves about asking a girlfriend out for drinks—something she’d literally never done before—disappearing in light of her concern over Piper getting cozy with Drew. Drew Ryan was a great guy. Good looking, kind, funny, successful. But… he wasn’t Ollie.
Whitney couldn’t explain it any better than that.
Ollie was a handful. She knew that. Especially for Piper. But he seemed to be Piper’s handful. He was Cam and Grant and Aiden and Dax’s handful too, but there was something about Ollie and Piper that just seemed to click. And Whitney knew that Ollie had feelings for Piper. He just wasn’t good at showing that. Or maybe even admitting it.
But she was rooting for them. And Drew Ryan would be fine. He could have just about any woman in Appleby. Drew wasn’t lonely, that was for sure. He didn’t need Piper.
We were going to talk about it, Piper replied. And we will. Promise.
Whitney felt terrible suddenly.
She and Piper had had a moment in the conference room earlier. A moment Whitney never had with other women. That moment of silent understanding that said I’ve got you, girl. Piper was like the little sister at Fluke and the guys all cared about her. It was obvious. But they were guys. And Piper had moved here from Chicago with them. Or because of them. She wasn’t from here and probably didn’t know many people. Piper maybe needed a girlfriend as much as Whitney did.
But what had Whitney done? She’d gone back to her office and gotten immersed in her work. Of course she had. That’s what she did. Today had been almost worse than usual. She’d flown through her to-do list, high from the meeting and knowing that the guys were excited about the new bars and then her talk with Cam.
Her heart flipped even now thinking about that.
It had been so much more than a talk. The way he’d looked at her. And cupped her face in his big hands. And looked into her eyes. The intensity in his voice when he’d told her that she was amazing and creative and sweet. And a little broken and hurt.
Her heart twinged now remembering that.
Cam saw her. He saw her now in a way he hadn’t in the past.
Semi-Sweet On You: Hot Cakes Series Page 23
