A Sweetheart For The Single Dad (The Camdens Of Colorado Book 8)

by Victoria Pade

  “I know. And their grandmother is out of intensive care and it looks like eventually she’ll be able to go home and take them back with her,” he told her. “So you’re not the sole solution to every problem. And when it comes to me, please try a little harder not to do any swooping in for the rescue. I’m a big boy. I can handle my own problems.”

  He was the first man she’d been attracted to who didn’t want or need something from her. Who was actively opposed to her doing anything for him or giving him anything.

  There was something about that that appealed to a part of her that was separate from the do-gooder in her. A part of her that had never been appealed to quite that distinctly before. And somehow it made him even more sexy.

  “From here on,” she swore, “handle your own problems.”

  “You being one of them?” he asked as if she had delivered an invitation.

  “Does that mean you consider me a problem or that you want to handle me?” she challenged, very aware of the sensuous heat on the back of her neck and the confines of the SUV that had them only inches apart.

  “Both?” he said, his voice gravelly as he closed the scant distance between them to kiss her.

  That initial press of his lips to hers told her how much she’d been on hold since Saturday night. It was the real homecoming that she’d been inching toward every minute since then.

  She closed her eyes and parted her lips in answer to his, raising a flattened palm to his chest to make it all the more tangible.

  And then she just let herself go and she thought he did, too. Because almost instantly they were making out as intensely as they had Saturday night, falling immediately into the throes of mouths locked together and tongues toying with each other in wet, wild ways.

  There were only the lights of the community center’s parking lot and the streetlamps beyond it, and there in the dim glow nothing existed for Lindie but Sawyer and the sweet taste of his mouth, the clean scent of his cologne and the potency of the indisputable masculinity of him.

  Her other arm snaked around him, her hand splayed to his back and rode the hills of every muscle, following the valleys they dipped into and drinking in the pure expanse of him.

  His hand went from her neck to her back and brought her in closer as his other hand went to her bare shoulder.

  That brought a new sense of intimacy to things. Maybe because of the way he was cupping her shoulder, caressing it, rubbing it. And the ripple effect of that was that Lindie felt her breasts swell within the cups of her lacy strapless bra as if they were jealous, as if they were straining for that same attention.

  Then his fingertips moved their massage under the first inch or so of fabric over her shoulder blade and that caused her nipples to tighten as if even that slight adjustment meant more.

  Suddenly the heat turned up another notch in their kissing and wanting to feel his hands on her breasts was the only thing Lindie could think about.

  She sent her hand from his chest to join the other one on his back, holding tightly enough for their fronts to make contact, hoping that might help appease some of the longing for more intimate contact gaining ground in her by the minute.

  Then Sawyer flipped his hand over so that his fingertips ran along the edges of her cut-in sleeve. It was the backs of those same fingers that stayed against her skin as he used the fabric as his guide, tracing it up and over her shoulder, then down again to stop near the hollow of her arm, at the very upper and outermost curve of her breast.

  He was thinking the same things she was, Lindie thought. He had to be as that scant contact lingered. And if he was waiting for her to pull his hand away, that just wasn’t going to happen because she wanted more, not less.

  He seemed to understand because he slid his hand farther down and forward a little more so the backs of his fingers pressed against the full side of her breast.

  The deep breath Lindie took expanded her chest in his direction—an involuntary response to how good that felt and how much more she wanted.

  How much more she wanted so badly that she pulled one of her hands away from his back and began to unfasten the buttons on the high collar that wrapped her throat so prudishly.

  They were still kissing and yet she felt him smile just before his mouth opened even wider over hers, his tongue thrust fully inside and he took her hand away from those buttons so he could do the job.

  So many buttons just to get to breast level...why had she ever chosen this jumpsuit?

  But then the buttons were unfastened and in came his hand to cup her breast over the lacy bra and it was the bra she cursed. She’d considered going without because of the cut of the jumpsuit but had decided against it since Tyler and Eric would be in her cooking group.

  So then it was the boys she was cursing in her mind when Sawyer expertly maneuvered that very adept hand of his into one cup.

  The distraction of bra-thoughts made the touch come as a surprise and heightened the sensation, spurring a tiny moan from her. A moan that he answered by clasping her breast more firmly, filling his hand with it to overflow between fingers that delved into her flesh as his palm became the cradle for the nipple that was growing granite-hard.

  Okay, yes, she’d entertained a few midnight fantasies of being touched like that by him. But nowhere in any of them had it been as good as it really was. He knew how to kiss and he knew just how to caress, too.

  Stroking when stroking felt best. Teasing when teasing worked to tantalize her even more. Tugging and gently pinching when her nipple cried out for that, and then rubbing and soothing and altogether driving her slightly out of her mind.

  And still she wanted more.

  Or maybe because of that she wanted more.

  Whatever the reason, it was her lower regions that came to life then. That wanted a turn. A touch. Him.

  Outside in the park? she thought.

  It was dark. The sky was clear. The air warm. The grass no doubt cool.

  But that was so exposed.

  So maybe the backseat instead.

  They could climb back there. It was a big SUV. The windows were tinted.

  But even as one part of her was titillated by the idea of being that wayward, it wasn’t how she wanted it to be between them.

  It shouldn’t be any way between you! a small voice reminded her, forcing her to face the fact that this had already gone much further than it should go.

  This was Sawyer Huffman and her interactions with him were supposed to be strictly business. She shouldn’t even be kissing him let alone nearly squirming beneath the pleasures of his hand on her breast and contemplating having sex with him in the backseat of his SUV!

  What was she doing? she mentally shouted at herself.

  And yet for several minutes more she just had to go on doing it because she couldn’t stand the thought of losing his mouth on hers, his hand on her...

  But as much as she didn’t want to lose either of those things, as much as she wanted to take this whole thing all the way to the end, she knew she couldn’t. Not now, anyway. And certainly not in the Wheatley Community Center parking lot.

  So after another extended moment of trying to brand into her memory the feel of his hand on her breast, she backed away just enough to give him the message that this had to stop.

  Instead his grip tightened. Initially, at least. And then he took her nipple between his thumb and index finger to twist ever-so-tenderly just once before he let go and took his hand away.

  The kissing ended, too, and he merely pulled her up against him as if he were having trouble letting go of her completely.

  “Not the place to do this,” he surmised.

  And not what they should be doing, Lindie thought. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it so she didn’t say anything at all.

  But she also didn’t do anything to pull out of that embrace because being in his arms still felt too fabulous.

  It couldn’t go on forever, though, and after a while she inched her hands between them t
o set her bra to rights and refasten enough buttons to be decent again.

  Sawyer got the message, too, and sat back, releasing her and getting out of the car.

  Lindie didn’t need him to open her door but while he came around she used the time to finish her buttoning as a precautionary measure since what she really wanted was his hands inside her clothes again.

  When the passenger door opened, she got out.

  “There’s some important baseball game on Saturday?” she said as she moved to her car, as if they hadn’t just been on the brink of making love.

  “Not important, no. It’s just an end-of-summer fun thing. Boys against girls. Since I’m not getting Sam again this Saturday I signed on to coach the boys. Marie is coaching the girls. Want to come?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she answered without needing to think twice as she unlocked her door and opened it. But rather than get in she turned to face him, loving the way the moonlight dusted his oh-so-handsome features and having second thoughts about what she’d just stopped.

  “Good,” he said pointedly, looking intently into her face, smiling, putting his fingers through her hair to sweep it out of the way before he leaned in and kissed her again. A kiss that was as sexy and intimate and knowing as if they had used his backseat, after all.

  But when thoughts of dragging him home with her flitted through Lindie’s mind she ended the kiss.

  “I have to drive all the way home still,” she said feebly, as if that was a reason to stop.

  “Me, too,” he said with a groan.

  Another kiss, just as intense and irresistible, before he was the one to finally end it this time.

  He stepped away from her as though distance was the only thing that could keep him from kissing her yet again. “Saturday. One in the afternoon,” he said, referring to the baseball game.

  “I’ll be here,” Lindie assured him.

  “Then maybe afterward—”

  She ignored the seductive tone in his voice and completed the sentence. “I can cook you dinner and we can have a serious talk about what it would mean to your business to have Camden Incorporated as a client.”

  Oh, that had sounded desperate.

  But that was how she felt.

  He just smiled and ignored her rationale for the invitation with a “Dinner at your place” acceptance, as if he hadn’t even heard the rest.

  “And talk about business,” she repeated as she silently vowed to use that dinner to really, really push for him to work with them—what she was supposed to be doing.

  He merely smiled as she got behind the wheel of her car and started her engine.

  After he’d closed her door and she’d left him behind in that parking lot, Lindie swore to herself that she was going to put every effort into doing the job she’d been sent to him to do. She owed it to her family to devote herself firmly to that goal and to not let up until she succeeded.

  And if she couldn’t convince him?

  Then she might have to call it quits on this mission.

  Because what was going on between them just couldn’t go on much longer.

  Or she knew she would lose herself in a man she couldn’t have.

  Chapter Nine

  “Sean thinks something might be going on between you and that Camden girl.”

  Knowing his father couldn’t see him, Sawyer made a face but kept his voice neutral. “It’s just business, Dad,” he assured him.

  “She’s still trying to get you to turn your back on your clients and represent Camden interests, huh?”

  “There hasn’t been any talk about turning my back on my current clients, but, yeah, she’s still trying to persuade me to take on Camden Incorporated.”

  Sawyer had used his hands-free call feature to contact his parents just to check in on Saturday morning as he drove to Wheatley for the baseball game. He’d been so busy—and so distracted by Lindie—that he hadn’t talked to them as frequently as he usually did. In fact he hadn’t talked to them since before he’d had breakfast with his brother. And after a few minutes saying hello to his mother and catching up with his father on other things, apparently now they were going to talk about this.

  “Seems like... What’s her name?”

  “Lindie.”

  “Seems like her trying to get you to work for them has been going on for quite a while. How much time does it take to say no?”

  “Oh, I’ve said no. More than once.” To everything work-related. Not to everything he should have passed up.

  “But she’s persistent,” his father concluded. “They’re like dogs with bones, those Camdens. Take it from me.”

  “Well, yeah,” Sawyer agreed provisionally. “But I also sort of pushed her into volunteering at the community center so she could see for herself the kind of mess their superstores leave behind. She ended up throwing herself into that more than I expected, so that’s kept her around, too.”

  “And gotten you to like her.”

  Had that come from Sean or was his father hearing something in his voice that was giving him away?

  Sawyer didn’t know but suddenly he didn’t want to deny it. In fact, something in him wanted to test the waters.

  “She’s...not what I expected. She’s a really nice person.”

  “And none of the Camdens I’ve seen in pictures is hard on the eyes,” his father pointed out.

  Sawyer laughed slightly. “She’s definitely not hard on the eyes.”

  “So you do like her.”

  Sawyer took a deep breath and plunged in. “How bad would it be if I said I did?”

  There was silence on the other end for so long Sawyer began to wonder if they’d been disconnected.

  Then his father said, “A Camden...” and Sawyer could tell that he was tempering his reaction. “I suppose I’d be a little worried about whether you should be trusting one of them.”

  “I haven’t seen anything about her that isn’t trustworthy.”

  “Seeing it coming is the problem with those people.”

  Sawyer’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “I know that’s how it was in your situation. But I really don’t think Lindie is devious. She actually has a little too much conscience for her own good.”

  Again his father didn’t say anything and Sawyer sensed the caution the older man was practicing.

  “I’d hate for you to get into something you’d live to regret,” Samuel said after a moment. “Something that could hurt your business or cost you more than you think it might.”

  “What if I was willing to take that risk?” Sawyer asked.

  “Are you?” his father countered.

  “I don’t know,” he said honestly.

  There was another pause.

  Then his dad said, “Getting into anything with the Camdens wouldn’t make your clients happy.”

  “My job can’t be my whole life. I have a right to more. And I work hard for my clients. They all know that and it won’t change regardless.”

  “So what are we really talking about here? Are you wondering what will happen if you wanted to bring a Camden home to us?”

  “What would happen?” he asked as if it was an academic question.

  But, wow, was there a heavy silence then.

  This didn’t seem to be going well.

  “I guess I’d have to say first of all that I hope you know what you’re doing,” his father finally said.

  Sawyer wished he could swear that he did. But the truth was he didn’t. He only knew that for some reason when it came to Lindie he was helpless to stop what was happening despite knowing that he should. And he’d begun to wonder how much of a problem he would be creating if this thing between them went on.

  Because what he did know was that tonight things were going to change, and if they went on at all, it wasn’t going to be about anything but the two of them.

  “And second,” his father said, “if positions were reversed and it was our family that had caused harm to theirs, I wouldn’t want you cond
emned for anything I ever did. I’d want you to be judged on your own merit, for your own accomplishments, for the man you are—not for the man I am. So I s’pose I can’t be a hypocrite and I’d have to try to do the same thing when it comes to a Camden.”

  It wasn’t an open-arms welcome but it was something. It was something Sawyer appreciated.

  “Be careful, son,” his father added with genuine concern. “The Camdens are crafty and cunning and sly.”

  “I know the old guard was but—”

  “You can’t be sure the new guard isn’t, too. It’s a hell of a gamble, if you ask me. All the way around—with your business and your whole life.” His father sighed heavily. “But if you’re willing to take it... Well, you know we’ll always stand behind you.”

  “How much would you hate it?” Sawyer said.

  “I’d just be worried for you. For me, any anger is all in the past. Over and done with a long time ago. I got rewarded for going through it by meeting your mom and having you and Sean, so don’t pay any attention to that. But keep a look out for yourself for sure.”

  “I will,” Sawyer promised, hoping even as he did that his vision wasn’t already too clouded. “I gotta go. I’m at the community center,” he said as he pulled into the lot and parked.

  “Just make sure you think with the big head, not with the—”

  “I know,” Sawyer said before his father could complete the warning he’d been giving him since puberty.

  They said their goodbyes and disconnected.

  For a few minutes Sawyer sat in his SUV, thinking about what his father had said, thinking about Lindie, about how complicated this was.

  But then he spotted her car a few rows in front of him and just knowing that she was nearby sent a rush through him like nothing he’d ever experienced over anyone else.

  And even though he tried his damnedest, he couldn’t tame it.

  * * *

  “Okay. You cooked me one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten. Salad, potato, bread—great. Chocolate cheesecake? Decadent! A little hundred-year-old port to top it all off... And I’ve listened to your whole pitch. Now you listen to me.”