“Things in place,” he repeated. His voice was low and almost angry sounding. “At work, you mean.”

“Yes. This new product launch and everything,” she said. “And, of course, there will always be more going on but I’m hoping that we’ll be past all of this newness and we’ll be working well together and you’ll all know what I can do and will be able to trust that I can handle my part even if I’m away from the office more at times.”

Cam’s eyes glittered and he looked a little angry now. “That’s what you’re thinking about when you’re working late? How to get ahead now for the eventuality of when your grandma gets sicker and you need to be gone? So we trust that you can handle things and, what, don’t fire you while you’re taking care of your grandma?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus, Whit.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “You think we’re that big of assholes?”

She swallowed. “Of course not. But it’s only fair that I plan ahead.” She could feel the tension coming off of him. He seemed… not angry, actually. Annoyed. And frustrated. That seemed more accurate.

“And for now,” she went on. “I would really appreciate if you could keep my family’s personal business personal. You came into this situation because you and Didi got together and she got a wild hair. You weren’t really invited. Not by anyone who knows every piece of this. But you’re here now. Because Didi wants you to be. But that doesn’t give you permission to bring a bunch of other people into it.”

She saw that he’d noticed her emphasis on Didi when she’d said who wanted him here. His eyes narrowed again. “And you think my family is a bunch of assholes too.”

She sighed. “Cam…” She shook her head. “I don’t know your family. I know what my family felt about your family. I’ve had it ingrained that your family doesn’t like us and wants us to fail.”

“You know me. You fell in love with me.”

She flinched as he put that out there so bluntly.

“You think assholes would have raised a guy you could fall in love with?”

He was closer again. How did he keep doing that without her noticing him moving?

Then she realized that it was her who had moved. Closer to him. Into his personal space. Close enough to feel his heat. To see the gold flakes in his green eyes. To feel his warm breath on her cheek. And lips.

But he didn’t move back.

“You think that you could fall in love with a guy who had friends who were assholes who would blab all over town about your grandma’s situation?” he asked.

But his voice was softer now. Huskier. And his eyes dropped to her lips.

“I think that this is complicated and it’s temporary. Can’t you just keep this between us for a few weeks?”

“No.”

He didn’t even hesitate. He didn’t even think about it for a second. He didn’t even pretend to consider what she said.

She frowned. “No? Just no?”

“No. Your grandma has had several great days. My family and friends have enjoyed having her around. I’ve had a good time. There’s no reason to not have other people involved, Whit. They can make things better.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” she exclaimed. “You’ve been here for a few days! Maybe they’ve been particularly good days but it’s still new. Tomorrow might be bad. Eventually it will be bad. You can’t bring all these people in.”

“Whitney.”

“People who don’t know her,” she went on without pause. “People who don’t know about her condition. They won’t know how to handle things if they go bad.”

“Whit—”

But she was on a roll. “What if she gets confused or scared? What if she gets angry? What if she can’t figure out why she’s suddenly surrounded by people she’s always believed hated her? What if—”

Suddenly Cam took her chin between his thumb and first finger and brought her mouth to his, cutting off her words. And her air supply. And every thought other than Cam’s kissing me.

She had no idea what she’d been saying. She vaguely recalled her heart beating hard a few seconds ago, but it was drumming against her rib cage now and the reason for that completely consumed her.

Cam was kissing her.

For about two seconds his lips had simply pressed against hers, as if to only stop hers from moving. But then he moved. Both his body—up against hers, his other hand going to her lower back and pressing her close—and his mouth, tipping slightly to make the contact more complete, and opening.

His mouth was hot and insistent. The hand that had held her chin, slid along her jaw and into her hair, cupping the back of her head. He tipped her head too, taking the kiss even deeper.

His tongue stroked over her bottom lip and she went on tiptoe to get closer to all of that while opening her mouth. He groaned, the hand on her lower back gripping her silky shirt now. The silky red shirt she’d paired with the dark gray skirt that he surely hated since it was one of her work skirts.

She gripped the front of his shirt similarly, pulling him closer or using it to pull herself closer to him—she wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. She was as against him as she could get with the height difference and her heels still up in Didi’s room. Damn, she should have left those on.

Then Cam helped her out. He turned her and, without breaking their lip-to-lip contact, boosted her up onto one of the high-backed chairs that faced the breakfast bar. He tried to step between her knees, but the skirt was too fitted for that.

“Hate these,” he muttered. But his big hands dropped to her thighs and before she realized what he was doing, he’d slid the skirt up so she could part her knees. Which he also helped with.

He moved her knees apart as he stepped in and before she could so much as gasp, he took her face in both hands and put his mouth on hers again.

Now she was at the perfect height. She really had no choice but to kiss him back, sliding her arms around his neck and wiggling to the edge of the stool so she could get as close as possible. That made her skirt slide even higher until her silk panties were against the seat of the stool. And Cam’s denim-covered erection was against the front of those panties.

They both groaned and Whitney swore her leg lifted itself to wrap around Cam’s thigh. He felt so good. Right. There. She hadn’t had anything so good right there in far too long.

“Whit,” Cam said gruffly, dragging his mouth from her lips to her ear.

“Yes.” She didn’t know what she was saying yes to exactly. But she was pretty sure it didn’t matter. Any idea he had tonight, in this room, seemed like it would be great. There was kissing and cake. As far as she was concerned, Cam was two for two in this kitchen tonight.

But he didn’t really ask her a question. Maybe he’d been kind of asking permission though, because his hands dropped to the front of her blouse and started unbuttoning.

Great idea. Her hands went to the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it up, putting her palms against the hot bare skin that covered his ribs.

He groaned against her ear as she explored the contours of his abs. He pushed her blouse off her shoulders and she dropped her hands only long enough to let it slide to the floor.