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.