Semi-Sweet On You (Hot Cakes #4) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,47
was changing. Eventually Whitney would be alone. And there was nothing she could do about it. She felt like there was a sharp, hot poker jabbing her just below her ribs when she thought about that.
She needed her work. She needed to secure her place at Hot Cakes. She needed to be vital there. That was all she had and she needed to be a part of something. Her family was gone, the family business was gone, her grandmother would be gone. Hot Cakes was the one place she could belong.
Of course, even Hot Cakes had changed on her, but she was still there and she had a better chance now at being truly essential to the business. It was the only thing she could control. She could control her work and her performance. Everything else involved other people, and, as she knew too well, other people were out of her control completely.
“Even if that is what she thinks,” Cam said about Didi’s poor perception of time. “It makes her happy. Really happy. She wants us to be together. She wants to know that someone is loving you and taking care of you.”
His words made Whitney’s stomach swoop and then dive. She felt the air between them heat. This was different than how he’d talked to her in her office last night but it affected her similarly. Being loved and taken care of by Cam was absolutely as tempting as being seduced by him. Honestly, with Cam, all of that had always gone together.
“So you’re going to lie to her?” Whitney asked.
That was so stupid. She wanted to hear him say it wasn’t a lie. She wanted to hear him say that he did love her and wanted to take care of her. But what if he said that? That would make all of this so much harder. She had to resist. Hot Cakes was her focus. She couldn’t do anything to jeopardize her position there.
“It’s a month,” he said after a long pause. “Right? A month until she can move into her new apartment.”
Well, he certainly hadn’t said, “Let me be your knight in shining armor.”
And she was glad he hadn’t said that. That would have been ridiculous. He couldn’t love her. He didn’t really know her anymore.
Which was the point he was trying to make when he said they needed to date and figure things out.
Whitney pressed her lips together, telling herself to stop being ridiculous. She finally nodded. “Right. A month.”
“A month should be enough time to figure out what we are.”
“What we are?” she repeated.
“Coworkers, friends, or…”
Whitney felt that she was holding her breath waiting for him to fill in that last word.
“Or?” she prompted when he just stood watching her.
“Everything,” he said.
Her breath caught again. They were going to find out if they were coworkers, friends, or everything.
“I feel like I’m not getting much say in this,” she managed, noting that her voice sounded scratchy.
She knew that Cam heard it too when he stepped forward one more time. Now they were only inches apart. Close enough to reach out and touch. Close enough that if they didn’t touch, it would be very obvious they were making that choice.
“You can say no to anything I suggest,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t make the suggestions.”
She wet her lips. “Suggestions like?”
“Like that we should sit on the front porch with a couple of beers and talk. Like that we should sit on the couch and watch old movies. Like that we should go for a midnight swim in the pool out back.”
Those all sounded relatively safe. And tempting as hell. Which made them not safe.
“And like we should make chocolate chip cookie dough,” he went on.
Okay she could maybe do this. Chocolate chip cookie dough and playing in the pool. Maybe they could end up being friends. That was a nice, safe compromise between coworkers and… she swallowed hard… everything.
“And you should let me lick it off your nipples.”
9
Whitney sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes flew to his as he turned the sweet, date-like ideas into sexy and oh-my-God-yes in a blink.
Her nipples definitely liked the idea. They tingled as if he was already covering them with cookie dough and tightened in anticipation of the licking.
He reached up and cupped her face. “Let me stay.”
She had to clear her throat before she could answer. She also noted that she didn’t pull back away from his touch. She probably should. In a second.