Semi-Sweet On You (Hot Cakes #4) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,6
said that. She’d been a virgin. She’d been on two dates and she hadn’t really thought they were worth repeating. She had nothing to back up her comment, but something about Cam’s cockiness had brought her own out.
His cockiness had been all the more impressive because he’d been a McCaffery saying those things to a Lancaster. Their families would have flipped out to know that they were talking about even going to the movies not to mention flirting about sex.
Of course, that little thrill had made her even more willing to say yes.
They’d snuck around, had a lot of teenage sex, a lot of laughs, and fallen in love over the next year.
The best year of her life.
Still.
“So I probably also shouldn’t say that I think of sex when I see you in a lot of things,” he said, moving closer again.
Her heart tripped.
“You definitely shouldn’t.”
“Which means you probably won’t tell me that you think about sex when you see me either.”
Dammit. She shook her head. “No, I won’t tell you that.”
“Out loud anyway,” he said.
“What?”
“You won’t tell me that out loud.”
“What’s that mean?” But she was pretty sure she knew.
“It means that you tell me that in lots of ways, Whit,” he said, his voice gruff. “Even if you don’t say it out loud.”
She took a deep breath. She had to be cool here. He could be bluffing. He could be trying to get a reaction. He could just be trying to get her to admit something he didn’t know for sure. She might not actually be giving away how she felt every time she saw him.
“Some things never change,” she said, lifting her chin, fighting for the detached air she wore like she wore her favorite perfume. Why was it so hard to find when Cam was around? “You’re still completely full of yourself.”
He actually gave a soft laugh. “Well, yeah.”
That was another really appealing thing about this guy—he knew himself and he owned his flaws. Oh, he owned his accomplishments and talents too, but he owned his flaws.
She just wasn’t sure he thought being full of himself was a flaw.
“You really like that dress?” he asked, his gaze tracking over her again.
She nodded. “I do. I think it’s time I try a few new things.”
She didn’t like this dress. Well, she liked the dress. But she wasn’t going to wear it. She wasn’t… ready for a dress like this. She wanted to be. She wanted to feel confident and free of worrying about her image and prepared to just go with what felt good, but she’d spent twenty-nine years having to worry about what other people thought and how she presented herself and trying to prove herself. It was going to take some time to get to the point where this dress was a good fit. Metaphorically.
“Then I know exactly where you can wear it,” Cam said.
“Oh?”
“Timothy’s.”
Timothy’s was an expensive restaurant in Dubuque. White tablecloths, multiple forks, all of that. “Yeah, I guess this would work at Timothy’s,” she agreed.
“So let’s go tomorrow night.”
She froze. Slowly she lifted her eyes to his. “Us?”
“You and me.”
“Just us?”
“Yes.”
“Like a…business dinner? We’ll talk about plans for—”
“No. Dinner, wine, dessert, me feeling you up under the table, walking downtown and talking, late drinks, then sex all night in a suite at the Hilton.”
Whitney just stared at him. Her heart was thundering so loud that she almost couldn’t hear anything else. This was the thing with Cam’s straightforwardness—it was really hard to pretend that you misunderstood.
Okay, so her cool façade was going to waver a bit. So sue her.
“Not even a pretense of something else?” she finally asked.
“When have I ever been a pretense guy?”
He had a point. “So you actually want…” She trailed off and pressed her lips together, not sure she wanted him to fill that in.
He moved closer again. The air between them heated. At least she was feeling hotter.
“To look at you in that fucking dress all night long,” he said. “Getting harder and hotter as the time goes on until we can’t stand it any longer and I almost rip it off of you in the elevator on the way up to the room.”
Well. Holy. Shit.
She’d asked.
And she’d wanted an answer like that.
But that answer was really the worst thing he could have possibly said.
How was she supposed to be completely professional and pretend she was over him when he said stuff like that?