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Cain hovered over her like a drill sergeant as she filled in the leave without pay online forms. She’d finished her current assignment at work, but it was still scary, and she stalled before selecting the submit button.
His warm breath brushed past her ear. “Send it.”
Mika hit the button, then swiveled in her chair to look up at him.
He raised a brow. “Now, you’re all mine.”
Yes, she was. For the first time since she’d left home, her well-being was in the hands of someone else. “I must point out, there was nothing in the deal about moving into this house.” She pointed out the window. “I live there.”
“Mika.” His eyes widened with shock.
“Sorry, no addendums.”
Cain folded his thick arms across his chest and glared at her. She smiled and shrugged.
“Time to go,” he said holding his hand out to her.
They drove to the Nissan dealership after having lunch on the waterfront.
“Woo, that is pretty,” she said, worried that came out a little too much like Brandi.
The salesman smiled. “Fast. Stylish. You’d look good in it.”
“Oh, no, that’s a little over my pay class,” she said. “I’m just the dog walker. It’s his car. Maybe.”
Cain gave her a raised brow. “Let’s go for a drive.” They took the GT-R for a spin. Like a race car, it gripped the corners and handled like a dream. Of course the guy driving it was a dream, and that may have had something to do with it.
Cain rolled to the shoulder of the deserted road in Sooke. “Your turn,” he said.
“Oh, no. I don’t think so,” she said, taking a good nip from her bottom lip.
“What’s wrong? Whenever you do that you’re hiding something.”
“Am not,” she spouted.
“Uh-huh.” He got out.
She did, too. “Okay, fine. I don’t know how to drive a stick.”
He stalled at the front of the car. “Seriously?”
“Don’t look so surprised.”
“You’ll use the paddles on the steering wheel. Get in. I’ll show you.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were cruising around the corners, and she noted Cain sat relaxed beside her. “You’re awfully trusting.”
“I don’t have a heart monitor on.”
She laughed. “This car is amazing.”
“I agree. Let’s head back.”
While she wandered around the showroom, Cain spoke with the salesman. When he joined her and they walked out, she asked if he’d bought it.
“I told him I might be interested, but I’d think about it.”
****
Sunday morning she woke to the sound of banging pots and pans coming from her kitchen. She’d warned Cain this would happen, and he escaped back to the main house around five in the morning. The girls did this every year to each other. When birthdays rolled around, they celebrated them together. She walked out of the bedroom to see Kate and Sarah in the kitchen making breakfast. The heavenly smell of coffee filled the air. She watched the girls unloading presents onto the table, and leaned on the counter. “Aren’t you guys getting tired of birthday ambushes?”
“Nope,” they all said together.
She saw a small box on the counter tied with a bow. “What’s this?” she asked, picking it up and shaking it. Something shifted inside.
The girls gathered around.
“Not mine,” Dinky said, and no one else fessed up.
Strange. She undid the bow and shimmied the top from the box. The girls all backed away grinning. “Is it a paint bomb or something?” she asked, popping the top and removing the paper hiding the contents. What the heck?
A set of keys sat in the box. The squeak of the screen door caught her attention, and she looked up to see Jen holding it open.
“Think those might belong to that,” she said, pointing.
Her heart started to pound. The Nissan emblem on the keys gave her the first clue. “Oh my God,” she blurted when she stepped outside and saw the GT-R sitting next to her cottage. “I’ll be right back.”
She stormed across the lawn and banged on his door with her fist. Course she had an audience of five women behind her when Cain opened it.
“Good morning.” He nodded. “Morning, ladies.” He was trying to cover a grin, but she was not happy.
“I gave you a pie for your birthday!” She didn’t know why she was shouting.
His brows flexed. “It was a great pie.”
She thrust her arm out, the keys dangling from her fingers. “I cannot accept this. That is a hundred thousand dollar car. Are you crazy?”
He scrubbed his chin and eyed the girls. “We’ll be right back.” He pulled her inside and shut the door. “Happy birthday.”
“Don’t happy birthday me. Take them.” She swished the keys in the air.
“No.”
“This is...I don’t know... like blood money or sex money or...” He wouldn’t take them, so she dropped the keys on the counter. “I get that you’re comfortable and your family has money. That’s good. Really good.” She started to back up toward the door. “But a birthday present is a bouquet of flowers or a nice card. A gift certificate for Serious Coffee. Ya know?” Her heart twisted with his deflated expression.
Cain’s gaze dropped, and he looked at the floor nodding.
The room became very quiet.
She held her breath, her heart pounding. She’d hurt him. She didn’t want to hurt him.
He jerked his head. “I just thought...” He shrugged. “Your car is on its last legs. It’s not even safe to drive. If you get into an accident, that old Toyota will crumble.” He didn’t look at her when he said, “I owe you so much.”
“No, you don’t! You don’t owe me anything. My God, you, you paid two million dollars to allow my mother to live out her days in a safe place.” He raised his head and looked very lonely all of a sudden. “Listen,”—she placed her fingers to her temples—“I don’t want to be ungrateful. In fact, I feel terrible now. You just shouldn’t be buying that kind of extravagant gift for me.”
His jaw tightened. “Why can’t I buy a car for the woman I love? Why?”
“Because,” she drew the words out slowly. “It’s a hundred—thousand—dollar—car.” She was yelling again.
He leaned over, his eyes beginning to sizzle like steaks on the barbie. “I can afford it.” He jerked back and crossed his arms. “You know what the problem is here. I’m wrapped around your bossy little finger, but guess what? You’re keeping that car. You’re driving that fucking car, and I’m having that piece of shit Toyota towed off my property, today!”
Her tongue got stuck in her mouth with his heartfelt balling out. She turned a look across her shoulder at her piece of shit sitting beside the Nissan. “So you expect me to drive around in Miss Sexy White-hot Fat-fenders and trash Old Tess?”
His tongue jammed in the bottom of his teeth, his chest expanding. “It’s red.” Cain smacked his palm against his forehead and broke out in laughter. “Come here.”
She gave him a flutter of her eyelashes.
“Don’t you dare give me Bambi. I want my spicy little kept woman.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m going to cry when Old Tess is gone.”
“Okay, we’ll give her a decent burial in the scrap yard, because that’s where Old Tess is going. She’s served you well. Now, I want your ass wrapped in leather with a good airbag.” He kissed her, molding his thick arms around her shoulders. “Are the girls spending the day with you?”
“We usually do something,” she said, her heart still breaking speed records. “It’s a bit of a joke. Every year we try to do something silly for each other.” She shrugged. “Usually ends in a few laughs.”
A knock on the door interrupted her rambling, and she and Cain took a step apart. Dinky opened the door, and the other girls stuffed themselves in the doorway. “Breakfast is ready. Cain, you’re invited, too.”
“Thanks.” He popped a quick smile. “I’ve got a call to make.”
She let out an over-exaggerated sniff.
“Happy birthday,” he said and leaned over, giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. Then he smacked her ass when she turned to join the girls.
Breeze gave a little whine from the couch. There was a blanket on there now, and the dog watched her attentively. Mika scratched her head. “Try to talk him out of it.”
****
“Start talking,” Dinky demanded when they were back in the cottage. Dinky led her to the couch, and everyone else grabbed the floor or a piece of furniture to sit on and huddled around her.
Mika stuck her fingers in her thick hair and ruffled it. “What?” she said, scanning the faces she’d known since grade one, gaping at her.
The screen door nudged open, and Breeze padded in. She sat on her haunches, staring at Jen as if to say, “get outta my seat.” Jen squished over and Breeze jumped up, laying her head in Mika’s lap.
“Yes, things have changed. We had an amazing time in Greece.”
The girls leaned even closer.
“Don’t stop there,” Kate begged. “Please, please give us details.”
“Details,” they all chimed in, except for Jen, who smiled, but bowed her head.
“Is this going to bother you?” Mika asked, covering Jen’s hand with hers.
Her friend smiled. “I feel terrible. I didn’t realize you had feelings for him. I mean you’ve never let a guy get close to you. I was attracted to him, I...”
“I know you stayed overnight hoping he’d come back after his birthday party.”
Jen squeezed her hand. “You haven’t had a real shot at happy. You deserve this. You do. I just feel like a slut now.”
Dinky’s brows rose. “You are a slut.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
Dinky shrugged. “A nice slut.”
“Gee, thanks.” Jen crossed her legs and looked down at Breeze. “Maybe we should hang out,” she said to the dog.
Breeze woofed back at her and they all laughed.
“Sooo,” Sarah urged. “Spill. I want to hear this.”
They’d always shared their juicy details. To them, it was almost ceremonial. Baptismal, for sure.
“Time for catch-up, friend,” Dinky said. “You’ve been tight-lipped about your trip to Greece, but we know you well enough to see the dynamics have changed between you and your hotter-than-hell landlord.”
“I don’t have to explain to you guys what the problem is. You know what I’m scared of. I mean look at him. Do you honestly think a guy like that would stay with me?”
Jen growled. Actually growled. “When the fuck are you going to get a brain? A real man, a good man, will care about you no matter what happens to your skin. Does he know yet?”
“He does.”
“I don’t know Cain very well, but what’s important is that I was wrong about him. In fact,” she winced, “I may have intimated he was a shallow prick.” Before everyone started freaking out, Jen lifted her hands in the air. “I was wrong. Completely wrong. He’s a decent man.”
Mika nodded. “He’s even taken steps to fund a company looking for a cure.”
The girls all smiled. “See,” Kate said. “If he was an asshole, he wouldn’t do that, would he?”
She bit her lip. “Up until very recently, Cain had another business. One that he made most of his money from,” she hesitated. “This is in the vault, by the way.”
They all nodded, eyes wide sensing something juicy.
In the vault was their most secret conversation place. When one of the girls put it in the vault, no one dared talk about it outside of their circle.
“Cain was a very expensive and very sought-after escort for wealthy women.” She swallowed and blew out a breath. “His entire adult life has been spent making women feel good about themselves. A short-lived fantasy for a lot of money. Plenty of them, I’m sure, were quite beautiful, either naturally or surgically.” She ran her fingers through Breeze’s fur, finding comfort.
Jen groaned. “Well, that explains a lot.”
Sitting on the other side of the coffee table, Dinky shifted to her knees. “You want us to believe, and more importantly, convince you that Cain’s affection toward you isn’t real, but a well-trained facet of his profession. Seriously? Do you believe that?” Dinky looked at the concerned faces huddled in a group. “I don’t know about you guys, I’ve seen the way he looks at Mika. Cliché, yes, but even at the barbeque, he was watching you when you turned away. It was more than a fleeting look. More than curiosity. I think he loves you.”
“So he says.”
That’s when the room exploded with what she was used to from her friends, all of them talking at the same time.
Jen shushed them all. “Mika, you have to ask yourself an important question here. Is he really the type of man to give you a pity fuck? What is it he wants from you? Do you have anything to offer him? Money? Prestige? If not, then you have to see the truth. Dinky is right, he just sees you and he wants you.” She gave her a cuff on the shoulder. “The man just bought you a fucking car for your birthday, now snap out of it, you stupid bitch.”
She blinked at her. All the heads bobbed.
Sarah grinned and chewed on her fingernail. “So, um, if he was an escort,”—she scratched her chin—“that would mean he’s probably awesome in bed.”
Mika coughed. “Well, it’s not like I have much to compare to, but yeah, he’s...”
The squealing and ribbing started before she could even finish.
“Oh my God, jackpot!” Sarah yelled. “He is sooo hot, Mika. Never, ever let him go. I’m happily married, but shit, girl, I’m gonna admit I was alone while Sam was outta town, and my vibrator and dirty dreams stole your boyfriend.”
Everyone’s mouth dropped open, and they all screamed again, then keeled over laughing.
When they calmed down, she said, “He made me make a promise to him last night.”
“What?” Jen asked.
Five sets of unblinking eyes, wide and waiting. “He made me promise that I would love him and he would love me as if the P will never come back. He wants me to move into that big, ugly house with him.”
Jen smacked her again. “Big, ugly house? What the hell is the matter with you?”
“I love this cottage, but that’s not all, and this is what scares me.” The laughter was gone, all ears perked. “Today, I sent in my leave without pay request. Cain doesn’t want me to stress about anything. I did it, but I know in here,”—she palmed her chest— “when the P comes back, he’s going to break my heart into little pieces. How am I going to recover from that?”
The girls sat quietly for almost a whole minute.
“Nope,” Dinky stated firmly. “No, I don’t think he will. Guys like him, and I don’t think there are many, when they decide on a girl, they’re sure, and nothing can break that except us.” Dinky blew her a kiss. “You would have to walk away from Cain, not the other way around. And I think you’d break his heart.”
Sarah gathered the glasses from the counter, filling each with orange juice and champagne. “This is a special birthday. Your thirtieth, Mika. You’re in remission. You have a man that many women would like to scratch your eyes out with jealousy over—except us.” She paused and shot a look at Jen.
“He’s poison to me now,” Jen said, lifting her glass. “To Mika, our friend, the girl who taught us how to be brave no matter what life challenges us with.”
They brought their glasses together. “Thanks, ladies.”
Within twenty minutes, Cain knocked on the screen, and Jen jumped up to let him in. “Hey, buddy, come on in.”
He slid past her with a crease of suspicion on his brow. “Safe to come in?” he asked, looking around the room.
Cain looked somewhat delicious in faded jeans, a pair of boots, white shirt, and his black leather jacket. Maybe she should kick the girls out and spend her birthday in bed.
The girls clucked over him, removed his jacket, sat him down, gave him coffee, gave him orange juice, and put a heaping plate of good food in front of him. The whole time he kept darting looks around. “Am I being sacrificed after breakfast? Tossed in a big volcano, maybe?”
The girls all laughed, but that’s because all of them were half-way pissed on Mimosas.
“Definitely not,” Dinky said. “We’re just showing our appreciation.”
Cain’s brows disappeared under his bangs. “For?”
Jen rolled her big blues and placed a hand on her sultry hip. “For falling in love with our special girl, silly.” She paused. “And I’m sorry for thinking you were a shallow jerk.”
He stretched his neck and said, “You weren’t wrong, just...people change.”
Sarah slipped into the chair beside him. “We knew one day, someone would finally corral Mika, but he’d have to be someone amazing.” She poked him in the shoulder. “That’s you.”
He nodded, a grin forming on his lips.
Mika heard a chorus of sighs when her handsome guy morphed into Mr. Holy-shit-on-a-stick-he’s-hot. Jen wasn’t the only slut in the room.
“Good. So the secrets out.” He rose and yanked her into his arms. “That means I have allies.” And he powered a kiss on her that sent her heart reeling. Whistles and catcalls filled her little cottage.
The sound of a truck backing up broke their kiss. “What’s that? Buy me an RV, too?”
He laughed. “Nope, but you better hurry and say your good-byes.”
“Oh, no,” she screeched and ran for the door, the girls following.
They watched as the tow truck driver hooked up Tess. The girls saluted, then swept away imaginary tears.
Jen swaggered up to Old Tess and emptied a bottle of champagne on her hood. “You served us well, old girl,” Jen sung out.
The tow truck driver was laughing by the time he was ready to pull Old Tess away. All her things had been emptied from the car and piled on the porch. Cain had been busy.
“How long did you have her?” he asked, as the whine of the winch pulled Tess’s nose in the air.
“Dad gave her to me when I graduated. Twelve years. She’s seen it all.”
Dinky wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and the other girls huddled around. As the wrecker pulled Tess down the driveway, they all waved and blew kisses.
Jen circled Miss Sexy White-hot Fat-fenders. “I want to borrow your car,” Jen said, leaning against the hood and posing. Two phones appeared in her friend’s hands and snapped pictures.
“Not a fucking chance,” Mika said. She’d had a few too many Mimosas herself. “You want my man. You want my car. Get your own, you fucking slut.”
The girls bent over cackling when Jen gave her the finger.
“Holy shit,” Cain muttered. “Women.”
“Aw, she knows we don’t mean it...much,” Mika said, looking up at him.
Cain hooked his fingers in his jacket pockets and jerked his head. “So, what’s the plan, ladies?”
“Male strippers,” they shouted.
“No way. No.” He cut a swathe through the air with his hand. “No. What the hell do you need that for? How about a fantastic lunch? You pick the place. I’ll foot the bill. No strippers.”
The girls stood there, only their eyeballs moved. Kate, who was one helluva marketing saleswoman could strike a killer deal. “Well,” she purred. “We really had our hearts set on taking Mika downtown to see some raunchy moves.”
Cain’s hand slid across his chin. “What’s so hot about what you can’t have?”
Kate stepped away from the group, and they all smiled. “Oh-oh,” someone muttered. “Showdown.”
Kate walked in a crooked line as if she were toying with Cain, but knew the outcome was inevitable.
“Well, it is Mika’s birthday so she should be the one to...have, as you say. Maybe the stripper should be someone more familiar.”
Cain’s eyes rounded. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “No way.”
“Aw, but Cain. You see, we six are very close. We share everything.”
Cain’s eyes slammed shut, and his head fell back. “You told them.”
Mika pinched a cheesy smile. “It’s in the vault.”
His brow rippled. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Means,” Kate said, “that no one shares what’s in the vault on threat of exile and pain. Now, I’m guessing as a professional, you’ve danced once or twice before.”
Cain’s eyes strayed off toward the ocean, but he said nothing.
“Silence is an answer to the affirmative.” Kate circled him. “If you don’t want us to take Mika to a sleazy dive with hot guys and gallons of alcoholic beverages, you’ll have to come up with something else.”
Cain scratched his jaw. Mika was nearly pissing her pants. Was he actually considering this?
“We can promise you total and absolute discretion.” Kate grinned, taking another turn around Cain.
“You women are absolutely lethal. Your husbands would fucking hang me from a tree.”
Sarah jumped to her toes. “They’ll never know. Ever, ever, ever.”
Cain’s gaze came to rest on Mika. She couldn’t hold it in and doubled over laughing. The look he gave her just made her laugh harder.
“I must love you to fucking pieces,” he growled.
The girls nearly went ape-shit, screaming and jumping up and down.
“Rules,” he said harshly.
The girls froze and looked like sweet little angels.
“No touching. No full Monty, and if any of you tell your husbands about this, I’m taking Mika and we’re moving out of the country. Got it?”
The squealing started again.
He shook his head in disgust. “Fifteen minutes. My place.” He turned, and every set of eyes watched his tight ass walk away.
“Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God. Oh. My. God,” Dinky gushed, gripping Kate by the shoulders. “Next time I want to sell sand to India, I’m calling you.”
Kate blew on her fingertips. “I drive a hard bargain, girls, and I never lose.”
Mika just shook her head, laughing. She knew it was in good fun, and truth be told, if she wanted her girlfriends to be green with envy, this was one surefire way to do it.
“Ladies,” she called, and they gathered in a circle. “I have one request, since it’s my boyfriend and my birthday. The second he’s done, you girls are going home.” She paused. “And then you can come back in two hours and pick me up for lunch.”
Five sets of lower lips pouted, but then grew into wicked smiles.
“It’s worth it,” Sarah said. “Let’s go.”
Not much had changed since they were six years old. Life had steered each of them down a road with a few bumps and bruises, but they always had each other. Mika watched them head toward the house, a gaggling mass of giddy women. Crazy, beautiful friends. If the end of the world ever came, they’d be together to toast the finale. She ran to catch up.
Cain had them screaming their heads off, and all she could do was laugh. The man was a rock star, and he was her rock star. When Jen tried to break one of his rules, he swatted her fingers. He ended the dance by planting a big kiss on each of them and shooing them out the door.
Mika covered her blushing cheeks and shook her head at him. He grabbed her by the thighs and perched her snug against his hips.
“Now for the grand finale,” he said, carrying her up the stairs. Stopping halfway, he set her on her feet and peeled her clothes off, leaving a trail of slow, sensual kisses across her body. He sat her down, and with both hands, parted her legs, and had her moaning his name within seconds. Only her palms and heels touched the stairs, her body arched, his mouth and tongue heaven.
Draped over Cain’s arm, she bowed backward. He plunged inside her core, rocking her into ecstasy. Stars flickered behind her closed eyes. The delicious width of his hardness impaled her and they came apart at the same time.
After they’d cleaned up in the bathroom, he lay down on the bed and rolled her on top of him. “Happy birthday, beautiful.”
She grinned sensing a trap. “I owe you big time now, don’t I?”
He grinned. “Yes, you do, and it’s going to be an addendum to our agreement.”
“No way. I love my cottage.”
His fingertips brushed lines up and down her back. “I want you to love this home, and I want you here with me. There’s a number downstairs on the counter. It’s an interior decorator. Call her, and because I love you so much, you don’t have to move in here until the reno is finished.”
He kissed each breast. Creating his own diversion, his eyes closed, teasing her nipples with his tongue.
“Why do you love me?” she asked, kinda surprised she’d voice what she’d wondered many times.
His blue eyes opened to gaze into hers. “Because it’s an undeniable truth. An absolute awareness that no woman could make me happier than you. After the life I led, I want to protect that and you.”
Mika’s heart oozed to somewhere south of her belly. Lifting her hips, she rocked forward, easing Cain’s thick cock into her core.
His groan traveled through her breast and into her spine. He rolled them over, stroking her with a sensual rock of his pelvis. His hand palmed the back of her neck, Cain’s body rigid with muscle and sinew. The sight fired her blood and she met his every thrust.
She swooned with every kiss he’d ever given her. Possessive and giving at the same time.
“I love making you come, baby.” Lust colored his husky timbre.
Her inner muscles clenched with need around his shaft, and his hips drove her into a frenzy of lust.
“God, you feel good.” He kissed her again, his breathing coming in short gasps.
She loved this man, every ounce of him. Every wonderful, amazing cell of him.
