“Cain?” she prompted, refusing to be distracted by him, refusing to let him lose business because he was distracted by her.
He huffed, glaring at her in surrender. “No, but I can place a special order. Take a message. I’ll call them back.”
“Why don’t I take your name and number and have Cain call you back?”
She tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear and jotted down a quick message, overwhelmingly aware of Cain’s eyes boring into her back and loving how much she affected him.
“Thank you. Yes. Later today. Good-bye.”
She turned around to find Cain still standing where she’d left him, a troubled expression on his face. He was unsatisfied, and he was running low on patience. And hell, if she was honest, so was she.
“Soon, Cain,” she said, understanding him just as well as she always had. “I promise.”
He exhaled, stepped toward her, taking the bra out of her hands. “Hold out your arms.”
He threaded her arms through the loops and pulled them up to her shoulders, then dipped his head and kissed each swollen nipple gently before fastening her bra in the back. He took her balled-up sweater from her hands and shook it out, placing it carefully over her head and holding the arms out for her.
“Never had to wait . . .,” he said softly, almost more to himself than to her as he helped her get dressed.
A tiny part of her bristled, and she almost said, Well, sorry I’m not one of your high school sluts, ready and willin’ on a moment’s notice.
He watched her eyes flare, and she watched the sexiest mouth in the world turn up in a slow grin as his arms wound around her waist.
“Don’t get your back up, princess. I didn’t finish.”
“So finish,” she said pertly, smoothing her shirt and giving him a pissy look.
He pulled her closer so that her breasts were crushed against his chest, and the long length of his erect cock pressed against the valley of her sex. But despite their shared arousal, his stormy eyes were focused and intense, holding hers captive with the sort of longing that made her heart thunder with love for him.
“I never had to wait,” he said softly, “until you. And for you, darlin’, I’d wait until I ran out of days. And when I ran out of days, I’d wait for you in heaven. And when you got there, through every eternity, I’d wait for you and your lion’s heart to give me another chance, to choose me again.”
“Cain . . .”
“I love you,” he said in a gravelly whisper, furrowing his brow like it hurt a little to say the words. “I’ve loved you for so long, I don’t know how to stop. I don’t want anyone else, princess. Not ever. When you’re ready, I’m ready. And until then . . . I’ll wait.”
Her breath caught.
Her heart clutched.
I’ve loved you for so long, I don’t know how to stop.
She’d waited for words like these for most of her life, and now—suddenly here and now—they’d arrived.
Before she could answer, he leaned down and kissed her lips, gently, tenderly, slowly, and then he dropped his arms, stepped around her, and left the office.
She looked over her shoulder to find him gone, then moved slowly, in a semidaze, to the desk chair. Plopping down, she leaned back as tears filled her eyes and a laugh born of unexpected happiness started deep in her belly and rumbled up through her throat, to her lips, filling the room with a sound of disbelief and joy.
He loved her.
Cain Holden Wolfram, whom she’d loved every day of her life since she was eleven years old, finally loved her back.
“He loves me,” she whispered. She giggled, stomping her feet on the carpet under the desk, and then said it louder, “He loves me!”
“Yes, he does!” he barked from the showroom. “Now do some damn work, or I’m comin’ in there, and this time we’re not unlockin’ the door until tomorrow mornin’!”
Her face flamed red, but she grinned, whispering, “Yep. He loves me” one more time for good measure and just to hear the words aloud.
Her body still quaked and trembled deep, deep inside, where he’d set off a chain reaction after owning her with his fingers and his tongue, where he’d loved her until she’d screamed his name. And a dreamy smile was plastered on her face for the remainder of the day. Well, for most of the day.
It was the third week since Wolfram’s Motorcycles had opened, and clearly the word was out that a superhot young motorcycle mechanic was in town because every local female with a car, and several with bicycles and scooters, had stopped in with a “problem.” At present, she had four women waiting to see her boss.
Flirtatiously: “Can Cain take a look at my gears?”
Conspiratorially: “Is Mr. Wolfram as hot as they say?”
Insecurely: “So is he single, or does he have a girlfriend?”
Queen Bee: “I heard Mr. Wolfram is here today. Tell him I need to see him. Now.”
That last one made Ginger roll her eyes, but she’d asked the strawberry-blonde bombshell in the ridiculously short miniskirt to take a seat as she went looking for Cain, and found him in the supply room behind the showroom, looking for a ball bearing.