Sienne’s office was empty.

  He hit up Hannah’s next and hit the jackpot. Three of them in the same spot, in fact. Hannah was sitting cross-legged on her desk eating out of a small Chinese food container with chopsticks. Kayla was in Hannah’s desk chair, her plate balanced on her big belly, eating with a fork because she had no chopsticks skills and never had. Sienne was eating standing up, leaning against the desk, laughing at Kayla, who’d just dropped a pot sticker on her chest.

  “Hey,” Kayla said at his entrance, pulling her shirt up to her mouth to eat the pot sticker right off the shirt.

  He shut the door harder than it needed to be. “Oh good,” he said. “A meeting of The Coven. Let’s talk.”

  The Coven froze in unison and then looked at each other, brows raised.

  “Is it that time of the month?” Sienne asked him.

  Caleb blew out a breath. “You know I had all the males in this entire company go to sensitivity training. Maybe I need to send all the females as well. And no, it’s not that time of the month. It’s the I-need-to-fire-all-of-you time of the month.”

  “Wow,” Hannah said, taking another bite. “It’s like he wants to die.”

  But Caleb wasn’t playing. “Sit down,” he said to Sienne.

  “I like to stand.”

  “Do you like to be unemployed?” he asked.

  Sienne chewed her bite and swallowed, taking her sweet-ass time about it too, but she did finally sit. “What the hell crawled up your—?”

  “Which one of you approved the background search on Sadie after I told you not to?”

  They all gave each other a careful look again, their faces now blank in the Parker family way when they were closing ranks.

  “Someone needs to start talking,” he said and met Sienne’s gaze. “I pay you the most, so you first.”

  “You pay her more than me?” Hannah asked.

  Sienne set down her Chinese food container and wiped her hands on a napkin before meeting his gaze. “I approved it.”

  “After I explicitly asked you not to do it,” Caleb said, wanting to make sure he was hearing her correctly.

  “You were—are—acting off,” she said. “You’re doing things you’ve never done before, like leaving work early.”

  “Not early,” he said. “I’m just putting in normal hours instead of the usual insane overtime—something you’ve been after me forever to do, by the way.”

  “You’re leaving meetings to take personal phone calls. And texting all the time. And you’re so secretive about it, about her.”

  “Because it’s private,” he said.

  “It?”

  “Yes, and it’s between me and her and not all of you. It’s not about work, so leave it alone.”

  “But we’re not just your work people,” Hannah said. “We’re your family. We’ve been doing this for how many years? Why are you upset now? What’s so different this time? What is she to you?”

  He was only just starting to understand the answer to that question, so he certainly wasn’t about to discuss it with his nosy-ass sisters. “What does that matter?”

  “It matters,” Sienne said. “You know we had to check, maybe now more than ever since you’re acting so weird.”

  “Sienne,” Hannah said and gave a single head shake. She looked at Caleb. “There’s more,” she said quietly. “We . . . found something.”

  He cut his eyes to her.

  “I know you’re pissed off,” she said. “But—”

  “Actually, I’m furious. Looking into her, maybe I could see. If I’m being honest, we’ve had reasons to do that in the past.” This was a grudging admission. “But to have Kayla follow her around after I asked you not to?”

  “You’ve never complained before,” Hannah said. “What did you expect?”

  “I expect you to let me live my life and let me make my choices,” he said. “You went too far. I should fire all your asses.”

  Kayla’s eyes welled up with tears and he blew out a breath. “Don’t cry.” He pulled her into him and pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “You’ve made a lot of sacrifices for me, I get that. And I appreciate all you’ve done, more than I can ever say. And yes, you’re in charge of my professional life. But this is my personal life, so I really need you to hear me on this. I love you, but you all need to butt the hell out.” He gave them each a long look and turned to the door.

  “I’m still going to send you the file,” Sienne said.

  “Don’t,” he said.

  “Okay, let me reword,” Sienne said. “I already sent it to you. You should read it.”

  He shut the door on them and drew in a deep breath, mind spinning. To the shock of his staff, he left the building. He was headed back to Cow Hollow, though he made a quick stop on the way.

  He parked and checked his phone. Sienne had indeed sent him a file this morning with the subject line:

  Mercedes Lane, please read.

  He didn’t. Instead, he entered the Canvas Shop. Both Rocco and Mini Moe were at the front desk, elbow-to-elbow, taking up half the shop with their size, talking about the radish and grape salads they were eating.

  “Hey,” Mini Moe said defensively, jabbing his fork in Caleb’s direction. “It’s gluten-free.”

  “Not judging,” Caleb said.

  “Are you sure? Because even I’m judging us just a little bit.”

  Caleb refrained from laughing, knowing it was best for his physical well-being. He looked at Rocco, who hadn’t said a word or uttered a greeting. “Is Sadie here?”

  “Why?”

  “I’d like to talk to her.”

  “Why?” Rocco asked, shoveling in another bite of his salad and crunching aggressively.

  Caleb blew out a breath. “She told you.”

  “She told me things were fucked up.”

  “Yeah,” Caleb said. “And I’m here to apologize.”

  Rocco and Mini Moe looked at each other in surprise.

  “What?” Caleb asked. “What’s so weird about that?”

  “Nothing,” Rocco said. “Except I don’t think a guy she’s been into has ever cared enough to apologize for anything.”

  He’d guessed as much, but hearing it made Caleb feel like an even bigger dick. “Does that mean you’ll tell me where she is?”

  “Apparently, he’ll tell you anything you want,” Sadie said darkly from behind him and he turned to find her standing in the opened doorway to the back rooms.

  “And,” she said to Rocco, “you know what else is gluten-free? Shutting up.” She turned to Caleb, cool and remote.

  “Hey,” he said quietly.

  Sadie didn’t acknowledge this. She simply glared at Rocco and Mini Moe.

  Rocco offered his fork with a grape on it.

  She shook her head. “I don’t consume wine in pill form.”

  Rocco shrugged and went back to eating.

  Caleb handed her the travel tumbler he’d stopped for, filled with her favorite coffee.

  She eyed the container and the words on it:

  I like my coffee black like my soul.

  She gave a reluctant smile.

  “Can we talk?” he asked and felt a déjà vu since only an hour ago she’d told him they needed to talk. That hadn’t gone so well. He was hoping this went better.

  But she hesitated. He actually thought she was going to turn him down flat, but she finally nodded and jerked her chin toward her workstation. She yanked the curtain around her area and pulled herself up to sit on the counter. Her body language said Closed Off as she sipped the coffee he’d brought her, watching him from eyes that weren’t giving much away.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “You were right about what was happening, but I want you to know I didn’t ask for you to be vetted. I wouldn’t have done that without telling you first. My sisters are going to cease and desist and leave you the hell alone. If you want to be done with this, with me, I’ll understand, but I hope that you’ll give me another chance.”

  She stared at him for a long beat and he stared back, wishing he could get a bead on what she was thinking.

  “Did you get filled in on whatever they dug up about me?” she finally asked.

  “No.” This was the utter truth and it would remain so. He had zero intention of reading the file sitting in his unopened e-mail.

  She processed this for a long moment and then nodded again.

  “Go out with me,” he said.

  She gave him a long look. “We already had a date.”

  “So let’s check date number two off the list.”

  She sipped some more coffee, not nearly as composed as she wanted to be because he could see her hands shaking. “My list doesn’t have a date number two on it,” she said.

  “What does your list have on it?”

  “A lot of things.” She ticked the points off her fingers. “One, men suck. Two, dump any men in my life. Three, men suck. The rest of the list isn’t important right now.” She set down the mug and slid off the counter.

  He caught her by the hand when she went to walk away. “Are we done then, Sadie? Is that what you’re saying?”

  She stared into his eyes and said nothing.

  His heart did a belly flop, but he nodded. He’d told her he would understand, and he stood by his word. Regardless of the way his heart threw itself against his ribcage, he let go of her hand and turned and walked out.

  Chapter 22

  #UnderHerSkin

  Watching Caleb walk away, Sadie stood stock-still for several seconds in rare indecision. He’d told her he could be emotionally detached, and she’d believed him.

  But she would bet the bank that she was better at it than he was. Except . . . normally when she detached and made a decision on someone, she never looked back. Sometimes it was an emotional cut, such as with the previous men she’d let in. They’d had to go for her mental health. Same with her family. She still saw them, she participated as a family member, but after all that had happened during her rough teenage years, she’d cut off their ability to hurt her.

  The problem was, emotionally detaching in one area of her life had slowly bled into other areas as well, until she’d been emotionally detached from just about everything.

  Until Caleb.

  He’d come along and pulled her into his vortex, stripping her emotionally naked far before he’d ever gotten her clothes off. The truth was, she didn’t want to be emotionally detached from him. But here was the thing, she wasn’t sure how to be anything other than who she was. And deep down inside, she wasn’t sure that who she was would be, could be, enough.

  Still, she was a scrappy sort of survivor and knew how to change up a situation to her favor when she needed to. And this was most definitely a situation she wanted to change up. She’d overreacted, and worse, she’d let him walk away thinking she didn’t want him. So she grabbed Lollipop’s backpack, urged the dog into it, and then shouldered the pack. Then she ran out of the shop past a startled Rocco, Mini Moe, and Blue.

  Rocco raised a hand with his fork in it as a salute, and Sadie ran on.

  “Arf!” Lollipop said excitedly.

  Sadie’s phone buzzed, and hoping it was Caleb, she answered without looking at the screen while on the run. “I’m trying to catch you.”

  “What are you talking about?” her mom asked.

  Crap. “Nothing, forget it. I’ve gotta go, I’ll call you back—”

  “You always say that, but you don’t call me back. I need your confirmation that you’re coming to dinner next week. It’s the practice rehearsal family dinner. You know, where we practice being a warm loving family before we have to actually do it.”

  Damn. That was in only a week?

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten,” her mom said. “You know how important this practice is. We have to get in sync.”

  Good luck with that one. “Of course I didn’t forget.”

  “Good. Who’s your date?”

  “Um . . .”

  “You promised you’d have a date for the wedding.”

  “Yes,” Sadie said. “But this isn’t the wedding. It’s not even the real rehearsal dinner. Like you said, it’s just the practice.”

  “Which we’re doing for you.”

  Sadie had to laugh. Of course they were. “Because heaven forbid I just act as myself, right?”

  “Honey, I’m not in the mood for your sass. Just say you’ll be here.”

  She stood up on one of the wrought-iron benches in the courtyard to see the entire length of it, searching for a sign of Caleb. “I’ll be there.”

  “With a date.”

  “Fine, with a date,” Sadie said.

  “What’s his name? What does he do?”

  She managed not to smack her forehead with her own phone. Not was he nice, or does he treat you right, but what does he do . . . She was worried Sadie was going to bring someone inappropriate to the wedding and needed to get an early look at her choice. “He’s a genius billionaire and he wears expensive suits,” she said without thinking.

  “Well, there’s no reason to be sarcastic.”

  “Mom.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ve got to go.”

  “You think I’m a bad mom.”

  Sadie craned her neck one way and then the other, searching for the tall, built guy walking out of her life.

  “Wow,” her mom said into Sadie’s silence. “You really do think that.”

  “Mom—”

  “You’ve got to go, remember?” And she disconnected.

  Sadie might’ve called her back, but she caught sight of Caleb at the other end of the courtyard. She took off at a fast clip, to the huge joy of Lollipop on her back. By the time she got to Caleb, she was breathless from the mad dash.

  Okay, that wasn’t the truth. She was breathless because she’d nearly not caught him. The man was smoke when he wanted to be. But she managed to get in front of his long-legged stride and face him.

  But then she realized she had no idea what she wanted to do or say. Luckily Lollipop had her own agenda.

  “Arf!” the dog said at the sight of her favorite male.

  Sadie wasn’t going to wag her tail or give herself away in any such fashion, but she knew one thing—she wanted to believe in him. In them. “Mount Diablo,” she said, still fighting for air.

  Caleb reached a hand toward her face and her heart squeezed because it was going to be okay, he was going to touch her.

  But he stroked a hand over Lollipop’s head instead, although his eyes remained on Sadie. “Mount Diablo?” he asked quietly, not giving away a single hint of what he might be feeling.

  Fair enough. “You asked what was on my list,” she said. “Dating’s not, because clearly I suck at it. But Mount Diablo is because I’ve lived in San Francisco my entire life and I’ve never been.”

  He hesitated only very slightly. “Have you ever called in sick?”

  “Yes, but never when I’ve actually been sick,” she admitted.

  A small smile curved his mouth.

  An hour later, he’d driven them to the trailhead of Mount Diablo. They sat on top of the rock city, surrounded by a spread of cavernous caves and sandstone rock formations that took Sadie’s breath away.

  So did the man who’d brought her here. He had Lollipop’s pack now, having relieved Sadie of the weight. Lollipop had walked a bit of the trail, but it turned out she much preferred riding on Caleb’s shoulders.

  Caleb had been up here before, of course. He’d been everywhere and done everything, and though Sadie liked to consider herself worldly and cynical, she had nothing on him.

  He turned and studied her. “I feel like I smell something burning.”

  “I’m not sure what you see in me,” she said and worked at not grimacing at the pathetic statement. But she really didn’t know, and apparently she needed to.

  He was clearly surprised by this.

  “You know what? Never mind,” she said quickly, turning away and pretending to study the view.

  She heard him release Lollipop to run around to her heart’s content and then pulled Sadie onto his lap. His arms closed around her and he kissed her shoulder, then the nape of her neck, blazing a trail to her ear.

  She shivered. A full body shiver of the very best kind.

  “I’ve been fascinated by you since the beginning,” he murmured.

  “Not true,” she said. “We ran into each other plenty over the past year and you never seemed fascinated.”

  “You didn’t notice because you were too busy doing your best not to be fascinated by me as well.”

  The sheer male ego in this statement made her laugh, but it backed up in her throat when his teeth grazed her earlobe. Then his hands slid beneath the material of her shirt and settled on her waist. “You’re deflecting,” she said.

  “Yes, and I’m very good at it. The truth is, Sadie, you scared the hell out of me.”

  She stared at him. “How is that even possible?”

  “Whenever I get in close proximity to you, I feel something.”

  She wriggled in his lap, her ass to his crotch, and felt something alright. “Yeah,” she said on a low laugh. “It’s called lust.”

  “There’s some of that,” he agreed, “but it’s more. Before Lollipop, there was always something in your eyes that made me feel . . .” He drew in a deep breath. “Exposed. Vulnerable. And I don’t typically do vulnerable. That didn’t change once we got to know each other, by the way. But my curiosity and need for you overtook my fears.” He smiled, though his eyes were serious. “But if the question is really when did I start to fall for you, then it was the night we rescued Lollipop. When you stood in the freezing rain with me, your clothes molded to your body, your eyes flashing. I couldn’t see straight I was so turned on.” He smiled in memory. “And then you proceeded to argue with me. Over everything.” His laugh was low and rough. “I wanted to push you up against the wall and kiss you until you wanted me even half as bad as I wanted you, until you melted for me.”

  “And then?” she heard herself whisper.