Ruining Mr. Perfect (The McCauley Brothers) Read online

  “You’re crowding me.”

  He smiled, a slow curl of his lips that made her entire world right. “Honey, I’m going to be crowding you for the rest of your life. I love you. Present tense. Just like you love me. You’re just too scared to admit it.”

  “I’m not scared, I’m…” A flash of his past words struck her, deeply. Would you rather be right, or would you rather have me in your life?

  For the first time, she understood what he’d really been asking. More than winning an argument. It wasn’t about right and wrong, but about living with mistakes and learning from them. Being the better person and understanding that he’d often be wrong. And she’d forgive him. But more, that she’d make mistakes too. He’d love her enough to ignore them, to take her as she was. Dysfunctional, super smart, pretty, and pregnant.

  “I’d rather have you in my life than be right, Cameron.”

  He kissed her, and the touch of him went straight to her head. “I’m sorry I got so angry. You took me by surprise. Maybe I do get oversensitive sometimes. But, Vanessa, I love you like crazy. I have for a while now. I just… I don’t want you to stay with me because of the baby. I’ll always support you, no matter what. Be there for you and the child. But I want so much more from you.”

  She cupped his cheek. “From me, and for me. That’s why you’re the only man I could ever love. You care. About me. The real me. The competitive, intelligent, highly efficient woman who doesn’t need anyone.” She swallowed hard and forced herself to bare it all. “But I need you, Cameron. I need you to love me.”

  He kissed her again, and then his hand rubbed her belly, over the spot where their child would grow. A warmth unfurled, a deepening sense of intimacy she’d only ever felt with him.

  “Vanessa.” He sighed. “I think you’re the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever met. Too bossy, too blond, too beautiful. You’re the only woman I can think of that I want to spend forever with.”

  She blinked away stupid tears. “Jesus, you’re good.”

  He laughed. “If I tell you that last line came from one of Abby’s books, will you hit me?”

  She chuckled with him. “No. Because she helped me with my speech.” She kissed him. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you when I first suspected.”

  “You were scared. I assumed too much and should have realized how hard this has been for you. But, honey, you knocked me for a loop too.”

  “I swear I’ll do my best by our baby.”

  He hugged her. “Our baby. We made a miracle, Vanessa.”

  No, he’d made a miracle. He’d seen the real her, and he loved her anyway.

  He wasn’t pressing for the words, though she wanted to give them to him anyway.

  “Cameron, I—”

  “Let’s figure out where this is going, okay? Because I’m not falling out of love anytime soon. McCauleys fall, and we fall hard. You’re it for me, Vanessa. Baby or no baby, I’m keeping you.”

  “This from the savvy McCauley? ‘I’m keeping you’?” She couldn’t contain her joy. Or her desire.

  She pulled him closer and felt his erection against her belly.

  “Damn. You got me. I want you, and I’m suckering you into my clutches with sweet words.”

  She blinked rapidly. He wiped away a tear and kissed it.

  “Oh my God. That is so sappy.”

  He laughed. “But I got you to cry. I win. Now kiss me.”

  She kissed him.

  “Tell me I’m right.”

  “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  She decided to humor him. “You’re right about everything.”

  “I am so incredibly hard right now.”

  “Cameron.” She flushed.

  “Now tell me the other thing. What you wanted to say before, but didn’t. Are you still not sure about me, Vanessa?”

  They stared at one another, blue eyes to blue eyes. Heart to heart…and all that gooey crap that Abby typically put in her love books. But man, Vanessa really felt it for this man. “I…love you, Cameron.”

  “There. Now was that so hard to say?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, still scared, but no longer unsure about being able to love.

  “Now let’s go upstairs and make a memory. So when little Vanessa Junior is born, we can tell her how you begged me to marry you and I said yes.”

  She blinked as he tugged her with him toward the stairs. “Marriage?”

  “Oh, God. Vanessa. Yes, yes, I accept,” he said with shrill enthusiasm.

  “Wait. What?”

  He was laughing hysterically by the time they got to the top of the steps. Before she could ask him to repeat himself, he drew her inside her bedroom and locked the door behind them.

  “Get undressed, baby. Right now.”

  “Baby, is it?”

  “I’m practicing for the little one. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”

  “Screw that. It’s been a week. I have needs. This kid is going to be as strong as a Campbell and a McCauley combined.”

  “Now I’m really, really hard.” He tore off his clothes while she did the same, and they came together on her bed, kissing each other senseless.

  He moved down her body and concentrated on her breasts.

  Vanessa surrendered to him. To sensation. To love.

  He continued to kiss his way down her body, until he came to her wet core. He moaned against her, his hands gripping her thighs hard enough to bruise. Not unaffected, Cameron was far from gentle as he licked and sucked her to a crushing orgasm.

  She screamed as she came, and then he was over her and in her, riding her to another unbelievable climax.

  He whispered her name as he poured into her, kissing her cheeks and neck while he trembled above her. “Vanessa, oh sweetheart.” He kissed her, sweaty and sexy and hers.

  When she could breathe again, she murmured, “We should have make-up sex more often.”

  “Hell, yeah.” He moaned when she squeezed him with her inner walls.

  “Hey. What happened? I meant to ask.” She grazed his bruised cheekbone.

  “Mike. I owe him.”

  “A fat lip?”

  “No. I already gave him one of those.” He smiled. “He gave me some tough love. About kicked my ass over here.”

  “Yeah well, your father gave me a visit as well. Got me writing my apology. Yes, I said apology. Think we should thank them for interfering?”

  They stared at each other, then said together, “No.”

  “Mike will be impossible to live with.” Cameron shook his head.

  “James already is.”

  “Not according to Mom.” He sighed. “I’m so glad they’re back together.”

  “I’m glad we’re back together.”

  “We weren’t really apart.” He paused. “Well, maybe we were. You scared me. Had me thinking you’d never be able to love me like I love you. But then I realized, with the help of Mike’s large fists, that maybe you were entitled to be a little more kooky than usual.”

  “Gee, thanks, Cameron.”

  “Well, it’s not every day you find out you’re pregnant when you’re taking birth control.” He puffed up like a peacock. “I’m potent. Don’t you forget it.”

  “You’re going to be impossible to live with, aren’t you?”

  “Marry me and find out.”

  She smiled, then sobered quickly. “What? Really?”

  “Really.” He kissed her gently. “Vanessa, I’m so in love with you it’s not funny. I want our baby. I want you. I’ll take you any way I can get you. But think about this. I have a media room. Twenty-four-seven access to a state-of-the-art fitness center. A pool. A great location. My condo kicks ass.”

  “True.” She felt her world changing again, slipping out of her control.

&n
bsp; “Think how successful we’d be if we combined our portfolios. My financial genius combined with yours? We’d be unstoppable.”

  Vanessa remained quiet, trying to process everything. “You know I’ll always support you,” Cam said. “After the baby, you’ll keep working for your company, and I’ll deal with mine. We’ve got family to help us if we need it, and we’re flush enough we can get the best child care we need. We can make this work. I know we can.”

  “I know too.” His support meant the world to her.

  He withdrew and quickly used his shirt to clean them up. “Anyway,” he said, returning to lie next to her in bed. “My point is that as long as you’re with me, I’m golden. Marriage or no marriage, Vanessa, you’re my girl.”

  She stared into his eyes, at the face of the man she loved. I really am a girl after all, she thought with amusement. “Will I have to change my name?”

  He broke into a wide smile. “No. But I’m not changing mine.” He kissed her and hugged her. “Now that we’ve made up, can I go to your office and kick Josh’s ass?”

  She tickled him until he cried uncle. “No. That boy was torn up over losing me when he never had me to begin with. He’s been sulking all over the place.”

  “You have no idea how hard it was to pretend I didn’t care about him and that fucker Small Dick.”

  She snickered. “Now whenever I see him, I think of him as that. You really have no worries on that score. Cameron, you have to know I won’t lie to you.”

  “Me neither. But omission counts.”

  “Yes, it does. I love you. I want to marry you and have this baby together. But part of me still worries that maybe you don’t get what I’m about. That you might reconsider what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “As long as I’m diving into a pool of one cool, hot blond who’s sexy when she’s mean, sign me up.”

  She smiled. “You know, we could always take our honeymoon before we get married. A trip to the Rockies would be terrific. We could run in the mountains.”

  “And maybe mountain bike?”

  She nodded, excited.

  “Well, no. The baby. No biking.” He frowned. “When do you need to see your doctor again? Because I’d like to go with you.”

  She leaned close to kiss him. “Have I told you how glad I am to be wrong?”

  “About what, exactly? You’re wrong so often, you have to be more specific.”

  She pinched him.

  “Ow.”

  “Wrong about not knowing how to love you. I am good for you.”

  “Duh. Please, Vanessa. Anything but that.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t turn into a typical blond. Only someone phenomenally stupid might think we weren’t right for each other.”

  “Don’t go there.” She narrowed her eyes, seeing his teasing glint but resolving herself against it.

  He’d made a blond dig. He had to pay.

  She exploited his vulnerability and had him pleading with her for forgiveness.

  “I mean it. I’ll invite your father, not only to give me away at our wedding, but to stay with us in the condo until I feel comfortable with his son—the same man who got me pregnant and left me.”

  “For two whole days. Jesus, would you let that go? I was emotionally wounded.”

  “Nancy.”

  “Okay, okay. No more blond jokes. Ever.”

  “Hmmph.”

  “Not even a number joke. Like why couldn’t the blond dial 911?”

  “Cameron…”

  “She couldn’t find the eleven.”

  She laughed and made him pay all over again. First with slow kisses, then a massage that centered at his groin and grew more intense as her kisses deepened. She teased him until he begged for mercy. And then she teased him some more.

  ***

  Cam spent the next afternoon floating in a sea of happiness. Vanessa had forgiven him. He’d forgiven her. And hot damn, she said she’d marry him. They planned to go ring shopping this weekend.

  “Cam, no offense. But are you on something?” Hope asked from the doorway to his office, staring at him with a frown.

  He laughed. “Hope. I have hope.” He chuckled to himself. “Vanessa and I are getting married.”

  She raced to hug him. “That’s so great! So she finally put you out of your misery, huh?”

  “In another eight months, I’ll be a dad too.”

  She gaped. “Married and a father. Boy, you McCauleys sure do grow up fast.”

  He laughed. “I’m feeling like I can do anything today.”

  As if on cue, his father walked into his office.

  “Well, I’d say somebody got lucky.” James gave Hope a kiss on the cheek, then sat across from Cam.

  Hope laughed at him as she left and closed the office door behind her.

  “Dad. Even you can’t bring me down. Vanessa and I are getting married.” Cam had planned on telling his parents this coming weekend, together with Vanessa. But he figured to cut his dad off before the old man ruined his mood.

  James laughed. “Congratulations, son. That’s terrific.”

  “Vanessa said we have you to thank.”

  “And Mike. Boy looks like crap. You did a halfway decent job on his face.”

  “I live to make you proud.” Cam snorted.

  His father didn’t laugh.

  “Dad?”

  “Cam, you always make me proud. Hell, you always have. You’re a chip off the old block, and I don’t mean your mother. It never sat right with me that we argued so much.”

  “Ah, okay.” Would wonders never cease?

  “I just thought you should know I respect you and what you do. Even if you are sometimes a Nancy,” he teased. “So we’ll see you Saturday at five. Barbecue.”

  “First one this spring.” Cam smiled. “We’ll be seeing you at home. Your home.”

  “Damn straight.” His father rose and left.

  Cam whistled as he got back to work. At the end of the day, he went home to the love of his life. Vanessa.

  Epilogue

  Mike took in the old garage, impressed with the vintage muscle cars in the barricaded lot. He walked inside and found a small waiting space beyond the noise of the mechanics. Behind him, he could see a bunch of heavily muscled guys working on cars. Half of them sported earrings, gang symbols, and a few had prison tats. Nice place.

  But the tools and the cars were cherry.

  “Can I help you?” a bored kid with earrings asked from behind what might have passed for a reception desk.

  “Yeah. I’m here to see Liam Webster,” Mike growled. Not Del. I didn’t come to see her. I came for the old man.

  The kid’s interest sharpened and he pointed to a door on the far wall. “Go through there.”

  “Thanks.” Mike had come straight from work. He wanted to get this over with so he could tell his mother he’d thanked her hero in person. That and he wanted a look at the guy his mother thought could do no wrong.

  He stepped inside a neat but cramped office. A scarred wooden desk sat between two chairs, and a long bench covered in tools and instruction manuals took up space along the back wall.

  An open door sat next to the bench, and it was through that entrance that a guy as large as Mike entered. He had a silver buzz cut, dark brown eyes, and a square jaw.

  “Liam Webster?”

  “Yeah?” the guy growled back.

  “Mike McCauley. Beth’s son. Well, one of four.”

  At the mention of her name, the man’s wary gaze softened into a warm smile. “Hell. It’s great to meet you, Mike. Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Nah. I just came by to thank you for being so good to my mom. She’s had a hard time with my dad. Truth is the guy’s heart is always in the right place, but sometimes his mouth
and instincts are off.”

  “Sounds like a man for sure.” Liam grinned.

  Mike grinned with him. “Anyway. My mom thinks the world of you. She was in a pretty vulnerable spot, and you could have taken advantage but you didn’t. I appreciate it.”

  “Plus you came down here to get a look at me and warn me to stay far away. Message received.”

  Mike laughed. “Nah. My dad can handle the ‘she’s my woman’ warnings. I just wanted to say thanks. From my mom, and from me.”

  “No problem, Mike. Hey, you ever need any body work done, keep us in mind. I’ll cut you a good deal.”

  “Will do. If you think about remodeling this place, let me know. Same goes.”

  “That’s right. You guys are contractors, aren’t you?” Liam frowned. “Though if you work with your dad, I doubt he’d want to help.”

  “He’ll do it. Hell, right now he’ll walk on hot coals to make Mom happy.”

  “Good man.” Liam shook his head. “Lucky man. Your mother is one fine woman. She deserves to be happy. I know she loves your father.” He studied Mike. “She said you’re his spitting image. Must be a big guy then.”

  “He tries. It’s getting harder for him to keep up with me since I sic my kid on him.”

  Liam chuckled. “You know, speaking of remodels, I wouldn’t mind—”

  “You,” Del spat from behind her dad in the doorway. “Get your ass out of my office. You’re not—”

  Liam turned. “Delilah Webster. What the fuck? Can’t you see I’m having a conversation here?”

  “He—He’s not here to screw with me?”

  “What?” Liam’s previously welcoming smile turned dark in a hurry.

  Mike swallowed a groan. “Uh, not sure what you mean by screw with you. I came by to see your father.” Not to be intimidated, Mike scowled at her. “Unless you’ve been flirting with my kid again.”

  “Flirting?” She gaped at him, looking so damn sexy he had a hard time not staring. For some reason, her tattoos and piercings turned him on, when Mike had never been into women who didn’t look soft or petite. Lea had been on the small side with curves in all the right places. No piercings anywhere, and definitely no ink.

  “Del?” Her father stared from her to Mike and back again.