Ruining Mr. Perfect (The McCauley Brothers) Read online

  “She’s got it,” Cam prodded. “Let’s get back to the game. You know, so we can make up for getting beaten by Thing One and Thing Two?”

  “Shut up, loser.” Flynn snickered.

  “Vanessa, I don’t know…” Mike, such a pushover with that kid.

  “I had something in mind for the little faker.” Vanessa narrowed her eyes at the boy.

  Cam asked her, “You going to beat him?”

  “Not where it will show.”

  “There. Come on, he’ll be fine.” He turned to the table and started dealing, knowing Colin deserved and even needed the discipline. Not that Mike didn’t do a good job, but in Cam’s opinion, he could be too easy with the boy. “Okay, new game. Brody no longer deals. And winners get not one, but two dinners from the losers.”

  Mike grudgingly turned around. “No bruises I have to explain,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Dad!” Colin cried as Vanessa dragged him outside.

  “No problem.” Abby sounded way too perky. She leaned closer to Mike. “She’s going to put him in the corner. Kids hate that.”

  “Good luck.” Mike snorted. “I’ve been trying that for years. Doesn’t work.”

  “It does when Vanessa’s in charge. Trust me.” Maddie shivered. “She’s going to make him explain, in detail, why he thought stealing was a bad idea. Then she’ll argue him down with logic until he begs for her to stop.”

  “Yeah, he’ll truly suffer.” Abby sighed.

  Maddie agreed. “Been there, done that. But that’s what you get when you try to take what’s Vanessa’s.”

  “Ouch.” Cam grinned. He really needed to figure out how to get that first date.

  ***

  Vanessa took the subdued boy back to the house and nudged him into the corner of Abby’s study. She waited a few moments for him to stop squirming. “Well?”

  “Huh?”

  “No, no. Keep your nose in that corner, young man.” The only thing she could favorably say about her parents—they’d taught her the benefits of discipline and firmness. “Tell me what you did and why it was wrong.”

  “I was just teasing.”

  “No. You took my candy and you tried to be sneaky about it. Own up. Tell the truth.” Her personal mantra. It made her feel good that Cameron had displayed no objection to her taking care of this. Mike had worried, but Cameron showed trust.

  “I’m sorry.” Colin started crying—in earnest this time—just as Abby and Maddie returned.

  “Oh, Vanessa. Can’t you—”

  “Maddie, out.” Her cousin, the soft touch.

  “Fine. I’ll be waiting in the kitchen with my candy.” Maddie left, stomping down the hallway.

  “I’m just here to observe,” Abby said softly. Since dating Brody, she’d become a much more settled person. She’d always smiled a lot, but now she looked happier, prettier even.

  Vanessa nodded. “Well, Colin?”

  “I took y-your food and d-didn’t ask.”

  “And that’s bad, why?”

  “Because it wasn’t m-mine.” He wiped his nose and Abby handed her a tissue to give him.

  Vanessa thought he looked pretty miserable. Check. “Why is taking what’s not yours bad?”

  She moved close enough to see him frown into the corner. “Because it’s bad.”

  She turned him to face her and used another tissue to wipe his nose. God, he was so adorable. He made her think about someday having her own children. With no prospects on the horizon and a deathly fear of turning into her mother if she ever did procreate, she knew better than to even spell motherhood.

  “Stealing is wrong because what you did hurt me,” she corrected in a quiet voice. “Not because you took my candy, but by ignoring what I told you, you hurt my feelings. I thought we were friends. And you shouldn’t hurt your friend’s feelings.”

  “Oh.” He sounded miserable.

  “That and the candy was mine. How would you like it if I took something of yours without asking? Always treat other people the way you want to be treated.”

  He nodded. “That’s what Dad tells me too.”

  “Your dad’s a smart man,” Abby piped in.

  Vanessa glared at her, and Abby rolled her eyes but closed her mouth.

  “He is. Now, you messed up with the candy, but maybe if you call him and ask if you can have cookies, because I said it’s okay, you could have a few. It’s good to take responsibility for your actions.”

  He looked so hopeful, she prayed Mike would say yes.

  “Okay. I’m really sorry, Vanessa. I won’t do it again.” He crossed his heart and held out his hand.

  She took the grubby fingers in her own and shook. “Let’s call the old man.”

  Ten minutes later, Colin sat fat and happy with her and the girls as they watched an old Godzilla movie. It was as if the corner had never happened. Man, to be that young and innocent. But innocent was a relative term. Vanessa had once been six, but she’d never been so carefree. She’d never eaten cookies with her parents or watched television with them. Not unless the program could be classified as educational.

  “So who’s our green lizard fighting?” Maddie asked as she munched on processed popcorn. “Mega-somebody?”

  “Not Mothra, I don’t think.” Abby frowned. “Megaguirus, maybe?”

  Vanessa cringed. “That you even know which monsters he fights is a bit frightening.”

  “You’re so smart, Abby.” Colin continued to consume sugar at a frightening rate. But since Vanessa would soon be returning him to Mike, and the kid had owned up to his issues, she figured he deserved it.

  “Yeah, smart at B-movies and how to handle blonds—myself excluded.” Vanessa smirked.

  Abby stuck up her hand and peeled down all her fingers but the middle one, then put her hand back before Colin observed the profane gesture.

  “Crude but effective. On that note, I’m getting something to eat. How you guys can shovel that crap in your mouths is beyond me.”

  “Everything is ‘beyond you,’” Maddie muttered. “Including fun.”

  “I heard that.”

  Colin laughed with the others.

  Vanessa laughed with them as she walked away, but deep down she had to wonder if Maddie was right. So many people saw her as this robotic, cold woman. Just because she enjoyed something as dry as accounting and didn’t take shit from losers, she was labeled the un-fun roommate. Well, numbers didn’t lie. Numbers delivered the same thing to everyone. No playing favorites, no changing rules. Once you had a formula, it stuck and made sense.

  She’d spent enough time with her cousins to know that her parents had borderline personality disorders. Neither of them could tell her they loved her, if they felt it at all. She’d never hurt for food or a roof over her head, but their affection they doled only on their studies. Geniuses in their respective fields of mathematics and physics, yet complete dumbasses when it came to celebrating a birthday, holiday, or kissing a boo-boo.

  Fortunately, Vanessa had grandparents and cousins, and good old Aunt Michelle—Maddie’s mom—who loved to hug and kiss and play the doting aunt. Still, life with her parents had taken its toll. While Vanessa knew why she at times behaved too rationally or emotionlessly, she was helpless to stop being herself.

  A flaw.

  More truth. Sometimes she hated her overwhelming need to be honest with everyone.

  As she rummaged in the cabinet for her organically grown corn kernels and oil for popping, the back door rattled. She turned to see Cameron’s face in the window, and her heart raced.

  Exhaling a long breath, she forced herself to be calm and crossed to unlock the door. “Yes?”

  It was either move back or be walked over, so she stepped back while he entered and shut the door behind him.

  “Just checking on the little guy,�
�� Cam said in a low voice. “Mike can be such a hoverer—”

  “Where’s the boy?” Mike asked from behind him.

  She pointed to the hallway. “Living room.”

  Mike left, and she and Cameron stared after him. Mike returned moments later, gave Vanessa a nod and a grunt—of approval?—and left.

  “Told you he’s mental about the kid,” Cam reiterated.

  She frowned. “Did he really need to check on me? What? He thought I might beat Colin for taking my candy?”

  “Nah. I kind of hinted he might want to see what you guys were up to so I could come with him. To see you.” Cameron smiled at her.

  How she’d ever called him average with a straight face, she didn’t know. The man was her every fantasy made flesh. A great body, handsome face, and amazing mind. And God, he could kiss. As much as she wished she didn’t continually replay their embrace, she hadn’t forgotten that kiss at Christmas.

  “Oh?” Damn, she sounded out of breath.

  Cameron stalked her until she realized he’d backed her into a corner of the kitchen, away from the view from the hallway.

  “Cameron?”

  He planted his hands on either side of her on the counter. What the hell?

  “The guys are on break while we order pizza. The crap kind from a chain.” He sighed. “What can you do?” He glanced at her popcorn and grinned. “Oh, that’s my favorite. Just a bit of oil and it pops up a storm.” He looked back at her mouth. “Great taste.” Pause. “I just came over to say what a good job you did being firm with Colin.”

  “Ah, okay.”

  He moved in closer.

  “Cameron?” she squeaked on a whisper, for some odd reason not wanting the others to know he was here with her.

  “Your lips are so red. So pretty. Do you wear lipstick?” He leaned in and kissed her before she could answer or even think to refuse.

  Vanessa stood still, letting him control the kiss, his lips soft yet firm, his tongue sipping then penetrating slowly. No rush, but a leisurely exploration that turned her knees to jelly.

  He moaned low in his throat and deepened the kiss. Not enough to overpower her, but enough that she felt a raging lust to wrap her legs around him and hold on until the storm passed.

  Instead she remained frozen, her hands gravitating to his waist, her mouth under his.

  He eased back. His blue eyes looked cloudy, his lips slick from their kiss. He smiled, and the curl of that grin shook her foundation, made her want with a passion that shocked her.

  “No lipstick.” He wiped a thumb across her lower lip. “See?”

  “Yeah.” She unconsciously gripped his hips, and he shifted, putting his hard body flush against hers.

  “I need to get back,” he said to her mouth.

  “Yeah.”

  “They’ll be waiting on me.”

  She heard Colin’s laughter and Maddie’s creature-roar from the living room, and once again answered, “Yeah.”

  Cameron kissed her again, and when he let go, she felt light-headed. Her panties would need a good washing, and that impressive steel in his pants told her she wasn’t the only one affected. The only thing keeping her from feeling like a complete idiot for saying nothing but “Yeah” for the past minute.

  “See you soon, Vanessa.” Cameron took a deep breath, then stepped away from her. He turned and left the house as stealthily as he’d arrived.

  “You’re missing it, Vanessa,” Colin yelled. “The big monster bugs are getting the people.”

  “C-coming.” She cleared her throat, then went to the refrigerator and opened it. After shoving her head inside to clear her thoughts, she pulled back and quickly popped herself some corn.

  Returning to the television and pretending all was well took effort, but she pulled it off. Two hours later, while she lay in her bed, she tried to understand what had happened. Cameron McCauley, the most devious of the bunch, had kissed her senseless. She, Vanessa Campbell, had allowed a man to make her lose her mind. And he’d done it so effortlessly. A brush of his rock-hard body, a kiss that tasted like beer and man and sex, all wrapped up in a McCauley.

  God, she’d underestimated his appeal. Oh sure, she’d been attracted. But that kiss had taken her from normalcy to extreme lust between one breath and the next. To her mortification, if he hadn’t pulled back, she’d have mounted him then and there in the kitchen.

  The jerk.

  With any luck, he’d suffer one acute case of blue balls to torture him into tomorrow. How the hell was she supposed to sleep now? To dream or fantasize without throwing his smirking face on top of any man she imagined having sex with?

  It had been tough enough before, without knowing how he could kiss. She’d tried so hard to forget Christmas, to chalk it up as a one-time wonder. Now she had another reference point. Carnal knowledge of the man’s mouth, which made her wonder what else he excelled in besides kissing.

  If he can perform like that without a bed, imagine what he’ll be like on top of a mattress, plunging deep with more than that tongue?

  She fanned herself and tried to sleep, but each glance at the clock showed the hour growing later. With no other recourse but to handle things, she sought Mr. Frisky from her bottom drawer and eased herself into a nice long sleep. One that unfortunately resulted in dreams of Cameron McCauley at the gym wearing nothing at all…but Vanessa.

  ***

  Cam spent the evening trying to keep up with his brothers when every instinct he possessed told him to go back to Vanessa’s, pull her upstairs, and fuck her until neither one of them could move. Talk about chemistry. The woman had been lethal before that second kiss. But now he could think of no one but her.

  She wore nothing better than that look of confusion and vulnerability, showing him the real woman underneath all her bluster and arrogance. Granted, he liked that side of her, but he absolutely loved the sensitive soul hiding under the brash woman.

  The rest of the weekend passed without fuss. He did errands and cleaning on Saturday, keeping his already spotless condo unit clean. Like Mike, he believed in organization and a clutter-free space. Unlike Mike, he’d been that way his entire life. His older brother had only started with the clean crap after Colin’s birth.

  Vanessa suited him in that respect as well. Bright, organized, smart, sexy. Hell, could the woman not see they were made for each other? He needed to lure her close, let her think she’d taken charge. Then pounce.

  Pleased with his reasoning, he joined the family for dinner on Sunday, knowing he’d see Vanessa and her roommates again. Though Brody and Flynn had only snagged two of the girls, his mother and father had always invited Vanessa as well.

  They used to have family dinners more often than they did now. About once a month everyone would congregate at his parents’ house and eat one of his mother’s amazing meals. Of course, with his parents not seeming to get along lately, he had to wonder how much longer these happy gatherings would continue.

  He sat at the table after helping his mother set out a few dishes. When he caught Vanessa’s gaze, he winked. She blushed before looking away. Vanessa, shy? Then he noticed Mike’s absence.

  “Where’s Big Foot?”

  Maddie and Abby glanced at Vanessa.

  She glared back at him. “Not funny, Cameron.”

  He frowned. “I meant Mike.”

  Flynn and Brody laughed as Vanessa scowled at her roommates.

  “He’s not coming,” his father said. “We asked him not to.”

  The laughter around the table faded.

  Their mother joined their father, not touching, not standing too close.

  Cam had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Dad?”

  Their father continued. “We were going to wait until after dinner, but… Your mother and I are working through some things. We’re going to be living apart for a
while.”

  “What? Mom?” Flynn looked to their mother.

  She had tears in her eyes, but none fell as she answered, “Your father thinks it best we live apart.”

  “Beth,” James growled.

  “And I agree. He’s moving out.”

  Everyone sat in silence.

  “Where will you go?” Brody asked, then nodded. “You can always stay with me.”

  His father shook his head. “No, son. You’re busy, and Flynn, I know you and Maddie spend as much time at your place as you do at hers.” He cleared his throat but didn’t look at their mother.

  What the hell was going on? How had his parents’ perfect marriage degenerated to this?

  “I plan to continue to see my grandson,” Beth said with a firm bitterness completely alien to the woman who’d busted her ass baking cookies and chaperoning all his childhood field trips with a perpetual grin on her face. “I won’t be made to feel awkward because you need a place to stay.”

  James blew out a breath. “Fine. I’ll stay with Cam.”

  Everyone turned to him. He had no idea how to respond, so he said the only thing he could. “Sure, Dad. I’ve got plenty of room.”

  Chapter 3

  “I must be out of my fucking mind.” Cam stared at Mike the next morning at an impromptu emergency meeting. Flynn and Brody sat with him at Mike’s table. With Colin at school, they had the place to themselves. “Mike, did you know about Mom and Dad splitting up?”

  Mike sighed. “Mom told me yesterday afternoon. She came over and filled me in because she didn’t want to make the announcement with Colin there. So we stayed home.”

  “Wish I would have stayed home.” Cam groaned. “Dad moved his clothes in last night. What am I going to do with him?”

  “Um, I don’t know. Deal?” Flynn snorted.

  “It’s not funny,” Cam snapped. “Dad and I get along like oil and water. He thinks I’m a ‘Nancy,’ and yes, I know he still calls me that.”

  “Not all the time,” Mike said kindly as Brody smirked.

  “Mike. Please. Dad gets along best with you and the knuckle draggers.” He nodded to Brody and Flynn.