“We’ll get to that, honey, but I want to ask you something else.” The boards under their chair creaked every time Cain rocked back and forth, a comforting sound in the otherwise quiet morning. “I can understand that Katlin is your cousin and she works for you, but can you tell me why Merrick can’t stand her?”
“What?” Cain pulled her head back to look at Emma’s face to see if she was serious. “They hardly know each other.” She paused and started again. “I take that back. They hardly see each other, so I don’t think they’d know enough about one another to not like each other.”
“I’m telling you, Merrick bristles whenever Katlin walks within two feet of her.” Emma unbuttoned one button over Cain’s stomach and slipped her cold hand inside. “At first I thought it was something sexual, but then I remembered Merrick already has a love in her life, so there might not be enough room for Katlin.”
“What did you do, bug my house?” Cain stopped to kiss her just because Emma’s lips were so close. “How do you know all this stuff?”
“Because the love of her life hasn’t changed in all the time I’ve been gone.” The hair around Cain’s ears ruffled a little in the wind, and Emma combed it back with her fingers. “Not that I can blame her, really.”
“If I’m supposed to know who you’re talking about, I’m still at a loss.”
“It’s you, honey.” She pressed her fingers to the soft lips and smiled. “I didn’t say you returned Merrick’s feelings, and if you slept with her when I wasn’t with you, I don’t blame you.” Emma pressed harder on Cain’s mouth when she tried again to say something. “I know you didn’t, but if you had, I wouldn’t have had the right to say anything.”
“You have every right to say whatever you like. Just like I have the right to be honest with you. But when it comes to Merrick you have nothing to be worried about. She works for me and that’s where it ends.” Cain had pulled the small hand away and held it to her heart. “Let me tell you something, darlin’. If you’d found some cowpoke out here to spend time with, he’d be planted under a pile of manure by now.”
“Have I told you lately how romantic I think you are?” Emma kissed her, but Cain laughed. “What’s so funny?”
“You left me because you thought I planted some guy who put the moves on you, and now you think it’s romantic.”
“Well, time has shown me that I’ll never find a better champion than you, and you’ll never do something to harm someone if they didn’t throw the first punch. Sitting here alone all that time made me realize that I love you, all of you, and I don’t want to change who you are.”
“I love you too, and it’s good to know that you feel that way. As for Merrick and Katlin, I’m at a loss there. I haven’t noticed any strange behavior.”
“That’s because you have me to look out for you and notice the things that you’d most probably find trivial anyway.”
Cain stopped rocking as she thought about that and resumed the motion when she started talking again. “It could be something important, though. I can’t afford for two of my most important people be more interested in getting laid than in watching for what’s coming at us.”
Emma pinched a bit of skin on Cain’s abdomen between her fingers and laughed. “I don’t think you can control who your employees date, honey. Unless, like I said, Merrick is still interested in you. Then you can be as controlling and cold as you want.” The last bit was delivered with a bit of heat.
“This really is bothering you, isn’t it?”
“Considering she thinks I’m wearing a wire in my bra and has a tendency to undress you with her eyes at every given opportunity”—she pulled her hand free and held up her thumb and index finger an inch apart—“it bothers me a little.” Emma released a sigh and put her head down on Cain’s shoulder. “When I first got home I’d sit out here and think of how I’d finally given her the chance to get close to you.”
“Put those feelings to rest, lass. Nothing went on at the house that wasn’t going on before you left. I trust Merrick with my life, but not with my heart. I’ve only done that once, and she’s sitting in my lap now.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
“Anything else you’re worried about?”
Emma shook her head.
“Then you keep an eye on what’s going on between Merrick and Katlin and let me know if there’s something I should be worried about. I don’t want to change the subject, but now’s a good time since it’s just the two of us.” Cain pulled her closer and tried to make her hands behave and not veer somewhere that would cut their talk short.
“Before any other shit happens to make Giovanni think he’s closer to taking over, I have to go back and deal with all this. We had a life before all this, with a certain number of businesses and a feeling of safety in our home, and I fully intend to return to that security. If you want, we can start fresh somewhere else. You taught me that a house is just that, a place where you keep all your stuff; but having you and the kids there makes it my home.”
“When do you want to leave?”
“That’s the other thing I want to talk to you about—”
Emma pulled back far enough so she could point her index finger at Cain. “You said no more leaving me behind.”
Cain took hold of the menacing pointer and bit down gently on it. “Calm down, wild thing. No one’s leaving you if you don’t want to be left. What I was going to tell you is I want the kids to stay here with Jerry and Maddie, along with a few of the men. That house has enough bedrooms to put up Mook and some others until we’re done. It’s okay, though, if you want to stay behind. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
“You can’t be that delusional, can you?” Emma put her hand back in Cain’s shirt after another button came undone. “If you’re going, I’m going with you. While we’re there you can take care of whatever you need to do, and I can tend to what we’re going to do about the house. Just think of it this way. If we’re there together we’ll have each other to rely on.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here?”
“I’m as positive as I am about wanting to show you my room right about now,” Emma said as she pinched an alert nipple. “That way if my mother ever gives me another problem, I’ll tell her what I let you do to me in that little bed.”
Cain let her up and took her hand. She figured another month of recovery and she’d be carrying Emma wherever she wanted to. But for now, the sway of those enticing hips wasn’t a real hardship to study all the way up the stairs.
Emma smiled at Cain when they reached the top step, because while she was positive their relationship was built on more than sex, it was good to see the want back in Cain’s eyes.
Chapter Twenty-One
Katlin sat on the porch and stared at Merrick, who stood by the car looking like she wanted to figure out a way inside the house without having to use the door Katlin was sitting beside. They eyed each other, neither of them making a move.
“How about me and you go for a little ride and leave the guys to watch the house?” Katlin asked Merrick. She’d closed the book she was reading and was trying to gauge Merrick’s mood.
“What do you want?”
Saying something like “world peace” occurred to her, but she thought for once she’d hold her tongue to keep things civil between them and see what Merrick’s problem was. “I’d like to have a little talk. Think you can stand me long enough to do that?”
“I’ll take the ride, but as for the rest I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Merrick moved to the driver’s seat, and Katlin just reversed course and headed for the other side of the car. Before the tires of the truck hit the black highway, Merrick was talking. “Why are you here?”