When You Are Mine by Kennedy Ryan Page A

Foundation’s summer camp.”
    She smiled at how his face relaxed when he talked about that first summer. How he and Walsh had rubbed each other the wrong way, only to become best friends. How Jo was the sister he’d never had.
    “And Ms. Kris.” His features softened in a way reserved for Walsh’s mother. “I hadn’t ever met anyone like her. Walsh has no idea how lucky he is to have her.”
    “They’re like family to you.”
    “They’re not family, though, Kerris.” He leaned forward in the small boat, capturing one of her hands still floating in the water. “I love them, but they’re not my family. That’s what I want with you. Even with them, I didn’t belong to them. My mom was the only person I ever belonged to, and she sold me out for crack.”
    Kerris understood parental betrayal, when the person everything in nature dictated should preserve and protect you had abandoned and hurt you the most.
    “I want you to be my only.” Cam stripped every barrier away from his eyes, leaving them wide open and vulnerable. “The only other person on earth I belong to, and who belongs to me. And then we can start a family from scratch. Something we never had.”
    If she’d never met Walsh, never gotten caught with him in an electric storm, she would have told Cam yes with no hesitation. She had resigned herself to a marriage where the greatest fruit would be their children, expecting no real pleasure, no rush of emotion at the sight of her spouse. What a bitter irony that the man who cracked open the emotion she dammed away could never be hers.
    Cam’s phone ringing jarred her, pulling her eyes to meet his considering stare. He didn’t look away even when he reached in his pocket for his phone.
    “Yeah.” He listened and released a short breath, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I’ll be right there. Gimme a few minutes. I’m at lunch.”
    He ended the call and started rowing swiftly back toward the bank.
    “Everything okay?”
    “Just a glitch with that project I thought was wrapped.” Cam’s strong shoulders flexed with the force of his exertions. “I think fixing this thing might take the rest of the afternoon. This client keeps making changes.”
    “It’s okay. Drop me off at my apartment. Do you need me to meet you at the party?”
    “No way. I’m picking you up and we’re riding together. I want to be the first to see you. I know once you’re there and all dressed up, I’ll have to fight ’em off.”
    “I doubt that. All those women tonight will be dressed up in couture. I’ll be in dime vintage. No comparison.”
    “You got that right.” Cam’s smile, so tender and open, jerked her heart around like an errant kite with a guilty tail. “I can guarantee there won’t be any comparison.”
    They zipped over to her apartment on his Harley. She pressed her cheek against Cam’s back and wrapped her arms around him.
    He was a good man. His edges were rough, his mouth was foul, and before he met her, he’d been a player. But when he looked at her, he made her feel that everything he’d ever wanted in the whole world was standing in front of him. If she had still been a praying woman, she would have asked God if He could please, please, please make her feel the same.

Chapter Thirteen
    W alsh glanced around the room, searching for one petite woman who could easily be lost in the crowd assembled for his mother’s birthday. The large room sparkled, the crystals of the chandeliers overhead vying for shine with the overdecorated women laden with diamonds. The room had been cleared of all furniture, giving everyone room to mingle and preparing them for later, for the dancing his mother loved so much.
    He would have preferred a barbecue out back in the yard leading down to the river, just family and a few close friends. Not his mother. Not for her fiftieth birthday. She had turned this special occasion into a charity extravaganza, packed wall to wall with big spenders who’d trade