Page 77 of The Sweetest Devotion

Cain’s lips curled up a little as he returned to my father. “Let’s get one thing straight: I’m a better man than my father,” he stated adamantly. “You wanna talk about honesty? Integrity? Why don’t you ask the late Mrs. James Carter how it felt to discoverIexisted?

“?‘I never lie because I don’t fear anyone. You only lie when you’re afraid.’ John Gotti said that, and I couldn’t agree more. I was raised on the outside, with a mother who never recovered from a broken heart, and a father who never acknowledged me when I needed him. I’m from the very bottom where you learn early that fairy tales are fictitious for a reason. I’m a lot of things, but not a cheat. Loyalty’s the most important thing to me, and I would never step out on your daughter.”

My father eyed Cain and the two men stared at each other for the longest time. In the end, my father held his hand out and Cain regarded it for a moment before shaking it. “You’re a fucking devil, but I like you.” My father soon snorted, shaking his head at something. “James left Dorothy nothing after thirty-something years of marriage. I knew you were decent when I heard you gave the widow a hefty settlement.”

Cain shrugged. “For some women, fertility is linked to their ego. To not be able to bear a child for her husband was probably a lot to take in. To see that he had an heir on his own, one who looks just like him, had to be a blow she’ll never recover from.”

“Probably so,” my father agreed. “Hence why I don’t want my daughter going through the same thing. I think we’ve come to a clear understanding on that, haven’t we?”

Cain reached out and patted my father’s shoulder. “Yes, we have.”

I decided to make my entrance just then, unable to hear any more.

At once, Cain’s eyes cut to me.

“Father. Warden,” I observed them both before going and kissing my father’s cheek and giving him a gentle hug.

Cain came around the bed, coming and joining me on my side.

“Be nice,” my father whispered in my ear as he released me.

I stood and faced Cain, just in time as my mother came into the room.

“Enough work already. Please. Damon, let the kids get out for a while.” My mother came and placed a hand on Cain’s shoulder and her other on mine. “I called The Sheridan. Our treat.”

Of course she did.

Cain looked at me. “Is that what you want?”

Feeling the weight of my parents’ eyes on me, I didn’t put up a front as I exited the room. “Doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Kennedy!” my mother gasped from behind me.

I didn’t miss that Cain was following me out of the room as I made my way over to my old bedroom. Even though I’d moved out when I was twenty, I still held a good portion of a wardrobe here in my parents’ house.

I went into my room and mentally decided on what I would wear to The Sheridan as I approached my closet.

Cain hung back in the doorway of my walk-in, watching me. “We don’t have to go there.”

“She already made the reservation,” I replied with a shrug.

“You don’t have to change, I’m sure,” Cain tried to say next of my current state in a white blouse with black trousers.

I scoffed as I glanced at him. “It’s The Sheridan. This won’t do.”

There were still two full racks of dresses to choose from, and in the end, I picked up a black Givenchy dress.

I’d showered after my little dip in the pool, and because I hadn’t gotten my hair wet, there was time saved.

Cain obviously wasn’t going anywhere. Deciding to not make a big deal of it, I undid my pants and let them pool at my feet before stepping out of them. I removed my shirt a second later. In my dreamy blue balconette bra and matching cheeky panties, I felt Cain’s complete attention before I looked over and founding him watching.

His hands were in his pockets, his posture serious and straight, and his dark gaze was locked on me.

“It’s rude to stare,” I let him know.

His heavy gaze trailed up my body until he was staring me in the eye. “It’s rude to tease.”

I turned, giving him a full view of me in my underwear. “When I want you to have me, you’ll have me. And not a second sooner. Now shoo.”

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