His beautiful laughter floated over the phone. "I showed her some of your pictures and she thinks you are beautiful and smart and perfect. She wants to meet you."

  Katherine stiffened. She did want to meet his family, especially after what Cage had said about them but she was a little scared. She didn't think she was good at meeting the parents. "We'll have to see when we can make that happen."

  Cage made a small noise. "Soon." Katherine raised a brow. "We'll plan something once I have more free time." She hummed in acknowledgment. "We can plan a dual family trip or something, that way I can meet your parents and you can meet mine. Not now," he added quickly so that she wouldn't be scared off.

  She thought about it. His parents were enthusiastic, hers were afraid. They would probably cancel each other out and everything would be good, right?

  "We'll have to make it private or thousands of people would maul you," she said with a laugh.

  "Oh, did you get time to talk to your parents? I don't know if you said anything about me." Oh, little insecure Cage. How was that even possible?

  "I told them." He waited to hear more. If he knew, he would flip. "They want to meet you," she said lightly. There would probably be a confrontation in store for Cage when he met her parents.

  "Were they concerned?"

  "You know how parents are. It was a long conversation and it ended in an impasse. It will get better. Just so you know, they think all of us are living in the same quarters and nothing impure will happen."

  Cage was chuckling. "I'm sure they know you better than that. You might try to convince them, but they are your parents. Parents have a radar for such things and are unbelievably hard to dupe."

  "They actually don't know me better. They were going the crime thriller route, thinking you were a serial killer trying to kill me." Well, she did get a sizeable lecture on the subject.

  "Next time your mother and father talk about serial killers, let them know that killing people would be bad for my image. That should put them at ease." Katherine couldn't hold back her laughter.

  "Sure. I'll tell them and they will panic and call the cops on you." There was silence for a couple of minutes.

  "The curiosity is killing me," Cage said finally. "Won't you tell me what you bought?"

  Katherine wished she could, but she needed to see his face when she walked out in her new gear. "No. Good things come to those that wait patiently." Yes, there would be coming involved if she had any say in the matter.

  "Why wait? You can show me now……" He was using his s.e.xiest voice. Katherine steeled her heart and stuck to her guns.

  "You want to Skype?" she asked, lowering her voice just enough. Her voice was still scratchy from sleep so it added an extra layer of ambiguity.

  "Do I want to look at my ethereal girlfriend? Yes, I do."

  'Well, your wish is my command. But you don't get to see what I bought. That's for later.'

  "I want to see you too. Not tonight. Distance makes the heart grow fonder." She wondered what she should wear. In person, she hadn't thought much about it but Skype made everyone look horrible. She would have to put in the extra effort.

  "When?" he whined.

  "Tomorrow. 9 in the night. You and me. How does that sound?" Katherine posed the question. The person on the other side sighed and contemplated it.

  "Okay, see you then, Katherine."

  "Bye, Cage." She hung up the phone and scrambled to her wardrobe. She had less than twenty-four hours to decide what she would wear. Could this be considered their first date? Skype dates would be considered dates, right?

  Meh, whatever worked for them.

  'Ready or not, here I come.'——

  Cage had spent the day working out and going through scripts. He was beyond tired but when it was a quarter to nine, he may or may not have bounced on his bed while he waited for Katherine to join Skype. They had exchanged their Skype IDs and added each other as contacts (they would need it once he started filming).

  He turned on the video chat for the first time in ages. He would sometimes log on when he was on tour or shooting for long hours to check up on his parents, but that was rare. He rarely had time to speak to them and it was so much easier to just call them or text them to let them know he was okay.

  Yet he couldn't resist when his girlfriend had gone shopping. She must have bought some s.e.xy things as she had insinuated. While he had an excellent imagination, he would much rather see them. He was sure she would drive him insane with whatever she had bought.

  Across the city, Katherine was biting her lip as she stared at herself in the mirror. Was she really going to do this? Yes, she was.

  She wanted to see Cage more than anything and she wanted Cage to see her in this outfit and see his reaction. She looked herself in the mirror and adjusted the straps on her shoulder. She could imagine her dad stabbing her if he found out what he was up to. But she also knew her friends would approve of her actions. When it came to her romantic life, she was much better listening to her friends than waiting around for her parents to find some celibate to marry. Sorry, not her style. Cage was her style.

  She looked good, she wanted to say herself. She suspected that Cage would be satisfied with her appearance as well.

  She grabbed her laptop and logged into Skype. She could see he was online, so she requested contact. The lecherous part of her brain rejoiced, knowing that she wanted the contact, alright. It had been two days and there were only five more days to go. She could make it if they kept contacting each other.

  She pressed the call button and moved away from the camera.