“You don’t like me getting close to her, do you?” Audrey pressed.
“I didn’t say that,” Cameron answered as he twisted the cap off his soda, then tossed it on the counter.
Audrey gave herself props for not admiring the strength of his hands. “You don’t have to. I can see the annoyance all over your face.”
Cameron lifted the bottle to his lips, then paused. “I’m not annoyed.”
Audrey resisted chuckling. Barely. “You haven’t said two words to me since Piper and I got here.”
Cameron took a deep pull of his drink. “I need to apologize for last night.”
She hadn’t been expecting that. Audrey glanced around the kitchen, trying to gather her thoughts. Piper and Pamela were in deep conversation as Pamela sliced up asparagus. Audrey’s potatoes were still sitting in a bowl of water.
“Okay,” she acknowledged. “I’m sorry too.”
His grin widened. “And you weren’t even struck by lightning that time.”
“Always looking for ways to be pleased with yourself.”
“Who says I have to look?” he countered.
“The rest of us earthlings,” she said.
He stepped toward her. “Is that your way of saying I’m special?”
Audrey narrowed her eyes at him. “More like an alien being.” She glanced at the space around them. “Why are you always crowding me?”
He came even closer. “Because it makes you sweat.”
Immediately her brain conjured up all the ways he could make her sweat. Even more than she already was. She didn’t like it, but at the same time she also kind of loved it. When was the last time a man had made her feel alive like this? Made her heart triple beat in her chest? Made her knees tingle?
“And you like intimidating people, is that it?” she pushed.
One of his brows quirked as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “You and I both know intimidation isn’t what you’re feeling right now. Remember, Audrey, all you have to do is say yes.”
Audrey was painfully aware of Pamela and Piper, just feet away.
She placed a hand on his chest, to halt his further crowding. “And then what?”
He blinked. “Huh?”
She tried to move back but was blocked by the fridge. “I say yes. What happens then?”
“Are you saying yes?”
Not quite. But she desperately wanted to. “Hypothetically.”
His evil grin was back. “Well, then. Hypothetically, I’d push you against this fridge so you can feel exactly what you do to me. Then I’d put my mouth at that sensitive spot just below your ear…” He dipped his head in demonstration. “Because I think I’ve already proven just how much you like that.”
The man was an evil, masochistic bastard. Audrey would have told him that, but she was too busy being turned on.
“Then,” he whispered in her ear, “we’d take things to my king-sized bed, where we’d make love until neither one of us could walk.”
Holy Mary, mother of…
“Kate Spade,” she whispered.
Cameron chuckled against her neck, then pulled away. “But since we’re just talking in hypothetical…” The tip of his index finger skimmed across her collarbone, driving home his point with painful clarity.
“Sorry I asked,” she whispered.
“No, you’re not.” His smug grin widened. “You’re too busy picturing it.”
Hell, yeah, she was picturing it, which was why she was sorry for asking, because she’d go to bed with the images of Cameron pinning her to the mattress, his big thighs holding hers down as he drove into her…
No, it couldn’t happen.
Yes, it could. He said all you have to do is say yes…
And it would be so good too. But she couldn’t keep her wits about her and leave with an objective heart if she gave in to her impulses. She was stronger than that and needed to remember why she was here.
Cameron must have sensed the moment she shut her mind off, because he stepped back and reached for his soda again. He took a long, casual sip, while carefully watching her.
“Cameron, will you leave that poor girl alone so she can finish the potatoes?” Pamela called from the stove. “The pork chops are almost ready.”
That’s right. She’d left the potatoes sitting in a pot of water. Then Cameron had come along with his apologies and bedroom eyes and seductive suggestions and thrown her agenda out the window.
She should go, like, cook. Or something.
She straightened from the fridge, attempting more confidence than she felt, returning Cameron’s cocky gaze with one of her own. At least she hoped it was cocky. For some reason she felt questionable.
“I know you don’t want me to get to know your mom,” she told him. “But you’re going to have to get over it. Because I like her, and she’s good with Piper.”
Cameron’s arm shot out and stopped Audrey’s retreat. “She gets attached to people easily.”
“And what?” she asked with a lifted brow. “You think she’ll get attached to me, then I’ll crush her heart when I leave?” Cameron opened his mouth to argue, but she stopped him. “I know that’s exactly what you think.”
“My mother likes you,” he said in a low voice.
Audrey had another retort all ready, but something stopped her. Something in Cameron’s gaze that closely resembled pleading. Then she got it. Pamela had been hurt before when someone she loved and cared about left. But how could Cameron compare Audrey to his father?
Audrey turned back to him so Pamela wouldn’t overhear them. “Not everyone is a selfish ass like your dad,” she told him. “I know you’re trying to protect her, but give her some credit. She seems like she’s a strong woman. And I doubt my leaving will faze her much, since I’m not anything to her.”
Dinner had been an uncomfortable affair that was a mixture of tension between him and Audrey and easy banter between her and his mother.
They liked each other. It was obvious with the easy smiles Audrey kept flashing and the infectious laughter at the stories his mom kept telling. About him. Like that time he’d wet the bed at a friend’s house and had to come home in the middle of the night.
Yeah, thanks for
