“Because I knew you wouldn’t just go away.”
Okay, that was true.
He leaned against the bathroom counter. Was it just him, or were the bubbles diminishing? “We need to finish our earlier conversation,” he told her. Kudos to him for keeping his mind on track. When she didn’t respond, he glanced at her. “Audrey—”
“Cameron,” she interrupted in a quiet voice. “I can’t have this conversation right now.”
“Okay,” he responded, because he wasn’t sure what else to say. “Look, I know I have a lot of thinking to do, and to be honest I’m…” He blew out a breath. “I’m confused.”
“I get that. And maybe…” She glanced at him quickly, but then her gaze skittered away. “Maybe you just need some time alone. To think about things.”
“So where does this leave us?” he asked. Time alone? Like without her? Cameron didn’t want that. He wanted her here, with them. Him and Piper. The three of them, like…like a family.
She was silent a moment, then blew out a breath. “I’m not sure.”
Cameron crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the gray bath rug. “I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t know what they want.”
She looked at him. “Okay, maybe I don’t know what I want right now. But you have someone else looking to you for stability. You have to give that to Piper now.”
His brow furrowed. “You think I don’t know that?”
Audrey sat straighter in the tub, sending water sloshing over the sides. “How the hell should I know? You don’t even know what you want, so how should I know?”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t come in here to fight with you. I…” Cameron ran the words through his mind, knowing what he wanted to say, but unsure how to say it. “What if you moved down here?”
Audrey blinked at him as though unable to comprehend his words. “Cameron, be serious.”
“I am being serious.”
“We were just talking about how you need time to think,” she told him. “Because you don’t know what you want.”
“I know I want this,” he stated with confidence.
“This what?” she pressed. “What exactly will this be?”
He looked her dead in the eye. “This will be you and me. You, me, and Piper.” Because that was what he wanted. Set aside the job and Drew and everything else, and all that mattered were Audrey and Piper.
“And how am I supposed to believe that you’re ready to settle down?” she countered. “You’ve always had this carefree lifestyle of women coming and going, and now all of a sudden you want to do the family thing? What if you decide it’s too much?” she questioned. “What if one day you can’t handle it anymore, and you check out? You leave me and Piper to handle things ourselves because this isn’t what you signed up for—”
“Audrey,” he interrupted, knowing where her fears were coming from. He squatted next to the bathtub, inhaling the fresh scent of her soap and the bubbles. “I’m not your father,” he told her. “I won’t just quit on you when it becomes inconvenient for me. I know everyone else in your life has done that, but that’s not me.”
She offered him a sad smile of understanding. “I know, I just…” Her gaze skittered away again. “I have a hard time separating the two. Nothing in my life has ever been permanent.”
Cameron couldn’t stand to hear any more, because Audrey had so much to offer people. It was a horrible waste to know a person of her warmth and giving nature would intentionally isolate herself.
“Look, this whole thing is new for me too,” he admitted. “I’m not saying I’m perfect and I won’t disappoint you. And yeah, I’m unsure about the job. I won’t lie by saying the offer doesn’t mean anything, because it does. But I’ll try, and that’s what should matter.” Right? But when she didn’t respond, he pushed her. “Audrey—”
“Could you hand me a towel?” she interrupted.
Um…sure? Or how about no towel?
But seriously, he was trying to have a conversation, and here she was trying to make his brain explode.
He stood and yanked the towel off the bar and held it out to her. Before he had a chance to react or, say, turn around, she stood from the tub, water and soap running down her trim body, clinging to her round breasts, soft tummy, and lean thighs.
Cameron swallowed, almost taking his tongue with it, and turned around. He figured taking the initiative to give her a moment of privacy would be the gentlemanly thing to do. Instead of, you know, ripping the towel out of her hands and carrying her to the bedroom.
Yeah, gentlemanly.
She didn’t say anything as he stared at the bathroom wall, closing his eyes against the sounds she was making behind him. The soft fibers of the towel rubbing against her skin. Water dripping off her body and landing on the floor. The sight of her bare feet just inches from his.
“You can turn around now,” she told him.
He held his breath and slowly turned just in time to get an eyeful of her left breast before she covered it up. Plump, rosy nipples. Creamy skin. Fuuuuuuck.
“Jesus, Audrey,” he muttered.
“You’ve had your tongue down my throat several times,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, but…” He scrubbed a hand through his hair and willed his fingers to stop trembling. He hadn’t been this worked up since his freshman year of high school when Carly Dowd had given him his first blow job in the backseat of her daddy’s car. He laughed. Actually fucking laughed.
“But what?” she asked innocently as she scrubbed a hand towel over her head.
He gestured toward her barely covered body. “You act like kissing and…this is the same thing.”
She dropped the smaller towel on the counter and clutched the one wrapped around her body tighter. “And what is this?”
“Shit if I know, Audrey,” he admitted. “I came in here to finish our conversation, and you’re…” What was she doing? Really, all she’d been doing
