Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
natalie
CAMERON STOOD WHEN I walked into his office the next day, flashing me a professional smile. There was a hard-to-miss twinkle in his eyes that calmed my overwrought nerves.
“Ah, Dr. London, thank you so much for coming in.”
I shut the door behind me before sinking into one of the chairs across from his desk and raising a brow, giving him a once-over. He wore his usual clean-cut suit, tailored so perfectly to his fit physique, and it was really hard not to have a hot flash in reaction to his presence.
God, I missed him, and it had only been thirty-six hours or so.
“Dr. London?” I echoed, clearing my throat.
Cameron’s eyes shone brighter, but he shrugged. “I’m just practicing.”
“Practicing?”
“Acting like I’ve never been inside you before.”
I nearly choked on my own tongue. “Cameron.”
On instinct, I looked over my shoulder, double-checking that the door was firmly closed and no one could overhear us.
It was, but the small window lining the door taunted me, reminding me that we weren’t entirely alone.
That anyone could walk by and look into his office.
When I turned back around, Cameron was standing in front of his desk, leaning back against it.
He was so close, barely two feet away. And my body was vibrating with the need to get even closer. It felt weird walking into a room where he was and not sliding straight into his arms.
How the hell were we going to do this?
Especially when Cameron wore that cocky little smirk on his face, confidence shining through. Which did put me somewhat at ease. He wore an expression like he didn’t plan on anything bad happening—as though he could control the world.
“No one’s going to hear anything, Sunshine,” he said, reaffirming my thoughts. His voice was gentle now, just another thing that soothed me.
He stared at me for a long moment, his hands flexing like he also struggled with the urge to close the distance between us. Possibly like it was killing him not to. Eventually, he crossed both arms over his chest and inhaled deeply. A muttered curse slipped through his lips a moment later.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He was looking at me like he didn’t know what to do about my existence. “It’s just my office is going to smell like you for the rest of the day, and it’s going to torture me.”
“I’m…sorry?”
A laugh fell out of his mouth, bright and colorful, changing his entire demeanor. “Never apologize for the way you affect other people by just being you, Natalie.”
My heart clenched, letting those words wrap around it and squeeze tight.
The way Cameron managed to touch me while not even putting his hands on me blew me away every time.
I gave him a shaky smile, and he returned it, allowing me a few seconds to sink into his warm, brown gaze before bringing me back to reality, sharp and swift.
“Korey wants me off your case.”
I jolted. “What?”
He nodded, calm as ever. “He doesn’t like that I’m spending time with Chloe, and he accused us of…having a relationship.”
“Having a relationship?” I echoed.
A muscle in Cameron’s jaw jumped. “His exact words were that I was ‘fucking his wife.’”
My jaw dropped. I’d known Korey would jump to conclusions, but he was usually more, I don’t know, underhanded in his accusations. Which told me he was clearly losing it—all that control he’d been trying to hold on to, it was slipping out of his grasp, and he was losing it.
“I denied it, of course,” Cameron said, dropping his voice. “I’m fucking his ex-wife.”
Of course Cam was madder about that distinction than anything else, and despite the circumstances, I found myself fighting a grin.
“But Korey wouldn’t stop pushing the matter. He wants me off the case.”
Off the case.
The words bounced around my brain, and I struggled to believe them.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever hated Korey more than I did at this moment.
“Oh my God.” I sank lower in my chair, feeling sick to my stomach.
I should have been more careful, should have told Cameron no all the times I’d given in and said yes, should have put more boundaries in place until after the case was over, especially where Chloe was involved.
But it was so hard to regret nights like the baseball game, where Chloe had gotten to experience something that she never really had with her own father. It was hard to regret her spending time with a man whom I was starting to hope might be a permanent figure in her life.
Now, though…
“He can’t do that, can he? Force you off the case?”
Cameron shook his head, and a bit of relief slipped into my bloodstream.
“No, he can’t. And I don’t think he has any proof of anything because if he did, he would have said something yesterday. I know he’s calculating and manipulative, but he lost control during that meeting. And trust me, he has nothing.”
“Okay.” I nodded, taking all that information in and agreeing. It certainly didn’t sound like Korey was his usual self. This sounded more like the version of my ex when I’d told him we were getting divorced—the spiraling, accusatory version. “Good. That’s…good.”
Cameron mimicked me, also nodding. “It is. But I would bet he’s going to try to find proof now.”
My stomach sank again. Because I knew Cameron was right about that, too. “So, we should end things. At least until the case is over.”
Our conversation on the phone last night had made me think that we were going to find a way around that, but Cameron’s expression told me that maybe I’d been holding on to false hope or misinterpreted his confidence.
But I understood. Completely. If something happened to Cameron’s career because of me, I wasn’t sure what I’d do.
Cameron remained silent for a long moment, biting the inside of his cheek. And then finally, he said, “Natalie, it could be months yet.”
Months.
“We’re still weeks out from the trial date, and the court calendar is tight, so if there’s any rescheduling, if Korey and his lawyer try something to buy more time, it could get pushed another month back.
And once the trial is over, it’s possible we might get a decision that day, but it might also be days or weeks.
I…” He paused, shaking his head. Cameron looked as tortured as I felt.
“If we don’t give Korey what he wants, he’s going to keep digging until he finds something to feel like he has the upper hand again.
I don’t like the idea of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And I like the idea of doing that waiting without you even less. ”
“What are you saying?” I whispered, afraid of what his answer was.
Cameron’s sigh was so heavy I felt it weighing me down, too. “That I think I should step away from this case.”
I’d seen it coming from his expression, but my body revolted at the idea.
Firstly, of giving Korey anything he wanted, and secondly, of not having Cameron as my attorney—at making him give away something he’d been working on for weeks now.
“Cameron. That’s—” God, it was such a struggle to believe he was even suggesting this.
“But wouldn’t that look…but how would that affect—”
“It wouldn’t affect the case at all,” he said stoically. “A judge’s main concern would be that nothing is delayed with the trial, and I would work overtime to catch your new representation up so that doesn’t happen.”
“My new representation?” I repeated, feeling another surge of disbelief. He was serious, wasn’t he? “Who would that even be?”
Selfishly, I didn’t want new representation.
“My suggestion would be Juniper Briggs,” he answered, and while I didn’t like that he’d clearly thought about this, the idea of Juniper taking over did put me a little at ease.
“She also has a great background in family law, is a phenomenal lawyer, and we could still work closely together to make sure all the bases for the trial are covered. I’d still help to take care of things behind the scenes.
Also, I suspect Korey is a raging misogynist and would somehow think he has the upper hand if I let Juniper take my place.
Until she wiped the floor with him, that is. ”
I couldn’t argue with any of the points he was making. They were all very good points, and I knew he was likely right about all of them. But there was something he had yet to touch on, something equally important.
“Okay, yes, all true, but…” I sat forward in my chair, clutching the arms on it. “But what about you?”
Cameron frowned, brows drawn together. “Me?”
“You told me after my deposition that your boss had her eyes on this case. That it might look bad if—”
“Since the pressure is coming from Korey, she’ll understand why I’m doing it,” he cut in, trying to reassure me.
“Sure, she might be a little disappointed, and maybe it will set me back a few steps from junior partner, but Natalie—” He cut off, rubbing his jaw for a second before giving me a defeated look and saying, “I don’t fucking care. ”
“What?” So much of what he was saying was so hard to wrap my brain around. “What do you mean you don’t care? I know how important your job is to you.”
Cameron simply shrugged like he was lost to the truth of the matter, lost to what he was about to say.
“Not as important to me as you are.”
I stared at him, feeling my pulse in my throat, making it hard to swallow. Or breathe. Or think. He couldn’t…mean that. Could he?
The corners of Cameron’s mouth turned down, and his eyes grew sympathetic as he watched my reaction. Sighing, he shook his head.
“Natalie. Baby.” He crouched to his knees in front of me, meeting me at eye level. “Come on. You must realize by now.”
“Realize?”
Cameron gave me a look. “Sunshine.”
He looked disappointed in me, and I tried to puzzle together why.
“What?” I whispered.
He reached out, brushing hair out of my face before cupping my cheek. “You have to know how much I care for you. How I feel about you?”