Chapter 14 #2
“Shame I’m not a quiet performer.”
“Raise the roof, baby, I’ll build you another one.”
She pouted. “But I’ll get wet.”
“That’s the idea, Candy.”
“You fill your house with people.”
“Can empty it too,” he said. “Want to go upstairs?”
To his family and the people or all the way up to the third? Dirty minds belonged in the gutter, not flying high in the billionaire’s loft.
“Is it rude if we stay down here and avoid the crowd for a minute?”
“I didn’t even know they were coming. If anyone’s been rude today…”
“So we can make our point by staying down here alone forever?”
“We could. Except it’s a Dysaic security system. Even if we shut them out, one of the guys would hack through it.”
“And I’d be arrested for sullying you.” Whether they got to the sullying or not. “You have some tenacious friends.”
“None so much as you,” he said and kissed her temple before sliding off the stool and away from her arms. “You want coffee?”
Yes, okay, they should be smart, sensible adults. Shit, that meant refraining from the Irish variety.
“Coffee’s good.”
“Coming up.”
She paused before satisfying her curiosity. Paused. And paused. That was a respectable duration, right?
“Why aren’t you?” she asked, taking his place on the stool as he went to fire up the coffee machine.
“Aren’t I, what?”
“One of those Colliers. Why did Casp and Knox get seats at the table…” She didn’t know much about Knox’s role. “Why were you cut from the team?”
He flashed her a smile as the coffee trickled into the cups. “Truth is, they’ve been trying to cut me back in since the moment I gave it up. Knox, especially, isn’t wild about me being out on my own.”
“He doesn’t trust you?”
“In his view, the closer we are together physically, the more he can look out for me. I stay so far from the seat of power, we don’t see much of each other in the flesh.”
“That’s sweet. He wants to take care of you.”
“More keep an eye on me. Not that he’s judgmental. He’d sulk, but he’ll always support me. And now he has Jane…”
“His wife?”
He came to give her the coffee. “Yeah. She’s a mother hen.”
She laughed. “What does that mean?”
“She can be…” he pondered. “High-strung, she worries, wants everyone to be safe, happy. Often at detriment to herself.”
“And Knox is okay with that?”
He shook his head after lowering his cup from his lip to put it aside. “Knox? Fuck, no. She’s the only thing in the world he’d choose over family. He does a good job at putting her first when she neglects herself.”
“You like her?”
“I love her. She’s not remotely close to the type anyone thought Knox would end up with, but, somehow, it works.”
That was good. Happiness was good. Love coming from the strangest of places was familiar. And segued her right into…
“We never did anything when I was underage.” The foam on her coffee split and coasted, bubbles bounced off each other or gathered close. “Spence and I. People think we did. The media. Everyone. That was the big scandal, right? A teacher runs off with his student?”
“That was the word.”
“I was never his student either. People forget that too. I was on scholarship at the institute, but he was never my…”
Forever and a day ago. In some ways those memories didn’t feel like hers. It had been so long since she’d relived that time.
He cupped her face. “You don’t have to talk about this. Your past changes nothing between us.”
Except it did. His acceptance meant more to her than she could ever convey. Trouble was, she wasn’t free to be careless with her potential exposure. Her past could hurt him, whether he acknowledged it or not.
“Now I see why you were kicked out the family boardroom.” She went with teasing as opposed to sentiment. “Aren’t Colliers taught to collect salacious details?”
A shrug. “We pull the strings, don’t write the stories. And Hot Woman Rules are their own subset.”
“The aim being to get the story and laid?”
“Ideally.”
Her head tilted. “There’s a flaw in that objective for you.”
“I like to be different. Stand out from the pack. Excel on my own.”
“From the perspective of a woman…” hot or not, “we do like a guy who makes an effort to surprise us.”
With that, his bass dropped. “I made an effort last night.”
“For a man with no interest in hitting a home run, you sure know how to smolder.”
And he had no problem with the swaggering smile either.
Though it was more modest than most men would achieve, that was probably practice and expertise too.
Cam was in his own league, nothing was sure when it came to him.
Nothing except his chastity. If she hadn’t been sure before last night, she was now.
This man could’ve done whatever he wanted to her and she’d have begged for more.
Her restraint only lasted because his did.
“You’re a man of conviction. No doubt about that.” Her fingertips met his hip. “Are the rest of your family so virtuous? Mimi strikes me as…”
“Insane? She drops acid or ‘shrooms every morning.”
“She does not! Does she?”
“You come up with a better explanation. She knows every dealer in LA, probably on the planet.”
That was hilarious. “She’s your grandmother!”
“She doesn’t like to be reminded. It’s not just dealers, Mimi knows everyone. Need a fence? A hitman? She’ll hook you up.” Such a prestigious family didn’t let a little thing like social class or legality come between them and knowledge. “I’m sorry that she recognized you.”
“She didn’t. Your friend Tripp did. Is he a detective or something?”
“Says he never forgets a face, or a body. There’s every chance he featured in a drunken fumble from your past.”
Yeah, she’d never run in those circles. “Spencer might’ve noticed that.”
“Tripp has his ways, you might’ve missed—”
“I’ve only ever been with two men: Spencer and Mason… I never had a wild phase.”
Clarity piqued his demeanor. “Which is why you’re having one now.”
“Trying and failing.”
Sipping her coffee, she left the stool to wander toward the couch. Was she honestly going to do this? Tell him everything. Everything? That could take a while. More than that, did she really want him to know?