Chapter 11
Sophia
“ W hat?” Sophia blurted. Heat rose to her face, and she was grateful that he wouldn’t be able to see the way he affected her.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She moved to get past him, but he stepped in front of her means of escape.
Maybe she should have accepted Tad’s offer to walk her to her door.
What had she been thinking when she told him Cameron was harmless?
The way he got her heart racing should have been all the proof she needed that he definitely wasn’t that.
Cameron’s eyes flashed with a myriad of emotions. The two that she was able to take note of were the anger and the pain. She knew those emotions well. They’d been good friends of hers since she’d been betrayed by her ex. “Don’t lie to me, Sophia. You’re not very good at it.”
Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. “I beg your pardon?”
He stepped in closer, and his hands wrapped gently around her upper arms as he stared harder into her eyes. “You can’t tell me that something isn’t going on between us. You might think you’re hiding it well, but you’re wrong. Dead wrong .”
For a brief moment she wanted to tell him everything—how he’d hurt her when he’d made her feel like she was all he’d ever needed, only to be hooking up with other women.
She wanted to fling it in his face that she knew him better than he knew her.
She’d been around men like Cameron, and they weren’t all Boy Scouts.
But just reliving those memories had her heart tearing apart.
It was silly. Logically, she could admit that to herself. They’d barely known each other, and they hadn’t exactly laid out any rules for seeing one another. What right did she have to be angry with him for keeping his options open?
But the romantic in her refused to acknowledge any of that. He’d pursued her . He’d made her feel special. When they’d been together, she’d allowed him to tear down her walls and she’d thought that maybe there had been a chance for her to find love again—to trust again.
She scowled and yanked out of his grasp as she bit back the tears that threatened to sting her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” he bit out. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t feel it. We had something good going on. There was a connection?—”
“Get out of my way, Cameron. It’s late, and I’m tired.
” She tried to block out the words he’d just said, tried to stitch up the emotional damage they were causing in her soul.
Yes, they’d had a connection, but she wasn’t the type of girl to go for a guy who didn’t want to go all in with the girl he was chasing.
Cameron still blocked her path, and she had half a mind to scream bloody murder just so one of her brothers would come out and cart Cameron away for her.
She scowled at him still, her eyes shooting daggers at him as best as they could.
He scowled right back. Did he seriously not know what he’d done?
Did he not see what kind of person he was?
He lifted a hand to reach for her, but she jerked out of his grasp.
His mouth set into a hard line before he heaved a sigh.
“Do you know how frustrating it is to see the person you’re interested in come home with a different guy every weekend? ”
Her jaw dropped. The hypocrisy of it all! “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“What?” he said, his brows furrowed.
She poked him hard in the chest as she prowled closer to him this time. She emphasized each word with the touch of her finger. “Don’t. Dish. It. Out. If. You. Can’t. Take. It.”
In a split second, he captured her finger in his hand and pulled so she stumbled forward a step. “What are you talking about, Sophia?” he growled. “I’m not the one going out every weekend with people I barely know.”
“Who says I don’t know them?” Sophia’s heated whisper faltered, and she prayed he didn’t see what his proximity was doing to her.
She could smell his clean, woodsy scent, and it floated to her on the breeze between them.
If she wasn’t careful, she was going to lose her head and end up having her heart broken all over again.
Cameron scoffed. “What did I say about lying to me?” When she didn’t answer, he adjusted his hold on her so he was no longer holding her finger but both of her hands.
His voice softened, and that pain he’d been hiding seeped into his words.
“What happened five years ago, Red? It never added up. I deserve to know.”
All the pain and suffering she’d experienced after letting her guard down came rushing to the surface, and she hated him for his ability to seek it out like a hound dog.
Mingled with that pain was a distinct sense of anger that she couldn’t shake.
He deserved to hurt—a lot more than he was hurting right now.
“Fine,” she said, tugging on her hands but unable to escape his clutches.
“You want to know what happened? I’ll tell you what happened.
” She finally freed herself and folded her arms tight across her chest. “You made such a show of chasing me—of making me feel like I was the very moon that hung in the sky. Special .” Her voice cracked.
“You made me feel like there was still a chance that I could find happiness with someone after all the heartache I’d experienced in the past. I didn’t want to let you in.
I knew it wouldn’t be smart to open up to someone I barely knew, and surprise, surprise. I was right.”
His scowl remained fixed on his face, not giving her any indication of what he was feeling, so she trudged onward.
“You finally convinced me to give you a chance, and what did you do? You squandered it.”
“I did no such thing. You were the one who ran off with another date that night,” he ground out.
“Really? And who was that girl at your hotel room door?”
He frowned, the anger fading fast as confusion replaced it. His eyes shifted to the side while he returned to his own memories.
She barked out a laugh. “Why am I not surprised that you can’t even remember her?
Tall. Leggy. Blonde.” She spat the words like venom.
“You two were talking, and she was laughing, then she got a goodbye kiss from you. How many women, exactly, did you chase that week, huh?” Sophia shook her head with another huff and took a step to the side to finally escape Cameron.
He had the answers he had wanted, and she needed to escape him before the first tear fell.
His hand grasped her wrist, stopping her escape.
“Cameron,” she snapped, “let go of me or I’ll?—”
“There wasn’t anyone else,” Cameron whispered.
She stilled at the pleading in his tone as she slowly lifted her eyes to meet his. There was a new sort of ache in them that halted her decision to bolt.
His hold on her tightened. “You have to believe me.”
“Why should I?” she asked, hating the desperation in her voice. Why was she so willing to get reeled back into his clutches? He was a spider, and she was the fly. At this point it wouldn’t take much for her to become trapped in his web, and she wasn’t sure if she hated that idea all that much.
Cameron tugged her closer to him before securing her at her waist. Sophia’s hands landed on his chest as she stared up at him. What was it about the way he looked at her that made her wish he actually had a reasonable explanation?
“You came to my room early, didn’t you?” he rasped.
She blinked, heat flushing her cheeks in an intolerable way.
“That girl was drunk. She’d come to the wrong room.”
Sophia blinked again, not daring to believe what he was saying as much as she wanted to.
Cameron shut his eyes briefly, then shook his head with a wry sort of chuckle.
“She’d thrown herself at me without looking too closely.
I think she thought she was kissing the guy who had told her to meet him at his room that night.
” He opened his eyes, pleading with her.
“You have to believe me, Red. I have no idea who that woman was. I pushed her away as soon as she kissed me. I ended up helping her find that room, too.”
Sophia’s stomach dropped, and her heart raced at his words.
As much as she didn’t want to believe him or give him the benefit of the doubt, she couldn’t deny that the story made sense.
She hadn’t stuck around after the kiss to see if he’d done what he’d said.
A groan escaped her chest, and the blush she knew had taken root in her cheeks grew hotter.
Placing her head against his chest so he couldn’t see her face, she muttered under her breath.
“Hey,” Cameron’s soft voice broke the silence, and he shifted back so he could tilt her chin up to meet her eyes.
She closed them and shook her head.
“Red,” he murmured more firmly this time, causing her to finally look at him. “What’s going on?”
An embarrassed laugh escaped her lips, and she shook her head. “I’m such an idiot.”
One side of his mouth quirked upward, but he shook his head, too. Cameron traced the line of her jaw with his knuckle as his eyes took her in. “You’re not an idiot, Red.”
“You don’t have to be nice. I was being an idiot.
I was hotheaded, and I didn’t stick around to find out what was really happening.
I just…” She pulled back from him. There were a million reasons why she couldn’t stand here and pretend that she wasn’t broken.
And she wasn’t about to give him the reason she’d jumped so quickly to assuming he was the villain.
Cameron’s hands remained at her waist even though they weren’t pressed together anymore. His eyes searched hers, and he tilted his head. “Does this mean you’ll give me another chance?”
She cut him a wary look, tempted but knowing it would be a bad idea. She wasn’t in the right headspace, even knowing the truth. This time she took a big enough step away from him to force him to release her. “I don’t date, Cameron. You know that.”
His brows creased. “Why? I told you what happened?—”
Sophia placed a hand on his chest, the temptation to tell him everything hovering just below the surface. She forced a smile and shrugged, deciding it was best to keep everything to herself. “I’m just not interested in something long-term. Don’t think I’m built for it.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Her eyes grew wide at his husky tone. “What?”
“You heard me. If you want me to believe that you’re not craving that sort of connection, you’re going to have to do a lot better than some flippant excuse like that.”
She glowered at him. “You might think you know me, but you have no idea.” Sophia shoved past him, and just as she pushed the front door open, she heard him call out to her.
“I’m going to change your mind, Red.”
Sophia didn’t bother turning back at his words. She simply shut the door behind her and escaped into the safety of her home.