Chapter 42 #2
Camile smiles sweetly at us all, and then her gaze hits Jack, and her smile falters.
I glance at Vani’s dad to see his eyes raking down Camile’s body and he looks… angry. Why is he angry?
I’m pulled out of my consideration of the suddenly strained dynamic by my cell ringing. I glance at the screen to see it’s my mom calling.
“I need to take this,” I say to Roman, who has come to stand by my side.
Sneaking away, I head up the stairs and into the bedroom where I take the call.
“Darling?” Mom asks as if she’s not just called my cell.
“Yes, it’s me, Mom.”
“How are you doing, Ophelia?”
“I’m good, Mom. Truly. A lot better.”
“And your… um, your friend? The one who got hurt?”
“Roman? He’s a lot better.”
“Oh, that’s good. That’s really good.”
I pause, realizing she sounds emotional. “Are you okay, Mom?”
“I am. I’m fine. I miss you.”
Her words make me smile sadly because I miss her, too, but this is my home now. “I miss you, too.”
Her breath catches and she clears her throat. “Darling, do you think we could come visit? I have your bunny.”
“Mr. Flopsy?”
“Yes.”
I pause. “Mom, will you keep him there? In my childhood room.”
It’s not that I’ve outgrown him. I never will. It’s more that I want him to be at home, where he belongs, and where I can always go visit. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you. Why don’t you come next weekend? And bring Dad.”
“Oh, darling, that will be wonderful. Thank you.”
“Mom, you’ll always be welcome here.” It’s true; she will. My father? He has work to do to re-earn my trust, and he’ll likely never get a warm reception from Roman. But Mom comes with a package deal that includes Dad, so I’ll ask my men to be civil so I can spend some time with her.
We chat for a few minutes, and then I hang up. As I exit the bedroom and head back to the party, I hear voices. They seem to be coming from the altar room. No one should be in there.
Frowning, I walk toward it and peek in through the ajar door. Camile is inside, and she’s with Jack.
She’s looking at the altar and all the herbs, and I’m about to go in and tell them to get out of there when she speaks.
“This is a bit freaky, isn’t it?”
“No more freaky than most religious services that take place every Sunday.” Jack shrugs.
She turns to him and steps closer. “That’s a good point. I’d never thought of that.”
Jack watches her as she approaches as if she’s an unexploded bomb. “It’s just rituals, and we all have them. Things that soothe us, you know.”
She walks by him, flicking her hair as she does, and stands by the wall, before looking at him. “And what’s your ritual. What soothes you, Jack?”
This is not a Camile that I know. She’s being so seductive, but it’s almost as if she’s not sure what she’s doing and is coming off too over the top.
“Oh, lots of things. Cleaning my guns, for one.”
Camile sucks in a breath.
“Drinking.”
She nods and licks her lips.
“Fighting,”
“Uh huh.” She pushes her chest out a little and cocks her head to one side. “Anything else? Maybe beginning with F?”
Jack walks right up to her and brackets her against the wall, his massive arms either side of her, trapping her. “Baby girl, what are you playing at?”
“What do you mean?” Camile’s voice catches in her throat.
“I mean, don’t play games you don’t fucking understand.” Jack leans in and presses his nose against Camile’s throat, running it up the column of her neck.
I freeze. Holy fuck, that’s hot. I squeeze my thighs together, realizing I’m such a pervert watching them like this but unable to look away.
“I’m not one of your college boys, Camile. I’m older, harder, and way more jaded. I’m too old for the likes of you.”
She turns her face so she’s looking at him. “Maybe I like older men,” she says, but her voice is shaking.
“Not like me, you don’t. Besides which, you’re a slip of a thing, and I’d tear you apart.”
She sucks in a breath.
Jack pulls one hand away from the wall and slowly, oh-so-slowly, rubs his thumb across her bottom lip.
Camile darts her tongue out, so briefly if I’d have blinked, I’d have missed it.
Jack groans low and deep. “Fuck me, baby girl. You’re dangerous, you know that?”
“Yeah?” She blinks up at him.
He watches her for a long moment, but then something shuts down in him and he pulls away.
“But I’m way more dangerous, and you don’t want to be involved with the likes of me.
Trust me. Go back to your friends—you remember them?
My daughter, and your friend, Vani? I don’t think she’d be happy about this. ”
She pushes past him angrily, and he lets her. I dart into the room opposite, hiding as she walks by me.
I hear Jack groan in the altar room. “Fuck me.”
Then he sighs audibly and his heavy footsteps leave the room to follow Camile back to the party.
Good lord, I need a moment. If they could bottle the sexual tension between those two and sell it, we’d all be at it like rabbits.
But I’m glad Jack shut it down because he is right, he’s dangerous and Vani would not be happy.
I’ve spent my life having to watch out for predators, and I know one when I see one.
Camile is sweet, and she’s kind of a good girl, compared to a lot of the women here, so she’d be a terrible fit for biker life.
I almost laugh at the idea of her in leathers, on the back of a bike. I’ve always pictured her married in a few years, to a man in the mob who comes across more as a businessman than a mobster.
When I get back to the party, there’s no sign of her.
“Where’s Camile?” I ask Mackenzie.
“She got a headache, so she’s gone home, but she suggested we all go for brunch soon. Just us girls. Nurse our hangovers.”
My heart warms. “I’d love that,” I say truthfully.
Roman and Mal appear, as if from nowhere, and put their arms around me, each kissing the top of my head. I look around for Cain, always needing to know where he is, and my gaze finds his. Our eyes lock, and there’s so much that passes between us in that simple look.
The party recedes around me, all the noise and chatter, and all that matters is my two men either side of me, and Cain’s gaze holding me in a tractor beam of emotions.
These men are my home, and I know they will be for as long as I have air in my lungs.
I’ve finally found the place I belong, and my heart is full.