CHAPTER SIXTEEN
After Beth topped everyone’s mug off with a heavy splash of peppermint schnapps, Amelia was certain their late-morning meeting would leave her shell-shocked.
She had prepared to hear details about Hailey and Jonathan that would make her question everything, and that still might happen.
The peppermint schnapps hadn’t been to soften blows.
It had been to manage an insufferable bureaucracy.
The only thing she learned that day was that even spies had to do paperwork.
Their meeting took hours, and for most of it, the three of them snacked on pastries while requests were made, questioned, and parried.
To Beth’s credit, the treats were very tasty and appreciated.
Not until Amelia climbed back into their SUV and the seat warmers kicked on did the gravity of her request become clear.
She and Camden were approved to do something that no one would explain.
She didn’t know when or where, just that they had a green light.
Both Camden and Beth seemed surprised.
Amelia shivered as something akin to adrenaline pumped in her blood.
The windshield wipers and tires on the rain-slicked road were the only sounds for several miles.
Camden checked his mirrors and merged onto the interstate.
He was so casual. Then again, this was his day job.
He didn’t need schnapps.
The conversations and negotiations were his norm.
“What do you want to do when we get back?”
“Take a hot shower and decompress.” She glanced at the casual way he drove, alert but at ease.
She hated driving in the rain.
She hated wondering if the drivers around her were paying attention to the road and conditions—a car accident could easily upend everything.
“Your boss—Boss Man—he sounds intense.”
“Jared Westin?” Camden snorted.
“He is.”
“Brock and Parker, not so much?”
“They are in their own ways. Brock’s real quiet. Does his job. Disappears. I don’t see him much, but Parker is always available. He’s a magician with technology and ammunition.” He slowed for traffic.
“They’re mostly based in the US. Though Jared and Parker spent a lot of time setting up our headquarters in Abu Dhabi.”
He’d mentioned the Middle East before.
“That’s where you live?”
Camden nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Do you like it?”
He gave a pointed glance out the window.
“We don’t have forty-degree days and rain all the time.”
Amelia pulled her coat over her chest. Just thinking about the cold made her shiver again.
“Do you like your job?”
His jaw worked back and forth.
“It has its moments.”
“That’s vague.” Though she could say the same thing about running Events and Occasions.
She liked working with Veronica and enjoyed chasing deadlines with logistical challenges.
Despite the fact that she detested the ins and outs of running a business, the sense of accomplishment that came from a completed checklist was always nice, and nobody on Earth would complain about taste-testing samples from potential menus.
Events and Occasions used to be lots of fun.
Now? She didn’t know if what happened with Hailey and Jonathan had changed things at work or if that simply changed her perspective on her own life.
“I’m never bored,” Camden explained, raising a shoulder.
“The pay and benefits are hard to compete with. It works for me. What about you? You like what you do?”
“No,” she admitted.
Thinking it, much less saying it aloud, was a shock.
But it was the truth.
How hadn’t she noticed that before?
Eyebrows up, Camden glanced her way.
“Really?”
She shrugged as though she were indifferent, but really, the revelation still reverberated.
“I’m good at it.” She could hear the hesitancy in her own voice, as if she were listening to someone else.
“Strong repeat business.”
“Having your own company, building something out of nothing, that’s impressive.”
“Maybe…” Compared to what?
He probably saved people’s lives.
Compared to him? Not impressive.
But it did show that she could bust her ass until she got what she wanted.
That was how she intended to find Hailey: nonstop, dogged work.
Amelia watched the cars pass as they slowed for an exit ramp.
“Hailey had an entire adventurous life, and I didn’t realize it.”
“You knew the important parts of her.”
“She loved family and teaching. She loved talking about art.” Amelia chewed on her bottom lip.
“But there was more than I realized, I guess. She really loved life.”
“What do you love?”
“I guess just my sister.” Amelia wasn’t passionate about anything the way Hailey was.
She didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed that before.
She thought about work a lot.
It wasn’t her world, but it definitely fulfilled a need.
“You know what I like about my job?”
“What?”
“I like being in charge and having a surefire way to provide for myself. I started my company when Hailey was getting her master’s and doctorate. We flipped roles for a while. It was like I became the big sister. My company offset a lot of costs. Our apartment. Groceries. I’d felt so out of control when our parents died, and when I finally had that taste of control…” The right words wouldn’t come.
“I could breathe better.”
But life was out of control again, and she suddenly remembered asking Camden to just tell her what to do.
The idea that he could take over was nearly an aphrodisiac.
A blush rose to her cheeks and down her spine.
Never in a million years would that have come out of her mouth.
But sharing life’s responsibilities would be so liberating, even for a moment.
Amelia watched him drive for longer than she should have.
After his dark-brown hair dried, it had a mussed, haphazard style that she wanted to touch.
It looked soft compared to his harder features.
A five-o’clock shadow darkened his chiseled jaw.
He was the poster boy for tall, dark, and handsome, and the more she tried to ignore it, the harder it became.
“What?” he asked.
Nothing I would admit to.
She quickly stopped staring.
“I think I’m hungry.”
He laughed.
“Well, let me know when you’re sure.”
She snickered.
One second, Camden was smoldering simply by existing.
The next, he made goofy jokes.
She liked him more and more.
His laughter rumbled quietly in his chest and made the corners of his eyes crinkle.
Why was she noticing this when she needed to focus on Hailey?
“Maybe I just need a nap first.”
“You can do both.”
That could be true about many things.
Amelia chewed on her bottom lip.
They found another tiny parking spot near the safe house.
He was able to magically finesse the oversized vehicle into it.
The rain had died off again.
Grateful for the reprieve, Amelia buttoned her coat and fell into step with Camden.
The wind had picked up like it had the night before.
She shivered. Wind chimes dinged, and artisan wind spinners danced in yards.
“This neighborhood is adorable.” She would love to live somewhere that had so much more personality than her condo complex.
Amelia didn’t even want to go back home.
Everything she’d found comfortable—the easiness of condo living, the repetitiveness of her day job—had become tedious.
A restlessness overtook her body.
Her legs wanted to hurry inside.
Her chest ached with a drumbeat that picked up in tempo as they closed in on the safe house.
She swallowed away a wave of anxiety.
Camden had taken her back there, but he could just as easily have driven her back to her condo.
The idea made her dizzy.
She didn’t want to go there.
“Cam—”
He had inserted the key into his front door and looked over his shoulder.
Panic—dread?—pounded in her ears.
Her lungs felt cold, empty, as if she might not be able to catch her breath if she wasn’t careful.
“I can’t go back to my place tonight.”
“Then don’t.” Camden turned back to the door and twisted the key like the conversation had been decided.
She couldn’t walk and process the simple solution at the same time.
“Amelia?” He crooked two fingers and pulled her inside as though she were tied to an invisible string.
The house was warm. The lights were off.
He reached behind her and shut the door.
Her eyes shut for the moment he leaned close.
He smelled familiar to her.
A wild twenty-four hours had passed.
It actually felt like it could have been days, and during that time, she had hugged him, lain by him, even dragged him by his arm.
She knew the way he smelled, and it melted away her anxiety.
He towered over her, and for a delirious, dreamlike second, she imagined him closing their distance, pressing her against the door, and erasing every trouble.
He could kiss her, touch her, do whatever he wanted to her, and she would bask in his attention like a woman starved.
“Doing okay?”
Oh my God .
No, she wasn’t. Her heart stopped beating.
She tucked her chin, embarrassed.
Fantasizing about this man would lead to disaster.
Beth would never work with Amelia without Camden, and Camden would never work with her if he knew what was continually plaguing her imagination.
He touched her chin.
“Eyes on me, sweetheart.”
Why did the quiet rasp of his words have to roll over her like that?
Amelia steeled herself and raised her face.
He looked at her as though trying to read her soul.
The intensity made his dark, smoldering eyes shine.
“What’s bothering you?”
Her lungs weren’t getting enough oxygen.
“The day’s just catching up with me.”
He scrutinized her a moment longer then nodded and tossed the house keys to himself.
“You sure?”
She nodded.
Camden let out a long breath and hung the keys on the hook by the door.
“I gotta take a shower.”
He hurried into the dark living room and scooped up the football from the couch.
She couldn’t help feeling he had read her thoughts and was unhappy or irritated.
Then again, she couldn’t blame him for wanting to shower and change into fresh clothes.
Theirs had air-dried while meeting with Beth.
Her pants and shirt were stiff and uncomfortable.
“I’ll do the same.” But she didn’t head upstairs and noticed Camden didn’t turn around, which worried her.
“Then maybe we grab food later?”
“Sounds like a plan.” But he still didn’t turn around.
Camden stalked around the kitchen, tossing the football, instead of using the downstairs bathroom to shower.
She bit her lip but returned to her bedroom—well, his bedroom that he was loaning her.
His temporary bedroom, where the sheets and pillow didn’t smell like him and the walls were bare of personality.
What did his real home look like?
Amelia undressed and stepped into the shower.
It was high-end and luxurious.
Water could spray from any direction she wanted.
The floors and towel rack were heated, and the mirrors barely fogged.
This house had more tricks up its sleeve than the weapons it hid in the closets.
Once her life was untangled and Hailey was home safe, Amelia might invest in a bathroom renovation.
She stayed under the hot water until she was worried none would be left for Camden, then she wrapped her hair and herself in warm towels of thick cotton.
She slathered on face cream and opened the bathroom door.
Cold air rolled in. Laying her change of clothes on the towel heater would have been a genius move.
She decided to warm up under the covers before donning an outfit for dinner.
Amelia pulled back the sheets and closed her eyes.
She would stay there only long enough to adjust to the bedroom temperature.
Camden crept up the stairs, silently cursing his lack of forethought.
“Amelia?” he whispered.
She was asleep, he was sure.
He’d heard the water turn off well before he took his own shower downstairs.
There hadn’t been a peep from her since.
The door was cracked.
“Amelia?”
The November sun had set.
The drawn windows were dark.
Only a slice of light from the bathroom illuminated the room.
She was asleep with a towel wrapped around her hair and the covers pulled up to her chin.
With a towel wrapped around his waist, he crept to the small chest of drawers.
“Cam?”
Shit. “Just grabbing clean clothes. I’ll be out in a minute.”
A mirror on the dresser reflected the room at his back.
Amelia sat up. The hair towel wobbled, and she pulled it down.
Her dark hair fell loose around her shoulders.
“God, I’m freezing.”
He forced his eyes to the drawers, pulled out his needed clothes, and unintentionally saw her reflection again.
Amelia wriggled with the covers and removed a second towel.
“I fell asleep in a damp towel.”
Jesus fucking Christ. That wasn’t what he needed to see or hear.
He’d all but kissed her when they walked inside and had to walk away from her without looking back.
His heart thumped in his chest. Between the two of them, a towel and blanket were all that kept them decent.
All of the blood in his body was going to his cock, and he needed to focus on getting the hell out of that room.
She wrapped herself in the comforter and scooted to the edge of the bed.
Her eyes met his in the mirror.
“Can I wear something comfy of yours?” Her gaze drifted down his back before jerking to the wall, making his pulse pound harder.
She added on, explaining, “I didn’t bring any lounge-around-the-house clothes.”
Her in his clothes?
He liked that, too, which wasn’t helpful.
But a clothed Amelia was much, much better than her nearly naked and an arm’s reach away.
He needed to treat her like a client.
No, actually, he needed to treat her like a victim because that was what she was, no matter if they were “working” on her goose chase.
Camden licked his bottom lip, refocused, and nodded.
He chose a T-shirt but didn’t know what to do for pants.
Several clothing options were probably stocked in the closet for people who used the safe house, but again, he thought of her in his clothes and didn’t offer to look.
He selected his most comfortable gray sweatpants and turned.
“You could probably roll these on your waist to make them fit.”
The safest option was to throw the shirt and pants at her and haul ass downstairs.
The tightness in his chest made it loud and clear that wasn’t what he really wanted to do.
Camden should’ve put on the dirty clothes after his shower and stayed downstairs.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked.
His eyebrows arched.
“What? No.” He racked his mind for ways that he could have made her think he was upset.
“Why?”
She lifted a bare shoulder.
“When we arrived, I thought… maybe I was overstaying my welcome.”
She meant that moment when he damn near ran away instead of taking her against the wall.
He was an asshole and needed to get himself in order before he did something he couldn’t take back.
“Not at all.”
“Oh.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Okay.”
Uncertainty and tension mixed in the crackling air.
He should probably say more, but all he could think about was wanting to get into her bed.
He really needed to get the hell out of that room.
“I’m kind of getting that same feeling now.” She bit her lip, and a blush rose into her cheeks.
“If I did something to make you feel uncomfortable, I’m really sorry.”
“You didn’t do anything,” he said too shortly.
She clearly didn’t believe him.
Hell, he wouldn’t believe himself either.
He walked to the edge of the bed and sat, at which point he faced the door that he should’ve been walking out of.
“I promise. I’m not mad. I’m just…” He dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling.
“Struggling.”
“You don’t want to help me with Hailey?”
He snorted.
“Work is the last fuckin’ thing on my mind.” He glanced over his shoulder.
“That’s my problem.”
Her cherry lips rounded as if she suddenly saw his action in an entirely different light.
“I should go downstairs.” Should was the operative word, but he didn’t move a damn muscle.
The comforter rustled behind him, and her hand cupped his shoulder.
Her touch heated his skin in a way that he couldn’t believe possible.
His shoulder muscles tensed.
Arousal pounded in his blood with an intoxicating buzz.
Camden let out a shaky breath and stared at her hand then into her face again, praying he was misreading everything between them.
But that was not what he saw.
Fuck. “This is a bad idea, Amelia.”
She didn’t pull her hand away, and he didn’t want her to.
Of all the women in the world, this one didn’t play hard to get.
She wasn’t the type for games or bullshit, and he’d never been the type to ignore what he wanted, except right then.
Amelia let go. “How come?”
“I don’t know how long I’m here for. I could be gone by the morning.” Her palm had seared his skin in a way that he would always be able to feel all the way back in Abu Dhabi.
He forced himself off the bed and turned.
There was a simple answer she wouldn’t like to hear.
“And you have been through a lot.”
“You’ve helped me survive a lot,” she countered with a quickness that made him want to smile.
Instead, he ground his molars until he was certain of what would come out of his mouth.
“That’s exactly why we shouldn’t.” He licked his lips.
“We’re not on the same playing field right now.”
“I should’ve gathered you were one for sports metaphors.”
He chuckled.
She gave him an erection and made him laugh.
That was why saying no was nearly impossible.
Wasn’t that what romance was all about?
Though romance was more than a quick screw on the job.
Camden walked to the edge of the bed.
Crawling under the covers would change everything.
Then again, who cared?
Dynamics were meant to be fluid.
Amelia lay down and rested her head on the pillows.
“Do you think I’m attractive?”
“You know I think you’re gorgeous.”
“I don’t know that.” She blinked hard.
“Cam, you’re the only thing I know that’s safe. You’re the person I trust.”
Every.
Single. Thing she said pulled him closer.
He shook his head. Right then wasn’t the time, but there would be a time.
Of that he was certain.
And maybe it didn’t have to happen all at once.
She wasn’t playing games.
Neither was he. Her words replayed in his head.
I like it when you tell me what to do .
The possibilities ran through him with volcanic understanding.
She wanted—needed—a distraction, and he could do that in a way that would leave both of them loopy as fuck without taking advantage of her.
Camden moved closer.
“Close your eyes, Amelia.”
They went wider instead.
He eased onto the bed and lay close enough to smell her soft floral scent.
“Eyes closed, sweetheart.”
Her eyelashes fluttered shut.
Her pulse jumped in her neck as her unsteady breathing whispered between her pink lips.
Camden touched her cheek.
Her lips parted, breath catching.
His fingers traced to her jawline and mapped it slowly from one side to the other.
The pads of his fingertips drifted down her neck.
The quick beat of her pulse played around his skimming touch.
“What do you say…” He caressed her collarbone with the back of his hand.
His knuckles teased from one side to the other, nearly dipping between the swell of her breasts.
“We take it slow?”
She bit her bottom lip, eyes still closed, and nodded.
He would remain in control.
He would keep her safe.
He would probably be gone before everything got too complicated.
“If you say ‘stop,’ all returns to normal.”
She nodded again.
Camden retraced the path to her cheek and threaded his hand into the softest hair he’d ever touched.
Her breath hitched. He labored to keep his in check and dipped his mouth to hers.
The kiss hit him like a spark dropped into a powder keg.
Lust ignited. The immediate sizzle burned hot and fast. Need coursed through his body and cracked through his control like an earthquake.
Her mouth opened to his and stoked a hunger in him that a simple kiss shouldn’t have been able to command.
Their breaths raced.
Her fingers bit into his skin.
His hands ached to explore, and his mind tried to renegotiate his promise of taking it slow.
He kissed her until he couldn’t be trusted to throw the towel and comforter away, then he ducked his mouth to her neck and breathed her in.
His tongue slid to the sensitive spot behind her earlobe and made her squirm.
“I am going to kiss every inch of you.”
Breathless, she nodded.
“Promise?”
“But not tonight.”
She froze except for her fingers, which dug into his flesh.
His resolve was hanging on by a thread.
Camden needed to go downstairs.
But his head and his cock were telling him to shut his fucking mouth and crawl into her bed.
“Slow,” he reminded both of them.
“Oh God, you’re a horrible person, Camden Brooks.”
His lips curled, and his chest rumbled.
What the fuck was he doing?
He could fix this in zero-point-two seconds.
Her body would feel so good.
Instead, he dragged his mouth to the other side of her neck.
“I’m doing this for your own good.”
“And you’re a liar to boot.”
He laughed and lay on the pillow next to her.
Her kiss, her swollen lips, and her messy hair went straight to his cock.
“I totally am.” But he scrubbed a hand over his face and tried to get a hold of himself.
“Fucking isn’t going to make anything easier.”
That might have been the most responsible thing he’d ever said in his entire goddamn life.
He scrutinized her disappointment and the sexy blush of her cheeks and determined the damage.
The woman was just as turned on as he was, but maybe she understood what he was trying to do: keeping her safe from him.
She was vulnerable. He was temporary.
It was that simple.
Amelia let out a long breath.
“What now?”
Good question.
They still had to eat.
“I’m taking you to dinner.” Or he could order delivery for dinner in bed.
Would an hour’s break meet the condition for taking it slow?
Probably not.
He toyed with strands of her hair.
Camden forced himself out of bed and readjusted the towel precariously hanging on his torso.
He had no way to hide the erection that hung around as though hope was in the air.
“What are you hungry for?”
“What’s your bedroom look like at home?”
His eyebrows arched, and with a chuckle, he turned for the dresser.
She never did what he thought she would.
Camden pulled out fresh clothes and shrugged.
“I don’t actually know. I’m sure it looks nice.”
She laughed.
“How don’t you know?”
“It’s an apartment furnished by Titan. I’m sure I had the opportunity to pick options or decor, but I don’t think I did.” He’d never thought about it before.
Stuff was on the walls.
Furniture matched. He had pictures of his family, but Camden couldn’t recall buying anything for the apartment.
“Why?”
“You know so much about me.”
“Good thing I’m taking you out to dinner. You get to ask all the questions you want on a date.”
She gave him a sideways look.
“Date” had caught them both off guard.
He liked surprising her.
Surprising himself was a bonus.