Chapter Eleven #2
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, plucking at the shirttail.
“Mind? I thought the dress looked good, but this beats it, hands down.”
She took that into consideration and got shy again. Her gaze went to the paperwork on the tabletop, but her mind was clearly on something else.
“Lexie,” he said, a warning in his voice.
“You’re not going to make me throw something, are you?”
He fought the smile that pulled at his lips. “No, I thought we’d found a better solution than that.”
Her cheeks flooded with color. “I’m sorry about that,” she whispered.
“About what?”
She let her hair swing forward so he couldn’t see her face. “About jumping you.”
He frowned. “Do you regret what we did?”
She was quiet for so long, he started to get edgy.
“Lexie?”
“No,” she finally admitted.
He caught her chin and made her look at him. “I don’t either. The next time you get upset, you don’t tuck it away inside. You come find me.”
She appeared pained with embarrassment. “I don’t usually do that… I mean, I’m not that aggressive. I’ve never… Oh God…”
He cut her off with a kiss—a solid, slow kiss that heated the longer she let it go on. Cam’s heart started pounding against his rib cage. This was the Lexie he knew. This was the woman he’d lusted over for three months.
But she was embarrassed by what they’d done.
He rubbed his tongue against hers before pulling back. “I’m the one who needs to apologize. I’m sorry I pushed you so hard. Maybe I went too far.”
“I understand why you did it. At least now I do.”
“I hated hurting you. You have to know that.”
“I think it worked.” She licked her lips, and he hardened at the thought of her tasting him.
“I feel better. Still screwed up, but better.” She clenched her hands together in her lap.
“You’re probably wondering how you got messed up in this.
Your family couldn’t possibly be as dysfunctional as mine. ”
Resting his arm atop the back of the couch, Cam toyed idly with her hair. “I don’t have much of a family. Not anymore. It was just my mom and me, but she died almost three years ago.”
“You don’t have anyone else?”
He shrugged. “There are some aunts and uncles out there. Maybe a cousin or two, but nobody I’m close to.”
She was quiet for a long while. “What was she like? Your mom?”
He stilled. “She was great.” He cleared his throat.
He hadn’t talked to anyone about his mother since she’d died.
Come to think of it, nobody had bothered to ask.
“She always put me first. We didn’t have much money.
I know it was tough on her raising a kid by herself.
She held down two jobs to do it, but we were always a team. ”
“So she worked all the time too?”
Cam took a minute. He’d never thought about that. “She was a waitress during the day and she cleaned offices at night, but she always made time for me. I was on my own a lot, but I pitched in with odd jobs to help out.”
“I bet she was proud of you.”
His throat tightened dangerously. “I bought her a house when I was twenty-six on the condition that she retire.”
Lexie tugged at the hem of his shirt around her legs. “Did you ever try to find your dad?” she whispered.
“I don’t want to.” He gentled his hand in her hair. “But I can understand how you must feel.”
“I just have so many questions.”
“Do you remember your parents at all?”
She shook her head. “From what Julian said, I must have been a daddy’s girl.”
She looked around the office, eyes blinking, and Cam felt a bit uneasy. Confidential information was strewn across the room. She didn’t need to see what he was doing for Underhill, not right now anyway.
“Is this how you live?” she asked. “Moving around from place to place?”
She wasn’t looking at the work. She was curious about him. Something warm unfurled inside his chest. He hadn’t allowed many people to get close to him as he’d scraped and clawed his way up in the world. It was a habit that had become ingrained.
But for her, he’d try to open up.
“Mostly,” he admitted. “I spend most of my time working on-site with clients.”
“Living in other people’s penthouses?”
“In whatever situation works best.”
“And your SUV?”
“It’s leased.”
“So there’s nothing of you here?”
He looked around, trying to see what she saw. There were his clothes, his laptop and his cellphone, but he got what she was saying. “It’s a good living.”
“But it’s not a good life. Don’t you ever get lonely?”
Their gazes locked, and he couldn’t have stopped staring at her if he’d tried. “I’m starting to,” he murmured.
Loneliness had never been something that touched him—until now.
With the way he’d grown up, he’d learned to rely on himself.
Hard work had proven to be the way to get ahead, and nothing in his experience had convinced him otherwise.
He wanted to finish this work with Underhill, the sooner the better.
He had a job to do, and he’d do it to the best of his ability, yet this time moving on would be more difficult.
He didn’t want to leave her behind.
He didn’t know if he could.
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her towards him. He caught her leg and hitched her up over him. She clutched at his shoulders for balance yet seemed surprised when she wound up straddling his lap.
Surprised and sexy as hell.
Cam’s cock throbbed. Giving in to the temptation, he slid his hands up her thighs and under his shirt. “Let’s make a deal,” he said. “You don’t feel sorry for me, and I won’t feel sorry for you.”
She shifted sexily under his touch, but she didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. She started to lift them away but instead stroked them down his chest.
His breath shuddered. “Deal?”
Her big brown eyes fluttered up to meet his. “Okay.”
Cam’s pecs clenched when her thumbs brushed over his nipples. “Instead, we focus on making each other feel good,” he said tightly.
And, right now, his focus was turning downright laser-like.
Watching her face, he investigated higher under his shirt and found panties. She flinched when the elastic around the leg holes snapped, but her nipples stiffened under the fabric of his shirt.
“Deal?” he repeated.
Her body relaxed, nearly melting. “Deal.”
The room went quiet.
“Will you let me make love to you, Lexie?”
Her eyelids got heavy. Dreamy. Instead of answering, she leaned forward and kissed him.
Cam’s pulse jumped, but the contact felt too good to rush. They were going to do this slowly this time. Unhurried and unhindered. Doubts, hurt and betrayal were going to be left at the door.
He let his fingers glide back under her panties. His touch bit into the soft globes of her ass as he kissed his way up to her ear.
“You don’t know how hard it’s been for me to stay out of that bedroom.”
“Cam.”
He caught his name on her lips. It had taken him long enough to get it there, he didn’t want to waste it.
Once he started kissing her, though, he couldn’t stop.
Their lips clung and their tongues rasped.
He kissed her for a good, long time, feeling every clench of her thighs and every shiver along her spine.
As much as he liked her wearing his clothes, he wanted skin. Nuzzling his way under her chin, he slipped a hand inside the shirt and cupped her breast. She fit into his palm perfectly, spilling out around his fingers. He squeezed and felt her butt grind against his lap.
“Tell me what you want,” he whispered. “Tell me what you like.”
“This.” She arched her back and slid her fingers slid into his hair.
He undid the shirt and pushed it off her shoulders. Her breasts were full and firm, sleek and soft. Just looking at her hard, pink nipples made Cam’s mouth water. Spreading his palm wide between her shoulder blades, he pulled her to him.
And latched on.
With a moan, he began suckling her. Suckling and nipping. He fondled and he licked. He kept at her until her stomach was quivering and her fingers were tugging at his hair.
“Ahhh,” she cried. “It’s too… More!”
He pushed the shirt off her entirely and turned with her in his arms. He laid her on the sofa.
Papers crinkled, and he swept them onto the floor.
She arched when she lay back and pulled out something that had poked her in the kidney.
It was his phone. He tossed it nearly halfway across the room.
Finally, she stretched out beneath him, and he let his weight come down atop her.
Her brown eyes were glazed as she looked up at him. “Do you orchestrate it so I always end up sitting next to you at meetings?”
He let one eyebrow lift. “It’s my job to make things happen.”
When he swiveled his erection in the cradle of her hips, her lips parted. “Things like this?”
“Definitely an outcome I’d hoped for.”
Her hands flitted down to cup his backside. “And all the times our legs bumped under the table or our shoulders brushed?”
“Strategic actions.”
“They worked.” She whispered into his ear, “They made me wet.”
Cam jerked as if someone had just kicked him in the butt, and she groaned as his hardness pushed between her legs. She undulated beneath him, and he quickly leveraged himself up off her.
Unzipping his pants, he shoved them down, along with his briefs. They fell on the floor on top of his shirt and a mess of wrinkled papers. Naked, he stood over her, arousal arcing through him. He wanted it all. He wanted to do everything to her…with her…
She laid back, her eyelids heavy as she looked up at him. Her gaze slid down his body and locked on his erection. Even that invisible touch nearly set him off. He was already stiff and pulsing.
Bending over her, he reached for her panties. “Lift.”
He peeled the little scrap of nothing over her hips and down her thighs. Coming down onto his knees, he positioned himself between her legs. She tried to sit up to meet him, but he spread his hand wide on her stomach and pressed her back down.
“This time I’m on top.”