CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Now we go back to our room,” I said.
His eyebrows lifted with interest and I realized what I had done.
“Rooms.” I emphasized the S. “Rooms. You go to your room and I go to my room and we get ready for whatever Sadie and Dan have planned for tonight.”
Why had I said room, singular?
As if I’d asked the question out loud Camden offered, “Freudian slip. You know how when you really want something but you’re telling yourself you don’t, and then you still say it anyways?”
“That’s not what’s happening here.” Time for me to go and get clear of all this mess.
I made sure my key was in my pocket and headed for the door, letting myself out into the hallway. I texted Troy, telling him the job was finished. When I reached the elevators, I realized that I hadn’t quite thought out my great escape plan. Camden approached and stood behind me, nearly touching me.
“Excuse me,” he breathed, his words hot against the back of my neck. It sent shivers of delight skating across my skin. Then he leaned forward, not quite touching me, but it was like I could feel every single cell of his strong frame surrounding me as he pushed the elevator button to go up.
He stayed put, somehow sucking up all of the oxygen surrounding us so that I couldn’t quite catch my breath. I thought I felt his nose against my hair, like he was breathing me in, but I didn’t know for sure. What I did know was that having him so close overwhelmed all of my senses, making them go haywire.
All I had to do was turn around. Just turn around and push up slightly and I’d be kissing him. It would be so easy.
I’d never wanted anything more in my entire life.
The bell sounded and the doors opened.
I let out a deep breath that I hadn’t been aware I’d been holding. Sadie’s stepdad and his fiancée were on the elevator, their arms crossed, her expression angry and his apologetic.
Camden sent me a “what’s going on?” look and I shrugged as we stepped inside. He pushed the button for our floor. Even though their mad vibes were uncomfortable, I was glad they were here. I definitely should not be alone with Camden in this tiny space. I’d seen too many music videos and perfume commercials so that I had a pretty good idea of the kind of trouble we could get into in an elevator.
“If you just let me explain,” Geoff said, and Maybelle immediately hushed him. I wanted to exchange another silent conversation with Camden about what was happening behind us, but figured it was better to keep my eyes trained straight ahead.
Geoff and Maybelle’s floor came up first, and Maybelle pushed past us, without saying a word. I heard Geoff say, “Sweetheart, wait ...,” and then the doors slid shut.
“What was that? Why do you think Maybelle was so angry?” Camden asked.
“Maybe he forgot to buy her the new Furby.” At his confused face I said, “What? That’s what I played with when I was a kid. I don’t know what girls her age are into.”
“Older men, apparently.”
I would not be swayed by his wit and charm. I would not.
The elevator doors opened and we started for our rooms. Rooms, plural, I reminded myself. “Do you think if Maybelle gets really mad she’s going to uninvite him to the prom?”
He laughed and then said, “I don’t know if she’ll go that far. Then she might have to give back her life-sized Barbie Dream Car.”
“You joke, but I could see her driving a pink convertible. I mean, if she has her license.”
We stopped in front of our rooms. Once again, his laughter, his jokes, had disarmed me and I’d forgotten myself. So much for my resolve to not ever be alone with him.
Although it wasn’t actually my fault—we were both going to the exact same place at the exact same time.
It was kind of my fault, though, for standing out here in the hallway with him instead of heading into my room.
“Here we are again,” he said.
“Yes,” I agreed, wondering why I was still standing there. “Just like last night. Only this time I promise not to spew all over the place like Mount Vesuvius.”
I thought that might make him laugh, ease the tension a little, but it wasn’t working. He moved closer. “And last night, you wanted to kiss me.”
His words slammed into my chest, interfering with my heart’s ability to beat. His nearness, his clean scent, was scrambling my brain and making my gut all tingly. “Why ... I didn’t ... that’s not ... what would make you think that?”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Another non-answer. For the record, I wanted to kiss you, too. But I was trying to be respectful, given your situation.”
Why did my throat feel so thick? And why couldn’t I catch my breath? “Why are you being like this?” I asked.
“Like what?” He sounded genuinely puzzled.
I gestured vaguely in his direction, not able to get my currently too-heavy limbs to respond correctly. “Like this. Nothing can happen between us.”
“Dan is not the boss of me.”
Was that what this was all about? Some kind of rebellion against his best friend? Camden would show Dan that he could do what he wanted? “It’s not because of Dan.”
“Then why?” he asked, reaching up to softly stroke my cheek, his fingers pleasantly burning my skin everywhere he touched. I meant to tell him to stop, but couldn’t make sounds. “When two people have shared what we’ve shared, things usually go in this direction.”
“What did we share? A lot of gratuitous vomit?”
“That wasn’t what I meant.” His voice was soft, longing, and all that resolve I’d built up crumbled underneath it.
I’d been trying to distract him, get him joking again, but he’d stayed serious. I closed my eyes slowly, swallowing hard. All the pulse points in my body were throbbing from his touch and a few more seconds of this and I was going to melt into a giant puddle in the middle of the hallway.
His chest was almost touching me and he had his mouth just above mine, frustrating me with tension but no pressure. Just like earlier in Troy’s room. While I considered pressing forward and ending the suspense, there was some part of me that was thrilled at the deliciousness of it all. The anticipation, the wanting, dying to know what it would feel like when it finally happened.
As if his brain were operating on the same wavelength he whispered, “I’ve imagined kissing you at least a dozen times.”
His words were like fiery barbs that pierced my armor and my resolve. “You have?” Did I always sound that breathy?
“Mm-hmm. Your lips look soft and warm.”
“They are.”
“I think maybe I should be the judge of that.”
He was going to kiss me and I wanted it so fiercely that it physically hurt me to put a hand on his chest, intending to stop him. My fingers ignored me and instead pressed against him, enjoying the hardness of his chest against my hand. He felt so firm and strong and I wanted to make a thorough exploration. But I could not afford to get distracted by extraneous and tempting muscles, so I yanked my hand back and said, “Wait.”
Camden pulled his head back, giving me another one of those puzzled looks. I couldn’t blame him because I was basically putty in his hands. “I thought we were on the same page.”
“We’re not even in the same book,” I told him. “This can’t happen.”
“You don’t want me to kiss you?”
“I ...” I couldn’t force out the lie. Because I wanted him so badly that I was quickly losing my hold on my sanity and sense of responsibility.
So I said the thing that would make him go away and stop tempting me. “I know.”
His eyes lit up with amusement. “You know that I want to kiss you? I wasn’t being very subtle about it.”
“I know ... that you think I’m a corporate spy.”
With that he gave me what I needed—he let go of me and took a step back. And even though it was what had to happen, I missed his touch.
His entire demeanor shifted. “Who told you? Sadie? Dan?” Without waiting for me to confirm who had told me, he correctly guessed, “Sadie. How long have you known?”
“Since the cocktail party.”
He shook his head, thrusting his hands into his pockets. “So, you’ve what, been having a laugh at my expense this whole time?”
“Nobody is laughing at you and I’m not a spy. I’m not trying to ruin your company. I literally don’t care about it at all. I don’t even know what it’s called.”
He studied me, a colder look in his eyes than I was accustomed to seeing. It made my stomach twist.
“I’m just supposed to believe you because you say it’s true? Isn’t this what you would say if you were a spy? Deny everything?”
“You could just think about it logically. Sadie would know, wouldn’t she? Which would mean she was in on it and willing to betray Dan. Do you really think that’s possible?”
He gave a slight shrug. “No. Sadie would do anything for him, and the last thing she’d ever do is hurt him deliberately.”
“Right,” I said, relieved he seemed to be seeing reason. “So if that’s true and I’m Sadie’s friend, then ...”
“... then you’re not a spy.” He rubbed the back of his neck, still seeming agitated. “But I still feel like there’s something you’re not telling me.”
That one hit me, like a massive spear catching me in the ribs and piercing me against a wall. “There are so many things I’m not telling you. We barely know each other.”
“What if I want to know those things?”
“Why?”
He gave me a wolfish grin and said, “It probably has something to do with that whole wanting-to-kiss-you thing.”
While that made me even meltier, the need for the ruse was gone. “You can drop the act. You don’t have to pretend to be interested in me anymore. I’m not a spy. There’s nothing you have to get out of me.”
“That’s not—” He stopped himself, shaking his head.
I crossed my arms, hugging my chest. “I mean, it was a good plan. Make me like you and then trick me into confessing. That alone should prove that I’m not a spy. If I had been, wouldn’t I have been more responsive to your overtures?”
“You’ve been pretty responsive.”
“I have not.” He had no idea how much I’d been holding in. I was about ready to pass out from the sheer effort of it.
Camden made a face I didn’t recognize. “You’re saying there haven’t been vibes between us?”
“There are no vibes here. This is a vibe-free zone.” I was totally lying. And the look on his face let me know that he knew that I was making excuses.
“So”—his voice took on that low, soft tone that made me want to collapse—“if I touched you ... if I ran my fingers down your arm, across your hand, you would feel ...”
It was as if he were actually touching me, and I could feel the phantom pressure of what he was describing, which sent my pulse hammering and my skin practically vibrating in anticipation. “I would feel nothing.” I had to choke out the words.
“The goose bumps on your arm say something different.”
So in addition to having perfect recollection, the man also had eyes like a freaking hawk. Fantastic. “I’m just cold.”
“We’re in Hawaii.”
I gulped. “Air-conditioning.”
“You’re pretty committed to this lie,” he noticed.
“I don’t do things half-heartedly.”
“I know”—he nodded, that sexy smile of his making me forget my own name—“and I wouldn’t mind finding out for myself how true that is.”
If I were Catholic, I’d have to go to confession for the kind of thoughts I was having right now.
When I didn’t say anything, he decided to make everything worse. “Do you know why I thought there were vibes? Or why I thought that I could guess what you’re feeling?”
My stupid face was an open book? I shook my head.
“I imagine that your heart beats faster when you’re close to me. That your mouth might go dry while you feel like your knees are going to give way. That you can’t wait to see me again. I can guess how you’re feeling because those same things happen to me.”
My only saving grace was that he was saying these words from a few feet away. If he’d been saying them with our bodies close, pressed against each other, there was no way I could have resisted him.
A door slammed farther down the hall, and the sound of it broke whatever magic he was weaving between us.
His expression turned rueful. “I don’t know what it says about me. That I’m so ready to believe what you’re telling me and ignore all the warning signs. How your and Sadie’s stories never quite match. Why you don’t have any social media. The things you’ve said since you’ve been here.”
My voice finally returned to me. “I knew you suspected me and I said some of those things just to freak you out.” Because I was annoyed that he was only spending time with me in order to expose me. “You aren’t going to be mad at Sadie, are you?”
Camden turned his gaze toward the floor. “I need to ... process all this. I’ll see you later.” He got out his keycard and went into his room, leaving me alone in the hallway. I waited a few heartbeats—for what, I couldn’t have said. For him to come back? To tell me he believed me and everything was fine?
I couldn’t wait for him to cause the very drama Dan had been trying to avoid. I went into my room and saw a card on the floor. It was a handwritten note in calligraphy, inviting me to come to the west lawn at seven o’clock for a night of fun. I wondered if this was one of the things Troy’d had to go work on.
I took out my phone and texted Sadie immediately. I told her what had just happened with Camden and his spy theory (leaving out all the almost-kissing stuff). She seemed unperturbed and texted back, Great! with a thumbs-up emoji.
I was concerned—it was like I’d just dropped a possible dramatic nuke onto her big day but she seemed fine with it. I texted back, warning that he might be angry, and she just sent me back a grinning emoji.
Sitting down on my bed, I let out an enormous sigh. Look at what I was doing. Prioritizing what Camden wanted over what Sadie needed. I wasn’t here for Camden. I was here for her.
I couldn’t let him make me forget what I was supposed to be doing.