Chapter 33
The soft lighting of the restaurant screamed romance. Great! It smelt of expensive perfume, money and grilled seafood. Cam and I strolled through the tables hand in hand, trying to look like we didn’t want to kill each other – well, that I didn’t want to kill him.
As agreed beforehand, we deliberately walked straight past Victor and Amber. And right on cue . . .
‘Oh my God, it’s you!’ cried Amber.
I plastered a look of shock on my face and turned around. ‘Oh my God, girlie pop!’ I gushed, while my very soul cringed. ‘How was your massage?’
‘Amazing. You?’
I rubbed the back of my neck. ‘So good, I can’t remember the last time I felt this relaxed.’
Victor, who had been swirling the whisky in his glass (only the rich swirled their whisky), narrowed his eyes slightly. ‘Wait – do you two know each other?’
‘Oh my God, yes! This is the girl I was telling you about!’ Amber replied.
He blinked. ‘That’s uncanny, because this’ – he gestured at Cam – ‘is the man I was just telling you about. The hero who saved my Patek Philippe from the sand.’
So Cam had done the old false rescue: steal something from someone and then ‘find’ it to gain their trust.
‘I take it off when I’m sunbathing, and I don’t know what happened this time, but when I was done, I couldn’t find it.’
‘I’m glad I could help.’ Cam extended a hand, and Victor clasped it in a firm, manly grip.
Amber clapped her hands together. ‘This is so cute – we all know each other!’ She turned to me, flashing her perfect teeth. ‘I was just saying to Vic how cool it was to meet you and how generous you were.’
I let out a breathless little laugh. ‘That makes two of us! I was just telling . . .’ I hesitated for a fraction of a second, my mind racing. What name had Cam given Victor? I glanced at him pointedly.
‘Jonathan Sisko.’ He introduced himself to Amber, his voice warm, his smile effortless. But I caught the tiny smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
I barely held back a snort. He was so full of it. Sisko.
‘Yes, of course.’ I recovered quickly. ‘And I’m Lily Swanson, I suppose, soon to be Lily Sisko too.’
‘You know, honey, that’s the first time you’ve said your future new surname out loud,’ Cam said, locking eyes with me and then slipping a hand around my waist. My knees immediately weakened and I caught Cam looking down at my legs with a smirk. Fucker!
‘Aah, that’s so sweet,’ Amber said as Cam started running his fingers up and down the sensitive part of my lower back. I turned and tried to glare at him, but he just leaned in and looked deeply into my eyes.
‘The future Lily Sisko,’ he repeated, intensifying his gaze.
My spine straightened and every single one of my muscles tensed as he leaned in even more.
‘I knew from the moment I saw her that she was the only woman in the world for me.’ The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I shivered involuntarily.
Cam looked down, then rubbed a hand over my arm. ‘Chilly, honey?’
‘Uh . . . I . . .’ I stuttered stupidly as he traced his thumb up my spine. I shook my head quickly, and then as subtly as possible brought my arm around him and started poking a message into his back in Morse code.
One tap, three taps, three taps again! And when I was done spelling the word ‘ass’, I gave him an extra-hard prod just to make sure he knew I was serious. He burst out laughing and looked at me.
‘What’s so funny?’ Amber asked, giggling along too, as if Cam’s laugh had been contagious.
‘I just remembered that the first time we met, she actually broke my finger.’ He waved his crooked pinky finger in the air.
‘It was an accident,’ I said.
‘Of course it was, honey. We were both grocery shopping and going for the last avocado, and she was so enthusiastic, really, really enthusiastic – let’s just say she wanted that avo, didn’t you, honey? One minute I’m reaching for it, next minute a trolley is crunching my finger.’
Why the hell had Cam just made me sound like some unhinged cart-wielding avocado maniac? I winked at Victor and Amber. ‘Actually, it was the other way around, but he always likes to twist the truth of that story a little, don’t you . . . honey?’ I looked at him pointedly.
He threw his hands in the air in mock defeat. ‘You’ve got me. What can I say, I’m a sucker for guacamole.’
I fake-laughed, then looked at Amber and gave her my best eye-roll. She rolled hers back, as if we were sorority sisters, silently communicating with looks because we knew each other that well.
‘Anyway,’ I said, wrapping my arm around Cam again, ‘we don’t want to disturb your dinner. Maybe see you later, though.’
‘Nice talking to you,’ Cam added, and we started walking away. He spoke very quietly: ‘And in three, two, one . . . bingo!’
‘Would you like to join us?’ Victor asked, and we both spun around, wearing our biggest fake-shocked-slash-delighted looks.
‘Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘We wouldn’t want to get in the way of your romantic evening.
’ I pointed at the candles and the rose petals.
I wondered if this scab of a man had done all this for Sharaz too in the beginning.
Wooed her with gifts and flowers. Money and Moet.
The promise of Picassos and blue pills that clearly kept him up all night long.
‘Absolutely,’ Victor said.
Amber beamed. ‘Yay! This is so fun! Sit, sit!’ She gestured eagerly at the free chairs opposite them.
‘Well, honey, you heard her,’ Cam said, and pulled a chair out for me like the gentleman he was so not.
I shot him a sideways glance as I started to lower myself into it.
He was really playing this up. ‘Wait . . . your hair.’ I felt his hands graze the bare skin on the back of my neck as he lifted up my curls, and then with a tenderness that caught me off guard, he arranged them down the front of my shoulders.
‘You were going to sit on it,’ he said, his fingers trailing through the strands.
I realised that no one had ever run their hands through my hair like that, and it felt – oh God, what the hell was happening to me? – so good.
‘You can see you guys are newly engaged,’ Amber cooed as Cam sat down beside me.
‘You can?’
She nodded. ‘So in love.’ She looked from me to Cam and back again. ‘It’s so cute.’
‘Do you hear that, honey? We’re so in love.’ Cam smiled, a clear sign that he was enjoying this far too much. I decided to bring a little unenjoyment to it and gave him a quick kick under the table.
‘Aargh!’ He winced. ‘Ah, um . . .’ He thumped his chest twice and fake-coughed.
‘Sorry, must have choked on something.’ He reached for a glass of water and took a sip, looking at me over the rim as he did so.
His eyes drilled into me, but on his lips there was a little smile.
I glanced across at Amber and Victor, who seemed to be sharing a moment of their own, so I took the opportunity.
‘Ass!’ I whisper-hissed at him.
‘You love it.’ And then he dropped his hand onto my upper thigh and squeezed.
I looked down as his hand started to creep further and further up. My entire body screamed out for it to keep going. But when I glanced at him and saw how fucking pleased with himself he looked, I knew I had to beat him at his own game. At whatever cost.
So I reached down and put my hand on his thigh too. His eyes widened, which told me everything I needed to know about this situation.
‘So what do you do, Jonathan?’ Victor asked, and as Cam opened his mouth to reply, I squeezed his thigh and then slid my hand upwards.
‘Uh!’ Cam jumped in his chair. ‘I . . . I’m . . .’
I was approaching the spot I needed to be in in order to win this round.
And fuck it, I was going to. Without a second thought, I trailed my hand higher until I was almost there.
I eked out this last part, taking great delight in watching Cam try and explain how he was a crypto trader and how right now it was a bear market.
‘. . . so it would be a great time to invest in bit—’ He coughed as I shamelessly laid my palm across the now very hard cock that was pushing against his pants. ‘Coin!’ He patted his chest again and gave another cough. ‘Sorry, I think maybe I’m coming down with something.’
I applied pressure and his entire body tensed. ‘Coming down with what, honey?’ I asked, unable to hide my smile as he squirmed.
Now we were even.
But I didn’t tie with people. I won.
‘Oops.’ I deliberately dropped my napkin on the ground and looked at Cam pointedly as I reached under the table to get it. ‘Oh no, it seems to be on your side,’ I said, and then leaned all the way across his lap.
Stiffened was not what his body did right now.
I wasn’t sure what word accurately described his reaction, but with me draped over his lap, wiggling in order to stretch far enough to grab the napkin, he was a goner.
I pressed myself against him, and when I pulled back, I made sure that I dragged my entire chest over his cock.
Now I’d won . . .
She thought she’d won, but actually, I had.
And she could tell herself this was all a game, a competition, that every single time we touched each other it was just to win, but I knew it wasn’t.
I knew that because when she sat back up, I could see her pulse throbbing in her neck.
Could see the moist sheen of sweat beading on her forehead and the soft pink flush that was creeping up her neck.
And then there were her eyes. She could try all she liked, but she couldn’t hide the fact that her pupils were bigger now, eyes darker, lids heavier.
And wait . . . did I just see her lips tremble?
I smiled and sat back, crossing my legs and casually draping an arm around her.
‘Did you find what you were looking for down there?’ I asked teasingly.