Текст книги "Down London Road"

Автор книги: Samantha Young

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

I took the phone from him and gestured between us. ‘I don’t know what just happened here, but we’ll talk.’ I lifted it to my ear. ‘Joss.’

‘Nice phone voice, huh?’ She chuckled.

‘Funny. Apparently we’ll see you at lunch.’

‘See you then. Oh, and Jo?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Was he good?’

Laughter fell from my lips before I could stop it, remembering how I’d pestered Joss about Braden after I found out they had slept together. Payback was a bitch. ‘What was it you said to me? You can have him when I’m done.’

Her groan caused my smile to widen. ‘I’m such a bitch. Never tell Braden I said that. Please?’

‘I promise.’

‘Good. If you break that promise, I’ll find a way to lock you in a room with Ellie and her romantic drama collection.’

‘You know some of us don’t find that an excruciating prospect.’

‘Fine. I’ll take up smoking just to drive your cravings nuts.’

‘You have a severely sadistic side. Anyway, I don’t have any cravings.’

‘Even when you smell cigarette smoke?’ she asked smugly.

Damn. It was true. Anytime I got a whiff of cigarette smoke, my eyes closed in torture and I had to hunt down the nearest stick of gum to quell the need for nicotine intake. ‘Your point is moot considering I’m not going to tell him.’

‘Moot? Nice word choice. The brain is certainly working well for a Sunday morning conversation. He must have really started those engines, huh?’

‘Goodbye, Joss. Oh, and you tell anyone about me and Cam before I get a chance to and I will tell Braden.’ I hung up with a satisfied smirk.

Cam was staring at me as he held out my mug of coffee. ‘What was that about?’

‘I have some information she’d like me to keep quiet. She threatened to torture me with cigarette smoke if I ever give her up.’

He frowned, pushing a plate of toast towards me. There were slices spread with butter and others with jam. I took some sugary goodness. ‘You used to smoke?’

‘Quit almost six months ago.’

‘Thank God,’ he muttered.

His words caused a pang of anxiety at the thought that something as insignificant as being a smoker would make him less attracted to me. Would it be so easy to diminish his attraction in the future? I covered my insecure thoughts with a forced chuckle. ‘What? Would that have been a deal breaker?’

The corner of his mouth quirked up cheekily. ‘Nah. I’d have convinced you to quit somehow. Just glad I missed the withdrawal. That must have been fun for Cole.’

My whole body relaxed at his answer and when I laughed it was for real this time. ‘I wasn’t that bad.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll get the real story from Cole.’

‘Speaking of …’ I muttered and scrolled through my phone until I found his number. Cole’s phone rang three times before I heard his voice.

‘What’s up?’

‘You on your way home?’

‘Five minutes away.’

‘Okay. I have something to talk to you about.’ I smiled at Cam, but inside I was a little nervous about Cole’s reaction to me and Cam being together.

‘That doesn’t sound good.’

‘We’ll see.’

He grunted and I rolled my eyes.

‘See you soon.’

Another grunt and then he hung up. I sighed. ‘Someone should have written a book by now about interpreting teen language. I was never that monosyllabic.’

Cam grinned into his mug. ‘I’ll bet.’

I smacked him playfully. ‘You know what I mean.’

He shrugged. ‘He’s a teenage boy. As far as teenage boys go I think you guys have good communication between you.’

Guessing he was probably right, I nodded and reached for another slice of toast. ‘Well, let’s see how my communication skills hold up when we try to explain this to him.’

As Cam dumped his mug in the sink, he flashed me a wolfish grin. ‘Oh, I’d say from all that screaming you did last night and this morning, those communication skills are pretty sharp.’

‘You’re such a cocky bugger.’

‘Then stop with the screaming. It only inflates my ego. Among other things.’

‘Fine. From now on I’ll be quiet as a church mouse.’

Laughing, Cam reached for me, tugging me against his chest as I took the last bite of my toast. He kissed me, getting crumbs and jam on his lips. ‘I dare you to try to keep quiet. Go on. It’ll make things even more interesting.’

Resting my hands on his chest, I leaned into him, feeling him harden against me through his jeans. I bit my lip, smiling a little as I stared at his sensual mouth. ‘I accept that dare.’ My eyes flicked to his, laughing at him. ‘It’s not like it won’t be a win-win situation.’

His arms tightened around me. ‘Going to make me work for it, huh?’

‘You’ll enjoy the labour.’

His grin widened and he shook his head. ‘I can’t believe we waited this long.’

Still smiling, I nodded in agreement. ‘It’s definitely fun so far.’

Although Cam was still smiling back at me, something grave entered his expression as he held my gaze. ‘Yeah, baby. It’s definitely fun so far.’

16

There was a sense of unreality as Cam threaded his fingers through mine and brought my knuckles to his lips. The soft brush against my skin was like a greeting and goose bumps popped up all over my body to say hello back to him. He led me up the stairs to my flat and the whole time I gazed at him in surreal wonder, the concrete steps like marshmallow clouds beneath my feet. How could it be that sex had not had such a ‘girly’ effect on me but this arbitrary act of handholding did? For a moment, the beauty of it allowed me to forget where he was actually leading me.

Mum.

Fiona was sitting on the couch watching television when Cam and I entered the flat. As soon as I heard the muffled sound of voices filtering into the hall from the sitting room, my whole body tensed with the realization that Cam was about to come face-to-face with her since he’d helped Cole out the night I’d stayed at Malcolm’s.

Yay.

Seeming to read my body language, Cam pressed a reassuring hand to the small of my back, guiding me into the room.

She was lounging on the armchair in her ratty robe with her thinning hair wet. To my surprise I realized that she had obviously taken a shower without being coerced by me. She had a hot mug in her hand and it shook as she raised it to her lips, watching us as we slowly made our way farther into the room.

‘Mum.’ I gave her a brittle nod and Cam’s hand coasted around my waist, his strong arm hugging me into his side.

The slight widening of Mum’s eyes told me she hadn’t missed the deliberate move. ‘You’ve been here before?’ She asked it quietly, with mild curiosity but no accusation, as I had been expecting. Clearly she’d forgotten Cam and his presence that awful night.

‘Cameron MacCabe.’ Cam acknowledged her gruffly, giving me a squeeze.

She made a mumbling noise, her bloodshot eyes darting back to me. ‘No one was here this morning.’

Burrowing deeper into Cam, my hand clutching the back of his shirt like a little girl, I nodded again. ‘Cole stayed at Jamie’s.’

‘I fell.’ Her mouth pursed. ‘I fell. My back is killing me. No one was here to help. If you’re going to be gallivanting around, that little bugger should at least be here to help.’

The insult to my brother was like a steel rod sliding into my spine. I straightened sharply, taking a step away from Cam. My eyes narrowed on her, and I tried to squelch the hurt in my chest – the hurt I felt any time she did or said something so selfish and uncaring, so lacking in parental concern. ‘Did the gin not help you back up, Mum? Funny, it seems to help you with everything else.’

Her rugged cheeks were peppered with visibly broken veins and the little colour that was in them leached out completely at my comment. ‘Don’t you get smart with me because he’s here.’

Taking a deep breath, knowing that if we continued at this pace, we’d end up in a huge argument in front of Cam, I softened my tone. ‘Cole and I have lives, Mum. You need to watch out for yourself more now, okay?’

Waiting for a reaction, I stepped back so I could at least feel the heat of Cam behind me. I was grateful to him for keeping quiet and letting me deal with Mum in my own way. She got shakily to her feet, setting her mug on the table. ‘I just needed a bit of help,’ she answered quietly, hitting me in the chest with her words. Guilt wormed its way inside, despite my urgent battle against it.

I sighed heavily. ‘If you’re really desperate, phone me next time.’ I could have punched myself for giving in.

‘I will, darling.’ She shuffled past us, her eyes on the ground. ‘Nice meeting you, Cameron.’ It was the nicest she had been to me since I confronted her about hitting Cole. Remembering how much I distrusted her, I felt deep regret at being even slightly polite to her. I shouldn’t have given in, I thought bitterly.

Cam grunted in response to her, doing a fair impression of Cole.

I waited until she’d disappeared from the room, until we heard her bedroom door closing, and then my eyes slid to Cam. ‘Well?’

His features had hardened. ‘She’s a manipulative cow and she knows just how to play you.’ At that he turned on his heel and disappeared into the hall, heading towards the kitchen.

I followed him, my heart thumping in my chest. ‘I told you how she is.’

‘Yeah, one minute a bloody witch, the next completely normal and nice. It’s deliberate. When she’s a witch, you stand up to her. When she’s nice, you give in and she knows it. She’s playing you.’

Knowing that he was right and not really wanting to get into it with him on what had started out as the best morning ever, I began helping him make tea and coffee. We returned to the sitting room, having come to an unspoken agreement to put thoughts of my mum aside, and we both sat down on the couch. As soon as I did, Cam pulled me over his lap so that my legs straddled his thighs.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked, my lips twitching with laughter.

‘Getting comfy.’ He reached past me and grabbed our mugs, handing me mine.

I took it, completely bemused by our proximity. We were so close I could see coppery striations in the cobalt blue of his irises. ‘You’re comfortable like this?’ I watched him as he casually took a sip of coffee, his other arm around my hip, his hand resting on the curve of my ass.

‘Extremely,’ he murmured.

Shrugging, I relaxed into him, taking a sip of tea.

And that was as long as I got to relax. The sound of the front door opening moved me into instant action. I attempted to dive out of Cam’s arms.

He stopped me effortlessly with one arm.

‘What are you doing?’ I hissed, my eyes narrowed on him, my heart thumping hard at the thought of Cole walking in on us wrapped around each other without an explanation first.

‘Um, what’s going on?’

Too late.

I closed my eyes briefly, shooting Cam a death look when I opened them and then peering past his head to smile apologetically at my brother, who took up a good portion of the doorway with his height and increasing frame. His green eyes were narrowed on the back of Cam’s head. They shifted to me. ‘Is this what you wanted to talk about?’

I nodded and tried once again, unsuccessfully, to clamber off Cam’s lap as Cole strode into the room. He walked past the sofa to the armchair and Cam smiled at him before sipping his coffee, completely relaxed except for the arm that bound me tight to him.

Cole sighed and dropped into the chair. ‘You two together, then?’

We answered in unison.

Unfortunately not with the same answers.

‘Yes.’

‘We’ll see.’

As Cole’s eyebrows rose, his eyes bright with amusement, Cam turned his head sharply to glare at me. ‘We’ll see?’

Bugger. Now he thought I didn’t want this. I did want this. I just didn’t want him to feel pressured in case that scared him off. ‘I don’t want us to feel rushed.’

‘Bullshit. You don’t want me to feel rushed. I thought we talked about that.’

I gaped at him. Cam wasn’t known for his intuitiveness when it came to me, but apparently the more he got to know me the more he saw. Was I becoming predictable?

I didn’t know how I felt about that.

‘If you’re looking for my approval, you have it,’ Cole muttered as he stood up again. He shot Cam a quick smile as he passed us. ‘Seems like you know what you’re doing.’

‘Oh, funny.’ I took umbrage at my brother’s droll comment, rolling my eyes at the sound of his chuckle as he disappeared down the hall into his room. My eyes slid back to Cam’s face only to find him grinning at me. ‘Don’t even think about becoming a tag team.’

He laughed, his eyes crinkling in the way that melted my insides. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ He put his mug down and then mine, before wrapping his arms around me. I slid my arms around his neck, settling closer into him. ‘That went well.’

‘It went how every conversation with Cole goes lately.’

‘And what way is that?’

‘Quickly.’

I felt Cam’s shoulders shake underneath me. ‘He’s a guy. We like to get straight to the point.’

Enjoying the mix of contentment and excitement I felt in his arms, I pressed my body deeper into his, feeling his erection grow against my butt. I brushed his mouth lightly with my own, glorying at the hitch in his breathing. ‘You took a while to get to the point this morning.’

The glitter in his eyes was the only warning before I found myself thrown back on the couch. Cam gripped my thighs, pushing my legs open so he could settle between them. I wrapped my long legs around him and he kissed me, slow and deep. We made out for a while like two teenagers. It was bloody brilliant!

As his strong hand glided up my outer thigh, I breathed in his familiar scent and wished we didn’t have to go to lunch. Reading my thoughts, he finally pulled back, and I couldn’t stop myself from tracing my fingers along his lips. He really had the most distracting mouth of any man I’d ever met.

Continuing our conversation as if five minutes of lip-locking hadn’t just happened, I whispered, ‘I didn’t mean that as a bad thing. I meant it as a very, very good thing.’

‘Then I’ll make sure to take my time getting to the point in the future.’

‘I said I was cool with it, not that I wanted to see it,’ Cole grumbled above us.

We both jerked our heads around to see Cole standing by the couch, glaring down at us, a plate of sandwiches in one hand and a glass of Coke in the other.

‘Oi, what are you doing?’ I huffed at my brother, pushing Cam off of me. ‘We’re going to lunch. You’re going to spoil your dinner.’

‘Wow,’ Cam said lightly as he sat up. ‘I just got a glimpse into the future.’

‘What?’

He laughed, shaking his head as he turned to Cole. He gestured to the sandwiches. ‘I’ll take one of those.’

Cole held the plate out and Cam casually took a sandwich.

I stared at them both, munching on their snacks, ruining their appetites. ‘God. Now there’s two of them.’

That only made Cam and Cole share amused, secret ‘guy club’ smiles.

A sense of warmth – beautiful, relaxing, contented warmth – radiated out from my chest, enveloping my entire body in a kind of happiness I’d never felt before.

The feeling absolutely terrified the bejesus out of me.

I spent the bus ride to Stockbridge talking. I don’t think I stopped to breathe once. Cole sat behind us with his earphones in, listening to an audiobook, so he was completely oblivious to my record-breaking nonstop chatter at Cam as I laid out the benefits of keeping our relationship on the down low. I honestly didn’t know why I wanted to keep it quiet. I thought it might have something to do with making sure there were few witnesses to my heartbreak if this went south, but I wasn’t going to tell Cam that. Instead I rambled, and rambled, and rambled at him.

He may have been sick of the sound of my voice by the time we got off that bus, but at least I knew my point had been made. We were keeping our relationship quiet.

‘Jo and I are together now.’

Ten minutes had passed since we’d got off the bus and we were standing in Elodie Nichols’s living room with the entire Nichols family plus Adam, Braden and Joss staring at us. Cam had made that little announcement in response to Ellie’s ‘So how are you?’

As Joss would say, I felt sucker punched. I shot Cam a disbelieving look. ‘Did you not hear a word I said on the bus?’

He gave me that wide, appeasing grin that did naughty things to my insides. ‘I have selective hearing, baby.’ He clutched my hip, trying to pull me close. ‘Good thing too or my brain might have melted out of my ears. I didn’t know it was possible for a human to say that many words per minute.’

I looked at my friends, who were all staring at us with sly grins on their faces. ‘Cam and I just broke up.’

Cam laughed, hugging me even tighter into his side.

I huffed, trying to wriggle free. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Getting back together with you.’

The sound of barely stifled chortles made my cheeks redden. Oh, God, we were being ‘cute’ in company. My eyes slid to Joss. Sure enough, she had a superior smile on her face. There was no way to win this round, but I could lessen the cuteness. ‘Fine,’ I mumbled ungraciously, relaxing against him.

Elodie and Clark, who had been introduced to Cam only three minutes ago, started firing questions at him about being a graphic designer, about growing up in Longniddry, and about his parents, until I eventually left him sitting beside Cole and enlisted Hannah in making an escape. Since I couldn’t feel the heat of Joss’s stare, I took this to mean that she was just happy Cam and I were together and didn’t need to know the details. Ellie was a different story. She would want to know absolutely everything. Her eyes bored into me, and I could almost hear her telepathic orders for me to look at her. That was when I started shooting Hannah ‘save me’ looks.

My little saviour shot to her feet. ‘I have to show Jo something. Alone,’ she said pointedly, giving her sister a look that allowed no room for argument. She got that look from Elodie.

‘But –’

We were already out of the room before Ellie could say a second word.

Trying to muffle our giggles, we fell into Hannah’s room. ‘You are the best person in the whole world.’ I grinned at her.

Hannah smiled in response as she flopped down on her bed. ‘You know you’re going to have to face the inquisition soon though, right?’

‘I know. I’d just rather face it later than sooner.’

Suddenly Hannah’s cheeks flushed a little red. ‘He’s really hot.’

Laughing, I moved to sit beside her, feeling my own cheeks heat as I remembered this morning and last night. ‘He is that.’

‘I won’t ask about Malcolm or anything, but … I heard Ellie speaking with Joss and they said Cam’s not really your usual type. I guess that doesn’t matter if you’re happy.’

I loved this kid. Truly and deeply. ‘I’m happy today. Scared. But happy. Cam has convinced me to do something just for me, rather than for me and Cole.’ I remembered all the security that had walked away with Malcolm last night and I felt a stab of fear and anxiety. In an effort to ignore it, I nudged Hannah with my shoulder. ‘So how is Marco?’

Heaving a massive sigh, Hannah fell back on the mattress and stared at the ceiling, avoiding my eyes. ‘He’s talking to me again.’

‘Why aren’t you more excited about that?’

‘Because the tool is acting like nothing happened. Like we’re just friends. Not to mention there is this girl in the year above me who’s been telling everyone she hooked up with him at a party last weekend. She’s really pretty.’

‘Well, considering you’re beautiful, I think you have one over on her.’ Hannah made a noise of disbelief and I patted her knee. ‘One day you’re going to look in the mirror and see what I see.’

‘A geek who needs an attitude readjustment?’

I made a face. ‘What?’

‘I got in trouble this week. Mum and Dad aren’t happy.’

My painfully shy Hannah had got in trouble? ‘What?’ I repeated in disbelief.

‘My PE teacher had a go at me because I refused to get into an all-girls team against an all-boys team at basketball. I told him that it’s scientifically proven that boys are stronger and faster than girls and that to put all girls against all boys was setting the girls’ team up for failure. He said that I was being unfair to my own sex. I said I was being realistic and that I thought he was deliberately favouring the boys over the girls. He reported me and, while our head teacher told him that all basketball teams during classes should be mixed from now on, the head teacher also called Mum and told her I needed an attitude readjustment.’

Choking down my amusement as I caught the twinkle of bedevilment in her eyes, I shook my head at her. ‘What happened to the crippling shyness?’

She somehow managed to shrug lying down. ‘I just feel like being shy is getting in my way.’

‘Is this because of Marco?’

‘No, not just that. Although I’m getting the impression I’m not really “cool” enough for him –’

‘Then he’s an idiot.’

‘– It’s more that I missed out on joining the debating team because I was too shy to speak up. And I know I’d be really good at debating.’

‘I think we all know that.’

She threw a cushion at me and continued as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘And I missed out on the Christmas dance this year because my friends and I felt too self-conscious going alone together. And I wrote this poem that really means a lot to me and I wanted to enter it into this regional competition but I didn’t because –’

‘You were too shy.’ I patted her knee again. ‘So you what? Just woke up one day and decided not to be?’

Hannah sat up, her eyes filled with wisdom beyond her years. ‘No. I kissed a boy I really like and he rejected me. If I can handle that, I’m pretty sure I can handle opening my mouth in front of people I’ve gone to school with for years and saying what I want to say.’

I nodded slowly and then gave her a reassuring smile. ‘For what it’s worth, you are the coolest person I know.’

‘Even cooler than Cam?’

Cam was that smart, geek-like, hot guy who marched to the beat of his own drum. Yeah. He was so cool I could die from his coolness, but I wasn’t going to admit to that like a besotted teenager. I snorted, getting up off the bed. ‘Oh, please, he only thinks he’s cool.’

‘He’s really cool, isn’t he?’ Hannah grinned at me over her shoulder as she opened her bedroom door.

I followed her out, all fake superiority gone. ‘Yeah. Just don’t tell him I said so.’

‘Tell who?’ Ellie was suddenly in my face as if she’d appeared out of nowhere. Within seconds, Hannah and I had been herded back into her bedroom by Ellie and Joss.

Joss gave me a sympathetic smile. ‘I tried to stop her.’

I sucked in a breath, waiting.

And then Ellie began peppering me with her rapid-fire questions.

Lunch actually couldn’t have gone any better. Cam was well-mannered, gracious, intelligent, interesting – all the things I knew he was and could be, but I was glad to see that the Nicholses and Joss and Braden could see that too. I also loved that they noticed how close he was to Cole already. They sat together at the table and whenever conversation wasn’t directed at either one of them, they had their heads together, talking quietly about the book Cole was listening to. Apparently Cam had recommended it.

Since Cam shared Braden and Adam’s dry sense of humour, I had no worries that the three guys wouldn’t get on. Braden kept shooting me these teasing smiles that somehow translated into ‘I’m happy for you.’ That was nice. It really was. However, it just amplified the little ghost of anxiety floating around me, groaning at me about what would happen if this ‘thing’ with Cam fell apart.

I’d never received that awful pity and sympathy other people did when they broke up with someone, because no one had ever really taken my feelings for my boyfriends seriously – whether they were serious or not – yet I knew that in this situation there would be agonizing sympathy if Cam walked away, and I wasn’t sure I could handle that.

There I was, already imagining the demise of our relationship.

I needed my head checked.

With Cam’s strong, slightly callused hand in mine, his body close, his voice full of warmth and affection as we strolled down London Road with Cole, I knew I needed my head checked. This was good. We’d only just started and it was good. I wasn’t going to let my mistrust poison this. I wasn’t.

I squeezed Cam’s hand as we walked into our building, his deep voice echoing up the stairwell as he told me about a couple of jobs he’d seen advertised in the paper.

‘You should definitely apply for them,’ I responded, frowning at Cole, who walked upstairs ahead of us, his shoelace flapping against the concrete. He was going to get himself killed. ‘Cole, tie your shoe.’

‘We’re nearly at the flat,’ he argued.

‘Tie your shoe.’

We all stopped and waited for him to follow my instruction.

‘Happy?’ he grunted, continuing upward.

‘When you speak to me like that, baby boy, how can I not be?’

I could hear Cam choke on his laughter behind me, so when we turned on to his landing I was looking back at him. That’s why I slammed into Cole.

‘What the …’ My voice trailed off as I turned sharply to see what the problem was.

The problem was Becca, standing in front of Cam’s door with a carrier bag in her hand.

‘I want my stuff back.’ She thrust the bag out at Cam, who stepped in front of us to approach her. ‘Here’s your shit. You were always careful not to leave much with me, so there’s only a book and your MP3 player.’ Ouch. The hallway fairly echoed with her bitterness.

Guilt immediately assailed me and I pressed close to Cole, who leaned back into me, his stance almost protective. He’d met Becca only once, but he knew who she was and what this situation meant.

Cam calmly took the bag from her. ‘What stuff did you leave?’

She sneered at him. ‘You don’t even care, do you? You broke up with me and then you went home with her.’ She pointed at me like I was trash. ‘Yeah, Malcolm filled me in.’ Her eyes glittered now as she turned to face me. ‘Don’t worry, slut. Malcolm and I made each other feel better last night. Hope that lessens the guilt.’

‘Enough,’ Cam snapped, stepping into Becca’s space. He bristled with anger and Becca was smart enough to slam her mouth closed. ‘Don’t ever speak to her like that again. Understood?’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Just get me my stuff.’

‘I’ll look around the flat and whatever I find of yours I’ll send to you.’

‘But –’

‘I’ll send it, Becca. We’re done here.’

It was cold of him, but I understood his reaction. I imagined he didn’t want a scene in the hallway where our neighbours could hear and, worse, where Cole could hear. Intimidating her into leaving seemed like the safest option. I moved out of her way as she passed me, but she stopped as she reached me.

‘Are you going to fuck every man I fuck?’

I flinched. ‘Watch your language.’

Becca looked at me as if I had just crawled out from under a rock. ‘You’re an idiot for walking away from Malcolm Hendry for him. Everyone knows Cameron MacCabe only fucks around with a girl for a couple of weeks before moving on. You downgraded big time. But that’s your mistake.’ She shot Cam a snide smile that I knew merely covered her hurt. It had always been clear that Becca was more into Cam than he was into her. ‘I think I’ll upgrade.’ Her nasty smile was just for me as she leaned in to whisper, ‘I might give Malcolm a call.’

The three of us watched her leave in silence, and finally, trembling a little, I let Cole lead us up to the flat. He shot me a worried look before disappearing into his bedroom, and I felt more than heard Cam follow me into the kitchen.

The heat of him enveloped me as he pressed against my back, stilling my hand on the kettle before wrapping his arms around my waist. I slid my hands over his and leaned into him. ‘You okay?’ he asked softly, genuine concern in his voice.

I shrugged, not really sure what I was feeling. ‘I guess. I feel bad.’

‘If it makes you feel any better, I never made any promises to Becca. We were very casual.’

‘Malcolm and I weren’t.’

Cam’s arms tightened. ‘Did it bother you? What she said about her and Malcolm last night?’

I didn’t know. I thought it did. I just wasn’t sure if it was because I still had feelings for him or because my vanity was pricked. ‘It just reinforced the truth. It wasn’t real between us.’

The touch of Cam’s warm lips on my jaw sent a delicious shiver down my spine and I momentarily forgot everything. ‘Where am I sleeping tonight?’

My skin grew warm just at the prospect of tonight. ‘My bed is too small for us to share but I can’t leave Cole alone. Why don’t I come down to see you? I won’t be able to stay, though.’

‘That’s fine, baby. Listen, I said I’d meet Nate for a drink.’ He pulled back and turned me in his arms. ‘I’ll see you back at my flat tonight?’

‘Yeah. Around eleven thirty?’

‘I’ll be there.’ He dipped his head to press a light kiss to my lips, but I reached up to cup his jaw, drawing his mouth back to mine. I deepened the kiss, my tongue teasing his, my fingernails scraping gently along his stubbly jawline until my fingers clenched in the hair at his nape. I kissed him until he had to pull back to draw breath.

Eyes a little wide and unfocused, Cam nodded and reluctantly let me go. ‘Let’s make it ten thirty.’