Читать книгу The Dare Collection July 2019 - Nicola Marsh, Katee Robert, Katee Robert - Страница 15

TRISH REALIZED HER mistake the second she stepped out of the shower. In her huff to get out of the room before she said something truly unkind to Cameron, she hadn’t grabbed clothes. She wrapped a towel around herself and considered her options. Screaming at Cameron to close his eyes was tempting, but her stubborn streak kicked in and wouldn’t let her.

He’d decided to burst into her apartment and then command her to have breakfast with him. Oh, she knew he’d only shown up because he was worried, and he’d decided on breakfast for the same reason. It didn’t matter. The man didn’t have a subtle bone in his body, but he should damn well try to talk to her like she had a brain in her head.

Or, rather, like she wasn’t about to trip over some piece of furniture like she was starring in some old-school slapstick comedy.

Trish wiped down the foggy mirror and stared at her reflection. You know why you’re pissed, and it’s not because Cameron was worried about you. It might even have been kind of nice to bask in his concern if it wasn’t attached to so many conflicting emotions.

Cameron saw her as Aaron’s little sister. Emphasis on little.

He wanted her—she hadn’t missed those signals—but he’d just as obviously written her off as untouchable. That should be a good thing. He was her boss, as she had to keep reminding herself. He was off-limits.

That didn’t stop her from wanting to force him to acknowledge that he wanted her.

You’re acting like a crazy person. Get ready in here. Walk to your closet like you totally aren’t bothered by a really sexy man sitting on your couch and watching you do it. Retrieve clothes. Retreat to bathroom and get dressed.

It really was that simple.

Trish took a deep breath. She could do this. She’d faked her way out of awkward situations before, and she’d fake it out of this one, too. That settled, she quickly did her makeup and worked some product into her curls. Then there was nothing to do but open the door.

She paused to ensure her towel was wrapped firmly around her body and straightened her spine. I can do this. It’s ten feet. It’ll be fine.

She opened the door and nearly ran into Cameron. Trish brought herself up short a bare inch from his chest and let loose a squeak of surprise. “Cameron!” Just as quickly, surprise morphed into frustration. She glared at his deep gray tie. “Damn it, Cameron. I didn’t fall in the shower. That was a joke. You don’t have to kick down the door and rescue me from some magical injury. You really need to relax, you know that? Have a beer, smoke a joint, meditate, do something because you jumping up my ass every time I turn around is going to get old fast.”

Oh shit, I just said that. Out loud.

Still he didn’t respond. She stared harder at his tie, sure that if she looked at his face, she’d see pure fury and then they’d really be fighting. Think, Trish. Defuse the situation. Do something to distract him from the fact that you’re yelling at him in a completely irrational way. Her mind went blank and she panicked.

Trish dropped the towel.

Cameron’s only response was a sharp intake of breath. She’d already gone too far to take it back now, so she lifted her chin and glared at him. Mortification threatened to take hold and drive her back to the bathroom. What was she doing? He had her so twisted up, she was parading naked in front of him, and she wasn’t even doing it in a sad seduction attempt. No, this fell firmly into the Panic and Make Poor Choices column. “Don’t you dare say anything.”

“Freckles.”

Her whole body clenched at the way he growled the inconspicuous word. She licked her lips. “What?”

“Freckles,” Cameron repeated. He lifted a big hand and hovered a single finger over the center of her chest. “You have freckles everywhere.” He traced a pattern over her breasts, connecting them without touching her.

The air disappeared from the room. Hell, the room itself disappeared. There was only Trish and Cameron and that single inch of space that kept him from touching her. Her body warmed beneath his attention, and he just kept tracing freckles, a look of utter concentration in his dark eyes. As if he had nowhere else to be, nothing else to be doing, and he wouldn’t stop until he’d connected every single freckle on her body.

This could take hours.

Her nipples went tight at the thought. She actually started to lean forward before she caught herself.

It was already too late.

Cameron took a careful step back, and then another, though his gaze never left her body. Each movement was jerky and filled with barely controlled lust. He wanted her. That couldn’t have been clearer. It was equally as clear that he had no intention of touching her again. He bumped into the couch and swung around to face the front door. “You should get dressed.”

Right. Dressed. Because this thing between them couldn’t happen.

Despite the fact he pointedly wasn’t watching her, Trish kept her head up and her shoulders squared as she grabbed the first things she got her hands on—a red flare skirt and a white blouse—and retreated into the bathroom to get dressed. She stared at herself in the mirror for the space of a breath. Yeah, definitely don’t need blush if I’m going to be spending time around Cameron. I keep acting like an idiot, so I’m going to walk around with permanently pink cheeks. Wonderful.

Her life would be so much easier if she could just find another job—preferably in a company run by women so she wouldn’t have to deal with falling into lust with her boss.

This isn’t just to help Aaron and you know it. You need experience to be able to get in for the jobs you really want instead of an unpaid internship or something entrance level. Because, let’s be honest, you couldn’t even get one of those jobs after you graduated. You can’t afford to quit.

She really sucked at pep talks.

Trish found Cameron exactly where she’d left him and she gave a silent sigh. They could be in bed right now, doing fun, filthy things instead of about to have yet another conversation about why he couldn’t want her. She got it. She so got it.

There was nothing for it. If she didn’t do something drastic, he’d sit her down and gruffly reject her over and over again with his words. She’d had quite enough of that for today.

For always, really.

She straightened her shoulders and grabbed her purse from the table. “Shall we?”

“Trish.”

Oh no. It wasn’t a gruff talk she was going to get—it was a gentle one. So much worse. She blasted him with a bright smile. “We’ve already wasted enough time, don’t you think?” She marched out the door and barely waited for him to step into the hall to lock it behind them. Then she was off, charging for the elevator, Cameron’s muttered curse in her ears.

It wasn’t until the elevators closed—shutting them in—that she realized her tactical mistake.

He shifted to face her, not quite blocking the doors, but ensuring she’d have to slide past him to bolt. Cameron slipped his hands into his pockets. “I’m not rejecting you.”

Trish stared hard at the numbers ticking down and silently spit out a few curses of her own. Correct choice or not, it sure felt like rejection. She made a blatant—if panicked—offer. He turned away. End of story.

Except it wasn’t the end of the story, because he was still taking up too much space in the previously spacious elevator. Since she couldn’t will the machine to move any faster, she smiled at him. “It’s irrelevant. Message sent and received. It won’t be a problem.” She made a face. “Well, it won’t be a problem again. I guess I should apologize—again.”

“Knock that shit off.”

She forced her smile brighter and tried not to hunch her shoulders. “What are you talking about? I’m being professional.” For once, when it comes to Cameron.

He didn’t step back as the doors opened. He just frowned at her like she was a puzzle he didn’t have all the pieces necessary to put together. “You don’t have to wear the mask with me, Trish.”

If Cameron had reached out and slapped her, he couldn’t have surprised her more. She jerked back. “Actually, Cameron, I can do whatever I damn well please when it comes to how I arrange my face around you. I am being pleasant and professional and I don’t know you well enough to expose an emotional vulnerability just to give you the satisfaction.”

“You know me well enough to strip naked.”

No way he just went there.

Except he most definitely just went there.

She shouldered past him and into the hall leading to the entrance of her apartment building. Though she could tell herself all sorts of true facts to try to calm down, she didn’t much feel like calming down at this point. Cameron might take being blunt to a whole new level, but he was just being a flat-out dick with that statement and she wasn’t in the mood to give him the benefit of the doubt.

No, she was more likely to give him a literal kick in the ass.

Into slow-moving traffic.

“Trish,” he said as she exited the building.

She ignored him and swung around a group of three guys to head in the direction of Home Depot. It was too far to walk, especially on her way back with paint cans in tow, but if she hailed a cab, either Cameron would climb in with her—which would just piss her off further—or it would be a childish fleeing of the conversation he obviously wanted to have. It didn’t seem to matter that she didn’t want to.

Clear the air. If you don’t, it’ll fester.

Trish spun on her heel and got a little perverse pleasure at the fact Cameron had to skid to a stop to avoid running into her. She glared pointedly at the distance between them until he backed up a step. They had an audience in the form of people passing by, but she didn’t care. “I don’t care if you are half owner of Tandem Security or my brother’s best friend or richer than sin or anything else. You do not get to talk to me like that. Even if we were fucking six ways from Sunday, you still don’t get to talk to me like that. You’re a cranky asshole. I get it. Everyone gets it. That is no excuse to be a jackass and throw the rejection that’s supposedly not a rejection in my face. A good guy would never speak of it again, but I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’d know that without me telling you.” She pointed at herself. “This is me telling you—do not bring it up again. Do you understand me?”

Cameron narrowed his eyes but seemed to realize that there was only one right answer in that moment. “I understand.”

“Good. In that case, I will see you back at the office.” She turned and flagged down a cab, sending a silent thank-you to the universe that she didn’t have to stand there like an idiot during her dramatic exit.

Even though she knew better, she turned to look out the back window as the cab pulled away from the curb. Cameron stood there, watching her with an unreadable expression on his gorgeous face. She should have felt, if not peaceful, then at least sure that this was the end of things between them outside of the safe roles of boss and employee. Of Aaron’s little sister and Aaron’s best friend.

Too bad she couldn’t shake the niggling feeling that nothing had been resolved.

That things between them were just beginning.