I kept my lip from twitching in a smile, wondering what she’d stopped herself from saying with that little pause. Jude is overprotective? Jude is a pain in my ass?
Probably the second one.
“I suppose someone like you needs a bodyguard,” Everly said.
“My friends seem to think so,” Cameron said.
They both pulled out chairs and sat.
I stayed where I was while Cameron chatted with Everly. She’d flown her out from Seattle for a second interview. Cameron was creating a charitable foundation to organize her philanthropic efforts, and she was considering Everly for the executive director position.
I’d done a little digging on Ms. Dalton, just to see if there was any connection between her and anyone else in Cameron’s life—specifically someone who could be a suspect. I hadn’t found anything. Everly was an executive assistant to the elusive Shepherd Calloway, a businessman in Cameron’s tax bracket. But her background checked out—nothing suspicious.
The waitress brought them mimosas and, a short time later, their breakfast orders. Cameron talked about her plans for the foundation. How it would be structured and what she’d need from an executive director. Everly’s eyes were bright, a smile never far from her lips. She spoke with enthusiasm about her ideas. I could see why Cameron wanted her. She was smart and had a cheerfulness that even I found endearing.
Cameron folded her napkin and set it on the table. The interview seemed to be winding down.
Everly took a deep breath and her smile disappeared. “There’s just one issue I wanted to talk to you about. I’m not sure how I feel about relocating. Miami is beautiful, and this sounds like such an amazing opportunity. But my entire life is in Seattle.”
“I thought that might be an issue after we talked the other day,” Cameron said. “If you don’t want to relocate, I have no problem opening the foundation’s headquarters in Seattle.”
“Really?” Everly asked.
“Absolutely. I won’t need to be there in person on a daily basis, and technology makes communication simple. If you want the job, we’ll open the office in Seattle.”
I liked Seattle. I wouldn’t mind going with Cameron to Seattle when she needed to be there in person.
Not that she’d need me to travel with her. This job wasn’t permanent. In fact, the more time that went by with no sign that Cameron was in real danger, the more likely it was this gig would be over sooner rather than later.
Which was exactly what I wanted. Wasn’t it?
“Then I want the job,” Everly said, her voice laced with excitement.
“I was hoping you would,” Cameron said.
Everly put a hand on her chest. “I can’t believe that just happened. Did you really just hire me?”
“I sure did.” Cameron raised her glass. “Here’s to doing some good in the world.”
The back of my neck tingled as they clinked glasses. I glanced toward the terrace doors.
A second later, I heard the hostess inside. “Sir, you can’t go out there.”
A man was hurrying through the restaurant, heading straight for us.
Straight for Cameron.
Everything snapped into focus. I noted the exits. The number of tables and the reactions of the other patrons. People watched as the man strode quickly past them. No one responded with recognition. He was alone.
I stepped in front of the doors, blocking his access.
“Sir, that’s a private dining area,” the hostess said. “You don’t have a reservation.”
I knew who he was the second he stopped in front of me. Shepherd Calloway, Everly’s boss. I’d seen photos of him when I’d looked into Everly, although he looked different from the slick business mogul with a reputation for being a hardass that I’d seen. He was oddly disheveled. Plain white t-shirt and jeans. Hair out of place. A beard more than a few days past neat stubble.
“Shepherd?” Everly asked behind me.
“Jude, let him by,” Cameron said.
I could tell by the look in Shepherd Calloway’s eyes that neither of the women in my care were in any danger from him. Not physical danger, at least. Everly’s heart might be another matter. I was pretty sure he hadn’t come all this way to interrupt her interview because she was a good employee.
The shocked yet hopeful look Everly gave him as I stepped out of his way confirmed my theory.
“Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Whitbury,” Shepherd said. He moved closer to their table and held out a hand. “Shepherd Calloway.”
“Cameron,” she said, shaking his hand. The slight curl in her lips left her looking both curious and amused.
“I need to ask you not to offer Everly the job,” he said. Cameron raised her eyebrows and Everly’s mouth dropped open. “Not yet, at least. Don’t get me wrong. You should absolutely hire her. You’ll never meet someone who’s as smart, kind, hard-working, diligent, and passionate about everything she does. As her boss—or former boss, I suppose—I give her my whole-hearted, unequivocal recommendation. But as a man, I’m asking you to do me an enormous favor and give me a few minutes to talk to her first.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Calloway, I’ve already offered her the position. And she accepted.”
The moment of silence that followed made me feel terrible for the guy.
“Of course,” Shepherd said. “As she should have.”
Cameron picked up her purse. “I just remembered, I have another meeting to get to. Everly, thank you so much for coming. We’ll connect later and work out the details. Mr. Calloway, it was nice meeting you. I hope you both enjoy your visit to Miami.”
She met my eyes and I gestured for her to go ahead of me.
“Nice one,” I whispered as she walked by, then followed her into the restaurant.
“Give them some privacy,” she said quietly to the hostess. “They’re my guests and if they need anything, I’ll take care of it.”
“Of course, Ms. Whitbury,” the hostess said.
We left and turned up the sidewalk toward her building. I shifted so I was on the street side of the sidewalk.
“Was that what it looked like?” Cameron asked. “Because I think we just witnessed something in there.”
“Everly and her boss? Oh yeah. That was something.”
“I bet he chased her here because he’s in love with her,” she said, a hint of excitement in her voice.
“Definitely.”
“Oh my god, it’s like something out of a book. Do you think he deserves her?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“I wish I knew what was happening. I’m glad I trusted my instinct to offer her an office in Seattle. She’s perfect for this job. I really want her.”
“Looks like Shepherd Calloway does too.”
She took a deep breath. “Exactly. Well, maybe she’ll have her happy ending. A new job and the man she loves.”
The hint of longing in Cameron’s voice surprised me. No sarcasm. No snarky remark. That little glimpse of vulnerability did something weird to my insides.
“Aldrich would never have chased me like that,” she said.
I wasn’t sure what to say. “No?”
“After I ended things, I didn’t want him to try to convince me to stay. And it still hurt when he didn’t. What’s that about?”
“You wanted to know you’d mattered.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see her glance at me as we walked. “That’s exactly it. And I don’t think I ever did. Not really.”
I squashed down the urge to reach over and clasp her hand. “At least you know you made the right choice.”
“Yes, I did.” She took a deep breath. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said all that. I guess now that you’ve witnessed sex in my kitchen, been interrogated by my gardener, and I’ve made things weird by oversharing, all we have left is for one of us to accidentally see the other one naked and we’ll have our awkwardness bases covered.”
I chuckled.
“Oh my god, di
d I make Jude Ellis laugh?” she asked. “I didn’t know you did that.”
“I can laugh.”
“You should do it more often,” she said.
“If it makes you feel any better, the last woman I dated long-term tried to kill me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
I tried not to wince. Damn it, I shouldn’t have said that. Normal people didn’t have ex-girlfriends who’d held a knife to their throat. But I had said it, so… “Yeah. She did.”
“Wow. How’d you stop her?”
“Talked her out of it.”
“I’m impressed,” she said.
“Thanks. It was a long time ago.”
We’d arrived at her building, so I held the door open while she walked into the lobby. She didn’t say anything else until we got into the elevator.
“Derek told me that you used to be in the CIA,” she said as the elevator carried us up.
I wasn’t surprised he’d told her, and my previous employment wasn’t confidential. But I didn’t like talking about it. People made assumptions, or asked too many questions.
“Yeah.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see her looking at me. “I guess that’s what makes you so mysterious.”
“Mysterious was never my angle.”
“No?”
I shook my head. “Because of my size, I played the muscle. People would assume I was all brawn with no brains. My partner and I took advantage of that.”
“Interesting. What does your partner do now? Is he semi-retired too?”
My back stiffened and I stared straight ahead. I didn’t want to talk about him. “No.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened.
“Sorry,” she said softly, then walked toward her office.
I let out a breath, feeling shitty. Some things in my past were classified. I literally couldn’t talk about them. Those secrets weren’t hard to keep. It was the ones I could talk about, but chose not to, that seemed to weigh the heaviest.
But that was simply something I had to bear.
12
Cameron
I dropped my purse on my desk and grabbed the iced coffee Brandy had waiting for me. Not that I needed the caffeine. I’d spent the morning at one of our testing facilities and my body buzzed with the excitement of innovation. Our research and development team had made huge strides with our new heat-resistant exterior plating. It was light and thin but extremely durable, and preliminary tests were promising.
Since I’d taken over, I’d managed to secure a number of lucrative government contracts. Those were important because they were generally long-term and they represented stability for the company. But I had bigger plans for Spencer. We were one step closer to a prototype of a revolutionary long-distance passenger aircraft. Many of the new technologies we were working on had been ideas I’d sketched in notebooks a decade ago, before I had the resources to develop them.
It was one of the best parts of my job.
I’d also enjoyed showing off our research facilities to Jude. Instead of hanging back like a disinterested layman, he’d struck up a lengthy conversation with one of the lead engineers on the project. From the snippets I’d caught, Jude was more educated in aeronautics than I’d realized.
I also got the impression that he might know how to fly a plane. And maybe a helicopter. I glanced at him through my open door, seated at the desk Brandy had set up for him. It made me wonder what else I didn’t know about him.
Probably a lot. But I wasn’t going to ask. He’d made it clear he didn’t want me to, which left me feeling oddly lonely, and I couldn’t understand why.
I settled in at my desk, took a sip of coffee, and went to work on my overflowing inbox. A few hours out of the office and I had at least fifty unread emails. Some I forwarded to Brandy; others I flagged for later follow-up. Then I got to one of the few names I always dreaded seeing. Noelle Olson.
Today she was edging out Bobby Spencer for the title of biggest pain in my ass.
She’d been with the company longer than I had, and when Milton had announced he was retiring, she’d assumed the CEO position was as good as hers. Milton had disagreed. Noelle blamed me. I’d hoped that she and I would have been able to develop at least a cordial working relationship. But she was just as hostile toward me now as she had been the day she’d stormed out of the high-level management meeting when my promotion had been announced.
I clicked on her email to find out what sort of trouble she was going to cause for me today. She wanted justification for the increased expenditures in the commercial R&D division. Noelle had long maintained that Spencer needed to focus entirely on government contracts and abandon our commercial projects.
With a sigh, I went to work drafting a diplomatic but very clear response. It was important that she remembered who was in charge.
Once I held a majority interest in Spencer, I was going to have to make some hard decisions about the leadership in this company. Noelle had good qualities that made her excellent at her job. But the way she constantly opposed me wasted a lot of my time.
Another email popped up just as I hit send, and I clicked on it.
Do the right thing. You’ll know.
My brow furrowed. That was odd. And mildly threatening. What did that mean? There were no links. No signature. Nothing else in the email. Just those two sentences.
Do the right thing? I had no idea what it meant. It didn’t have a subject line and the From field had my name, like I’d sent it to myself.
Brandy popped in to remind me it was time to go and my driver was waiting downstairs. I’d been asked to visit Miami Kid-Ovation, a summer and after-school program that provided art and STEM activities for kids, and an organization I personally funded. Jude was already standing, his laptop stowed in his backpack. Always one step ahead.
I forwarded the email to both Jude and IT so they could look into it, just in case it was relevant. Then I put it out of my mind.
Jude fell in step behind me and we took the elevator to the parking garage. Downstairs, Joe held the door for me as I slid into the back seat of the Mercedes SUV. Jude got in the passenger’s side and moved the seat back as far as it could go.
The poor guy probably didn’t fit in most cars. At least this was roomy.
He looked fantastic today in his cream button-down and slacks. I was going to miss the view when he didn’t work for me anymore. Those arms were a work of art.
I felt an odd dip in my stomach at the thought of not seeing Jude anymore. And it wasn’t just because of the arm porn. Or the shoulder porn, back porn, leg porn, or any other part of his gloriously muscular body.
So many of my private thoughts about him were exceedingly inappropriate. But there was something else simmering beneath the surface. Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit.
I liked him.
A lot.
I found myself dreading the moment—which seemed inevitable at this point—when he’d tell me I didn’t need him anymore. That I’d been right all along, and full-time personal security wasn’t necessary.
What was I going to say when that happened? Thanks, it was nice to have met you, good luck with retirement? Wait, I was wrong, I’m terrified for my life and I need you to stay? Come home with me and lick key lime tart off my stomach?
This was a problem.
Trying to put my latest inappropriate Jude sex fantasy out of my mind—but god, what would it feel like to be pinned down by those huge hands?—I focused on the notes Brandy had sent me.
Give short talk on why science and engineering are awesome. Bullet points below. Then the kids will show off their projects. Indoors. No need for sunscreen.
I grinned at the sunscreen remark. She knew me too well.
We pulled out of the parking garage onto the street and Jude adjusted the seat again. Thinking about his size, and that stony brick wall impression he did so well, made me wonder how this afternoon was going to
go. He was so serious. I didn’t want him searching the Kid-Ovation facility like he expected to find assassins hidden around every corner, or watching the kids with that suspicious glare that seemed to come so naturally to him.
“Is there any way you can tone it down?” I asked.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Tone what down?”
“The scary bodyguard thing. We’re about to be surrounded by a bunch of elementary school kids.”
“Do you think I’ve never been around kids before?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said.
He chuckled softly, but didn’t reply.
I’d just have to hope for the best.
I spent the rest of the drive reviewing the talking points Brandy had outlined. We got to the campus—an old high school I’d helped them purchase. Half of it was still under construction. It was being remodeled in phases so they could use parts of the facility, since their old location had been too small for their growing program.
Joe parked out front and I thanked him when he opened my door. I checked my email again while we walked in—Jude in front of me to assess potential threats or whatever it was he did—hoping Noelle hadn’t sent another email to argue with me further. I decided if she had, I’d ignore her until tomorrow. I had too much to do to get caught up in a debate with her.
Sheri Cruz, Kid-Ovation’s executive director, met us just inside the double doors. Old lockers lined the hallway and the linoleum floor had seen better days.
“Cameron, it’s so nice to see you,” Sheri said.
“Thanks for having me. I’m excited to see what you’ve all been up to.” We shook hands and I gestured to Jude. “This is Jude Ellis.”
“Nice to meet you.” Sheri shook hands with Jude. “We’re ready for you, if you’ll come with me.”
“Sounds good.”
We followed Sheri down the hallway, past banks of dented, slate-gray lockers. The faint sound of construction carried from the other side of campus, a series of loud bangs and the low hum of heavy equipment. She turned at a set of double doors leading into the old gymnasium.
The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy Page 9