A Cinderella Affair

by A. C. Arthur

  Her words were spoken softly, matter-of-factly, and they enraged him. “What? What paper was that?”

  “Vegas Today,” she answered. “I know that the picture of you and that woman was old but it bothered me.”

  He cupped her face and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose. “I’m sorry that you were upset by an article. Not that I have any idea how you would get a Las Vegas paper in L.A., but that’s not the point. What else did the article say?”

  “It alluded to the doubts I was already having about not being your type,” she said in a tone that Adam couldn’t quite decipher.

  “To hell with reporters and their papers!” he yelled, then expelled a deep breath. It angered him that she was even reading those papers, let alone relating to what they were saying. “If it’ll make you feel better I’ll call my lawyer.”

  “No.” She shook her head adamantly. “Don’t do anything. If you sue them it’ll look like what they were saying was true.”

  His hands were in her hair raking through the thick mass until the elastic that had been holding it together fell to the floor. “You don’t believe what they’re saying is true, do you?” He searched her face, looking for some clue as to what she was thinking. She was no longer regulating her breathing nor was she trying to get away from him. In fact, she seemed eerily calm.

  “I believe that it may be their opinion that we are an odd couple.”

  Adam was sure he visibly relaxed. “And what’s your opinion on us as a couple?”

  She continued to stare at him until Adam felt as if she were tearing apart layer by layer of him.

  “I said I was willing to give this a go and I still am. I know that people won’t like it. I’m trying to get used to that because I realize it’s none of their business.”

  “Wow.” Adam sighed.

  “Wow, what?”

  “Hearing you talk like this is different.” She tried to look away. “Different in a good way.”

  “I’m not used to being in the public eye this much, but Dana says I should get used to it because even without you I’m pretty famous.”

  Adam chuckled. “Dana’s right. And that’s the lure. Two famous people getting together—imagine the likelihood of that working out.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Was he thinking that this thing between him and Camille was something to work out? The fact that Kim had resurfaced more than confirmed his stance of never getting seriously involved again. Not to mention the increase in press he and Trent were receiving now that one of the Triple Threat Donovans had gotten hitched. Still, there was something about this woman.

  She laughed and he pulled her closer for a hug. “I really missed you.”

  Camille sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist finally. He’d said he couldn’t wait to touch her. Well she’d been feeling the same thing. The moment he’d entered that room her senses had gone on alert. Her body reacting solely to his closeness until she couldn’t wait for Jade, Linc and Noelle to leave the room. All week she’d thought of the kisses they’d shared and how wonderful they made her feel. And now she couldn’t wait until his lips met hers again.

  “I really missed you, too,” she admitted.

  Adam pulled back and looked at her for a fleeting moment before capturing her mouth in a heated exchange. His tongue tangled with hers, sucking and pulling her into an abyss of pleasure. Her hands gripped his shirt, moved upward to feel the flexing of the muscles in his back.

  He deepened the kiss and she moaned into his mouth. She tried to move closer, to be as close to him as humanly possible as they stood in the den of the woman’s house she’d been invited to for the weekend. Camille felt wanton, brazen and sexy. Things she’d never felt before. His hands grasped her bottom and for a moment she was shocked. He had partially undressed her in the living room at her house, so this intimate touching shouldn’t have bothered her. And actually, it didn’t. It aroused her.

  His mouth was hot as it moved over her jaw and down her neck. She heard him mumble her name and felt waves of heat swarming through her, accumulating at her center. His tongue was driving her wild, tracing paths of what could only be described as delicious licks of fire over her skin. He was now cupping her bottom so thoroughly that she was lifted from the floor. In a motion she’d only seen on television he swung her around and sat her on top of the sofa table. His fingers were quick to undo the belt of her robe and push the satiny material down until it pooled around her waist.

  Camille spread her legs and welcomed him when he stepped between them, his fingers instantly going to the straps of her nightgown. In a flash her upper body was bare, her chest heaving as he stared down at her.

  She bit her bottom lip, wondering what he was thinking as he looked at her nakedness. He sucked in a breath then reached out both hands as if he intended to cup her breasts. Instead he paused so close to touching her the heat from his hands circled her nipples. She shifted and was about to pull the nightgown up when he stopped her.

  “No.” Sucking air through his teeth he looked at her. “You are so beautiful.”

  Camille looked away and felt his fingers on her chin turning her back to face him. “It’s true. From your personality to your—” his eyes lowered and he licked his lips “—your stunning body, you are beautiful.”

  She couldn’t speak. Never had a man told her she was beautiful. She’d had dates in which they were either enamored with her success or her connections, or even in the hopes of getting her father to review their screenplay, but never were they this focused on her, or her looks.

  “Now, don’t move,” he instructed.

  He really didn’t need to tell her that, she couldn’t move right now if her life depended on it.

  Adam lowered his head, taking one heavy breast into his palm and squeezing gently. He moaned and Camille arched her back. He squeezed again, letting the nipple poke through the opening of his hand and she gasped. He flicked his tongue over the puckered nipple and she cried out. Then he opened his mouth taking as much of the mound in as possible, sucking as if he depended on her for nourishment. Her fingers went to his shoulder, sinking into his taut flesh as he continued to suckle her. Between her legs moisture pooled and dripped until she felt dampness on her inner thighs. She tried to pull her legs together but his body was like a blockade.

  He moved to the next breast and Camille’s legs trembled. She knew that he’d felt that movement and experienced a moment of embarrassment. That moment quickly passed when Adam’s mouth moved from her breasts to her stomach. Despite the growing desire Camille felt a prick of panic. Besides her thighs, her stomach was her least favorite body part. However, Adam didn’t seem to notice as he was continually kissing and laving her skin. He pushed the nightgown up so that it now went around her waist like a satin belt, and lowered his head.

  Camille might be a virgin but she knew about the intimacies between man and woman. She grasped his shoulders, attempting to push him back. “Adam,” she whispered.

  “Don’t move,” he growled and she stilled.

  His tongue stroked her once and she felt like a domino tower wavering at a sudden breeze. He licked her again and she knew she was about to tumble.

  Her scent was intoxicating, luring him, seducing him. His fingers parted her folds and kissed her deeply, desirously, loving the feel of her warmth against his face. She must have put her palms down on the table, leaning back to leverage herself, because her center lifted, cupping his face as if to feed him better.

  He ravaged her, dipping his tongue in and out of her center, loving the soft moans she emanated. His mind was so full of her, so focused on what she was doing to him until he’d almost forgotten where they were. And then her thighs quaked and tightened around his head and even that thought disappeared.

  Adam was more than gentle as he slipped the straps of her nightgown back onto her shoulders and helped her down from the table. When she opened her mouth to speak he touched a finger to her lips then retrieved her rob
e and motioned for her to put her arms into the sleeves. When her back was to him he slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him.

  “We will finish this. Just not here,” he whispered into her ear.

  She lay back against him, letting her head rest on his shoulder. “I’ve never done…that before. It was wonderful.”

  “That was only the beginning of what I plan to do to you.” She could hear the smile in his voice and was touched by the ease in which they’d shifted from their heated exchange. She supposed it was due to the fact that she still felt his warmth, which was now coupled by the stiff length pressed into her back.

  “That gives me something to look forward to,” she said in a much lighter tone than she’d felt when she’d first arrived in Vegas.

  Adam turned her to face him and tweaked her nose. “But now I have to go before Linc comes down here and throws me out.”

  “He wouldn’t do that,” she argued. “Would he?”

  Adam chuckled then released her to pick up his jacket. “Linc knows me very well. He’s not going to get one ounce of sleep knowing that I’m under the same roof as you. And he takes his rest very seriously.”

  Camille slipped her hand into his and began walking toward the door. “I see.”

  They were near the front door when Adam said, “Make some time for me tomorrow night.”

  “I don’t know. Jade has lots of things planned for us and I think I’m meeting your mother for lunch.”

  “Tell Jade you have a date. She’ll understand.” He cupped her faced and kissed her thoroughly. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”

  Camille smiled, loving the feel of his tongue against hers. “I’ll tell her but I don’t know if she’s going to like it.”

  “I’ll deal with the backlash,” he said and was gone, leaving Camille with the memory of one fantastic orgasm.

  Chapter 10

  “He’s not what I thought,” Camille said as she and Jade sat in the sunroom eating bagels and sipping coffee.

  “I don’t think the Donovan men are what anybody expects. People tend to see only what’s on the outside. Then they make assumptions.” Jade broke a blueberry bagel in half and lifted her knife to smear on some cream cheese.

  “I’ve always wondered why that is. Why is it that some people feel they have the right to judge?”

  “Because they have nothing better to do,” Jade said after swallowing a bite. “The key is not to give those types of people too much of your time. It’s not worth it. Besides, you can’t change their minds.” She took a sip of coffee. “Take Linc for example. He was the head of the Triple Threat Donovans, the oldest and most devout bachelor. When he started seeing me there was talk about me using him to get my spa off the ground. Then there were the rumors of Linc paying off a debt by marrying me. It was never-ending. And even now that we’ve been happily married for almost a year they still write stupid articles predicting things like the demise of our marriage and the disfiguration of our kids.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I’m afraid so. It doesn’t stop and there’s not much we can do. Something about the First Amendment and all that bull.”

  Camille chuckled and chewed on her cinnamon raisin bagel. She rarely ate bagels because they were wasted calories so she chewed slowly, totally enjoying the taste of this one. Last night she’d eaten a brownie at Jade’s insistence and hadn’t thought about it until just now. She took another bite of her bagel.

  “So when are you going to sleep with him?” Jade asked out of the blue.

  Camille choked on the last bit of bagel. Jade only smiled as Camille cleared her throat and because she was thinking that maybe she’d made a friend in Adam’s sister-in-law, she smiled in return. “What makes you think I haven’t already?”

  “Um, let’s see. The fact that he showed up here after midnight to see you. And the fact that you were up bright and early this morning, making coffee when, if you would have done like I would have and made love to him in the den, you would have still been fast asleep.”

  “Well,” she started to say. “I guess you have a small point there. It’s complicated.”

  “Love usually is.”

  “I’m not in love.”

  Jade nodded. “Yup, and I’m not sitting here drinking the best damn cup of coffee I’ve ever tasted.”

  “And neither is Adam.”

  “Don’t underestimate Adam. He’s very intelligent and not nearly as pigheaded as his brothers.”

  “Love is not in our future,” Camille said, then wondered at the truth of her words. She really liked Adam, and after last night she had the impression that he really liked her. But really liked was not love.

  “What if it is love? Are you against that?” Jade lifted her napkin to her mouth and wiped. “You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself that it’s not possible.”

  Contemplating Jade’s words Camille sat back in her chair and looked out the window to the bright sunlight. “I’m actually trying to keep myself from being too disappointed when whatever Adam and I are doing ends.”

  “I used to live my life waiting for the next bad thing to happen, too. And believe me, a lot of bad things occurred before I finally decided it was time to enjoy all the good stuff that happened in between. I heard about your father. Does that have any bearing on how you perceive things with Adam?”

  Camille lifted her cup of coffee and continued to stare out the window. They had a terrific view of the golden desert and the tops of hotels along the strip. There was no question that they lived in Las Vegas, but Las Vegas did not intrude into this house.

  “I loved my father very much. Next to Dana, he was my best friend. He tried to be understanding of things I was going through growing up.” She trailed off, thinking that what the therapist had told her was true. She should have told her father how Moreen treated her, the things she’d said to her when her father wasn’t around. But she’d known her father loved Moreen and she hadn’t wanted to hurt him. Instead she had resigned herself to endure Moreen’s treatment for the sake of her father’s happiness. It had never occurred to her that he wouldn’t have wanted her make that sacrifice. “When my father died I felt…I don’t know, betrayed.”

  Jade nodded knowingly. “Yup, that’s just how I felt when my grandmother died. She’d been taking care of Noelle and I for so long there was never a thought of her not being there. And then one day she was gone. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to hate her, and yet I loved her so much living on seemed impossible.”

  “That’s just how I felt.”

  “But I did have to live on. And so do you. I’m sure your father wouldn’t want you going through life waiting for the other shoe to fall.”

  “He always said I needed to find peace with myself first before I could be truly happy. In the last few weeks I’ve thought a lot about him saying that and how it might be true.”

  “I think your father had a very good point. I also think that you and Adam have a brighter future than you’re willing to admit. He’s a good guy, Camille. And I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother-in-law.”

  Camille set her cup down and turned to Jade. “If he’s such a good guy, then what does he see in me?”

  “My mother called you a gem,” Adam said when they were seated in his car that evening.

  “Wow, I’ve never been called a gem before.” Camille stared straight ahead, her mind racing with thoughts. Her conversation with Jade this morning had left her thinking about her father and finally feeling a small sense of peace at his passing. It also made her think about Jade’s words that just so happened to match Adam’s.

  “You underestimate yourself, Camille. Stop doing that,” she’d said.

  And as she’d showered and dressed Camille realized that they were both right. She did underestimate herself. After staring into the mirror for a few minutes she admitted that she had a pretty face. Yes, her cheekbones were high and her cheeks just a little bit chubby, but she was
not hard to look at. She’d slipped into her jeans and shirt and stood at the full-length mirror behind the bathroom door. She was not as wide as a train, as Moreen had so often told her. Turning to the side she saw a very round bottom and even rounder breasts. Smoothing her hand down her belly, she noted that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. In fact, in these jeans it actually seemed a little flatter. No, her jeans weren’t tight, but rather they fit her curvy size perfectly.

  So when she’d returned to the Donovan living room it was with a little more self-confidence and a lot more excitement. She and Jade were having lunch with Mrs. Donovan and Camille actually found herself looking forward to it.

  Lunch had been more than pleasant. Beverly Donovan was a striking woman, both in looks and personality. She’d instantly hugged Camille upon meeting her, then proceeded to talk about everything from clothes to what she was planning to serve for dinner tonight. The three of them spent two and a half hours together and Camille couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. For a moment she’d felt as if she had a mother and a sister.

  Afterward Camille had taken a nap, and rose just in time to take a bath and get ready for her date with Adam. Jade had been more than understanding when she’d announced that he was coming to pick her up. And since she’d mentioned it while they were at lunch, Mrs. Donovan hadn’t wasted a moment telling her that she and Adam made a good couple.

  So as she sat in his car now she was very happy to be with him, but filled with so many new revelations she didn’t quite know how to categorize them all.

  “It means she likes you,” Adam was saying. “She definitely likes that catalog you left with her. I’m sure you’ll have another huge order by the time you get home.”

  For some reason that thought didn’t make Camille happy. Tomorrow evening the Donovan jet was going to take her back to L.A., and Monday morning she’d be back in her office, staring out at the busy street wondering when she’d see Adam and his family again.

  “Are you okay, Camille?” Adam asked suddenly.