And now her lover…
Her breath caught in her lungs as the betrayal began cutting straight to her heart. Was she that gullible? Did everyone just take one look at her and think patsy? God, she never would have thought he could sink so low.
Her fingers curled into her palms so tightly her fingernails dug into her skin. “Were you going to give me any credit at all? Maybe my name in a footnote somewhere?”
Cam’s bare chest worked up and down. “Damn it, Lexie. You know me better than that.”
No… No, she didn’t. She’d let her emotions get in the way of clear thinking once again. She’d been leery of him from the beginning, yet he’d been there every time she’d needed support. He’d taken her side whenever it had felt like it was her against the world. It had been almost too easy to let herself lean on him.
Now she knew why.
“Roxie warned me not to trust you,” she said, voice shaking. “Blaire too, but I defended you.”
He came at her so fast she didn’t see him move down the steps. The paperwork in his hand slapped down on the coffee table, and he reached for her. “Don’t do this.”
She stepped back before he could touch her.
“They said you were ruthless. I can’t believe I forgot that the job always comes first with you.” She looked at him incredulously. “You got me to quit.”
His eyes narrowed. “Is that what you think? Do you honestly believe I’d take you to bed to steal an idea? That I’d need to?”
“According to your reputation, you’ve done worse.”
His shoulders stiffened, and she literally saw him turn from the man who lay beside her in bed to the corporate shark he was.
“So it was some evil master plan that made me press you up against a jukebox in a crowded bar to get a first kiss? Letting you ride me like a wild woman was a twisted business ploy?” He stepped closer. “I was scheming when I bent you over that dresser and fucked you from behind, making you moan and beg for more?”
Lexie jolted. She couldn’t listen to this, not while she was wearing his clothes. The silk blend of his shirt was caressing her skin, tickling her thighs and sensitizing her nipples. She still wanted him, but she now knew the price she’d paid to have him. She spun around, desperate to get away, and suddenly found herself nose to nose with the crystal paperweight on the mantel.
It was in her hand before she knew it.
And it left it just as quickly.
She heaved the crystal as hard as she could. It flew over the sunken living room and across the foyer before smashing into the wall beside the front door. The sharp edges punctured the drywall, creating a jagged hole, before the crystal fell. Almost in slow motion, the heavy piece of glass dropped to the floor and shattered. Pieces scattered everywhere, reflecting the light from the lamp in a rainbow of color.
As pretty as it was, the beauty was broken.
And as loud as the crash had been, the silence that followed was even louder.
Cam’s head snapped back towards her, surprise clear on his face. Lexie couldn’t look at him. All she could do was stare at the damage she’d done. She hadn’t been able to do that when Julian had betrayed her.
“Lexie,” Cam said softly.
She turned towards the bedroom. She had to get away from him. This betrayal was cutting deeper than the others had.
He caught her arm before she could take a step. “Stop running. That’s what you always do, run away and lick your wounds. Keep fighting.”
She tried to jerk her arm out of his grip, but it was like a manacle.
“Fight for us. Damn it, stop and listen to me.”
She met his gaze, and the air practically snapped.
“I’m not stealing your idea,” he said, voice gritty as sandpaper. “I’m building on it.”
Latching on to her hand, he pulled her back across the room. He sat her down on the sofa and, when she started to bounce right back up, held her down by the shoulders.
“Look,” he demanded. He grabbed the battered proposal and dropped it in her lap. Snatching up a fistful of other papers from the sofa, he pushed them in front of her face too. “Take the time to actually read my notes.”
He perched on the edge of the coffee table and watched her steadily. His face was dead set with frustration and something else. Anxiousness? Impatiently, he reached out and opened the proposal in her lap. When she finally looked down, he pulled his hand back and settled it against his knee. The way it clenched into a fist drew her attention more sharply that the words he was trying to get her to read.
His knuckles were white. He was worried.
Lexie tried to slow her breaths. Her adrenaline was pumping hard, but she forced herself to skim over the notes in the margins of her work. Business was the last thing on her mind, but he couldn’t hide his intentions when they were spelled out in black and white. She would not, could not be betrayed again.
The first series of notes, though, confused her. Instead of implementing her plan, he was taking her idea in a different direction. But why?
She flipped to the next page. “Storefronts? What is this?”
“It’s a business plan.”
Her eyes narrowed. So he and Julian were working on a spin-off? Blaire had warned her they were working very closely. “How is that any different? You’re still starting with my concept.”
“It’s different because it’s not for Underhill.”
So he was already working on his next deal? He had a new client waiting in the wings?
“It’s for us.”
Lexie looked at him blankly. Us?
“I think we should start our own company.”
The papers wrinkled in her grip, but she refused to let her thoughts run away from her. She’d been excited about this concept before, only to have the bottom drop out. She was tired of getting burned.
“Why didn’t you show it to me before now?” she challenged. “Why work on it in the middle of the night?”
“Why did you hide it from me in the first place?” Springing up from the coffee table, he walked around it. Pacing about naked to the waist, he seemed almost primal. “You were going to present it to the entire company at the quarterly meeting. Why couldn’t you run it by me before that?” He let out a growl of frustration and raked a hand through his hair.
Lexie went still on the sofa. She’d seen him confident and persuasive before, but this was different. His muscles were tense, and his steps were clipped. That strong, powerful smoothness was missing.
He was invested in this. He was serious.
She looked down at the proposal in her lap. Her fingers shook as she turned another page. He’d done nearly as much work on it as she had.
“When you dropped your things in the boardroom that day, you left a copy of your presentation on the floor. I was curious about what you’d put together, so I read it.”
She licked her lips nervously. “So you think it’s a good idea?”
“Good? It’s brilliant.” He grabbed another document on the table, the one he’d been carrying when he’d walked into the room. He slid it towards her with a whoosh. “Here’s a preliminary market study. Toys make up a considerable chunk of the money parents spend on their children. Today when a child gives up a toy, it’s usually handed down, sold at a rummage sale or thrown away. Your idea to buy and sell used toys could give consumers another option and bring business back into the sector, educational and otherwise. If we move fast enough, we could position our company to provide that service to all the big players.”
Folding his arms over his chest, he faced her. “Like Underhill Associates—or I should say, like Teach Me, Inc.”
His feet were spread wide, and his jaw was rock solid. “That’s the deal I’m working on with Julian. Underhill is in the process of being acquired.”
Lexie’s mouth dropped open. Teach Me was the industry leader in educational games. They were huge, but the idea of her father selling the family company? That was even bigger. “Teach M
e is buying UAI?”
“As long as Julian can get out of his own way long enough for it to happen.”
She didn’t know what to say. It was all too much. “I can’t believe it.”
“The draft offer is right there in front of you. We’ve been sitting on it for a while. I would have told you, but I’m still trying to work out one issue.” A muscle ticked in Cam’s jaw, but he met her gaze. “Teach Me has a strong marketing division. They might be able to take on a few more people with this acquisition, but I don’t know if I can save your team.”
Lexie sat there, stunned. That was what he’d been keeping from her?
“As a start-up, we wouldn’t be able to hire them either,” he said bluntly.
Tears stung her eyes, fast and hot. She felt for her employees—she felt it all the way to the bottom of her gut—yet she was more ashamed of what she’d suspected of him. She’d accused him of going behind her back to hurt her when he’d been trying to shield her from so many different things. Her father, the upheaval at the company, potential layoffs… It wasn’t the behavior of a so-called hatchet man, especially one who had no room for emotion in business.
She smoothed her shaking fingers over the paper. A start-up company. For them. Was it even possible? Would he really be able to change his life like that? Could he leave behind the travel? The glamorous destinations and the spine-stiffening reputation?
“Why did you hide what you were working on from me?” she asked.
“You were dealing with too much as it was.”
“But this was important to me. You knew that.”
“I was trying to improve my odds.” His eyes turned stormy. “I couldn’t let you say no.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you think?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t going to make any more assumptions. “You already have a great career.”
“But I don’t have a great life.” He shrugged with his arms still crossed. “You’ve made me see that. I’ve worked so hard and for so long that I forgot that there was anything else. But in these last few weeks—” He cleared his throat. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’m tired of breaking companies apart or fixing weak links. I want to start something from the beginning and build it into something strong. But if you can’t trust me…or if you don’t want to partner with me…”
“I do.”
The market study slipped to the floor. She pushed herself to her feet, but her legs were shaking so hard, she was afraid to take a step towards him. “I should have trusted you, Cam, but you should have trusted me too. I want this.”
“I can’t keep proving myself to you, Lexie. You’ve got to let me in if this is going to work.”
“I have let you in.” She pointed across the room in the direction of the broken crystal. He should know what it meant. He’d wanted her to throw the paperweight when Julian had nearly destroyed her, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. When she’d thought that he’d betrayed her, though… Well, it may as well have been her heart splattered across that floor.
She hoped they hadn’t done too much damage to piece it back together.
His gaze swept over the mess. When it returned to her, it was filled with heat. It was the same kind of heat she’d felt in the elevator whenever his look had turned her way, the same kind of heat she’d felt when she’d danced for him in their dimly lit bedroom.
She licked her lips. “Have you let me in?”
Their gazes locked.
“I love you, Lexie.”
Her weak knees nearly gave way.
He shrugged stiffly, and his voice dropped. “I love you.”
Her heart squeezed, but her legs finally found strength. She began moving towards him, her heart thudding with every step she took. He looked just as big and imposing as he had all those times when she’d turned the other direction at Underhill.
She wasn’t turning away now.
She met his dark gaze as she approached him. His arms were still crossed, and his jaw was tight. She wasn’t the only one afraid of being rejected.
“I want all those things too, Cam. I want to start a company, and I want to start a life. With you.”
She stopped when they were only a foot apart, but he didn’t reach for her. Undeterred, she reached for him instead. Her touch was light as she wrapped her fingers around his wrists. His skin felt hot, and his pulse was fast. It gave her courage as she pulled his arms around her. “I’m sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion. You’re the one person who’s been on my side through all of this. I’m just so gun-shy right now. The people I love keep hurting me, but I shouldn’t—”
“Say that again.” His gaze burned into hers, and the tips of their noses touched.
She swallowed hard. “They keep—”
“Before that.”
Her eyes widened when she realized what he wanted. Smiling tremulously, she ran her thumb over his lower lip. “I love you, Cameron Rowe.”
The tension left his body in one big whoosh. “It’s about time.”
He caught her to him, and Lexie instinctively went up on her tiptoes. His head dipped, and the time for apologies was gone. Their mouths met, and the kiss went white hot. He held her so tightly, her breasts flattened against his chest. His heat surrounded her, but she trembled as she tried to get even closer.
She did love him. It was why she’d reacted so strongly to what she’d found. She hadn’t cared if he was using her idea; she was terrified that he didn’t feel anything for her.
She tangled her fingers in his hair as their mouths ate at each other’s. The shirt she wore was driving her crazy. The silk was rubbing and gliding. It made her nipples burn and her thighs clench. The teasing wasn’t enough. She wanted his skin. She wanted his mouth. She needed to feel him moving inside her.
She ran her hands down his chest and tried to squeeze them between their bodies.
“Sexy Lexie,” he growled.
“You make me that way.” She traced the carved lines of his abs. She wanted him, and she was through being afraid of her feelings.
He kissed her hard, and then he was squeezing his hands between their bodies too. He fondled her breasts, plumping them and taking their weight. His thumbs played with her nipples through the fabric, and Lexie closed her eyes in pleasure.
Reaching lower, she cupped him. He pumped into her hand, and then his playful fingers got serious. He started undoing her top, but neither of them wanted to break contact. Their bodies bumped, and they kissed hungrily. She swung her hips back so she could get better access to his zipper, but he pulled her right back. Her breath caught at the feel of his erection pressing intimately against her belly.
He was big, and he was hard.
She stopped for a moment to savor the sensation, but the hesitation put her behind on the race to strip each other. He was opening the white shirt and shoving it off her shoulders before she got a good grip on his zipper. She felt the air touch her shoulders, then her breasts and her stomach. She finally found the tab of his pants, and his zipper slid down with a rasp. She pushed his pants down to his thighs at the same time his shirt fell from her arms to the floor. Finally, they stood inches apart, male to female, naked and aroused.
He cupped her bare breasts. “You are so perfect.”
She took that tiny step forward that brought their bodies into intimate contact. His arms enveloped her, and the kiss they shared was slow and erotic.
They’d had sex before. This time they were making love.
“Cam,” she sighed.
“You’re mine.” He began backing her towards the bedroom. “All mine.”
Cam didn’t care where she’d come from or who her family was. She was his, every last complicated inch of her.
He slid one leg between hers as he directed her towards the bedroom. Her skin was soft and heated, warm and wet. Her mouth was hungry as they kissed, but nothing was as wicked as her hands. His spine locked when her delicate fingers wrapped around his c
ock, tight and possessive.
He nipped at her lower lip. “Careful.”
“I don’t want to be careful anymore.”
He fisted a hand in her hair. Neither did he.
Catching her about the waist, he picked her up. She wrapped her legs around him as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her hand still cradled him way down low, and she pressed her face into his neck.
Cam’s field of vision narrowed as she caressed him intimately, but his eyes popped back open when he realized they weren’t in the bedroom with the shades closed tight. Anyone could see in.
And Lexie was gloriously, stunningly naked.
He reached for the table lamp to douse the light.
The room fell back into darkness and, for a moment, he couldn’t see. All he could do was feel, and the sensations nearly pushed him over the edge. Her full breasts were plumped against his chest. Her thighs clenched at his hips, and her curious fingers still explored his raging erection. When her ragged breaths hit his ear, he knew he wasn’t going to last.
He’d meant to take her back to bed, but he changed directions towards the nearest flat surface instead. He pressed her up against the wall where the moon’s light was brightest. His eyes adjusted, and their gazes locked. Without a word, she directed him where they both wanted him to go. With one smooth swing of his hips, he was penetrating her.
“Ohhh,” she sighed.
He burrowed deep and leaned his head against the wall as he tried to catch his breath.
She was hot and snug and so wet for him. His hips started moving before his lungs were ready. He slowly pulled back, only to thrust into her again abruptly. When he’d walked into the room and seen the look on her face, all his hopes and dreams had crashed to pieces.
But then she’d thrown that paperweight.
He pumped into her again, and she gasped.
Lexie Page 19