by Eve Gaddy
And she was bound to a man who would kill her if he found her.
Cam’s hand dropped, she turned away. And pain blossomed in her heart.
The moment had passed, but Delilah didn’t believe either of them would forget it.
They ended the afternoon with the dolphin tank. “I think the dolphins are my favorite,” she told Cam. “But I liked all of it.” She smiled at him, wishing she could tell him what the day had meant to her. “Thank you for bringing me.”
“Day’s not over yet. What are you in the mood to eat?” Cam asked.
“I don’t care as long as there’s plenty of it. I’m starving.” She shouldn’t be since she’d eaten junk all afternoon, but she was.
He took her to a place she could only describe as a dive. The parking lot was poorly lit, the building little more than a dilapidated shack with a sign she could barely make out. “Hushpuppy’s?”
“Yeah, don’t let the outside fool you. This is some of the best fried shrimp and hush puppies on the coast. They just don’t believe in wasting money on the surroundings.”
“I can see that. But if you say it’s good, it’s okay with me.” She arched a brow and asked him, “Is the food better than your place?”
“The shrimp and hush puppies are, but I’ll call you a liar if you tell anyone I said that.”
She laughed and crossed her heart. “I won’t, I promise.”
“We can go someplace nicer if you want,” he said. “Not too nice, since we’re not dressed for it.”
She looked down at her jeans. “This is fine. I’m sure I’ll like it. Besides, I don’t even own a dress. Not anymore. Not since—-” She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear the image.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Think about him.”
“How did you know?”
He raised his hand to her cheek, stroked his fingers gently down it until they reached her mouth. His thumb slid over her lips in a whisper touch. “Because you look so sad,” he finally said. “No one as young and pretty as you should have a sorrow that big.”
She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. Her stomach jittered and she wished… His hand dropped, they got out of the truck and went inside.
She wouldn’t have thought it from the outside, but the place was romantic. Far too romantic for someone with no intention of having a romance with the man beside her. They found a seat in a dark corner, with a flickering candle on the table giving off a meager light.
“Why do you want to be a CPA?” Cam asked her, referring to the conversation they’d begun on the way to the restaurant.
The waitress slapped a bowl of hush puppies and a couple of draft beers down on the table and hustled off.
“I like numbers. No, I love numbers. They’re—” She thought about it a moment. “They’re fun.”
“So Cat says. She likes it, but I think she likes rehabbing birds better.”
Delilah bit into a hush puppy, remembering how much Cat had seemed to enjoy it when they’d talked about accounting. According to her, her family changed the subject whenever she brought it up, so she’d quit trying.
“Rehabbing birds is a cool career. You can see she loves it. I wouldn’t want to do something I hated for the rest of my life. Would you?”
“No, which is why I own a restaurant instead of being an accountant.”
“You really love the restaurant business, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I can’t see doing anything else. I like the people. That’s one reason I tend bar. You see an interesting slice of life as a bartender.”
They stayed talking long after their meal was finished. Finally, Cam signaled for the check and they left.
She didn’t want the day to end. She didn’t want to go to the apartment where he would go to his bed and she to hers. She didn’t want to lie alone in her bed and damn fate for having sent Avery to her first.
“You want to have a nightcap?” he asked her when they got to the Scarlet Parrot.
“The bar’s closed.”
“I have an in with the owner.”
“Cute.” But she smiled and went up the stairs to the restaurant. It was a mistake, she didn’t doubt, as she watched him pour brandy into two glasses. But she’d been making them all day and didn’t think one more would do much harm. Even if she had nothing else, she’d have memories of a beautiful day.
He put the glasses on the bar and came around to sit beside her. He’d left the place in shadows, with a single light burning. The night was quiet, with the faint whisper of a fan the only sound breaking it.
Cam swirled the liquor in the glass, then took a sip. “The night you broke in was my fortieth birthday. I was alone because I was bored out of my mind with the women I’d been dating.”
“Why do you date them, then?”
He shot her a sideways glance and a corner of his mouth lifted in amusement. “They’re not always boring.”
She laughed and he went on. “At first I thought you were a kid. Maybe a runaway.” His gaze traveled slowly over her. “But you’re not a kid.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“It would be better for both of us if you were.”
“Yes,” she said huskily. “But I’m not.”
His palm cupped her cheek. His thumb traced her mouth, as it had earlier that night when he’d talked about the sorrow he saw in her eyes. “If you keep looking at me like that I’m going to kiss you,” he murmured. “Are you sure you want to start down that road?”
Oh, she wanted to. Desperately. But she couldn’t. She was no naive child, she knew exactly where a kiss would lead them. To his bed. To making love with him. And she knew in her heart it would be wonderful.
And it would be a lie.
She got up and went upstairs without another word.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE RAIN CAME IN at closing time. Cam sent Martha home before it grew worse, though he knew an urge to keep her around. He didn’t want to be alone with Delilah.
Like hell he didn’t. He wanted to be alone with her, but he knew he shouldn’t. Look what had nearly happened the last time they’d been alone. Why had he thought he could spend the day with her and not want to make love to her? If she hadn’t left when she had, she’d have been in his bed.
He had to remind himself why that was such a bad idea.
He should help her look for another place to stay, but that wasn’t going to happen on her salary and given the sparsity of places to rent in Aransas City. But damn, he hadn’t realized how hard it would be to live with a woman he couldn’t have. Why would he? He hadn’t lived with a woman since he’d left his childhood home.
He thought about Delilah wearing the towel. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. She’d been so beautiful. Tempting. A flick of his wrist and she’d have been naked. And he’d have been lost. He knew she hadn’t done it on purpose, but his poor, starved libido didn’t care.
Worse than that, though, had been the day at the aquarium. Because that hadn’t been about sex. Sex was normal; he could deal with wanting her. But damn, he liked her. He’d had a blast showing her one of his favorite places, a place he’d never taken a woman. A place he’d always reserved for his family. Until Delilah.
Worse yet, he’d enjoyed talking to her, enjoyed being with her. He was damned near obsessed with her and he’d never even kissed her.
Shit, he was in trouble.
“I’m going to deposit the cash,” he said, glad for an excuse to leave.
“I’ll go with you,” Delilah said. Before he could answer, she went out and came back with the sweatshirt she’d been wearing the first night he saw her.
He picked up the bank bag and frowned at her. “I don’t need any help. The bank is only a few blocks away.”
“That’s okay. I just need a change of scene.” She smiled at him. “Come on, Cam, take me with you. Please?”
He gave up. A short while later, with the interior of the truck
warming up, the rain tapping a soft song on the windshield, and her sexy scent wrapping around him like a woman’s arms, he wished he hadn’t. He gritted his teeth, deciding silence was his best course.
Delilah turned on the stereo. Chris Isaak was singing about a solitary man, a soft, sad lament. They listened for a bit and Delilah said, “That song reminds me of you.”
Puzzled, he glanced at her. “Why? I’m not solitary.”
“Yes, you are. You have a core of solitude. It’s always there, even when you’re with other people.”
“Thank you, Dr. Phil.”
“Scoff all you want, but I think it’s true. You don’t want anyone to reach you. You don’t even carry a cell phone.”
“That has nothing to do with solitude. I don’t have a cell phone because if I did, Martha or my family would be calling me every ten seconds. When I leave the restaurant I want to get away. Having a cell phone defeats the purpose.”
“Convenient excuse to do just what you want. Cut yourself off.” When he didn’t reply she continued, “You’re that way with women, too. There’s a part of you that says, back off, don’t touch.”
He shot her an irritated glance before looking back at the road. “How would you know that?”
“Aside from the fact that you told me yourself the women you date bore you silly?”
He’d forgotten he’d told her that. “Yeah, aside from that.”
“Your reputation precedes you. I hear you give a woman two months, tops. That’s not long enough for anyone to get to know you.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about intimacy.”
“I’d say sex was about as intimate as you can get.”
She was quiet a moment, then said in a tight voice. “Not always.”
Damn, he didn’t want to go there. Uncomfortable with the turn of conversation, he shifted. “Is there a reason you’re dissecting my personal life?” He reached the bank and drove to the night deposit window.
“I—you’re right. I shouldn’t be. I’m sorry.”
Now he felt like a jerk. “No, you’re right. I don’t like women to get too close.”
“Because of your ex-fiancée?”
In the middle of getting his receipt, he turned to stare at her. “Who told you about her?”
“Martha. She didn’t tell me much. Just that your fiancée broke your heart.”
He snorted and rolled up his window. “She didn’t break my heart.” Janine had told him he didn’t have one to break. As if that justified what she’d done.
“What happened?” She sounded sympathetic, not simply curious.
He pulled away from the window and headed home. He opted for the short version. “I found her in bed with a friend of mine. End of engagement.”
“And the friendship?”
His smile wasn’t nice. “End of that, too.”
She was silent for a long moment. “She betrayed you and you couldn’t forgive that.”
“It’s not a matter of forgiving. I don’t think it says much for your chances of a successful marriage if your prospective wife cheats on you before you ever get married.”
“What if you’d been married? Would you have forgiven her then?”
“It’s a moot point. I didn’t marry her. Which I’m damned glad of. She lied, she cheated and that was enough for me.”
“So you’ve crossed women off.”
At the stop sign he turned to stare at her incredulously. “Listen, sugar, I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, but if you think I’ve been celibate for the last twelve years, think again.”
“I didn’t say you’d crossed sex off your list. I said you’d crossed off women. Serious relationships, anyway. However many women you’ve slept with, you haven’t gotten married or even engaged again, have you?”
He ground his teeth, unwilling to admit she had a point. Besides, all this talk of sex was getting to him. “And you know all about what motivates me from your vast life experience?” he asked.
“I may not have vast experience, but I have a lot more than you think.” She snapped the words and he could tell he’d annoyed her.
“My mother and I didn’t have much, and what we did have we worked for. I’ve been working since I was ten years old and got my first paper route. And I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen. You grow up fast when you’re in foster care, and then out in the real world.”
“Maybe. But you’re still young.”
She sighed. “Old enough to have made some huge mistakes.”
They pulled into the carport under the restaurant. The song turned to a commercial and Delilah changed the channel. An old Garth Brooks tune was playing. “Every Time That It Rains.” Great. Garth began singing about dresses falling off and making love in the rain. Cam started sweating, wishing he didn’t have such a vivid imagination. Wishing he could remember the last time he’d been with a woman. All he knew was it had been too damn long.
“Everyone makes mistakes. God knows, I’ve made them. But I haven’t been nursing a broken heart for twelve years. And I don’t think all women are manipulative liars and cheats.” Most of them, yes.
“Don’t you?” He heard the click as her seat belt released. “For a long time I thought everyone was like…him. Or at least, I thought all men were like him.”
“But you don’t now.”
“No.”
She touched his arm. Just a touch but he felt it like an electric shock.
“Something changed my mind. Someone.” He looked at her and their gazes locked. “You changed my mind, Cam.”
Her voice was husky. It reminded him of the first night he’d seen her. Worse, it made him think of damp sheets and sweaty sex. He looked away. He hadn’t thought about another woman for more than five minutes since Delilah had come into his life. Would it be so bad to take what was happening between them to its natural conclusion?
You bet your ass it would.
Delilah wasn’t like the women who’d occupied his bed in the last twelve years. Those women had been forgettable. Enjoyable, but ultimately, forgettable. Delilah was anything but. She’d already gotten to him, and it was just getting worse the longer he knew her.
Maybe if he ignored it, they could forget this little moment had ever happened. Hell, they could forget the entire conversation had happened. He still couldn’t believe he’d been talking about his sex life to a woman he’d sworn not to take to bed.
He wanted to make love to her until neither of them could think. And though he hadn’t lost his mind yet, she was pushing him dangerously close to it. He put his hands on her arms and pulled her closer. Her mouth was close. Moist and so inviting he wanted to plunge in, kiss her until neither of them could breathe. Make love to her, not just once, but all night. And he wanted to do it all over again the next night. And the next.
“This is a mistake.” His mind knew that, but his body didn’t give a damn.
“I know.”
“Once I kiss you, there’s no going back.”
“I know that, too.” She swallowed, blew out a breath. “Let me go, Cam. Before…before it’s too late.”
“Maybe it already is,” he said, but he let her go. He turned off the truck and got out, waiting for her to catch up with him. Neither spoke.
He opened the door and let her in, then locked up behind her and headed upstairs. There was a light burning in the restaurant kitchen and he started to turn it off.
“Cam—”
Whatever she’d been going to say, the ring of the telephone cut her off. He was tempted to ignore it but then his mother’s voice came over the answering machine.
“Cameron, are you there?” Her voice sounded odd. Quivery, which wasn’t like her at all. Cam went to the wall phone and picked up the receiver. “I’m here. What’s wrong, Mom?”
“Oh, thank God you’re there,” his mother said on a sob. “I think I’m having a heart attack.”
CHAPTER T
WELVE
DELILAH SAW THE BLOOD DRAIN from Cam’s face as he talked to his mother. Bad news, obviously. His next words confirmed it.
“Did you call 9-1-1?” He waited a moment, then said, “Typical. Okay, forget EMT. Did you take an aspirin? Mom, stop crying and listen to me. Take an aspirin, then call one of the neighbors on your cell phone and ask them to take you to the hospital. If they can’t, I’ll come get you. Just do it, right now. I’ll stay on the line.”
While he waited, he said to Delilah, “My mother thinks she’s having a heart attack.”
“Oh, Cam, I’m sorry.”
“Damn EMT said it would be an hour before they get there.”
“Why don’t you go get her?”
“I would, but she lives twenty minutes away, in the opposite direction from the hospital. It will be quicker if she can get—” He broke off and spoke into the phone. “Yeah, I’m here. Good, I’ll see you there. And I’ll call everyone.” He smiled for the first time since he’d answered the phone. “You know they’d kill me if I didn’t call them. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I love you, too, Mom.”
He hung up and for a long moment he stood there, staring blindly.
“Cam?” She went to him and patted his arm. “Are you all right? Can I do something?”
He looked at her but didn’t seem to see her. “My father—” He didn’t say any more.
Delilah had never seen him so shaken before. He was always strong and in control, but he sure wasn’t now. “What about your father?”
“He died of a heart attack.” He looked so bleak and so lost, she just wanted to hug him. He scrubbed his hands over his face and with a visible effort, pulled himself together. “I have to call my brother and sisters.”
She waited while he called all of them. She didn’t want to intrude, but she wanted to help him, any way she could.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back,” he said after he hung up from talking to his sister Cat.
“I’m going with you.” He looked surprised. “In fact, I think you should let me drive. You’re obviously upset.”