Rosie yelped and leapt back, banging into the bathroom door which slammed closed behind her leaving her trapped with the yeti who was standing with his mouth open and a towel at his feet.
For a moment neither of them spoke. He really was huge, something she hadn’t truly appreciated last night. He towered over her. She forced her eyes to stare at his face refusing to appreciate his full glory, no matter how much she wanted to.
OK, she just had to brazen this out.
‘Thank you for the use of your bed last night.’
He arched an eyebrow at her, obviously confused that she wasn’t rushing straight back out the bathroom again.
‘I was going to grab a shower. I didn’t realise you were in here.’
‘Perhaps you should have knocked.’ He bent down to grab his towel and wrapped it round his waist, barely concealing the large bulge in his groin.
’You’re right, of course.’ She looked down at the floor noticing how big his feet were. ‘I’ll grab a shower at the hotel. I’ll buy some new clothes, get these cleaned for you and get a cab to drop them round later in the week.’
She stepped forward to open the bathroom door at the same time he stepped forward to talk to her and they banged into each other. Rosie accidentally punched him in the groin and as he doubled over he smacked his teeth against her forehead. She leapt back with a yelp, accidentally taking the towel with her, leaving him naked once more. This time her eyes couldn’t help but notice ‘IT’ and it didn’t disappoint.
He straightened, glaring at her, but his face changed to one of concern when he saw her forehead.
‘Crap. You’re bleeding.’
He picked up the towel and dabbed it against her head. He was standing so close and all Rosie could think of was how naked and wet he was. Very, very naked.
All the bravado had suddenly vanished with his proximity.
‘You’re naked,’ Rosie blurted out, suddenly feeling like a child as he towered over her.
His mouth twitched into a smile. ‘That’s very observant of you. You didn’t seem to mind when you barged in on me a minute ago.’
‘Well you were over there and now you’re here with your bits in my face.’
He dabbed her forehead. ‘Hardly in your face, I’m tall but not that tall.’
Rosie swallowed. ‘You are very big.’
He looked down and grinned. ‘Well, thank you for saying so.’
‘I meant tall, you’re very tall.’
‘I know very well what you meant.’ He couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice.
‘Oh for goodness sake, put something on and stop waggling it around.’
He smelt amazing, clean and spicy. Dark.
‘I mean, I don’t even know your name.’
‘You’re right, we should be on first name terms before we see each other naked. Cameron Baxendale, does that make you feel better?’
‘I… You’re not going to see me naked.’
He smiled as if he thought otherwise.
‘There, the bleeding has stopped. It’s a bit Harry Potter, but I think you’ll survive. Have a shower, I’ll see you downstairs when you’re ready.’
‘Ready for what?’ Rosie squeaked.
He arched an eyebrow at her again. ‘Breakfast.’
*
Cameron took a sip of orange juice and watched Rosie come down the stairs towards him. The tension between them could be cut with a knife. It crackled and sparked. He wanted her, he couldn’t deny it. But she was with Leon. Sort of. And even if they were now over, he didn’t want to take advantage of her feeling vulnerable and broken hearted.
She seemed more comfortable now in clothes that actually fitted her. Dressed in jeans and a hoodie and her hair tied back in a ponytail, the affect she’d had on him the night before hadn’t lessened any.
‘Thank you for these.’ She plucked at the side of her jeans and he was pleased he’d guessed the size right when he’d rushed out to buy them that morning. ‘I’ll pay you of course.’
He waved it away. ‘I won’t hear of it.’
‘And you made me breakfast.’
‘It was the least I could do after I invite you into my home, bite you and wave my bits in your face.’
She suppressed a burst of laughter and slipped into the seat opposite him. She grabbed a bagel, smothering it in a thick layer of soft cheese, then gorged on it hungrily. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
‘So you’re a writer?’ He asked. ‘A good one.’
Those pale cheeks blushed again. ‘Is that what Leon said?’
‘That’s what I know. I read your last book, The Door in the Trees. It was brilliant.’
‘You read it?’
‘Well it had sat here untouched for weeks, presumably after you sent it to Leon. I just started reading it one day over breakfast. I couldn’t put it down. I literally lost a whole day.’
‘I… thank you.’ She busied herself with a rasher of bacon, clearly embarrassed.
‘People must have told you you’re good.’
‘Not to my face. The reviews that come in are normally complimentary but I often wonder if people are just being kind.’
‘But Leon must have told you.’
She shook her head. ‘He hasn’t read any of my books.’
Cameron suddenly liked Leon a lot less.
‘So I have to ask, as a writer, you can write anywhere, so why didn’t you come with him when he came over here?’
She bit her lip. ‘He didn’t ask me to.’
‘Why didn’t you ask? Men aren’t mind readers.’
‘I wanted him to want me to come. I didn’t want to force myself on him. Besides, things had gone a bit… flat between us. I kind of thought we needed a break. I thought if we were meant to be together then even a few thousand miles between us wouldn’t have changed that. I hoped he would miss me and ask me to come over.’
‘And he didn’t?’
‘He came back to visit me once. And it was only supposed to be a three month job.’
‘And now it’s been six.’
‘He likes it over here.’
‘The boy’s an idiot.’
She shrugged. ‘He can do what he wants; as far as I’m concerned we’re through. I guess I’ve known it for a while. We want different things. When we moved in with each other, I was busy planning for our future; marriage, children, the happy ending. He was still going out and drinking every night and falling into bed unconscious.’
‘He needs to grow up.’
‘Or maybe I need to grow down. Not take everything so seriously.’
‘Hey, don’t take his failings on your shoulders. It’s not your fault the relationship didn’t work. You’re here. He’s in Las Vegas.’
‘Maybe he didn’t want to see me.’
‘If that’s the case then the boy really is an idiot.’
She wiped a finger round her plate and sucked the cheese off the end, her cheeks flushing pink again.
‘So you work in film too,’ she said, clearly trying to deflect some of the attention back onto him.
He nodded. ‘I’m a camera man. Sort of.’ Director of Photography always sounded so pompous.
She leaned forward in her seat. ‘It must be wonderful to be there at the very beginning, to start to create the bare bones of something wonderful and slowly see it all come together.’
‘It is, I love it. But you must feel that about your writing.’ He easily bounced the ball back into her court.
She watched him thoughtfully. ‘You don’t like to talk about yourself.’
‘There’s not much to tell. I’m much more interested in you.’
She stared at him and he wondered if she could see right inside of him.
‘I should go.’
He’d unnerved her, he could see that. She liked him but she didn’t want to. She was guarding her heart after Leon had bruised it.
She stood up. ‘You’ve been very generous with your time, but I’ll leave you in
peace now.’
He suddenly felt panic slice through him.
‘What are your plans?’
‘I’m in San Francisco for the first time, and I want to see every little inch of it.’
‘I could take you round?’
She hesitated long enough to see that she’d like that.
‘I couldn’t ask you to do that.’
‘You didn’t ask. I offered. I want to.’
The smile she gave him then was dazzling.
*
Rosie stared down at her new red Converse trainers, as Cameron locked the front door behind him. She felt like Dorothy in the strange new world of Oz as the slopes of San Francisco stretched ahead of her. Cameron swept his hair from his eyes and she smiled. She’d already made friends with the scarecrow.
The taxis taking the tourists down the ‘Crookedest Street’ were moving slowly round the hairpin bends, almost bumper to bumper, but Cameron guided her easily around them, his hand at her back, separating her from the tourists and cars with his huge body.
He was quiet but she couldn’t find words to fill the silence. It was ridiculous, she knew hardly anything about him, yet there was something between them and with every look, every touch, she felt it even more. Did he feel it too? It had never been like this with Leon. It had been a laugh, a bit of fun. This felt intense. She wasn’t going to fall from one bad relationship to another, that would be a mistake. She wanted the happy ending and Cameron with this dark, dangerous edge to him, certainly didn’t seem the sort to be able to give her that. They were too different, she knew that. He was older than her by at least ten years. He clearly travelled a lot where she had barely been out of England. He owned a big house on one of the most popular locations in San Francisco, she was struggling to pay the rent on a tiny flat in London.
He stood on the side of the street waiting, his eyes alert, then she saw what he had been waiting for.
Trundling up the hill, its bell ringing cheerily, was an old fashioned cable car, or as she would call it, a tram.
She felt a smile split her face as she watched it draw to a stop. In America, with their fast cars, tiny gadgets and tall skyscrapers, this old-fashioned mode of transport made her feel a huge surge of affection for the San Francisco people for keeping their traditions alive.
Cameron bundled her on, paying for their tickets and then pulling her to one side so she could look out the windows as the car moved slowly and steadily up the hill.
San Francisco was alive, thrumming with people from every culture and country. Little cute houses nestled alongside domineering tall buildings and it was this hotchpotch of life that appealed to her the most. It didn’t need to be the same, uniformity. It worked, regardless of the differences that ran through it.
As the cable car stopped again, a surge of five or more people climbed on, making it extremely tight for space. Cameron stood behind her, his hands moving up to either side of her on the window, protecting her from being squashed.
The car moved on and she turned round to look at him. His eyes were dark as he watched her. He shuffled even closer, though they were still not touching.
He just stared at her and San Francisco, the rest of the car, just faded away.
She wanted to say something, anything to fill the silence. ‘I need to get a hotel for tonight.’
‘You’ll be hard pushed to find anywhere tonight. It’s Independence Day.’
‘What are you suggesting, that I spend another night in your house?’
His eyes didn’t waver from hers. ‘That sounds like a good idea.’
‘I’m not letting you spend another night on the sofa in your own home.’
As another few people climbed on, he moved closer still, a hairs breadth between their bodies.
‘I’m not letting a guest sleep on the sofa either.’
His meaning was very clear. Desire crashed through her stomach and straight down to her groin. Then panic and fear quickly followed it. What was she doing? She had known Cameron less than twenty-four hours and already she was thinking of sleeping with him. He continued to stare and her skin hummed with need for him.
Cameron stroked a thumb down her face and over her neck, stopping on her pulse point. She knew he could feel her heart beat racing against the soft pad of his thumb. He frowned slightly, his eyes filled with concern.
‘You and Leon…’
‘Are finished.’
‘But you had something,’ his eyes were soft as he continued. ‘And last night you cried-’
‘I cried because I was tired and I was in a foreign country for the first time in my life, completely alone and because I obviously valued my friendship with him more than he valued it. Don’t confuse what we had for love. It was never that.’
‘Regardless of your feelings for him, you’re hurt and I don’t want to take advantage of that.’
Her body was crying out to be touched by him.
‘We’re here now.’ He leaned back away from her as if that moment between them had never even happened.
‘Where’s here?’
He smiled as the sun lit up his face. ‘The Pacific Ocean.’
*
Cameron watched Rosie as she leaned her arms on the sea wall and stared out over the waves, the sunlight sending tiny sparkles of light over her face as it bounced off the water.
‘I didn’t realise there was so much history to the place.’
He tore his eyes from her and looked over the sea at Alcatraz Island. He could stand there all day and tell her about the island. It was something he had found fascinating when he’d done a history project at school. The place was teaming with history and although he had tried to keep to the short version when pointing out some of the sights from the pier, he couldn’t help but throw in all the extra details. She had hung on his every word.
‘The first lighthouse built on the West Coast of America, I love that.’
He loved that she loved that. Everyone always focussed on the prison but there was so much more to the place than that.
‘Could we see it?’
‘I can take you. These trips get booked up months in advance but I have a friend who works there as a guide. I’m sure she can get us in.’
She cleared her throat. ‘She?’
He smiled hugely. She was jealous.
‘Claudia.’
She turned and walked slowly back down the pier, pretending she wasn’t bothered. He fell in at her side. He wasn’t going to play games with her, she deserved more than that. ‘She’s seventy-five.’
Rosie laughed.
‘You have a beautiful laugh.’
The smile faded from her face and she stuck her hands in her pockets, clearly embarrassed.
‘You don’t get it do you, and no one has told you before. You’re incredibly beautiful.’
She smiled as she stared down at her feet. ‘You’re trying to get into my pants.’
He laughed and she looked at him. With his arm round her waist he pulled her against him. She yelped a bit, instinctively putting her hands on his chest to stop him getting too close, but her eyes were bright and happy as he held her.
‘I can’t deny that. I want that very much. But if we were to part now and never see each other again, I want you to know that you are still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life.’
Her mouth fell open at his sincerity, then she naturally tried to deflect it.
‘Behind Audrey Hepburn of course.’
He laughed. ‘Now if we’ve finished with the history of Alcatraz, I’ve something else to show you.’ He released her from his arms but took her hand instead. He smiled as he pulled her gently along, because even after five minutes, her hand was still in his.
*
The noise was getting louder. It was like nothing Rosie had ever heard before. It sounded like a pack of dogs, big monstrous dogs.
‘What is that?’ Rosie yelled, to be heard over the din.
‘You’ll see.’ Cameron walked b
ackwards for a few steps, grinning like a kid at Christmas.
Although the spark was still there, bubbling between them with the same anticipation of waiting for a firework to explode, the intensity of that morning seemed to have vanished. His enthusiasm was infectious.
There was a crowd up ahead and Cameron pulled her in close, his arm round her waist as he guided her through the throngs. Then she saw them. The sea lions. Hundreds of them. There were floating decks just beyond the reaches of the pier and the sea lions were jostling for space on them, barking, growling, biting at each other. Others were just basking in the midday sun, unperturbed by the younger ones fighting. Nearby floating decks were empty but that didn’t stop the fights breaking out over the most coveted ones. There was a hierarchy and no one was willing to admit defeat.
She stood watching them for ages. Other tourists came and went but she was utterly transfixed by them. Suddenly realising that this must be really dull for Cameron she tore her gaze from the creatures. He was patiently waiting, watching her.
‘Sorry.’
‘Don’t be. I’ve enjoyed the sea lions today much more than I’ve ever done before. I’ve walked round this city with my eyes closed for the last few years, and it’s taken you to open them again.’ With his hands at her waist he pulled her close against him. ‘You make me feel alive.’
Her hands instinctively wrapped round his neck this time, instead of pushing against his chest. And suddenly he was bending his head down to kiss her and she wanted it more than anything.
Just as his lips grazed hers with the softest of touches, the crowd pushed against them, forcing them apart. She laughed, sensing the moment was over.
‘Where to next?’ Cameron said, taking her hand.
‘I’ve been dying to see The Golden Gate.’
‘No trip to San Francisco would be complete without a trip to that, but the Bay Bridge is far prettier, especially at night.’
‘Can we do both?’
SUNLOUNGER 2: Beach Read Bliss (Sunlounger Stories) Page 45