by Ava Jackson
“Cameron,” I whispered. I leaned in toward him.
His arms wrapped around me, and I pressed my entire body to his. The heat between us burned right through the clothes we were wearing.
“Bedroom?” His warm breath ghosted over my ear.
“Yes,” I said. I wanted every inch of him against me.
Our clothes came off somewhere between the couch and his bedroom. Then I was on the bed and his body was hot and solid on top of mine. I kissed him until my lips ached and held onto him as our bodies joined and collided. He was my other half. I had no doubt of that now. We fit so well together.
I screamed his name as I orgasmed, drawing him as deeply into my body as I possibly could. It still wasn’t enough. I hated the condom between us. I hated that he wasn’t mine to keep, mine to love.
Afterward he brushed my hair back from my face. “Stay,” he said.
There were a thousand reasons I should leave, but none of them felt good enough in that moment.
I stayed.
* * *
The morning was cold. I woke up in a bundle of sheets and comforter and reached out for Cameron. He wasn’t there. I jolted completely awake.
He wasn’t in the bedroom. I untangled myself from the sheets and grabbed a robe from the back of his door. I searched his entire apartment, but he wasn’t anywhere.
I sat down on the edge of the couch and took deep breaths. I didn’t understand. The night before had been so perfect.
Rejection was eating me alive. It was like I was in college all over again and he’d walked out on me all over again.
The difference was that this was his apartment. He’d have to come back eventually, and when he did I wouldn’t be waiting here like a pathetic idiot.
I grabbed my clothes and dressed as fast as I could. I couldn’t go through this again. I didn’t want to hear Cameron’s excuses.
I checked the time on my phone. “Shit,” I muttered. There was a text on my phone from the senior partners telling me there was a meeting in the conference room at nine thirty. That was only forty-five minutes from now and I’d have to get back to my hotel, wash up, and change.
The text had arrived in the middle of the night. Had Cameron seen it? Had he talked to George? According to the message, George and Cameron were expected to be at the meeting too.
Cameron had to have known about it. Why would he let me sleep in? Had he not wanted me at that meeting? Was this some weird, macho effort to protect me or to sabotage my career?
I couldn’t think about this anymore. I didn’t have time. I pulled on my shoes and stumbled out the door.
I didn’t have a key to Cameron’s apartment so I’d have to leave it unlocked. The building seemed nice enough that his apartment wasn’t likely to be robbed if it was left open for a minute. I’d mention to him that I’d left it unlocked when I saw him in the meeting. That would throw him.
I rushed out the door and waved frantically for a taxi. There was no way I’d meet this time crunch if I walked.
A cab pulled up in front of the apartment, and I yanked open the door. Before I could give the driver directions, a hand yanked on my arm. I spun around and saw Cameron standing there.
“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m leaving.” I yanked my arm away.
“Obviously. And where are you going? Back to your hotel?”
I shook my head, my fury at him growing. “It’s none of your business where I’m going. We had a fling. It’s over. You don’t need to pretend like it was anything more or play games with me.”
“What the fuck, Dylan?” He raked his hands through his hair. “It wasn’t just a fling, and you know it. What is this? Are you trying to get back at me for ten years ago? Do you hate me that much?”
I didn’t know what to do. He’d been the one to hurt me and now he was accusing me of hurting him. We were such a fucking mess.
“I have to go.” I got into the cab and grabbed the door handle. “I’m going to be late. Thanks for telling me about the meeting, by the way.”
“I don’t care about the fucking meeting! Is that all that matters to you? Work? Has it ever occurred to you that something else might be more important than your position at some bullshit company you don’t even like?”
I slammed the door in his face.
Chapter 10
Dylan
“I am talented, I am in control, and I am not going to cry.” My puffy red eyes said otherwise. I hadn’t been able to keep the tears from spilling once I’d left Cameron’s apartment.
I’d gotten to my hotel room¸ taken a shower, gotten dressed, then made it to the office with a minute to spare and run straight into the bathroom I’d hidden in the first day instead of going to the conference room. I was pathetic.
I didn’t understand what had happened between me and Cameron. I felt like I’d broken something important, but I had no idea how or why it mattered. I was leaving soon, one way or another. There was no future for me and Cameron, therefore there was nothing important to break.
I ran my hands through my hair and tried to find that in-control attitude I usually found so easy to put on.
“I am…” I pressed my knuckles hard against my forehead. “I’m stupid. I’m so fucking stupid.”
He hadn’t thought it was a fling. In his defense, the night before had been outside the parameters of the one night stand we’d had. I couldn’t deny that something deeper had passed between us, but then I’d woken up and he’d been gone and I’d gotten scared.
I wasn’t that stupid girl any longer. I was a woman with a career to defend. I was going to go into that conference room and deal with seeing Cameron again.
I had no idea what I was going to say to him, but that didn’t matter. I couldn’t avoid him for another ten years. I had to grow up and face my problems. No matter how much it hurt.
I pulled myself together as well as I could and walked to the conference room. I was the last one there. Lily’s lips were pinched together so hard they’d turned white.
Across the table from her was … not Cameron. In Cameron’s place was some woman with black hair and a bland lawyer smile.
George sat beside her practically jumping out of his seat with impatience.
“Where’s Cameron?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“He had another deal come up unexpectedly. I’m Anna, also a partner. I’ll be taking over from here on out.”
I reeled internally. Cameron had removed himself from a huge deal because of me. Was he that hurt that I’d left him? I hadn’t even thought I was that important to him.
“Sit down, Dylan,” Charles said.
I sat.
“We’ve come to a decision. We’ll be promoting Miss Butler to partner so that she has full authority to close the deal and handle all transitional matters. She’ll be your main point of contact from here on out, George. Congratulations, Miss Butler. Now, I believe we just need to sign this up and our business is concluded.”
I should have felt triumphant. This was everything I’d been working for. But I didn’t feel triumphant… I felt strangely hollow. I kept looking at Cameron’s empty seat and worrying.
I hated myself, and I hardly knew why. It shouldn’t have been possible to hurt him because he shouldn’t have cared about me. Yes, he’d made an effort to apologize, but what if it was only because I was his best friend’s sister, and he was going to have to deal with me in some capacity for the rest of his life.
He wanted me to stop avoiding him and he’d succeeded at that, only to start avoiding me.
The rest of the day passed in a blur of signing up what seemed like a million copies of the deal documents. I didn’t even skim what was placed in front of me. I knew I should’ve been more vigilant, but at this point, I didn’t care. I wanted to get out of this room so I could go find Cameron. I needed to apologize to him. I could salvage this.
I made it out of the conference room, my mind still in a fog.
“Oh.” I didn’t want to celebrate. Cameron had dropped a huge deal just to get away from me. Did that make me a monster? What had I done?
“It’s a very nice Italian place on Second and Fifth. It takes ages to get reservations, but we got lucky with a last minute cancellation and Charles knows the owner.”
They were going to the same place Cameron had taken me for dinner that first night. It had to be the same place, except Lily had just said it took months to get reservations. Cameron hadn’t mentioned having any trouble. That either meant Cameron had some very good connections, or he’d been planning that date.
He must have found out that I was the one working the deal. My name was sent to George months ago. Cameron might have noted the date of the meeting and made that reservation, hoping I’d say yes.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
“Excuse me?” Lily looked shocked.
“Sorry, I have to…” There was no way to escape the elevator before it stopped. And what would I do if I could? Run to Cameron and beg him to forgive me for this morning? I hadn’t thought this through.
It was over. Whatever we had, I ruined it. He made that clear when he sent someone else in his place.
“I’d rather just wait at the airport. I’m not in the mood for dinner, if it’s all the same to you.”
Lily pursed her lips. “We’ll see you at the airport, then.”
I sat on my suitcase with my head buried in my hands. I was going back with the senior partners on their private jet, but I’d gotten to the private airfield an hour too early since they were out at dinner first.
I scrubbed the backs of my hands against my eyes as their car pulled up.
I wish I could’ve just waited on the jet, but I was stuck in this overly posh waiting room. I probably could’ve begged to board early … but something held me back. Maybe I didn’t really want to go. Maybe I was waiting for a miracle.
I managed to put on a strained smiled as Charles walked toward me.
“Hope you found a way to entertain yourself while you waited,” he said.
“It wasn’t a bad wait,” I lied.
He looked me over with disapproval. I was never going to fit in at this company, no matter how kind they’d been to me early on. Not after George’s little stunt.
Leaving my job was unthinkable. I’d worked hard for it. Leaving would mean walking away from everything I’d worked for. All those late nights and missed holidays with my family because I was trying to prove myself.
But staying would mean working with people who apparently thought I’d pulled some kind of shady scheme to win myself a promotion. And staying meant Texas—and no Cameron.
I tried rationalizing it away. I was due for the promotion anyway … but the partners hated being pressured into decisions. I wondered if they could ever look at me without remembering how I’d gotten the promotion.
The rest of the partners began climbing the stairs to the plane while I waited to go last.
My phone buzzed with a text. Don’t get on that plane. It was from Cameron. My heart pounded so hard I could hear my pulse in my ears.
Cameron Richmond, my every dirty fantasy come to life. The man who’d broken my heart twice, was telling me not to get on the plane.
I stood up. I took a step toward the plane, then a step back.
“Aren’t you coming?” Lily called over her shoulder.
I opened my mouth and didn’t speak.
A Mercedes pulled into the lot. It was black and its windows were so darkly tinted I couldn’t see inside. It pulled up right beside me and the back window rolled down.
Cameron Richmond looked up at me.
“You,” I said.
“I’m not waiting another ten years to make whatever happened this morning right with you,” he said.
Chapter 11
Cameron
Dylan’s face was frozen in shock and her eyes were far too wide. “But you were mad at me,” she said. “You handed the deal off to someone else.” She bit her lip, her eyes welling with tears.
“Dylan.” I wanted to wrap my arms around her and physically pull her into the limo. I wanted her to choose to not get on that plane so badly, but I had to give her space to make the choice. “There’s a lot I need to tell you. If you get in this car now we can go back to my apartment and begin to sort it out.”
She looked from me to the plane and her waiting coworkers.
I was sure I’d lost her. She’d chosen work over me before. Dylan wanted everything. I wasn’t even a blip on the screen of Dylan’s ambition.
“Go ahead without me,” she shouted to her coworkers. “I’ll find my own way home.”
The woman on the stairs shrugged and boarded the jet.
A trickle of relief slid through me. Dylan pulled open the door and I moved over to make room for her.
Her face was still too pale, but there were spots of color in her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I jumped to conclusions this morning and I told you I’d stop doing that. I woke up alone and thought about ten years ago, and all I could think about was you leaving. I should have trusted you. And I’m sorry you took yourself off such a big client because of me. You shouldn’t have done that. I’m not that important.”
I started to laugh. I knew it was the wrong reaction, but I couldn’t help myself. Dylan Sofia Butler thought she wasn’t important enough for me to drop a client.
“Dylan.” I touched her cheek gently. “You have no idea how important you are, how important you’ve always been to me. I took that client to get to you. I saw your name on the list and I convinced Anna to do a trade. I even booked that dinner reservation months in advance. You wouldn’t believe the crap Anna put me through to take over George’s deal. But it was worth it, because I got to see you.”
Dylan shook her head. “Lily said something about the restaurant, and I suspected but I didn’t really believe… It doesn’t make sense. You left. You left. If I’d been important to you, you never would have left me the first time and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“I told you I screwed up back then. I was a kid. Freaking out because I’d just had sex with my best friend’s little sister. Add on the fact that I’d never felt the way about a woman that I did about you. I’ve grown up since then, I’ve learned how to manage a relationship. I won’t screw things up with you again. When I say you’re important, I mean you’re the most important thing in my life. I want to watch you cry over sick birds and laugh at my stupid jokes. I want to hold you in my arms and know I get to be the one to comfort you.” I reached into my shirt and pulled out the chain and medallion I always wore around my neck—at least until I’d broken the chain on it last week. I’d picked it up from the jeweler this morning after it’d been replaced. Dylan’s eyes squinted in puzzlement. I flipped it over so she could see the front. It was a St. Sofia necklace. One she’d given me when she was fourteen and thought I could use a little extra saintly protection.
Dylan raised a hand toward the medallion then let it drop. “You—I can’t believe you still have that. Why?”
“Because you’ve always been part of my life. Even before I knew I needed you to be a permanent part,” I told her softly. “Dylan Sofia Butler. The woman who has held my heart for longer than I should admit. I’m not going to let you keep running from me.”
Chapter 12
Dylan
“You’re crazy.” It was the only thing I could think to say.
Cameron rearranged his entire life to see me again. He’d been wearing a St. Sofia necklace I’d given him when I’d been in middle school and just getting bold about my crush. Embarrassingly bold. He chased me down at the airport to keep me from getting on a plane.
“You realize you’re crazy, right? I can’t believe you still have it.” I wanted to reach out and touch it, but then I’d touch Camer
on, and I wasn’t sure I could handle even the slightest contact. I’d tell him everything I was feeling. Was I ready for that?
Cameron shrugged. “I’ve always worn it. I’m not gonna lie, at first it was just so I didn’t hurt your feelings, but then it became something so much more after that night. It was the only piece of you I had, and I rarely let it out of my sight. Now I just have to figure out how to talk you into not leaving my sight so I can have the real Dylan Sofia with me all the time.”
I didn’t have a reason to hesitate anymore. I trusted him. I loved him. I couldn’t let fear hold me back for one more second. I tangled my fingers with his and climbed into his lap. “I guess it’s a good thing I like crazy, then. And for the record, I’ve been hung up on you for longer than ten years.”
I kissed him. There were no words left to say.
Cameron hit the button for the divider and I giggled as it slid up, completely blocking us from the sight of the driver.
“Cameron Richmond, are you trying to seduce me?”
“Is it working?”
I kissed him again. “Hell, yes.”
I tore my shirt over my head and managed to get my bra off while Cameron yanked off his own clothes. I smacked my hand against the ceiling of the car.
“This is more complicated than it looks,” I said. I wiggled away from him to try and get room to pull my pants off.
“We’ll make it work,” he said. He turned my mouth back to his to give me a steamy kiss.
I pushed him down to the seat and climbed on top of him.
“I think I figured it out,” I said. I got his pants off and freed his cock. I was already wet for him. Cameron had that effect on me. His level of sexiness shouldn’t be legal.
I lowered myself onto him, gasping as his cock filled me. “So good,” I said.
His fingers dug into my hips. Why hadn’t we tried this position before? It felt fantastic.
I set the rhythm for us, speeding up then going slower as my orgasm built up inside like pressure in need of release.
“You’re so hot,” Cameron gasped. “So tight.”