She longed to set the artist within her completely free and make a name for herself with her unique, custom-made stained-glass designs. And if she was completely honest with the inner child still locked inside her, she ached to use this talent of hers to validate herself as more than just the baby of the Wilde family and to support herself on her own, without having to rely on her brothers or the family business for her income.
Unfortunately, everyone treated her stained-glass art strictly as a hobby and brushed it off as something she did in her spare time or out of boredom. She had to admit they'd never discouraged her artistic flair, but neither had they done anything to cultivate her confidence in marketing her work.
Her family, her father especially, had been relieved when she'd gone off to college. But instead of the business degree everyone had been expecting her to bring home, she'd stunned them all by graduating with a degree in 3D glass-work. Her father and stepmother wrote it off as yet another act of rebellion, one of many since her mother's death when she was five. But to Mia, that degree had been her proudest achievement-an accomplishment that was hers and hers alone and something no one could ever take away from her.
She sighed to herself, wishing all those college courses and techniques she'd learned had been put to better use than making gifts and holiday presents for friends. Foolishly, she'd harbored grand illusions of expanding the family business to incorporate her stained-glass designs in some of the bigger projects and restoration work Nolan and Sons took on, but Scott had shot down the idea. Gently, of course, and in a very placating manner, but the sting of that particular rejection still hurt.
Scott felt there just wasn't a big enough market for her custom stained-glass artwork, which included an array of abstract designs, mosaics, impressions, floral patterns, and Celtic reproductions. She'd made some gorgeous, one-of-a-kind pieces over the years, but obviously none of them had been good enough to elevate her status in the family business.
A small, private smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she gazed down at her current drawing. Little did anyone know, but her stained-glass designs had recently evolved to include some very daring and head-turning pieces. Her family would be stunned speechless to learn she created erotic stained-glass art. At first glance, her patterns looked like vibrant abstracts, but upon closer inspection, the composite of colors meshed into a loving, committed couple entwined in intimate and sometimes shocking positions.
The images were highly seductive and shamelessly provocative, a bit of fantasy mixed with an inviting bit of reality. The erotic pictures depicted love and lust, desire and ecstasy. And each one she created held a piece of her soul and tapped into wistful longings and dreams of finding a love so rare and true.
Her pencil scratched across the thin paper as she continued to bring her vision to life. The process was usually accompanied by a spark of excitement as the images developed, and this time was no different. Except as the embracing couple took shape and form, her enthusiasm took a decidedly sensual and personal turn… because the man and woman making love in her drawing became Cameron and herself.
Her heart tripped in her chest, and the rest of her body followed suit. The tips of her breasts tingled, and the muscles in her belly tightened as she gazed at the way the woman held onto the man, with her legs wrapped securely around his waist. One of the man's hands clutched at her hip, and the other was buried in her tousled hair as they arched into one another in the throes of passion.
She'd managed to avoid thinking about last night's incredibly hot tryst with Cameron, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that everything she'd suppressed manifested itself in her most recent design. Now, the memories proved much too strong and came rushing back in that moment, flooding her mind with vivid details and forcing her to recall every pleasurable, thrilling, and emotional sensation of having Cameron buried deep inside her body and the way he'd ultimately lost that staunch restraint of his with her.
It was the emotional part she had trouble dealing with, because she'd never, ever expected to feel so connected to Cameron in anything more man a physical way. Sex with him had been exceptional, hotter and better than she'd ever imagined, but it was what happened in the aftermath of their encounter that shook Mia to her very core.
She'd definitely anticipated that he'd regret his actions because he was a man who didn't lose control easily. When he'd offered up an apology, she'd countered it with a sarcastic reply to buffer her own vulnerable state… until he'd explained that he wasn't sorry for what they did, but that he felt bad because he hadn't given her the chance to come.
She laughed and shook her head at the absurdity of the situation. Her pleasure, or lack thereof, wasn't a conversation she'd had with any guy, mainly because none had ever given a second thought to whether or not she climaxed during fore-play or sex. But Cameron… he had to go and muddle things by caring about something that never should have caused him any concern or even a second thought. Add to that the glimmer of tenderness she'd seen in his gaze, and was it any wonder her heart was feeling a bit torn and confused?
The closing of the front door startled Mia out of her thoughts and told her Gina was finally home after spending the night out-most likely at Ray's-a common occurrence on the weekends. Mia closed her sketch pad, and less than a minute later her friend knocked softly on Mia's half-closed bedroom door and poked her head inside. Finding Mia already awake, she tentatively entered.
"Hey there," Gina murmured, a slight smile tipping up one corner of her mouth.
Mia couldn't help but notice that the other side of Gina's bottom lip was swollen, and as her roommate came to a stop at her drafting table, she could clearly see that her lip had actually been split open about half an inch. Gina had tried to cover the gash with a colored gloss, but the bruise forming around the wound was too obvious for Mia to ignore.
Immediate anger welled up inside Mia, because she highly suspected Ray was the culprit for that laceration. But she also knew from experience that should she express that simmering outrage, Gina would totally shut her out. So she inhaled a calming breath and decided to tread carefully in addressing the issue.
"Gina, what happened to your lip?" she asked, her concerned toned masking her true feelings.
Her friend averted her gaze and shrugged, as she did whenever Mia asked one of these kinds of direct questions. "I opened Ray's car door too fast last night after we left The Electric Blue, and the corner accidentally hit my lip and split it open." She gingerly touched the swollen spot and laughed, but the sound was forced. "You know me. I can be so graceless sometimes."
Mia had to give Gina credit for being so innovative with her excuse, but she didn't believe her explanation for a second. Not when bruises and other marks on her body were appearing with alarming frequency.
Ray could be extremely charming when he wanted to be, but having been on the receiving end of his aggression, Mia knew he also had a darker side to his personality. She could easily see him crossing the line to abusive, but she had no real, solid proof and Gina wasn't offering up anything concrete, either.
Mia tipped her head and regarded her friend speculatively. "You know, you've gotten awfully clumsy since you started dating Ray." She managed to keep her tone light and even a bit teasing, but there was no mistaking the significance of her words.
Her comment made Gina stiffen, and those defensive walls of hers quickly went up. "Fine," she said curtly. "The truth is, things got a little out of control last night during sex."
If there was one thing Mia understood, it was "out-of-control" sex, because that's exactly what she'd experienced with Cameron last night. But for as wild and primitive as things had gotten, he'd never once hurt her, and he certainly hadn't left any bruises on her body. Their encounter had been driven by lust and passion… whereas she got the uneasy feeling that wasn't exactly the case between Gina and Ray.
"He didn't mean to split open my lip," Gina went on in her attempt to justify her boyfriend's actions. "And
he apologized afterward for being so rough. It was an accident."
It didn't escape Mia's attention that Gina didn't say how Ray had cut her lip, and judging by her friend's uptight disposition, Mia didn't think she was going to find out, either.
"I'm not trying to make you upset," Mia said gently as she stared into Gina's soulful blue eyes. "I care about you, and I just want to be sure everything's okay."
As soon as Mia backed off, Gina's posture relaxed. "I'm fine," she insisted.
Reaching for Gina's hand, Mia gave it an affectionate squeeze. "Just please be more careful, okay?" Again, she infused a deeper meaning to her words, and all Mia could do was hope her friend heeded her advice. Then, she pasted on a smile and changed the subject, because she didn't want any further argument to come between them. "Have you had any breakfast this morning?"
"Just coffee." Gina adjusted her purse on her shoulder and offered another half-smile. "I wasn't hungry earlier."
"Well, you need to eat, and so do I." Mia stood and stretched the kinks from her shoulders and lower back from sitting at the drafting table for the past hour. "Let's go see what we've got left in the kitchen."
A few minutes later, after scouring the cupboards and refrigerator and coming up with one foil package containing two frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts for them to split, Gina declared, "We 50 need to go grocery shopping."
Mia laughed in agreement as she grabbed the last two bottles of water from the fridge and handed one to Gina. "I know. Let's go shopping together, and maybe we can catch a movie today, too."
Enthusiasm lit up Gina's pretty features. "Yeah, I'd like that."
"Then consider it a date," Mia said, and bit into her Pop-Tart. Yes, she'd planned on working on her new stained-glass project, but that could wait. She didn't get much girl-time with Gina these days, not since Ray had come into the picture, and she'd take whatever time with her friend she could get.
"Speaking of dates…" Gina opened her purse and pulled out a familiar piece of clothing. "You left something behind at The Electric Blue."
Mia stared at the Too Wild to Tame top she'd worn last night-before her stint in the wet T-shirt contest. "Ummm, I guess I did."
Gina draped it over the back of the chair Mia was sitting in. "I asked the manager for it after you left with your date."
Mia rolled her eyes at that but refrained from issuing a reply to her friend's comment.
Unfortunately, Gina had no problem prying. "So that was the infamous Cameron Sinclair, huh?"
"Yes." Mia finished off her Pop-Tart and washed it down with a drink of water. "I take it Carrie told you who he was?" Gina knew of Cameron's existence but had never seen him before last night.
Gina nodded as she picked at the edges of her breakfast pastry. "Yep. God, Mia, you didn't tell me he's so… everything."
Unable to help herself, Mia laughed. "So everything?" she repeated, amused by Gina's choice of word to describe Cameron.
"Hot. Gorgeous. Sexy." Gina sighed appreciatively. "The full package."
The man definitely had a full package, and then some, Mia thought, remembering how the hard, thick length of him had felt in her hands and stroking deep within her. Heat rose to her cheeks, and she doused the rush of warmth with a long, cool drink of water.
Luckily, Gina didn't seem to notice her reaction. "So where did he drag you off to?" she asked.
"His place. He thought I was drunk, and he was trying to keep me from causing a scandal that would get back to my brothers."
"And?" Gina prompted, wide-eyed and curious.
"And what?" Mia replied casually, not wanting to encourage any further discussion on the matter.
Gina puffed out an exasperated breath of air. "And what happened at his place?"
Mia wasn't emotionally ready to discuss her intimate night with Cameron with anyone, maybe not ever. What had transpired between them was personal and private, and because it wasn't going to happen again, there was no point in making an issue of her one-night stand with Cameron.
"Nothing happened," Mia said and dismissed the pang of guilt she felt for not confiding in Gina when just minutes ago she'd wanted that same trust from her friend. She justified that this situation was different, that her relationship in no way threatened her physical state. Her heart, she feared, was another matter altogether. "Once I set him straight on the fact that I wasn't drunk, he brought me back home. End of story."
Gina was staring at her too intently, as if she suspected there were at least a few more chapters to that story, and Mia quickly changed the subject before her friend could say anything else.
"By the way, what was up with Carrie last night?" Mia asked. She and Gina had met Carrie at the gym about six months ago, and they'd all become friends-mostly Carrie's doing, as she'd been the one to pursue the friendship. They hung out together occasionally, but lately Carrie had been acting strange and distant, and last night her attitude had not only been cool, but even a bit abrasive.
A confused look passed across Gina's features. "What do you mean?"
"She snapped at me a few times for no real reason I could figure out." She shrugged. "She just seemed on edge, and it didn't take much to set her off."
"Sounds like a classic case of PMS to me," Gina said and laughed.
Mia thought about Gina's explanation for Carrie's odd behavior, and she supposed it was completely plausible. "Yeah, I guess so."
Gina stood and walked over to the kitchen sink, a light spring in her step Mia hadn't seen in a long while. "So can we go see a chick-flick today? I've been dying to see that new Richard Gere movie."
The enthusiasm in Gina's voice made Mia smile. Besides, who could resist gazing for two hours at one the best-looking actors in the business? "Richard Gere it is."
She had a feeling the distraction would do them both good.
Chapter Four
FIRST thing Monday mornings Cameron met with his partner, Steve, to discuss the week's agenda and divide up the new investigative cases that needed to be handled. They were retained by quite a few large corporations, so there were more than a dozen background checks and evaluations to perform on new employees. A new law firm had hired them to locate and interview a key witness for one of their cases, and a woman had contracted them to help her find out who had committed identity theft against her because the police weren't getting anywhere with the complaint she'd filed.
There were deadbeat dads to locate, a sexual harassment claim to investigate, domestic cases to sort through, four new requests to find a long-lost friend or loved one, and surveillance to set up on a forty-eight-year-old construction worker who'd filed an insurance claim for a back injury but apparently wasn't disabled at all.
As always, the cases seemed endless, and halfway through the meeting, as Cameron was reading through a file on a skip trace, his thoughts drifted and eventually images of Mia filled his mind. No big surprise there. He hadn't been able to get her out of his head since Friday night, and in fact, he had spent the entire weekend dissecting Mia's dual personalities-the shameless, brazen spitfire he'd believed she was, and the uncertain, contradictory woman he'd glimpsed in an unguarded moment after their fast, heated encounter.
He'd made a career of analyzing people and their actions. After spending too many hours reflecting on Mia's behavior, he'd come to the conclusion that there was so much more to her than he'd originally assumed and what she obviously wanted him and everyone else to believe-because he'd been privy to the emotional depth she tried to hide beneath her scandalous attitude and impetuous personality. He'd seen a vulnerability he never thought her capable of because of the strong, rebellious facade she wore around her like an impenetrable cloak.
It was all an act, he'd come to realize, and a damn good one at that because he'd fallen for it-hook, line, and sinker. And obviously, so had every one else, her brothers and cousins included. They all accepted her as the Wilde child of the family, and her reckless and outrageous conduct had become an expected thing-whether they approv
ed of her antics or not.
But there was one question that kept tumbling through Cameron's mind, one he didn't have an answer for but had kept him up the past two nights trying to figure out. Who was the real Mia, and what kind of emotional secrets were lurking behind that come-hither smile and those smart-ass remarks she tossed his way to keep him at a distance.
And why the hell did he even care?
Shit. He was so in over his head where Mia was concerned, like a drowning man with no lifesaver in sight who kept getting sucked in deeper and deeper. He'd spent what seemed like forever resisting her, sparring with her, lusting for her until it all had collided in a frenzy of demanding, carnal sex. And what Cameron had come to realize in the aftermath of that culmination had nearly sent him reeling. Somewhere along the way he'd started developing feelings for Mia. Beyond the smoldering desire and aggravation she inspired, his subconscience had taken an emotional turn, and he wasn't at all happy with that particular revelation.
Their attraction was. no longer a teasing, seductive game between them they were both skirting. They'd leapt over personal and intimate boundaries that never, ever should have been crossed. He wasn't the type of guy who sought out one-night stands, and he hated that his time with Mia had been reduced to something so cheap. But there was no future for the two of them together, and they both knew it.
He'd be crazy to get mixed up with her beyond their one night together. They couldn't be more opposite-he colored inside the lines, and Mia did not. She bucked convention, and he was a man who lived by the rules. And she was completely opposite of what he wanted and needed in his life. Someone solid. Grounded. Not a woman who loved the thrill of being impulsive and lived to drive him insane. Her defiant and rash decisions went against his grain, especially when he'd seen in his line of work where that kind of behavior could lead.
Unfortunately, none of those strong and valid arguments made him stop wanting her. Just the opposite, actually. It was as though one taste of her had left him ravenous for the whole entire feast. He wanted to eat her up and use his tongue to lick and savor every single inch of her body. Especially her breasts, the soft curve of her belly, and between her thighs…
Too Wilde to Tame Page 5