“It’s the truth. I’m not one for lying.”
I should have won an award for not laughing. Wasn’t he technically lying to me right now? Smoldering and smiling at me in turns, trying to melt all my defenses so that he could look into my soul?
“Seriously?” was all I could ask.
He seemed a bit miffed. “Yes, seriously. The last time somebody lied to me it cost me my future.” His hand drifted to his hurt knee and I wondered if he meant the corporate spies. But they hadn’t really lied to him. Just near him. They were lie adjacent.
Or maybe he was talking about something else.
I would not ask him about it. I would not.
“So,” he said, in a sexy, low voice, “how about we get together after this and go over those duties of ours?”
What duties? I was the one with all the responsibility. His job was to wear a tux, arrange the bachelor party, and bring the ring to the wedding. Even though I thought his suggestion was stupid, I still wanted to say yes. Instead I settled on, “After this? That’s much too soon for something that’s never going to happen.”
A lock of my hair sprang forward, escaping the clip keeping my knot in place, like it was trying to disagree with the rest of my body’s decision to blow off Camden.
And he took it as an invitation. He reached out with his long fingers and softly brushed the hair behind my ear, lingering. The sensation sent heated tingles coursing through my veins and I drew in a sharp breath.
He smiled at me seductively and it irritated me that he knew exactly the effect he was having on me.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” I told him.
Camden lowered his hand and I found myself aching to have him touch me again.
“Well, I’m not being subtle,” he said.
At that I backed myself against the sofa, like a cornered animal. I couldn’t let him touch me. He set me on fire with just a glance or that smile of his, and when his skin connected with mine? It threatened to overwhelm me.
Camden retreated to his corner, further proving his ability to properly read my signals. Which was good that somebody knew what was going on, because everything happening inside me was completely confusing.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll grow on you. Like mildew.”
That broke the tension and made me smile, and I could see from his expression that it had been his intent.
The comfortable silence that settled between us was interrupted by a new couple arriving at the party.
“Hey,” Camden said, “that’s Sadie’s stepdad and his fiancée.”
Geoff looked like he was in his fifties but was the kind of man who hadn’t heard that frosted tips didn’t look good on anybody and did not, in fact, make him look younger.
And the woman with him? “That’s her? That’s Maybelle?” I asked in shock. She looked like she was sixteen. “She’s a fetus.”
“She is younger than Sadie,” he offered and I nearly gasped again. She was obviously legal, but they looked like a dad and his daughter out for a day of fun. Sadie had never shown me a picture and I was kind of regretting that now. Mostly because Camden seemed to be enjoying my reaction far too much.
“I just . . . There’s nothing I can . . . wow,” I said. “She’s so young.”
He nodded. “Geoff couldn’t date much younger without having to notify the proper authorities. Maybe she has something other women don’t.”
“A curfew?” I asked, and that made Camden laugh.
And oh, that sound. It was glorious. I grinned in response.
“I’m sure what he lacks in youth and appearance she more than makes up for by not having a personality,” he teased and now it was my turn to giggle.
His eyes lit up, like he enjoyed making me laugh just as much as I had.
As if on cue, Sadie arrived with her mother in tow. Now that I knew how important it was to Sadie to have her mom show up, I’d offered to walk Brandy down to the party. Sadie had insisted on doing it herself. Maybe she was trying to show her mom some support, knowing that Geoff and Maybelle were here.
I noted that Brandy looked bright eyed and rested, which made me feel relieved. Now it was my job to keep her that way. Geoff and Maybelle moved to the opposite end of the party and I hoped they were smart enough to keep doing that for the rest of the events.
Sadie and her mother came over to us.
“Our maid of honor and best man together! So cute!” Sadie exclaimed and I brushed it off. Whatever she hoped for was not going to happen. “Mom, have you met Rachel yet?”