I tried for humor. “Why are you keeping a ham under your shirt where your shoulder’s supposed to go?”
He either didn’t get it or didn’t think I was funny. The second one felt like the most realistic reason, and he was probably right to ignore me. I’d also said it in an attempt to deflect the feeling of his skin on mine, and it wasn’t working. Like, I was headed into eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-my-head-from-pleasure territory.
Camden took off the shoe on my left foot in the same way, intensifying all the feelings, and I kind of wanted to tackle him into the sand and have my way with him.
But then a part of my brain that wasn’t drunk from rum and/or high off his touch recognized that he wasn’t into it. He didn’t brush his fingers against my skin like he could have, or linger a moment too long holding me in place, or run his hand along the back of my knee, or a million other things to show his interest that I would have eagerly welcomed.
No, instead he was all business and respectful.
“Here.” He handed me my shoes and took off his own loafers so that we could walk along the shore together.
It was like something from a postcard; a full moon hung above us, reflected on the water. A cool breeze chased away the heat and humidity left over from the day, and a salty smell surrounded us. The sparkling sand felt warm and soft under my toes. The palm trees that marked the line between the beach and the hotel’s grass made a soft hushing sound as we walked by.
Beautiful.
“Tell me something about you I don’t know,” I told him.
He shuffled his feet for a second and I realized that he was trying to match my gait, slowing down his longer stride to stay with me. He stayed silent for a moment and I thought he might not answer. But then he said, “I don’t just work at a tech company. I’m the CEO. Dan and I started it together in college and it’s about to revolutionize the entire world.”
It took me a second to realize that he was watching me closely, waiting to see what I would think. Maybe waiting for a specific reaction? I made a buzzer sound, like on a game show. “Thank you for playing, we have some nice parting gifts for you.” At his raised eyebrows I added, “I already knew that about you. You were supposed to tell me something I didn’t know.”
“Sadie told you?”
“Well, I am her maid of honor,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, and this whole wedding is just a big distraction from next week, when the company goes . . .” He let his voice trail off and I found it more than a tad enjoyable that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to say things I shouldn’t.
I decided to mess with him. “When the company goes public?”
“How do you know that?”
“Didn’t we just establish that I’m Sadie’s maid of honor? My guess is Dan told her and then she told me.”
He looked upset. “Did you tell anyone?”
“Obviously I have all the local New York news stations on standby, waiting to get more information from me.” Camden came to a complete stop. I reached back to tug on his arm, to get him to keep walking. “It’s a joke. No, I didn’t tell anyone, Mr. Paranoid.”
“If this leaks out beforehand . . . there’s so many things that could make this all go sideways.”
“I’d never do anything that would hurt Sadie,” I told him, and that was true. I’d also have a harder time than I would have yesterday doing something that would hurt him, but as I began to sober up I realized that some things were better left unsaid. “I don’t know why you think bad things about me, but I’m actually trustworthy. I won’t tell anyone.” Other than Krista, but that shouldn’t count. She was under the same banner of secrecy.
“I believe you,” he said, and I wondered if it was real. Or if he was trying to placate me and win my trust. Even wasted, that suspicious part of me wasn’t willing to just enjoy the moment. I had to question everything.
Including why he hadn’t done exactly what I’d asked. “By the way, you still haven’t told me something I don’t know about you.”
“A secret?” he asked. “I bet you have a lot of secrets.”
As someone who made a living at turning around conversations so that I wouldn’t be caught out, I was impressed by how quickly he shifted things back to me.
“A lady should, don’t you think? How else are we supposed to maintain an air of mystery?”
He gave me a rueful smile and we kept walking in silence. The beach on this side of the hotel wasn’t very long; it came to an abrupt stop at a large rock outcropping. We would have had to climb up to keep walking along the sand and I was obviously in no condition to do that.