Instant Attraction

Chapter 22

Later that day, Cam walked into Stone’s office and found his brother sprawled back in his chair, booted feet up on his desk, hands folded over his belly as he spoke to the speaker phone. “And Cam just walked in, so you can tell him yourself, Teej.”

“I’m held up by a bitch of a storm in Seattle,” T.J. said, his voice tinny and faraway sounding. “But I should still be there by tomorrow.”

“Just in time.” Cam headed for Stone’s computer. “Annie might kill Stone.” He opened the browser thinking as he typed “Santa Monica bridge collapse” into Google that he should have done this weeks ago.

Nick opened the door. “Holy crap, it’s icy today. What’s going on?”

Stone set his feet down. “What are you talking about? There’s no ice out there.”

“I meant Annie. She’s icy.”

“Yeah, that’s because you’re a little slow on the uptake.”

“Huh?”

“Your wife’s trying to patch things up, and you’re not paying attention,” Stone told him.

“I’m paying attention all right. She’s trying to drive me crazy. Giving out signals one minute and yelling the next.”

Through the speaker, T.J. said, “That’s what women do. Deal with it.”

“Says the guy who slept his way through every woman in town,” Stone interjected. “Several times.”

“Hey, not every woman.”

“No? Name one.”

“Harley.”

“Yes, because she was the only woman who ever turned you down, remember?”

T.J. sighed heartily. “I remember.”

Cam’s gaze was glued to the news reports and pictures of the bridge collapse. Horrifying, devastating pictures of cars smashed into sheets of steel. The fiery fire of the brush on either side of the collapsed bridge. People lined up on the streets trying to find out about their loved ones.

Thirty dead.

One survivor.

Katie.

Jesus. Cam rubbed a hand over his mouth and thought so much about her made more sense every day. Her needing out of Los Angeles. Heading north to snow country, where everything would be new and different, where nothing could remind her of what she’d faced.

But things had reminded her, that couldn’t be helped. And whereas he’d slowly come to accept that, she’d not gotten there yet. Ironic, since all along he’d thought she was the one of the two of them to have their shit together.

If anyone had asked him even a minute ago who’d gotten more out of this past month of knowing each other, him or Katie, he’d have laid down his very last dollar that it had been him.

And yet now he could see, that maybe, just maybe, he’d given her something too. That he had more to give still. Lots more. He turned to face Stone and Nick. “I slept with Katie.”

“Shock,” Stone said.

“I’m going to sleep with her again.”

“More shock,” Nick said.

“I’m sleeping with Katie, and you’re all okay with it?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “But I’d have figured getting laid would relax you a helluva lot more than it has. You doing it right? Or do you need some pointers?”

All of them laughed except Cam, “You guys are a riot.” He looked at Stone. “Explain this to me. When you slept with the cleaning crew, T.J tried to beat the shit out of you.”

“Because he was an ass,” T.J. pointed out.

“Yeah, it’s not the same,” Stone agreed.

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because I wasn’t halfway in love with either of those women.”

Staggered, Cam stared at Stone. “What?”

“He said you’re halfway in love with Katie,” T.J. repeated.

Falling in love, his ass. Stone had no idea what he was talking about, none. He grabbed the phone from its cradle and put it to his ear. “And what the hell do you know about this?”

“I know love,” T.J. reminded him very quietly. “And I’ve talked to you often enough over the past month to hear it happening to you.”

“Jesus.” Cam slammed the phone back down, ignoring Nick, who leaned over the desk and hit Talk again before T.J. was disconnected.

“Classic sign of being a goner,” Nick said with a tsk. “A quick temper.”

“Shut up.” Cam shoved his hands through his hair and glared at them. “And thank you all for being no help at all.” With that, he walked out and slammed the door, leaving no mistake as to how frustrated he felt.

In the office, silence reigned for a full moment.

“Well, that went well,” T.J. said. “Great idea, Stone. ‘Nudge him in the right direction,’ you said. ‘Let him know we’re behind him,’ you said. Now he’s a flight risk again.”

Stone looked at the door and let out a breath. “Nah, he’s just being bullheaded, like any good Wilder. He’s sticking.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Katie’s still here.”

“Yeah, well, I’d stay out of his way just the same if I were you, at least until I get there to referee.”

Nick snorted in amusement until Stone gave him a droll look. “Like you have it all together?”

“Hey, I have it more together than you.”

“Really? Think Annie would agree?”

Nick just let out a long breath. “How did we all get so fucked up?”

“Practice, man. Lots of practice.”

Katie wasn’t behind her desk, and Cam’s heart did an odd little lurch. Dammit. He strode down the stairs and found her outside organizing a cross-country trek to Gold Cove, which he was to lead.

“It’s not on my schedule,” he told her.

She looked down at her clipboard. “No, it’s on T.J.’s, but he got held up by that storm.” She looked up into his eyes, her own shuttered for the first time since he’d known her. “Should I cancel?”

“It takes two guides,” he lied without compuncture.

“What?”

“I need an assistant.” He smiled grimly. “Suit up, you’re it.”

“I don’t-”

“You want adventures. You want risk, then take one. Change.” He took the clipboard. “We’ll wait.”

She took less than five minutes, which he appreciated. She didn’t speak much to him, which once upon a time he would have appreciated even more, but things were different now. He didn’t know how exactly, or why, only that they were, and that he missed listening to her talk.

Halfway out to Gold Cove, he slowed. “It’s three miles straight out,” he told the group. “First one there gets the championship title and a framed picture of the group.”

They all took off. Katie, too, but he snagged the back of her coat and pulled her to his side.

She planted her poles and looked at him warily. “What?”

“I thought we could-”

“Here?” She eyed the trees speculatively. “What if one of them comes back?”

“Not that.” But he eyed the trees, too, suddenly liking her idea a whole lot better than what he’d planned on doing. There was a nice thick group of trees just ahead, he could have her in there, wrapped around him like a pretzel in like thirty seconds-

“Oh, if not that, then what? I could have had that championship title.”

“Yes, you could have. For holding back. I know, Katie.”

“Know what?”

“About the bridge collapse.”

“Yes, because I told you.”

“I know the details. How your car was flung out from between the two cement blocks like a piece of toast. How you hung upside down off that cliff for an hour after they got the flames out before they could get to you.”

Staring at him wide-eyed, she tried to take a step back, but the skis tripped her up. He slipped an arm around her waist while hitting the release on her skis with his pole so that she was released from the bindings.

Freed, she staggered away from him. “The details don’t matter. Not to me.”

“Then why are you still dreaming about them?”

The truth of that flickered across her face. “Fine. I didn’t tell you because this is a temp job, and I’m a temp, and-”

“Bullshit. That’s all such bullshit. You didn’t tell me because despite the fact that I’m supposed to trust you, you don’t have to trust me.”

“No,” she whispered, “that’s not it.”

“Then what? What is it? You’re the only one in the whole world who’s ever been in a life-altering situation and wondered what to do with themselves now?”

Her face closed up, and even while the apology was already forming on his tongue, she shook her head and pointed at him. “You, Cameron Wilder, you can go to hell.” She stomped back into her bindings and skied off, leaving him staring after her.

One consolation in this whole mess: She’d learned to ski like a damn pro.

That night Cam was slumped on his couch staring at the game while thinking about Katie. Katie smiling at him and making him smile back. Katie laughing with her whole face, that contagious laugh that made him let out a helpless one of his own.

Katie accepting him for who he was, and making him want to be the best man he could be.

When the knock came at his door, he figured it was Stone. Hoping like hell he’d pick a fight so Cam could cut loose of this tension, he got up and pulled open the door.

Not Stone.

It was Katie, with one of those smiles he’d just been daydreaming about, though it was a nervous one.

“You busy?” she asked

“Nope, I’m just watching a game. You know, before I go to hell.”

“Yeah.” She grimaced. “About that whole going to hell thing. Can I come in?”

“Sure.” He backed up so she could pass by him, and he all but buried his nose in her hair, that’s how desperate he was for the scent of her. She didn’t disappoint, smelling like some complicated, deliciously sexy mix of flowers and woman. “If you plan on yelling at me some more,” he said, “maybe you could wait until the commercial. The Patriots are down but at the ten-yard line.”

“I once accused you of being an ass and you apologized for it.” She turned to face him. “Today, I was the ass. Yesterday too. You didn’t mention it in so many words, but I’m still going to say I’m sorry.”

He looked into her eyes and wanted…wanted to hold her, touch her, be with her.

That terrifying.

That simple.

“You asked me earlier why I didn’t trust you,” she said softly. “The truth is, I didn’t trust me. I’m working on that. I’m working on a lot of things. But for now, between us, maybe we should just go back to doing what we do best.”

Well, he knew what he thought they did best…“You mean…”

“Yes.”

It couldn’t be that easy. Could it? “Look, I’ve been wrong, a lot, so I want to be clear. We’re talking about…sex.”

“Well, it is a documented stress reliever.”

There, he thought. There was the light coming into her gaze, the one he’d missed. “My very favorite stress reliever,” he said. “And as a bonus, it scratches all itches, solves the universe’s problems, and-”

And Nick walked right into the cabin as if he owned it. He headed past Cam and Katie and straight for the refrigerator, helping himself to a beer.

“Nick?” Cam gestured with his chin toward Katie. “A little busy here.”

“No problem, I can wait.” He plopped down on the couch, sprawled his legs out, head back, eyes closed. “Take your time.”

Cam opened his mouth to say “Get the hell out,” but then he caught a good look at Nick’s face and the utter misery on it. Hell. He turned to Katie, who shook her head worriedly. With a squeeze of his hand, she let herself out.

Double hell.

Oblivious, Nick took a pull on his beer. “She’s fucking with my head.”

“Annie?”

“The UPS guy asked her out and I think she’s going to go. She’s waiting for me to sign the damn papers.”

Cam sighed and went for his own beer, but Nick had taken the last one. Perfect.

“You Wilders are crazy. All of you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Cam sat on the coffee table facing Nick and nudged his knee with his own. “Look, you have two choices here, just two, and you know what they are.”

Nick set the beer down and nodded. “Actually, there’s only one. One choice.” He stood up and headed for the door.

“So that’s it?” Cam asked Nick’s back. “You chase the girl out of here and don’t even stay?”

Nick opened the front door. “You have two choices, Cam, and you know what they are.”

Yeah, hell if he wasn’t right. Cam followed Nick out, then turned in the opposite direction, heading in the falling darkness to Katie’s cabin. He knocked on her door and then stood there waiting, his blood pounding, his body on high alert.

“Who’s there?”

“The scratcher of your itch,” he said.

She opened the door a crack and stuck her nose out. “Was that supposed to be romantic?”

“Okay, how about this. I came bearing all the answers to the universe’s problems.”

She lifted a shoulder, distinctly unimpressed.

Huh. This wasn’t going quite as planned. He decided to try her favorite thing-words. “Okay, here’s the thing. I’ve never been much of a romantic. Honestly, I’ve never had to be.”

“Because women always throw themselves at you.”

Well, yeah. In the past, that was definitely true, not that he was stupid enough to say so. “Does it count that there’s no one, no one I’d rather be with right now?”

She opened the door a few more inches, standing there all whiskey-eyed, her lips shiny with lip gloss that smelled like…watermelon.

He loved watermelon.

“Right now,” she repeated. “As in you might change your mind a minute from now? To what did you call it? Scratch the itch?”

Okay, he was beginning to sense an attitude. “I’m sorry. I’m…really sorry. But it’s been a helluva long day, and I’m dead-ass tired, and to be completely honest, I’m out of practice at seduction. You are sweet and beautiful, and you have a way of being positive no matter what the hell is going on. It’s sexy as hell, you’re sexy as hell, and I just want to be with you.”

“Well, there you go,” she murmured. “The magic password.” And she opened the door all the way.

He smiled in relief. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Look, I know I’m leaving, and this is just fun, but I didn’t want to be like all the other women who’ve been in your life. In and out. Gone and forgotten.”

“You aren’t. You won’t be.”

She stepped aside for him to come in. She wore jeans and a long black sweater, with bunny slippers. Her hair was loose and shiny. Everything about her stirred him up, but he had to ask, “You like that I’m out of practice at seduction?”

“Uh-huh.” She stepped close, smelling like heaven. “Our first time, on the rocks, it wasn’t practiced or old hat. It was real. And so was afterward, when you came to my cabin when you thought you’d get me out of your system.”

He let out a long, shaky breath when she pressed up against him. “Apparently it didn’t take.”

“Which is unusual for you,” she said.

“Yeah.” When she locked her arms around his neck, he ran his hands down her back and did his best to inhale her in, deep inside, where she always, always made him feel good.

“I told myself whatever happened here with you, I just wanted it to be real.” She looked at him, really looked at him, the way only she seemed to do, and he knew she saw things that he couldn’t hold back, things he didn’t show to anyone else. “And it was,” she whispered. “Real.”

She was sweet and hot, and more than a little crazy, and she completely slayed him. “I thought you wanted it to be great.”

“Oh, I think we’ve got that part covered as well.” Pressing her face to his throat, she breathed him in, too, as if she needed that as much as he did; then she sighed in pleasure. “Cam…” Her mouth was near his, her hands sliding beneath his shirt, her fingers-frozen solid, thank you very much-running over his flesh. “Maybe we should do what you came here for.”

Yeah, maybe they should. Bending his head, he rubbed his jaw to hers. Everything about her felt new for him. New and wild and just a little bit out of his control. Yet somehow she was also slow and steady, more than any presence in his life. Her hair was all around him like a soft, silky cloud, and he closed his eyes and just kept breathing her in like she was his lifeline. “I wanted you all damn day. For days. I wanted you all hot and sweaty and panting my name.”

“Tell me no one’s going to need you for the next few minutes,” she said breathlessly.

A few minutes. That’s the best she thought he had. He had to laugh; then he kissed her, filling himself up with the scent of her shampoo, her warm skin, loving having her soft curves pressed up against him. “This is going to take longer than a few minutes.”

Her glasses fogged, and he pulled them off, getting his mouth on hers again. She opened for him, but he didn’t deepen the kiss, not yet, because the high of the anticipation was flowing through him now, and for the first time in his life, he was enjoying it instead of trying to race it, because it all made some sort of crazy sense.

Being with her was making crazy sense.

He’d been so careful with himself, holding back, not giving anything of himself away. Building defenses one layer at a time.

But she’d stripped those layers away, one at a time, painstakingly, leaving him totally and completely bare.

And still he stood there, holding her. Wanting her. “I plan to take my time with you, Katie.”

Her breath shuddered out. “I don’t think-”

“Perfect, go with that,” he murmured against her mouth, picking her up.

“Your knee-”

“Is fine, now shh. No thinking. Nothing but this. Hope you’re not tired.”

Her breath caught. “It’s going to take that long?”

Not if she kept looking at him like that. So he leaned in, murmured “all night,” and then kissed her, waiting until her eyes fell closed before closing his.