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‘How do you know?’ Jules asks, watching Carrie take a seat at a table where a woman is already seated, sketching something in a notepad. She hugs Carrie when she sits, and the two lean their heads close together, Carrie whispering something to the other woman.
They both turn to look at Jules and Cameron, and Jules’s heart rockets up into her throat.
Cameron’s family is clearly genetically blessed because his other sister is stunning too. She’s wearing a multi-coloured flapper-style dress with wedge heels and several bracelets, and her hair is a bright blonde with pink and purple highlights. She and Carrie are smiling at Jules in exactly the same way. It makes her gulp.
‘You take my calls a lot at work, remember.’ Cameron answers her question.
‘Oh. Yeah.’ Jules watches Carrie say something else to the other sister, so she’s not really focusing on what she’s saying when she keeps speaking. ‘But you’re the exception to the rule. Most of them leave me wanting to resign or escape to the breakroom to read some erotic romance.’
Cameron stills beside her. ‘Erotic romance?’ he asks politely.
Jules freezes. Time stops while she stares into Cameron’s inquisitive eyes, déjà vu an unpleasant weight on her chest. She has a very detailed vision in which a tear in the fabric of reality appears before her and she can step into it and be taken away from Cameron and the mounting embarrassment of her mentioning erotica in front of him. Again? Seriously? Telling him she’s creepily and inappropriately read erotic romance at work is not an approved method for starting something between them.
‘Let’s both ignore I said that last part,’ Jules begs, since the tear in reality has not appeared.
Cameron clears his throat and pauses for almost as long as before. ‘If you want.’
She crosses her arms over her chest as her nipples peak. God damn Cameron and his sexy voice.
Jules strides across to his sisters at the table, nerves about meeting them totally annihilated by her recent embarrassment. If she can survive accidentally mentioning her reading habits to Cameron, she can survive making chit-chat with his siblings over lunch.
Chapter 6
Jules sits at the table like she’s about to be interviewed for a job. Tension in the lines of her neck and shoulders. Cameron has the urge to rub her back and tell her to relax but no way is he doing that in front of his sisters. And Jules probably wouldn’t appreciate the uninvited physical contact anyway.
He takes a fortifying breath then drops into the seat between Jules and Chloe.
‘Hey, Cam.’ Chloe wraps him in a hug. Her hair tickles his nose but something loosens in his chest. He’s missed her. Carrie too.
‘Hey, Clo. Good to see you again.’
‘And you.’ Her eyes flick between him and Jules like she’s watching one of her reality dating shows.
A waiter comes by the table to fill their water glasses and hand out menus. Cameron guzzles half his water at once, watching his sisters look between him and Jules with glinting eyes.
‘So, Jules …’ Carrie begins what’s sure to be an interrogation. ‘It’s nice finally meeting you in person. We’ve heard a lot about you.’
Cameron’s chest tightens.
‘You have?’ Jules turns her wide blue eyes toward Cameron.
‘Why’d you sound surprised?’ Chloe asks her.
‘Well, uh …’ Her gaze flicks over his face before turning to Chloe. ‘I guess I didn’t, um, think I made much of an impression on Cameron.’
She could not be more off-base. Though thank fuck she hasn’t picked up any interest from him. Of course, by the time this lunch is over, his sisters may have dropped enough hints that she’ll be digging into why he mentioned her to them. He can imagine the conversation now. ‘Why’d you tell your sisters about me?’ —‘Because you’re the only person in Canberra I’ve felt a connection with’. Yeah. That needs to be avoided.
Carrie laughs. ‘You underestimate our brother’s lack of social life in Canberra.’
‘Carrie. Seriously?’ Cameron curls his fists on his thighs.
‘I’m only saying what’s true.’
And giving Jules a shocking impression of him.
Cameron turns to Jules. ‘They know you help me with IT stuff a lot. That’s all.’
He directs the last bit at his sisters. Chloe goes for the I’m-so-innocent Bambi eyes but Carrie’s quirked lips promise she’s not done needling. He needs something stronger than water.
