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Cameron’s chest inflates like a balloon, but a balloon is hot air inside a thin skin, easily burst.
‘You’ve only just met her. How can you tell?’ He questions Chloe.
‘Because she looked into your eyes like she cared what you were saying, not at your mouth like she was picturing it on her.’
Jules may not have been picturing it, but now he is. Picturing kissing Jules. And it’s hot like fire and also, in his daydream, happening in the hire car like they’re horny teens who’ve snuck out for a night. He’d thought about it at the time, too. When she mentioned a conference fling and that traitorous part of him, half-emotion half-desire and zero logic, perked up in interest.
Cameron reaches for his water to cool the heat travelling down his spine. Far out, imagining one single kiss isn’t meant to make him feel like this.
‘Even if that’s true,’ and fuck, the horny-teenage-esque part of him longs for it to be, ‘it makes no difference.’
‘Cameron,’ Carrie snaps his name. ‘You’ve got to stop letting Braden ruin your life from beyond the relationship.’ She leans over the table and her gaze traps his. ‘You moved out of Sydney, you’ve shut out old friends, you haven’t dated, you’ve lost your joy. We’ve been letting you grieve and wallow because that shit Braden did earned you some recovery time. But now it’s time to pick up the bow and get playing again. Or whatever is more applicable to you.’
Carrie’s always been a pro at rousing speeches—probably from her time as captain of every netball team she’s ever played in—and Cameron feels something stirring inside him, like little eddies of wind picking up discarded dreams. He recalls Jules’s smile, and the warmth that bloomed when she touched him.
Is he really going to keep literally running away from Jules as long as he works at Infinity?
As the eddies pick up, he forces himself to recall everything that went down after he found out about Braden. The sickening feelings and the anxiety. Quitting his job in the middle of a campaign he spearheaded. It helps put a stop to the hopeful stirring.
‘Hey,’ Carrie draws his attention back to her. ‘We’re only saying it because we love you.’
Cameron sighs. ‘I know.’
He toys with the edge of his napkin, gut twisting now that Carrie’s played the love card. It doesn’t change anything though. He and Jules still work together, and his highest priority for this conference needs to be making things right with his ex-colleagues, not getting to know Jules more. Pursuing a relationship with Jules would be a distraction from his presentation that will help redeem his professional reputation. It’s a risk he can’t take.
Chapter 7
Cameron waits for Jules outside her room that evening, having agreed earlier to go with her to the welcome night. He paces to expel the restlessness from his limbs which has been there since lunch. His sisters are insistent he make a move with Jules tonight, despite him repeatedly reminding them a relationship was off the cards. Even if what they say is true and Jules is interested in him. They’ve texted him constantly all afternoon, giving him advice about complimenting her and asking about her interests outside of work, like the issue is he doesn’t know how to have an adult conversation, and not that he’s choosing not to pursue a relationship with Jules for legitimate reasons. He loves them, but they are terrible at taking no for an answer.
He’s not sure he buys Jules’s interest, anyway. There were a few … moments in the car and at lunch but they could all be attributed to friendliness.
But then again, here he is, having only met her in person three days ago, and already he’s been leaning into those moments.
So maybe there is a possibility she’s interested in him. As more than colleagues and maybe more than friends. Maybe following his sisters’ advice won’t lead to the disruption of his career like it has in the past.
And that is why he can’t ditch the jitters. Part of him is actually thinking about doing something. Goddamn.
He leans against the wall opposite Jules’s room, circling his fist over his chest. Why’s he even thinking about this?
Jules steps out of her room. Attraction moves through him like wildfire, desire roaring in his ears, and Cameron feels that tug again. It’s migrated lower than it had been in Patricia’s office. Jules is wearing a deep blue wrap dress with silver heels and a matching purse hanging off one shoulder. Her hair is out and it falls over her shoulders in a way that makes Cameron want to fist his hands into it.
He balls his hands into his pockets like he can trap all the fervour in his fingers. No touching. That’s a one-way highway to flirting and feelings, and he’s avoiding all the toll roads with Jules.
‘You look great. Beautiful,’ he tells her. Friends can compliment friends, right?
‘Thanks.’
Her smile fills him with warmth and he pushes his hands further down in his pockets.
She swishes side to side and Cameron gets a flash of her upper thigh when the dress parts along her right leg. His heart thuds an extra beat against his chest and he knows he’s in trouble.
They head for the lifts, the strength of attraction enough that his blood still rushes loud in his ears.
‘Do you think the welcome thing is going to take a while?’ Jules asks, pressing the button to call the lift. There’s a slim silver bracelet around her wrist he hadn’t noticed before.
‘I think the speech will be short and the drinking and mingling will be longer. Why?’
‘No reason.’ The doors open and they step inside, their shoulders brushing. ‘I haven’t networked in a while, is all. Is that expected after the speech?’
