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‘Then this is perfect. I’m most confident in bed. I’m confident I’ll make you come, that we’ll both be satisfied. Then I’ll get up and do the speech.’
Jules’s traitorous hips grind up against him a few times. Can’t be helped when he’s still saying all this right in her ear with warm breath and that rough, sex-deep voice. Her underwear is a wet mess right now, and she wants to yank the hem of her top down, then the cups of her bra so she can rub her eager nipples against him.
But she’s starting to get the sense she’s witnessing Cameron running away from something in real time. It’s startling, and a truer insight into his depths than she’s seen so far. And what did he mean by ‘most confident in bed’? Why would he think that?
Regardless, she doesn’t want to aid and abet his coping mechanism. She wants to help him face it and work through it. Like a partner would.
‘Yes, but what about outside the bedroom?’ She prompts. ‘What are you going to do tomorrow, huh? Have a quickie before you go on stage?’
‘Sounds perfect to me.’
His breath tickles her ear, sending shivers right through her. As Cameron continues his rub-and-circle hip manoeuvre, Jules sees the Rubicon approaching.
‘Cameron. Come on.’
Her clit yells at her as she shuffles out from under Cameron’s body, but this is the choice she needs to make. This is a perfect chance for her to show Cameron she can offer more than sex, that they can have a relationship that’s more than sex.
‘Take this seriously. I know you want this to go well. Are you scared or something?’
Jules expects another witty comeback, but instead, Cameron’s expression darkens.
‘Oh.’ Her throat dries up. ‘You actually are, aren’t you?’
Cameron sighs and drops onto his back on the mattress, rubbing his hands roughly over his face, then holding them there while he breathes.
Jules can see he’s hard still, but now that she’s aware of his fear, the desire to rid him of his pants and wrap her hand around him has vanished.
‘Cameron?’ she prompts softly, padding away from the bed to stop the cheerful pop music playing from her phone.
‘Scared? No.’ Cameron crosses his arms over his chest and stares at the ceiling. ‘Anxious. Yeah. A lot.’
Jules presses a palm to her chest, right where that ache to know Cameron lives. ‘I had no idea.’
Cameron shrugs, gaze still fixed on the ceiling, the dark expression on his face miles from the carefree laughter while they were dancing.
Jules bites her lip, desperate to get the look off Cameron’s face. She wants to bring the dimples back. She wants to be the person who can help Cameron out of wherever he’s gone, but her earlier attempt at emotional openness backfired. He bolted away from the room and her.
But then he came back. He asked her out to dinner and they talked. So even with those familiar ants crawling over her shoulders, she takes a deep breath and lays down beside Cameron.
She tilts her head to the side to stare at him, debating asking the question she’s been wanting to since their night at the symphony. ‘I know you’re worried about presenting to the Cable people but, this seems … Is this about Braden?’
Cameron stops breathing. ‘How do you know about Braden?’
‘Chloe told me.’
Cameron swears on an exhale. He turns his head to look at her, wariness in the set of his eyebrows. ‘How much did she tell you?’
‘Not much. That you used to work together, and you had a bad break up and it affected you.’
‘All true.’ Cameron sighs, shifting to stare at the ceiling again.
Jules chews her lip. ‘Is she why you left?’
Cameron makes a non-committal noise, then sighs. ‘Yeah.’
‘Oh.’ Jules’s stomach does an unsteady slosh inside her. What the hell happened? Something bad enough he left Cable despite the terrible timing.
She slides her leg across the mattress to rest her foot lightly against his leg. A little contact to ground him, show him she’s here with him.
