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Her life had been one of loneliness, he knew that from the investigative report. Her lovers were evidently few and far between, because he couldn’t find them. She didn’t make friends easily, and those friends she had made were intensely loyal.
A woman as fiery, beautiful, and passionate as Jaci needed more than a few long-distance friends, though. She needed a man. A lover she couldn’t walk all over, one that would challenge her, make her blood hot. One that could take all that restless, burning passion inside her and return it to her tenfold.
He was the man to not just tame it, but to sate it. To make her burn over and over again, and to put out the flames with his touch, his kiss. His possession.
Ian was right. Jaci wasn’t going to give him everything without more from him. He had hoped she would, had expected her to. He should have known better. Seven years wasn’t going to weaken a woman who had been strong even at twenty-one. Strong enough to walk away from something he knew she had wanted down to the soles of her feet.
She was adventurous. She was a woman that would never belong to a weak man. And Cam was anything but weak.
Hell, he had more ghosts inside him than a haunted castle, and he knew damned good and well there were parts of him that might never be whole again. That would be the battle. Getting her to trust him, to belong to him, while keeping his secrets to himself.
Because those secrets could destroy him.
The secrets had nothing to do with seduction, though. They had nothing to do with making Jaci his.
Anticipation burned inside him at the thought of her and the seduction to come. He had never had to put himself out to seduce, but Jaci was definitely worthy of the effort. She was worth everything, even his own compulsion to never give a woman his release without a condom.
In his entire sexual life, he had never, not once, taken a woman without a condom. Evidently, Jaci had been just as careful, just as picky. And pickiness wasn’t the end of it. It was more than picky, and he knew it. She had taken him, a part of her did trust him, he realized. She would have never allowed him to take her without protection if she didn’t. So it wasn’t just an issue of trust. Which meant he had to figure out exactly what that issue was.
11
Jaci restrained her smile as she entered the Brockheim mansion. She had redesigned a vacation cabin for the Brockheims in Aspen two years before. The Brockheims had decided to leave the job to Jaci alone, rather than oversee it. Margaret Brockheim had worried about having her husband there at the time, after hearing the rumors of Jaci’s home-wrecking tendencies. Their daughter, Moriah, had been at the cabin, unknown to her parents, as Jaci worked.
Moriah hadn’t known Jaci was due to arrive that weekend. She had been hiding, suffering, and while Jaci had been there, they had found a bond in their hatred of the Robertses. That, and a plan.
The Brockheims were old money, old morals, and old grudges. They were in their seventies, considered themselves hip and modern, and enjoyed their social lives to the utmost.
How Courtney had managed to acquire an invitation for Jaci to this party, Jaci wouldn’t know; but as she caught sight of her friends across the ballroom, Jaci had to admit it didn’t surprise her.
Courtney was dressed in figure-hugging sapphire silk. Her hair was piled atop her head, long strands falling from the top to flow over one shoulder.
Beside her, Ian and Chase were dressed in tuxedos, looking powerful and decidedly handsome, while Khalid—standing nearby—conversed with another guest.
As Jaci made her way across the ballroom, the dark red evening gown she wore swished over the toes of the expensive shoes that had been delivered with it. She had to admit, Cam had excellent taste in women’s clothes. Even the lacy panties and thigh-highs were silk, and fit perfectly. She felt like a carefully banked flame, and she knew that was the impression the evening gown gave.
“Oh, you are in so much trouble. ” Courtney laughed as Jaci grew close, her brown eyes both wickedly amused and chiding. “Cam has called twice from the hotel. He swears you’re hiding in your room. ”
She was aware of Chase drawing his cell phone from his pocket and putting it to his ear.
“Traitor,” she accused him lightly.
He was calling Cam, and she knew he was. Brotherly loyalty, no doubt. As he informed Cam she was now at the party, she had a feeling Chase was eagerly anticipating the fireworks.
“You are a dangerous woman,” he told her, his lips quirking at her daring, while he pushed the cell phone back into the inner pocket of his jacket. “He’s not happy with you right now. ”
“I’ve not been happy with him all day. ” She shrugged her bare shoulders, aware of Chase’s gaze slipping over the rounded tops of her breasts, revealed by the snug design of the dress.
Her back was bare to the top of her hips, where the skirt smoothed over her curves, snug and almost revealing. It was one of the most exquisite dresses she had ever worn. It was definitely one of the most expensive.
“Would you like to dance before he arrives?” Chase invited, glancing to the dance floor where the band had drawn several couples out to enjoy the slow, haunting music.
She smiled as she shook her head. “I think I’ll wait. ”
“You might not get the chance to dance later. ” Courtney laughed lightly. “Cam is going to be all about asserting that wonderful male dominance I’m certain he possesses. ”
She kept her voice low enough that her words carried no farther than Jaci, but her laughter drew several admiring male gazes.
“Then I’ll just have to be all about asserting my own dominance,” Jaci informed her.
