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Cam all but slammed the hotel room door closed hours later, as Jaci tossed her clutch onto the table just inside the room and turned to face both him and Chase.
Chase had been eerily silent during the drive from the party, his expression dark and closed, his eyes watching, tracking both Jaci and Cam’s expressions constantly. He’d made Cam feel like a fucking bug under a microscope.
Until Cam looked at Jaci. When he did, he could see the defiance in her expression, but there was something more in her face that almost terrified him. As though the veil of calm indifference that had been there before had been stripped away by some unknown force. She faced him now, none of the shadows that had once hid her from him in place.
“I wasn’t up to anything. ” She spread her arms out from her body, drawing attention to those luscious curves.
Cam gave her what she was after. He let his gaze flicker over that dark red dress, but he watched those incredible eyes from the corner of his, just as he knew Chase was watching her, lusting for her. That defiance only fueled the desire. The desire was in turn fueled by the knowledge that she was his. His, by God, and she would not continue in whatever was up between her and the Robertses.
“You’re up to something, all right,” he grunted as he shrugged his jacket from his shoulders and moved into the sitting room, aware of Chase crossing his arms over his chest and watching both of them carefully.
She watched them both warily. He could see her thinking, calculating her odds of blowing off his suspicions.
“You challenged Annalee at that party, Jaci. I’m not a fool. I saw that look you gave her. ”
And he wasn’t the only one. Brian Zimmer had seen it, and he had been concerned. As one of the club’s legal advisors, Brian had been keeping up with the investigation into the Robertses’ vendetta against Jaci, as well as the reports that were still coming in on Jaci herself.
She had met a lot of people over the years; there had to have been someone she had revealed the truth to. A friend, a lover they hadn’t yet found, someone she had talked to in a moment of weakness.
It wasn’t Courtney, which surprised Cam. Jaci was closer to Courtney than she had been to her girlhood friends in Oklahoma.
“Annalee was trying to have me thrown out of the party. ” She kicked her shoes off, revealing the smoky silk hose that covered her toes. “I was merely acknowledging the fact that I had won this round, nothing more. Margaret and Harold Brockheim weren’t about to throw me out. It wouldn’t be acceptable, after inviting me to begin with. ”
That was true enough. “Didn’t you do some designs for them a few years back?” Chase asked.
She smiled. “A cabin in Colorado. They weren’t there. I don’t think Margaret trusted me around her husband. I’m a home-wrecker, remember?”
Cam’s teeth ground together at the mocking retort. Damn her, he didn’t need a reminder of the damage the Robertses had tried to cause her. He was ready to kill them, as it was.
“You’re pushing me. I’ve never in my life killed a man without reason, Jaci, but if I keep seeing the damage Richard Roberts and his wife have done to you, then I might break that little rule. ”
An edge of panic flared in her eyes, causing him to watch her suspiciously. Why the hell would she care if his wrath fell on Richard Roberts?
“Annalee is a bitch. That’s no reason to kill Richard. Besides, neither of them is worth the effort or the cost of a bullet. ” And before you start threatening others, consider how you affect me everytime you leave me in my bed, alone. ”
His eyes narrowed as she turned and moved farther away from him, the silk of her gown rustling against the silk that covered her legs. “That bed doesn’t define us,” he bit out.
“It will soon. ” The silk of her stocking rasped against her gown as she turned.
He had ordered smoky thigh-highs. Silk. Smoke and fire was the image he had in his mind, and that was the image that met his eyes when he saw her at the party. Jaci was pure stubborn. He knew it. Chase knew it. And Cam was determined to find a way around it.
Cam had to forcibly restrain himself from following after her, from pushing her against the wall, and thrusting as hard and deep inside her as possible. He had wanted her, until it was like a fire in his balls; but seeing her tonight, seeing the confidence and determination in her eyes when he glimpsed her across the ballroom, the challenge she had silently thrown to Annalee and given him as well, it was as though he had always sensed the woman he was seeing now. The hunger that tore at his guts was nearly painful in its intensity. He looked at Chase and acknowledged the fact she might be strong enough to defy him entirely.
This was the woman he had always sensed inside her. The woman that could walk away from him.
He glanced at Chase again, seeing the lust, the obvious anticipation. His brother would fight or fuck, whichever Cam chose in this battle he and Jaci seemed to be waging now. It was going to have to be the latter, because he’d be damned if he could think with this need clawing at his insides.
He swallowed tightly, his fingers going to the buttons of his shirt as he watched her nimble little fingers grip the tab of the zipper at her lower back.
The snug material parted, revealing the silken line of the thong he had bought for her.
He felt his mouth go dry, then water, as she turned to him, gave her shoulders a little shrug, and let the dress slip down her body until it pooled at her feet.
He tore the shirt from his shoulders even as he moved, striding across the room and jerking her into his arms. He heard her gasp as his lips covered hers, and he barely restrained his own primal growl.
She met him hunger for hunger, need for need. Her lips parted, her tongue mingled with his. Slender, silken fingers dove into his hair and pulled, jerking free the dark band that held it back.
His hands were on her ass, gripping the rounded globes and lifting her to him. Long legs wrapped around his hips, the heated folds of her pussy heated his cock, even through the layers of clothing, as he stumbled backward from the pleasure. He kept her in his grip, held her lips with his, and caught himself with his shoulder against the wall.
