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Defying him made his eyes darken. Challenging him made his expression flex with what she had then sensed and now knew to be hunger. The little things she had forgotten over the years poured through her memories.
Courtney was right. This was a war. A very subtle war. And if she wanted to tear Cam from whatever demons drove him, then she was going to fight fire with fire.
Instinctive fire. Feminine fire. The kind of fire that she knew made him blaze with possessiveness and with hunger.
As she dressed the next morning, she let the memories of those days wash over her. Laughing with him, teasing him, making a game of drawing a smile from him. It was easy to make Chase smile; he was a prankster and loved laughing. At least, then he had been. He was older now, more mature, but that wicked amusement still lurked in his eyes. Possessiveness could still fill his gaze.
But Cam was darker, even less prone to laugh than he had been seven years before.
As with all small towns, there had been rumors of the Falladay twins even before they had reached maturity. With the death of their parents at a young age, they had been raised by a spinster aunt from out of town.
The day they turned eighteen, the aunt had been escorted out of the house by the local sheriff. There were rumors that she had abused the boys, but no verification of it. Cam had joined the military straight out of high school, and Chase had gone to college.
They had separated, and Jaci had never understood why. As she cinched the bright yellow belt over her jeans and adjusted the black, embroidered T-shirt over her stomach, a frown pulled at her brows.
No one had expected the twins to separate like that, but everyone had agreed there was a darker, more dangerous core to Cam than there had been to Chase—one that they hoped the military would dilute. It seemed, though, that whatever had happened there had only increased that darkness. Not the violence; Jaci didn’t think there had ever been true violence inside him. But there was a core of hard cold steel inside him. He could be violent under the right circumstances.
No. Not violent. Violence was uncontrolled. No, Cam would be deadly when provoked. Cold. Hard. Merciless.
Staring into the full-length mirror, Jaci admitted to herself that that core had always drawn her. The steel, the determination, the danger that swirled in his eyes. He was the ultimate bad boy, and he called to her as no other man ever had.
Shaking her head, she strapped a black-and-silver watch to her wrist, smoothed her hands over her black jeans, and smiled with hard determination.
Cam had evidently come to the conclusion, along with others, that she was an easy mark. That her back was made to tromp on. Richard and Annalee had gotten away with it, simply because she hadn’t known how to protect herself; and later she hadn’t wanted Cam involved, because of the promise he had made to her. God forbid he should kill either of them, because she wanted them to suffer. She wanted them to lie awake at night and wonder, she wanted them to see her and, rather than finding ways to shred her reputation, she wanted them running the other way.
She had worked for this day, let them believe they had won, that she was frightened, that she could be manipulated. She had worked the situation until she knew their guard had dropped just enough—just enough to allow her the opportunity she had found with Moriah.
It was fate, she had decided the night she learned what Moriah had suffered at their hands. Only fate would have brought both of them together, would have given them both the feeling of trust in the other to reveal the secrets they harbored, and only
fate would have put them both here in Virginia, together with the Robertses.
Just as fate had placed Cam here at the same time. Nothing could possibly be easy where this situation was concerned.
Breathing out roughly, she sat down on a chair and pulled on the leather ankle boots, lacing them quickly, before standing and checking the time.
Ten minutes.
Oh yes, she would definitely be waiting on him.
She grabbed her purse and leather case, then left her hotel room and entered the elevator. It was a quick trip to the lobby, where she moved to one of the stately columns rising from the floor of the lobby to the second floor. She leaned against one of them, restrained her smile, and watched as Cam pushed through the doors. He wasn’t aware of her yet, his expression wasn’t as controlled as she was certain he wanted it to be, because she saw the edge of concern pulling at his brows.
His expression fit the stormy, overcast skies outside the hotel.
She tightened her lips and restrained her smile at that expression. Oh, he knew he had messed up. She could see it in his face.
When his gaze finally found her, he paused, almost stopped, his gaze flickering, before it cleared and showed nothing but supreme male confidence and dominant assertion.
Jaci almost laughed. God, he could make her madder than anyone she had ever met in her life. How the hell did he think he was going to get away with sneaking out on her last night?
He moved to her, his arm bracing on the column her shoulder leaned upon and lowered his head. At the last second, he kissed her cheek rather than her lips. Not by design, but because she had anticipated what was coming, because she knew Cam. A kiss would weaken her, and he knew it. She wasn’t about to let him weaken her.
“It’s rainy today. ” She looked up at him, keeping her expression clear, keeping all indications of her anger buried beneath a bright smile. “I bet Courtney is whining this morning. She hates the rain. ”
His gaze flickered again as he straightened.
“Are you ready?” He all but growled the words. “I would have come up to your room. You didn’t have to meet me in the lobby. ”
Oh, she just bet he would have. And she bet he would have immediately attempted to seduce her to make certain she forgot about the night before. There was no forgetting. The next time he got into her bed, he was going to know the rules. There was no sneaking out five minutes later. She hadn’t waited all these years for her first lover, just to have him ruin the experience by acting like an ass.
