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“Did you forget about the cameras in the office, Chase?” Cam asked him, his voice silky, dangerous, as he glanced up at the darkened glass of the security monitors.
Chase smiled, all teeth, all fury. “I didn’t forget, little brother. Just as I didn’t forget that you were supposed to be in a meeting with Ian, not spying on your girlfriend. ”
“Jaci, are you ready to leave?” Cam didn’t turn his gaze from his brother, didn’t so much as slide his gaze away as he asked the question.
“The two of you here alone?” She wasn’t that stupid. “I don’t think so, Cam. ”
“Get whatever you need and we’ll leave together then. Now. ” His voice grew darker, softer.
Jaci almost shivered at the fury she could feel in the very stillness of the tone.
She wasn’t the only one that watched him warily. She watched Chase’s expression. He was studying his brother like a scientist would examine a curious specimen. Something unknown. Something potentially fatal. There was almost a calculation in his gaze, as though he had meant to push Cam to this point, and now he was wondering how to push him further.
She was terrified to see if he could actually do it.
She moved quickly back to her desk, shoved her phone into her purse, and grabbed it up. She wasn’t permitted to take the design pad or the pictures with her.
“I’m never going to get this job finished, at this rate,” she muttered. “I have to work sometime, you two, not just when your testosterone allows it. ”
She slung her purse over her shoulder and moved from the desk. She strode to Cam, laid her hand on his arm, and stared into his face.
“Are you going to fight, or what? Not that a lot of testosterone and blood would do anything to turn me on right now. It really wouldn’t. But all this posturing has to be for something, right?”
His gaze finally slid from Chase’s and Jaci found her knees weakening. She wanted to go to the floor and wail, to cry for the bleak sorrow, the agony and rage she saw in his eyes.
She felt her breath catch in her throat, and had to forcibly still her lips from trembling. How did he bear whatever raged inside him? How did he contain the pain, the desperation she could see tearing him apart?
He turned back to Chase. “If I see ever you handle her again like I saw on that monitor, I’ll take you apart,” he told his brother. “And I’ll make certain you never so much as breathe the same air she does. ”
Chase’s lips curled in sarcastic anger. “Will you now? And tell me, brother, who will you share her with?” He glanced at Jaci again. “I don’t think she’s going to allow just any man to take that beautiful ass of hers, just because it’s what you need. ”
Jaci nearly blanched at the dare in his voice. Fury raced over her.
“Enough!” Her voice cracked into the sudden tense stillness of the room. Her nails dug into Cam’s arm as he tensed to pull away from her. “The first one of you to raise your fists to the other will deal with me. ”
They turned the combined power of their furious gazes on her.
“I mean it, Cameron Falladay. ” She stared into his eyes, the twisting pain, the rage, the obvious disbelief that she would threaten either one of them. “And you”—she turned to Chase—“if you want to antagonize your brother, I’ll be damned if you’ll use me to do it. ”
“And he’s not using you?” he growled furiously. “Come on, Jaci, get a grip here. What is it, if he’s not using you to forget something he doesn’t want to remember? Too bad it’s not working, is it, Cam?”
At that, Jaci loosened her hold on Cam. She looked from one brother to the other and realized she was only adding fuel to the fire Chase was attempting to feed.
“When you two are finished acting like children, could you let me know? I’ll be upstairs with Courtney and a bottle of wine. ” She stepped away from Cam.
He caught her arm, halting her before she could move an inch. “No, you’ll be with me. Chase can play his games with someone else. ”
He turned and pulled her from the room.
“Running away, Cam?” Chase snapped. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
Cam stopped in the doorway as Jaci glanced up in time to see the regret, the loss that flashed across his face.
“It shouldn’t surprise you in the least,” he finally said, his voice bleak. “After all, I think I’ve gotten damned good at it in the past years. Almost as good as you have. ”
21
Jaci managed to hold onto her temper, barely, as Cam drove back to the apartment. She kept her lips pressed tightly together and warned herself repeatedly that this wasn’t any of her business. Not yet. Not until her and Cam’s relationship was more established. She didn’t have the right to make certain demands, she reminded herself. She didn’t have the right to tell him what unacceptable assholes both of them were being.
