AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And perhaps that was the point where she lost control of the temper she swore she wouldn’t lose. Because it was her business.
It seemed as though she had waited all her life t
o be with one man. She had pushed herself away from him, she had fought her battles on her own, and she was still doing so. And she still managed to find a way to love. Cam refused to risk himself that far, even for his own brother. If he wouldn’t risk brotherly love, what the hell made her think he was going to risk loving her?
“This situation between me and Chase has nothing to do with you. ” Cam finally spoke as he drove, his body rigid and corded with tension. “This won’t happen again, I promise. ”
“Then it’s a promise you’ll break,” she forced out, staring out the window of the Jaguar. “He’s your brother; he’ll do whatever it takes to find out what happened. ”
She could feel the tension thicken in the car.
“Nothing happened. ” Hard, cold, his voice had the bite of winter, freezing to the bone.
She turned to him then. Slowly. That last thread of anger was fraying, and God knows, she didn’t want to lose her grip on it.
“You couldn’t convince a five-year-old of that, so don’t lie to me. ”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel and the gear shift, his knuckles turning white from the force.
“This is none of his business,” he said quietly when she clamped her lips shut and turned away from him again.
She couldn’t stand to see that ragged sorrow on his face. He was hurting inside, and sometimes she wondered if she didn’t make the pain worse. Because whatever drove him was eating into him now, tearing at him, and she could see it, feel it.
“I have to disagree with you, Cam. He’s your brother, your twin. ”
“That doesn’t make him my keeper,” he snapped out. “I’ve dealt with my life and my own mistakes, and he’s going to have to deal with the fact that he doesn’t need to know every corner of my life. ”
She turned back to him, that pain-filled anger building inside her as she watched his jaw tighten in fury. “No, he just has to watch that demon inside you, twisting you in agony, whenever he stares into your eyes. Excuse me, Cam, but it does make it his business. His and mine. Because whatever tears at you is going to rip us apart. ”
He stared back at her in disbelief before jerking his eyes back to the road, then shifting the gears with a rough hand.
“No one asked him to stick the fuck around,” he bit out.
“No, but you asked me to,” she reminded him, her voice almost breaking. “I sleep at the bottom of that couch, rather than against you, and I accept it, because at least I’m with you. And I keep praying that need I see and feel burning inside you will ease, but it never does. ”
“Son of a bitch! I’m not a kid, Jaci. ” He cast her a confused, incredulous look. “Fine, I hate beds. I know men who are terrified of frogs. What the hell does that matter?”
“If it doesn’t matter, then why are you so pissed off?” Jaci shot back. “For God’s sake, Cam, something happened! Chase knows it. I know it. Don’t you think it hurts us worse to have to continually guess at it?”
“Guessing doesn’t hurt you near as bad as knowing the truth would hurt me. ” The car screamed into the underground garage, tires locked, the vehicle sliding until it rocked to a stop. His fist struck the steering wheel. “Let it fucking go. ”
Cam slammed out of the vehicle as Jaci followed more slowly, watching as he paced around the car for long minutes before he breathed out roughly and leaned against the side of the car.
“I can’t let it go,” she finally whispered, moving alongside the car, her hand running over the cooling hood of the car.
Cam wiped his hand over his face and bit back the curses that hovered at his lips. Damn the two of them. Chase for waiting until he was weak, when his need for Jaci was driving him crazy, to start digging. And Jaci . . . He looked at her, her pale face, her worried eyes. Damn her for being the one woman he couldn’t walk away from.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Why? For God’s sake it doesn’t concern or affect you, Jaci. ”
She smiled, a sad, bittersweet smile that ripped at the fragments of his heart. A brutal reminder that she could affect him as no other woman could.
“But it does,” she said softly. “I love you, Cam. And I can’t understand or accept the things you want from me, not like this. Not without the truth between us. ”
“And you’re being so honest with me? What about your honesty Jaci? You and Congressman Roberts?”
She shook her head. “Richard and Annalee have nothing to do with us. I need to stand on my own two feet, Cam, and that’s what I’m doing with them. It’s that simple. Whatever’s going on inside you does affect us, though. It affects us because you hold yourself back; there’s always something between us. ”
