Page 45 of Effortless

She shook her head, and he kissed her mouth softly. The sweetness in the action made her still.

Tommaso didn’t miss it for a second. “Hey, what’s that for? Why’d you go cold like that on me?”

“I … I can’t take you to the airport,” she said quietly.

Tommaso kissed her quivering chin, and then her frowning lips. “Why not, babe?”

“Because you were right about what you said earlier. I’m just not sure what I want to do about it. I haven’t been sure since the day we went to Luna Park. That’s why I avoided you.”

“Already figured that out, Cam. That doesn’t change anything.”

“It does for me, Tom. So we’ve got this great physical attraction, like nothing else, and I don’t want to get it confused for something else. You know? I need to figure out if it’s something else, or just nothing playing games with my head.”

“Camilla—”

“I can’t figure it out when I’m still messing around with you on the physical side of things. That’s all.”

“All right.”

That was all he said.

All right.

Not like he was pissed off, or even disappointed. Actually, he smiled at her, and then kissed the tip of her nose in the sweetest way. Camilla didn’t even do sweet because she was far from it, but here Tommaso was … and shit, it only made him that much more attractive.

“I’ll call a cab to take me back to the salon where August has my car,” Camilla said. “You should go—don’t want to miss your flight.”

Tommaso pushed away from Camilla with a chuckle. “No worries on the cab. I’ll call one for me. This car is rented for another week—they don’t do these luxury brands by the day at that place. Shame to waste it, right?”

Camilla let out a laugh. “Seriously?”

“Someone said you liked fast cars, babe, and I couldn’t pass it up.”

Every single word he spoke was another fissure crack inside her walls. Every touch, smile, and move he made was another fist clenching around her heart.

Camilla was not ready for this kind of thing.

She didn’t know how to do this kind of thing.

Tommaso was unfazed. “Drop the car off to your brother when you’re done with it at the end of the week. He knows where it has to go.”

“You’re killing me here, Tommaso.”

In ways you can’t possibly know.

He only smiled again.

“Call me or something, Cam. Keep in touch. You know you want to.”

She didn’t say yes.

She didn’t say no, either.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE PINK faded super quick, and the ends were dry, so it’s a bob now, Camilla’s text read.

Tom laughed as he read over Camilla’s latest message. It had only been two weeks since he left New York, and this was one of the few messages Camilla actually sent him. He didn’t initiate contact because he figured she had shit to settle on her own. If she wanted to talk to him, she would.