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My heart rate ratcheted, blooming in my throat.

I’d received such compliments before, but it had never landed like this. His low voice was a missile strike against my senses. I paused at the doorway, my very heart on fire, and looked over my shoulder. “Thank you.”

He didn’t blink. Was he even breathing?

“See you downstairs,” I whispered.

It took the entire elevator ride with my eyes squeezed shut to wrangle my heart in line. It yearned to do something stupid, like beat out of my chest, or undertake a suicide mission by jumping right over a ledge into love with Camden Shepherd.

Too good for you! I reminded myself.

Ivy and Bennett mock-argued behind me while we rode down, but I paid it no mind. The Sugar Lounge had just opened, and a single bartender manned the bar. He waved as we entered.

“Hey, Jessie,” Ivy said. “Mind pouring us a couple Honeys?”

“Neat?”

Ivy dropped her head and eyed him meaningfully. “Always.”

Bennett and I scoped the place for the best picture location, pausing at various spots to assess.

“I think beside the fireplace will be the best shot,” I said.

He shook his head. “It’s got to be the bar, and I’ll take the picture from the back.”

The image that formed in my head didn’t match what I’d imagined. “I’m not sure that’s the best way⁠—”

“Trust me,” he said with uncharacteristic seriousness. “You want that dress photographed from the back.”

“He ain’t wrong.” Ivy had already commandeered a stool at the center of the bar. “Come sit by me.”

Jessie set two lowball glasses in front of us and looked at me. “You’re new, right?”

I offered my hand. “Yes, I’m Shay.”

“I remember you from school,” he said, gripping my hand. “I was a freshman when you were a senior. You probably don’t remember me.”

I studied his slim facial features, but nothing clicked, and I winced. “I’m sorry.”

He waved away my apology. “Do you gals want me in the shot, or no?

Ivy glanced around, turned to look at Bennett, then shrugged. “Just do your thing, and if you’re in it, you’re in it.”

She lifted her glass, and we toasted right as Cam entered. He sauntered next to Bennett, who was holding up his fancy smartphone with the special camera. Their voices floated through the air in murmurs too low to make out over the music.

“Both of you turn partially toward me,” Bennett said.

We did as he asked, both of us holding our glasses aloft.

“You know he just loves bossing us around,” Ivy said.

With his gaze still on the phone screen, Bennett said, “It’s the highlight of my day. Now both of you look at me.”

“Think vanilla lavender,” Ivy said with a small laugh.

I turned, but instead of Bennett, my full focus alighted on Camden, who was already looking at me. Our gazes clashed and locked, and my entire soul turned electric. Since I was fifteen, my body had been telling me to give myself to this man, like it knew something I didn’t. Now, it wasn’t so much telling as commanding; patience long spent.

Bennett said something I couldn’t hear, and Camden wrenched his gaze away, opening huge lacerations in the perplexing connection between us.