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“Did you just call me a basket case?”
“So where does the nervous shit come from?” He continued without bothering to answer her question. “You...flicker. I thought you were really sunshine personified, but that’s the shield—or the sword, depending on the situation. What happened that you need walls that strong?”
Good Lord, he wasn’t just making idle conversation. He’d gone straight past polite small talk and right to her heart of hearts. Trish forced herself not to fidget and met his gaze directly. “Why do you want to know?”
That set him back. “What?”
“It’s a pretty simple question.”
Cameron seemed to mull that over with the same intensity he gave everything in life. “I want to know more about you. I don’t understand you.”
It was both an encouraging reason and one that cut her knees right out from beneath her. Curiosity. He was curious about her, like she was a bug he couldn’t quite identify and it would annoy the hell out of him until he had her properly categorized and filed away. Then he’d move on and forget all about her as anything other than a vaguely fond memory.
Isn’t that what you want? This was never supposed to be forever.
That was fine. It was even fair.
But it didn’t mean she had to rip herself open for the sake of his curiosity.
Trish pushed her food away. “If you want to know more about me, you start simple. It’s only the proper way to do things.”
“Simple.” He said the word as if tasting it. “All right. What do you do when you’re not overworking yourself on unpaid time?”
The way he asked the question had her making a mental note to check her direct deposit on payday. She should have known Cameron would be keeping an account of all the time she spent in the office during nonworking hours. Silly of her to think he’d missed it.
Trish almost told him there was nothing simple about that question, but “What do you do for fun?” was about as baseline as first date questions went. This isn’t a first date. This is a first...
I don’t know what this is.
She took another sip of her water. “I watch horror movies and I crochet.”
Cameron sat back and draped his arm over his chair. “The crocheting fits. You have this retro thing going on that is too quirky to be anything but genuine. Explain the horror movies. Why that genre?”
The fact he’d studied her enough to decide that her retro thing was genuine and not another mask... Trish pulled at the bottom of her shirt, not sure if she was flattered or flayed wide-open. Maybe this wasn’t such a simple question, after all. “I like horror. There are rules and while you get more than your fair share of stupid people doing stupid things, it’s usually some offbeat heroine who ends up as the last one standing in the face of whatever evil is killing off nubile teenagers. It’s really satisfying to know that, no matter how many sequels you’re going to get, good always triumphs over evil—and rarely looks pretty while doing it.” She hadn’t meant to say that last aloud.
He drummed his fingers on the table. “You’d argue that horror movies are feminist.”
She blinked. “Uh, I’m not arguing that one way or another. I enjoy them.”
He still had that look on his face, the one like he didn’t know what to think of her. “Which are your favorites? Slashers, paranormal or sci-fi?”
“All of the above, though if I have to pick one, it’s slashers all the way. They’re so...predictable. Usually a dude in a mask with a big pointy object and some sneaky ways.”
“Helps if the helpless victim trips a dozen times in the effort to cross her front yard.”
Trish laughed. She couldn’t help it. “You’re not a fan, I take it?”
“It’s not that.” Cameron’s frown cleared and he shrugged. “I don’t get them. There seems to be a total lack of common sense required to keep all the victims in one place long enough for the killer to find them and pick them off one by one. Why don’t they ever just leave?”
“Because then there wouldn’t be a story.” She laughed again. Whether on purpose or not, he’d effectively moved them away from the emotional minefield and into something much more mundane. Trish relaxed and crossed her legs. “Though there are a couple movies that actually have a vein of logic through them that might appeal to you. I’ll lend them to you sometime, if you’re interested.”
He met her gaze. “When we get back to New York, why don’t you bring them over yourself and explain to me while we watch?”
Oh shit. He just went there. If she had any doubt about Cameron’s intentions—at least outside of work and her brother—he’d just cleared them right up. That was an opening that gave her plenty of room to maneuver without either of them overreaching. She says no, they both retreat once again and go back to the sexual tension–filled days and lonely nights.
