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“Is the nice only for the cameras?” I turned to face her so I could gauge her expression.
My question led me to thoughts of the family in the bluebonnet field. I wanted that. Well, not the baby and the sappy photos, but the rest of it. I needed to take a leap and at least try to trust Cameron. She had the signed contract for Blue Star; the commission was hers. It was time to ask the questions. I’d tormented myself with speculation long enough.
“You sure you want to have this talk now?” She caught her lip between her teeth, worrying the flesh while she gazed intently at me. An uncomfortable tension built in my stomach, not related to overindulging in whiskey.
“Yes, we need to clear the air. You are the only person in this town who’s not ready to send me back to California in a body bag, and I’d like to know why.”
She blinked a few times, then inhaled a fortifying breath, and her answer spilled out on the exhalation. “I like you.”
“As more than a client?” Voicing my concern, asking the question felt like wishing on a star.
“Ah, yes. I do not end up in bed with my clients.” Her lip curled in disgust at the idea. “What kind of real estate agent does that?”
“In LA, it’s not limited to real estate. Too many people--men and women--will trade morals for money.” People like Veronica.
“Gross. You thought I would do that?”
“Yes, No. I don’t know. I have an awful track record.” Dropping my head in my hands, I hid my face from her. “I don’t trust my judgment.” Fuck, that was hard to admit. In most aspects of my life, I was the undisputed ruler of my universe, but in this area, I was a stumbling blind, lost idiot.
“Buying houses? Dating? Explain. Because I’m still trying to figure out what happened on Saturday. We went from, well... you know, that morning to...” she huffed. The exasperated sound made me cringe. “Poof. You were gone. And the next time I see you, it’slet’s keep it professional.”
I completely understood the confusion I saw on her face. I felt it too. After all the effort I put into taking care of her sunburn. She’d gone emotionally catatonic on me. We’d both put self-preservation ahead of anything else.
“You told your brother I was just a client, and it—” I sat up straighter, the leather couch creaking, and met her gaze square on. Explaining my deep-seated issues wasn’t something I relished. Odds were I’d come across like an emotionally stunted weirdo.
“It what?” A deep wrinkle gouged a furrow in her normally smooth forehead. I folded my hands in my lap to keep from reaching out and trying to smooth it away.
“It brought up old memories. Of a woman from my past who saw me as little more than a bank account with legs.” I clenched my fists so tight my knuckles ached.
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, fucking painful lesson.”
“What lesson?”
I looked away from her sympathetic gaze. Its weight made it hard to breathe. “Some women are cold-hearted mercenary bitches, and I lack the ability to distinguish women like that from the rest of the population.” A part of me wasn’t sure that there were two kinds of women. And, I’d not been willing to risk it until I’d met Cameron.
“Wow, she did a number on you.”
I chanced a look at Cameron’s face and saw a million things. Her sympathy, but also anger and frustration. The shifting emotions mirrored what I felt. It lit a spark of something I dared to label as hope. It was the motivation I needed. She deserved more explanation than what I’d given. And now was the time. If I chickened out and returned to living my life by my stupid two-date rule, I’d feel a million times worse than my hangover, and Advil would do nothing to help.
“Her name was Veronica.” I met Cameron’s eyes, took a deep breath, and dove into the depths of my ugly memories. “We were engaged years ago, when my company first took off. She pursued me, initiated our relationship. And like the big dumb guy I was, I couldn’t believe my luck finding a woman who seemed to know and love everything about me.”
Cameron laid a hand over my fist resting in my lap. Her thumb stroked my white knuckles.
“I felt so fucking lucky. My company was taking off. I had an incredible fiancée. I was living the dream. One Veronica had manufactured. She had hunted me like big game. Engineered our relationship from the first moment to get what she thought I owed her.”
“Money?”
I kept talking, not exactly responding to Cameron’s question. “Veronica had briefly been an employee of Bio-ID and worked on a project that resulted in a lucrative patent for the company. Her poor performance and bad attitude had gotten her fired. But she decided that her work had been critical to the research and she’d been wrongly terminated.”
Cameron shook her head, knowing where my sad tale was headed.
“She decided that marrying me would not only get her the stock options she’d lost but even more. From a first meeting where she tripped into my arms at a party to being interested in fly-fishing, she planned everything.”
“She faked an entire relationship on the off chance you’d marry her.” Cameron gaped at me, incredulous.
“Almost pulled it off, too. She had me fooled until my lawyers asked her to sign a prenuptial agreement barring her from ownership in Bio-ID. She lost it. Totally came unraveled and attacked me. Right there at the law firm. I’ll never forget her screaming at me about how I owed her for stealing her research. How she hated spending time with me. Loathed sleeping with me.”
