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Chapter Sixteen
Blane leaned against the bar, content to nurse his beer and watch Cam strut her stuff.
She bounced around the café, flitting from one group to another, equally at ease mingling with the highfaluting advertising execs as she was with the trendy girls preening in the hope of being seen at Melbourne’s newest hot spot.
Dressed in a slinky black wraparound dress that highlighted her figure, her hair straight and sleek around her shoulders, and a permanent mega-watt smile on her face, she looked a million bucks. A woman in control and at total odds with the vulnerable mess she’d been at the barbecue.
They hadn’t spoken about it since. He hadn’t wanted to push his luck on the way home, not when most of the afternoon had gone so well. Even now, a week later, he couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong toward the end. He’d replayed their conversation in his head a hundred times and was still none the wiser.
As if thinking about her tugged on an invisible link binding them, Cam glanced up at that moment, flashing a dazzling smile while tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand, wiggling her fingers at him in a saucy wave with the other.
He raised his glass in her direction in a silent toast, chuckling as she held up a finger in a ‘be with you in a sec’ motion to Anna who was frantically tugging on her arm and motioning to the kitchen. But Cam’s eyes never left his, sparkling and sassy even at a distance, her lips curving into the teasing smile he knew so well.
With a slow, deliberate wink, she turned her back on him and tilted her head toward Anna, casting a regretful look over her shoulder before following her employee into the kitchen.
He glanced at his watch, wondering if the crowd would leave soon. Launch parties for up and coming advertising firms weren’t his thing. He’d been to a few similar shindigs when trying to choose the right firm to representBA Constructionsand they were all the same: guys with money to burn, girls here to be seen, loads of fake conversation and schmoozing, business and pleasure deals sealed over one too many G and Ts—though tonight, espresso martinis all round.
This scene left him cold and he couldn’t wait to get Cam all to himself. Greedy? Hell yeah. He’d only come because she’d said the party wouldn’t last long and every minute she spent flitting around the room playing the social butterfly was a minute too long in his books.
“Having fun?”
She’d crept up behind him, sliding her arms around his waist, pressing her breasts against his back as his mind instantly blanked and his heart beat like a drum.
“I am now.” He turned, regretting it when she dropped her arms and waved at an exec strutting out the door with a blonde on each arm.
“Sorry, it’s been a bit frantic tonight. Great party, huh?”
He’d never seen her so animated: her eyes sparkled, her cheeks flushed, and her mouth curved in a perpetual dazzling smile. She thrived on this scene; that much was obvious.
Leaning down, he slid an arm around her waist and murmured in her ear, “Actually, it’s a bit crowded for my taste. You know I prefer a private party for two.”
She laughed, a fake, brittle tinkle that sent an arrow of foreboding through him. “I like crowds. It’s one of the reasons I moved to Melbourne in the first place.”
Doing a little spin on her stilettos, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and held her arms out wide. “Guess you can’t keep a good city girl down, huh?”
“I guess not.”
What had gotten into her? She was behaving like she’d consumed more alcohol than she’d served.
“Do you want to party on after this? Some of the guys mentioned hitting a club or two? I love dancing.”
She gave another bizarre twirl though thankfully his ringing cell saved him from answering.
Camryn watched Blane’s face blanch as he clutched his cell to his ear, a finger pressed in the other so he could hear above the din.
She didn’t blame him. The noise levels in here were giving her a headache too. She’d had some stupid, half-baked plan to show him her party side tonight, exaggerate it a tad, accentuate their differences, maybe annoy him in the process, so when she told him the truth later it wouldn’t be so difficult for him to accept they weren’t well suited after all.
It sounded simple enough but it was plain dumb. She didn’t want Blane to hate her and she sure didn’t want to lie to him.
She owed him the truth.
Hopefully, it would set him free.
“Stay calm. I’ll be right there.” He thrust the cell into his pocket and slammed his glass onto the bar before turning to her with wide eyes.
His bleak expression shocked her. She’d never seen him anything other than upbeat, relaxed, or passionate.
“What’s wrong?”
