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Right away Zane’s thoughts turned dark—dipping straight into his murky past. “Oh…that’s a tough one.” He motioned her way. “You go first.”
“That’s not how this game goes.” Cammie pouted and her dimples popped. “It doesn’t have to be something major—like maybe you’re the kind of guy who likes watching romance movies more than action.”
“Doesn’t every guy have a secret romance addiction?”
Cammie laughed. “I wish.”
“Okay, I have a soft spot for rescue animals, and any time I see one of those sad puppy ads for donating money, I always pay up.” Which was true. He was a total sucker for helping animals. They didn’t deserve the horrid treatment they sometimes endured.
“Ahhh, that’s so sweet.” Cammie touched his hand briefly but he turned his palm up and coaxed her to keep her hand there.
“Your turn. Tell me something people would be surprised to learn about you.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. This was for appearances only—never knew who was watching. That’s what he was telling himself, anyway. It had nothing to do with how nice it felt to get close to someone like Cammie, even for a few minutes.
“I’m a brown belt in Jujitsu.” Cammie beamed. “I love that no one would look at me and think that.”
“I’m impressed,” Zane said. While he hadn’t trained in any one martial art himself, he knew that being proficient in any discipline wasn’t really about how you looked physically as much as it was about how skilled you were. While a lot of meathead guys he knew in his past had been focused on their physique, being ripped and looking like a badass, most of them weren’t all that skilled when it came to offensive or defensive moves. “How long have you been training?”
“Oh, gosh, years. I started as a kid then gave it up. Came back to it in my late teens and found I really hadn’t forgotten the moves.” She grinned. “I’ve been trying to talk some of my colleagues into getting in on it with me. We train the Kitty Cats in basic self-defense, not that our security team would ever let anything happen to them, but I just love how accessible Jujitsu is and I think a lot of the girls would do well.”
“How’d you get started at Cowan Enterprises?” He’d never experienced a Kitty Cat party firsthand, but he’d seen enough press to know what they were all about.
“Oh, it was a total fluke that Sabine found me when she did. I wasn’t even looking for a job at the time because I was still in school…drowning in student loans and convinced that if I just kept getting more letters behind my name, I’d find my dream job and make a killing.” Cammie took a sip of her water. “We just happened to be at the same restaurant, sitting a table apart. I overheard her mention to the person she was with that she had specifically ordered the only thing on the menu that didn’t have shellfish because she always had a weird kind of reaction to them. I knew the chef there and also knew that the odds were pretty good that she’d be eating something that had come in contact with shellfish, so I popped into the kitchen to make sure my friend knew he had a customer with a possible allergy.”
“That was very considerate of you.”
“I was looking out for my friend as much as Sabine, I guess. He didn’t need bad press at his place of work.” Cammie lifted one shoulder like what she had done was no big deal. “Sabine found out that I’d intervened, and a few days later she tracked me down and offered me a job as her PA.”
“You gave up on school?”
“No, I finished.” Cammie waved her hand like it was no big deal. “Sabine was really flexible, and I wrapped up my PhD a few months ago.”
“I’m impressed!” Zane whistled. “We have a doctor in the house!”
“A doctor of literature. I can autopsy a classic in record time.” Cammie laughed. “I’ve got an obscene amount of debt, but Sabine is very generous with my salary and bonuses, so I should be able to pay it off at some point in my life.”
And yet she’d given up a five-thousand-dollar chip. Anther baffling rush of pride warbled through Zane’s body. Cammie had stood by her principles in rejecting Haversmith’s attempt to buy her. She’d discarded the chip like it was no big deal. That spoke of a truly solid set of morals.
Zane didn’t really know this woman. He had no right to be invested in her future—not like a significant other should be—yet he had all these warm and fuzzy gurgles happening in his gut that had nothing to do with being hungry. Zane gulped down his water, draining the glass so he could banish the flutters in his stomach and clear his head. Cammie didn’t want commitment and neither did he. Commitment came with complications. It came with the expectation for delving deep into each other’s lives. He wasn’t prepared to let anyone, especially not someone like Cammie, into his dark world.
“Crazy, isn’t it?” He cleared a lingering lump from his throat. “I know a few people who went to school thinking they’d come out with a great job that would set them up for life, but all they have now is debt and minimum wage.” He knew of a few people, mainly from investigations he’d done over the last year, but he didn’t want to let on to Cammie how isolated he kept himself from others.
“What about you?” She poured him more water from the pitcher then topped up her own glass. “Did you go to school?”
“Did the military thing. Completed a few tours.” Developed a reputation for sussing out intel, was recruited to be a spy, got captured and beaten to the brink of death, ended up in a coma for months then was honorably discharged. “Found out I was good at investigative work and had some connections, so I became a PI. So far so good.” He still got wicked bad headaches occasionally that he knew were a result of the beating he’d taken. He drank a lot of the trauma away, which wasn’t the best coping mechanism but seemed to work well enough. Every once in a while, he would lapse into a full-blown panic attack that would have him curled up in a corner, convinced that he was about to take another blow to the head. Good times.
“Have you worked on anything exciting? Anything super scandalous?” Cammie leaned forward, which did wonderful things to her cleavage and took Zane’s mind completely off his past.
“More exciting than this?” He waved his hand around. “Nope.” In truth, he’d been working pretty steadily on tracking people down who owed money for one reason or another. He’d done some repo jobs as well. So, when a cruise ship job had come up, he’d jumped at it, anything to shake up the monotony. He wasn’t quite sure how Cal Underwood had found him. It certainly wasn’t due to his outstanding reputation or track record, but the man had insisted Zane take the job and had offered premium pay and an all-expenses-paid trip. Who was Zane to turn down a rich guy with money to burn? “I’d imagine you have some pretty scandalous stories.”
She tilted her head to the side and gave him a flirty side-eye. “I do, but my lips are sealed.”
“Oh, I don’t know… I’ve seen those lips of yours spread pretty wide.” The heat between them ratcheted up a hundred-fold. “I might have some ways to get you to spill.”
“I bet you do.” She pressed her tits into the table so that her cleavage looked ready to explode and her nipples peeked at him from the table edge. “With the right kind of motivation, I might just—”
“There you two are!” Sherri breezed into the bistro in a flurry of heels, hair and manicured nails.
Cammie sat up spine straight, her cheeks flushed and eyes glassy. Zane coughed as he adjusted his achingly hard dick.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you that the workshop you both enrolled in has been postponed.” Sherri exaggerated a frown. “But good news! There’s a very special session that’s being run by an industry superstar. I’m sure you’ve heard of Dr. Norma Rose, relationship specialist and dirty-talk guru?”
Zane looked at Cammie, who had an expression of total bewilderment on her face.
“Well, she has a spot for two and I thought, as one of our few committed couples on board, you would be perfect to join!” She tugged on Cammie’s arm, somehow getting her to stand. “But you have to come now, because it’s about to start.”
Zane began to protest but Sherri cut him off. “Don’t worry. I’ll have your food delivered to you in the session. It’s a special set-up…separate cubbies for total privacy. You’ll be able to enjoy the session while eating your lunch…among other things.” She winked but didn’t slow down as she forcefully directed Cammie out of the restaurant, leaving Zane to follow after them, wondering if Cammie’s head was going to explode with the sudden change of plans.
