“I have your number, Cam,” Josh smirks. He works for Bradford Staffing Agency. I use them to serve at all my events.
“Don’t be telling a lady’s secrets.”
“Never.” He winks at me.
“He’s cute.” Marilyn peeks at Josh as he slips off to go fill his tray again with drinks. Her eyes go to his ass. “Too bad.” She sighs. “Daddy says I need to find a husband soon.”
I don’t know who Marilyn thinks she’s fooling. It’s not only her daddy who wants her to marry for money. She wants it too. Not that she could get her hooks into Josh even if she wanted. Marilyn craves control, as does Josh—who is happily engaged to a man.
“I’m going to use the ladies’ room,” I say, freeing myself from this conversation before she tries to make it about my love life. I polish off the rest of my drink, setting it on one of the tables before slipping into the ladies’ room to freshen up. I don’t spot Tucker along the way.
I hate the disappointment I feel at that. I’m supposed to be over him. I’m starting to think I’m the one that’s cursed. I put on a fresh coat of lip stain and check my phone before I go back out into the party.
The room starts to spin. I drank more champagne than I realized. Shit. That’s never good. Knowing I need to get it together, I head for the balcony, hoping some fresh air will do me some good. The cool air is a welcome relief against my skin once I step outside, and I immediately start to feel better.
I sense him before he even says my name. “Cam.” I turn my head to see Tucker Justice standing there with Marilyn at his side. Maybe one more glass of champagne won’t kill me.
CHAPTER 3
TUCKER
She’s prettier than I remember. When I do see her it’s always from a distance. Far enough away that I’m not tempted to cross a line I’ve longed to cross.
Her body is lusher, her lips more kissable. I had the dirtiest fantasies about her in boarding school. Every night before I went to bed, I jacked off in the bathroom, imagining it was her hand or her mouth or her virgin pussy. In my dreams, she was always a virgin. I was always her first.
The eminently desirable, always fuckable Cameron Frank-Hyde arches one fine eyebrow. “Tucker Justice. What cat has dragged you out of the barn?”
Marilyn digs her long, jeweled nails into my arm. “Me. I went all the way across the room to talk to him. Aren’t I brave?”
Cam’s eyebrow inches higher. “He’s not a bull charging out of a pen, Marilyn.”
“He’s built like a bull.”
I cough into my hand. “Miss Marilyn, I don’t think I should be part of this conversation.”
“Don’t get uptight on me,” she chastises. “You were born on a ranch.”
“Oh, Marilyn, I see Kitty Deloitte trying to get your attention. Didn’t you say you wanted to talk to her about your daddy’s strip mall?”
Marilyn drops my arm immediately. “Sure did. I’ll scoot over there and say hi, but you keep your dance card empty for me, you hear?”
“We’re dancing?” I say into an empty space as Marilyn rushes off to hit up a poor unsuspecting investor. The decked-out party room is filled with people, fresh flowers, and booze. There isn’t enough room to dance. There’s hardly enough room to breathe.
“Not today. We don’t dance until after dark, honey.” Cam catches the eye of a male waiter who speed-walks over to our side of the room.
The man bows slightly and winks. A tension appears in the middle of my back. “You called, my lady?”
He smiles, and my fingers curve into a fist. If he keeps looking at Cam, I’m going to send him face down on the floor wearing the imprint of my knuckles.
“Josh, you have something more serious than champagne behind that bar?”
“I’m fine.” I don’t want anything from this guy who shares smiles with Cam. How fucking irritating.
“You sure? You look parched. At least get him a whiskey.”
“Sure thing, Cam.” He trots away to do her bidding. I follow his path with narrowed eyes. He’d look good in the back of my pickup with a few tread marks across his back.
“Stop that.” Cam slaps my arm.
“Stop what?”
“Glaring at people. This is a party. We’re supposed to eat, drink, and be merry.”
“I’ve never been much about parties.”
She lets out a heavy sigh. “Yes, I know.”
We both lapse into silence remembering the boarding school days and all the times Cam invited me to one of her events and all the times I turned her down, that stupid fucking curse always keeping me away.
I hated boarding school, and I hated most of the students that went. We were all miserable and coped with that misery differently. Some, like Cam, tried to make the best of the situation by befriending everyone and doing the whole lemon-lemonade thing. Others like me stuck to our solitude. Then there were the others who decided that everyone else should be unhappy like them. They got teachers fired, other students kicked out. They broke up couples, slept around. One kid even had an STD and tried to sleep with as many girls as possible to infect them too.