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“You’ve never been one for advance warning,” she said lightly as I stepped inside, shutting the door behind me.
“I didn’t have advance warning, myself,” I said, my breath short. “I was driving and I… found myself here.”
She hesitated, still not looking at me. I didn’t dare move from the door, didn’t dare sit down, anything until she looked at me, but she remained steadfast. “So. You’re still in the city.”
“Still have the rest of my lease. I’ve been… looking.”
She paused. “But?”
I let out a shaky breath. “That’s what I’m wondering, too.”
She set down her cup, and she turned, finally, to face me. That deep, dark look in her eyes—she was barely holding herself together. I doubted anyone but the people closest to her could tell—the intensity she carried herself with still made her look untouchable, unapproachable—but like this, for me, here, now, it was obvious.
“You are a woman of extraordinary timing,” she said lightly. “Just when I’d fully accepted that you were going and I had to move on, here you are, in my office.”
“I… wanted to see you again.” I paused. “It didn’t feel right that I’d last seen… Amelie, and not you.”
She walked around to this side of the desk, leaning backwards against it, and she took a long sip from her coffee before she set it down and gestured me to the winged armchair, the red velvet look of it giving a seductive, almost alluring look to the space. “Have a seat.”
“And leave you standing?”
She smiled wryly. “You’re as contrary as ever. Put your ass in the chair.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely.” I sat down. Cameron turned away, looking out the window again.
“So. Where are you heading?”
“Vegas, probably. A… former coworker and friend is over there, said she could get me some contacts.”
She sighed. “Got tired of the rain and went to the desert. Makes sense.”
She wasn’t talking about the rain at all, but I wasn’t ready to approach that. “What’s happening here? Everyone’s on edge.”
“Ah. So you picked up on it.”
“Salesperson’s job.”
She gave me a thin, barely-there smile. “Our parent brand is considering dropping us. That’s the gist of it.”
“What—why?” My stomach dropped. She leaned back against the desk again, casting her gaze to the ceiling.
“From the sounds of things? Bad rumors. A tactical war being waged against my reputation that I’ve been entirely unaware of. And they’re now suspecting that a brand with my name on it is no longer tenable.”
Christ. So I really was a bad luck charm. A sick curse. “You don’t… know who’s behind it, do you?”
“I’ll let you hazard a guess.”
I paused, a sick feeling in my throat. “Er…”
She hung her head. “You’d tried to warn me. And I suppose I was living with my head in the sand. It wasn’t even a full week ago we had the conversation at the hotel, and you told me he might try to sabotage me. Even while we were having that conversation, he was actively in the middle of talking to the representatives at the parent brand. I just… I just…” She raked her fingers back through her hair. When she spoke again, her voice was cracked, jagged around the edges. “Dammit. I wanted to believe I knew him. That all of that wasn’t for nothing.”
I was up on my feet before I noticed myself moving, and I stepped in, laying a hand on her arm. “Cameron… you did know him. You do know him. Just… the version of him that existed before.”
She took a long, shaky breath, and she shook her head. “Don’t patronize me. I like you too much to let you.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.” She looked up, meeting my gaze with the intensity of her eyes, narrowed just a fraction. “I’ve had to sit with this for the past forty-eight hours in some kind of hell of my own making. I never knew him. I couldn’t. He didn’t want me to. And then there’s you.” She turned away, picking up her coffee off the desk, walking back to the window. I swallowed hard, trying to pull myself together, put words together.
