AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looked at me, eyes sparkling, reflecting beautifully in the light of the sunrise. “I’d need somebody with bad enough taste to join me for those living-room dance parties… know anyone who’s been getting into EDM lately?”
“You know, I think I might know just the girl.”
“That’s convenient. You don’t suppose she might be able to double as a professional can-opening chef, do you?”
“As it so happens.” I took a long breath. “I think this is the place.”
She laughed, softly, breaking my gaze—a little shy all of a sudden, looking down. “So, now is when you’re getting me to sign on the dotted line.”
“You knew I was going to ask now. I want you to have your home. Not to mention, a safe store of assets… and I want to be able to visit you at your new home. For late nights and early mornings. And living-room dance parties for two.”
She sighed. “London… you know I want to say yes. But you know I haven’t ever really been here looking to buy.”
“I don’t think I do know that. A part of you has always been there—seriously thinking, seriously looking. The same part of you that dared to think you could make it with an international clothing brand.”
She smiled wider. “You know—you really are a good salesperson.”
“Ha. Not even that. Just a girl falling fast and hard for you. Who wants you to be happy. And kind of selfishly wants to be happy with you, too.”
She closed her eyes, fluttering them shut and sighing as she sank in closer to me. “You never did play fair…”
“As if you’re one to talk.”
“Too true. I guess that’s why we’re a good fit.” She softened her lips, tilting her head towards mine, and I closed my eyes and met her in the middle, our lips finding each other’s, kissing slowly in the gentle warmth of the sunlight that filtered in through the window, moving in slow, perfect rhythm, perfect harmony, and I’d never felt so much peace and so much like my heart would burst out of my body all at once.
And of all the timing in the world, that was when the elevator chimed behind us.
Cameron jerked back, panic flaring in her eyes as she whipped back on the elevator, and I looked back with her to where the doors opened behind us, and—I guess I should have figured the asshole would find us here, because it was Kevin Farmer, striding towards us with that look in his eyes, unnaturally fixed straight ahead. His plasticky expression, wax-model posture, like a funhouse mirror I didn’t want to see my reflection in.
“Kevin—” Cameron started, her voice strained tight, a wild undercurrent to it that I didn’t think I’d ever heard—something that made her sound decades older, strained, tired, a woman who’d gone through a lifetime’s worth of frustration.
“So,” I said, turning back to him with my hand in my pocket. “I guess you made friends with the proprietor… I’d thought he was acting weird when I’d talked to him.”
He barely looked at me. “I’m not here to talk to you, Sinclair,” he said. “Cam, c’mon. It’s time to go home.”
“Pretty sure I told you,” I started, but Cameron stepped in front of me, cutting me off.
“Have you not done enough yet? What do you even want from me? Really want from me?”
Kevin put on a fake smile. Made me want to tear his eyes out, the smarmy acting going into it all. “Darling, I’m an honest man. I’ve told you already. I want you to go back with me. Back to our life. This hasn’t been good for either of us. I haven’t felt the same, haven’t been able to focus on my career at all, and you’ve gone off looking for meaning in indulgence—”
“Cameron’s not your property,” I snapped, stepping forward. “You were lucky she even gave you the time of day as long as she did—”
Kevin sneered at me, and back to Cameron. “Spending your time around bitter, angry people never was good for your energy, darling.”
“I’m not—” I started, but Cameron cut me off again.
“Leave London out of this,” she said, her voice low. “She’s better than you could ever know. I’ve made it clear I’m not going back. Not to you. Not to that house. Not for anything.”
“Darling, your brand isn’t worth one person. You know that. How many people’s lives are tied up in it? How many people’s employments?”
“Rich coming from the one threatening that all in the first place,” I said. Kevin glared at me, that hard-edged look flashing back into his features.
“You don’t know how to stay out of a conversation that doesn’t involve you, do you?”
Cameron cut in before I could say anything. “It involves her,” she said. “If it involves me, London is a part too. And show some respect when you talk to her.”
My heart jumped a little despite the situation, a floating sensation that it really wasn’t the time or place for. Kevin sighed, holding up his phone.
