Lexie (25 page)

“No, not really.” She realized she meant that. For once, she wasn’t trying to play peacemaker. The fact that he thought what had happened between them on that veranda had been a simple disagreement showed how little they really understood each other. “It’s time for me to spread my wings. Every child has to strike out on their own eventually. It will be good for me to work someplace other than the family business.”

“But I don’t want you to go.”

She blinked and then swallowed hard. Finally. He was finally talking about himself rather than the company or the family, but the emotion in his voice was so raw it made her want to give in. For him, she normally would have. For herself, she held firm. “It’s just work. I’ll always love you and Anne Marie. I’m upset with you, yes, but I hope you’ll still consider me part of the family.”

His mouth compressed. To him, work and family were inseparable. “Fine. Go out and explore, but you can come back when you need to—or want to.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. “You’ll have my written resignation in the morning.”

A muscle in his cheek flexed, but then he nodded. His footsteps were heavy as he crossed the room. The three steps up to the entryway seemed to take more out of him than he had. Walking towards her, he straightened his tie. “You’ll still have your seat on the Board. I’ll expect you there for meetings.”

“Of course.”

He pulled the door open but stopped when he was halfway through. “I’m sorry I…” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be the man you wanted me to be.”

She frowned, thrown by the statement. “What do you mean?”

He glanced over his shoulder, and this time the pain in his eyes was clear. “After we brought you home, you always seemed to pull away from me. I didn’t know that splitting you apart from your sis— Well, I always thought it was me.”

Tears pricked at Lexie’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re having trouble calling me Father now.” His blue gaze wavered. “But once we adopted you, you never called me Daddy again.”

Chapter Fourteen

Julian Underhill was a piece of work.

Cam stared at the ceiling as Lexie slept in bed beside him. The penthouse was quiet as she lay tucked up against him, all soft curves and warm flesh. The moon glowed through the slits in the blinds, and the cool light illuminated the bed. It made her dark hair shine almost blue. He slid his fingers through the soft waves and felt his own body stir.

He’d loved her long and slow after she’d told him about her father’s visit. She’d needed the patience and the attention. She’d needed
him
.

His fingers tightened in her hair, but he made them relax. He hadn’t thought that Julian would have the audacity to come here to the penthouse. He hadn’t even realized the bastard knew where he was staying, but to come here when he’d known she’d be alone? The man might be her father according to the law, but Cam still wanted to protect her. From what she’d told him, though, she’d done just fine on her own.

She’d quit.

His gaze drifted over her face. She’d actually done it. She’d had the letter signed and waiting for him when he’d gotten home. More importantly, she seemed confident in her decision.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean Julian’s visit hadn’t rattled her. As calm and centered as he’d found her, her emotions were still raw. There were so many undercurrents between the two of them. One thing was for certain, there weren’t going to be any more ambushes like the one that had happened today.

Cam stroked his hand down her hair and along her waist. He needed to get her away from here. He looked around the moonlit room. They hadn’t slept apart since that night on Roxie’s pullout couch. Lumpy mattresses or 1000-thread count sheets, he’d be content as long as she was at his side—which was precisely why he couldn’t sleep.

She’d made the first move. He needed to get things into place quickly.

Sighing, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He eased away from her, but she didn’t stir until he swung his feet to the floor. When she reached for his side of the bed, he froze.

“Sleep, baby.”

Her breaths evened out, and he pulled his pants from the floor. Her clothes were in a lump nearby. Leaving the lights off, he slipped out of the bedroom and shut the door behind him. Rolling his neck, he tried to shake off the weariness that was grinding him down to his bones. There just weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Yet the knot in the pit of his stomach wouldn’t let him stop.

He sat on the sofa, clicked on the table lamp and scrubbed both hands over his face. Letting his elbows rest against his knees, he stared at his briefcase. Lexie’s resignation letter sat next to it.

There had to be a way to work things out.

He settled back into the cushions and popped open the case’s clasps. Pulling out the draft offer, he set it aside. Notes and charts were soon spread across the sofa, and his laptop was powered up on the coffee table in front of him.

“Fresh eyes,” he muttered to himself as he reached for the proposal again. He opened the plastic-bound document for what had to be the thousandth time. His eyes were anything but fresh, but there had to be an angle there he was missing. He went through everything again, making notes and checking calculations. Sometimes his job was as simple as putting puzzle pieces together—only he had to form the pieces first. With Underhill, he had one piece that just would not fit. Not the way he wanted it to.

And certainly not the way Lexie would want it.

He toyed with a dog-eared page as his tired mind tried to shift into a higher gear. Glancing over his things, he looked for the market study he’d done. It wasn’t there. He flipped through the things that remained in his briefcase but still couldn’t find the information he needed.

He looked towards the hallway. Maybe he’d left it in the office.

He tossed the proposal onto the coffee table, and it slid all the way to the other side before stopping. On bare feet, he padded down the dark hall. It took a few moments, but he finally found what he was looking for on the table by the windows. He was flipping through the pages when he walked back into the living room.

His footsteps slowed when he realized he wasn’t alone. “Lexie?”

He felt her before he saw her. When he glanced up, a kick resounded in his gut. She was soft, sleepy and sexy as hell. She was dressed in his shirt again, and the white color made her hair appear darker and her legs look long and lean.

For as gentle and serene as she appeared, though, her eyes were sharp. She was standing over the coffee table and staring hard at the well-worn proposal in her hands. She swept away the pieces of lint that clung to the plastic cover. He’d been through the thing so many times, the clear plastic was scratched and smudged.

At the sound of her name, her head snapped up. The kick in Cam’s gut sharpened painfully. The confidence and contentment that had exuded from her earlier was gone. The only thing that glowed from her eyes was anger.

And it was hot.

Hand shaking, she lifted the proposal—the same one she’d dropped on the conference room floor…the same one she’d never gotten the opportunity to present.

“What are you doing with this?” she asked, her voice raw.

He took a cautious step forward. “It’s not what you think.”

“No? You’re not using my idea to save Underhill?” The proposal shook in her hands, and she dropped it as if it were too hot to hold. It smacked back onto the table, and she backed away from it like it was poison. There was hurt mixed with the anger in her eyes. A deep, sinking hurt.

Cam’s heart started beating double time. Things were spiraling out of control almost as if in slow motion, but he couldn’t stop them. She didn’t understand. It wasn’t what it looked like.

“It has nothing to do with UAI.”

“Nothing to do with UAI?” She grabbed her resignation letter. It wrinkled in her fist as she thrust it at him. “This is what you wanted all along. You wanted me out so you could ride in and save the day.”

He grimaced. “I wanted you out because you weren’t appreciated there. They were using you.”

The paper dropped from her hand and fell to the floor.

“Apparently, so were you.” Her lips barely moved. “I can’t believe I let myself fall for the hatchet man.”

Betrayal sliced through Lexie. She stared at Cam and fought not to cry. She’d woken up alone, and she’d gotten up to try to convince him to come back to bed. She didn’t like sleeping solo anymore. Even more, she didn’t like how hard he was working himself. She’d been concerned about him.

Talk about a rude awakening.

Her gaze swept over the paperwork on the coffee table. She couldn’t believe what he’d been doing behind her back. She might be sleepy, but she had eyes and she had a brain. There were notes everywhere on her proposal—slashes through some things and underlines highlighting others. What other reason could he possibly have for going through her work like that? He was stealing her idea.

He took a step towards her. “Let me explain.”

“I am such a fool.”

It didn’t matter how he spun it. She knew betrayal well enough now to recognize it. She knew the way it cut off your breath with surprise, only to work its way deeper as facts became clearer and motivations became more painfully obvious. Disloyalty had smacked her over and over again. She had a father who hadn’t told her she had a sister, much less an
identical twin
. Yet that same twin had accepted money to keep quiet about their relationship.

And now her lover…

Her breath caught in her lungs as the betrayal began cutting straight to her heart. Was she that gullible? Did everyone just take one look at her and think patsy? God, she never would have thought he could sink so low.

Her fingers curled into her palms so tightly her fingernails dug into her skin. “Were you going to give me any credit at all? Maybe my name in a footnote somewhere?”

Cam’s bare chest worked up and down. “Damn it, Lexie. You know me better than that.”

No… No, she didn’t. She’d let her emotions get in the way of clear thinking once again. She’d been leery of him from the beginning, yet he’d been there every time she’d needed support. He’d taken her side whenever it had felt like it was her against the world. It had been almost too easy to let herself lean on him.

Now she knew why.

“Roxie warned me not to trust you,” she said, voice shaking. “Blaire too, but I defended you.”

He came at her so fast she didn’t see him move down the steps. The paperwork in his hand slapped down on the coffee table, and he reached for her. “Don’t do this.”

She stepped back before he could touch her.

“They said you were ruthless. I can’t believe I forgot that the job always comes first with you.” She looked at him incredulously. “You got me to
quit
.”

His eyes narrowed. “Is that what you think? Do you honestly believe I’d take you to bed to steal an idea? That I’d need to?”

“According to your reputation, you’ve done worse.”

His shoulders stiffened, and she literally saw him turn from the man who lay beside her in bed to the corporate shark he was.

“So it was some evil master plan that made me press you up against a jukebox in a crowded bar to get a first kiss? Letting you ride me like a wild woman was a twisted business ploy?” He stepped closer. “I was scheming when I bent you over that dresser and fucked you from behind, making you moan and beg for more?”

Lexie jolted. She couldn’t listen to this, not while she was wearing his clothes. The silk blend of his shirt was caressing her skin, tickling her thighs and sensitizing her nipples. She still wanted him, but she now knew the price she’d paid to have him. She spun around, desperate to get away, and suddenly found herself nose to nose with the crystal paperweight on the mantel.

It was in her hand before she knew it.

And it left it just as quickly.

She heaved the crystal as hard as she could. It flew over the sunken living room and across the foyer before smashing into the wall beside the front door. The sharp edges punctured the drywall, creating a jagged hole, before the crystal fell. Almost in slow motion, the heavy piece of glass dropped to the floor and shattered. Pieces scattered everywhere, reflecting the light from the lamp in a rainbow of color.

As pretty as it was, the beauty was broken.

And as loud as the crash had been, the silence that followed was even louder.

Cam’s head snapped back towards her, surprise clear on his face. Lexie couldn’t look at him. All she could do was stare at the damage she’d done. She hadn’t been able to do that when Julian had betrayed her.

“Lexie,” Cam said softly.

She turned towards the bedroom. She had to get away from him. This betrayal was cutting deeper than the others had.

He caught her arm before she could take a step. “Stop running. That’s what you always do, run away and lick your wounds. Keep fighting.”

She tried to jerk her arm out of his grip, but it was like a manacle.

“Fight for us. Damn it, stop and listen to me.”

She met his gaze, and the air practically snapped.