The Dare Collection July 2019. Nicola Marsh
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listening to me.”
He scrubbed a hand over his head and mentally made a note to shave his head again soon—before they went to London, for sure. Cameron might not handle people well, but he knew Aaron as well as he knew himself. The man didn’t want to come back to work yet. He just needed Cameron to say the right thing to assuage his guilt and let him take the break he’d more than earned.
He cleared his throat. “I have this covered. Go back to doting on your fiancée and baby and stop worrying about us.”
Another hesitation, but shorter this time. Aaron loved Tandem Security as much as Cameron did, but he loved his new family more. Which was how it should be. Aaron’s relationship with Becka had started unconventionally enough, but they’d found a good balance and their love for their new daughter filled up a room in a way that made even Cameron smile. It didn’t hurt that Summer was cute as hell and seemed to like him just fine. Babies were simple—simple needs, simple desires. If she cried, it was because she wasn’t having some need met, and that he understood.
Too bad adults weren’t that easy to figure out.
He didn’t begrudge his best friend his happiness. He just wished Aaron would stop worrying about the company. He was only gone for a couple months. Cameron could manage to apply a filter to himself for a couple months until his friend was back in the office. He wasn’t that much of a lost cause.
His partner got a dreamy tone. “Summer smiled at me today. The book says it’s probably just gas, but I don’t give a fuck. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
That, he believed. She was adorable. Cameron managed a smile. “I’m glad you’re happy.” If anyone deserved that happiness, Aaron did. He was a good guy, and he’d spent too many years putting up with Cameron’s shit not to have earned a good turn or two.
“Thanks. That means a lot.”
Cameron checked his watch. “I’ll check in once I have things lined up.”
“Talk to you then.”
He hung up and checked his email. Sure enough, confirmation for a flight to London had appeared. Since there was one for Trish as well, he assumed she had her passport updated. You’re focusing on minor details to avoid focusing on the fact that you’re going to be traveling with her.
Easier to remember why she was off-limits when in this office. There was no escaping the constant knowing that it was inappropriate to follow through on the look he sometimes saw lingering in her blue eyes, or to submit to the gravitational pull between them that seemed to grow stronger with every day he didn’t give in.
Put them in a different country, in a hotel together...
Getting ahead of yourself. Trish might have been interested before, but she’s made it pretty fucking clear she’s not now.
That was a good point.
Cameron sighed and rounded his desk to sink into his chair. Whether Trish did or didn’t want to start something still was irrelevant. They had business to conduct and they’d more than proven they could work together when required. He just had to keep his head in the game and not be the one to fuck it up.
Easy enough. Work comes first—end of story.
He had absolutely nothing to worry about.
* * *
Trish paced from one wall to the other and back again. “I can’t do this. It’s going to blow up in my face.”
“It might be helpful if you explain exactly what you’re not doing.”
She glanced at her almost-sister-in-law, Becka Baudin. She sat on the couch with Summer propped carefully on a pillow, nursing away. When Trish pictured her big brother with someone, it was some straitlaced woman who probably thought doing taxes was fun and drank expensive red wine and vacationed to exotic places with topless beaches.
On second thought, Becka probably fits the last one.
She didn’t fit much else when it came to expectations. She was a blue-haired beauty who was both a personal trainer and led a bunch of hard-core fitness classes—at least before her pregnancy got too far along. She was also hilarious and nice and loved Aaron to distraction. In short, she was perfect.
Trish wasn’t here for perfection, though. She needed advice. “I’m traveling with Cameron. To London. Alone. For as long as it takes to secure this account.”
“I know it’s not super normal for the guys to travel but...” Becka trailed off and her blue eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh. You and Cameron?” She leaned forward and winced. “Sorry, Summer.” A quick adjustment and the baby was nursing happily again. Becka frowned. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
“Because there’s nothing to know about.” Nothing except she kept throwing herself at him and he kept setting her gently back and trying to explain why he would never touch her. Nothing except her pride being bruised beyond all repair because of her impulsiveness.
It was the height of insanity to still want him after he’d turned her down—more than once—but apparently her self-control had taken a vacation somewhere along the way. She couldn’t be in the same room with Cameron without ogling him, and it didn’t help that he kept wearing those fitted faded T-shirts that clung to his body like Trish wanted to.
Oh my God, I’m jealous of a piece of clothing.
“That tone of voice says there’s definitely something to know about, but okay. Nothing to know about.” Becka shook her head. “If you’re worried about doing something to screw up the account, neither Aaron nor Cameron would send you if they thought you weren’t capable. So they obviously think you can handle it.”
“I’ve been working there like two weeks. I heard Aaron say that Concord Inc. can boost Tandem Security up to the next level. If I botch this, they won’t get to that next level.” She’d already failed so many freaking times. There was absolutely nothing in her track record that should cause everyone around her to give her yet another vote of confidence.
Not everyone.
She’d bit the bullet and told her parents last night that she’d be out of the country for a while on work and they’d reacted about as well as she would have expected. Oh, her dad was supportive, if worried about his little girl out in the big world without someone to protect her. She didn’t hold it against him—he treated both his daughters like that. Her sister just never gave him cause for worry. It seemed like all Trish did was worry him, even when she tried not to.
And her mom...
She sighed. “My mother had some choice words on the subject.” Choice words that ended in tears, and demands to know what she’d done as a mother to drive Trish to cross an ocean to get away from her. It had taken two hours and a promise to visit over the weekend once she got home to calm her mother down and get her back to some semblance of normality.
“Oh.” Becka made a face. “Look, I’m hardly the authority on healthy parent-child relationships, and your mom is a nice lady, but she really needs to get a hobby that has nothing to do with her adult children. Knitting. Charity. Pole dancing classes. Doesn’t matter, but it might distract her from the whole empty nester thing she’s got going on.”
Trish stared. “You did not just list pole dancing classes alongside charity and knitting as activities my mom should try.”
“Why not?” Becka gave a wicked grin. “It’s great core work.”
“I’m going to tell Aaron you said that.”
“It’s been a couple days since I shocked him, so I’m about due for another one.”
Trish burst out laughing, and the sound drained out the anxiety that had been building since Aaron called her with instructions for the trip. She sank onto the chair