Page 14 of Be Mine Forever

Cam turned his back on her, facing the small but shiny and well-appointed kitchen. He slammed the bottle on the marble countertop.

“You don’t know as much as you think you do, Jo. And if you knew…”

“Well, tell me.” He heard her feet padding across the Oriental rug toward him. Smelled her when she was right at his back. “Cam, what don’t I know?”

He dropped his head, pulling a damp palm across the pinched muscles of his neck. If she ever found out the secrets he planned to take to the grave, how would she look at him? Like poison. Like the devil he was.

“Just drop it, Jo.”

“No, I won’t drop it.” She stepped in front of him, reaching up to cup his chin, eyes hot and intense on his face like quicksilver. “Cam, I see how sad you are, how alone, and I don’t like it.”

Cam leaned forward a few inches until only a breath separated their mouths. He reached up to lace his fingers with hers against his face.

“And you wanna make it better, Jo? Huh? Is that it?”

Her fingers trembled between his. Her tongue made a nervous swipe across her bottom lip, but she didn’t blink. Didn’t move her hand.

“If I can.”

He wrapped his fingers around her fragile wrist, being gentle but firm when he pulled her hand down. Deliberately icing his eyes over when he stepped away.

“Well, you can’t.”

Her head dropped a few inches before she drew in a deep breath and adjusted her glasses.

“Well, someone needs to. A grief counselor or—”

“Stop pushing.” Cam strode out of the kitchen and back into the living room, flopping onto the couch and covering his eyes with his arm. “Just let up.”

“I won’t, Cam.” Her voice came closer until he knew she was standing right over him. “I can’t.”

He sat up, setting his elbows on his knees and cradling his sleep-deprived head in his hands.

“That’s your problem. You don’t know when to stop. It’s too much. Just stop digging.”

“Friends dig.”

He looked up from the intricate design on the rug to narrow his eyes at her.

“So this is all in the name of friendship?”

Jo stared at him like she’d never seen him before, and to be honest she hadn’t. None of them had. You could only fake humanity for so long. He’d gotten away with it, but the devil inside of him wanted, more every day, to peel back this mask and show the ugly, disfigured truth writhing under his skin.

A keycard swiping at the door broke their static-charged stare. A slim woman walked in, a bellhop trailing her with a luggage-laden cart. One side of her pink hair was shaved and the other just brushed her shoulder, the bangs not quite covering the ring piercing her eyebrow.

“Just through there for my bags.” She pointed to the bedroom Cam had been using. “Cameron! Surprise!”

She sauntered over to him, throwing her tatted, silver-bangled arms around his neck, kissing his chin and cheeks and saving his mouth for last. She didn’t hold back, plunging her tongue between his lips and grabbing the back of his head before he could think to pull away.

“Etty,” he said against her lips, tugging her arms back down to her side. “I thought you weren’t back ’til next week.”

“It would not have been a surprise if I’d told you any differently.” Her French accent and warm smile wrapped around the words like a light, flaky croissant. “Eez fine, no?”

“No. I mean, yeah. Sure. It’s your suite. I just had a friend staying tonight.”

“Ooh la la.” She lifted her long lashes to dart naughty blue eyes between Cam and Jo. “A gift for me, yes? How you say…threesome? Ménage?”

“No! No, not a gift. Not a…” Cam cast a quick glance at Jo’s face, a frown cracking the line of her brow. Lips tightened and displeased. “She’s just a friend.”

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