Page 2 of Be Mine Forever

“About Walsh Bennett.” Her smile was a bear trap, spread open and waiting for him to stumble in. “This is truly one of the most fascinating aspects of your story. Walsh made our list two years ago. You and he were close at one time, correct?”

Cam stared back at her, his silence daring her to continue. To violate his express wishes not to discuss this topic.

“But he’s married now to your ex-wife, Kerris. How does that work?”

Cam leaned forward, using the breadth of his shoulders and the warning of his eyes to eat up a few inches of her personal space. Not enough to frighten her, but just enough for her to wonder if it was her imagination or if he might actually be dangerous.

“I don’t talk about that.”

“Well, who can blame you? I mean, your best friend and wife cheated—”

“They didn’t actually cheat, and I don’t talk about that.”

“Well, of course our viewers want to know, to understand how you get past something like that.”

“Your viewers can go fuck themselves.”

***

“Let me get this straight,” Walsh said from the other end of the line, sounding remarkably close for someone in Hong Kong. “You told the viewers to—”

“Fuck themselves, yeah.” Cam glanced around the clean, cold lines of the SoHo gallery his agent, Sebastian, had asked him to check out. “I guess that was bad, huh?”

“Well, not sure that’s the mileage Bash was hoping you’d get out of this list.”

“How’d you sit across from that woman without vomiting? She’s a Venus flytrap.”

Walsh’s chuckle rumbled across the time zones.

“Shelby’s not that bad.”

“Maybe not to you, but your ex-wife isn’t married to your best friend.”

The words plopped into the silence now pooling over the phone.

Even with them both trying to get past all the drama of the last few years, some awkwardness—a lot of awkwardness—was impossible to avoid.

“Yeah, well”—Walsh drew and expelled a heavy breath—“I’m sorry you had to deal with that. That youhaveto deal with it. I know people are curious.”

“People are curious about zoo animals.” Cam leaned against the wall, pressing his shoulder blades back and crossing one booted ankle over the other. “They’re fascinated by freak shows, and apparently that’s what we are.”

“I know it’s tough.”

Ithadbeen tough. It had driven Cam to Paris, but the Sorbonne wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Not when everyone he cared about was in the States. And hedidcare about Walsh. About Kerris. About…

“How’s Jo?” Cam kept the phone between his ear and shoulder, sliding his hands into the front pockets of his battered jeans. Even with Walsh on another continent, Cam wanted to look casual when he asked this question.

“She’s fine.” Walsh paused before continuing. “You guys haven’t talked?”

“Not much. Not since Christmas.”

“Yeah, Christmas. Was it me or was there something…I don’t know…going on between you two when you were at our house for the holidays?”

Dangerous territory, this. Part of being street smart was knowing when to play dumb.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Cam added just a dash of what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about for good measure. “Something going on?”

“Well, I guess…You kept looking at Jo’s ass.”

---