Page 94 of Be Mine Forever

“Look, it’s your firecracker!” Etty swept her finger over the iPad.

“Firecracker?” Cam checked back in. Etty was always screwing English up, which usually made for a good laugh. “What are you talking about?”

“I said it wrong again?” Etty pushed her bottom lip out, which some guy would find adorable. “The one I met in New York.”

“Jo?” Just her name on his lips tasted good. “Where?”

“Pictures of her on vacation in Dubai with your friend Walsh.” Etty licked her lips, letting out a lusty little growl. “Hmmmmm. Her boyfriend is hot.”

“Boyfriend?” What the fuck? “Let me see that.”

The picture captured Jo emerging from the water, hair slicked back. Her bikini, flimsy scraps of black fabric, barely covered all the necessary parts. A belly chain gilded a golden trail down the elegant six-pack of muscles he’d painted Heinekens on just weeks ago. And there was Peter, looking like a damn Viking conqueror. He had his hand at the small of Jo’s back, like some perfect gentleman creeper copping a feel. His hand was probably mere inches away from her ass.

Cam thought of Jo standing naked in front of him with MINE scrawled across her backside. He literally felt hot under his collar. He practically saw red. All the clichés attacked him at once. He stood up from the table so abruptly, the wrought-iron chair fell and slammed against the terrace floor. Cam tossed the iPad onto the glass table, not even flinching when the screen cracked.

“Mon Dieu!”Etty divided a cautious glance between Cam and the fallen chair. “What is it?”

“Sorry. I, uh, I need to make a call.”

Cam had to dig his cell out of the saddlebag. He hadn’t turned it on in three weeks. Text and voice mail alerts crowded the screen, all of which he ignored. Moments later, Walsh’s deep voice commanded the phone line.

“Cam, about damn time you surfaced. Where the hell are you?”

“I knew you didn’t want Jo and me together, but this is low, even for you, Bennett.” Cam pulled the trigger on all the anger and resentment building in him over seeing the photos. “A romantic double-date getaway in Dubai, huh?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Walsh put his voice on ice. “I brought Jo on vacation with us so she wouldn’t waste her time wallowing over your sorry ass.”

“Exactly, and while you were at it, you played matchmaker. Peter is exactly the kind of guy you want for her, isn’t he?”

“If you mean someone who cares about her, treats her with respect, and is a decent guy, then, yeah. He’s precisely the kind of guy I’d want for Jo.”

Cam had suspected it, had even thought it himself, but hearing it from Walsh, after all they’d been through, hurt like a hornet sting.

“But.” Walsh allowed the conjunction to dangle over the long-distance connection. “She wants you.”

Cam pulled a sharp breath through his nose and forced it out through his mouth.

“Still? She isn’t into him?”

“Can I be honest without you blowing a freaking gasket?”

Cam remembered the cracked iPad and his enraged exit from the terrace.

“Of course. I’m a reasonable man.”

“No. You’re a lunatic, but I’m hoping we can converse like civilized human beings.”

“Now that I know you didn’t undercut me with Jo, we can.”

“I didn’t undercut you with Jo.Sheinvited Peter.”

Cam absorbed that bit of disturbia, forcing back all the questions that clamored up his throat.

“Honestly, if you weren’t in the picture, I have no doubt they’d get together. They have great chemistry, similar interests. It’s obvious he’s crazy about her.”

“You’re not really helping with that whole not-blowing-a-gasket thing, Bennett.”

“It’s obvious she loves you. She misses you. She wants you, so where the hellareyou?”

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