Page 64 of Warrior's Cross

Cameron just didn’t know what to think about the rest. He wanted to believe in Julian. He loved him—desperately so. He’d just found him a handful of months ago, and this had all happened so fast. He didn’t want to let him go or be let go.

If Cameron asked more questions, asked for more explanations, would Julian change his mind and leave? Would he give him that same, lifeless look he’d given him at the party and then turn away from him?

Cameron didn’t think he could handle that.

Whether he could live and love in the dark of the truth remained to be seen.

A quiet knock on the door jostled him out of his thoughts.

Cameron’s eyes slowly slid to the door before he pushed up from the couch. The dogs were already yapping and jumping up and down.

He had to push them out of the way when he got there before he could check the peephole.

Julian stood calmly in the hallway with his head bowed, waiting. It surprised Cameron again that Julian had shaved his beard off; he’d barely noticed at the party before he’d fled to thekitchen, and then he’d forgotten. Julian still looked good. Too good. It just wasn’t fair how good-looking the man was.

Cameron swallowed and took stock of his emotions. He felt relatively calm. He was a little apprehensive, but no more nervous than usual, he supposed. He unlocked the door and opened it.

Julian looked up when the lock sounded, and he smiled tentatively when he met Cameron’s eyes. That smile helped put Cameron at ease.

He couldn’t think of Julian as a man who got nervous, but hehadseen glimpses of nerves in the other man, hadn’t he? Like that smile. It seemed so normal. He smiled in return and opened the door further, enough that the dogs swarmed Julian’s feet.

Julian watched them with something like affectionate resignation.

The first step he took dragged two playfully growling dogs along with it.

Cameron chuckled and bent over to pick up Saffron and Snowflake. The fact that the dogs were so enamored of Julian was another balm. Animals were good judges of character, weren’t they?

“It’s good to see I was missed,” Julian murmured as he bent to pick up the other two dogs and stepped into the apartment.

Cameron stepped around and shut the door behind them. “You were,” he confirmed.

Julian set the dogs down and met Cameron’s eyes carefully. “Yeah?” he asked tentatively.

Holding the dogs to his chest, Cameron nodded, not looking away as he leaned back against the door.

Julian stared at him for a moment. “I’m sorry about the party,” he said quietly, without looking away from Cameron’s face.

Cameron dropped his eyes and shifted his weight uneasily. “You were working.”

“I would have warned you, if I could have,” Julian insisted. “Blake wasn’t thinking. Those people... right now I’m an unknown to them. But in a year, or a month, or a week, that might change. I can’t have them knowing how to hurt me.”

“I don’t understand,” Cameron admitted. “How could they hurt you? You said you’re not the one usually in danger.”

“They could hurtyou,” Julian answered bluntly.

Cameron’s heart was suddenly beating hard enough to make him light-headed. “How?”

Julian cocked his head and shrugged slightly, looking away as he thought about the question. “Foreclose on the condo. Make your tax records disappear and cause an audit. Implicate you in something that could send you to jail,” he murmured finally. “Someone less... principled may go so far as to physically attack you, if they wanted to send me a message.”

Cameron remembered what Julian had said about danger, but he hadn’t had any context before now. The implications of what Julian was saying made Cameron tremble and tighten his arms, enough so that one of the dogs gave a soft yelp. He flinched and squatted to set them on the floor; he stayed there, shocked.

Julian watched him helplessly. “I’m sorry,” he finally said again.

Cameron closed his arms around himself as he forced himself to stand up, but he couldn’t stop the shivers. “You knew,” he said shakily.

“You knew, when we met, when we got together, that this might happen, that I might actually get hurt by someone else because of you. But you never told me this before? Why?”

Julian closed his eyes and bowed his head, unable to answer.

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