Page 70 of His to Seduce

Chapter 23

Camden

I made several decisions throughout the course of the day. While I showered and cleaned up after my run, I thought of David downstairs. David, who was patient and kind and yet never hesitated in sharing how much he wanted me. His openness, especially now that I knew who he really was, only made the kind of guy he was more obvious.

I wanted him.

I wanted him in the deepest parts of me, and most of all, I wanted him to be proud of me.

Instead of the way I’d normally react, I forced myself to not think about my job, or what would await me on Monday. For now, I chose to follow what I’d done in Jamaica…enjoy myself, enjoy my life, have fun with David. I would let life happen the way it was supposed to instead of feeling the clawing need to write out a list of possibilities.

I’d deal with whatever happened like a normal person—when it happened and when I had to face it.

It wasn’t easy. Several times while blow-drying my hair I had to force my eyes off the notepad on my nightstand that screamed for its attention, for the scribble of ink on paper and the satisfaction of a well-thought-out decision.

I chose to trust David.

I chose to believe he could do what he seemed to be so good at doing—getting my attention focused on nothing but him.

I rethought all of it as he drove me through a neighborhood in Brookhaven, just west of Detroit and thirty minutes away from Latham Hills. He’d told me we were going for dinner and to dress casually.

Knowing he was in jeans, black dress shoes, and a short-sleeved polo shirt that stretched over his curved chest, I had thrown on a navy-blue wrap dress and nude heels. It was nothing fancy, just a step up from wearing jeans myself.

“We’re not going to a restaurant in this neighborhood, are we?” I asked, my eyes wide open and my jaw slack.

The homes I saw out my window weren’t homes but mansions. The size of a small hotel, with gated entrances and pine trees lining the roads for privacy. Homes were set so far back, I could only glimpse them as David drove slowly down the street.

I was in a neighborhood fancier than any I’d ever seen, and my pulse ratcheted up a thousand notches when he had to announce himself at a security gate.

I reached out and covered his wrist, not dragging my shocked gaze off the window. “David. Where are you taking me?”

He chuckled.

I was going to punch him.

He wasn’t taking me out.

He was taking mehome.

“Relax, Camden. Have I ever steered you wrong before?”

“Just forcing me off a cliff and swimming with sharks. No biggie.”

His laugh grew louder, and he moved his hand where I held his wrist until our palms pressed together. The heat of his skin did nothing to calm the riot inside me. “And you survived. You’ll survive this, too.”

“Dinner with your mother?” I turned to him so fast I felt the sting of my hair whipping across my cheeks. “That’s where you’re taking me? On our first real date?”

He held up a finger right before he pulled into a driveway. “Hold that thought.”

Rolling down his window, he punched in a series of numbers on a keypad and the gate in front of us groaned open.

“You’re shitting me. You live in a castle behind a security guard and a gate and I’m supposed to stay calm? Did you leave your brain back at your place?”

His shoulders shook with poorly concealed laughter. His hand in mine tightened.

“I’m going to kill you,” I muttered, glaring at him. My pulse pounded.

His mother. He took me to his mom’s house. On a date? It was too soon. He was insane. Worse than me.

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