Page 45 of Already At Risk
God, I wished I could say the same.
Natalie’s eyes detached from mine, wandering to our surroundings. A narrow hallway off the bathrooms in the back of a bar. Double-swinging doors on one end of it, which led to the kitchen, the sound of clanging pots and pans echoing off the walls. From the other end, music—some kind of vibrant pop—and loud chattering of patrons wafted in our direction.
I knew exactly what she was about to say before she said it.
“We seem to have a thing for hallways like this, don’t we?” she murmured, eyes flicking over me.
I channeled every ounce of my restraint into not stepping forward. Intonotpressing her against the wall like I had that night, my arms caged around her. I shoved my hands into my pockets instead, using my eyes to convey the closeness I craved, letting them trace the curve of her neck that I’d tasted and the corner of her smile that I longed to.
“Yeah, Sunny,” I breathed, knowing that my voice was the sort of husky mess that gave away too much. “We do.”
My gaze flew to hers, and she held my stare. It was the kind of eye contact that made my mouth run dry, my cock twitch in my pants. Hot, heady, palpable. A caress all on its own.
“I should get back,” she said, the words falling from her lips in such a slow way, like she’d been trying to keep them in, not wanting to release them.
Somehow, I managed to nod, despite wanting to argue.
Somehow, I managed not to stop her when she pushed off the wall and turned to walk down the hallway.
Somehow, I managed to force my own feet to move, following her footsteps.
Until they were stopped short by the approach of someone else.
Someone who squeezed his sister’s shoulder as she walked past and then looked straight at me, gaze cutting right through me.
Fuck.
Noah cocked his head to the side and said, “Hey, man. Got a sec?”
I exhaled a sigh, knowing this wasn’t going to be good, and nodded.
CHAPTER TWELVE
cameron
NOAH SHOVED HIS HANDS in his pockets as he walked up to me, and I knew immediately what this was.
His tone hadn’t been a passinghey, man…let’s catch up.
This was ahey, man…we need to talk.
“Noah, you—” I started, wanting to get ahead of it.
But Natalie’s brother held up a hand, cutting me off, and I stopped, deciding to hear him out. Might as well not expose things that didn’t need to be exposed.
“Look, Cam.” Noah released a heavy sigh that did not bode well for my future. “I don’t know what’s going on, but?—”
“Nothing is going on, Noah,” I said as stoically as possible. “Nothing.”
He flashed me an annoyed look. “Just let me finish.”
I nodded. Fuck, yeah, okay, I’d been a little too eager to prove my point.
“Truthfully, I think you’d be great for Natalie,” he said and then waited, like he was testing my reaction to that. But it wasn’t like I was going to say,“Yeah, man. I think I’d be great for your sister, too.”Not when I was, in fact, her lawyer on an active case involving the custody of her nine-year-old daughter and his niece.
So I settled with, “I have nothing but professional respect for your sister.”
Noah dipped his chin, giving me a look that implied he wanted me to cut the bullshit.
