Page 55 of Already At Risk
“Okay, I think that’s it.”
I’d lost track of time, too concentrated on both making sure Keller didn’t ask any more inappropriate questions and on the feel of Natalie’s hot skin beneath my palm. I had no idea how many minutes or hours had passed since the earlier break in the session, but the deposition was finally over. Which was good. I only wished I’drealizedit was about to be over because I would have withdrawn my hand from Natalie’s thigh much earlier in preparation.
Because Korey’s lawyer was about to stand.
He was going to stand, and the professional, polite thing to do would be for me to stand, too. Shake his hand, all of that. And that would be great, fine, if it weren’t for the fact that certain parts of my body were already standing, or well on their way to standing, considering the inside of Natalie’s thigh was so fucking soft and warm and perfect andfuck.
I breathed in through my nose, willing myself to get a goddamn grip.
“Mr. Keller,” I said, needing to postpone this moment just alittle longer. “Can you refresh my memory on the details of Mr. Abrams’ deposition?”
He gave me a funny look, which made sense, given that I had already sent over a confirmation email for Korey’s deposition…this morning.
But he answered me anyway. “Friday morning at nine o’clock.”
“Excellent.” I gave a curt nod. “I will plan on seeing you and your client then.”
The thought of being in the same room with Korey Abrams this week had the immediate effect on my body that I was looking for, and by the time that Keller stood to shake my hand and then Natalie’s, effectively ending the meeting, I managed to rise to meet him.Withoutmaking it known that I had been, for a good portion of that meeting, irrationally turned on.
I would have felt worse about it, guiltier, if it hadn’t been a great fucking deposition. Natalie handled the entire thing so incredibly well. I wanted to celebrate, longed to pick her up, twirl her around the room, and then set her down on this table so I could drop my face between her legs and taste what I’d been touching all morning.
She deserved that. She deserved so much more than that, and Idesperatelywanted to give it to her.
Natalie looked at me once Korey’s lawyer left, dazed and sort of awed. As though she could read my mind, could see what I wanted to do to her, like my thoughts were written all over my face. Her pupils were blown, her breathing shallow.
“Cameron,” she breathed. “I?—”
She paused, licked her lips, lifting her gaze to mine. Then she lowered her eyes again, looking at my hand, the one that had been touching her. She stared at it like she wanted to will it back onto her body.
Adrenaline pumped in my veins, and I could see the way it pulsed in her neck, too, right in that spot I’d sucked before, brandished with my tongue that night in the bar.
Swallowing a groan, I shook my head.
Not here.
We couldn’t talk here, couldn’t evenlookat each other here in this fishbowl of a room.
“Come on,” I murmured and took off for my office.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
natalie
CAMERON WALKED AHEAD OF me to his office, his body tight as he moved through the hallways. His arms were stiff at his sides, his hands flexing and then balling into fists like he didn’t know what to do with them.
I was right on his heels, equally jittery. My skin felt stretched too thin, unable to contain the emotions that lived on the surface of my being at the moment. My heart thumped, both from the anxiety of the deposition and the feeling of Cameron’s palm on my inner thigh.
His touch had started as supportive. It anchored me, pulled me down to the ground and kept me there when I felt like I was about to float away in a flurry of nerves. But then it becamemore. Explorative, sensual, needy but restrained—like it was killing him not to touch more of me. And now my whole body ached, pulsed with a longing I didn’t fully understand. Because I’d wanted him to touch more of me, too. And without getting that, I felt on edge, dangling on the precipice of…something.
Cameron burst through his office door, striding into the small space and pacing the length of it once, like he couldn’t quite contain his energy enough to stop. Once I’d stepped inside, hemade his way back to the door, shutting it firmly before rounding on me.
My stomach flew into my throat as Cameron’s large palms cupped both sides of my face, drawing us together. I didn’t know what he was doing, but there was not a single ounce of resistance within me, not one part of me that wanted to stop it. He dropped his forehead to mine, his breath fanning my lips as he groaned. It was a guttural sound, dripping with a tangle of emotions that didn’t fit into words.
“You did so good, Natalie.” His deep voice pierced right through all my defenses and then spread, reaching every part of me. “Sogood in there. I’m so proud of you.”
“Thank you.” The words came out of me on an exhale. I should say more, do more, but I just let Cameron hold me for a second, closing my eyes as I sank into the moment. His touch, his support, the assurance. God, I needed this.
Actually, no, that wasn’t true.
