Lexie (12 page)

“What did you do to me?” her twin grumbled. “I haven’t gotten that drunk in years.”

“I’ve never been that drunk,” Lexie confessed.

She was more aware of Cam than ever as he puttered around the kitchen. He found glasses in the second cupboard he opened and filled two of them with tap water. He put them on the counter. “Take the aspirin, both of you.”

Lexie shifted on the stool. They were all stripped down and showing way too much skin. She wasn’t even wearing a bra. Her skin felt achingly bare, yet she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Cam. His muscles stretched and tightened as he turned to open another cupboard. As if drawn by a magnet, her eyes drifted downwards to his butt.

The view made her mouth water.

She felt Roxie’s stare burning her like a match, and she quickly lifted her glass to down the two tablets. What was wrong with her? She had problems coming out her ears. Serious problems. Family and business problems. The new arrival of a twin was a twist she hadn’t seen coming.

So why was she suddenly attracted to a man she’d done her best to avoid? A man who’d put her sensors on high alert the first time she’d seen him? A man who was intrinsically linked with the father who’d just betrayed her?

A man she didn’t even know if she could trust.

He turned with a loaf of bread in his hand. “How do either of you feel about breakfast?”

Their simultaneous groans answered that question.

“Good. I’ll make toast.”

“He
is
mean,” Roxie mumbled.

Cam threw her a look over his shoulder. “It’s for your own good.”

“God, that’s the worst kind.”

Lexie pressed a hand to her pounding forehead. She wasn’t sure she was up to food either, but he proceeded to make dry toast for them anyway. Both she and Roxie eyed it suspiciously when he set it on a plate before them.

“Eat,” he ordered. Turning back to the cupboards, he grabbed a box of cereal, poured himself a bowl and retrieved milk from the refrigerator.

“Make yourself at home,” Roxie grumbled as she pulled off a tiny piece of crust.

Cam merely lifted an eyebrow as he poured the milk over the cereal. He put the milk away, found a spoon and turned to lean back against the cupboards. He watched them as he ate.

And Lexie watched him.

Her gaze drifted over his chest as she sipped at her water. God, if anything was apt to make her hungry in this state, it was him.

He pointed at her cooling toast with his spoon.

She looked at it with distaste, but her stomach needed something to settle it. She took a timid bite and then another.

“Stop crunching so loudly,” Roxie complained.

“Sorry.”

Almost on cue, a phone rang. They both cringed, and Cam moved quickly to the end table by the sofa. He grabbed his phone, but it was still three of the most ear-piercing rings Lexie had ever heard before he answered the call.

“Rowe,” he said curtly.

He glanced towards them as the voice on the other end spoke, and Lexie immediately knew who it was. As bad as she was feeling, an even heavier weight settled onto her shoulders.

The real world was back.

Turning from them, Cam spoke softly. The call wasn’t long, but with each cryptic word that was spoken, Lexie’s chin dipped. Embarrassment ran through her like syrup, thick and clinging. What had she been thinking yesterday to let things get so out of control? To let herself get so…so…
wild
? It wasn’t like her. It wasn’t how she conducted her life.

She watched as Cam rubbed the back of his neck. It made the muscles in his back stretch, yet she could have sworn she saw his spine stiffening.

The phone snapped shut, and he turned.

She met his gaze. “It was my father, wasn’t it?”

“I need to go in to the office.”

She stared at him. She knew she was supposed to say that she’d go in too, but she couldn’t force the words past her lips. She’d been told to fix things, yet they were more complicated now than ever. She had to figure out how to deal with that—and with what was surely to come afterwards. But she was
not
on top of her game.

“We have to go get tested,” Roxie reminded her.

The DNA test. They’d scheduled it yesterday when they’d both still been coherent. Lexie latched on to the idea. Yes, that would help. She needed to get things organized. She needed to know where everything stood before she did anything. Most of all, she needed to straighten herself up and clear her head.

She needed to regain control.

“Don’t tell them,” she said to Cam. “Please?”

Beside her, Roxie inhaled sharply.

Cam’s eyes narrowed as he slid his cellphone into his back pocket. “Are you sure?”

Lexie stared down at her toast. She already felt like roadkill, but the icky, tangled web of Underhill dynamics was wrapping around her all over again. “I have to figure out how to tell my father.”

“Tell him what?” Roxie said in disbelief. “That I exist?”

Lexie took too long to respond.

With a flurry of expletives, Roxie climbed down from her barstool. She stomped towards the bathroom, and the door slammed shut.

Lexie flinched. That wasn’t what she’d meant. Well, it was, but her sister didn’t understand.

As happy as she was about the turn of events, the situation was complicated. Roxie didn’t have another family, but Lexie did. She didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make anyone feel threatened or unwanted—especially her newfound twin. She just needed time to sort through things.

Rowe sighed. “I’ll go in and feel things out. Don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to handle this.”

Lexie was still staring at the bathroom door. “There is no we, Rowe,” she said tiredly.

He hesitated for the briefest of seconds. “No?”

A tingle of warning went down Lexie’s spine, and she turned to face him. “No.”

His dark eyes sparked.

She was saying the wrong thing to everyone.

She felt the need to escape but, before she could, he moved in. Her breath caught as his hand settled on her chair, effectively trapping her. Another slid around to the small of her back. She lifted her hands defensively, but the moment she touched his chest, all that delicious heat buffeted her again.

She went still and their gazes locked.

“I think yes.”

Ever so slowly, he pulled her forward. Lexie gasped, but he kept going until her hips were balanced precariously on the edge of the stool and she found herself clutching at him for support. She spread her legs for balance but moaned when he stepped between them.

He pressed his hips into her, and his mouth was suddenly against her lips. “I want you,” he said roughly. “I don’t know what everyone else’s game is, but mine’s that simple. I want you, and I don’t want you hurt. By anyone.”

He kissed her then, and Lexie’s head spun. His mouth was hot against hers. Hot, determined and devastating. Their lips sealed and their breaths meshed. His body overwhelmed hers, and memories of last night’s embrace came back sharp and clear.

He felt as good as she remembered.
Better
.

“Cam,” she gasped.

His fingers tangled with the strap of her top. “Finally, a way to get you to say my name.”

He pushed the strap aside and nuzzled her shoulder.

She let her head fall back when his hand settled over her breast. The thin nylon provided little barrier, and the contact was practically skin on skin. She inhaled sharply, but that only pressed her more solidly into his palm. Her nipple tightened as he squeezed her breast, and she arched her back when his thumb swept over that tight bud.

“Ah!” she whimpered.

He was going so fast, Lexie could barely breathe. She knew she should stop him. Warning signs blared inside her head, but not as loudly as the hum of pleasure.

The way he held her off-balance made her cling to him…accept his touch…

But she wanted to do more than accept; she wanted to touch too. Ignoring all the alarms, she slid her hand down his chest, nails scraping, until she felt his heart pounding under her fingertips. She stroked the other down his back to the base of his spine. All that skin was as smooth and sleek as it had looked. She curled her fingers into his bottom, and his hips jerked forward.

She groaned. He was hard and heavy between her legs, and the look in his eyes was hot and determined.

“You’ve been driving me out of my mind for months,” he growled.

“I…I didn’t know.” She’d felt his attention. How could she not? It had made her heart race and her thighs tremble.

But she’d known it would be like this between them, raw and searing, consuming and a bit scary. It was why she’d done her best to lay low. This was her father’s gunner. The reorganization specialist. He was known for being cunning and heartless.

Ruthless.

She stiffened. He wasn’t known as the hatchet man for nothing. Just how far would he go to protect the company? To silence any scandals?

Her father had called him.

Not her.

She snatched her hand away from his butt but couldn’t seem to move the other from his heart. It was still pounding hard.

His brow furrowed, and his hand spread wider over her breast. His gaze burned into hers, but whatever he saw there made his touch gentle.

“Well, now you do.” Deliberately, he pulled the strap of her top back into place, covering her. With a ragged breath, he stepped back. He glanced towards the bathroom. “Will you be okay today without me?”

Lexie nodded. Her mortification was overwhelming. She had no excuse this time; she was sober. Did she have no self-control when it came to this man?

He cupped her cheek and made her look at him. “Stop overthinking everything.”

Her throat tightened when she saw the understanding in his eyes. He got what Roxie hadn’t, because he knew the Underhills. In a short period of time, he’d gotten closer to Julian than anybody.

Especially her.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

And he knew why.

A muscle in his temple throbbed.

“Where’s your phone?” He grabbed her purse and handed it to her. When she found her cell, he took it and started pushing buttons. “If you need anything, you call me.”

He dropped the cell into her purse and gave her another searching look. Before she knew it, he was kissing her again. Hard, hot and full of fire.

Her lungs rattled when it stopped as quickly as it had started. She watched, wide-eyed, as he picked up his things and headed to the door.

He glanced back at her before stepping into the hallway. “We
will
figure this out,” he promised. “Together.”

Chapter Seven

Cam was on his phone when he stepped off the elevator onto the twelfth floor. “That’s Roxie Cannon, with two n’s in the middle. I need whatever you can find, all the way back to birth. She works as a barmaid at a dive called The Ruckus here in Cobalt City. Beyond that, all I know is that she claims to have spent her childhood in the foster care system.”

He was already nodding when he heard the disclaimer come from the other end of the line. “I know juvenile records can get tricky. Privacy laws, yeah, yeah. Just do whatever you can.”

He disconnected as he headed down the hallway past Lexie’s office. The investigative firm he was using wasn’t local, but they were the best. He wouldn’t trust this task to anyone else.

He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something just wasn’t right with the women’s stories. They just didn’t jive. Like the two of them, night and day.

How could identical girls have been split up like that? Gone on to lead such different lives?

He shook his head. He really didn’t like leaving Lexie alone right now. She was vulnerable, and she was hurting. Yesterday had been life changing for her, and she was too trusting for her own good—except when it came to him.

He scowled. Whatever Julian had summoned him for had better be good.

He knocked on the CEO’s office door. When he walked in, he found he wasn’t the first to arrive. Lexie’s hotheaded brother already looked to be in a huff.

“The fallout from that billboard is beginning,” Landers said as he paced around his father’s office. “Tristan Caine is backing away from the deal we discussed last week.”

On the golf course, Cam noted as he shut the door behind him. Caine owned a local chain of discount stores that would account for a very small percentage of sales. Still, a lost deal was a lost deal. They couldn’t afford it.

“He says we’re too controversial right now, and I’m getting the same pushback from others,” the sales manager continued. “They’ll follow soon.”

No doubt the others were fraternity pals he counted on to do business. Cam leaned against Julian’s desk and crossed his legs at the ankles. The only reason Caine even associated that billboard with Underhill Associates was because Tristan knew Lexie as Landers’s sister. If the sales staff had concentrated on getting bigger, more diverse accounts, nobody would have made the connection.