Overnight Cinderella (12 page)

T
en days later, Duke drove past the address Cami had given him. The mother who'd given him up lived in the kind of neighborhood he'd dreamed of as a small boy. A quiet suburb of Atlanta, not quite Buckhead, but close. She had a white picket fence and a ranch-style home. It looked all-American. Like a fifties sitcom dream come true. He didn't want to be here but something had made him come.

He parked three houses down on the street and walked back, trying to look casual. The side street wasn't busy. But it was early morning so that made sense. His rational mind said that the Merchons were his parents, that this stranger, this woman, had no real connection to his life. But he needed to see her. To see the person who'd caused so much tur
moil in his life. The person who'd given him the excuse he'd needed to retreat back into his lonely life once again and away from the sanctuary Cami had offered.

The front door opened and a middle-aged woman in a ratty bathrobe walked to the newspaper box. He watched her from his spot on the sidewalk. She glanced up and met his gaze, looked away and immediately turned back. She had his eyes, he realized. This woman was related to him. His mother?

Duke walked forward, unable to stop himself. The anger he'd expected wasn't there. He had questions he needed answered. Why had this woman rejected him?

“Ma'am?”

“Oh, God,” she said, her face drained of color.

Duke stepped forward, afraid she might faint. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. You're him, aren't you? The baby I gave up all those years ago.” Tears sparkled in her gray eyes.

“I believe so. My name's Duke Merchon.”

“Jane Devereau,” she said, holding out her hand.

“I imagine you have some questions.”

“I do.”

“Come inside.”

He followed her up the neatly kept brick path with well-tended flowerbeds lining it. He felt a maelstrom of emotions and wanted Cami by his side to anchor him.
But Cami will never be by your side again.

Jane led him into her living room. The surfaces
of the mantel and curio cabinets were filled with knickknacks and framed pictures of three girls. The clutter reminded him of Cami.

“Are these your daughters?”

Tears shone in her gray eyes. “Yes.”

The anger he'd thought he'd never feel overwhelmed him. He had sisters. He knew Cami shared a deep love and friendship with her sister but also that the relationship had defined who Cami was.

“Didn't want to raise a boy?”

Jane bit her lip and looked away. Her hair was short and neat, as was her house. There was a quiet serenity that appealed to the man Duke had become.

“Who's this?” a man asked from the hallway.

“Jerry, this is my son.”

Duke faced the man who was his…what?

Jerry held out his hand and Duke took it. His own palms were sweaty and he was embarrassed by that telling sign.

“Duke Merchon.”

“Jane's been searching for you since I met her. We both have wanted to know you,” Jerry said. He moved to stand by Jane and wrapped his arm around her. Duke stared at the two of them, seeing the love and understanding in each other's eyes. This was something he'd never seen before, the thing that had been lacking all of his life. The thing he'd almost had with Cami.

Until you threw it all away.
He felt a great sense of urgency to find Cami, but he knew he had to see this through first. He had a mother and a family.
The one thing he'd always craved. Now he needed answers.

“I didn't know I was adopted,” Duke said, not sure where to start.

“Didn't your parents ever mention it?” Jane asked.

“They were killed in a car accident when I was two.”

“Oh, God,” Jane said, and she turned to Jerry crying. “I knew I should have kept you.”

Duke wanted to reassure her that he'd had a good life, but knew that the white lie wouldn't come. Would it be a white lie? He'd never wanted for anything and his life was a successful one. In fact, he realized, there was only one thing missing.

“She was young and unsure,” Jerry said. “She thought she was giving you a better life.”

Duke let go of his anger as he watched this couple. There had been a hole in Jane's life, he realized. Even deeper than the one in his. Though he had no roots and had always felt the need to move on. His childhood hadn't been as bad as it could have been. And his protector's instincts sprang to the fore. This woman didn't need to suffer further.

“It's okay.”

She straightened from her husband and walked toward him. She hugged him. Not the quick embrace of a stranger but the strong and emotion-filled one of a mother. “I've never forgotten you and always wished I'd kept you.”

He wasn't a reject, after all. He needed to talk to someone. To hash out all that had happened today,
and the only person he could do that with was Cami. And she was gone.

He left a few minutes later but promised to come back for dinner over the weekend to meet his sisters. It was a weird feeling to have a family after all this time. Especially a close-knit one.

Duke sat in his expensive car and felt the emptiness around him. He didn't blame his mother—he might have done the same thing given the same circumstances. For the first time his life was clear to him. He'd spent his life trying to protect the security of others and that was the very thing he'd always longed for.

Cami's love had brought him to the point where he'd been able to have this meeting with his estranged mother. The man he'd been six months ago would never have visited Jane and given her the closure they'd both needed. And a chance for the future.

Cami had given him everything she had, and he'd pushed her away. How was he going to get her back?

 

The postmortem meeting for the Gala had been scheduled weeks ago, and Duke had forgotten about it. Cami had avoided him all week, but now she'd have to confront him. He didn't know what to say to her. He still regretted her intrusion into his life. She should have asked him about his past. Should have…

She entered the room carrying a small presentation board and her purse. She moved like a woman with
a purpose, not the frenetic bundle of energy she'd once been. Their presentation to the board of directors would be the last time he saw her. He'd been temporarily assigned to the hockey team in Canada without asking for the transfer. Because he had the unique skills needed to establish Pryce's presence and ensure security. Ironic, he thought. The escape he'd craved was now the one thing he dreaded.

The Cami Jones sitting across the hardwood conference table was a stranger to him. She was cool and composed, no nervous thumping of her feet. No mad shuffling of her note cards.

She ignored the small talk around her and surrounded herself in a well of silence. She reminded him of no one more than himself. The way he'd insulated himself from others.

Instead of her normal brightly colored dresses, she wore a drab brown suit. Her hair was pulled tightly back from her face in a severe bun. The animation and energy that had been her trademark was gone.

Her light extinguished, and Duke realized he'd destroyed her as surely as he'd destroyed Rebecca. Except Rebecca had the peace of death. Cami had to keep living with the knowledge she'd been abandoned by the man whom she'd loved. He doubted she still felt that way about him.

How could she?
He'd been revealed as a destroyer and a reject. A man no woman wanted in her life.
How many times do you have to hear the same sermon before you become a believer?

Yet as he stared at Cami he saw a different ver
sion of himself. Not the small abandoned boy, the young man who'd lost his young wife, but a man who was whole and worthy.

This was the woman who'd challenged him to smile. Who'd gone out of her way to make him see that life offered more than death and loneliness. The woman who'd shown him the truth about love and living.

He'd left her because he hadn't wanted to face the truth of the past. The truth of himself and his feelings.
He loved her.
And it was too late.

Max arrived five minutes late and started the meeting. Duke tried to catch Cami's gaze, tried to establish the bond that had always been there between them even when he'd been unable to acknowledge it. She wasn't reaching out anymore and he wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Max caught his eyes while Cami was talking and gave him a sharp look.

What happened?

Duke ignored it. How could he tell a man he respected that he'd acted on anger and fear and torn this woman limb from emotional limb?

Duke went into his presentation mode, pretending that everything was normal in his life. He slid back into the place he'd been before. He hated the feel of that old shell yet it protected him. Only now did he realize he wasn't really living anymore.

He needed to break through the wall she'd built around herself. How? Suddenly he had the answer and knew just what he'd do.

 

Duke looked good, better than he should after what had happened between them. Seeing him confirmed she'd had no impact on his life. Gabriella had been incensed on Cami's behalf when she'd talked to her last night. “That dirty dog,” Gabriella had said and Cami loved her for it.

But Duke wasn't a dirty dog. He'd been up-front with her from the beginning. He'd even left her after that first night and she'd convinced him to have an affair with her.

She was embarrassed now by her desperate behavior. But at the time pride hadn't been a consideration. Now it was all she had to cling to. Duke left the boardroom, and the CEO stopped Cami.

“You did an excellent job on this project, Miss Jones. I'm recommending you be reassigned to a new role—special events coordinator.”

“Thank you, sir,” Cami said, hardly able to believe she'd been given this chance. It was something she'd always wanted. The old Cami would have started bubbling exuberantly, but the new wiser woman restrained herself. The new woman didn't throw her arms in the air and do a victory dance. Cami regretted that new stranger who'd taken over her life, but it was safer this way. She was safer not reacting so emotionally to everyone.

She said goodbye and walked to the elevator. The doors opened as she approached, and she'd boarded the car before realizing that it was occupied.

Duke looked good. His unique scent reached her, and she remembered the last time she'd lain close to him. Cami wanted to do nothing so much as kick
him in the shins for hurting her. She felt tears sting the backs of her eyes and tried to back out of the elevator.

The doors closed. Duke reached around her to insert his key in the override lock. They were now securely locked in the car with no hope of escape. She stared at the floor and blinked furiously. She wasn't going to cry in front of him. She wasn't going to talk to him.

“Aren't you going to look at me?”

“No,” she said.

“Please,” he cajoled.

She shook her head.

Placing his hand under her chin. “I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist.”

His eyes were still hidden, his emotions still frozen and as he stared at her she felt the tears start to fall. She'd wanted to avoid this but there was no way. She couldn't help herself. He was her dream man, her white knight with the battered armor and she didn't know how she'd live without him.

“Oh, God, don't,” he said, brushing his lips across her eyes and absorbing her tears.

“Please don't touch me.”

“I have to.”

“No, you don't. I betrayed you.”

“I was angry,” he said.

Cami realized she was weakening. How spineless was she? She'd always been a determined woman when it came to business and now she had no choice she had to be tough in her personal life, as well. How many times was she going to let a man
walk all over her? “Oh, okay. Now that I know why you threw a fit and walked away. It's fine.”

“Cami—”

“Let's just go back to where we were. Want to have sex here in the elevator?”

“Dammit—”

“Yes, dammit, Duke. I gave you my heart. I showed you the key to your past and hoped you'd see it for the gift it was, but you didn't.”

His grip shifted to her shoulders. “I love you.”

The words were ones she longed to hear, but she knew Duke couldn't bear the knowledge he'd destroyed another woman. Knew his conscience wouldn't let him leave her this way. “Do you?”

“Cami, I've never said those words to another woman.”

His tone got through the maze of pain she'd been wandering in. “Oh, Duke. I love you, too. But I don't think I can be what you need. You need someone who's strong enough to give you security.”

“You're that woman, you're my mate.”

Those words spoke to her heart and she ached to believe him, but it was hard to. “I'm not so sure.”

“I went to see the woman who gave birth to me.”

Though she wanted to keep her distance, she needed to know more. “What happened?”

“I talked to her. She's a very nice lady who's happily married.”

“Then why did she abandon you?”

“She was sixteen when I was born, scared and
alone. She made the choice she felt was best for me.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” she said, and meant it. Duke needed the closure that visit would have brought him. And she wanted him to be happy.

“Cami, without you I'd have nothing. Without you I'm nothing, a shell of a man who is afraid to love. I've dedicated myself to protecting others.”

“I know,” she said, her heart melting.

“I want you to be my security.”

“For how long?”

“Forever.”

“Why?”

“Because I realized that you already were my anchor.”