Overnight Cinderella (3 page)

“Would you like another drink?”

“Sure.”

She nodded and watched Duke walk away with Max and his date. Even interacting with Max, who was obviously a close friend, Duke still kept a distance. Cami felt challenged.

With Duke she'd felt a spark the first time they'd touched. For days she'd dreamt about him. The hero in the book she was reading had taken on his physical characteristics. Because her hidden self was bold, she'd spent forty-five minutes last night
in a lingerie shop choosing something new to wear today because she hoped she'd run into him.

Did he feel the same spark? A glance at the man waiting in line at the bar sent a chill down her spine. Did this man feel anything? Max and Melissa had moved on, and the families that surrounded Duke didn't touch him. He was an island. Could she make him feel? She doubted it, but for once she wanted to try.

He made her want to comfort him, which surprised her more than the sexual desire he'd sparked in her. Comforting a man like Duke would mean risking her heart because she didn't know how to only feel emotions halfway.

 

Duke steered through the early evening traffic with ease. He hadn't seen Cami since the picnic last weekend. She had invited him to check out an event the catering company she'd selected was working here in town. Since it would give him a chance to see how the caterers worked and allow him to observe their interaction with hotel security, he'd decided to go with her.

He'd been avoiding her since he'd seen her at the picnic. Because he knew he'd crossed a line he hadn't meant to when he'd asked why there wasn't a man in her life. Now he was backpedaling and trying to reestablish the distance he always kept between himself and others.

She'd wanted to drive, but he'd put his foot down. Sitting next to him in another one of her
frenetic suits, Cami hummed quietly to Vivaldi's Concerto in E, the music suited her.

If any woman was Spring, it was Cami. She bustled with life though she tried to hide it. On the outside she tried to be calm, polite, and a plain Jane but she didn't come close. The true woman underneath kept flashing through. He wanted to get to know that woman intimately.

“There's the turn,” she said.

And she wasn't going to be happy until she completely unraveled the threads that held his life together. He'd been having hot dreams about her and her slinky stockings. When he'd seated her in the car, he'd watched her straight skirt slide up her thighs. The woman's legs ought to be illegal. He was still hard from the peak he'd gotten earlier.

She was slowly infiltrating his office after only one visit. She'd looked around and declared the place too sterile. Then she'd shown up at lunch with a box of pizza, Godiva chocolates and a framed motivational poster on goals to hang on his wall.

He'd decided to bring in some of the stuff he'd collected in Japan just to stop her. He didn't know if he could handle one of those lace things she had on her credenza in his office.

He knew he could just refuse her gifts, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings. Though he didn't question it too closely because he knew he wouldn't like the answer, her caring touched him in a way he hadn't accepted from anyone in a long, long time.

She simply didn't ask permission to clutter up
his life. Barging right into his office, she then expected him to appreciate it. It intrigued him, wondering what she'd do next.

He let the valet park the car and followed her into the hotel. It was plush and elegant. First-class all the way, and for a moment he felt like the unkempt orphan he'd been for his formative years. The boy who'd have been shown the door before he'd even crossed the lobby. The boy who'd have given his eyeteeth to fit in.

He wasn't that boy anymore. He was wealthy enough to live in a suite here if he desired. He was prominent enough to garner special attention from the maître d', and his confidence allowed him to mingle with the born-with-a-golden-spoon crowd.

Cami grabbed his arm before they entered the reception. “Okay, want to hear my plan?”

Her touch went through him like wildfire across dry land. How could this plain woman keep him in a constant state of semi-arousal? Except she wasn't plain. There was an animated charm to her pixie-like features and slim body. He wanted to see her out of the baggy suits she wore at the office and into nothing but those dark hose and garter belt he'd glimpsed at their first private meeting.

“What plan? You're here to test the food and service. I'm here to check on security.”

“I know, but I thought you could kind of help me out.”

He liked that she asked for help. Not many people in her position would ask someone of his rank for help. The political games people played in the
office wore on him and partnering with Cami was refreshing.

“Sure. It won't take me long to check out the security setup.”

“Great. One of us can concentrate on the food, what was asked for and delivered by the caterer. The other can concentrate on the service.”

“Okay. You take the food. I can't see you as being a troublesome guest. Besides, they invited you so you'll receive red-carpet treatment.”

She smiled at him, and again he felt like a kid playing in a schoolyard trying to impress a girl. It was exhilarating and reminded him that his youth hadn't always been bleak.

Dammit. She looked a bit like the hotel made him feel, like something he'd always wanted and couldn't have. Almost as if she were too good for the man he really was. It was more than mere lust or attraction and went deeper. It was the aura of sweet innocence about her.

“I'll expect a full report on my desk first thing tomorrow,” she said with a sly grin.

He wanted to smile back at her. Wanted to flirt in a way he never had before but wouldn't. “Yes, boss.”

“Hmm. I like the sound of that.”

“I'll bet you do.”

He wanted to smile, actually had to bite the inside of his cheek. When she grinned at him, he knew she was aware of the reaction she'd had on him. This lady was a firecracker beneath her prim exterior. As she winked at him and walked away,
he vowed to break through to the woman underneath.

Duke worked the fringes of the crowd. While he asked questions about security and service, his mind wasn't on the job. He watched Cami and discovered the rest of the world didn't see the spunk and grit she showed him. She was quiet and demure. Despite her crazily patterned suit, she was a lady to the core.

Men treated her like a sister and women felt at ease with her because she was no threat to them. If only they could see her legs, he thought. Forty-five minutes a day in the gym couldn't compete with a gift from nature.

Arousal shot through him, pooling at his center. He shifted his legs and gave thanks he was wearing a suit and not jeans. The room was filled with women more attractive and more available, and he wondered if he'd lost his ever-loving mind. Because he had eyes for only one woman.

And though he ached to have Cami in his bed, he didn't want her in his life. She was a sweet lady. He should take what he needed from her and move on, but those actions were callous. Only a bastard behaved that way and he hated treating anyone the way he'd been treated all his life.

Dammit, why wasn't she the average woman she tried to be? Why wasn't her skin covered in acne instead of translucent and soft? Why couldn't she stutter when she spoke and be a slow thinker instead of a woman with rare wit and keen intelli
gence? Even those horn-rims were beginning to grow on him.

Why don't you get to work?

He caused a fuss over the lack of vegetarian items on the buffet and was soothed by the head chef then directed to another table across the room. He asked for imported beer and was told the company had only purchased kegs of domestic. They offered to send someone to the bar to get him what he wanted. All in all, he was pleased with Cami's choice of caterer. They were eager and efficient.

When she joined him at the end of the evening, she looked tired, well-fed, and like a woman who needed a kiss. But he wasn't the man to give her one. The evening had proved without a doubt that he lusted after Cami Jones. He reminded himself the things he wanted most in life he destroyed.

Life had shown him one pattern time and again. The pattern of betrayal and loss. At thirty-three he was old enough to know he didn't want to repeat that cycle again.

D
uke thought the presentation to the board went well even though he'd been thinking about his partner. He couldn't help it. If ever a lady needed his protection it was Cami Jones. She reacted to everything and everyone with the same nervous leg tapping that made her seem as though she'd burst into a thousand pieces if something went wrong. He'd tried to tease her, calling her Thumper and she'd relaxed. But he wondered if it would be enough. They still had four months of working together, and he hoped she'd get stronger.

And so many things could go wrong in the boardroom and in life. The board of directors was a shrewd group of men and women who'd each clawed their way to the top. One little temporary
event coordinator was easy pickings as far as they were concerned. But they wouldn't mess with
him.

He wanted to shelter Cami and protect her, but the one thing he needed to protect this fragile little lady from was himself. As soon as Max adjourned the meeting, Cami stood and beat a hasty retreat. Duke took his time gathering his papers and then noticed Cami's purse lying on her chair.

Damn, she wouldn't be able to leave without her purse. He'd send one of his secretaries down with it. He didn't have to see her again today.

She was waiting for the elevator when he got there.

“I thought you'd be back in your office by now,” he said. Dammit, did he sound huffy?

“Max asked me to schedule an appointment with his secretary for next week.”

He shrugged and handed her purse to her. “You left this behind.”

She reached for her bag and their hands brushed. She pulled back, the purse dropped to the floor. Cami bent to gather the spilled contents. Duke grabbed a handful of items.

“Thank you,” she said as the elevator doors opened.

“Still reading the same book?”

She blushed and nodded.

“You remember me mentioning I've never read one of those.”

“Yes,” she said slowly.

“Why don't you read me some of it on the ride down?” he asked, handing the book to her.

“I don't think that would be a good idea.” Her quiet tone and seriousness drew his attention. Where was the frenetic lady who looked as if she was going to bounce off the wall?

“Why not?” he asked, moving closer to her.

“Because.”

He arched one eyebrow. “I might give you that smile you've been asking me for.”

The spunky woman he'd come to know wouldn't be able to resist the challenge for very long, he'd bet. He was right. She pulled the book out and opened it to the page she had marked. A wave of color swept up her face, and he knew she must be at one of the steamy parts of her story.

“Why don't
you
read it to yourself?” she suggested, and handed him the book.

Duke read the page marked and then glanced at her.

Suddenly the lights went out, and the car jolted to a stop. Cami screamed and Duke felt her pitch forward in the darkness. The emergency lights snapped on, casting them in an eerie glow. Cami looked up at him, her glasses askew. Her breasts lifted and fell rapidly as she struggled with passion and fear. In this light her dress looked feminine and appealing.

He needed to calm her. To alleviate her unnecessary apprehension. To hell with that, he needed to put this irrational lust to rest and the only way he'd do that would be to kiss her. To take her sassy mouth in a kiss and scare her away for all time
because the woman who'd blushed while he'd read that passage wasn't an experienced woman.

Gently he removed her glasses and put them in her breast pocket. “Hey, is this how that Matt fellow was holding her?”

Cami assessed him and Duke had the feeling he'd come up lacking. “Don't tease me, Duke.”

He looked into her big dark brown eyes and knew he wasn't teasing. Whatever reason he'd originally teased her was gone.

He wanted to kiss her. Had wanted to forever and a day, it seemed. And as he stared into her dark eyes he realized she wanted to kiss him, too. He wondered if she'd been thinking about him as he'd read that passage.

“I'm not teasing you,” he said.

Her pretty translucent skin and soft pink lips beckoned him closer. She always looked like such an innocent, and more than anything he wanted to taste her innocence. He wanted to know for himself how it would feel to be embraced by her.

Her fragrance surrounded him like fire on a cold night. Like spring, she smelled of fresh flowers in bloom, and he felt like winter.
So cold.
It had been a long time since sunlight had touched his soul.

He leaned closer to her. “I'm not sure I can promise you an embrace that's
pure.
”

“That's okay,” she said, shyly wrapping her arms around his neck. Her fingers tunneled through his hair and held on to his scalp. It was more than he could bear and all thought swept from his mind.

“Ah, sweetheart, I'm going to regret this.”

He bent and took her pink lips in a kiss that came from his hungry soul. And as a man who hadn't eaten in a long time, he feasted to gorge himself. He angled his head and traced her mouth with his tongue. Her sweet peppermint breath tempted him to delve deeper. To taste more of the woman hiding beneath those average clothes. And he did.

He thrust his tongue past the barrier of her teeth and tasted the very essence that was Cami. He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her deeper into his embrace so he could feel her fragile spine. He traced its length to her bottom and cupped her in his hands, pulling her into the aching cradle of his thighs. He thrust against her, needing to touch more of her. To claim more of Cami for himself.

He'd never wanted like this. He couldn't stop. He didn't want to stop.

He backed up against the wall for support. He lifted her off the ground and felt her sink into him. Through layers of fabric he felt her heat and in his mind he imagined sweet wet womanly warmth searing his skin. He needed to know how this was affecting her, and he needed to know now.

His control shattered. For the first time since Rebecca's death he felt an emotion that scared him. More than lust or desire but affection. Taking comfort from satisfying his physical demands, he scrunched the back of her skirt in his hand, intent on baring her to his touch but the lights snapped back on—jolting him like a high-voltage shock to his brain.

It seemed like that Christmas morning when he
was seven and had woken to find no presents. All that hope and anticipation built by visits to all those shopping mall Santas dashed in one quick instant. The pains he'd taken to speak out loud. Ruthlessly he shoved the small boy from the front of his mind back behind the wall that held his memories.

The elevator car started to move and he fell to the side, his balance as shattered as his control. Cami scrambled away from him, her hand on her soft pink lips and her eyes wide. What had he been thinking?

He hadn't thought. Emotion was the one thing he'd never been able to handle. He watched her try to pat her clothing into place and settle her glasses on her nose. He decided right then not to care for her. Not to let affection have any part of his soul because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop there.

“You okay?” she asked.

He'd practically attacked her, and she was checking up on him? The doors opened, saving him from answering. Because control was gone, he fell back on his basic coarse instincts. He walked away without saying a word. He felt her steady gaze on him the entire time and knew with bone-deep certainty he'd hurt something fragile and precious. Thrusting his hand into his pocket he fumbled for Rebecca's wedding ring. Better to hurt Cami's tender feelings now than to wait until later and completely destroy her.

 

Cami watched Duke walk away and for a moment stood frozen in place. Time flashed in her
mind. She was once again a teenager watching the most popular boy in school tease her with smiles and flirting before callously humiliating her by making her the butt of a tasteless joke.

It wasn't the most devastating thing to have ever happened to her, but it ranked right up in the top three. The doors slid shut and the car resumed its downward journey. She wanted to break down, but she knew she still had to pass Shelly. Cami bit her lip and ignored the pain. Her office was so close.

She wanted to huddle on the floor in a ball and pretend that life worked out the way it did in books and movies. In her heart she knew differently. An attractive man like Duke Merchon would never be interested in her—not really. She didn't understand why he'd kissed her—why he'd rocked her world on its axis and then ripped away her safety net. She didn't want to know.

The doors opened onto her floor and she hurried down the hall in a daze. She sucked in deep breaths and blinked furiously to keep the tears from falling. Shelly was away from her desk.

Thank you, God.

The last thing she wanted to do was to explain anything so private to her secretary—especially that she'd thought for a minute a man might be attracted to her. Cami entered her office and shut the door, sinking to the floor right there. She rested her head on her knees but couldn't cry. Crying was the wimpy thing to do and she refused to surrender to the weakness.

Gabriella's smiling face stared down at her from
the gilt frame on her bookshelf. The past had taught her that every time she tried to step out of her shell it backfired. She remembered her high school graduation, dressed to the nines in a designer dress Gaby had helped her pick out and overhearing a comment made by one of her mother's friends. “It's a shame Gabriella got all the looks in the family. I always thought Cami would bloom the way the Ugly Duckling did.”

Horrified, Cami had retreated. She was ashamed to realize she was still running from that. She stood and glanced at the clock. It was five and time to go home. She needed to be in her haven so she could find her perspective and regain her equilibrium. Grabbing her briefcase and purse, she left her office. A group of her co-workers were on the elevator, and she tried to smile at them the way she always did. Cami must have been successful because no one appeared to notice her. They never noticed her, she thought.

She stood in the shadow of the building, trying to remember where she'd parked her car. The nondescript brown car was about as exciting as she. It fitted her to a tee.

People exited the building and funneled slowly out to their vehicles, but Cami couldn't move. For the first time in a long time, she saw herself clearly. She realized who she was. The reality hurt far more than a man brushing aside an embrace that had shattered her world. She knew she had to make some decisions about her life. But would she be strong enough to carry them out?

“Cami?”

Duke.

Damn. Why hadn't she at least entered the parking lot to search for the ugly car?

“Yes.”

“Aren't you going to look at me?”

No.
She didn't want to look at him ever again and glanced over her shoulder. She wanted to wallow in her anger and self-pity.

“Where's your car? I'll walk you to it.”

Additional humiliation she couldn't handle right now. “I can get there on my own.”

He grunted. Why did men make strange sounds that weren't words but were meant to communicate? Her father made the same noise when she'd exasperated him. Had she exasperated Duke?

She stepped off the curb and walked as if she knew where she was going. The left side of the lot was almost empty, and she didn't see her car. She glanced right and spotted it toward the back of the lot.

“Cami?” he said again.

This time she wouldn't turn around. It didn't matter. His eyes would still be shuttered. His expression so cold and aloof she couldn't fathom if she were even registering in his mind. “Yes, Duke.”

“That kiss…”

That kiss had been one in a million. She'd felt transformed from her outer body to her inner soul. Even now she could still taste him on her tongue, feel him pressed against her. Shivering, she
wrapped her arms around her waist.
And he'd walked away.

She darted across the parking lot. Thank God she'd found her car. She didn't want to dissect her feelings with him and share postmortems. She wanted to get into her car, go home and reaffirm her safety net in her small cozy house and her fiction books. She wanted to turn around and smack him.

The violence streaking through her veins shocked her. Duke grabbed her arm to keep her from moving away. She tried to shrug out of his hold, but he held her too firmly. She looked into his winter eyes and saw an emotion she couldn't define—something more than regret.

“I can't do this now,” she said. Her voice sounded shocked to her own ears.

“I'll show you
my
smile if you'll show me yours,” he said.

She couldn't believe her ears. He was holding out an olive branch, but it wasn't the one she'd secretly craved. Cami breathed deeply, inhaling the subtle fragrance of man tinged with an expensive aftershave. She sighed.

She appreciated his kindness. She'd never been much of a poker player. He must have seen her hurt and was now trying to be nice. But he'd felt so darn good she wanted to fool herself into believing it had been something more…some emotion that had touched his soul.

She tried to muster up her usual enthusiasm in vain. She gave him a half smile.

“Come on, Cami. Give me your thousand-watt grin.”

She tried again and he frowned.

“It's not your fault,” she said.

“Why not?” he asked, letting her move away.

“I'm just not the right kind of girl for you.”

He cursed under his breath, and Cami moved quickly to her car. He'd confirmed what she'd known. She unlocked her door and started to slide into the car only to be stopped by his voice.

“You might not be the right girl, but you're still tempting the hell out of me, sweetheart. And don't you forget it.”