The Dare Collection July 2019. Nicola Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ blinked. “Ghosts?”

      “Yeah, you know...ghosts. Whether you believe they’re energy or memories or literal souls doesn’t matter.”

      Another slow blink. “I think I’m hallucinating because nothing coming out of your mouth makes a lick of sense.”

      “We’re in London. There’s half a dozen haunted tours within easy walking distance. There’s one starting in an hour or so. It’s entertaining, to say the least.”

      “But...ghosts. That doesn’t seem like something you’d be into.”

      It wasn’t, but she’d confessed her love of scary movies, so he’d looked it up this morning while she was in the shower. Logic said that sort of thing would go hand in hand, and as much as Cameron wanted to toss her over his shoulder and haul her back to bed until they were required somewhere, Trish had never been to London before. It was entirely possible she’d like to explore a bit.

      He shifted, not sure how to deal with how closely she watched him. “I thought you might be interested in it.”

      * * *

      Trish must have hit her head. It was the only explanation that made sense. She studied her water, trying to reconcile the man sitting across from her, shifting like a schoolboy who’d done something wrong and didn’t want to admit it, with the confident boss she’d come to expect. “You want to go on a haunted tour,” she said again, as if repeating it enough times would transfer the meaning of the words.

      “We don’t have to.” There it was again—Cameron’s almost-guilt.

      Because he doesn’t care about ghost tours. He looked up the schedule because you do.

      She took a hasty sip of her water and set the glass back on the table. “I would love to do a haunted tour.” She noted the almost imperceptible relaxing of his shoulders. It wasn’t guilt she read from Cameron—it was nerves.

      The realization almost made her laugh. She’d spent so much time tripping over her own feet in front of him, it had never occurred to her that he might be in over his head, too. The ground centered a bit below her feet, her perverse nature liking that he didn’t have a playbook he was pulling from. Not that she’d believed that, exactly. Cameron was many things, but a playboy didn’t make the list. That said, he obviously wasn’t the settling-down type or he would have done it by now.

       Unless he hasn’t found the right person to settle down with...

       Stop that.

       You don’t even know where you’re going to land yet. You can’t make choices one way or another when it comes to being with another person. Even without all the stuff stacked against you, it would never work.

      She didn’t want to think about that right now. Reality seemed very far away with them sitting in a darkened pub in the middle of freaking London. Trish cautiously reached out and touched his forearm. “Could we...” She swallowed hard, gathering her courage around her. “Could we table any conversations about the future for now? At least until we get back?”

      “We’re only going to be here about a week.”

      Such a short time and yet longer than she would have dared when she let herself imagine what it would be like if Cameron gave in to the pull between them. It will have to be enough. “The question stands.”

      His dark eyes searched her face. “That’s what you want? Not to talk about anything too scary for the time we’re here.”

      “Well, any haunted tour worth its salt is a little bit scary.” Her joke fell flat as the bartender appeared and set food on the table in front of them. Her mouth watered as she took in the crispy fish and chips. Oh yeah, I love London.

      “Trish.”

      She reluctantly dragged her gaze away from her food and back to his face. “Yeah?”

      “You can have this week. After that, we’re having a conversation.”

      A conversation destined to be the death knell of their fling. The writing couldn’t have been clearer on that particular wall. All she had to do was open her mouth and tell him she wanted to call the whole thing off—that it was wiser for her to leave things as they were and get the hell out of the UK and back to New York, where she could at least pretend she had her head on straight. They’d had sex a few times, but easy enough to chalk it up to temporary insanity and hope a week apart would be enough to cool their chemistry.

      Leaving was the smart thing to do, and Trish always did the smart thing.

      But she found herself smiling at Cameron. “Tell me about this haunted tour.”

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      “THAT WAS THE biggest load of shit.”

      Trish laughed and slipped her hand into the crook of Cameron’s arm. The wind had kicked up during the last half hour, and it cut through her thin jacket as if it wasn’t there. She was self-aware enough to admit that craving warmth wasn’t the only reason she wanted to touch him. He might be a human-shaped furnace, but being this close to him just felt good in general.

      He absently rearranged her, tucking her against his body and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he turned so his big body took the brunt of the wind chill. Cameron shook his head. “He wooed at one point.” His voice kicked up a register as he mimicked their hapless guide. “Wooooooo.”

      “Oh stop.” She playfully smacked his chest. “He knew his history. It was very educational.” Her heart felt like it was two sizes too big after seeing places she’d only read about. The extra flavor from having a haunted tour only made the whole experience that much better.

      That, and being with Cameron.

      “The information was good. The delivery was off.” He turned and guided them in the direction of their rooms, still grumbling about the guide. He cut himself off and shot her a look. “I had fun.”

      “I can tell.”

      “No, I’m serious. It was nice spending time with you.”

      Warmth blossomed in her chest, and no amount of reasoning could dispel it. She’d had fun with Cameron this evening, too. And last night. And this morning. Reminding herself that it was going to end—and probably end poorly—didn’t make a difference. This runaway train was out of her control and it would keep going until they ran out of tracks. It didn’t matter that she wouldn’t be staying with Tandem indefinitely, or that Aaron would be furious when he found out how they’d crossed the line. Nothing mattered but how much she enjoyed being with Cameron. “What’s your story?”

      “What do you mean?”

      She shot him a look. “Well, you didn’t just pop into existence in your current form. I’m assuming you were a child at some point, probably had a parent or two in one form or another. Siblings? I mean, let’s just start with the basics.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ