The Dare Collection July 2019. Nicola Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ Recent years hadn’t been kind to his track record when it came to dealing with clients, so Aaron’s offer wasn’t completely out of line. Aaron knew him better than anyone. Cameron’s patience wore thin with increasing regularity, and he found himself snapping at them before he had a chance to dial it back. So he stopped bothering to dial it back at all.

      He and Aaron had met in college, and he knew his friend always assumed there was a deeper backstory to his being a dick. Some tragic past he never talked about. Some defining event that made him wash his hands of all the social niceties.

      There wasn’t.

      Cameron’s parents were good people. Nothing outstandingly bad had happened to him growing up, and if being a black man in this country came with its own set of bullshit and headaches, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. There were always others who had it worse.

      No, the truth was that he preferred machines to dealing with actual humans because machines made sense. There was always a concrete answer, one that wasn’t open to interpretation. Every aspect of a computer was clearly defined and had its own set of rules to work around—but those rules were clearly stated from the beginning.

      People were nuanced and managed to be multiple things, often at the same time. They said things they didn’t mean, and then got pissed when he took those things as truth and acted accordingly. They had masks within masks and motivations they rarely put out in the open. Cameron didn’t get people, and maneuvering through their needs and emotions, even for surface-level interactions, left him exhausted and feeling like an asshole.

      Because he fucked it up. Every single time.

       Just like you did with Trish.

       I couldn’t take what she was offering. It would backfire and she’d have been hurt in the process. There is no good exit route once we step past the point of no return.

       Could have handled it better, though.

       Yeah, no shit.

      “Cameron, you’re not even listening to me.”

      He scrubbed a hand over his head and mentally made a note to shave his head again soon—before they went to London, for sure. Cameron might not handle people well, but he knew Aaron as well as he knew himself. The man didn’t want to come back to work yet. He just needed Cameron to say the right thing to assuage his guilt and let him take the break he’d more than earned.

      He cleared his throat. “I have this covered. Go back to doting on your fiancée and baby and stop worrying about us.”

      Another hesitation, but shorter this time. Aaron loved Tandem Security as much as Cameron did, but he loved his new family more. Which was how it should be. Aaron’s relationship with Becka had started unconventionally enough, but they’d found a good balance and their love for their new daughter filled up a room in a way that made even Cameron smile. It didn’t hurt that Summer was cute as hell and seemed to like him just fine. Babies were simple—simple needs, simple desires. If she cried, it was because she wasn’t having some need met, and that he understood.

      Too bad adults weren’t that easy to figure out.

      He didn’t begrudge his best friend his happiness. He just wished Aaron would stop worrying about the company. He was only gone for a couple months. Cameron could manage to apply a filter to himself for a couple months until his friend was back in the office. He wasn’t that much of a lost cause.

      His partner got a dreamy tone. “Summer smiled at me today. The book says it’s probably just gas, but I don’t give a fuck. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

      That, he believed. She was adorable. Cameron managed a smile. “I’m glad you’re happy.” If anyone deserved that happiness, Aaron did. He was a good guy, and he’d spent too many years putting up with Cameron’s shit not to have earned a good turn or two.

      “Thanks. That means a lot.”

      Cameron checked his watch. “I’ll check in once I have things lined up.”

      “Talk to you then.”

      He hung up and checked his email. Sure enough, confirmation for a flight to London had appeared. Since there was one for Trish as well, he assumed she had her passport updated. You’re focusing on minor details to avoid focusing on the fact that you’re going to be traveling with her.

      Easier to remember why she was off-limits when in this office. There was no escaping the constant knowing that it was inappropriate to follow through on the look he sometimes saw lingering in her blue eyes, or to submit to the gravitational pull between them that seemed to grow stronger with every day he didn’t give in.

      Put them in a different country, in a hotel together...

       Getting ahead of yourself. Trish might have been interested before, but she’s made it pretty fucking clear she’s not now.

      That was a good point.

      Cameron sighed and rounded his desk to sink into his chair. Whether Trish did or didn’t want to start something still was irrelevant. They had business to conduct and they’d more than proven they could work together when required. He just had to keep his head in the game and not be the one to fuck it up.

       Easy enough. Work comes first—end of story.

      He had absolutely nothing to worry about.

      * * *

      Trish paced from one wall to the other and back again. “I can’t do this. It’s going to blow up in my face.”

      “It might be helpful if you explain exactly what you’re not doing.”

      She glanced at her almost-sister-in-law, Becka Baudin. She sat on the couch with Summer propped carefully on a pillow, nursing away. When Trish pictured her big brother with someone, it was some straitlaced woman who probably thought doing taxes was fun and drank expensive red wine and vacationed to exotic places with topless beaches.

       On second thought, Becka probably fits the last one.

      She didn’t fit much else when it came to expectations. She was a blue-haired beauty who was both a personal trainer and led a bunch of hard-core fitness classes—at least before her pregnancy got too far along. She was also hilarious and nice and loved Aaron to distraction. In short, she was perfect.

      Trish wasn’t here for perfection, though. She needed advice. “I’m traveling with Cameron. To London. Alone. For as long as it takes to secure this account.”

      “I know it’s not super normal for the guys to travel but...” Becka trailed off and her blue eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh. You and Cameron?” She leaned forward and winced. “Sorry, Summer.” A quick adjustment and the baby was nursing happily again. Becka frowned. “Why didn’t I know about this?”

      “Because there’s nothing to know about.” Nothing except she kept throwing herself at him and he kept setting her gently back and trying to explain why he would never touch her. Nothing except her pride being bruised beyond all repair because of her impulsiveness.

      It was the height of insanity to still СКАЧАТЬ