Part 15 (1/2)

Since she'd been on her own in the big, wide world all she'd needed was fresh air, food, water and basic shelter. She'd never once felt that need to be needed by anybody else.

Yet now those three little words danced behind her eyes, waving streamers and skipping through fertile fields, singing at the top of their lungs. It had been so long since she'd shoved the wish down so deep inside that the moment it came to the surface it was intoxicating.

'I'll think about it.'

'Don't think, just come,' he murmured against her shoulder.

She extricated herself from his wandering hands and slipped out of the tent, happier to be half-naked beneath the open sky than to see how much more he could get her to promise him from just a simple touch.

'So, I'll pick you up at your place around eight,' he called out.

She found her functional white, cotton briefs hanging provocatively over her tripod, and shoved them into a pocket of her telescope bag. 'Oh, for Pete's sake, fine! I'll go. Are you happy now?'

'Now I am happy.'

All her fidgeting stopped. He might have been playing like he was flirting, but the thread of truth lacing its way beneath his words got to her like nothing else.

She glanced back into the tent to find Cameron was lying back with his arms over his head, his biceps cradling his head, watching her.

'It's black tie,' he said with a grin.

Her eyebrows lifted so fast she almost pulled something. 'Are you intimating that that might be a reason for me to back out?' might be a reason for me to back out?'

His gaze meandered down her crazy get-up. 'Not at all. So far you haven't found it at all difficult to just say no to me when you really wanted to say no.'

'You have no idea,' she muttered.

'What was that?'

She wrapped the tie of her fluffy cardigan ever tighter. 'Cameron, I'll go with you to your father's party because I'm madly proud of you for listening to my words of wisdom. No hidden agenda. Nothing more. As agreed last night.'

He stared at her for a few moments, then nodded. She was mighty glad he believed her, as she wasn't even close to sure that she believed herself.

She s.h.i.+elded her eyes and looked to the sun, which had risen, making it some time after seven in the morning. The faint crescent of Venus had been hovering above the horizon for some time without even getting a look in.

She said, 'Shouldn't you get going? Don't you have minions to boss around at the worksite? Won't Bruce be lost without you?'

'I'm not so worried about Bruce right this second. How about you?'

'Bruce isn't high on my list of priorities either.'

He smiled. A smile so stunningly s.e.xy that Rosie's knees forgot how to work.

'I meant, do you have anywhere else to be,' he said.

She blinked down at him, arms crossed. 'Um, no. I don't. Because this is my place of work.'

Cameron didn't move a muscle. He simply lay naked in her tent, while she realised that from the minute he'd walked into her glade-all gorgeous and conciliatory, talking of how he couldn't keep his hands off her-she hadn't given her work, her time, her warm bed, her breakfast, or anything else usually so important to her, a single thought.

Warning bells began to chime inside her head, telling her to finish getting dressed. To get moving. To just let him keep the d.a.m.n tent.

'Then what are you doing out there in the cold when it's still so warm in here?' he asked, flapping open the sleeping bag, leaving room for her.

That was all she'd done for him too-left room. And if that meant having a little less room for herself then maybe that was the price a girl had to pay for getting a man who came back for her.

Rosie bit her lip, weighed her options, became trapped in his eyes, then said, 'Oh, what the h.e.l.l,' as she tore off her beanie and threw it over her shoulder before she dove back into the tent.

'Now, tell me more about this crush you had on me in high school,' he muttered as he stripped her down.

'I think think it was you I had the crush on. You were the captain of the footy team, right?' it was you I had the crush on. You were the captain of the footy team, right?'

'No, I was not. Now, stop sa.s.sing me and tell me about the moment you first laid eyes on me and your teenaged heart went pitter-pat.'

'Cameron Kelly,' she said on a sigh as he went to work, 'You'll have to do much better than that if you think I'm ever going to spill a single detail.'

He did better. Like a lightweight, she spilled.

And, just as she'd hoped, the warning bells were soon drowned out by the symphony of sensations only this man could make her feel.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

MOST of that next day and night Rosie slept like a log. Sat.u.r.day morning she woke late, crinkled, ruffled, and blissfully replenished in every which way. of that next day and night Rosie slept like a log. Sat.u.r.day morning she woke late, crinkled, ruffled, and blissfully replenished in every which way.

It was after lunch by the time she stood staring unseeingly at the window of the designer boutique on the top floor of Queens Plaza.

Adele was puffing when she arrived at her side. 'Sorry, sorry. Lipstick disaster. Don't ask.' Puff, puff, puff. 'What's the big emergency?'

'I have to buy a new dress to wear tonight.'

'I know a dress from a pair of trousers, so I'm your girl. Do you have any maybes as yet?'

'Not exactly. I have yet to venture inside.'

Adele turned to stare into the window at the s.h.i.+mmery, wispy, frothy frocks hanging off obscenely thin mannequins. 'Any reason you're looking in this this particular window?' particular window?'

'It's for Cameron's father's birthday.'

In the reflection Adele's eyes s.h.i.+mmied down a mannequin whose dress was low cut in places, high cut in others and barely worth putting on, it covered so little flesh. 'Happy birthday, Quinn.'

Rosie slapped her on the arm without even turning her head.

'Ow. So I take it you and the great and wondrous Camster are still on?'

'We're not on on,' Rosie said, running her thumb hard down the middle of her palm to stop the tingle that had spread up her fingers at the memory of his hands touching her cheek, getting lost in her hair, stroking her naked back. 'We agreed that our relations.h.i.+p only extends so far as dining together on occasion, and now we are attending an event in tandem.'