Finally Found (5 page)

“At the risk of sounding a bit mercenary, what’s in this for me?” She raised an eyebrow as she had raised the stakes.

He leaned in and smiled his most charming smile. “The pleasure of my company?” He placed two hands on her bare shoulders. It was chilly in the parking garage and she didn’t have anything on over that bustier. She was a bit chilly to the touch. “Hey.” He pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her without thinking, without asking. It was pure instinct. And yet he had never done such a thing before. He frowned at that realization.

Cammie studied him. One minute he was trying to charm her, the next minute he was dropping the façade and being incredibly genuine and sweet. She shook her head. Man, this guy was a ball of contradictions.

“No?” He looked bewildered.

“Why not just rent a car? Why not just stay here until morning and then examine your options in the light of day? Why not ask a friend?” She watched as he winced. “Surely you have friends. You always hung out with a big rowdy group of them.”

He took a step back and leaned against the cement piling. “You would think, right? I was never at a loss for company. Well, it’s funny how being in a coma can put life in perspective.” He sighed. “As it turns out, I have no friends. And I currently have no wallet. My brother, in his infinite wisdom, seems to have absconded that, too. That’s my sad tale.”

“So where the hell do you think I’m going to drive you? Where do you think you are going to go since you have no money and no car?” She had her hands on her hips. “Surely you don’t expect me to support you? I don’t make enough money for that. Actually, I’ve seen your frivolous spending. I’m not sure anyone but a rock star would have the money for that.” She sighed. Part of her wanted to take pity on him, the other part wanted to throttle him. “Do you have any idea how hard I work for every little thing that I have?”

She was completely irritated now, barely rational. As she talked, she had been walking toward her car angrily. She unlocked the door to her Honda Civic. “Get in,” she snarled.

He quietly did as she commanded. At least she was driving him away from here. For a moment he pictured himself as a bum on the streets with his cardboard Sharpie sign:
Anywhere but here!

Pulling on his seat belt, he sat with his hands in his lap. He glanced over at the odometer and noticed that the vehicle had well over 100,000 miles. Without speaking, he tested the seat belt while she seethed and simmered. He felt around tentatively for soft spots in the floor. The cherry on top of his birthday was not going to be ending up as road kill or spending even one more minute in the hospital. He heard what he could only describe as a low growl.

“What. Are. You. Doing?” She had barely gritted out the words.

“Is this vehicle even safe?” He tried out his most contrite look. If his luck continued to hold, she would be impervious to that, too.

“It goes. It stops. It always starts. Any more questions?” Cammie was clearly not enjoying his company.

“Just the one…” He paused as her head snapped around to look at him. “Where are we going?” Adam half expected her to snap at him again. Instead, she looked at him and laughed. Laughed. Not a chuckle. Not a giggle. She laughed. Whole, hearty, soft and warm…she laughed.

“Oh, well, I figured before we went on this fool’s errand of yours that I should change. And I could show you how the other half lives.”

“We’re going to your place?” He perked up. While he had jokingly hoped to end the night with her, he never thought he stood a chance. “Was it my charm? Was it my devastatingly good looks?” He leaned over the console toward her. He used those gorgeous blue-green eyes of his, dark like the Caribbean after a storm, and was reduced to nearly nothing when she laughed again. This time, not in a good way. He pounded his fist against his heart. “You are killing me. Maybe I’m rusty?”

“Please, you were never good enough to get me,” she said, throwing her head back and laughing even harder.

Adam sank lower in his seat and stared out the window. This was really turning out to be some birthday. A horrible birthday. The worst birthday ever. He bit down on his finger like he used to when he was young and frustrated.

“Stop that,” she chided. “Everything is going to be okay, Adam. You just have to adapt to a whole lot of changes.” She had pulled his finger out of his mouth, yanked his hand away from his face, and set his hand in his lap. “Really. You are going to be just fine.”

He stared at her. There was something so inviting about her. She was so…real. She was looking at him from under those thick eyelashes. He wanted to know if they were hers, were they real, too. Then there was the bustier. Were the girls real? He knew without really having ever talked to her that she was completely unlike anyone he had ever known. The problem with that, as she had asserted, was that he had no idea how to talk to her even.

“You know…I don’t even know your name…” He said quietly, a little embarrassed at the admission.

“Well, a name tag doesn’t really go with this outfit,” she joked. Then looking at him sideways, her pony tail bouncing playfully behind her, she announced, “Cammie. Call me Cammie.”

They pulled up in front of a narrow building. It was scarcely wider than the double door and skinny sidelight window. Adam gawked at it. “Holy hell! That is one tiny building.” He glanced around, trying to see what the rest of the crowded street looked like. “And where do you live?”

“That would be…the third floor of Holy Hell.” She smirked at him.

He wanted to stab himself in the thigh with a really dull fork…like the kind they had in the boarding school he spent two years at before being expelled. Those forks could barely stick the steak. And those knives…glorified butter knives. He shook his head. Honestly, he should stick to non-verbal communication. He smiled. In the past, that would have meant taking her to bed. With all he had said wrong this night, he wouldn’t even be permitted to undress her with his eyes. He sighed.

“Should I wait in the car? Is there even room for both of us in there?” He smirked to show he was joking.

“This is the part of the evening wherein I give you a tour of how the other half lives. Drag your ass.” She rolled her eyes and sighed as she stepped from the vehicle. “Oh, and you have to lift up on the door to shut it. The latch mechanism is a bit tricky.” He could see she was trying not to laugh at him as he struggled with the door.

After a few more unsuccessful tries, she sighed loudly and walked over to him. “Move,” she urged. Once he was out of the way, she grabbed the door handle, lifte
d it and the door, then directing it with her foot, managed to expertly shut it on the very first try. “There.” She smiled and led the way inside the building.

“You might have mentioned the foot trick. I bet if I had used the foot trick…” But before he could complete his sentence, they had walked up the narrow dimly lit staircase and had stopped in front of her door. At least he assumed it was her door, since she was using a key in the lock.

“So, here’s what’s going to happen,” she said. “I’m going to walk in after you. You should go straight, duck under the loft, sit on the couch and wait for me. I’ll hike up the loft, change, and come back down. Then I’ll take you anywhere you want to go because I’ll be so happy to get out of these shoes and that bustier that you can all but have your way with me.” She was practically giddy as she peeled off her shoes in the hall.

“Does that mean I still have a chance at getting my birthday wish?” He wore his most seductive grin.

“Why do you always have to do that?” She sighed loudly. “Can’t we just be playful and have fun without you trying to turn everything into sex? Have you not had enough meaningless sex in your life?” She gestured with her head. “Go on. I’m waiting.” It was getting late and her impatience was showing.

Sitting quietly under the loft, Adam wondered over everything she had said. It was true. There was more than a grain of truth to it. Hadn’t their discussion earlier in the evening proven that point? And yet some habits were simply so hard to break. He frowned. Some day, he wanted something real, just like Sam and Haley. He wanted someone that he could be himself with, who would love him no matter what. He wanted someone who was safe to love.

Too soon, she came down the ladder. She was wearing worn jeans and a fitted v-neck long sleeved shirt. It was plum colored and a white tank top was peeking out underneath. She had on fuzzy socks and slid her feet into some black boots that she pulled out of a cupboard near the door. And her hair, for the first time that night, was loose and flowed past her shoulders in waves of honey blonde and gold. Then she did it again…that thing where she looked up at him through her long lashes. For a moment, his breath caught in his throat and he had to wonder once more how he had never noticed her. She knew him, but had he really been that superficial that he had never paid attention to her because she was the help? He shook his head, disgusted with the man he used to be and determined to be better.

“Did you decide where you want to go?” She asked while grabbing a black leather jacket from behind a sheet that doubled as a closet door. He knew his mouth was hanging open. That was why she had reacted as she did. She chuckled. “The other half, remember?”

“You mean to tell me that the other half doesn’t have closet doors? The other half doesn’t have bedrooms? The other half lives in an apartment so narrow that I can literally touch the opposing walls?” He stood and spread his arms to demonstrate. “Do you even have a bathroom in here, or is this some crazy communal situation that they try to pass off as eco friendly and European?”

She gave him a look that suggested
he
was the one being ridiculous. “Of course, even the poor have to bathe and pee.” She shrugged. “Let’s go.”

They headed out the door. She locked it while he looked on. “Believe it or not, even I have stuff people would want to steal.” She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Did I say anything?” He felt attacked.

“Sorry, I have a tendency to be a bit defensive, I guess. It’s a learned behavior.” She skipped down the last few steps and headed out the front door. “I learned it from working around people like you…”

Adam had no idea how to respond to all that. It was strange. He hadn’t even known Cammie more than a few hours. In that brief time they had been at each other like cats and dogs. They seemed to mix about as well as oil and water. Yet he couldn’t help but want to spend more and more time with her. While she seemed remarkably open, he still sensed that there were so many mysteries that he needed to unravel.

“You know, you are way too young to be so bitter,” he remarked with a smirk as they sat in the car and hooked their seat belts.

“Yes.” She said simply. Then she started the car and placed her hands on the wheel. She stared straight ahead.

“What are we waiting for?” He asked.

“I still have no idea where I’m going.” She leaned over the steering wheel for a moment as she stretched her back. “So, Jeeves, where to?”

He couldn’t help but smile at her. She was so stinking cute, such a ball of contradictions, so tough and yet so delicate. She was never at a loss for words, but could render him speechless in an instant. She was…fascinating.

Cammie’s eyes shut for a moment. Once again, he was drawn to her long thick lashes. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. He found himself imagining what it would be like to feel those lashes brush against his cheek as he crushed her against him. And it occurred to him for the briefest of moments that she might be too tired to drive him. Part of him wanted to end this fiasco, give up, give in, and go home rather than inconvenience her. And the other part of him wanted her around for a while. He needed a new toy. He could make it worth her while. When he tired of her he wouldn’t simply discard her like he had the girls of the past. No, he was changing. When he discarded Cammie, he would leave her better off than he had found her. And she would even thank him.