More Than a Playboy (7 page)

“I owe you an apology for the way I behaved the night of the ball.”

He folded his arms across his naked chest, his gaze never leaving hers. “You don’t owe me anything, Sandy.”

The more she thought about that night, the more nervous she became. No matter how much her reaction had shamed her or how much she wanted to bury the incident and forget about it, her actions must have hurt Cameron.

“I do.” Her stomach pitched with nerves and trepidation at his unyielding air. His expression told her beyond words that he wasn’t going to make this easy for her. “You shocked me that night, and I handled it badly. You’re the first man to have ever said those words to me.” Realising how pathetic she sounded Sandy added, “Not because I never date because I do. I’ve never let anyone get that close.”

Cameron remained impassive, watching her with a blank expression that made her want to run for the door.

Sandy hesitated. Maybe this wasn’t a brilliant idea after all.

“Continue. I’m listening.” He must have noticed her eyeing the door behind him.

She moved to the sofa. When she’d decided to come and see Cameron today Sandy hadn’t expected him to welcome her with opened arms, but nor did she expect his quiet hostility either. “Do you mind if we sit?”

He gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa then lowered himself onto the far end. A sense of loss assailed her that he couldn’t bring himself to touch her. Had she left it too long before she came to Cameron? While she was letting go of the hurt her past had inflicted, had she given him time to reconsider his feelings for her?

Forcing herself to continue, Sandy put aside the sting of Cameron’s reaction to her. “At the first warning that a guy may be thinking of getting serious, I usually end the relationship. For you to blurt out you love me like that was a total shock. I never so much as suspected you felt that way. I know you flirt with me and mess about, but that seemed to be your nature. From what I’ve heard, you’re pretty loose with your affections, so when—”

“From what you’ve heard?” Cameron cut in, his voice steely, his gaze just as hard. “This is the second time you’ve made reference to this type of thing, Sandy. Exactly what
have
you heard?”

Why did he look so murderous? Surely, he didn’t think he’d be able to keep his extracurricular activities a secret. She cleared her throat. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to know, but he would have been blinkered not to realise the women might talk.

“I don’t know how else to approach the subject, so I’ll come right out with it. You’re sleeping with the mums who hire you. Personally, I think it’s in poor taste to sleep with the women who pay for your Daddy services, but...” She shrugged.

Cameron looked like he was about to explode. “What did you say?”

“That you—”

“I heard you the first time.”

“Then why did you ask me to repeat it?”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” He jumped to his feet, towering over her. “Why would you conclude I was sleeping with these women? And let’s set the record straight right now. I volunteer my services at TDA. I met Jamie through a mutual friend, and when she told me about her business, and her future plans to start a charity to get kids off the streets and into a program based on parental guidance, I said I’d fund it. But I wasn’t going to put money into the charity and take a back seat, I wanted in.”

This was news to her. Though she worked as TDA’s receptionist, there were obviously aspects of the company to which she wasn’t privy.

“We decided it best for me to assume a voluntary daddy role within TDA,” Cameron continued. “Once we got the charity up and running most of my time went there. On occasion, I’ll take on a booking because the kids like me, and I don’t mind showing up to their events so they have a father figure by their side, but let me assure you, sweetheart, that is as far as it goes.”

“Why else would the mums gush about your extra help, how accommodating you are?”

“Would these ‘mums’ be Tracy Roland, Melissa Teak, or Abby Bailey, by any chance?”

“Yes.” Was he going to confess to sleeping with them? Jealousy socked her in the solar plexus.

He began to pace. “Did you once stop to think they may have been grateful for other reasons? Or do you see me as some bobble-head stud?”

When she opened her mouth, Cameron slashed his hand through the air in front of him. “Don’t bother to answer that.”

“Look, Cam, you don’t have to explain anything to me.”

“Yes I do, Sandy.” He stopped pacing to look at her with a pained expression. “I don’t like who I am in your eyes. How can we move forward when you can’t see past the packaging? So yes, I think I need to explain.”

He continued pacing, taking it to the glass wall. “As you know, Tracy is a single mum. She’s having problems getting a job, because every time she secures an interview, her ex promises to babysit the kids then lets her down at the last minute. We got talking at her son’s award ceremony, and she confided in me. I told her I’d help her out if she were ever in that position again. She was, and I did.”

“If she hasn’t got a job, how does she get the money to hire you?”

“Not everyone who comes through TDA’s doors is a paying client. Yes, Jamie capitalised on a niche market catering to the rich who’re too busy to show up to their children’s events, and would rather hire someone to fill in for them. But since we started the charity, we’ve taken on money-strapped clients also—women whose children are fatherless. Children who have never had a father show up to any of their events. Have you any idea how heart-wrenching it is to have a little boy look at you when you’ve stepped in as father, so he can go to a father-son camping trip with his friends, and tell you he wished you were his real dad?” He ran his hands through his hair, leaving the dark strands in disarray. “Melissa needed financial advice, and Abby? Her son is Jake. You met him on the zoo trip. You couldn’t have missed how mad he is about helicopters. I have a friend at the local airstrip. He let me bring Jake to have a ride in one. Satisfied?”

Stunned, she couldn’t seem to pull her gaze from him. Not because he was so sexy her mouth watered, but because Sandy had just fallen deeper in love with Cameron. She’d misjudged him. Had labelled him a shallow pleasure-seeker, when, in fact, he was deep and caring—a man of worth.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He came back to the sofa and sat, keeping the space between them. “Now that’s cleared up, you can get back to telling me why you’ve never had a serious relationship.”

Sandy kept her gaze on him, wanting to witness his reaction when she told him. “My mum fell in love with a rich man. Tall, handsome, blond—he was a playboy who didn’t know the first thing about taking responsibility.” A frown creased Cameron’s brow and his jaw clenched as understanding flickered in his eyes, but he didn’t interrupt. “When she got pregnant with me he said he didn’t want to be lumbered with a wife and child, and dumped her.” Sandy paused for a moment as her chest tightened with sorrow.

The urge to throw herself into Cameron’s protective arms was overpowering, but she didn’t have that right. She’d rejected it when she’d run from his declaration of love. “Mum was heart-broken. She never recovered from the blow of losing him. To make a long story short, she ended her life when I was twelve.”

The antipathy Cameron had displayed since she’d arrived disappeared. “That must have been rough.” He stood, pulled her into his arms, then hugged her tight.

“It was.” Sandy closed her eyes against the devastating memory of being told by the police that her mother was dead and that her grandparents were coming to Prague to collect her. The weeks that followed had been a haze of overwhelming anguish so deep she couldn’t even cry.

Sandy wrapped her arms around Cameron’s waist and leaned her cheek on his chest, comforted by the tickle of his silky chest hair against the side of her face and his strong heartbeat. “I’ve spent my childhood watching my mother flit from passably happy to deep depression, all because of a man. I vowed I’d never let the same thing happen to me. Then you came along with your charm and money. To me you were cut from the same cloth as the rich playboy who broke my mother’s heart. That’s why I ran away.”

“Aw, princess. You think I’d love and leave you?”

She nodded. His warm half-naked body against her sucked the oxygen from Sandy’s lungs and made her tingle in a jittery way that had nothing to do with comfort. “A conviction that got fixed in my mind when I thought you were sleeping with those mums.”

Resting his cheek against her head, he puffed out a breath. “Listen to me, sweetheart. My feelings for you will never change. I know that because I’ve never felt about any other woman the way I feel about you.” He stroked her hair. “I’m not about to pretend you running away from me didn’t hurt, or that you didn’t dent my pride because you did both. I can’t promise a relationship between us will be smooth sailing, but I can promise to love you for as long as I live.” He spoke in a low, soothing tone. “I’m not going to pressure you, Sandy, but I need you to know I still want to pursue a relationship with you. Where we go from here, though, is your decision.”

For several seconds, the only sound between them was their breathing. The only scents, her perfume, and Cameron’s sexy masculine fragrance.

The longer Sandy mulled over the thought of a serious relationship with Cameron, the more nervous she became. “Just give me a little more time to get used to the idea, okay?”

“Take as long as you need.”

“What if I take months to decide?”

“Then so be it. I’m prepared to wait for you to get used to the knowledge that I love you, Sandy. But I’m not going back to the games we played before the ball.” He hooked a forefinger beneath her chin, tilting her face up so he had an unhindered view of her eyes. “Understand?”

Cameron masterful was a side she could like a lot. She nodded, and smiled up at him as her heart did a happy dance. He still wanted her!

“Understood.”

His gaze dropped to her mouth, he slid the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, his gaze growing dark, glittery.

At the first indication that he was going to kiss her, Sandy’s heart skidded then tripped. Her eyes drifted shut in anticipation of his lips meeting hers, but the kiss didn’t materialise.

She opened her eyes to find Cameron staring down at her with regret.

He released her and stepped out of her personal space. “Will you have dinner with me tonight? There’s something I need to share with you.”

Still reeling from the unfulfilled expectation of Cameron’s kiss, she could only nod. “What time? Where?”

“Seven.” He cleared the husk from his voice. “I’ll pick you up.”

He opened the door to let her leave.

Sandy paused inside the doorway, so close to him his naked bicep touched her shoulder. “Cameron, why—?”

“Didn’t I kiss you when I know you can sense how much I want to?”

Not wanted to, but want to. She took small relief in the word. Cam still wanted to kiss her. Even now, she could see the desire darkening his eyes to cobalt, yet he held back. Why?

“I won’t deny it; I’m dying to kiss you again. But there’s something I must tell you first, and I need some time to prepare.”

She started to suspect she wasn’t going to like whatever it was he wanted to share with her. For that reason, she was more than happy to put off finding out. However, she knew whatever it was he had to tell her she’d be able to handle it. Armed with Cam’s love she felt ready to take on the world.

“Seven o’clock would be fine.” She brushed past him, liking his sharp indrawn breath when she paused for a moment to kiss his cheek. Then without another word, left him standing in the doorway.

9

S
andy had expected Cameron to pick her up in his sports car. The misgivings had started when a chauffeur turned up instead. Now she sat in the same Limo she’d driven in with Jamie and Daniel on the night of the ball, pulling up in front of the same palatial residence.

After their talk earlier, she knew Cameron was serious about her, and the longer she considered a relationship with him the more relaxed she became with the notion. What she needed to discover was whether she could look beyond his outer packaging as he’d suggested. Or did she have him so stereotyped as a man like her father she wouldn’t be able to find the faith to release her fears, and accept Cameron for himself.