Heat washed through her, and she stepped back, nodding.
“You look better.”
The main house wasn’t that far away, but a bend in the road and the crest of the hill hid the gatehouse from view.It had been designed that way to give guests their privacy and to leave the view from the main house’s veranda uncluttered.Lexie had always liked that about her little cottage.It gave her the independence she wanted but kept her close to the family she craved.
Tonight, though, everyone seemed too far away.With the moon just peeking at them, they could have been the only two people in the world.Her fingers curled around her keys.
“Why don’t you come inside?”she found herself saying.
She didn’t know which was worse, standing alone with him outside in the dark or in the well-lit privacy of her home, but she wanted to know what had happened at the office.Worry had been niggling at her all day.She couldn’t forget how quickly he’d left when her father had called.Had the billboard story blown up?Had her marketing team suffered any setbacks due to her…situation?Most importantly, had he told anyone about Roxie?
Sucking in a breath, she climbed the steps to the door.Cam turned, and she accidentally brushed against him as she walked past.She nearly dropped her key, but he reached out to steady her.
“I’m not drunk again,” she said defensively.
“It’s dark out here.”
Dark.Close.Secluded.
His heat slid around her, and her key clanked against the metal lock.Finally, it slid into the keyhole.Pushing open the door, Lexie reached inside for the light switch.Relief spread through her when the entryway brightened.She stepped inside away from him, but just like that, her discomfiture returned.
The two-bedroom bungalow was her home, her space, her private hideaway.If she’d been uneasy having him in her office the other night, this was a thousand times worse.Her grip on her purse tightened.
She’d been in a rush to get to the office last time she’d been home.A pillow sat on the floor in the living room, where she’d sat cross-legged as she’d practiced going through her pitch.The light from the entryway stretched into her bedroom, gently illuminating her unmade bed and a pink babydoll nightgown.And her proposal!The original draft version and her notes were spread out on her dining room table right in front of them.Moving quickly, she gathered up the papers and set her purse on top of them.
The click of the door had her spinning around.The tiny house seemed even smaller with him inside it, and she shied away.There was nothing here to be ashamed of, nothing to surprise or shock, but it was her life set out on display.She hadn’t decided whether or not to let this man into her world, but he’d barged in with all the delicacy of a battering ram.
Although she may have left the drawbridge down over the moat last night.
She rubbed her bare arms and felt her right foot instinctively cocking back onto its heel.
Cam looked around the place with interest.“Your mother didn’t decorate this.”
The statement unarmed her.Why would he say something like that?
“Except for that,” he said, pointing at a brass urn on the entryway table.
Lexie found herself at a loss for words.She hated that particular piece, but Anne Marie had insisted that a vase with flowers was too pedestrian.
“Or that.”He was nodding across the dimly lit living room to the picture of still fruit over the fireplace.
His eye was just a bit too good.Lexie’s foot came down, and she walked to the kitchen.Privacy was swiftly turning to intimacy.She filled herself a glass of water at the sink and looked over her shoulder.“Do you want anything?”
His eyebrow lifted.“I’m good.”
She drank thirstily.The glass let out a soft ring when she set it on the counter, and she wiped her hands over Roxie’s dress.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come home tonight at all,” he said, “but I took a chance you didn’t want to sleep on that foldout again.”
Lexie’s nerve endings were tingling.They’d shared that uncomfortable bed, and he knew it.He was watching her, waiting for a reaction.He got one.Her entire body flared, but she tried her best not to let it show.
She cleared her throat.“Roxie wanted to spend the night here.”
“So you two worked things out after I left?”
“I tried to explain Julian to her.”
“And how he’d think that having the Underhills should be enough for you?”
