He didn’t even blink.“I poked around a little.”
“Into what?”
“Her story.”
She didn’t like where this was going.“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
That muscle in his jaw pulsed again, but his gaze was steady.So was his touch.His hands stayed on her knees, and he watched her so closely, she wondered if he knew…if he could feel…
“Lexie, I’m not going to let her work you.”
“She’s notworkingme.”
“I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but your twin has a record.”
“I know.”The fierce protective instinct that ran through Lexie was as foreign as it was powerful.“She was arrested for shoplifting when she was eighteen and disorderly conduct for an incident outside The Ruckus.She told me.”
“That’s just for starters.”
She clutched at the armrest.“They were minor infractions and, frankly, I don’t care.She grew up in the system, Cam.She didn’t have people watching out for her or teaching her right from wrong.It was about survival.”
“Don’t let her use that as an excuse.She did all right for herself.”
“Yes, she did.I don’t know that I would have done as well if it had been me.”
The air snapped between them, and it was a wonder there weren’t sparks.It could easily have been her, and they both knew it.Cam’s touch shifted, and heat cascaded up Lexie’s thighs.
“Well, you do have someone watching out for you,” he said, his voice like gravel.“Me.If that makes you uncomfortable, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
Uncomfortable.The word hung in the air like a flashing neon sign.Lexie might not remember much about her time at the bar, but she remembered that word.She remembered the way it had slipped out.She remembered the way it had made him press her back against the jukebox.She remembered the way his hand had slid up the back of her thigh under her skirt.
In a flash, she was on her feet.
He came to his feet too.With as closely as they’d been sitting, they stood even closer.His feet tangled with hers, and their thighs bumped intimately.Her breasts pressed against his chest, and he caught her hips as if they had the right.
“I’m not trying to upset you,” he said.“I do what I have to do, regardless of whether people like it.You know that about me.”
But he was upsetting her—in more ways than he realized.
She wasnakedunderneath her borrowed dress.
Lexie’s thoughts scrambled.All she could really assimilate was his touch low on her hips where her panties should be—and the growing heat and tension between her legs where they weren’t.Her belly squeezed.Why hadn’t she just borrowed a pair of Roxie’s?The full slip she was wearing had a built-in bra.Were panties really that much more intimate?
Yes.Yes, they were—and this was why.
“Don’t ask me to apologize,” he continued in that low voice.“I know how you feel, but I can’t stay out of it.I’m not going to.”
“You have no idea how I feel.”If he did, his hands wouldn’t be on top of her dress.
“Yes, I do.”
“How could you?”
“Because I’ve been in your shoes.”
Her gaze snapped to his face, her scattered thoughts coalescing.“You have?”
He’d gone so quiet and still, she could almost hear the tension humming inside him.He hadn’t meant to let that slip.
