She’d quit.
His gaze drifted over her face.She’d actually done it.She’d had the letter signed and waiting for him when he’d gotten home.More importantly, she seemed confident in her decision.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean Julian’s visit hadn’t rattled her.As calm and centered as he’d found her, her emotions were still raw.There were so many undercurrents between the two of them.One thing was for certain, there weren’t going to be any more ambushes like the one that had happened today.
Cam stroked his hand down her hair and along her waist.He needed to get her away from here.He looked around the moonlit room.They hadn’t slept apart since that night on Roxie’s pullout couch.Lumpy mattresses or 1000-thread count sheets, he’d be content as long as she was at his side—which was precisely why he couldn’t sleep.
She’d made the first move.He needed to get things into place quickly.
Sighing, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead.He eased away from her, but she didn’t stir until he swung his feet to the floor.When she reached for his side of the bed, he froze.
“Sleep, baby.”
Her breaths evened out, and he pulled his pants from the floor.Her clothes were in a lump nearby.Leaving the lights off, he slipped out of the bedroom and shut the door behind him.Rolling his neck, he tried to shake off the weariness that was grinding him down to his bones.There just weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Yet the knot in the pit of his stomach wouldn’t let him stop.
He sat on the sofa, clicked on the table lamp and scrubbed both hands over his face.Letting his elbows rest against his knees, he stared at his briefcase.Lexie’s resignation letter sat next to it.
There had to be a way to work things out.
He settled back into the cushions and popped open the case’s clasps.Pulling out the draft offer, he set it aside.Notes and charts were soon spread across the sofa, and his laptop was powered up on the coffee table in front of him.
“Fresh eyes,” he muttered to himself as he reached for the proposal again.He opened the plastic-bound document for what had to be the thousandth time.His eyes were anything but fresh, but there had to be an angle there he was missing.He went through everything again, making notes and checking calculations.Sometimes his job was as simple as putting puzzle pieces together—only he had to form the pieces first.With Underhill, he had one piece that just would not fit.Not the way he wanted it to.
And certainly not the way Lexie would want it.
He toyed with a dog-eared page as his tired mind tried to shift into a higher gear.Glancing over his things, he looked for the market study he’d done.It wasn’t there.He flipped through the things that remained in his briefcase but still couldn’t find the information he needed.
He looked towards the hallway.Maybe he’d left it in the office.
He tossed the proposal onto the coffee table, and it slid all the way to the other side before stopping.On bare feet, he padded down the dark hall.It took a few moments, but he finally found what he was looking for on the table by the windows.He was flipping through the pages when he walked back into the living room.
His footsteps slowed when he realized he wasn’t alone.“Lexie?”
He felt her before he saw her.When he glanced up, a kick resounded in his gut.She was soft, sleepy and sexy as hell.She was dressed in his shirt again, and the white color made her hair appear darker and her legs look long and lean.
For as gentle and serene as she appeared, though, her eyes were sharp.She was standing over the coffee table and staring hard at the well-worn proposal in her hands.She swept away the pieces of lint that clung to the plastic cover.He’d been through the thing so many times, the clear plastic was scratched and smudged.
At the sound of her name, her head snapped up.The kick in Cam’s gut sharpened painfully.The confidence and contentment that had exuded from her earlier was gone.The only thing that glowed from her eyes was anger.
And it was hot.
Hand shaking, she lifted the proposal—the same one she’d dropped on the conference room floor…the same one she’d never gotten the opportunity to present.
“What are you doing with this?”she asked, her voice raw.
He took a cautious step forward.“It’s not what you think.”
“No?You’re not using my idea to save Underhill?”The proposal shook in her hands, and she dropped it as if it were too hot to hold.It smacked back onto the table, and she backed away from it like it was poison.There was hurt mixed with the anger in her eyes.A deep, sinking hurt.
Cam’s heart started beating double time.Things were spiraling out of control almost as if in slow motion, but he couldn’t stop them.She didn’t understand.It wasn’t what it looked like.
“It has nothing to do with UAI.”
“Nothing to do with UAI?”She grabbed her resignation letter.It wrinkled in her fist as she thrust it at him.“This is what you wanted all along.You wanted me out so you could ride in and save the day.”
He grimaced.“I wanted you out because you weren’t appreciated there.They were using you.”
