“She disrespected Dad’s memory by moving on so quickly,” he said through clenched teeth. “And I don’t know how to forgive her for that.” Cami opened her mouth, but he was done with the subject. “What did you do with your overnight bag?” he asked.
A line formed between her eyebrows. “I left it downstairs beside the sofa. Why?”
“I’ll go grab you some dry clothes.” While he was at it, he planned to stop by the bathroom to change out of his wetsuit. Wearing a rubber skin wasnotconducive to hiding the fact that he pretty much slung wood around Cami twenty-four seven.
She grimaced. “I doubt anything in that bag is still dry.”
He realized she was probably right. “How do you feel about wearing one of my T-shirts and a pair of my boxers then?”
She pressed a hand to her chest. “It’ll be like being draped in the Shroud of Turin.”
“Smart-ass.” He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.
“Never claimed otherwise.” She cocked one eyebrow, which he thought was meant to look arrogant. But she was flying higher by the minute, so it only made her look more drunk. Especially because the cocked eyebrow was paired with an eyelid that didn’t seem to want to stay up. “Plus, takes one to know one, right?”
Instead of answering—because if he answered, they’d devolve into another round of verbal volleys, and as fun at that was, he needed to get her tucked in before the Dramamine took her out—he turned back to his dresser to find her some dry clothes.
He and the rest of his Deep Six Salvage partners had been living the rice-and-beans lifestyle since they’d spent all their ready cash on the hunt for theSanta Cristina. Half his boxers were frayed at the hems and waistbands.
Since his pride couldn’t bear the thought of handing her a pair of his holey underwear, he settled on the Christmas jockey shorts Alex had gotten him as a gag gift. Rudolph’s red nose was…ahem…strategically placed.
He paired the shorts with a plain white tee and handed them to her before saying, “You change in here. I’ll head to the bathroom.”
“What?” Her grin was impish. “You don’t trust that I can resist your masculine wiles if you strip in front of me?”
“I know you can. You’ve been doing a bang-up job of resisting my masculine wiles for months now.”
“The resistance hasn’t been all one-sided.”
Again, the muscle in his jaw began to twitch. “I know.”
All the teasing left her eyes. “Are you going to tell me what you meant when you said we couldn’t act on this”—she waved a hand between them—“even after I stop being your attorney?”
And there it was. The question.
“Maybe someday,” he submitted cautiously, and then quickly added, “But not right now.” He hitched his chin toward the clothes in her hand. “Go on and get dry. I’ll meet you back here in five minutes.”
He was to the door when she stopped him. “You know, I think this whole brooding, cynical thing you got going is all an act. Because I swear I detect a twinkle of humanity in you from time to time.”
“I told you too much Dramamine can cause hallucinations.” He closed the door to the sound of her laughter.
Once he was in the bathroom, he took his time. He didn’t want to chance walking in on her half-dressed.
She seemed confident in her ability to resist his masculine wiles, but when it came tohimresisting herfemininewiles?Uhhh, no.That see-through T-shirt she had on was bad enough. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to witness her fully in the raw.
Or…maybe it was more accurate to say he’d imagined witnessing her fully in the raw way too often. And if he experienced the reality of it, he might lose his mind.
After draping his wetsuit over the shower curtain rod and slipping into his dry clothes, he made his way back down the hall to his bedroom. The storm battered the house, but he could hear LT and Olivia talking with John and Dana downstairs. The squeak of the pantry door told him they were still gathering supplies.
I should go help, he thought. But then he added the contingency,after I check on Cami.
Knocking gently on his bedroom door, he called, “Cami? You decent?”
Silence.
Was she still dressing? Was she already asleep? Was she convulsing on the floor because she reallyhadoverdosed?
His body flashed hot and cold. Before he could think, he threw open the door so hard the knob left a dent in the shiplap wall.
