“She doesn’t work for us.She works for Cam, who she’s never even met.There’s also a door right back there.If she’s scared or offended, she can stroll back out the way she came.And she strikes me as a woman who’d do just that if we hit her hard limit.”
“You can’t throw her out.This isn’t your place.”
“May as well be, we hang here more than anywhere else,” Dalton said.“But I wasn’t throwing her out.I said she could go if she wanted to.There’s a clear route of escape.No one’s stopping her.”
“Are these steaks for anything special?”she asked, touching the edge of a packet.
“The grill.”
That was a new voice… or was it?
“What the hell took you so long?”Dalton asked.“I’m on my second beer… or I would be if Oz would stop proposing to your new assistant.”
“My new assistant?”the new voice was surprised.
And those three words gave away just enough that she could identify…
Twirling on the spot, she stopped when her eyes landed on his.“Sir Texts-A-Lot.”
“Candy,” he said, then frowned.“I didn’t look at my phone once… after I put it away.”
“What else was I supposed to call you?Mr.Loves to Ask Questions?Mr.Holds Wine to Ransom?You’re the first unicorn I ever met; I didn’t realize you were all so sensitive.”
He smiled.Good.Okay.That was better than being thrown out.
“Most people call me Cam,” he said.“Camden Collier.”
“You two know each other?”Noble asked, looking back and forth between them.
The others were probably doing the same, all she could see was that glint in the unicorn’s gaze.The same one that teased her at the mixer.She hadn’t gotten to the bottom of it yet.
“She was at the Brooker thing on Saturday night,” he said, still focused on her.
“She was?”Noble asked.“If I’d known that…”
“You wouldn’t have hooked up with the blonde and abandoned me so fast?”Collier asked, tearing his gaze away to look at his friend.“What are you doing with that?”He passed the guys at the island to deal with something next to Ozzie.She heard a door open and then he was handing beers to his friends.He stepped closer to offer her one.“I don’t have any red.”
“I’m drinking your scotch,” she said, nodding at the glass on the island.
He put the beer back to come closer.When he raised an arm, it almost felt like he was about to lean in, like he was… The fridge seal popped.Right.Yeah.Shit.She was standing right in front of it so scooted out of the way.
The guys crowded in quick, grabbing a bunch of whatever from the fridge to take it past the games area and out the glass accordion doors onto some kind of deck.
Collier was the only one left.Once his friends were out of sight, he turned to her again.
“I make a mean red wine sauce,” she said and shrugged.“Except you have…”
“No red wine, right,” he said.Damn, she’d missed his smile.Was that weird?Probably.“I’ll do better next time.”
“Actually, it’s sort of my job,” she said, tilting her head, squinting at no one.“Unless you kick me out.”
“Want me to kick you out?I’m into role play.There’s a code for the side gate, let yourself back in after the scene.”
Her smile quickly became a laugh.“Is this going to be weird?”
“‘Cause you want to sleep with me?”
“Uh…” Her eyes rolled to their top corners.“I believe I said you weren’t my type.”
