“You don’t understand.I don’t want you taking this job, I don’t want you taking any other job.I don’t care if it’s down the street or in Lapland.I want you here.”
“Because we’re something.”
“Because I work with people I trust,” he said with conviction.“I’ll support whatever you decide, but it’s taken me a long time to build a solid team.I don’t want another stranger coming in here, taking your place.No one can take your place.”
“Irony has a sense of humor.Allan asked me to show the new girl the ropes.”
“The new girl for…?Me?There’s another—when?Now?There’s a strange woman upstairs?”
“Well, she’s with a strange guy…” She smiled.“I left her with Noble, but she’s not a stranger.”
“Not a—”
“Terra,” she said.“Allan assigned Terra here.I guess he thinks her sexy siren thing will work for you.”
“Hmm,” he exhaled the sound in an almost aggressive laugh.
Locking their fingers together, he marched out of the office and up the stairs so fast that she almost fell flat on her face.
“Cam…”
Looking this way and that, he got out to the patio before spotting Noble and Terra.
“You’re fired,” he said to Terra before she could draw breath.The woman’s face fell.“I don’t want you in this house.Go.”
“But I—”
“Out!”
“I’ll show you,” Noble said, a hand on Terra’s shoulder.
The beauty didn’t deserve wrath.She was caught in the middle of something—
“How could you think I’d be okay with that?”Cam snapped, whirling on her when the other two were gone.
Dragging him back into the house, Knox’s words about ears outside still echoed.
“Don’t lose your rag out there,” she hissed, keeping her own volume low.The yard was big, but there was still only a fence between them and the street, where Terra might still be with Noble.“What is wrong with you?”
“New York!What the fuck, New York?”Cam never shouted, never got mad, except right then.“You are not going to New York.You loved your job here before—”
“I love my job here.”
“Then why the fuck would you leave?Why the fuck would you want to—”
“I don’t want to!”
“Then there’s no fucking reason to—”
“Stop swearing!”
And shouting, but she couldn’t correct that while doing the same.
“You don’t need to go.I don’t want you to go.If you love your job—”
“I love you!”she screamed, the release liberating her heart.“You idiot…” Oh, she’d known all along and this was the key to unlocking the truth.“I love you, you idiot.Oh my God, that’s it!That’s what’s been screwing with my head—I love—I’m actually in love with you.”And that’s why she was trying to separate one from the other.“I can’t work with you when—”
“You think I don’t love you?You think that I’m this fucking crazy for any other woman?”
