Chapter Two
Cameron made a point of ignoring the knock on the dressing room door.Whoever was outside didn’t seem particularly concerned with that fact; they opened the door regardless.
Keeping his back to them, as if he didn’t give a damn who was walking into the dressing room, Cameron stared into the mirror.Careful to maintain a completely blank expression, he frantically searched the reflection for a glimpse of his visitor.
It was him!
But, even before he even caught sight of the man in the glass, if Cameron were being honest with himself, he’d known who it would be.Who needed mirrors when scent existed?And this guy’s scent was unmistakable, even when mixed with an aftershave that was so expensive, he practically reeked of money.
“Hello.”
Cameron said nothing as his visitor stepped into the room, not even when their eyes met in the mirror.
“I’m Franklin Hamilton.”
He said it in that same tone of voice as rich men always used when they introduced themselves—as if they assumed every single man on the planet would know the name and be impressed by it.
Hackles up, barely holding back a snarl, Cameron turned and leaned casually back against the stained little shelf that was set below the mirror to act as a dressing table.He looked his guest up and down.
Cameron’s own erection was barely hidden away behind a pair of low-slung jeans.For reasons he didn’t want to examine too closely, he hadn’t even bothered to do up the top button of his fly.Still, he did his damnedest to let Franklin Hamilton know he wasn’t the least impressed with what he saw before him.
For several long seconds, they just stared across the room at each other.Finally, Cameron managed to bring words to his lips.
“How much did you pay the manager to let you back here?”He tightened his grip on the shelf behind him, but the words came out more like a seductive purr than a snarling demand.
“One hundred,” Franklin said, apparently not the least embarrassed about the fact.
“And it was an extra hundred for the rest of us.”
Cameron’s attention snapped toward the view through the dressing room door.Franklin hadn’t closed it behind him.
Cameron straightened up from his lounge against the shelf, as he saw the entire pride of lions peering in at him from the corridor.They didn’t wait for an invitation but piled into the room.
Cameron turned back to Franklin.“Friends of yours?”he spat.
“Temporary associates,” Franklin said, quite calmly.“Since we were all searching for you, it made sense for us to pool our resources.”
“And what do you intend to do with me now that you’ve found me?”Cameron demanded.
The answer was as easy to see in Franklin’s eyes as it was in his tenting fly.But Franklin didn’t get a chance to say a word.
“We intend to bring you into our pride.”The leader of the pride stepped forward.“Joseph Arslan.Some sort of distant cousin of yours, I believe.”He held out a hand.
Cameron snarled at the gesture and hooked his thumbs firmly into the belt loops of his jeans.
Arslan merely stood there, hand outstretched, obviously not the least bit unsettled by Cameron’s rejection.
“What the hell makes you think I want to be a member of your pride—of anyone’s pride?”Cameron demanded.
“You’re a lion.”
Confidence radiated off Arslan, as if nothing had ever made him doubt that a pride was where all lions belonged.The stupid old man had probably never strayed away from his pride for one day in his whole life!
“Where are you staying tonight?”someone else asked.
Cameron’s gaze darted past Arslan’s shoulder.A human stood just to his right.
“What?”
