He sighed, working to calm the anxious knots clustered within him. “It’s dumb.”
“I don’t think it is,” Camila said. “I liked the one he drew of you guys at the family party. It gave me an idea of what family gatherings look like for the Bentons.”
That it did. James favored that one as well. In fact, he’d set it aside with a few choice others. Winston had taken his time with that one. Captured most of the family gathered around the kitchen. Some sat to the bar, others stood alongside. It was at one of the celebration parties they held. Brazil, if James remembered correctly.
Somehow Mom had talked James into cutting this massive apple pie for everyone. He’d agreed, but boy had he made a mess of things. Winston’s drawing featured mangled heaps on pie plates and jubilant smiles on every face. Betzy had her head tipped back in laughter, while Mom looked to be covering her grin with one hand. James half-expected his own expression to look miffed or humiliated, but it hadn’t. Winston had given him the biggest smile of all. In that picture, James looked like someone who could laugh at his own mistakes. Was that how Winston saw him? Was it an accurate representation?
He wasn’t sure. But he wanted it to be.
“Well,” Camila said, giving his hand a squeeze as they came to a stand. “You ready to get back in there?”
“No,” he blurted, but then a laugh snuck up his throat. Camila had picked up one of the plates, was reaching for the other, but at James’ reply she set them down, scooted in closer, and wrapped her arms around him.
Her lips grazed his earlobe. “You’re doing great,” she said.
Goosebumps broke out over his skin in response to her touch. “Say that again,” he urged.
She giggled, her warm breath triggering that wonderful heat in his belly. “You.” She kissed him there before speaking again. “Are.” Another kiss, this one longer. “Doing a great job,” she breathed before kissing his neck once more.
He wasn’t used to the tables being turned. He groaned as his hands caught her hips. “You’re using my own tactic against me,” he accused. “I like it.” That was an understatement. James was pretty sure that Camila had singlehandedly managed to wipe every conscious thought from his brain with her touch alone.
He mused then, that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Camila. No wonder Winston had been willing to dish out the cash to keep Melanie around. If his feelings for her were anything like this, what James felt toward Camila, he’d probably do the same. Anything to keep her close.
The wayward thought caught James off guard. Why had he thought that? Camila wasn’t anything like Melanie, which waswhyJames was attracted to her in the first place. She didn’t want any handouts. In fact, her pride wouldn’t let her accept one even if it was offered.
He set his gaze back on Camila’s pretty face. When her gorgeous brown eyes locked on his, heat shot through every limb all the way to his toes. It was time to let go of his doubts and trust this woman with everything that he had. Everything that he was. To tell her just how he felt.
Tenderly then, James cupped her cheek, softly running a thumb along her face, and dared himself to do it. “Camila.” It came out in a raspy whisper. His pulse shot into overdrive as he considered the next few words he would speak. He pulled in a shaky breath and forced it out. “I’m falling in love with you.”
That smile of hers, the closed-lip grin she often gave him, spread over her face as her cheeks burned a new shade of pink. “I’m falling in love with you, too.”
Another explosion of heat pulsed through him. “Actually,” he added, “I’ve beenfallingin love with you since the yacht trip.” He nodded, gulped, and soaked up the sudden confidence rising within him. “Iamin love with you.”
Now her teeth were showing, that full and gorgeous grin that made his heart feel like it’d skipped a beat. “Good. Because I love you, too.”
Complete.
That word floated to his mind as James moved in for a kiss. He relished the feel of her pretty mouth on his, the subtle but coaxing touch of her tongue, and the longing whimper that sounded in her throat.
He tightened his grip on her waist as she ran her hands through his hair. And while it caused that low belly heat to rev hotter than it had in years, James reveled in the fact that this was more than lust. This was love. And Camila felt it too.
The thought urged him to back Camila against the glass door and press against her as they kissed. He wanted nothing more than to celebrate—in a different way—the love that they’d found in one another.
He wanted her, but that didn’t mean she was his to take.
James tried to tell himself that very thing as he slowed the kiss. The trouble was, Camila’s touch became more sensual then. The lingering push and drawn-out pull of each heavenly kiss felt so good he nearly ached. He tilted his head, deepened the kiss with a moan before forcing himself to back off once more.
“I could kiss you all day,” she said against his mouth.
Hearing that was a pleasure all its own. James grinned. “Me too.” Forget the fact that only milliseconds prior, he’d lost all sense of self-control. But it was coming back now. “Should we head back up to the loft or…take this to the hot tub?” He was half-teasing, but the mere sound of that idea caused his defiant pulse to rev even more.
She giggled and gave his chest a slap. “The loft. We’re almost done, you know.”
He nodded and forced his mind back to their task for the day. That familiar clash of relief and disappointment warring within him once more. “Right. Let’s get to it.”
Her wide, innocent eyes held reflections of the impending storm in the distance. And for a reason he couldn’t explain, a new sort of chill pushed through him.
* * *
