CHAPTER FOUR
JACKSONWOKEUPto the sound of chimes. She sat up and scanned the room. Her phone alarm flashed in the darkness. Oh, right. The Sydney hotel room. The one she had invited Cameron Blackmore back to for sex last night.
Nice move.
She reached for her phone on the nightstand and shut off the alarm. Stretching, she flopped back onto the bed. After six hours of sleep,the fog was finally lifting off her thoughts.
Which was a good thing because Cameron would be knocking on her door soon.
She rolled out of bed, washed her face and squeezed back into business attire, muttering to herself through the whole process. What the hell was she thinking last night? Actually she knew exactly what she’d been thinking: this guy is unbelievable. Scorching. Temptingenough to have a little of that fun Rob thought she was constitutionally incapable of. The kind of fun she had never let herself have.
Just one night indulging in one of those “good things” she was long overdue for, and where did that get her? She managed to find the one man in Sydney she absolutely should not have sex with, under any circumstance. She was supposed to be fixing his reputation,not succumbing to it. She doubted the board would praise her thorough investigation skills in this area.
Jackson reached for her purse and pulled out her little red book. She flipped through the worn pages until she found the one labeled Sydney. The last item she had written was Manly Beach. She grabbed a pencil and wrote underneath, “Hot sex in Sydney.” And then crossed it out. At least somethinggood should come out of this mess.
Damn Cameron Blackmore and his deep voice and his stupid muscles he’d caught her staring at this morning. Who the hell had biceps you could see through a business shirt? And damn her own traitorous body. This morning she’d pictured office fantasies she didn’t even know she had. The kinds of fantasies she should absolutely not be thinking about right beforea dinner meeting with his team. The kind her career-oriented mind tried hard to avoid.
Shit. And now he was coming to her room? No.
Jackson stuffed the little red book back into her purse and grabbed her files. She leafed through them until she came to Cameron Blackmore’s contact information, then sent him a text.
Meet me in the lobby.
Good. Maybe she could get this whole crazyfirst twenty-four hours in Sydney under control. And hope Cameron Blackmore didn’t figure out that she was probably more at risk of losing her job than he was if anyone found out.
Jackson exhaled loudly and looked at the clock. Enough time to check her messages. She opened her laptop and got to work, reading through the updates from her other clients, responding to Kyle’s questions. Luckily,Kyle was a brilliant assistant, much more on top of things than any other twenty-three-year-old she had worked with before. Jackson’s shoulders sank in relief. No fires to put out.
She hovered her cursor over the last unopened message, debating whether or not to click on it. She couldn’t ignore a message from her own mother, could she? Okay, she’d done it once or twice in the past, but shewas in a different country. Maybe her mother was actually worried. Or excited to hear about her first trip to another continent. Right.
She sighed and clicked on the message. Just as she suspected. NoJust checking in to see if you’re okay.NoYou’re in Sydney! I’m so proud of you.Instead, her mother had sent a link to her sister’s latest blog post featuring the twins. The two-year-olds werefeeding each other her sister’s latest homemade baby food creation. Okay, it was cute. Very cute. She could almost hear Marcello and Marco’s laughter as they stuffed each other’s mouths full, dripping all over the expensive tile floors of Jami and Fabio’s Brooklyn town house. But Jami wouldn’t worry about that—the maid would clean up later. Her sister would be enjoying the moment, enjoying herdomestic bliss.
Unlike Jackson, Jami had managed the seemingly impossible task of living up to all their mother’s expectations. She had a faithful husband, adorable kids, a big house and a successful career. For extra-credit bonus, Jami was so damn nice and good-natured. Her sister really was happy, and Jackson admired that, even if it wasn’t quite the kind of happiness she was looking for.Jami had survived a type-A mother, a philandering father and their inevitably calamitous divorce relatively unscathed. Jackson? Well, she had survived. Unscathed? Debatable.
At the end of the message, her mother hadn’t forgotten to add her favorite saying: “Good things come to those who wait.” Thanks, Mom. Really subtle. As if Jackson were just killing time in Sydney while waiting for therest of the things on her mother’s success checklist to fall into place. She was on her own path...or, rather, she was on a ten-year plan to get onto her own path.
She gritted her teeth and hit Reply.
Thanks for sending. Marcello and Marco are adorable, as always. PS I’m having a great time in Sydney.
For once, she was grateful her mother would never think to ask about the nature ofher “great time.” Jackson closed her laptop and headed for the bathroom once more, pushing her mother out of her mind. She was finally in another country, a place where people went about life differently, thought about things differently. What would it be like to live another life, just for a while? That question was what had sparked her dreams of traveling long ago, when her parents were at theirworst. But now traveling was more about adventure than escape, though an evening with Cameron Blackmore had certainly given her an X-rated perspective on what another life could feel like. She put on her makeup and practiced her cool, business-only smile in the mirror. She had faced sexy, built men before. She could do this.
Jackson browsed her shoe selection. Flats for walking, or heels tocombat the height difference between mammoth Cameron and her? She frowned. Cameron wasn’t making any wardrobe decisions based on her. No reason for her to do so for him, either.
She grabbed her flats, put them on and headed for the hotel room door. She swung it open and stepped out. And crashed into a large, solid body.
She heard an “oof,” and strong arms closed around her before she fellto the ground.
Cameron.
For a moment, neither of them moved. His arms encircled her and she breathed in his warm, musky scent. God, he smelled good. She softened into him...
What the hell was she doing?
Jackson scrambled away. “You were supposed to meet me in the lobby,” she snapped.
A look of realization crossed his face. “I wasn’t sure who that message was from.”
“Youoften get messages from women who want to meet you in the lobby?”
