He uncrossed his arms and she turned to meet his gaze.
“I’d never use our personal time together against you. Or anything else personal, for that matter,” he said softly. “Do you really think I would?”
His heart thumped in his chest as he waited for her judgment. Groups of people jostled by, but neither of them moved. Jackson held his gaze, her eyes searching his. She brusheda few strands of hair off her face.
“No, I don’t think you would,” she finally said. “Maybe I thought so at first, but not anymore.”
He was dying to kiss her right now, no matter who was watching. But he didn’t want to stop at a kiss. One encounter with her had left him reeling, and the second had left him desperate. Cameron wasn’t sure he’d survive another with his sanity intact.
He lifted his hand to touch her but stopped and let it fall. Her eyes flashed with something—disappointment?—but she averted them and started walking.
“I took a job at a PR firm because I needed the money,” she said flatly. “The nonprofit I started out with could barely afford my salary, and I needed double what they were paying me to move out of my sister’s spare bedroom.”
“And the firmyou’re at now doesn’t take on nonprofits?”
“They do, but those accounts don’t pay as well. So I started to go for other accounts, bigger ones like Blackmore Inc.” She wrinkled her nose. “See, I’m on this ten-year plan...”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Long story,” she said. “Anyway, I needed the extra money quickly, and they were looking for someone who would travel internationally. SoI took it.”
She needed the extra money quickly? The hair rose on the back of his neck, and his hands tensed into fists. How the hell did he ask his next question?
“Were you in some kind of trouble?” He frowned. He’d asked the question much more forcefully than he had meant to.
Jackson shook her head. “Not really. Just the plain old cheating boyfriend kind of trouble,” she said. “SoI needed my own apartment.”
“Oh.” Cameron unclenched his hands, and he rubbed his knuckles. “I’m sorry. That’s crap.”
She gave him a wry smile. “Yeah. I’m sorry, too. Good apartments are hard to find in New York.”
Cameron smiled a little.
“You want to know something else?” She looked at him, and he slowed his pace. Her voice sounded less sure. “He’s the reason I took you up tomy room that first night. He had some...performance problems.”
“And you suspected I wouldn’t?”
“Well, yeah.” Jackson laughed for real this time. “But he also told me that I didn’t know how to have fun.” Her smile faded a little.
“And he said you were causing his performance problems?” he asked slowly.
Jackson swallowed. “He didn’t come out and say it. But he let me know that hedidn’t have any problems with the woman he’d cheated on me with.”
What an asshole. He hissed out a breath. The dickhead was probably lying, too, but Cameron didn’t want to push the subject. Jackson looked hurt, and he had to shove his hands into his pockets to keep from taking her into his arms.
They stopped on a corner at a red light. The crowd closed in on them, and he took a step closerto her.
“You know that’s not true, clearly not true,” he said softly.
Jackson shrugged. “I guess I do now.” She looked lost in thought for a moment. “Yep,” she added. “Those nights were definitely fun.”
She started across the street with the rest of the crowd, leaving Cameron behind. Fun? This wasn’t a deliberate insult, the way she had playedmediocrethe other night.Funwas ordinary,forgettable. Not something that kept Jackson up late at night or woke her up needy and aching for his mouth and his arms and his cock. And Jackson McAllister was not going home thinking they’d hadfuntogether. In fact, he was starting to hope she wasn’t going home at all.
She reached the other side of the street and turned around, looking for him, her brow creased. But when she found himin the crowd, her mouth tipped up into a slow smile, as if she’d found exactly what she was looking for. As if he were exactly what she wanted.
Cameron’s heart pounded in his chest, and he quickened his pace. Maybe he still had a chance to sort this out. But how much progress could he make in a week?
