No. She couldn’t be falling for this man. Not Cameron Blackmore.
Jackson gulped in a breath. Cameron, raking his hand through his hair, turned away and checked his watch.
“The rest of the team will be here inabout thirty minutes,” he said. “I need to get inside and meet Simon.”
His gaze was fixed on the entrance. Right. He had a job to do, and so did she. But for one delicious moment, she had let herself want him. Not just in bed. She wanted him for real. She had all her clothes on, so she couldn’t blame it on a post-orgasmic haze. Damn.
She looked up at Cameron’s face. Did she dare wonderif he wanted her, too?
But the moment was gone. The blank, focused expression he had worn since they’d walked out of the office was back. They finished mounting the stairs and, after being admitted into the event, stopped just inside the door.
“Where’s Simon?” she asked. “Or are we using some kind of secret route?” She smiled up at him. He didn’t smile back.
“We?We’renot going anywhere.”He frowned. “I’mgoing to meet Simon.You’regoing into the event.”
Jackson put her hands on her hips. “You’re not ditching me for the whole night while you go off and do your job. I’m here to watch how you work.”
Cameron clenched his jaw. “You’re PR, not quality control,” he bit out. “You’ll see enough from the event room.”
What? After the last two weeks, did he still think he couldbark at her like she was some disobedient child? This man knew how to piss her off like no one else did.
“Number one,” she said, raising a finger in front of his face, “you’re not calling the shots alone here, and you can’t just cut me off. Number two, Derek said this wouldn’t be dangerous. Number th—”
Cameron’s enormous hand closed over hers before she could lift a third finger. “Youremember what happened the last time you started counting things off for me.”
Jackson’s heart stuttered. His living room. Oh, yes, she remembered. And with his large chest just inches away, the scent of him all around... No. She pulled her hand away and glanced around. No one was looking. Thank God.
Cameron gave himself a little shake. He closed his eyes, and his chest rose and fell heavily.Finally, he looked at her.
“Okay, Jackson. I hear you.” He sighed. “But I don’t like this. You can come and get a sense of what’s going on while I meet with Simon, but the moment the client gets close or anything else happens, you need to be far away. No questions.”
Jackson blinked. Was Cameron Blackmore actually offering a compromise?
“All right.” She put her hand on her hip. “Thatwas easier than I thought.”
Cameron gave an incomprehensible snort and pulled out an earpiece from the collar of his shirt. He murmured something into it, and after a beat, he took her hand. “Let’s go.”
They walked up a flight of stairs and down another. She snuck glances into doorways, trying to get a glimpse of the rooms in this iconic building, but after a while she gave up. Somedayshe’d come back here and take her time.
Cameron pushed through a door into an empty hallway, muttering short phrases, presumably to Simon. He didn’t look in her direction, but he kept her hand tucked tightly into his. He stopped at every corner, ushering her behind him. Jackson tried to keep up with Cameron’s long strides. She was starting to pant, but she wasn’t about to ask him to slow down.
But as they turned down yet another hallway, Cameron stopped and mumbled something.
“Shit,” he hissed, turning to her. “We have a problem. I need to get you out of here.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Cameron glanced around and pointed at a door. “In there.”
He put his hand on his gun and looked into the dark room. Jackson waited in the hall, listening to the noises in the distance.No one was in sight. He grabbed her hand again, and they slipped inside. The space was windowless, lit only from an open doorway along another wall.
“We’ll be out of the way in here,” he said, his voice low. “But we need to close that door. Stay close.”
He led her across the room. But when they reached the doorway, Cameron froze. Jackson bumped into his side, but he didn’t move a muscle.She opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but she heard why he must have stopped. Footsteps. Cameron whispered something. Simon must have said something back because his grip on her hand tightened. What was happening?
The footsteps grew louder. Cameron’s grip on her hand grew to bone-crushing tight.
A shadow appeared outside the door. And the footsteps stopped. Shit.
