He brushed his thumb along her bottom lip. “This is good between us. Really good. And not just in bed. So don’t go. Stay here in Sydney with me.”
She puffed out a breath and looked away. “Evenif I wanted to stay, I have to go back. I have a job and an apartment. And a ten-year plan.”
Cameron’s heart gave a surge. Not the answer he was looking for, but maybe there was hope. She had thought this through. Which meant maybe she had considered staying.
“A plan to quit your job and travel?” he asked.
“I just want to explore a little,” she said. “Travel and work in new places,that kind of thing. But first I need to get myself on better financial footing, pay off my student loans. Someday.”
He raised an eyebrow. She gave him a wry smile.
“Good things come to those who wait, right?” she added. “My mother’s philosophy.”
“Did it work for her?”
Jackson snorted. “Not really. Which is why she wants me to firm up my plans.”
“How much money do these plansinvolve?”
“I’m still working that part out.” Jackson frowned.
“Maybe you’ve waited long enough, Jackson,” he said slowly. “Maybe it’s time to stop waiting and start doing the things you really want to do.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Give up my hard-won apartment and my job to travel until the money ran out?”
“I’d give you a job,” he said.
Jackson laughed. “Was that an interviewthe other day in your office?”
“If you want it to be.” He leaned down to kiss her neck. “But I’d hire you even without the extra services.”
“Good to know.”
He cupped her face in his hands so she was looking at him. “I’m serious, Jackson.”
She blinked at him, and for a moment her eyes welled up.
“I can’t just abandon my life in New York. Not right now, when my only Plan B involvesmoving back in with my mother.” She shuddered. “Maybe I’ll come back sometime and visit. When I can afford to take some time off.”
He shook his head slowly. “Not good enough.”
“Just pick up and go? That is what my mother would call completely unrealistic thinking.” She brushed her fingers over his jaw. “I have monthly payments and no real savings. I’d be completely dependent on you.”
Cameron shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
She was silent for a while, her fingers lingering on his jaw. “Maybe you could come to New York instead.”
He froze. He should have prepared for this question, but he hadn’t. The board must have mentioned that he never traveled. Cameron closed his eyes.
“I can’t,” he said flatly. He tamped down the panic that came from eventhinking about that last time. Cameron took a deep breath. “Look, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t make it there. When I flew here to Sydney, I went a little crazy. If Simon hadn’t been there to talk me down, I would have been led off in handcuffs.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” she whispered. But there wasn’t a hint of pity in her voice. A crease formed between her eyebrows. “Is that why you don’t go toboard meetings?”
Cameron sighed. “Partly. But the other reason is true, too. I’d rather not be in the same room as my father.”
“But the no-flying thing isn’t public, right?” she said quietly.
He gave her a tight smile. “Bad for business.”
