A Cinderella Affair

Adam didn’t need anything but to see Camille Davis one more time.

Not in that way, he convinced himself.

He only wanted to tell her about the meeting tomorrow. At least that was the reason he’d taken the elevator to the tenth floor instead of the fifteenth where his room was.

He knocked on the door determined to get this over with as quickly as possible. And then she answered.

“Hello.”

Her voice seemed small now that they were face to face. In the restaurant there had been plenty of background noise so he’d had no problem hearing her. She still wore the slacks and blouse she had on earlier but she’d taken off the jacket. The chocolaty brown skin of her bare arms showed and he had to take a deep breath before speaking.

“Hi.” To his own ears his voice didn’t sound as confident as he would have liked so he looked over her shoulders for a momentary reprieve. “If you’re not busy I need to speak with you for a moment.”

Camille wasn’t busy. In fact, she was just enjoying a minor pity party before he’d knocked. The moment she’d closed that door behind her an hour earlier she’d been hit with the biggest wave of disappointment she’d ever felt. She’d acted rude and selfishly to Adam Donovan, a man who had been nothing but nice to her since she’d crashed his meeting.

She’d plopped down onto the couch, unable to enjoy the luxurious room he’d secured for her because she couldn’t get past the ill feelings towards his business deal and all that it stood for. He wanted to buy her father’s house, to take away the last memory she’d ever have of what being loved felt like.

That was the reason she did not want to sell the house but she couldn’t tell Adam Donovan that. He’d never understand. He had a great family who apparently loved him very much. He couldn’t possibly relate to her holding on to a piece of property as a way of staying connected to her father.

She’d already resigned herself to apologizing to him but thought she would at least have until tomorrow morning when she’d managed to secure herself a new outfit and a good night’s rest first. But he was here so there was no better time like the present.

“No. I’m not busy at all. Come on in.” Stepping to the side she allowed him entrance and inhaled the scent of his cologne as he walked by. With an inward groan she berated herself for once more entertaining the silly notion that she could be attracted to a man like him.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk about what time would be good for you to meet tomorrow,” Adam began as soon as he was in the sitting area of her room.

“I know,” she started to say then felt herself fidgeting and pushed her hands behind her back so he wouldn’t glimpse her nervousness. “First, I should apologize for the way I left earlier. It was rude and unprofessional.”

Adam looked shocked for a moment, then gave a half smile. “It’s okay. I’ve been told I can be a bit pushy at times. I apologize if I offended you.”

“Oh, no.” Camille shook her head quickly. “You didn’t offend me. I mean, I shouldn’t have been offended by your questions. They were harmless. I just have a tendency to overreact sometimes.”

“Really? So were you overreacting to having dinner with me or to the business we were discussing?”

With a small jerk of her arms Camille demanded her hands be still. She squared her shoulders and was determined to look him straight in the eye and answer him. Adam Donovan did not make her nervous. There was no need for her to be. He was here on business. But here was in a hotel room where just a few feet away was a huge elegantly adorned bed.

“I overreacted to your questions. At any rate, it’s over now. What time do you want to meet?” Before he could answer she put a hand up to stop him. “Keep in mind that I am only agreeing to this meeting because it was too late for me to get a flight back to L.A. and that was a part of our bargain. I don’t make a habit of going back on my word. It doesn’t mean that I’ve changed my mind about the sale.”

He took a step closer to her and Camille felt her lungs struggling to take in air. Behind her back her hands clutched again.

“You still haven’t heard my plans for the house, Camille.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, her voice shaky and unfamiliar. He was only a couple of inches away now and his scent drifted around her, cloaking her until she felt like she was securely surrounded. He was looking at her strangely, his eyes having darkened a bit since when he’d first arrived.

She took a step back.

“I’ve been known to be very persuasive,” he said in a deep, sexy voice.

“I can’t be persuaded,” she breathed and took another step back.

He reached out then and grabbed her shoulders. “Never move backwards,” he warned. “You’ll eventually be cornered.”

And that she was. Behind her was the couch; one more step back and she would have fallen down onto it and as close as Adam was he would have fallen down right on top of her. A position she had no intention of them being in.

She was gorgeous, in a quiet, sneak-up-and-bite you kind of way. Her chin was strong, her body singing every love song in the book to any man lucky enough to be around her. Her lips were small but plump and very kissable. But it was her eyes that held him captive. With their exotic shape and mystical color Adam couldn’t help but be swept away. So much so that he’d forgotten that this was supposed to be business and was touching her in a very personal way. She was small, almost a foot shorter than him. He could have easily picked her up and dropped her in the center of that bed he’d spied upon entering. But he found that pushing her to her limits was much more enjoyable.

He made her nervous; he could tell by the way her eyes watched him closely and her body shifted restlessly. He could ease that restlessness. He could nip the nervousness in the bud if she’d let him kiss her. There was a keen attraction sizzling between them and Adam was willing to bet she was feeling it, too. He wondered what would happen if he pushed a little more.

“What if we started with something a little simpler than the discussion about the house,” he suggested, moving his hands up and down her bare arms, loving the feel of her smooth skin against his.

“What do you mean?” she stammered.

“I mean, what if we talked about something else. Something a little less serious.” She hadn’t pulled away from him, which was a good sign, but he suspected that would be kind of hard for her to do since her legs were blocked by both him and the couch.

“Adam.” Her hands came up to his chest in a small form of protest.

Right through his shirt the heat from her touch burned him until he wanted to rip away the material that posed as a barrier to feel her skin to skin.

She pushed slightly and Adam had to take a deep, steadying breath. Never before had he been this turned on by a woman and never before had his desire interfered with his business. So he counted to three then forcefully pulled his hands away from her. It took another moment or two before he could step away, but he did.

“There is nothing for us to discuss except for the house,” she said.

Adam turned away from her then because to keep staring at her only fueled this growing need in the pit of his stomach. This fierce desire to have her, totally.

“I’m sure you realize how untrue that statement is, Camille,” he said as he turned back to face her.

“No. I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She was fidgeting again, a trait he found strangely endearing. Normally he liked decisive, fun and easygoing women who were down for a good time. He made it a point to stay away from emotionally driven women with too many issues for him to count. So why was he so drawn to her? He’d known her less than twenty-four hours and yet he knew without a doubt that Camille Davis had issues. Funny thing was, he wanted to know what those issues were and he wanted to fix them.

He had to clench his teeth at that one because he definitely did not understand what was going on. What he did know was that two grown adults were standing in this room and that they were attracted to each other. He wasn’t about skirting around any issues like that, business or pleasure. “I’m talking about this thing between us. It’s obvious that we’re attracted to each other. So whether or not we go into business together we’ll still have to deal with that.”

Slowly she brought her hands from behind her back and folded her arms over her chest. If she had any idea how hard that one act made him she would never do it again. Adam didn’t move a muscle.

“There is nothing between us but my father’s house. Anything else is purely your imagination.”

He chuckled. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? It makes you feel safer if you convince yourself that there is nothing else between us. What I don’t understand is why you need to feel safe. Do I frighten you, Camille?”

Her chin instantly went up, her eyes glaring at him as her anger grew. Adam almost smiled. She had some feistiness in her and some passion, he’d seen that in her eyes when he was close to her. There was a lot more to Camille Davis than met the eye.

“You do not frighten me. That’s absurd. This entire conversation is absurd.” She huffed. “The only reason you and I are even in the same room speaking to one another is because you want something that I have.”

That was a vast understatement, Adam thought with amusement.

She was pacing back and forth now. “I mean, I live in L.A. and you live in Vegas, Sin City. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” she ranted. “We are not the same types of people so it’s totally insane to think that we’d be attracted to each other.”

Adam watched her agile movements. He watched every curve of her body move in sync as she spoke. Her arms rotated between being folded at her chest to swaying fitfully at her waist. It was at those times that he glimpsed her perfectly round bottom and those high, enticing breasts. She talked as if she had a lot of things going through her mind at once and she was having trouble keeping them all straight. He sensed it was because she was in fact nervous and unwilling to admit to what he already knew.

She was just as amazed by this instant attraction as he was. Only he was used to physical awareness and sexual tension. He knew just how to deal with them both and boasted a gold medal in doing so. However, he had a sneaky suspicion Camille would not be impressed by that knowledge.