And that mouth...those lips, a
natural red...designed for kissing. She often longed to sample a taste—for
strictly scientific purposes—to find out if his lips were as soft as they
looked.
However, Sandy did what she’d always
done when Cameron sauntered into the agency—pretended he had no effect on her
whatsoever. When, in fact, the mere glimpse of him sent her hormones into
overdrive.
“When are you going to let me
sweep you away from all of this?”
She schooled her features into a
bored expression, but couldn’t hold it for long. The tiny smile that always
appeared when Cam drew her into their usual banter tugged at her lips.
“When you grow up, trust-fund
baby.” She had yet to find out why someone with Cameron’s family money would
want to work as a hired father.
He grabbed his chest and faked
falling. “Ouch. You got me in the heart again, babe. I don’t know if I’ll pull
through this time without the kiss of life.” He flung his upper body onto the
desk, his lips inches from hers. “Quick, Sandy, I’m fading fast.”
Thankfully, TDA’s waiting area
was empty, but Sandy knew from experience that a room full of people wouldn’t
stop Cameron’s dramatics. His comical nature made him one of The Daddy Agency’s
most popular Daddies.
“Is there a reason you popped in,
Cameron? Your next booking isn’t for another two weeks.”
Fifteen seconds seemed like an
hour as his blue gaze locked on hers; while his lips remained an unnerving inch
from her mouth. He sobered and straightened when she remained impassive. “One
day you’re going to have to face the awful truth.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m perfect for you.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“And you’re breaking my heart.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.”
Cameron chuckled and pushed away
from the desk. “Is the boss in?” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward a
door at the end of the long corridor behind him, already backing in that
direction.
“Yeah, Jamie’s in.”As he turned
to head down the corridor, Sandy remembered their boss wasn’t alone. “Hey,
Cam?”
He spun back to her with a too
sexy grin. “You know I love it when you say my name like that.”
She rolled her eyes. Cameron was
playing with her. In fact, she couldn’t think of a time when he didn’t tease
her to distraction. “You might want to knock and wait. Her husband’s in there
with her.”
He nodded, his grin turning to
one of pure wickedness. “In that case, I think I’ll wait until Daniel leaves.
Don’t want to interrupt anything.”
Two years ago, Daniel had walked
back into Jamie’s life after a decade of not knowing to where she’d
disappeared. They’d been University sweethearts until Jamie had fallen pregnant
and had sacrificed her relationship with Daniel—along with her psychology
degree.
A product of squabbling parents,
Jamie’s fear had been that she’d end up repeating her parents’ love-hate
relationship. She believed that if she’d stayed with Daniel, he would have felt
obligated to marry her and would’ve ended up resenting her.
From Sandy’s peripheral view, she
noted Cameron sauntering back. He leaned against the desk, his gaze on her as
she feigned concentration on the database she was updating. She increased her
typing speed in an effort to hide her trembling fingers. Every one of her
senses focused on Cameron. Thank goodness for touch-typing, or heavens knew she’d
be inputting gobbledygook.
“Perhaps there’s nothing to
interrupt,” she said in an effort to break the unsettling silence.
“There’s always something to
interrupt when a couple in love is alone in a room.”
“Not everyone is as single-minded
as you are, you know?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Let’s just say your
extracurricular ‘Daddy’ duties filter back to the agency.”
“Again, what’s that supposed to
mean?”
Sandy glanced up. His puzzled
expression told her he didn’t know what she was talking about. But the number
of women who hired him to show up with their children at events then bragged
about how attentive and extra accommodating he was—always said with a little
wink that declared their meaning more clearly than if they’d come right out and
said ‘we slept with him’—told her he was faking ignorance.
“Forget it. What you do on your
time is your business.”
“Come on, Sandy, don’t hold back.
No need for ambiguity with me, tell me what you’re talking about. It’s clear
you have feelings on the subject.”
“I have no feelings, other than
professional, about anything to do with you, Cameron.”
When he moved to the front of the
desk and leaned close, a fluttery sensation passed through her tummy.
“Do you know you get this little
line right here...” he traced a forefinger in a tiny bracket next to the left
corner of her mouth, “...when you lie? It makes me think you’ve got plenty of
feelings about me, and not all of them professional.”
Sandy pulled back. Not because
she didn’t want him to touch her, but because she feared he’d notice her
reaction to him in her quick, shallow breathing. Afraid he’d become aware of
her longing in the glide of her tongue against her lips and the way she caught
the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I hate to chafe your ego, Cameron.
But you’re just another Daddy to me. Not unlike all the other guys who work for
TDA.”
The Daddy Agency, also known as
TDA, was a dads-for-hire agency Jamie-Leigh Stephenson had started five years
ago. Jamie had once told Sandy she’d gotten the idea when another single mother
had said in jest, ‘if only there was someplace where mothers could go to hire
fathers to turn up to special events’. Jamie had admitted she’d always wished
she could hire parents for special occasions so she wouldn’t have to suffer
through her own parents’ constant, and very public, arguments. It was on the
back of that conversation that TDA was born.
Cameron snatched back his hand.
“Ouch again. And there I was thinking I was at least a little special.”
She gave him a wide smile and
lied outright. “Not to me.”
“That’s cold. What does a guy
have to do to win you over?”
Her stomach dipped as she
remembered the women who had gushed about the ‘extra help’ he’d given them. “A
sense of decency would be a good start.”
“Hey, I’m a decent guy.” He
shoved his hands into his jean’s front pockets. “Ask anyone. I’m polite,
honest, well-mannered, and on the odd occasion, I’m even respectable.”
She dragged her gaze from the
front of his jeans. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him wear any other
trousers but well-worn jeans that hugged all the right places and Oxford shirts
with the sleeves rolled up and tails hanging out. A tiny gurgle of nervous
laughter slipped past her lips as she glanced at Cameron’s injured expression.
Then she ducked her head and concentrated on finding the Caps Lock. “Only the
odd occasion, huh?”
“Very odd occasion.”
“You see, right there is why we
can never be. The man who sweeps me away from all this...” she indicated the
reception waiting area with a throwaway gesture. “Must be above all else,
respectable at all times.”
Cameron burst out with a deep
belly laugh that infected Sandy and had her joining in with a reluctant
chuckle.
“Honey, for you, I might just
consider a walk on the tame side.” He leaned close again, captured a lock of
her blonde hair, and smoothed it between his fingers for a second before
releasing it. His fingers branded her as he tipped her chin until she met his
gaze. “Or.” He lowered his voice to add intimacy to his words. “You could hunt
down your adventurous side, and we could have some fun.”
The breath stalled in Sandy’s
throat while her pulse picked up speed, and her skin heated. She wet her dry
lips. What would it be like to give into Cameron Berkeley-Scott’s charm—only
for a moment? Just long enough to determine what all the fuss was about.
“Oh good, Cameron, you’re here.”
Jamie’s voice broke into her crazy yearning.
Sandy leapt back as if she’d been
caught up to no good, shocked to think she’d almost closed the short gap
between her lips and Cameron’s. She couldn’t afford to allow him, of all men,
to affect her. Not when he represented everything she most detested in a man.
His gaze revealed a heated
intensity before disappointment sobered his features, replacing the wicked
smile with a seriousness she seldom saw on his face. He uncurled himself from
the desk, and turned his attention to the couple walking up behind them with
their arms around each other as if they couldn’t bear not to touch.
“Hi, Jamie. You wanted to see
me?” He turned and clasped Daniel’s hand. “Daniel, you owe me a drink.”
Jamie’s husband chuckled, slapped
Cameron on the back. “How about I rectify that at the charity ball next
weekend?”
“Now that’s cheating. There’s
free champagne, so in theory, I’ll be paying.”
Sandy gazed up at her pretty
boss, and the two men she could easily picture on the cover of a sophisticated
men’s magazine. Quiet laughter surrounded her as the three people in front of
her desk exchanged light-hearted banter.
Cameron was hosting the charity
ball at a friend’s house, and the proceeds were to go to a new cause developed
to help fatherless children. She’d heard Jamie and Cameron wax lyrical about
the fatherless generation for months. As a result, TDA had become involved with
efforts to rectify the damage done to a society of children who had no fathers
and very little guidance.
She had also become involved,
helping to organise outings and little trips for the children. Sandy could have
been a poster girl for the fatherless.
She resumed typing, allowing the
conversation to go over her head as she forced herself to ignore Cameron’s
distracting presence.
“—Take Sandy with you.”
At the sound of her name, Sandy
stopped typing and looked up to find three pairs of eyes trained on her. “Take
Sandy where?”
Why was Cam smirking?
“Cam has organised a zoo
excursion for the CWF children. We’ve got more kids attending than we expected.
Cam needs an extra helper to the ratio of kids. I volunteered you to help,”
Jamie said.
“Me? But I’m busy.” Spend time
with Cameron out of the office? No way. She’d found it easy to hide her
attraction for him up to now. She suspected the reason was that they’d never
spent any length of time in each other’s company during the three years Cameron
had worked for TDA. “Can’t one of the other Daddies help?”
Jamie gave her an indulgent
smile. “You know they’re all fully booked right now.”
Sandy envisioned spending time
with Cam. She was never going to be able to disguise her feelings. The couple
of minutes they spent every now and then exchanging banter was as much as she
could handle. How would she get through more than an hour in his company? She
had to find a way out of Jamie’s unacceptable suggestion. “What about all the
extra arrangements I have to organise for the charity ball?”
Jamie flicked her hand in a
don’t-worry-about-it gesture. “Already sorted. I’ve asked Linzi to step in and
give you a hand.”
A slow mist of defeat wafted over
Sandy. Evidently, she was going to have to suck it up and help Cameron with the
Children Without Fathers trip.
She flicked Cam a glance. He
stood with his arms folded across his impressive chest, his legs apart, and
that stupid half-smile that robbed her lungs of oxygen.
She straightened her back and
lifted her chin. Fine. If Jamie was forcing her to help Cameron, there was only
one way to distance herself from him—keep her guard up, and insult him at every
opportunity.
