Page 30 of Savage Lust

It’s like she wanted me to ask her so she could relieve her burden. But it wasn’t my place, so I didn’t. She changed it up. “Don’t trust any of them, except Cam. For what your daddy did for him, he’d step in front of a train for you, girl. If you want to talk about your daddy or anything else, give me a call. Cam has my number.”

I didn’t quite know what to do with that. She stood and met him halfway back to the table for another hug. The sun was rising, and other customers trickled in.

Disappointment made the food in front of me less appealing. A part of me had hoped that his attention was something other than a misplaced sense of duty. Robbie had confirmed the truth.

With a sigh, I poured a swirling trickle of syrup onto my pancakes as Cam sat back down.

“These are the best.” He took the syrup and dumped a heaping amount on his stack before digging in. He ate several bites before looking up. “Eat.”

Making a face, I plucked a piece of bacon off my plate and took a bite. What should have been a salty, savory experience tasted hard and dry. “I am.”

He shook his head. “You don’t want me crawling over there and feeding you. We’d make a scene.” A mischievous spark lit his eyes and his lips twisted into a devilish grin.

Was he flirting with me? I narrowed my gaze, stabbed a bite of pancake, and shoved too much in my mouth. Without anotherword, I ate dutifully and quietly for several minutes, each bite feeling like cement in my stomach.

Finally, he pushed his mostly empty plate to the center of the table, leaned forward on his elbows, and steepled his fingers under his chin. “What did I miss?”

I flicked one eyebrow up and chewed my last piece of bacon.

“Did Ro say something to upset you?” He leaned back like he was about to leave the table.

“No.” I wiped my mouth and waved my napkin like a white flag between us. “So hard to believe I wouldn’t be all excited at the prospect of you feeding me something?”

He frowned. “That’s not what I mean.” His words were measured and made me irrationally angry.

I knew I shouldn’t be mad at him. He hadn’t led me on. In fact, all he’d been was nice and an occasional flirt. Guys like Cam Savage expected women to melt at their feet. But it was easier to be mad at him than myself, for somehow imagining something between us.

“Why two?” I asked, cooly, changing the subject to something that I had the high ground on.

“Huh?” He was genuinely confused for several seconds. Then realization settled on his face, and he rubbed his lips together. “Okay, let’s do this. But outside.”

He pulled cash from his hip pocket, far more than necessary to cover the meal, and tossed the bills on the table.

I followed him out, letting my anger grow until the warmth spread out down my arms and I had to push up the sleeves of his hoodie. I gritted my teeth to keep from jerking it off and tossing it at him.

Cam stopped at his bike, leaned back on the seat, pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, and lit one. “This is where you’re going to go all raging feminist on me, right?”

“I don’t even know what that means. I just want to know why. Why two women not one? Is one not good enough? Didn’t the one deserve better or are you naturally a pervert?”

I should have had this conversation before the ride, but…the idea of the ride had been almost all-consuming. And then there was Cam. He turned me into someone I wasn’t.

“And now I’ve got at least one groupie that hates me for interrupting whatever you were doing. She probably wants to claw my eyes out, and I’m definitely not doing any of what she was doing—with you.”

“One would have been just fine, darlin. You offering?” There was a challenge on his smug face that made me want to ball up my fists and scream.

Mostly because if he offered, I’d say yes. It wasn’t Cam I was angry with, but myself. Angry, confused, scared and a host of other things.

“You only answered one question.” I did, at least, make fists. I stopped just before I settled them on my hips like an irate teenager.

He took another drag, pinched the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger like a joint, thumped the ashes, and contemplated the glowing tip with a mocking smile. “Darlin, I’ve got a feeling telling you it was her idea is going to really piss you off.”

“No more than treating them both like dirt on the bottom of your shoe.” I tried not to growl at him. The urge to do so was so foreign to me, I shifted my weight from foot to foot and searched for something that felt like myself. “You told her to kick rocks.”

His laugh rang out across the parking lot, drawing an older couple’s attention as the husband held the car door open for his wife. They probably thought we were on drugs.

He probably was.

“You would rather I went back up?” He stood from the bike and blew out smoke before he tossed the cigarette out into the parking lot. “Shut that door and let one go down on me while I made out with the other one?”

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