Page 43 of Landry

Camille shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s what I’ve personally experienced.”

His gaze softened. “Your ex?”

She nodded and sighed. “Nothing like having your rose-colored glasses crushed.”

“I’m sorry.”

She gave him a tight smile. “Not your fault. If anything, it was mine. I was naïve, too trusting and stupid. When he was arrested and thrown in jail, I had to grow up fast.”

“That had to be hard on you with a baby to take care of,” Landry reached out and brushed her cheek with his thumb. “But look at you now.”

She lifted her chin again. “I worked my way up from rock bottom. I won’t go back there again.”

Again, he brushed her cheek with his thumb. “You’re an amazing woman, an entrepreneur, a talented candy maker, and you still have time to be a good mother for Ava.”

“She’s my everything, and she’ll always come first.”

“All the more reason for me to sleep in my truck.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why, when I have a perfectly good couch you could sleep on. I can’t imagine you’d be more comfortable in your truck.”

His thumb brushed over her lips. “Because you’re my assignment.”

Camille stiffened. “And is that all I am?”

“That’s all you can be,” he said without meeting her eyes. He was wrong for her.

“Holding me on the porch before Billy Ray made his entrance and then on the dock when we got back was all part of your duties?” Camille slid her hands up his chest and around his neck. “Look at me and tell me you didn’t feel something.”

“Please,” he said, his voice tight, pure logic giving way to pure emotion.

Camille raised an eyebrow. “Please, what?”

He gripped her forearms but didn’t pull her hands away. “I. Can’t. Control. Myself,” he said through gritted teeth, “around you.”

“Who’s asking you to control anything?” Her fingers feathered through the hair at the back of his neck, taking him past the edge of reason.

Landry pulled her arms from around his neck and raised her hands to his lips, kissing the backs of her knuckles. “Anything between us won’t extend beyond this assignment. Like you said... when my job is done, I’m out of here.”

“So?” She gave a hint of a sexy smile. “Maybe all I want is to live in the moment. I don’t need a permanent man in my life. When I thought I had one, he proved me wrong through his lies and crimes. Now, on my own, I realize I don’t need a permanent relationship. Why can’t I engage in physical pleasure without the emotional baggage? Don’t men do it all the time?”

“Because you’re a very special woman who deserves a man who will love you with all his heart. A man who will treat you and your love like the most precious gift he’s ever received. A man who would love Ava as his own, care for her and protect her with his life.”

She touched a finger to his lips. “I don’t want all that. I want here and now, no strings, no declarations of undying love and no promises we can’t keep.” She met and held his gaze.

Landry felt as if she could see right through him into his soul. He wanted her to find a good man in there, a man who wouldn’t break her heart or walk away from her and Ava. However, he was afraid of his genetics. Afraid he was too much his father’s son to be what Camille and Ava needed.

Camille cupped his cheek in her palm. “Look, I haven’t been with a man for five years. I can please myself and give myself an orgasm, but damn.” She shook her head. “The batteries on my vibrator need to be replaced, and I want to feel warm skin against mine. Hard muscles beneath my fingertips,” she raised on her toes and brushed her lips across his, her voice lowering to a whisper, “and I want to feel something thick and hard inside me, that doesn’t require double-A batteries.”

She had him wound so tightly with her words, her touch and her breasts pressed against his chest that when Camille mentioned double-A batteries, Landry burst out laughing.

Camille leaned back, her lips twisting in a sardonic smile. “Sorry, that sounded sexier in my head.”

The laughter died down to chuckles. All the resistance he’d clung to melted away, leaving him open to her and whatever might happen between them. Call him stupid. Tell him he was making decisions with the wrong head, but he didn’t care.

He should. But he didn’t. He wanted her.

Camille sighed. “I’m guessing I just blew it for making love tonight?”

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