Lust.
Yes, it was with her now, again. She could feel a flush heat her cheeks. “Listen, Cameron. I’m not going to lie to you. It would be stupid to tell you that I don’t want you to—” She moistened her lips. “You can see I do, damn you. But I’m not going to do it.”
“I know. Not now. It’s not the time. Now that we’ve crossed the first barrier, I can wait. I just had to clear up the Celia hurdle.”
Good God, she was disappointed, she realized, shocked.
“Me, too,” he said thickly. “And don’t think I’m not going to have you as soon as I can justify doing it. I’ll be thinking of all the ways that we can try. Not that I haven’t been doing that already. Every time I have a moment to myself, you’re there.”
“I don’t have any moments to myself without your butting in,” she said tartly. “You said that you wouldn’t do that. It’s totally unfair, Cameron.”
“I’ll try to stay out as much as possible. It’s difficult when I feel so close to you.” He paused. “And I’m not sure if there’s a threat. I have very strong protective instincts. That was one of the reasons I was chosen as Guardian.”
“That’s not a good excuse for snooping,” she said dryly. “I don’t care if your instincts say go for it. I’m the one who should be able to block you from doing it.”
“I’ll try, Catherine. That’s all I can promise.”
She gazed at him with exasperation.
“I’ve learned to be disciplined, and usually it works,” he said quietly. “But I’m not disciplined with you. It all goes out the window.”
“Why?”
“It’s not only the sex. Though God knows that’s a gigantic part of it. I feel as if I’m turning a new page with you. I don’t know what I’ll find, but I know it’s going to be important to me. And sometimes what you make me feel blows that discipline to hell.” He reached out and touched her lower lip with his forefinger. “I know you don’t feel the same, but there are moments when you come close. I think that’s why I slip inside. I need to know that I’m not alone.”
Alone. She knew about loneliness. Her life had been nothing but loneliness before she met Hu Chang. How much worse must have been Cameron’s loneliness. He had been shut in isolation and rejection most of his childhood. Even after he had been put with the woman who had raised him, he must have come to realize how different he was from everyone else. That was loneliness in itself.
“Stop feeling sorry for me. I do just fine.” Then he smiled. “Or maybe I should tell you to go ahead. I don’t mind sympathy if it makes you melt like this. It could lead in all kinds of interesting directions.”
“No, it can’t. And you’re snooping again.” She slapped his hand away from her mouth. “And I’m not melting. You’re the last person I’d feel sorry for.” But she couldn’t resist asking, “Hu Chang once said that he thought that you were relieved when you were forced to not use all that mental firepower. Is that true?”
“He’s a wise man. It’s both relaxing and a little annoying. I get impatient.” He tilted his head. “You have the most beautifully shaped lips. I keep wanting to touch them. And your breasts are magnificent. My tongue still tingles from—”
“Cameron.”
He nodded. “I know, later.” He turned on the windshield wipers, and the interior of the car was flooded with daylight, destroying the cocoonlike intimacy. “We still have forty-five minutes before Blake should start the action.” He was gazing at the entrance of the hospital garage. His hands closed tightly on the steering wheel. “He’s probably in the hospital now seeing to the stretcher and getting it up to Jack Sen’s floor.”
Her gaze was narrowed on his face. “You’re on edge. You said you trust Blake.”
“I do. I just want to be there, doing it myself.” He grimaced. “That’s what I always want, but it’s against the rules. Only occasionally are the circumstances just right for me to be able to step in. I have to remain the invisible man.”
“Frustrating. It would drive me crazy.”
“You bet, intensely frustrating. But I’ve become accustomed to—” He stopped, and a reckless smile suddenly lit his face. “But why should I have to put up with it on this job? I’ve already broken the rules. Why not break a few more?” He opened the driver’s door and got out of the car. “Get in the driver’s seat. Come and pick me up when I run out of the garage.”
“What? You can’t interfere with a plan in motion. It would screw everything up.”
“I won’t interfere.” The rain was pouring down his face, and his dark hair was already wet. His expression was alive with vitality and that excitement. “I’ll just be there on the spot and get them out of the garage faster.”
“And not be the invisible man,” she said softly.
“Right. Will you wait here and pick me up? Will you be there for me?”
She didn’t want to sit here and wait. She wanted to go with him.
He shook his head. “Not this time. I need you to be on call outside the hospital. Will you do it?”
She made a face as she nodded resignedly. “I’ll be there for you.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He smiled brilliantly as he turned and walked toward the garage. “I don’t know anyone who I’d rather have beside me, but this will have to do.”
“But you did it again,” she called after him. “Stop that snooping…”
He waved and disappeared into the garage.
The rain was falling harder again, closing out the sight of the garage entrance. She turned on the windshield wipers once more. She had to see, dammit.
She checked her watch. Forty minutes until the action started. Then it would probably escalate at warp speed. Cameron had said five minutes, if everything went well.
But she would be on the alert from this time forward. She had never trusted that every detail in an operation would necessarily go well. Cameron was brilliant, and his plan was probably just as brilliant, but there were usually slipups. She would watch and make sure that Cameron was not caught in one.
She had promised to be there for him.
CHAPTER
14
Catherine checked her wristwatch.
Forty-five minutes.
They should be in the garage by now.
Forty-six minutes.
She felt tension grip her.
Soon.
Unless something had gone wrong.
An ambulance tore out of the garage, tires screeching, as it turned and barreled down the street toward the light on the corner.
Yes.
She put the Mercedes in gear and stomped on the accelerator. The car jumped forward, and she drove toward the garage entrance.
Come on, Cameron, I’m here for you. Where the hell are you?
“Right here.” He ran out of the garage and jumped into the passenger seat. “Let’s go!”
She was already moving. She glanced sideways at him as she went through the light on yellow. His eyes were glittering, his mouth taut, and she could almost feel the tension and excitement. He was loving this. “Everything went okay?”
“Right on schedule. Blake did very well. And with me helping with the transfer, we had Sen out of the garage two minutes early.”
“It must have been like the pit team at a car race.” She glanced in the rearview mirror. “We’re not being followed.”
“They’re still scrambling. There will be someone tearing out of that garage any minute. Turn left at the next street.”
She turned left. “Where do I go from here?”
“Set your GPS for Celia’s place. We should get off the street. Someone could have seen you scoop me up in that grand getaway.” He smiled. “You had a certain dash about you. Have you done this before?”
“Once or twice.” She set the GPS. “In Colombia. There always seemed to be a reason for a getaway down there.” She started following the GPS guidelines. “Were you really useful, or were you just enjoying yourself?”