“It has been a long time,” she nodded.
She felt uncertain now. She could feel the nervous tension rising inside her.
Cam was here, and so was Chase. And so much had changed, and yet so much hadn’t. But she remembered Cam’s warning clearly. He would kill over her. He wasn’t a man that made false declarations. And he never forgot a promise. That was a dangerous thing for a woman who knew her past was about to catch up with her.
Now she was going to have to find a way to hold her own fantasies, as well as the men, at arm’s length, because the promise Cam made her still had the power to terrify her. God help her, the Robertses, and Cam, if he ever learned what truly happened that night. Blood would spill, and the mere thought of that gave her nightmares. He had sworn he would kill any man that hurt her, and he kept his promises.
It had kept her from contacting Cam, from running to him, for years. The knowledge that she knew he would kill because of her, the look in his eyes that night, the primal intensity, the dark power, assured her he wasn’t joking.
She had known him and Chase for too many years even before that night. She knew they were both men that other men knew to be wary of.
She swallowed nervously and felt the flutter of panic in her stomach as her gaze moved around the room. She hid in the shadows of the room throughout the evening, hoping to avoid the Robertses. Now she knew she was going to have to get the hell out of there.
“I can’t believe you’re this nervous around me, Jaci.” Chase’s head tilted a fraction as he stared back at her knowingly.
“Who says I’m nervous?” She was. She accepted it. But not because of the past.
Those sexy lips quirked again. “Courtney has an exceptional garden outside.” He extended his hand toward the doors that opened out between the two sprawling wings of the house. “Would you like to walk out with me?”
“Courtney will miss me.” She gave him a polite smile as she tried to plan the best route out of the ballroom to where she could call a cab and return to her hotel. “She threatened me, Chase. I’m to mingle.”
“She’ll survive, and so will you.”
She inhaled roughly as he caught her free hand and tugged her from the side of the ballroom toward those open doors.
Ian Sinclair and his wife, Courtney, had an exceptional home. The main mansion, built over a hundred years ago, was huge. Later additions included the two wings that sloped back to each side of the main house, creating a hidden, private garden inside.
Dusk was falling as Chase drew her outside, where the music was more muted, more romantic. The haunting strains of the piano whispered through the air as Chase drew her farther into the shadowed, dimly lit garden.
She hadn’t expected to see him here. She knew he and Cameron lived in Alexandria, of which Squire Point was a suburb, but she hadn’t thought she would see him here, at the Sinclairs’.
She had thought she could take this job, do the work it entailed, and maybe, before she left, she would give an old friend a call.
Her lips quirked at the thought. She was lying to herself then and she was lying to herself now. She was dying to see Cam again. Dying for one more chance to taste his kiss, to feel his touch. To see if anything had changed, if he had grown possessive, if perhaps he had grown out of that need to share with his twin. And if he hadn’t, she wondered if perhaps she had grown out of her fear of it. Because the fantasies that had haunted her over the years had nearly driven her insane. Dark dreams and wicked desires had been instilled in her that night. Escaping them wasn’t an option.
Knowing she was going to have to avoid the Falladay twins until the job was over, and that the Robertses would surely interfere in any relationship she developed, was quickly changing her plans. If Cam and Chase were close friends with the Sinclairs, then the potential for disaster had just grown exponentially.
She would kill Courtney for not warning her they would be so close.
As they moved onto the wide, flagstone path that weaved and branched off into hidden grottos, Chase drew her alongside him, his hand settling against the small of her back as they walked deeper into the shadows.
The other guests hadn’t wandered this far yet. There was a faint tinkle of a fountain nearby. Night birds sang their songs and crickets chirped happily. If she closed her eyes she could almost feel that hot summer night seven years earlier, and she could almost pretend Chase was Cam.
“Are you bringing me out to the gardens in an attempt to seduce me, Chase?” she drawled with a smile, the seriousness of her question hidden beneath the subtle laughter in her tone.
She had forgotten how much fun it could be to flirt with and tease Chase, what it felt like to be with a man that a part of her instinctively trusted, rather than distrusted.
She had learned over the years not to trust anyone, especially good-looking men. And that, she often thought, was an incredible shame. A woman her age should have had more adventures than she’d had so far.
His chuckle stroked her senses.
“I want to catch up with an old friend, nothing more,” he promised her. “Damn, Jaci, when did you become so suspicious?”
“When it comes to you and your brother? Seven years ago.” She glanced up at him, amused at the accusation. “You’re not old enough to have forgotten, surely?”
She hadn’t forgotten a moment of it, and she knew Chase—he would never let her hide from it if he thought for a minute that she was trying to. Better to get it out in the open now. And she couldn’t resist it anyway. Seeing him, knowing Cam was close, the needs were rising inside her with all the dark promise of the dreams that had haunted her.
“Now you’re just being mean.” He gave her a mock glare before pulling her to a vine-covered swing that sat beneath a wide arbor. “Here we go. We can just sit here and visit.”
Jaci sat down, carefully smoothing the material of her black evening gown down her thighs as Chase sat down beside her.
The gown, which had felt so alluring when she put it on, now seemed too sexy, too revealing. It made her feel too feminine. The thin straps held the draped bodice over her br**sts. Maybe she should have worn a bra. The side slit ran to her thigh. It showed an indecent amount of leg.
Chase chuckled again.
She lifted her gaze and felt the grin that tugged at her lips, as he watched her knowingly.
“You and Cam always made me too nervous,” she admitted with a soft laugh. “Sometimes I’ve missed that.”