She pushed her fingers through her hair again, then let her hand trail down her neck, almost shivering at the memory of Cam’s fingers there.
Other men had touched her over the years. Superficially. They had kissed her, held her; but that ache that gnawed at her insides had never gone away. No more than the distrust had.
She was willing to lay her life savings on the fact that she was quite possibly the only twenty-eight-year-old virgin in existence, in the nation.
She stopped at the full-length mirror in the corner of the room and stared at herself. Her nose was straight, eyebrows arched. Her eyes faintly tilted, her lips just a little bit too lush. Her br**sts weren’t small, but they weren’t overly large. They fit her body. She was slender; she stayed in shape. Her shoulder-length auburn hair was a nice contrast to her brown-and-blue-flecked green eyes.
She wasn’t ugly. She didn’t consider herself beautiful, rather average. There was no reason for her to be spending her life alone.
Other than her own fears. And the simple fact that she was still, even now, waiting on Cam.
3
Chase was waiting in the lobby of the hotel when Cam strode through the entrance. The black suit his brother wore did nothing to alleviate the aura of power and danger that surrounded him. The wicked scar that slashed down the left side of his cheek definitely helped the impression, but it was the icy green eyes, the unsmiling lips, the expression that seemed carved from experiences that suggested hell, made him appear even more dangerous, that did it.
Cam was his brother, his twin. And sometimes Chase wondered if he even knew who or what his brother was. He definitely didn’t know what had created the dark visage that strode toward him.
“She’s not going to appreciate a late-night visit,” he told his brother as they headed toward the elevator.
“Too bad,” Cam growled. “Roberts waylaid me at the party. The slick bastard. He should be in film rather than congress. His acting ability beats the shit out of his ability to help run this f**king country.”
Chase winced. Cam was cussing. That was never a good thing.
“Blindsiding Jaci like this isn’t going to help,” he advised him as the elevator doors slid closed behind them. “She is a little demon when that temper of hers is roused, you know that as well as I do.”
And she was liquid fire when other parts of her were aroused. Chase could still taste the sweet syrup that had flowed from her body, even seven years later. And he knew Cam had never forgotten.
“I want eyes on her twentyfour seven,” Cam ordered. “If Roberts even thinks about contacting her, I want to know about it.”
“Cam, you can’t control her life here.” The elevator doors slid open.
As they stepped out, his brother turned to him. The green ice in his gaze flickered with a hidden flame. The intensity of the color was no longer flat with whatever emotions or memories he fought. The color was wild, vivid, shocking Chase with the emotions that seemed to swirl just under the surface.
“I have no intention of controlling her life,” Cam stated. “I’m going to become her life, Chase. There’s a difference.”
For a second, Chase stood in shock, staring at his brother’s back as he strode quickly down the hall to the suite Ian had reserved for the interior designer.
Cameron had never claimed anything or anyone as his. Not since they had lost their parents, since their lives had gone to hell beneath the less-than-gentle care of their maternal aunt at the tender age of thirteen. But now, he was claiming Jaci?
Hearing him claim something, someone now, was enough to almost cause him to miss that twisted expression of need on Cam’s face as he turned away.
Hell, Jaci didn’t need to see Cam like this. Chase didn’t need to see Cam like this. Brimming with fire and lust and a need Chase had never imagined filled his brother.
“Cam, dammit,” he muttered, moving quickly behind him. “Do you think this is a wise move right now?”
Cam stopped in front of the hotel room door and glanced at his brother impatiently.
“What’s so unwise about it?” He’d waited seven years for her to grow up, to find them, and now Chase wanted to wait?
“She’s not exactly extending an invitation for us together,” his brother snorted. “She actually stated we should find someone else to play our games with.”
“You pissed her off.” He lifted his hand to knock on the door.
“And you’re not going to piss her off more?” Chase asked, his voice filled with a hint of disbelief that didn’t make sense to Cam.
He turned back to his brother, glaring at him. “Look, I let you talk to her first, I let you bring her home, and look where it got us. You never did know how to handle her, and don’t pretend you did. She walks all over you.”
It was true. Chase had never been able to tell her no. Cam, on the other hand, could and would, if it meant protecting her.
“Yeah, but it feels damned good when Jaci walks on you, man.” He grinned, amusement transforming his expression and filling his eyes with a joy that often made Cam look like more of an outsider than ever.
His brother had kept that sense of fun and prankish delights, while that sense had been carved out of Cam, stripped from him like flesh from the bone.
Cam ignored the protests and the laughter, turned back to the door, and rapped his knuckles against it imperiously.
Staying away from her at the party had been an act of superhuman effort. He still couldn’t believe he’d managed it. That witch’s black dress, slit to the thigh, the banked fire in her auburn hair, the searching expression on her elfin features as she stared around the room, as though looking for someone. He wanted to think she was looking for him, because he’d be damned if he had eyes for anyone but her.
A second later the door opened. His eyes met hers, and he knew in that moment that the past had dissolved between them—seven years never existed, and it was the night he had brought her home from that party. Her eyes staring at him in those final moments of knowledge, confusion, passion, and lust—and a young woman’s fear.
There was no fear in her eyes now. There was excitement. He could see it in her. In the way she leaned against the door, stared at the two of them, and shook her head as though uncertain—now that the moment was here—what she was supposed to do.
Cam crossed his arms over his chest, aware of Chase rocking back on his heels beside him, a grin of deviltry on his face when Jaci glanced over at him.