Great. Now he’d stooped to small talk about the weather.
“Yes.” She watched him drink down half the bottle. “We’re at fourteen inches and counting. City’s declared a state of emergency, along with Baltimore, New York, and Boston. Nobody was spared with this storm. It’s already being touted as the superstorm of the century.”
“Hmph. Seems like there’s a new one of those every year.”
“You’re telling me, but this one’s definitely a record breaker. I called the office, and they don’t want anyone attempting to come in until the roads are cleared, so I’m going to do what I can from here.”
“All right. You can use Vaughn’s computer. I’ll try to stay out of your way.”
With a nod, she straightened from the door jamb, then hesitated before turning to leave. “Cam?” She tried to hide it, but a sad kind of fear clouded her eyes. “Are we okay? Still friends?”
He thought of that little girl, and his heart broke all over again. So many people had let her down. He’d be damned before he was one of them. “Yeah, Eva. Always.”
…
After the strange morning, Eva feared the rest of the day would have the same Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole feel. But Cam’s presence was more of a balm than anything else and, true to his word, he stayed out of her way for the rest of the afternoon and let her get caught up on the piles of paperwork she’d been neglecting. In fact, having him at his own computer in the living room while she slogged through the hated administrative work felt enough like when they’d been partners that she experienced a pang or two of nostalgia throughout the day.
Eventually, Cam did interrupt her for dinner and threw a frozen pizza in the oven. It was nice to bullshit with him over pizza and beer like they always used to, but as dinner wound down, his demeanor changed. Heat flared between them, gasoline tossed on a banked fire, and the hungry look on his face made her go wet with anticipation. He reached over the counter, gently closed the lid of her borrowed computer, then led her by the hand to his bedroom, where he completely rocked her world.
Again.
She really had to be careful, because she could get used to this routine.
The following morning, she woke up before him—big surprise—and checked outside. It had stopped snowing, but the road was still impassible. As long as the snow continued to hold off, she figured the roads would be mostly clear by the end of the day, and life in the city would return to normal by tomorrow.
Why wasn’t she more relieved about that?
Sighing at herself, she turned away from the window and rummaged through the kitchen for breakfast. She found Honey Nut Cheerios in the cupboard and a nearly empty gallon of milk in the fridge with a good expiration date. Worked for her. She munched on a bowl of the cereal and wondered what she should do today. She’d completed all of her backed-up paperwork via remote access to the department’s network, but couldn’t stand the thought of idle hours. She’d go batshit crazy from cabin fever by noon. Finishing her cereal, she decided to go back over the case files she had with her and retrieved her bag from the loft. Her phone, left charging on the desk, buzzed as she passed and she paused to check the screen. If it was work or Shelby—
Nope. Preston.
She let it go to voice mail like his past six calls, grabbed her bag, and continued down the ladder. She told him she’d think about taking him back, but that didn’t mean she had to talk to him while she was thinking, right?
Two hours later, Cam bolted out of his room as if he was in hot pursuit of a criminal, all but slamming into the wall opposite his door.
“What’s the rush?”
He skidded to a halt when he spotted her at the kitchen island, and sheer relief passed over his face before he hid it.
“Oh. Hey.” As casually as he could manage, he strolled to the coffee maker as if that had been his destination all along. “Mornin’.”
Had he thought she left in the middle of the night again?
She winced at his back as shame washed over her. She should apologize for her cowardly actions in Key West, but… Damn, it was all so embarrassing now. She couldn’t bring herself to voluntarily broach the topic with him.
“Good morning,” she said instead.
“Sleep well?”
She snorted. “When you let me.”
He turned with his mug in hand and gave a dimpled smile that would drop a nun’s panties. “My work here is—no, on second thought, forget I said that. I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”
She shook her head and tried to return to her files, but the sensual promise in his words had her heating up in all the best places. Her mind wandered to the memory of his hands on her skin, his mouth on her sex— “Whatcha working on?”