Changing the Rules

by Erin Kern

  Make his move? Seriously?

  He opened his mouth, but his mom beat him to the punch. “Why are you afraid of her?”

  Okay, wait a minute…“Afraid?”

  His mom laughed. “Honey, men never change. You all are the same at sixteen as you are at sixty.”

  He didn’t think that was entirely true, but whatever.

  “I’m not afraid of her,” he clarified.

  “Okay, then you’re afraid of what she represents. And don’t pretend like you don’t know,” his mother went on as though reading his mind. “She’s different. She makes you uncomfortable.”

  Cameron shook his head. “Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing?”

  His mom came closer. “Because uncomfortable means there’s something there. Something you don’t want to acknowledge. And probably because you’ve never felt it before.”

  Another sigh left him. “Mom…”

  She held her hands up in defeat. “Okay, I’m officially butting out.”

  Thank God.

  Then Pam pointed an index finger at him, to drive her point home one last time. “But let me just say this. It’s rare to find someone who brings us out of our comfort zone. And, honey, I think you could use a little of that in your life.”

  And she was gone, out of the kitchen as swiftly as she’d delivered her cryptic message. Or not so cryptic. Because Cam got what she was saying.

  He liked it, his comfort zone. He supposed that was the point, but still…it kept him safe. Safe from commitment. Safe from getting hurt.

  Cameron rubbed a hand along the back of his neck and spotted the woman who had his stomach tied up in knots. She was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, balancing plates in both her hands.

  “Sorry,” she said with a blink. “You looked sort of…tense.”

  Cam’s scowl deepened. “Why does everyone keep saying that to me?”

  “Um…because it’s true?” Audrey ventured.

  Cameron took the plates from her hands as she approached. “I’m not that tense.”

  She offered a comforting smile. “You’re practically vibrating.”

  “Yeah…” he started, and then forgot what he was going to say. Audrey blinked at him, and Cameron realized he’d been staring at her. How could he not when her hair kept brushing over her shoulders every time she moved? Or the way her enticing lemon scent kept making him think about summer afternoons and cuddling in a hammock.

  “Cameron?” Audrey prompted.

  “Yeah?” He gazed down at her, momentarily distracted by how her teeth kept stabbing into her lower lip.

  “You sounded like you were going to say something else.”

  Oh. Right. Except he couldn’t remember what.

  “I just wanted to apologize for earlier,” he blurted. Because why not? He’d gotten so good at it.

  Audrey’s brow furrowed. “For what exactly?”

  Shit, she was going to make him spell it out. Of course she would.

  “I didn’t want to imply that you and my mom couldn’t be friends,” he told her.

  Audrey nodded. “So you’re apologizing for being an ass?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her.

  She held her hands up in defense. “Just trying to be clear. And just so you know, I don’t need your permission to be friends with your mom.”

  Yeah, Cameron had already learned that about Audrey. She did as she liked, and screw it if Cam didn’t like it. “Okay, yeah, I was an ass.” He placed the dirty dishes on the counter and opened the dishwasher.

  “Apology accepted. So, that was a nice thing you did for Piper,” Audrey told him. “Letting her keep the cat.”

  Cameron snorted. “Do you really think I’d make her get rid of it? Even if it does look like an alien life-form?”

  Audrey leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “Actually, no. You wouldn’t do that to her.”

  Cameron snorted. “Good to know you don’t think I’m that much of a dirtbag.” He hadn’t meant for the words to slip out. But there they were, hanging between the two of them like some insecure confession. Only Cameron had never had issues with being insecure. Some would say he was cocky. He’d call it confident. But with Audrey…something about her perceptive gaze made him feel like he was under a microscope. She was always watching him, making him feel like he needed to sit straighter or…something.

  “Cameron,” Audrey said. She took a step closer and placed a hand on his arm. “Is that really what you think?”

  His gaze dropped down to her slim, cool palm, cupping his forearm in a soft grip that he was sure was meant to be comforting. Except her touch didn’t comfort him. It was damn hard to be reassured when all he wanted to do was pin her against the counter and shove his tongue down her throat, maybe slip his hands underneath her baggy sweater so he could mold his palms over her plump breasts.

  Audrey must have sensed the direction of his thoughts, because she snatched her hand away.

  “Anyway…” She cleared her throat. “I know it’s something Piper is really excited about.”

  “Yeah, well.” He cleared his throat too. Because damn. “I don’t want to make the kid cry or anything.”

  She slid him a look as she started grabbing dirty pots off the stove. “Oh, I’m sure that’s why.”

  “Why what?” Cameron asked, momentarily distracted by how her pants curved over her round ass.

  She shot him a look over her shoulder. “Why you secretly love Piper.”

  Cameron absently grabbed a clean pot Audrey had just washed and ran a dishtowel over it. Secretly loved Piper? Did he love Piper? If so, was he trying to keep it a secret? Not only did he not know the answer to any of those questions, but he kind of had the feeling Audrey was right.

  “Well, don’t shut down on me,” Audrey teased.

  Cameron set the dry pot aside and accepted another one from her.

  “She loves that cat,” Audrey whispered. “Dianna would never let Piper have a pet.”

  “Why?” Cameron asked.

  Audrey ran the soapy sponge in circles over a frying pan, before rinsing it. “She worked all the time. And then she got sick.”

  Cameron noted the way her hands tightened on the frying pan and the clenching of her jaw. “You loved her,” he observed.

  For a second, he thought she wouldn’t respond, or maybe she would toss out one of her quick-witted responses that she seemed so good at to throw him off. Then she sniffed, and Cameron realized how way off base he was. He’d touched on a nerve.

  Then she nodded, a tiny movement of her head that he almost missed when he set another dry pot aside.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her.

  Audrey washed the last pan and shut the water off. “For what?” she asked without looking at him.

  “For your loss.”

  Cameron waited for her to say something like “Thanks,” or “Yeah, it was hard.” But she just looked at him. She gazed at him in a way that was like someone sticking an ice pick through his heart.

  It was your loss too.

  That was what he saw when he looked in her eyes. She was pleading with him to open up, to admit that the loss of a sister he never knew had affected him in some way, that he wasn’t a robot who slept around and kept people at a distance so they couldn’t hurt him.

  And yeah, he supposed that it had been his loss too. He’d never made an attempt to get to know Dianna. His anger and resentment toward his father had created a selfish, sullen kid who’d had no interest in his little sister.

  Cameron wanted to hang his head in shame. He wanted to kick his own ass for allowing all those years to go to waste.

  “Stop,” Audrey said, clearly sensing his inner battle.

  “I never cared to get to know her,” he admitted.

  Audrey’s gaze softened. Suddenly he wanted her to touch him again, to feel her soft skin against his.

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Audrey told him.

  Cameron leaned back against
the counter. “Wasn’t it?”

  “No. And Dianna understood that.”

  Cameron glanced at Audrey. “She told you that?”

  Audrey shrugged. “Dianna wasn’t like that.” A small smile tilted the corners of her mouth. “She saw the good in everyone. Gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.” Audrey paused and glanced at her feet. “The world lost a good one with her,” she added quietly.

  Without thinking, Cameron touched Audrey’s chin, which he’d meant to be a brief moment of contact. But his hand lingered, going from a soft brush to gripping her chin and turning her face to his. “She was lucky to have you.”

  Audrey’s eyes darkened, then glossed over with the typical telltale signs of tears. Cameron felt a moment of panic because, shit, he didn’t do tears. Like, at all. Just the sight of them made his muscles tense and his mouth clamp shut. But Audrey pulled herself together, and Cameron felt a smidge of regret.

  Why?

  Because tears from Audrey would have given him a reason to pull her to him. To soothe her, to run his hands down her back.

  “Actually, I was the lucky one,” she finally said. “As corny as that sounds,” she added with a stiff laugh. “Dianna was one of those friends that don’t come around very often.”

  “Must be why Piper is such a good kid,” Cameron added.

  Audrey gave him half a grin and poked him in the stomach. “I knew you secretly loved her. It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone, lest I offend your man card.”

  He leaned closer to her. “Honey, there’s not much that could offend my man card.”

  One of her brows arched. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she taunted. “You have a hairless cat living in your house named after an animated pony.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “You planted that cat, didn’t you?”

  She offered him a smug smile. “Yep. It was all a part of my diabolical plan. To find the ugliest, most pathetic-looking animal, then sneak it into your house so Piper could fall in love with it. You totally figured me out.”

  “I knew you had a naughty side,” he said.

  Audrey’s smile slipped as her gaze slid to his mouth. “Don’t you wish.”

  He edged closer to her, ignoring the sounds of his mother and Piper in the living room. “Don’t tempt me, Audrey,” he warned.

  She tilted her head at him. “Whatever do you mean?”

  Closer, he moved until their hips were nearly touching. Hadn’t they been in a position similar to this before? And hadn’t it led to some seriously awesome kissing? “Yeah, you pretend you’re all innocent. But you’re not, are you?”

  She stayed decidedly mum, keeping that sassy mouth shut, when all he wanted to do was kiss the shit out of her, to lick away the look of triumph on her face whenever she thought she’d one-upped him.

  Her hand came up to his chest. Cameron wasn’t sure if she meant to push him away or just wanted to feel if his heart was pounding as hard as hers. Didn’t matter, because he wasn’t going to let her push him away. There was something explosive between the two of them, and it was only a matter of time before it brought both of them down.

  “You want to say yes,” Cameron whispered.

  Audrey pulled back and crossed her arms over her chest. “And then what?”

  Um…Did she need him to spell it out for her? Surely she wasn’t that inexperienced.

  “We have some seriously hot sex,” he answered.

  Audrey glanced into the living room as though worried his mother and Piper would overhear. “Okay. Then what?”

  Cameron opened his mouth, then shut it again. He blew out a breath and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Damn, Audrey. I don’t know.”

  She jabbed him in the chest again. “See, that right there. That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.

  She rolled her eyes like he was completely daft. “The fact that you don’t know what would happen next. You wouldn’t even know what to do, would you?”

  “How the hell would I?”

  She came closer and got in his face. Why was she always doing that? “Because there is no next with you, is there?” He opened his mouth to argue, but she beat him to it. “And I’m not talking about a next time in bed, either.”

  “I don’t know what you want from me, Audrey,” he said to her.

  “I just want you to be honest,” she responded. “I want you to admit that what you want is the conquest. The chase, the mystery, or maybe another notch in your bedpost.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not fair.”

  “Oh, come on,” she went on. “You’re going to tell me that you don’t have a string of satisfied women strolling around town?” When he didn’t answer fast enough, Audrey pushed away from the counter. “That’s what I thought.”

  He snagged her elbow before she could abandon him, needing to set her straight. “What bothers you more, Audrey?” he said in a low voice. “The fact that I have a string of satisfied women, or the fact that you’re not one of them?”

  Her eyes flared at him, and her arm jerked. For a moment, Cameron thought she was going to hit him, knowing full well that he deserved it for being an ass. Again.

  “You want me to be honest?” he went on. “Then you need to start being honest too.”

  She opened her mouth, probably to argue, and Cameron tightened his grip on her elbow to snag her attention. “I need to hear you say you don’t want me.”

  Her breath huffed out of flared nostrils, which matched her dilated pupils and the fluttering pulse at the base of her neck.

  “On second thought, don’t answer that,” he decided. Then he lowered his head and slammed his mouth over hers.

  Cameron wanted to shout in triumph when Audrey melted against him and parted her lips. She just knew what he wanted.

  Smart girl.

  Someone squealed, and Audrey jerked away from him as though they’d been caught necking behind the bleachers. Cameron had done his share of necking in various places, and none of those experiences came anywhere close to this.

  Audrey touched her lower lip, and Cameron couldn’t help a sly grin at how her fingers trembled. He’d done that to her. Not some other bastard who didn’t appreciate how beautiful and responsive she was.

  “You don’t impress me,” she told him.

  Whaaaaat?

  Cameron lifted a brow to mask the incredulity coursing through his system. His ass, he didn’t impress her.

  “I’ve dated men like you my whole adult life,” she went on. “You’re all the same.”

  He took a step toward her. “I doubt that.”

  She chuckled, but it was void of humor. “Do you? Because so far you haven’t done anything to show me you’re any different from dozens of other men who are too good-looking and only care about having a good time.” Her gaze ran over him. “You get what you want; then you move on to the next willing woman.”

  He continued his advance on her, keeping one eye on his mother and Piper, just to make sure they still had privacy. “I won’t deny I like women,” he told her. “I like the way they smell. I like the way their hips always fit perfectly against mine.” He allowed his gaze to travel down her body. “And I like how they feel beneath me in bed.” He savored the intake of her breath with a growing smile. “And yeah, I like to have a good time. I get what I want from a woman, and I move on because it suits me.” He lowered his head to her ear and gripped her waist with a firm palm. “I like sleeping around and have always done so because none of them were worth any staying power.” He nuzzled her ear with his nose, his grin widening when she gasped. “Do you understand what I’m telling you, Audrey?”

  He pulled back to make sure she got his message loud and clear: that she could be that woman.

  Fourteen

  Audrey had to drink two cups of coffee that morning and had gone through the rest of her concealer. Even three days after Sunday dinner, she still wasn’t sleeping. Every time she close
d her eyes, she felt Cam’s lips on hers. How his hand on the back of her head had almost brought her to tears. The man was good. Too damn good for her, and each time she succumbed to his charm, she was reminded why she’d made a vow to stay away from men like him.

  Only she wasn’t sure she wanted to stay away from him anymore. The more she was around him, the more she fell into those deep blue eyes, the more her resolve continued to crumble. Only a thin layer was left after last Sunday. After he’d kissed her senseless, joked around with his mother, and played with that damn cat.

  Cameron Shaw was a good man. It chapped Audrey’s ass to even admit that, because it had been his initial self-centeredness that had made it easy to stay away from him. But she could no longer tell herself that he was nothing more than a pretty face with a cement-hard ass and hands that could bring a woman into oblivion. There was helluva lot more to Cameron than he wanted people to see.

  After their encounter in the kitchen, she’d had the feeling whatever it was between them had shifted. It had gone from being a game to something more real—with real feelings, real consequences. Yes, falling for Cameron would bring disastrous consequences for her.

  Except she wasn’t falling for him. Nope, couldn’t happen.

  She didn’t even like the guy.

  Cough, bullshit, cough.

  Maybe she should buy a vibrator.

  Audrey thunked her head against the steering wheel as she arrived back home.

  Home.

  There was that word again. It kept slipping in there with other ridiculous thoughts that made too much sense, yet she didn’t want to hear.

  She’d been out all day, picking things up for Annabelle’s nursery, desperately trying to take her mind off…well, anything Cameron Shaw.

  It was hard to do when she was staying in such close proximity to him and Piper was constantly yammering on about the guy, about how much she liked him, how he made good pancakes, and used funny voices when he read her stories.

  The man read Piper stories.

  And he used voices.

  As if Audrey wasn’t conflicted enough. Turned on enough. Confused enough. He had to go and be a good uncle, and all that.