by Vivian Wood
“What do you guys all do for a living?” Cameron asked curiously, looking around the table at each of them.
They each went on to explain their separate realms of work, but Smith lost track of the conversation soon after that, too preoccupied with watching Cameron to follow along.
She was just so fucking gorgeous, he was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than how close they were sitting together. Everything about her made his body come alive in response, from her revealing dress, to her intoxicating smell, to the way she tipped her head back slightly when she laughed.
He wanted so badly to touch her right now. He could easily reach over, his hand hidden by the tablecloth as he slid it up her thigh to the hem of her dress, and up further still, without anyone the wiser.
Save for Cameron, that is. But Smith didn’t think she would take too kindly to being fondled under the table in such a public place while his oblivious friends chatted away at her.
Smith watched as Cameron lifted her drink to her lips to take a sip. Her red hair was swept up into a complicated looking twist on the back of her head, leaving her shoulders and the slender column of her neck exposed. He knew he was staring, but he was too transfixed by the action of her swallowing to look away.
Smith didn’t register the uncharacteristic silence that had fallen around the table until Cameron set her glass back down, releasing him from whatever spell he’d been under.
Smith could feel the other men’s eyes on him as he finally looked away from her, and he made the regrettable mistake of meeting James’ gaze from across the table. The bastard just smirked knowingly at him, eyebrows raised.
Maybe bringing her to meet them was a bad idea, Smith thought belatedly, quashing the urge to shift around in his seat, made suddenly uncomfortable by James’ evident scrutiny of the situation.
Whatever he had--or didn’t have--going on with Cameron was just so fresh and raw, he didn’t even know how to validate it to himself, let alone other people.
And it didn’t help that his so-called friends were shameless shit-starters, either.
“So tell us, Cameron,” James said, breaking the silence as his eyes flicked between her and Smith. “How do you two know each other? Smith was devastatingly vague while divulging the... nature of your relationship with him.” James gave her a smile that was nothing short of feline as he cocked his head to the side. “I was hoping you could shed some light for us.”
Smith felt, more than saw, Cameron stiffen in her seat at James’ enquiry. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she formulated a response, busying himself with draining the last of his scotch from his glass.
“Smith and I work together,” Cameron said carefully, her cheeks turning slightly pink. “I’m his--”
“Environmental consultant,” Smith finished for her, setting his glass back on the table. He could practically feel the waves of relief rolling off of her as he came to her aid. “You know, save the Earth and all that.”
“Is that so?” James said, clearly unconvinced.
“Yep. Calloway Corp called my firm because they were looking for ways to go green,” Cameron said with a shrug, playing right along with Smith’s unplanned deception as if she had thought of the lie herself. “Studies show that younger generations are more sustainability-conscious than their predecessors were. Becoming eco-friendly is a must if you want to ensure your business’ relevance in the consumer market of tomorrow.”
There was a beat of stunned silence from the men at the table, Smith included, as Cameron finished up her fake sales pitch by taking a heavy gulp of her drink.
You cunning little fox! Smith thought, completely taken aback by Cameron’s acting skill. Hell, even I halfway believe her after that.
Smith looked around the table, having to suppress a laugh as he took in his friends’ astonished expressions. However, he couldn’t hold back his smug smile when he met James’ eyes once more.
James was positively gaping, obviously not having expected such a sound explanation any more than Smith had.
James recovered quicker than Smith would have preferred, though.
“Sounds interesting,” James said, leaning forward as he eyed her up. Smith didn’t fail to notice the way his gaze lingered on her cleavage as he spoke. “What, exactly, does a man have to do to get a private consultation with you?”
And just like that, Smith had reached his limit for humoring James’ questions about her any further. He’d been happy to avoid the whole dipping into the company ink conversation, but he really hadn’t wanted to give James the impression that Cameron was free for the taking, either.
Smith was just about to answer on her behalf, when Cameron surprised him again with her own quick reply.
“Unfortunately, I’ll be working exclusively with Calloway Corp for the foreseeable future,” she said, giving James an apologetic smile. “But if you’re really interested, I’d be more than happy to give you the contact information for one of my fellow consultants. His name is Dave, and I’m sure he could accommodate your needs as well as I can.”
James sat back in his chair, dejected by her counteroffer.
“Yeah, I doubt that somehow,” he muttered, looking down at his glass as he swirled its contents around before taking a swig.
Cameron just kept on smiling. “Well, let Smith know if you change your mind. I’m sure he’d be happy to forward you my company’s info.”
Yeah, not likely.
Seeing as how now was as good a time as ever to make an exit, Smith made a show of checking his watch for the time.
“Well, will you look at that,” he exclaimed as he looked down at his Blancpain. “It’s getting late. I should probably see Cameron home now.”
His excuse to get her away wasn’t nearly as convincing as Cameron’s performance had been if the eyerolls he was getting from around the table were any indication, but he didn’t care. He was done sharing her with them for the time being. He wanted her all to himself now.
Smith pushed back from the table and stood, helping Cameron from her own chair.
“It was lovely meeting all of you,” she said, giving them all one last smile.
“Likewise,” Thomas said, while Charlie nodded along.
James seemed to rally himself a little then.
“You’ll let me know when you’re a free agent again, won’t you Ms. Cameron?” James asked, giving her a wink.
Cameron laughed. “Sure,” she said, turning to leave.
Smith said his own hasty farewells, before following after her.
“An environmental consultant, huh?” Cameron teased as they strolled down the sidewalk, side by side.
“Yeah, sorry about that. It was all I could come up with on the spot.”
Smith had offered to call a car to take her home since she lived a bit of a ways away from Haro, but Cameron had declined, saying that it was such a nice night, she’d rather walk home instead.
So, being the gentleman that he usually wasn’t, Smith chivalrously decided to see her safely there.
“Your friends seem nice.”
Smith shook his head, but he chuckled anyway. “If you call them panting after you like lovestruck schoolboys nice, then yeah, I guess they are.”
Cameron looked up at him. “Did that bother you?”
Smith just shrugged, unsure how to answer that without revealing his feelings for her.
My feelings for her?
Before he could investigate that unbidden thought any further, Cameron spoke again.
“Or is it just that you don’t really like them in general?” she asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Smith sighed, feeling suddenly tired. “It’s not that I don’t like them, per se. It’s just... they remind me of why I decided to join the SAS, so that I could avoid becoming a moneyed asshole who gets what I want, when I want it, just because I’m wealthy.” He shook his head. “I feel like I’m slowly becoming like that, despite all my efforts otherwise. I feel like I�
�m becoming my father.”
They were both silent for a few moments as they continued walking, their shoulders brushing together every few steps or so.
“Is it because of me?” Cameron asked, somewhat hesitantly.
Smith squinted at her in the darkness. “What do you mean?”
“You feeling like you’re your father; is it because of your involvement with me?”
Smith thought about that for a second, before nodding.
“For the most part, yeah,” Smith admitted reluctantly.
“Oh,” Cameron said, her voice sounding suddenly small.
Smith groaned, running his hands through his hair as they both stopped walking. He wasn’t saying any of this right, but he needed her to know that he wasn’t blaming her.
“You have to understand,” he said as he faced her, his voice almost pleading as he explained. “My mother committed suicide when I was ten, leaving me and my father behind to cope with her loss.”
“Oh, Smith. I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she said, reaching out to take his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.
He returned the squeeze with one of his own. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago,” he said with a sad smile.
“Still, it sucks anyway,” she said, her eyes earnest as she looked up at him.
Smith couldn’t argue with that logic.
“That it does,” he said, nodding his agreement. “I struggled to get over her death for a long time. But my father…” Smith blew out a big breath as he closed his eyes and shook his head. “My father seemed to skip the mourning process entirely. After she was gone, it was almost like she never even existed in the first place, at least for him. All he cared about was using his wealth and power to fuck any woman he fancied, most of them under his personal employ, and I hated him for that.”
Smith took a moment to rein in his emotions. He was surprised by how hard he was breathing. Talking about this was not something he’d ever done before, and it made everything feel so raw and festered.
“I vowed I’d do anything to avoid becoming like him,” Smith said more calmly than he felt. He finally opened his eyes again so he could see her face. “But then you just showed up out of nowhere and…”
“Fucked your plans, literally?” Cameron suggested, trying to fill in where he couldn’t.
Smith laughed softly, despite himself. “In a nutshell, yes.”
Cameron looked down at their joined hands, not speaking for a long moment.
“So... what do we do now?” she asked, looking up at him again.
That’s been the question from the get-go, hasn’t it?
“What I should do is walk away from you right now, before things get messier than they already are,” Smith said truthfully.
Cameron looked at him for a beat longer before nodding her head mutely. She made to move away, to pull her hand from his, but Smith held fast, refusing to let her go.
“That’s what I should do,” he continued when her eyes found his once more. “But what I want to do is this.”
Smith tugged on her hand, yanking her against him as his mouth came down over hers, capturing her lips in a searing kiss. Cameron melted into the kiss, opening her mouth to him so that his tongue could sweep inside it, eliciting a moan from her that had his dick rock hard in an instant.
God, she made him so fucking hot. The way she gripped his hair when she kissed him was driving him mad with need. His body remembered all too well what it felt like to fuck her, and he wanted to rediscover that feeling, now.
Realizing how exposed they were just standing out here on the sidewalk, Smith walked Cameron back into the relative privacy of an adjacent alleyway, not breaking the kiss until he had her pinned between him and the wall.
Cameron gasped for breath as he released her mouth in favor of running his tongue up the side of her neck, his teeth nipping playfully at her earlobe, causing her to shudder against him as another moan of pleasure escaped her.
“I’ve been thinking about doing this from the moment I first saw you tonight,” Smith murmured against her ear, his lips brushing feather light against her skin.
Cameron’s hands slid over his shoulders and down his back, gripping his ass tightly as she pulled his hips forcefully against hers.
Smith had to bite back a groan as she grinded herself against him, their bodies fitting together so perfectly, it was as if they were put on this Earth for the sole purpose of fucking each other.
Smith parted her legs with one of his knees, his lips finding hers again as he kissed her, hard. His hands roamed over her body, indecisive about where to touch her first as they skated over the lace of her dress, before settling on her tits.
And what gloriously fantastic tits they were. Smith kneaded his palms against them, making a low sound in the back of his throat in appreciation as he felt her nipples harden under his ministrations.
Smith slipped a hand down between them, hiking up the bottom of her dress so that the form-fitting fabric bunched up to rest on top of her hips, exposing the satin black panties and matching stockings and garters that were hidden beneath.
Smith pulled away far enough so that he could look down between them, admiring the view.
“Fucking Christ,” he breathed as he took it all in.
He would never get tired of seeing her like this. The fucking stockings were a big weakness for him, something he suspected she knew, but he didn’t bloody well care anymore at this point. Not if it meant that he was the only one who got to see them.
He reached out again, running a finger along the edge of her garter belt where it met the sensitive skin of her lower abdomen. Her stomach flexed as she sucked in a surprised breath at his touch, which only excited him further.
Smith’s wayward finger didn’t stop there. He trailed it down further still, letting it glide over the smooth satin of her panties, finally finding its way home between the junction of her thighs.
“Fuck,” he growled in satisfaction when he found the pool of heat waiting for him there, her panties soaked clean through with the evidence of her arousal.
He kissed her again with a bruising force as he began to massage her through the damp fabric.
They broke away from each other’s mouths soon after that, both of their breathing ragged and harsh with the depth of their shared need for the other’s touch.
“Oh, fuck yes,” Cameron whimpered as Smith pulled the crotch of her panties aside, sliding his finger directly against her clit.
The slickness of her pussy made the tightness in his pants grow from uncomfortable to near painful in the span of seconds, his erection throbbing in a soundless plea to be released.
Patience, Smith chided himself. She cums first.
With that end goal in mind, Smith redoubled his efforts. Soon enough, the sound of Cameron’s panting breaths in his ear were keeping time with the rhythm he was setting for her with his hand.
“Oh, god,” she moaned as her knees began to shake slightly. “Oh, god. I’m going to cum.”
Smith easily supported her weight as her legs gave out from beneath her when her entire body began to tremble. She cried out wordlessly as her orgasm overtook her, her hands clenched tightly around the fabric of his suit jacket. Smith rode it out with her, his fingers working her clit until the last waves of ecstasy rippled through her.
He kissed her then, tenderly exploring her mouth as he cradled her between the wall and his chest. He slowly reached into his pocket to retrieve a condom from his wallet.
But when he pulled back from the kiss so that he could rip open the foil packet, Cameron stopped him by placing a hand over his.
Smith looked up at her, eyebrows raised in question, but she just shook her head, not meeting his eyes.
“We shouldn’t,” she said softly, straightening up so she could pull her dress back down over the tops of her stockings. “We’ve already gone too far as it is. You might regret this later if we do it now.”
“I highly doubt that,”
Smith scoffed, though he felt little humor in the situation. His dick was so hard, he feared it would sooner burst through his pants than be contained by them for much longer.
But Cameron remained adamant in her decision. She shook her head again, giving him a half-smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“No. Our jobs are important to both of us. I can’t jeopardize mine any more than I already have, and neither can you. We both need time to think this through before we take it any further.”
She leaned forward to give him a chaste kiss on the corner of his mouth. Smith just closed his eyes, unable to make himself move or speak in an attempt to convince her to change her mind.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she stepped away from him.
By the time he opened his eyes again, she was gone.
Alone in the alleyway, Smith was left to wonder what Cameron cared about more: him, or her job?
He wasn’t sure he’d like her answer, either way.
11
Cam walked down a side hall on the tenth floor of the Calloway Building, listening for others’ footsteps. She was deep in the labyrinth of the building’s file storage area, sneaking around the filing rooms. She’d only found out about these rooms two days ago, when she was in the break room.
One of the secretaries had argued with another over where some old paperwork might be. The first secretary had said that they could find the file location via the computer network, that every file was tagged with its real life location.
Cam had rushed back to her desk and looked. Lo and behold, she opened the network and clicked around until she found thousands of file names. With a little searching, she found what she most wanted to look at was on the tenth floor, in an obscure file room.
She had the number of the room written on a Post-it, for reference. She looked at the numbers on the doors, counting them until she reached number thirty-two.
She stopped in front of the door, looking both directions before trying the door knob. The door opened with ease, and she stepped inside the room.
