Hot Commodity (Banks / Kincaid Family #1)(12)

"I’m so disappointed in you, Cam," Leah raged. "I can’t believe you brought a woman into my home. I have a family, damn you, an impressionable four-year-old son that just adores his uncle—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, cutting in as he wadded the thong in his fist. "What in God’s name are you talking about? What woman?"

Leah sighed and pointed to the expanse of sheets and blankets next to him. "Well, gee, maybe the one in bed with you."

He whirled around and immediately found himself eye to eye with a pair of big, blue, raccoon-ringed peepers.

"Holy hell!" he burst out.

He jumped so hard that when he lurched back, he tumbled off his side of the mattress and landed on his bare butt at Leah’s feet. As he grunted, his astute sister immediately noticed another major detail.

Scurrying backward, she squealed, "You’re naked! Eww. Put some clothes on."

Having just awoken, Cameron felt too disoriented to immediately comply. He did, however, huddle closer to the edge of the bed so he could cover his lap with the sheet draping off the side. He wasn’t worried about trying to protect his sister’s eyes though. He was more concerned with the blue-eyed blond on his mattress.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

The woman had no time to respond, though, because Leah discovered the answer on the nightstand.

"What’s this?"

Cameron lifted his face to see her studying a legal-looking sheet of folded paper. As she unfolded it, her eyes went wide. A sinking sensation and a flickering memory of the night before hit him. He suddenly remembered prancing down the sidewalk arm and arm with a woman and singing—what in world had they been singing?

"Cameron," Leah said shrilly. "What is this?"

He grabbed the document away from her. "I don’t know."

The woman on the bed finally spoke. "Cameron?" She sat up, looking alarmed.

"What’re you doing with a marriage certificate?" Leah railed at the same moment.

"Marriage certificate?" Cameron’s eyes squinted and focused to the sheet in his hand.

"Your name’s Cameron?" Blondie asked. "I thought your name was Ken."

He didn’t even register the question. "What the…" he murmured in dawning horror as he read the document.

Finally, he glanced up and met the eyes of the stranger.

"You are in serious trouble now, Cameron Banks," Leah said. "I can’t believe you did this again. I am so calling Mom."

As she started from the room, a panicked expression lit his new bride’s face. "Cameron Banks?" she shrieked, making even Leah stop in her tracks and glance back.

With the sheet tucked up under her armpits, Blondie pressed her hand to her heart and sucked in a mighty lungful. She stared horror-struck as if she’d just discovered he was Hitler reincarnated.

Then she shook her head. "No," she murmured more to herself than anyone else. "No. That’s impossible."

Cameron was about to ask what she was prattling about, but he was suddenly caught by how pretty she looked. Tussled blonde hair swept over her bare shoulder and half way down her back. Though her eyes were rimed with black, they were a clear blue that held him captivated. And the way her full lips parted in utter shock had him going hard. He was struck then with a real clear picture of looking down and watching those luscious lips wrap around him and suck the length of him into the hot, wet cavity of her mouth.

Oh, yeah. He could definitively see how he might’ve lost his head over her in an inebriated moment. He probably would’ve done just about anything to get into her panties.

But marry her?

No. He didn’t do marriage. Not after the first time. Not after he’d made the biggest mistake of his life with Sienna.

Cameron Banks loathed the very idea. Okay, he didn’t care if others partook. His sister was settled and living out her happily-ever-after. But not Cameron. He was never looping that noose around his neck again.

Obviously, though, he had. There was a marriage certificate in his hand and a babbling, sexy blonde on his bed.

She pressed a hand to her temple and shook her head, looking confused, as if she were making a grocery run and suddenly couldn’t remember what she’d come all the way to the store to buy. "No, no, no. This isn’t right," she insisted. "I covered all the bases. I looked in a damn bar all the way across town, didn’t I? I made sure he was plowed. And hopefully single."

Then she lifted her face and pinned him with an accusing look. "You’re really Cameron Banks? Cameron Orville Banks?" she asked as if maybe there were more than one of him out there.

He winced, hating it whenever someone used his middle name. "How’d you know my middle name?" Then he glanced down at the paper to see if he’d actually put it there when he spotted her name next to his. "Olivia," he murmured on a frown.

Olivia ripped the license from his hand and jerked it to her face.

Her cheeks immediately drained of color. "Oh my God," she whispered. "This can’t be real."

Her eyes closed but she opened them a split moment later and once again read the document as if the names on the sheet might’ve changed in the last second.

"This isn’t happening," she muttered, her face pulling tight into a horrified grimace.