The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy(56)

I rested my head against Jude’s chest. And in that moment, wearing garish makeup and gold leg warmers, dancing to a cover band’s rendition of Debbie Gibson, I fell a little bit in love with Jude Ellis.





23





Jude





I slept better with Cameron mere inches away. I’d put my things in a guest room—not wanting to assume that I’d been invited to share her bedroom—but she came out of her home office every night and asked if I’d come to bed with her.

Of course the answer was yes. I couldn’t get enough of her.

After only a few days, we’d already settled into a comfortable routine. We were both early risers, so we’d get up and hit her gym first thing. Inda knew her shit. She worked Cameron hard, and she had some good suggestions for me to keep my shoulder joints healthy—a common place for a big guy like me to have problems.

Then coffee and a light breakfast with a view of the bay, marred only once by the appearance of horny dolphins engaging in some very explicit behavior.

We’d get ready for work and drive to her office. Evenings were spent chatting about our day over dinner, catching up on more work, and watching TV in bed together. Turned out she liked cooking shows as much as I did.

Some of it felt so normal, a tempting version of the ordinary life I kept telling myself I needed. And it scared me a bit to realize how quickly we’d molded our lives and routines around each other. It had been effortless, like we’d been living and working together for years, not days.

But much of it was anything but ordinary. Cameron’s life was filled with decisions that affected the lives of thousands of people. With steering the vision of an aerospace empire. She’d always be subjected to a high degree of scrutiny. Always exist at least partially in the spotlight.

Always need someone like me.

Dangerous thoughts to be having just days after realizing my infatuation with her wasn’t one-sided.

But I still had a job to do. I’d spent the last few evenings making modifications to her home security—adding cameras and more motion detectors, as well as adjusting the angles to eliminate blind spots. As expected, the police didn’t have any leads on the breakin. No fingerprints. There were too many places to buy red snapper in Miami to trace the origin of the fish.

I was frustrated as hell.

Still dressed in a sweaty tank top and shorts after a morning workout—Cameron was showering upstairs—I rooted through her kitchen cupboards. One of these days, I was going to slip into that enormous walk-in shower with her. But today she had an eight-thirty meeting, so I ignored the pressure of my unwanted hard-on and found some protein powder.

Nicholas came in the back door, dressed in a pink hibiscus shirt, his hair damp, his beard neatly trimmed.

“Morning,” he said with a friendly smile.

“Morning.”

I liked Nicholas. Usually I didn’t trust people who smiled a lot, but he just seemed like a contented dude. Maybe it had something to do with being happily married. He and Inda were an odd-looking couple—she was athletic and fit, and he had a bit of a dad bod—but they were obviously crazy about each other.

I pulled the blender from under the cabinet and opened the protein powder.

“I’d be careful with that,” Nicholas said.

“With the blender?”

“Cameron modified it. I’m pretty sure that thing could puree a chunk of marble. Stick to the lowest setting.”

I dumped in a cup of ice and a scoop of protein. “What do you mean she modified it?”

He shrugged and started getting pans out of a cupboard. “She has a workshop off the garage. She takes stuff apart and when she puts it back together, you need goggles and a hard hat to handle it safely.”

A workshop? I’d noticed a room with tools and a large worktable, but she’d never mentioned anything about it.

“Thanks for the warning.”

I added a few more things, secured the lid, and pressed blend.

It sounded like a jet engine gearing up for takeoff. I held the blender down, worried it was going to vibrate off the counter. A few seconds later, I turned it off.

“Told you,” Nicholas said.

I glanced around the kitchen. “What else has she modified?”

“The garbage disposal could probably chew your arm off, the electric mixer sounds terrifying but it whips heavy cream in about half the time, and I’d avoid the toaster altogether. We talked her out of taking apart the microwave, and I covertly got rid of the popcorn maker. Everything else is more or less normal.”

“Good to know.”

Cameron came downstairs with wet hair, dressed in a silky robe, her long legs on display. God, she was gorgeous. I wanted to toss her over my shoulder and haul her upstairs so I could devour every inch of her.

“Morning, Nicholas. Meal prep day?”

“Indeed it is,” he said, unloading an armful of produce onto the counter.

She sidled up to me and lifted onto her tiptoes to brush a soft kiss across my lips. “Shower’s all yours.”

I kissed her back. “Thanks.”

She glanced around, then leaned closer to Nicholas. “Will I find anything naughty hidden in the back of the fridge when you’re done?”

“You know Inda wants me to stick to the meal plan she made for you.”