The Paid Bridesmaid(31)

“We should go inside and clean your hands.”

I looked at my palms. “It’s fine. It’s not bad.” I flicked a tiny black pebble away. “It doesn’t even hurt.” My head seemed a little clearer, so I stood up and only wobbled a little.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.

Shaking my head, I told him, “I wasn’t asking for your permission.”

He stood up, too. “I’ll come with you.”

Secretly, I was thrilled. This was exactly what I’d hoped he’d do. But I didn’t want him to think that I was trying to manipulate him. Even if I was. “You don’t have to.”

He ran his fingers through his hair in a very attractive way. Some part of my brain registered that the gesture and the loud sigh that accompanied it were probably due to frustration.

“Why are you sighing?” I asked.

“Because I’m having visions of you getting dragged out to sea and then Sadie blaming me for losing her best friend to the watery deep. So obviously I have to accompany you.” His tone was light, but I could tell that something else was bothering him.

I guessed he would tell me when he wanted to.

“This way!” I said, walking across the grass to where it met the white sand. My heels immediately sank and I was having problems navigating the beach.

Camden came up behind me. “Why did you stop?”

I flailed my hands around, ending up pointing at my shoes. “I can’t walk with these things on and I’m pretty sure that if I try to take them off I’m going to end up with a head injury.”

“Sand’s pretty soft. I think you’ll be okay,” he teased, but then he knelt down next to my feet.

His fingers made contact with the bare skin of my right ankle as he undid the strap and then carefully slid my shoe off, holding me in place with his warm, strong hand. I put my palms on his shoulders, just to keep myself steady. Not so much because of the shoe coming off, but because of the waves of sensation that traveled from my foot up my leg and settled deep and low in my gut.

I tried for humor. “Why are you keeping a ham under your shirt where your shoulder’s supposed to go?”

He either didn’t get it or didn’t think I was funny. The second one felt like the most realistic reason, and he was probably right to ignore me. I’d also said it in an attempt to deflect the feeling of his skin on mine, and it wasn’t working. Like, I was headed into eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-my-head-from-pleasure territory.

Camden took off the shoe on my left foot in the same way, intensifying all the feelings, and I kind of wanted to tackle him into the sand and have my way with him.

But then a part of my brain that wasn’t drunk from rum and/or high off his touch recognized that he wasn’t into it. He didn’t brush his fingers against my skin like he could have, or linger a moment too long holding me in place, or run his hand along the back of my knee, or a million other things to show his interest that I would have eagerly welcomed.

No, instead he was all business and respectful.

“Here.” He handed me my shoes and took off his own loafers so that we could walk along the shore together.

It was like something from a postcard; a full moon hung above us, reflected on the water. A cool breeze chased away the heat and humidity left over from the day, and a salty smell surrounded us. The sparkling sand felt warm and soft under my toes. The palm trees that marked the line between the beach and the hotel’s grass made a soft hushing sound as we walked by.

Beautiful.

“Tell me something about you I don’t know,” I told him.

He shuffled his feet for a second and I realized that he was trying to match my gait, slowing down his longer stride to stay with me. He stayed silent for a moment and I thought he might not answer. But then he said, “I don’t just work at a tech company. I’m the CEO. Dan and I started it together in college and it’s about to revolutionize the entire world.”

It took me a second to realize that he was watching me closely, waiting to see what I would think. Maybe waiting for a specific reaction? I made a buzzer sound, like on a game show. “Thank you for playing, we have some nice parting gifts for you.” At his raised eyebrows I added, “I already knew that about you. You were supposed to tell me something I didn’t know.”

“Sadie told you?”

“Well, I am her maid of honor,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, and this whole wedding is just a big distraction from next week, when the company goes . . .” He let his voice trail off and I found it more than a tad enjoyable that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to say things I shouldn’t.

I decided to mess with him. “When the company goes public?”

“How do you know that?”

“Didn’t we just establish that I’m Sadie’s maid of honor? My guess is Dan told her and then she told me.”

He looked upset. “Did you tell anyone?”

“Obviously I have all the local New York news stations on standby, waiting to get more information from me.” Camden came to a complete stop. I reached back to tug on his arm, to get him to keep walking. “It’s a joke. No, I didn’t tell anyone, Mr. Paranoid.”

“If this leaks out beforehand . . . there’s so many things that could make this all go sideways.”