Be With Me(29)

She cradled her injured wrist in her hand and rubbed her thumb lightly over the swel ing. “Birdie could have been hurt or kil ed,” she said quietly. She glanced back up at Cam and then slowly turned to look at Sawyer and final y Hutch. “He broke into your house. Any one of you could have been here. He’s already kil ed one person. What’s another?”

“How did I know you’d say something like that?” Sawyer muttered.

“So you think a better alternative is for you to hole up in your house alone?” Hutch demanded. “You’re smarter than that, Reggie. Start acting like it for God’s sake. This martyr bul shit isn’t like you.” She bolted to her feet and whirled around, her eyes flashing with anger. And to think, Cam had been thinking about how Sawyer could always elicit a reaction from Reggie. Cam looked at Hutch in a new light. The usual y laid back, calm Hutch was teetering on the edge.

“No one said I was going to stay at my house alone, ass**le,” she said in a near growl. “Just because I’d prefer not to put the people I care most about in danger doesn’t make me a f**king martyr.” Hutch stood, shoved his hands in his pockets and hovered over her, staring down into her eyes. Anger rol ed off him in waves.

Reggie didn’t back down an inch, and Cam wondered if he was going to have to get between them. Hel , what was up Hutch’s ass? It was usual y Hutch getting between Reggie and Sawyer.

The irony wasn’t lost on Sawyer either. He regarded the two with undisguised amusement.

“Maybe,” Hutch said behind clenched teeth, “the people who care about you don’t like the idea of some ass**le trying to kil you.”

He inched forward until there was no space between him and Reggie.

Cam sighed. “Come on, you two. I swear you’re acting like a pair of pit bul s.”

Reggie and Hutch both rounded on him. Reggie glared, and Hutch’s brows drew together in an angry line.

“Nobody asked you,” Reggie snarled.

She turned back to Hutch and poked him in the chest with a finger. “I can damn wel take care of myself. I don’t need you and the others hovering over me like nursemaids. Yeah, I got hurt. It happens in my line of work. But I’m not going to let it turn me into some goddamn girl.”

Sawyer broke into laughter. “Reggie, honey, I hate to tel you this, but you are a girl.”

“Shut up, Sawyer.”

Hutch shifted, and Reggie dug her finger back into his chest. “And so help me, if you kiss me or do something else to distract me, I’m going to hurt you.” A slow smile worked at the corners of Hutch’s mouth. “Are you saying my kisses distract you, baby?”

She backed away and bumped into Cam. Cam reached up to steady her then pulled her down into his lap. She started to reach down and shove away, but he held tight.

“Damn it, Cam,” she hissed.

“Stop running,” he said calmly. “You tel us you aren’t afraid but every time we get close, you make tracks in the opposite direction.”

She trembled against him. There was a multitude of emotions in her body language. Fear. Anger.

Confusion.

He caught her wrist in his hand, careful not to press too hard.

“This needs to be iced again, and then the brace needs to go back on.”

“Why do I feel the sudden urge to go beat my head against a wal ?” Reggie muttered.

Cam smiled and stroked a hand through her unruly curls. “You’re stubborn, Reggie darling. However, I’m not sure you realize how stubborn I can be as wel .

Maybe I’ve given you the impression that I’m a pushover, but you’re about to find out that when it comes to you, I’m anything but.”

She turned to stare at him, her eyes bright with confusion. “Cam, I’ve never thought you were a pushover. When did I ever give you that idea?” He cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb over her lips. “I said I might have given you that impression. I do tend to weaken when you turn those blue eyes on me. In any other matter, I have no doubt you’d get your way. But this has to do with your safety, and I can be more of a hard-ass than you when it comes to that.”

Her lips turned down into a frown. He smoothed a corner with his thumb, coaxing it upward again. “I much prefer you smiling.”

She sighed. “You’re absolutely no fun to fight with.

You’re supposed to keep pissing me off so I can stay mad at you.”

Cam chuckled. “If I kiss you, wil that piss you off?” Her breath caught then expel ed in a jerky rush. A spark ignited in her eyes, and she ran her tongue nervously over her bottom lip.

“Or you could kiss me,” he said in a low voice.

Her hand came up to his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. When he opened them again, her lips were hovering just inches above his. Uncertainty glittered in her beautiful eyes, but to his satisfaction, there was no fear.

He itched to move to her, to complete the kiss, but he waited instead. He wanted her to come to him. It seemed like forever until she softly pressed her lips to his.

It was a gentle kiss, sweet, so incredibly sweet.

The tip of her tongue feathered over the seam of his lips, and he opened for her, wanting her deeper inside so he could taste her, absorb her.

She pulled away, and it was al he could do not to groan his protest.

“I shouldn’t want this,” she whispered. She glanced over her shoulder to where Hutch stil stood, and Sawyer sat just a few feet away. Then she turned her gaze back to Cam, and he could see the guilt in her eyes.