Be With Me(58)

Shock rounded her mouth. And close on the heels of that surprise came swift and agonizing guilt. Oh God. While she’d been off having her one-night stand and doing her best to prove she didn’t need him, he’d been waiting for her.

Cam let go of her shoulders and turned to the side, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’m not a saint. I can’t speak for the others. There were women.

Especial y in col ege. One or two afterward. But when I realized I was in love with you, other women ceased to exist for me.”

Love. The word sizzled through her brain like a fire fueled with gasoline.

She knew they felt deeply for her. Even loved her in a way. It was hard not to love one another when their friendship had run so deep for so long.

But to hear him say, so matter-of-factly, that he was in love with her weakened her at the knees. It cal ed to a long buried need in her that blossomed and strained to be set free.

She wanted to be loved. Maybe she’d always wanted it. But it was something she’d learned to live without.

“You love me?” she whispered.

He gave her the strangest look. The longer he looked at her, the more complex his expression became.

“You don’t know, do you? You real y don’t know what I feel for you?”

He moved in close, stil staring at her with those intense brown eyes, so dark they made her shiver.

“I’ve always loved you, Reggie darling. Always. But I realized I was in love with you two years ago. I watched you being sworn in to your position as a police officer, and I can stil remember the panic that hit me right in the chest as I realized the risk you would be taking. I broke into a cold sweat when I realized that this was something I couldn’t protect you from. And then I contemplated the possibility of losing you, and that’s when it hit me that I didn’t just love you, didn’t feel some deep affection reserved for a long-standing friendship. I was completely and utterly, hopelessly in love with you.”

“I don’t even know what to say,” she said in a lost and confused voice she couldn’t control.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Cam said in his gentle, understanding way. “That’s what’s so great about love. It’s freely given. It doesn’t require understanding or a response. Just know that you have mine.”

She buried her face in his chest. She quaked against him, unable to stanch the raw emotion that raged through her heart.

He rained tiny kisses over her hair as his hands smoothed up and down her back.

“I—I love you too, Cam,” she said quietly. And in that moment, she knew she meant it. She only hoped to God that it was enough to get them through the difficulties that lay ahead.

His arms tightened around her, and he shook as he slowly pulled her away from him again.

“Tel me . . . tel me you don’t regret what happened between us last night,” he said.

She gazed intently at him, not holding anything back. “I don’t regret it, Cam. I won’t run this time.” He laid his hand against her cheek, and she nuzzled into his palm, rubbing her face over his smooth skin.

“No matter what happens . . . with the others . . . it won’t ever change the way I feel about you, Reggie. I need you to know that.”

“I know,” she said softly even as her chest gave a little squeeze. What he didn’t say, however, was how they could possibly have a future together at the expense of two people they both loved.

It had to work. It was an al -or-nothing situation.

One that frightened the hel out of her.

He leaned forward and kissed her brow, al owing his lips to linger for a moment.

“Come on, love. I’m sure the others are waiting for us.”

Chapter 22

It was a little strange to walk into a house she hadn’t been in for a year. A place she had been a regular visitor to before that night.

The large home in the upscale Houston suburb doubled as their offices, although they did maintain a smal er office in downtown Houston. Who was manning it now that they had taken up residence in Cypress, and how could they hope to keep the business thriving living an hour away? How much were they giving up to pursue the arrangement they said they wanted?

It didn’t make a lot of sense to her. She wasn’t even important to her own parents. How could three men feel so deeply for her that they’d risk everything they had worked so hard for?

As she walked into the living room, images from that night a year ago flashed before her, heating her cheeks and her body. A warm flush centered in her abdomen and washed through her veins, bathing her in heady desire.

The four of them on the couch. Then the carpet and final y on the bed in one of the master suites.

The next morning she’d awakened amid a tangle of male bodies, their arms and legs possessively entwined in hers. She’d bolted. Run as fast and as far as she could back home.

She’d ignored their phone cal s, and when they final y showed up at her door, she’d used work and anything else she could think of to avoid them.

And then the phone cal s stopped. The pleas to talk to them ceased. Silence had stretched between them like a chasm. That was when the true pain had hit her, because that was the moment she’d lost them.

Until a few nights ago, when they’d appeared in her hospital room, determination etched into their features like stone.

Al the while she’d thought they’d given up on her they’d been moving quietly in the background.