Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(12)

Clicking on the television, he decided to settle in for one very, very long night. And yet, before the first half hour was up, his head was lolling to one side and he was drifting off.

Cam was startled awake by a scratching noise. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then he heard the noise again. He was instantly awake. It sounded as if someone were trying to pry open the window.

But they were in Sterling. Who in the hell would break into Grace’s apartment? He’d just been ribbing her earlier about her door being unlocked. In this town everyone left their doors unlocked until they went to bed.

When the noise continued, Cam jumped up and moved toward the front door. He went in stealth mode, but the squeaky floors in her apartment probably couldn’t help but betray him. He unlocked the door as quickly as possible and thrust it open.

No one was there, and for a moment he thought maybe he’d been imagining the whole thing. But when he looked again, he saw a flat-head screwdriver beneath her window. With narrowed eyes, he looked both ways on the balcony before he stepped up to the tool and bent down.

There were scratch marks on the outside of her window, as if someone had indeed been trying to break in. What the hell? Taking off his shirt, he used it to pick up the screwdriver. With luck, some prints could be lifted from the handle. But the whole idea was absurd. It had to just be neighborhood kids thinking they were being funny. Crime never really happened in Sterling. That’s why people chose to live here.

Not able to shed his sense of unease, though, Cam moved back inside the apartment, his rest for the night ruined. When she woke up, Grace was going to answer his questions. This time, he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

If someone was after her, he wanted to know why.





Her brain fuzzy and her vision unfocused, Grace woke up to the smell of fresh coffee, bacon, and something delicious that she couldn’t identify. Sage had to be making breakfast. Grace lay there a moment longer, her lips turning up and her stomach growling.

When she took in a big breath of air, she nearly laughed aloud for pure joy when she realized her nose was no longer stuffy. Wiggling her legs, she still felt aches and pains, but they weren’t as debilitating as they’d been the past few days.

Then her eyes snapped back open. Wait a freaking minute. Sage had moved out six months ago. She was married to Spence now—Cam’s brother. Cam! He’d been at her house the night before. Thinking hard, Grace tried to call up the last thing she remembered. The tub!

She’d been in the tub and had obviously fallen asleep. Her hand shot to her chest and touched the silky smoothness of her nightie. Slowly lifting the blanket, she peeked underneath. That nightie was all she had on. Her face went crimson as she realized that Cam must have pulled her from the tub, dried her off, and dressed her.

She racked her brain for any other memories, and came up blank. She knew there was no way they’d done anything. As much as she wanted to “monsterize” Cam, he wasn’t a bad guy and he would never take advantage of a sleeping woman, not even if the two of them were in a relationship. So her horror was strictly at knowing he’d seen her naked—again.

Then, with the morning light streaming in through her blinds, she noticed her bedding had been changed. Had he done all of this for her? Why? Since she’d come back to town, not a single conversation had ended without one or both of them either yelling or the one time at her best friend’s wedding with them ripping each other’s clothes off, she thought in shame. So why in the world was he taking care of her now?

“Good morning, Grace. You look much better than you did last night.”

Grace froze as she looked to her doorway and found Cam leaning against the jamb with a cup in his hand, smiling at her.

“What are you doing, Cam?”

She clutched at her comforter, pulling it to her chin as she stared at him. Age had only made him better. He’d been so dang handsome when he was in his late teens and early twenties. She’d been in love with him from the time he was sixteen and she was only twelve, and he’d thought of her as nothing but a child.

He was all man now, his cheeks still chiseled but filled out nicely, his shoulders wide and making the perfect upside-down A-frame, and his arms . . . oh, his arms were solid, and looking at them led her gaze down to his stomach and beyond.

Shaking her head, she snapped her eyes back to his, which were, of course, twinkling. “Like the view, darlin’? Need me to turn around?”

“I asked you a question, Camden.” She was growing grumpier by the minute.

“I stayed the night. You were so sick and out of it that I was worried about you. And now I just finished making breakfast. You hungry?”

Her stomach growled her answer and he chuckled. She wished she could be stubborn enough to insist he get out, but she really was starving, although she didn’t see how she could be after pigging out the night before.

“Would you leave so I can get up?”

“Why? I saw plenty last night,” he said with an exaggerated wink.

“That’s just plain rude, Cam!” she snapped, sending him a look that should have shaken his confidence, if only a little.

“You weren’t thinking I was rude last night.”

“I was drugged and out of it. A real man wouldn’t have taken advantage of that fact.”

He stepped into the room and her heart thudded as she wondered what he was going to do. Slowly, so slowly, he approached the bed, set his coffee cup down on her nightstand, and then leaned down, his face now only inches from hers.