Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Jo let the words settle in her mouth, weighing and testing them. As a woman who valued truth above all else, the lie felt foreign and heavy on her tongue. But this lie was a necessary evil. The sooner she accepted that Cam would never be more than a brother to her, the better. And why not start with Peter and the ballet.
“I’ve seen your work. It’s brilliant.” Peter walked deeper into the room, extending his hand to Cam. “We’re all excited you’ll have your exhibit at the Walsh House.”
Cam eyed Peter as if he were a nail and Cam the hammer. He and Walsh always played Big Bad Brother with the men she dated. She’d once fooled herself into believing it was more for Cam. Maybe jealousy, but he’d quickly disabused her of that notion by sleeping with some girl from her dorm. Cam glanced from Peter’s hand back to the affable expression on his even features before, a mere hairsbreadth shy of rudeness, he accepted and shook.
“Thank you.” Cam glanced at Jo again, his dark brows lifted in a question. “Adoption program? You didn’t tell me you were branching out into adoptions.”
“We haven’t really spoken much lately, though, have we?” Jo tapped her clutch against her hip, shaping her face into indifference and holding Cam’s stare.
“True.” Cam nodded before turning back to Daddy, who had snatched yet another pawn. “So how was the ballet?”
Peter answered before Jo could.
“It was as astoundingly boring as I had anticipated.” Peter dropped amused eyes to Jo’s face. “And I got exactly what I wanted. A night with this beautiful woman, which made it completely worth it.”
Jo had pulled her mouth into a hard line as soon as she saw Cam sitting with her father. She could feel her mouth relaxing. Feel it yielding to a smile. Feel all that was held tight loosening a little. She needed to fall for this guy. It was as obvious as the sun in the morning and the moon at night. And yet her body and everything inside her was tuned to the dark-haired man watching them when he wasn’t watching the board.
“You’re sweet, Peter.” She tugged his elbow, giving him a grin for free. “Next time we’ll do something you like.”
“I like spending time with you, so that’s a sure bet.” He ran a finger down her cheek and dropped a kiss on her hair, pulling her hand to his and linking their fingers. “You mind if I pass on that literal coffee? Just realized we have an early conference call with the folks in Kenya.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Jo said. “Forgot about that.”
“Taking over the world again, sweetheart?” Her father asked the question without lifting his eyes from the chessboard, but the fond smile on his face was for her. She walked over to perch on the arm of his leather chair and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.
“You know once we have Haiti up and running, we want to start with Kenya.” She reached over her father and made a few deft moves, castling Cam’s king without glancing his way once. “We’ve got the first kids in Haiti waiting.”
Cam leaned back in the leather armchair, lacing his fingers over his chest, never looking up but considering his next move. She and Cam were the only ones who’d ever been able to match her father and Aunt Kris. She loved playing with him but wouldn’t be indulging that anytime soon. He made a brilliant maneuver, looking up at her with “your move” sketched between his raised brows. Tempting as it was to engage with him, she stood and walked away, ignoring the unspoken invitation.
“I’ll let you know how the Kenya call goes, Daddy,” she said over her shoulder, relooping her elbow through Peter’s. “The call is…what time again, Peter?”
“Seven o’clock.”
“Oh, you do need to get home.” She walked him back out of the study. “Night, gentlemen. I’m walking Peter out and then off to bed.”
* * *
“He’s like a brother to me.”
Exactly the words Cam needed Jo to believe, but they had filleted him when she’d made the comment to the Ken doll fingering her face moments before. All Cam’s bodily functions had ground to a halt, completely immobilized by the sight of someone touching Jo intimately. Peter Halstead touched Jo like it was just the beginning. Like him stroking her face was merely a prelude to everything else he wanted to do to her. He’d pulled her close. He’d kissed her hair. He’d been subtly possessive.
“Head not in the game anymore?”
Cam wrenched his eyes from the doorway Peter and Jo had just gone through, forcing his attention back to the board, where his bishop was now imperiled.
“How…When…?”
“While you were distracted by my daughter and her date,” said James Walsh, or Unc as Cam and Walsh had always called him.