Hot Commodity(13)

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"Oh. My. God."

Cameron Banks woke to someone rudely hollering in his ear. He winced and moaned. It felt as if someone was taking an axe to his temple and chopping all the way to the gooey center.

Whoa. Hangover City.

He hadn’t felt this disoriented and tormented after a night of booze in a long time. Probably because he hadn’t drunk in such a long time.

But today, every nerve ending in his brain shrieked. And his sister’s insistent voice didn’t help the situation in the least.

"Cam." She jerked at his shoulder, only intensifying his agony.

He gasped and then held very still until the needle of white-hot pain in the back of his skull dissipated.

"Cam!"

"What?" he croaked in a muffled voice as he buried his face back into his pillow.

"How could you? Have you no decency at all for your family? This is my house for God’s sake!"

"Damn, Leah," he mumbled. "Lower your voice, will you? I’ve got a killer headache."

"Oh, do you really," Leah said sarcastically. "Hmm, I wonder why?"

Cameron cocked one eye open and turned his head to watch her bend down and snag something off the floor: a shot glass advertising "Battista's Hole In The Wall" nightclub.

Oops.

His sister shook it in his face. "This wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would it?"

He groaned. "Sorry. Forgot to hide that."

Leah lifted an eyebrow. "Hmm, too bad," she agreed. "Too bad you couldn’t hide the girl too."

"Huh?" he asked, squeezing his eyes closed and stretching his arms above his head. Man, he felt like crap. He couldn’t even remember when he’d gotten home last night. Or how.

What in the world had he done? Jesus, what day was it?

"The glass is actually minor compared to her," Leah was saying.

"Her who?" He smacked his lips a few times to loosen his dehydrated tongue from the roof of his mouth.

When Leah merely scowled at him and dumped an armload of something on top of him, he jerked to a sitting position. Cursing and blinking repeatedly, he took in the black high heels, torn fishnet hose and a slinky strip of black silk cloth. Intrigued by the tiny scrap of cloth, he picked it up with one finger and lifted it for a curious inspection. Good God. Was that—was that underwear?

"I’m so disappointed in you, Cam," Leah raged. "I can’t believe you brought a woman into my home. I have a family, damn you, an impressionable four-year-old son that just adores his uncle—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, cutting in as he wadded the thong in his fist. "What in God’s name are you talking about? What woman?"

Leah sighed and pointed to the expanse of sheets and blankets next to him. "Well, gee, maybe the one in bed with you."

He whirled around and immediately found himself eye to eye with a pair of big, blue, raccoon-ringed peepers.

"Holy hell!" he burst out.

He jumped so hard that when he lurched back, he tumbled off his side of the mattress and landed on his bare butt at Leah’s feet. As he grunted, his astute sister immediately noticed another major detail.

Scurrying backward, she squealed, "You’re naked! Eww. Put some clothes on."

Having just awoken, Cameron felt too disoriented to immediately comply. He did, however, huddle closer to the edge of the bed so he could cover his lap with the sheet draping off the side. He wasn’t worried about trying to protect his sister’s eyes though. He was more concerned with the blue-eyed blond on his mattress.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

The woman had no time to respond, though, because Leah discovered the answer on the nightstand.

"What’s this?"

Cameron lifted his face to see her studying a legal-looking sheet of folded paper. As she unfolded it, her eyes went wide. A sinking sensation and a flickering memory of the night before hit him. He suddenly remembered prancing down the sidewalk arm and arm with a woman and singing—what in world had they been singing?

"Cameron," Leah said shrilly. "What is this?"

He grabbed the document away from her. "I don’t know."

The woman on the bed finally spoke. "Cameron?" She sat up, looking alarmed.

"What’re you doing with a marriage certificate?" Leah railed at the same moment.

"Marriage certificate?" Cameron’s eyes squinted and focused to the sheet in his hand.

"Your name’s Cameron?" Blondie asked. "I thought your name was Ken."

He didn’t even register the question. "What the…" he murmured in dawning horror as he read the document.

Finally, he glanced up and met the eyes of the stranger.