She ignored him, but he wasn’t deterred.
"You want to go get some coffee?" he asked. "Or ice cream maybe. Or I could take you on a full date if you’d like. We could grab something to eat, catch a movie, get married. Anything you want."
He talked to her all the way to the exit, and she stared at her feet the entire trip. At the door, she finally looked up. She studied him dispassionately with those beautiful, sad eyes that were lined with bags from lack of sleep, and gave him a slight smile. It made his heart stutter with excitement.
"Do you want to go out some time?" he repeated on a whisper.
"Maybe," she finally answered, then turned away and pulled open the back door of a car waiting at the curb. She glanced back at him before getting in. "Bye."
He smiled, feeling as light as a feather. "See you around."
Lacey, who’d followed Cameron outside to the curb where he stood watching Sienna depart, grabbed his arm and spun him around. "What do you think you’re doing?"
Cameron shook his head in confusion. "What?"
"Sienna Tridell is a deeply troubled girl, Cam. After seeing her parents die when she was nine, she’s been a manic depressive who suffers from insomnia and has a partial addiction to half a dozen different prescription drugs."
"But she sure is pretty," he argued, flashing his infamously ornery grin.
"She’s a mess."
Cameron didn’t care. He shrugged it off. "Hey, manic depressives need love too."
And that’s exactly what he’d done. He’d given Sienna all his love. Knowing from the start how much it would take to make her smile, Cameron felt like the king of world when she smiled twice and laughed once on their first date.
He’d never been a people-pleaser before. He was usually too much of a jokester to care all that much about anyone’s feelings. But after meeting Sienna, his world altered on its axis. Suddenly, the only thing he wanted out of life was to make her happy.
He wanted to save her. Bound and determined to pull her back from the depths of her despair, he’d centered his world around pleasing her. He’d—
Realizing he’d shuffled through every picture and pulled out all the shots with Sienna in them, Cameron’s hands started to shake. He shoved the bundle back into the box and firmly closed the lid. Then he pushed the entire container off his lap and onto the floor. The package from his Viva Las Vegas vacation landed on top with a thud.
Getting to his feet, he started for the kitchen. He needed a drink. He needed to forget. Nothing could mellow the ache like half a dozen shots of Crown Royal. Anything to ease the tightness in his chest and the images in his head of the sexy, blonde twinkie he’d recently married.
Frowning, he wondered idly why he always applied food to her when he mentally described her. Twinkie, Pop tart, cupcake. Then it struck him. She was too delicious. He grinned, remembering how her hair had flowed through his fingers right before he’d pushed inside her. She was good in the sack, he’d give her that.
He wondered if she’d made it home to Mommy Dearest all right. Then he snorted. What a crock. The two were probably celebrating their victory over bagging Cameron Banks. He was a little surprised he hadn’t received any word yet over how much money they wanted to rape out of him over this marriage business.
Well, he didn’t care. They could take it all.
It hadn’t been his money in the first place. He’d gotten it after Sienna died. Her father had been an insurance salesmen and he’d taken two huge policies out on him and his wife. All the money had gone to Sienna when they’d died, and then it had gone to him when she died. Suddenly stuck with nearly half a million dollars, Cameron had wanted to throw it all away. So, he’d bought stock with it, the riskiest ventures on the market, hoping it’d be gone within the month.
That had been back when the economy was booming. So, by some twist of blind luck—or bad luck, in his opinion—his investments had ended profitably. Half a million turned into five almost overnight and a bitter, shocked Cameron had no idea what to do with all that capital. He invested again, and again, and now, he had more millions than he could ever need. All because his wife had offed herself.
Cameron groaned and closed his eyes. Olivia Donovan and her mother could take every freaking cent. He didn’t want it.
When he reached the kitchen, he discovered he didn’t have any alcohol in the house. He’d dumped every bottle three years ago when he’d gone sober.
God, this night was going to suck.
Unless he made a quick run to the store.
~ ~
Chicago, Illinois
Olivia was sure she’d seen the last of Cameron Banks.