And she did.
“Oh my God!” Jane sat bolt upright when she was awakened by the sound of someone coming into her room.
No, into Cameron’s room. She was in Cameron’s room.
“Oh my God,” she said again—but this time it was tinged with disbelief—when her sleep-addled brain caught up to the enormity of what had happened. She was in Cameron’s room. He loved her. She was pretty sure he was her boyfriend.
And Elise’s stupid bouquet was lying on the top of his dresser.
She didn’t have time to analyze the weird mixture of exhilaration and fear that bouquet inspired—it was like riding a roller coaster, somehow—because Cameron was shedding his clothes. He must have gotten dressed and gone out for some reason. She stopped wondering what that reason might be when he pulled off his T-shirt, causing predictable things to happen between her legs. Would she ever get tired of looking at that muscular, inked chest? Once he was naked, he prowled toward her looking like he wanted to eat her for breakfast.
Breakfast. As hard as it was to tear her eyes from him, she looked around. Sunlight was streaming through a crack in the curtains.
“Oh my God!” she cried one final time, but this time the dominant emotion was panic. “What time is it? We have to go to the breakfast!”
He landed on the bed as she tried to get up. Grabbing her, he pulled her onto his body so she was lying on top of him, but his arms banded around her, rendering her immobile. He was hard between her legs. “We missed the breakfast. It’s eleven.”
“Oh, no!” she wailed, even as her hips, almost against her will, rocked against his.
“That’s what happens when you stay up all night fucking,” he said, grabbing her ass with both hands and grinding himself against the wetness between her legs. “Awww, fuck, you feel good.”
She moaned, suffused with happiness so strong it was like she was high. She didn’t want to go to breakfast. She didn’t want to do the right, expected, responsible thing.
“If you want to go downstairs, though, let’s do it,” said Cameron, stilling his movements but not letting go of her. “Though I ran into Jay and Elise, and they don’t expect us to make an appearance anytime soon. I told them we were doing two very important things up here.”
Her face heated, and she swatted his shoulder. “You did not.” It wasn’t like everyone didn’t know what was happening, but it was hard to shed a lifetime of inhibition.
“I did indeed. Number one, you need to help me look at a course catalog. That’s included in your babysitting services, right?”
She grinned. “So you are going back to school?”
“Yep. There’s a program at the University of Toronto that caters to non-traditional students who are older.”
“Are you sure there’s no way to make things right with the army? Did you have a lawyer at your trial? I’m sure Wendy would—”
He shook his head. “The army was about growing up, getting myself out of the rut I was in. It played its role. I’m thinking night school. Part-time—I don’t know if I have it in me to be a full-time student. Jay is going to hook me up with this foundation that does networking and career counseling for former military. I figure I can get a job and take a few classes at a time, get my feet wet.”
She was so proud of him she could bust.
“And Elise has gotten this crackpot idea that I should move into Jay’s condo. They were going to sell it, but now she’s talking investment property. She wants to renovate it.” He rolled his eyes.
Jane laughed. “She is going to need another project now that the wedding is over.”
He smiled. “I think it will be great, actually. Mind you, I plan on wearing out my welcome at your house, but I don’t want to crowd you.”
A flash of uncertainty flared in his beautiful blue eyes. Jane squeezed him as tightly as she could with her arms and legs and whispered, “Crowd me, crowd me.”
He twisted them so she was flat on her back and kissed her deeply, working his tongue against the inside of her mouth until her belly had gone molten. Then he stopped suddenly and pulled his whole body away from her. She cried out, reaching her arms up to try to hold him, but he was already off the bed.
“I forgot,” he said, moving to where a bag rested on the floor by the door. “I said we were doing two important things up here. The course catalog was only the first item on this morning’s agenda.”
“Yeah,” she said, “and I’m pretty sure you just rudely interrupted the second.”
He shot her a wicked grin as he opened the bag and removed a Styrofoam container. “Nope. The second thing is French fries.”
“What?”
“I promised you French fries the morning after the wedding, did I not? I went back to that diner and got a large order, extra grease.”
He opened the container. They weren’t just fries. On top of the golden potatoes lay a pair of poached eggs generously slathered with hollandaise sauce.
“And eggs Benedict,” he said, winking.
Tears rushed into her eyes. There was nothing he could give her—no jewels, no flowers, no expensive gift—that would be more perfect than this. She sat up and held her arms out to him, and he came, setting the food on the bed between them. He dipped a fry into the hollandaise and fed it to her.
“Oh my God,” she groaned, falling back on her highly unoriginal refrain, which had apparently become the catchphrase of the morning. “These are so good.”
“Eat up,” he said. “You need to keep your strength up.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I counted wrong.”
She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
He stood. She looked up at him, her strong, beautiful, naked man, the man who somehow knew exactly what she needed, even when she didn’t.
“You were right,” he said again, looking her up and down like she was the box of French fries. “We actually have one more really, really important thing to do.” He walked over to the dresser where the condoms were.
Her whole body started tingling, but she made a feeble protest anyway. “I really should go and make sure everything is okay. I can’t abandon Elise.” He stalked toward her, and when he arrived, he took the box of fries from her and set it aside. “I’m a bridesmaid,” she added. “I’m supposed to be, like…doing important things. Important jobs.” But then, she had a wild, radical thought. What if she stopped? What if she let her adult friends take care of themselves?
It was a strange, but not unpleasant notion. One she could get used to, actually.
“You are doing an important job,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“You’re babysitting the groom’s brother.”