I was mentally sifting through my polite, neutralno way in hellresponses when I rounded the corner. I saw Alfie first. He was standing beside my desk, facing a woman on the couch opposite it. I could only see the back of her head–familiar black masses of hair–but the dopey smile on his face was clear as day. I glared at him until he noticed and snapped out of it.
“Hi, boss,” he said, straightening. “I was just waiting with your morning appointment.” He looked dazed. Not uncommon for men–and women–who came face-to-face with Elyna Lavigne. It didn’t matter that she was pushing fifty. The woman would be casting spells in her hundredth year.
But not on me.
“Ms. Lavigne,” I said pleasantly as I walked further in. “There’s been a miscommunication. We don’t have an appointment, and I’m afraid I don’t have time to make one this morning.”
I walked past her without looking at her, went straight to my desk, and set my briefcase down on it. Only then did I glance up at her, hoping to dismiss her with a polite smile and wave to follow Alfie out the door.
Then my heart stopped dead in my chest.
It wasn’t Elyna Lavigne looking at me with luminous dark eyes, her face pale against the clouds of black hair. It was Cami.
Somehow, I didn’t blurt out the first thing that came to my mind, which waswhat the fuck are you doing here?I stared at her for a long moment, then cleared my throat. “Alfie, you can go.”
Bewildered, Alfie glanced between Cami and me. My cues had been unmistakable. I’d been about to ask him to escort her out. What the hell had happened?
“Alfie,” I said again, my voice warning him not to ask questions. Maybe I’d explain later. More likely, I wouldn’t.
He retreated, hesitated at the door, then pulled it closed with a quietclick.
Cami smiled hesitantly. I leaned back against my desk, arms crossed, studying her. In the last four years, she’d begun to look even more like her mother. Twenty-seven now, the last traces of immature roundness had melted from her fine-boned face. Her lips were still full and sensuous, painted a dark red that was a departure from the pale pink ChapStick she used to wear. Her eyes were still expressive underneath the high, arched brows. I’d seen them dance with happiness, heat with lust, go languid with satisfaction.
I’d never seen them like this though.
Even though she was smiling, Cami was nervous. Instinctively, I wondered why. Then I reminded myself I didn’t care.
“It’s been a long time, Cami,” I said, clipping my words to keep any vestige of emotion out of them. “What brings you back?”
Her smile faded at the coldness in my voice. She tilted her head, the corners of her lips turning down into a puzzled frown. “Are you angry with me, Landon?”
I was silent for a moment, wondering if she was fucking with me. I was practiced at detecting artifice, and there was none in her voice or on her beautiful face. She was genuinely confused. But then, as I studied her, another emotion appeared — wariness. My brain tried to connect the two and couldn’t. I’d forgotten how frustrating it was to be around a Lavigne woman. This one in particular scrambled all of my well-honed instincts.
“Angry with you,” I repeated coolly. “Because you rolled out of bed with me and disappeared without so much as a phone call four years ago? No. But it does make me wonder why the hell you came back.”
Her eyes fell, her long, dark lashes sweeping down. She stared down at her fingers that were forming intricate knots in her lap. “I left a note.”
I scoffed harshly.
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking up at the sound. “I didn’t know you would have wanted a phone call.”
Again, I strained to find any hint of deception on her face or in her voice, but there was none. Had I really been so callous when we were together that she didn’t think I would care if she disappeared from my life? I’d never been particularly soft or sentimental, but I didn’t think I was a complete asshole. At least, I didn’t think I had been with her. Cami had been so different from my usual type. Too young, for one thing. And then she’d possessed an innocent sensuality that had driven me crazy with its dichotomy. She could seem wise beyond her years one minute and then filled with childlike wonder the next.
I’d cared about her more than I’d wanted to.
I’d thought she’d known that.
But there was no use opening this Pandora’s Box now. We’d been what we had been, and we’d ended the way we had ended. I cleared my throat, and when I spoke, the edge was out of my voice. “What can I do for you, Cami?”
It was a genuine question. I couldn’t imagine she’d come to me for help with security. She’d hated having a personal protection officer around. She had constantly tried to give them the slip, finally forcing me to step in. Although if the familyhadbeen getting threats, and God knew Elyna had pissed off enough people, it would explain the nervous energy coming off her in waves.
Her big, dark eyes flickered up to mine, then back down to her fingers. I could see the slim column of her throat working as though she were about to speak and then changing her mind, swallowing the words back down. She blew out her breath and pushed her long, dark hair back off her shoulder. “God, I didn’t think it would be so hard,” she murmured more to herself than me.
For the first time in a while, I wished I still smoked. At least it would give me something to do besides wonder what the fuck was going on in her head. She was the only person I could never read at all. I didn’t even bother trying now.
“Okay,” Cami said, addressing her entwined fingers. “I need to tell you why I left four years ago.”
I raised my eyebrows. “It wasn’t actually an ecovillage in Turin?”