“Mr Carter also has a few questions that he needs answering,” Mr Garrett continues, and I pull the sleeve of my shirt down, once again hiding the bruising, before I start to stand.
“Okay, I’ll just bring my notes back to the presentation room,” I say, but am stopped by Mr Garrett saying, “No, Cameron, he would like to speak with you on your own.”
“Oh? What about?” I question, because the last thing I need is to be with Caleb on my own. And with the walls being all fucking glass, I’d have to make sure I kept up the pretence of being polite to our new potential client, and I am just so tired right now.
“Well, it seems that if Elite Enterprises works with us, then they want you to head all of the projects,” Mr Garrett tells me, and I feel my mouth fall open slightly as my eyes get wider.
“Me?” I squeak.
“Yes, Cameron. You,” Caleb answers before Mr Garrett can say another word.
“Um… wow… I…” I have no words. Well, actually I do, but I can’t very well say them with my boss in the room.
Mr Garrett chuckles at my response. “It is a very big honour, Cameron, and I am trusting you handle our potential clients with the utmost care.” He gives me a pointed look, as if to say ‘don’t fuck this up’ and then turns to Caleb and holds his hand out to shake. “Please, take as long as you need.”
“Oh I will,” Caleb says with a smile that is as fake as mine was a few moments ago.
“I’ll leave you both to it,” Mr Garrett says before he walks to my office door and closes it, leaving me alone with Caleb fucking Carter. Jesus Christ, someone wake me up, because this can’t be real. It just can’t be. How can things change this much in the space of twenty-four hours?
I watch as Caleb takes his suit jacket off and puts it on the back of the chair on the other side of my desk, and then he takes a seat, rolling up his shirt sleeves until they are up to his elbow. Damn him. He must know how fucking sexy that look is. So yeah, damn him again.
“Whenever you’re ready,” he says, making himself comfortable as he waits for me to function again.
I narrow my eyes on him and then I say, “Caleb, this is nuts. I can’t head all of the projects for your work, it wouldn’t be right.”
“Why not?” he replies with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Why not?” I repeat incredulously. “You’re joking, right? Surely you don’t need me to give you a rundown of why this is inappropriate?”
“Actually, I think I do. And when you’ve finished telling me that, you can tell me how the hell you got that bruise on your wrist,” he says, his eyes holding mine, and I feel like the air has been knocked out of my lungs. Fuck. He saw. But how? When? I’ve been careful to keep it covered all day, and when he first came to my office, my hand was underneath the desk.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say pathetically.
“Sure you don’t, but let me tell you this, Cameron… I am not leaving this office until you tell me what that mark is on your wrist, or better yet, just show me and the matter will be all cleared up and I can apologise for jumping to conclusions.”
“How dare you barge in here and demand answers to things that aren’t even an issue,” I retort, panicking that he really won’t leave until I’ve showed him. It may have been three years, but he’s just as stubborn as he was back then. His stubbornness is why we’re not together now. It’s why he stayed away and why he never caved or tried to contact me, until now.
“How dare you come in here and act like you have a right to question me or get me to do anything,” I fume, but he just pins me with those turquoise-coloured eyes of his. I close my eyes and sigh before opening them and trying to keep calm. “Look, Caleb, this is all a bit much. I mean, I haven’t seen you for three years, and here you are, acting like we saw each other just yesterday.”
“I asked you to talk the other day and you refused.”
“Because I was with yourson,” I bite back, and the tension ratchets up a notch.
“Show me your wrist,” he demands.
“No.”
“Cameron, show me.”
“No,” I say firmly. I am not backing down. He can’t just waltz in here and pretend to give a shit.
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. My gaze fixates on those forearms. Ugh, I need to stop, but it’s not my fault he’s so stupidly handsome and has such delicious arms. It was always my weakness, his arms and those broad shoulders…fucking stop it, Cameron.
“Cameron,” he says my name so softly, and my heart beats fasten. “Look, I’m not here to try and make things difficult for you, I swear, but I can’t just pretend like I don’t care.”
“What?” I whisper, struggling to find my voice.
“I never stopped caring, and I know that might seem unbelievable to you, but it’s the truth.” The seconds tick by, and it’s like there is no one else in the world. There is only me and there is only him. It’s like my feelings are experiencing deja vu all over again, and I know it wouldn’t take me long to fall back in love with this man.