Madness Read Online Free PDF Page B

hair on the back of her neck rise and her stomach clench just like that smile he had given her when he had seen past her suit and coiffed hair. She shouldn’t have done this. She shouldn’t be here with him. She didn’t know herself anymore.

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    “Tell me what you have done with yourself over the past years, Olivia,” Cameron invited. “Steve told me you are a widow. I’m sorry.”
    Olivia looked away from him. She was afraid he would see too much. “I worked in finance for a while and then got married. Andrew died of liver cancer last year.”
    Cameron waited but she didn’t expand further, holding back a total confidence with everything she had.
    “Any children?”
    “No.”
    “What do you plan to do now, Livy?” he asked quietly.
    She shrugged at his nickname for her. “I hope to get the golf course and club doing better. And of course finish the house.”
    “Will you work in finance again, or is the golf course going to be your career?” Cameron persisted.
    Olivia found her temper rising. She hadn’t come to be interrogated. They weren’t playing catch up. She tried to find the words to ask him straight out what he was, but couldn’t make them pass her lips. Instead, she answered him honestly.
    “I don’t need to work, Cameron. I am quite wealthy in my own right now that Andrew is gone. But I needed a purpose and a focus. I am quite lost without him.”
    She had the satisfaction of seeing him flinch a little and wondered at the dark look that flashed across his features. It looked like jealousy. It was crass to talk about money, but she wanted him to stop asking her things that might lead to sharing what her life had really been like. He made her wish it had been something different, and she hated him for it.
    “Again, I’m sorry, Olivia.”
    They busied themselves with the soup, and silence once again reigned.
    “I apologize for my manners, Cameron,” Olivia suddenly said and wondered who had said it.

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    “Have you been in the security business all this time or…?” She stopped. God, what if he had been in some other kind of occupation, something she didn’t want to hear about. What if he worked in one of those sex clubs? Olivia had researched those places the one time, right after fleeing for college, and her response to the pictures of those women in submissive poses had terrified her because of the arousal she had felt. She had avoided temptation after that.
    Cameron smiled at her. “I branched out into security once I figured out that construction wasn’t my thing, really. It’s come in handy to know the trade, though, because my quotes are easy to give once I see the specs. Most folks don’t fire me!” Olivia felt her face color. “You were out of line, Cameron. How would it look if people saw me kissing the people I pay to do work for me?”
    “I was kissing you , honey, if you remember. And I was out of line, but I don’t regret it. There was always something between us and if you are honest, you can’t deny it. I wish I had kissed you twelve years ago.”
    Olivia jumped at the opening. “And why didn’t you?” Cameron brooded for a moment. “Because I thought it would lead to other things, things that I didn’t know if you could handle. And I didn’t want to do that to you. I was a whole lot younger then, Olivia, and couldn’t be sure. Now, I am.”
    Olivia leaned as far away from him as the booth would allow.
    “What do you mean you’re sure now? Of what?”
    “Honey, I saw the look on your face the night I was disciplining Jennifer. I’ve never forgotten it. If it helps at all, I think I picked her because she resembled you.”
    Olivia fought for control and for a response. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
    Cameron’s face darkened and his eyes were like blue ice chips.
    “Don’t lie to me, Olivia. I won’t tolerate lies. You weren’t shocked or afraid. You were angry with me, and jealous even, of Jennifer. I just
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    wish I had been