Snapping my eyes over at her, I saw the clench to her jaw and followed her narrow-eyed gaze across the bar. A curvy brunette had taken a seat next to Braden and engaged him in conversation. Braden didn’t look like he was being anything but polite, but the brunette was sitting awfully close to him. My eyes met Ellie’s and she threw me an ‘uh-oh’ look.
Joss was too classy to get into a bitch fight, especially with someone who was just sitting a little too close to her boyfriend. The girl would have to –
Oh, no. The brunette’s hand had landed on Braden’s thigh.
‘Be back in a second,’ Joss muttered furiously as she passed me.
She was too busy leaving the bar area with cool eyes and a burning rage to notice that Braden had already removed the woman’s hand from his thigh. I leaned against the bar with my elbows, settling in for the show. It was a shame I was too far away to hear Joss. She could flay someone alive with her words and do it with a great deal of self-possession. I was eternally envious of her ability to confront an aggressor without turning into a chalk-faced gibbering idiot.
A customer approached the bar, and I reluctantly drew my gaze away from the scene. As I was pouring the guy his whisky, Cam’s familiar and sexy scent infiltrated my olfactory senses and I could swear I swayed a little.
At the feel of his warm breath on my ear, my fingers trembled and I froze as I pulled the bottle away from the glass. I could feel the heat of his body all the way down my left side, as though he was actually pressed tight against me.
‘I’m sorry for being a dick,’ he murmured, his voice deep with sincerity.
The vibration of his words against my skin caused a shimmer of delicious shivers down my spine. It completely turned me on. I only just managed to stifle my surprised gasp.
Feeling off balance, I glanced at him over my shoulder, only to find he was very definitely almost pressed up against me. It took a minute for his apology to register with me.
Cam sighed, his chin dipping so that our noses were close to touching. My eyes tangled with his and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to move even if I wanted to. ‘I don’t know you,’ he continued, his eyes searching my face. ‘And I shouldn’t have presumed to.’ That searching look of his finally came to rest on my lips, and as his eyes turned molten with sexual awareness another rush of unexpected tingles awoke between my legs. I licked my lips, wondering what his mouth would taste like, and his breath hitched.
He leaned away from me, his eyes wary as they met mine. I saw the consternation in them and my whole body tensed.
Cam was just as attracted to me as I was to him, but he didn’t want to be.
Why? Was I ‘beneath’ him?
A sharp pain sliced across my chest and I pulled my gaze away and back to the drink I was making. And because I had just spent the previous evening preaching to my wee brother about being gracious, I nodded. ‘Apology accepted.’
‘So why do you have to look after your brother? Where are your parents?’
I turned away, brushing past Cam to slide the drink over to my customer. I took the money for it, hit the till, and then handed back the customer’s change. Just as I glanced around to answer Cam, another customer appeared.
The bar got busy again, and Joss skipped down the stairs and under the counter to help us out. I watched, while I served a customer, as Ellie, Adam and Braden left. I gave Joss a teasing smile. ‘You kicked him out?’
She shrugged. ‘If he’s going to be attracting hot women who don’t care if he has a girlfriend or not, then, yeah, I’m kicking him out.’
‘What if he goes to another bar? There are more attractive women out there who will come on to him.’
‘Yeah, but I don’t have to see it this way.’
‘Good point,’ I murmured, eyeing Cam as he leaned over the bar so a female customer could say something in his ear.
The unexpected explosion of jealousy that ripped through me when he pulled back and smiled at her with blatant sexual cockiness nearly floored me.
What was I doing? What was my body doing?
I was with Malcolm. I was happy with Malcolm.
Deciding it was time to go on break, I gave Joss the heads-up and hid out in the staff room for ten minutes. Berating myself for a good portion of that, I managed to get myself together enough to return to work. When I came back out, the bar had hit another lull of quiet and Joss and Cam were leaning against the bar, talking to each other. I drew a deep breath and decided to be a grown-up.
‘What’s up?’ I asked congenially as I approached them.
Joss gave me a surprisingly uneasy look. ‘Cam asked about your family. I thought you’d already told him. Sorry.’
My heart flipped in my chest, a rush of queasiness making my skin prickle. ‘Told him –’
Realizing what I thought she meant, she rushed to clarify. ‘About your mum’s illness and how you have to take care of her and Cole.’
An immediate rush of relief overwhelmed me and I let out a deep breath. ‘Right.’
Unfortunately, I’d given away too much. When I chanced a look at Cam, I saw his suspicious gaze flickering between me and Joss. He had just opened his mouth, presumably to ask another question, when Joss derailed him. ‘So what about you, Cam? Your family from here?’
Although his eyebrows were still drawn together in curiosity, he nodded. ‘My parents live just outside Edinburgh. Longniddry.’
Nice, I thought. Longniddry was this lovely village situated near the water. It was a beautiful place with rough beaches and old cottages. I wondered what it must have been like to grow up in such a place.