Rough and Ready (More Than A Cowboy #2) - Vanessa Vale Page 0,29

text from Cam had my mind spinning, my heart pounding. Even if I put my head down on the table, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.

I refused to respond. There was no need. Cam didn’t know where I was, couldn’t touch me.

Cam: Your apartment is dark.

I clenched my phone when the second text came through a few hours later. We’d just returned from lunch at the nearby pub. I stood in the hallway, staring down at the words. My heart pounded so hard, it hurt. My lunch was debating whether to come back up. Cam was still in jail. I would’ve heard if he’d been released early. My mother would have called, cajoled once again in coming to her stupid party.

No, he was still in jail. Until tomorrow.

Then how did he know about my apartment? If he wasn’t watching it, then someone else was. Had he hired someone on the outside to spy on me? Was someone else looking for me and pestering my brother? I wouldn’t put it past the men he owed money to, and I wouldn’t put it past my brother to offer me up again. But why had I been safe before now? It had been almost two years. I shivered, cold even in my cashmere turtleneck.

“I’m surprised you’re here after term.”

I startled at the voice. I turned on my heel and looked up at Giles. Yes, he was handsome, his dark hair falling rakishly over his forehead, and the slight twist of his lips when he smiled was appealing. He wore a tweed coat with the patches on the elbows along with hunter green wool pants. I wasn’t sure if he fit the stereotype of an overly intelligent Englishman or a senior lecturer of arts. I thought back to when I’d gone to pick up pizza with Reed. He’d mentioned the elbow patches then and had been pretty accurate with his image of an art history professor.

I shrugged and tried to shake off Cam’s text, but it was really hard. He had someone watching for me, and the thought that my apartment was no longer safe completely freaked me out.

I realized Giles was waiting for me to say something. I pasted on a brittle smile. “This presentation is important to the department. I might only be a guest lecturer, but I like to help.”

His lips turned, but his gaze drifted down my body before looking me in the eye.

“You could be more than just a guest. You could take the job I know you’ve been offered.”

I could and based on Cam’s latest text, the idea held more and more appeal.

“Everyone’s going home after the presentation for the long holiday. Are you headed to the airport—” He stepped close, close enough that anyone passing would think we were more than just colleagues. “—or are you staying for a few days?”

A few days meant time in his bed. Not just the storage closet down the hall. God, it would be so easy to take what he offered, giving myself to someone, to forget Cam and my fucked-up life. Giles was harmless. He wouldn’t hurt me. Sleeping with him would give me just what I ached for. Arms to hold me as I struggled. A sated man to know I had something to offer. The attraction between us had been enough where I’d been wet when we fucked, but not enough to come. That hadn’t been his fault. No one made me come. And no one took me to his bed.

I thought of Reed. His bad boy looks that didn’t match the way he touched me. The way he hadn’t taken anything from me. The way he’d made me come. He was the only one to have done so.

Giles’ fingers squeezed my shoulder, bringing me out of my thoughts. His touch was gentle but didn’t awaken me as he probably wanted. As he once had. I breathed in his crisp cologne and missed Reed’s clean scent: soap, sweat and man.

“I’m… I’m not sure yet.”

I lied. I was staying. My return ticket was for Christmas day, but I didn’t know if I wanted to spend any of the time before then with him. I craved the thought of him touching me, of the connection I’d feel when he was inside me. I hurt, and I knew I’d be soothed, even if temporarily. I craved the thought. Not him.

“Or.” He drew the word out, so I had to meet his gaze. Only then did he lean in, whisper, “Or