Dating the Rebel Tycoon - By Ally Blake Page 0,31
something? Stars so bright, so crisp, so shiny and perfect, that you just want to hug yourself to keep all that beauty locked up tight inside of you.’
As her little flight of fancy came to a close she realised he was watching her with that inscrutable intensity that swept her legs out from under her. Lucky thing she was sitting.
‘Where, pray tell,’ he asked, ‘Can a man see such stars?’
‘You’re mocking me.’
‘I am. Only because it makes you blush, which is a view to match even this one.’
She thanked her lucky stars that he was yet to figure out her blushing had nothing to do with his words, and everything to do with his…everything. As his eyes searched hers, she looked back out into the night.
‘Around three a.m. is best,’ she said. ‘At exactly this time of year. Five-hundred metres down the road from where I live, there’s a dirt track leading to a plateau where the land drops away on three sides into Samford Valley. If you look to the south-east you can see the city in the distance. But you won’t; you’ll be looking up. And you’ll truly understand why it’s called the Milky Way.’
He breathed deep. ‘You’ll be there tonight?’
‘I’m there every night. Though I must admit, I lasted about an hour this morning before I fell asleep.’
His deep, warm voice skittered across her skin as he asked, ‘Tired you out, did I?’
‘Hardly. I’m just not as gung ho as I used to be.’
She glanced back at him, and regretted it instantly. The guy was like a strong drink: just one taste and the effect on her body, and mind, was debilitating.
He asked, ‘And what are you hoping you might find up there in the sky to be out so late at night?’
She nudged her chin against her shoulder. ‘I’m not hoping to see anything. I saw what I needed to see long ago.’
His voice was low as he asked, ‘What did you see?’
‘That my trifling concerns don’t matter all that much to anyone but me.’
‘Hmm.’ Cameron closed one eye and squinted at her with the other. ‘I was brought up believing my family was the actual centre of the universe.’
‘You do know the geocentric model went by the wayside around the sixteenth century, right? You’ve really got to see one of Adele’s shows at the planetarium.’
Cameron laughed, and Rosie did too. The sounds joined for the briefest of moments before being carried away on the air.
‘Until then, take this home with you—the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.’
Cameron waited a beat before saying, ‘Where have I heard that before?’
‘Eleventh-grade Shakespeare.’
He blinked blankly.
‘Now, come on, you can’t tell me you never compared some poor, lovestruck and less-rigorously-educated young thing to a summer’s day?’
He leaned forward until his face was a relief map of dark and light. She could see the shape of his hard chest as the breeze flapped his shirt against him, and the worry lines that never truly faded even when he smiled.
Thus she was blithely staring into those dreamy blue eyes when he turned to her and said, ‘Thou art more lovely and more temperate.’
Several seconds passed in which she said nothing; she just sat there, desperately searching for the humour that ought to have laced his words. Try as she might, she found none. Instead she found herself drowning in his voice, his words, his eyes, in his possibilities.
But that’s not why you’re seeing him, she told herself slowly, as if approaching an unknown and possibly dangerous animal. You might be revelling in the invigorating slaying of invisibility demons of your childhood, but he is still the greatest of all impossibilities.
She uncrossed her arms and grabbed hold of the edge of the crate, let her feet drop back to the concrete floor and dug her toes into her shoes. ‘It’s getting late.’
Cameron nodded. ‘After Brendan rang, my project manager buzzed.’
‘Good old Bruce.’ The pleasure that skipped through her when he smiled made her wish she’d kept her mouth shut.
‘I promised him my whim had been appeased and we were already on terra firma. Unscathed. I got the feeling he was lying in bed awake awaiting that news.’
He held out a hand. She took it. She didn’t realise how cold hers was until it was enveloped in the warmth of his. He lifted her easily to her feet, and time folded in on itself as together they walked through the maze of building materials, blowing out each