Other than Fredrick Neiman, one else seemed to have a problem with his sexuality. At least, no one else mentioned it. The rest of the calls he’d fielded that morning had been from businesses more concerned with his new “celebrity” status than anything else. Cameron had done his best to convince them that it wouldn’t affect his work or impact their accounts in any way. Some had sounded mollified, but many still remained reluctant.
“Is everything okay?” Amelia asked.
Cameron sighed as he placed his coffee down on a coaster beside his laptop. “We lost the Neiman account.”
Amelia didn’t react other than a short nod. “I’ll contact them on Monday and begin closing out the account.”
“Have I told you lately how amazing you are?” The company would completely fall apart without her, and Cameron’s ego wasn’t too fragile to admit that.
“Yes, but don’t stop. Tell me again.”
Cameron laughed. “You’re amazing.”
“Anything else I should know about?” As she spoke, she adjusted the sleeves of her black, cowl-neck sweater and smoothed down the front of her sleek pencil skirt.
Cameron frowned. “Did you change clothes?” He distinctly remembered her wearing a lilac blouse with ruffled sleeves earlier. “You definitely changed clothes.”
“Just my sweater,” she said defensively. “Why?” Stepping back from his desk, she ran a hand over the thin fabric as she stared down the length of her body. “Does it look bad?”
“No,” he answered at once. He might not be attracted to women, but he wasn’t blind. “You look beautiful.” Growing up with Natalie, he knew that was always a safe thing to say when a woman asked about her appearance.
Amelia beamed back at him, her dark brown eyes alight with excitement. “Thank you.” She lowered her voice in a conspiratorial whisper, although there was no one else in the office to overhear her. “I have a date.”
His eyebrows drew together, and he opened his mouth to ask if she was leaving early, but he stopped abruptly when he caught sight of the digital clock on the corner of his desk. How the hell was it already four o’clock in theafternoon? Amelia only worked a half-day on Fridays, meaning she’d already been there four hours longer than she should have been.
Cameron sighed guiltily. “I’m sorry, Amelia. I didn’t realize it was already so late.” He owed her a hell of a lot more than a week’s worth of paid vacation. “Thanks for staying.”
“Of course.” She brushed her dark curls over her shoulder, all business again. “Is there anything you need before I leave?”
“Have we heard back from Braxton and Nash?”
“They sent confirmation Tuesday morning that they had received the proposal,” she informed him. “Otherwise, no, I haven’t heard anything.”
He nodded. “Okay, I should probably give them a call.”
“Would you like me to get someone on the line for you?”
Cameron smiled up at her. “No, that won’t be necessary. Go.” He made shooing motions with his hands. “Have fun. Your date is a lucky man.”
A light flush stained her cheeks, and she thanked him again before hurrying out of the office. Thirty seconds later, his cell phone chimed with an incoming text from her—the phone number for Braxton and Nash. Cameron grinned. It was definitely time to think about giving his assistant a raise.
Knowing there was a good chance the attorneys had already left their offices for the day, he grabbed his desk phone from the receiver and dialed anyway. His call was answered on the second ring, and after sitting on hold for nearly ten minutes, Ethan Nash’s voice finally came over the line.
“Mr. Stone, I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Not a problem. I was just calling about the proposal my assistant sent over last week.”
“Right, right, of course.” There was something in his tone now, a hesitation that had Cameron sitting up straighter in his chair. “I’m sorry someone wasn’t in touch sooner.”
“Is there a problem with the proposal?”
“Not the proposal,” he answered evasively. There was a quiet sigh, a long, awkward pause, then Ethan cleared his throat before saying, “I’m afraid we’ve decided to go in a different direction.”
~
The cold front thathad rushed into the state after Halloween seemed in no hurry to leave. High temperatures hovered in the low fifties, nowhere near the freezing mark, but still unusual for that time of year. Fall thunderstorms remained as sporadic as ever, and even though they’d beengranted a reprieve from the rain for the next few days, dreary, gray clouds still blanketed the sky.
Asher slouched down in an armchair by the fireplace in the den. It wasn’t really cold enough to justify the flames, but he’d gotten used to having a fire lit since Cameron had been staying with him. The guy was always freaking cold. Since that meant having Cameron’s lithe body wrapped around him at night, however, Asher wasn’t too inclined to complain.
