Hot Commodity (8 page)

His wife scowled. She lifted a frayed leather strap he had to guess once held her top together. "You ruined my blouse."

Blouse? Cameron was trying to figure how that thing could possibly be referred to as a blouse when she suddenly crossed her arms over her chest, restricting his fine view. He lifted his face in time to catch her full glare.

Grinning, he shrugged. "Can’t imagine why I would’ve done such a thing."

She fumed. "What am I supposed to wear? This is...it’s ruined."

"Hmm," was his only answer as his eyelids drooped heavily. He licked his lips as he thought up all the things he’d prefer to use in order to cover those full, lush breasts.

"I’m serious," she cried.

He sighed, his daydream dissolving at her scowl. "Oh, for God’s sake. It’s not the end of the world." He motioned distractedly toward his luggage on the floor. "I’ve got a whole suitcase full of shirts you can wear.

Take your pick."

She eyed the pile of clothing uneasily.

"I don’t have cooties," he groused. Then he grinned. "Besides, I think I already passed them on if I did."

She blanched, probably remembering just how many cooties they’d swapped.

Ashamed for bringing it up, he sighed. "I don’t have any venereal cooties either, by the way."

She didn’t answer, daintily tiptoeing across the floor toward his suitcase to retrieve a pinstriped button up dress shirt. Unable to resist, his eyes gobbled the view. The woman was hot—hot in an all caps, triple underlined, bold font kind of hot. It was a relief to know he didn’t lower his standards when he was blubbering drunk. He could still pick the beauties even with his beer goggles on.

Her face looked young. With her wide blue eyes, full rosy cheeks, small pert nose and full bottom lip, the black leather she wore made her seem like a little girl who was playing dress up. Her body however, was all woman, curvy, with rounded hips and plush D-cup breasts. Her ass was nice and tight and Cameron couldn’t help but watch it and want as she bent over to slip on her four inch strappy sandals.

As she straightened, he grinned. Talk about playing dress up. The shirt she’d chosen was so long, it more than covered the tiny black skirt underneath and nearly came down to her knees. Wearing stilettos and a man’s shirt, she was definitely the image of a little girl who’d found her way into Mom and Dad’s closet.

"God, you’re adorable," he blurted out before he could properly check his words.

He didn’t particularly want her to know how much she turned him on, though the huge hard-on he’d pointed at her two minutes ago might’ve already clued her in. Still.

She scowled, not appreciating his praise.

He cleared his throat. "So, let’s talk."

She retreated a step, sending him a leery look. "Talk about what?"

"Gee, how about the weather?" At a bewildered blink of her long lashes, he sighed and rolled his eyes. "About the fact that we just got married. What do you think I want to discuss? Good Lord, woman."

"I think I’d rather talk about the weather." His wife’s features took on dry sarcasm as she rolled up the cuffs on his shirt until she could find her hands.

"Well, tough. I want to know how this happened."

She gritted her teeth. "You were there. Why do I need to tell you anything?"

"For starters, I was drunk and half of my memory’s been erased."

"Then maybe you shouldn’t have been drinking."

Cameron’s face flamed with color. Alcohol was a tender subject with him; he’d already received enough flak about it from people he actually cared about. He didn’t want to hear a word from this little fluff ball.

 
But instead of blowing up, he controlled his temper and held his breath, counting to ten. When he felt a smidgeon cooler, he exhaled and said, "Okay, let’s start fresh." Holding out a hand, he said, "Hi. I’m Cameron Banks. It’s nice to meet you."

She frowned at his hand.

"And you must be Olivia," he added when she refused to play along. "I hear you were married last night. Well, that’s quite a coincidence because I was too. But I don’t think the new Mrs. Banks likes me much. So far, she’s cried, glared, snapped and given me the silent treatment. And she seems averse to my name," he added after seeing her cringe at being labeled Mrs. Banks. Tilting his head to the side, he studied her a moment. "Which makes me wonder, why don’t you like my name? How do you even know who I am?"

She looked up quickly. Too quickly. "I don’t." Then she snorted derisively and rubbed her hand against her forehead. "Trust me, if I’d known you were Cameron Banks, there’s no way in hell I would’ve even talked to you last night."

"But you know something about me," he insisted. "You know my middle name and you know about…way too much about my wife. How do you know so much? There’s no way I would’ve told you that last night."

No amount of alcohol would get him to open up about Sienna.

She shook her head to agree. "No," she said and closed her eyes. "No, you didn’t tell me. I...my mother did."

He arched a brow. "Your mother?"

This time, her head bobbed up and down.

He didn’t remember a mother lingering around in any of his hazy visions from the night before. There’d been a cop once, but no mothers.

"Who’s your mother?"

She opened her eyes and looked regretful as she whispered, "Vivian Helbrock-Donovan-Roark."

He stared at her hard. Finally, he frowned. "Who?"

Her lips parted; she looked at him as if he was insane. "Vivian Donavan," she said a little more forcefully as if he should really know this one. "The owner of Helbrock Enterprise."

When he merely shook his head, her jaw dropped even farther.

Something in his brain clicked. "Helbrock, you say? You mean that big-time canning company in California?"

Her shoulders slumped in relief and her head once again did the up and down.

"Your mother owns that?"

Closing her eyes, she bit her lip and continued to move her head in a nod.

"And her name is Vivian Donovan," he concluded.

"Yes," she whispered, looking stricken like she expected him to lose his temper at such an announcement. "My mother is Vivian Helbrock-Donovan-Roark."

Cameron shrugged. "Never heard of her."

Her eyes flew open. "What?" she blurted out, staring at him with that disbelieving gawk all over again. "But...but that’s impossible. She’s told me about you. All about you. She...she even gave me a sheet full of information about all the companies you’ve bought and sold."

Cameron wrinkled his face in confusion. "Huh? Why
would she do that?"

Olivia didn’t answer. Instead, she looked like she was on the verge of another major crying fit. "You’ve seriously never met her before?"

He felt like he should apologize for answering, "No."

She looked so crushed, he actually wanted to give her a sympathetic hug. Of course, if he put his hands on her—good intentions or not—he’d probably turn into some kind of lecherous octopus and play how-fast-can-I-undress-the-blonde-babe, going straight for her—

"I can’t believe it," she said to herself, her shoulders curling in around her body as she started to rock back and forth. "She’s never even met you before and yet...and yet…"

"And yet what?" Cameron urged softly.

"She wanted me to marry you," she choked out.

Cameron pulled back. He blinked, waited for the punch line of her joke, and when it didn’t come, he cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Five

Olivia sat huddled inside Cameron Banks’ shirt on the king-sized bed in his sister’s guest bedroom. Her 'husband' had spent the last half hour grilling her about Vivian until she’d spilled the entire sordid truth. When she was done, he merely stood there and stared in appalled silence with his eyebrow permanently quirked.

"So you married me for my money?" he finally said.

"No!" she screeched. "I chose you because I thought you had to be the polar opposite of this Cameron Banks guy Vivian wanted me to marry."

But Cameron only shook his head. "Now, wait. Explain to me again. How did your
mother
think my marrying you would make
her
wealthier?"

The way he stressed 'mother' and 'her' made her realize he didn’t buy her story. His wary scowl told her he sensed something underhanded taking place. He blamed the trickery on her, though, not Vivian.

Olivia tried once again to explain her mother, though she knew a woman like Vivian was intellectually impossible to comprehend.

"She’s heard about your reputation, and she’s studied your business acumen." Olivia shrugged. "I guess she assumed that with a man like you as her son-in-law, a whole new world of opportunities would open for her. All she’d have to do is mention you’re family and, presto, everyone will want to do business with her because—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Cameron cut in. "A man like me? What does that mean, ‘a man like me’?"

He looked so insulted Olivia grinned. "She sees you as a quick-minded, prospering millionaire whose wealth keeps growing exponentially."

"So?" he asked, appearing even more baffled by her description.

"So…you’re just the type of person she wants in her back pocket. In her mind, anyway," Olivia was quick to add. She didn’t want Banks thinking any of this was her philosophy. God, she hoped he caught that. "Plus, she thinks any son-in-law of hers is going to want to merge his business with Helbrock Enterprise."

Her new husband lifted an intrigued eyebrow. "Oh, she does, does

she?"

Olivia smiled weakly. "I’m telling you, Vivian isn’t right in the brain."

Cameron eyed her intently as if to say,
neither is Vivian’s daughter
.

At the moment, she had to agree.

"So." He cleared his throat. "She was counting on you to come in, totally sweep me off my feet, and keep me so blind in love—or lust, or whatever the hell you do—that I’d just hand over all my money to her?" He snorted. "Right. I so buy that story."

Olivia couldn’t help herself. She laughed. "You know, she really sounds like a presumptuous bitch when you put it that way. Oh, wait. She is." She chuckled even more. She knew she was turning hysterical. She could actually feel her head go faint and realized hyperventilating wasn’t far behind. She wanted to stop. But she couldn’t seem to make her body obey. It, along with everything else, had slipped from her control. Tears seeped from between her eyelashes she giggled so hard.

Running a hand through his hair, Cameron whipped the marriage certificate off the bed where he’d dropped it earlier. He frowned as he studied it. Then he glanced up. "This is really real, isn’t it?"

She nodded and continued to laugh. There was nothing funny to snigger about, but laughter seemed like the only thing she had left to hold herself together. Or maybe it was a sign she was falling apart.

Cameron muttered under his breath as he bent down and picked up his pants from the night before. When he shook out a cell phone and flipped it open, panic halted Olivia’s laughter, choking it off abruptly.

Oh, God, he was going to call the police and have her arrested. She licked her lips. "What—what’re you doing?"