Pitch Perfect (11 page)

“What are you doing?” The touch of disappointment in her tone had Cam smiling in the dark.

“We should probably call for help,” he replied and almost groaned in disappointment when she released her fingers from his hair. After rolling away, he shoved his hand into his pocket for his cell phone.

“Oh, you’re right,” she said, but she scooted closer to him in the pitch-black darkness.

When Cam’s cell came to life, he looked at the glowing screen and shook his head. “No bars in the elevator. I was afraid of that.”

“There should be an emergency call button that goes to a twenty-four-hour service,” Mia said.

“Right, I’ll try it.” Cam turned his cell phone to illuminate the wall and then reached up and pushed the button. “Hello?” he shouted into the speaker, but he got only crackling static in return. “So much for that.”

“What do we do now?” she asked while shrugging out of her hoodie.

“Well, what you’re doing is a start.”

“I’m hot!” she explained.

“I won’t argue with that,” he said and turned the cell phone in her direction to illuminate her face. When she giggled, he thought once more how cute she was and leaned forward to give her another lingering kiss. Perhaps it was being trapped in the elevator or the leftover emotion of the wild and crazy day, but Cam couldn’t remember when he had been this attracted to a woman. No, it wasn’t just attraction. He was drawn to her in ways he couldn’t even explain. And while he knew he should back off for a whole slew of reasons, at this very moment he simply couldn’t. Besides, it kept his mind off the fact that they were trapped in an elevator for unknown reasons, after hours, with no way out. And for the moment he didn’t have to think about being tossed off the team for getting thrown in jail.

“Wow . . . ,” Mia said when her giggles ended.

Cam kept his phone illuminated and directed at her face. “What?”

“Who knew that there was such a charmer beneath all of that broody bad-boy sulkiness?”

“Nobody.”

“Excuse me?” When Mia tilted her head in question, Cam refrained from telling her that he was anything but a charmer and that she was bringing out attributes in him that no one ever had squeezed out of him before. “Explain yourself.”

“Nobody, Mia. Like I said, I’m not a hero or a charmer by any stretch of the imagination.”

“Once again, I beg to differ.”

“Well, maybe I’m just rising to the occasion.”

She arched one golden blond eyebrow. “Is that a double entendre?”

“Not at all,” Cam answered with a deep chuckle and then leaned back against the elevator wall. “It’s a fact.”

“Really?” she asked, but even in the low light of the cell phone he could tell that she was blushing.

“Want to find out?” He kept his tone teasing, but he sure hoped that she said yes.

“I think I—,” Mia began, but she was cut off when the lights flickered and then came back on. The elevator groaned and then began to move upward while they blinked at each other. “Thank God!”

“Yeah.” Cam nodded his agreement, even though he was thoroughly disappointed that he didn’t hear her answer. While he didn’t want to be stuck here all night, a little while longer would have been just fine with him. A few seconds later the elevator reached the fifth floor, but just as the doors began to inch open, the lights went out again.

“Oh no!” Mia exclaimed and clung to Cam. “What do you think is going on?”

“Well . . .” Cam leaned forward and tried to pry the doors open without success. He peeked through the small opening. The light was dim but he could see over to a window, and a flash of lightning confirmed his suspicion that a thunderstorm was the culprit. “I’m pretty sure this is a power outage from a storm.” He stepped back for her to see.

“Oh . . . yeah, I see lightning flashing all over the place. It must be some really strong wind.” She stepped back. “But at least I feel better about the door being open a little bit.”

“Are you claustrophobic?”

“Apparently.” Her reply was light with humor, but Cam also heard a thread of fear in her tone. “And I’m not exactly a big fan of storms. My bedroom had big windows and I know it’s silly but I used to think that the trees tapping against the glass sounded like someone—or worse, some beady-eyed monster—trying to get in my room. I would huddle beneath the covers and only peek out with my eyes.”

“That’s not silly,” Cam said. He remembered all too well having the same fear, but he’d never let on how scared he was. He knew all too well how precious sleep was to his mother and never dared going to her bedroom for comfort. “Didn’t you run to your parents’ bedroom?”

She hesitated, and he could feel her stiffen. “My parents divorced when I was very young. My mother moved on with her new life and new family. I lived with my dad and, well . . . he was gone a lot.”

Cam could feel her pain, and a flash of anger had him asking, “Mia, who raised you?”

She paused again. “Babysitters,” she finally answered. “And I don’t mean Mary Poppins,” she added with a short laugh.

“Well, that had to suck.”

Cam felt her shrug. “He was a busy man. He did the best he could under the circumstances.”

“I hear a
but
in there,” Cam couldn’t help but say to her.

Mia sighed. “But he was too worried about showing my mother what a loss it was for her to have run away with another man and—” She paused and swallowed hard.

“And neglected you?”

“Oh,
neglect
is a harsh word. No, not neglect. He just . . . I don’t know. Cam, I don’t know if I can even explain it.”

“Well, at this point all we have is time.”

“You have a point,” Mia said but then fell silent for a moment. “I know that my father loves me. I just don’t feel as if he . . . values me as a person. Well, at least a productive person. Does that make sense?”

Cam had to clear the emotion from his throat before he could answer. “Yeah, you feel like you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

“I didn’t really feel like that so much. It’s more like I sometimes felt . . . invisible?”

“Yeah, I get that,” he answered quietly. “In my case I wish I could have been invisible. I had a tired single mom and a deadbeat dad. They both resented my existence.”

“Oh, Cam, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Cam chuckled softly. “It only made me determined to be a success. Sounds like you are going through much of the same thing. I guess we had somewhat similar childhoods.”

She paused for a second, as if she was going to elaborate, but then sighed. “Well, I’ve decided that I don’t have anything to prove to anyone except to myself.”

“Now you’re talking.”

“Yeah, no more pity parties.”

“Agreed. I fell into that category for a while, and it almost cost me my career.”

“Oh God . . . I hope I didn’t ruin things for you again! I am so sorry!”

“Hey, I made the choice to intervene. Don’t blame yourself for this. And it was my previous behavior that got me into this mess to begin with. Seems as if I like to learn things the hard way.”

“Still . . . ,” she began, but he put a fingertip to her lips.

“Hey, sounds like you’ve got your own problems to deal with. I’ll find a way out of this. I always seem to land on my feet.” Her concern touched him. “But thanks.” God how he wanted to kiss her. “Listen, it really could be a while before the power comes back on.”

“So what do we do? Any bright ideas?” she asked but then gave a slight laugh. “No pun intended.”

Cam chuckled at her humor, thinking that despite speech and mannerisms that at times seemed more mature than she appeared, there was an odd innocence about her that made him think that she had seen more than most people and yet had been sheltered from the real world. While there was no doubt that he was physically attracted to Mia, he was both interested and intrigued, and that was something he had rarely felt about a woman.

“Well . . .” Cam hesitated for a second and tried to think with a clear head, but when her soft, alluring scent wafted his way, he gave in to temptation. “Yeah, I have a few ideas.” He wasn’t sure how bright it was, but Cam pulled her into his arms and then pressed her up against the wall. “Maybe you need something to take your mind off of your phobia,” he said just before he bent his head and kissed her.

With the doors open a few inches, they could hear the sound of the rain and perhaps hail pelting against the windows. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, but Cam barely noticed. When she tugged his shirt from his waistband and smoothed her hands up his back, her touch excited and yet soothed him, causing his worries to melt away. The storm would end and his troubles would come roaring back, but all he could think about right now was the sweet, sexy woman in his arms. Tomorrow would come soon enough, but for now he was all about savoring the moment.

Cam realized that he had wanted to kiss her from the moment she had sat down next to him at Wine and Diner. What he didn’t know was how it was going to make him feel. Damn, she got to him on a physical level, but having her in his arms brought out tenderness that he had never experienced before. She made him hard with need, but he wanted to protect her from all harm.

What the hell was up with that? It was as if she had cast some sort of spell on him. Damn, he should pull back and end this before they went too far, but his body would not obey his brain. Cam kept kissing her and kissing her, and when she threaded her fingers through his hair, he groaned with the sweet pleasure of it all. Perhaps it was the storm that raged outside or the inner turmoil stemming from the trouble he was in, but Cam was hit with a solid smack of emotion the likes of which he had never experienced before.

Without breaking contact with her mouth, he reached up and started to unfasten her uniform. The buttons were round and fat and the slight tremble in his fingers made him fumble. When Cam groaned in frustration, Mia hesitated a mere fraction, but then she reached up to help him.

“Thank you,” he said in her ear. He was met with a low, sexy chuckle that slid over his skin like a warm caress. He nuzzled her neck and inhaled her alluring scent, which made him think of a sultry summer night, earthy and sweet, with the promise of a cool breeze. When she sighed and arched her back, he wished he could see her better in the dim light that flickered with each flash of lightning. Time felt suspended, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if he suddenly woke up in his bed, drenched with sweat.

Oh, but in his wildest dreams Cam couldn’t have conjured up a mouth so sweet or skin so soft. And while baseball had always been his life, his salvation, his reason to put his feet on the floor in the morning, for the first time in his life Cameron Patrick wondered if there was something more.

Cam’s heart thudded at the unexpected thought, but before he could even digest the meaning, a steady beam of light filtered through the opening between the doors.

“Hey, this is Owen Lawson, the groundskeeper. Is anybody in there?”

Cam reluctantly pulled his lips from hers. “Yeah, Mia Money from down at Wine and Diner and Cameron Patrick.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. Hey, little Mia, I’ve heard about you. Seems like you’ve found yourself in a fix again, haven’t you, child?”

“It appears so.”

“Well, don’t fret. I’ll get ya outta here lickety-split.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey there, Cameron. Aren’t you the first baseman that can smack the jacket off of the danged baseball? I watched ya in batting practice. The Cougars are lucky to have ya. Watcha doin’ in here this late anyways?”

“I was going to talk to Ty or Noah.”

“Oh well, it’ll have to wait. Everybody’s gone except me. I was headin’ for my truck when the storm hit, so I hightailed it back into the building. Then I thought I’d better check around.”

“Good thing, because we’re trapped in here.” Cam stepped away from Mia, who began to fumble for her buttons.

“Well, hellfire,” Owen said. “I had a feelin’ I should come up here and scope things out. We’re having a helluva storm out there, don’t ya know. Hail danged near as big as golf balls. Ain’t seen nothin’ like it in years.”

“Can you get us out?” Cam asked and then flicked a glance at Mia, who was smoothing back her hair.

“I’ll do my best. Y’all hang tight.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Cam said and was rewarded with a chuckle.

“I’ll just go and get me some tools.”

“Oh my God . . . ,” Mia whispered as she continued to adjust her hair and clothes. Cam swore her blush glowed like a damned matchstick in the darkness. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Cam was used to women wanting him in the heat of the moment and then regretting it later. Damn, would that ever change? He had a hard time swallowing his disappointment, but he was an expert at not letting it show. “Don’t worry. I don’t kiss and tell,” he said tightly.

“That thought never entered my mind,” she answered in a small voice that was like a rubber-band snap to his heart. “You came to my rescue twice, Cam. I know you’re not going to spread any rumors that would harm my reputation.” He couldn’t see her frown, but he could feel it. “I can tell you have more integrity than that.”