Down London Road

‘No.’
    ‘Tell that to the kid on Cam’s doorstep.’
    ‘Oh, sh–’ He stopped himself. ‘I forgot Jamie.’
    ‘He’s waiting.’
    Cole hurried to grab his socks and trainers. ‘Cheers for the lesson, Cam.’
    ‘No probs, bud.’
    ‘You better wash and change your clothes before you go out!’ I called after him as he disappeared into the hall. ‘And text me to let me know what you’re doing –’ I slammed my mouth closed at the sound of Cam’s front door shutting. I turned back to Cam. ‘Why do I bother?’
    He threw me a crooked smile – my fourth favourite after the lip twitch – and curled a finger, beckoning me to him. ‘Care to take up where he left off?’
    I immediately took a step back, shaking my head. ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Come on.’ He suddenly grew serious. ‘I’ve seen the way some of the customers are with you, and Joss told me she’s had to rescue you more than once in the past from an over eager punter. This will help you learn to deal with the way you freeze up.’
    I imagined it might be pretty nice to be able to handle aggressive assholes by myself rather than relying on protective friends. But training with Cam? No. That would be fanning the flame.
    ‘No, thanks.’
    Cam sighed but gave in. ‘Fine. You want a cup of tea?’
    I nodded and followed him into his kitchen, trying to keep my eyes on anything but his muscled shoulders and tight ass. I didn’t try very hard.
    Standing by his kitchen counter, I was lost in thought about the evening ahead of us as Cam made the tea and coffee, when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I glanced towards it and nearly had full-on heart failure at the size of the spider clinging to Cam’s kitchen tiles.
    ‘Oh, my God!’ I squealed, skittering back away from it, a lump of fear in my throat the size of Canada.
    ‘What – what?’ Cam spun around, his eyes wide on me.
    I stared round-eyed at the spider. ‘Get rid of it or I won’t be able to move.’ I wasn’t kidding. I was literally frozen with fear. I don’t know where my phobia of spiders originated, but it was bad enough that we had to invest in spider repellents that plugged into the sockets in our flat. We got the rare few spiders nevertheless and Cole always took care of them.
    Cam looked from me to the spider and then back to me again. I could see the beginning of a smile start to curl the corners of his mouth.
    ‘Don’t even think about laughing. It’s not funny.’
    His gaze softened as he seemed to finally realize the extent of my fear. ‘Okay. Stop panicking. I’ll get rid of it.’ He reached into a cupboard and pulled out a pan.
    I scowled. ‘What are you doing? Don’t kill it!’
    Cam froze, cocking his head in bemusement as he gazed at me. ‘Why don’t you want me to kill it? I thought you were frightened of it.’
    ‘I am
terrified
of it,’ I corrected him. ‘But what does it say about humans as a species if we go around killing things just because we fear them?’
Not anything good, that’s what.
    Cam’s gorgeous eyes warmed even more and I found myself forgetting the fear and falling into his gaze.
    ‘What?’ I whispered, feeling my chest swell at the way he was looking at me. No one had ever looked at me like that before.
    He shook his head. ‘Nothing. You just … Nothing.’
    ‘Cam?’
    ‘Mmm-hmm?’
    ‘The spider.’
    He blinked a little rapidly before pinning the spider with his gaze. ‘Right.’ He lifted the lid of the pan. ‘I’m not killing it. I just needed something to put it in.’
    As he rescued the spider from me and me from the spider, I crammed myself into the corner of the kitchen, scared that Cam wouldn’t move quickly enough and the spider would somehow launch itself across the room at me. I had no reason to fear. Cam had the spider in the pan in record time and I watched with growing relief as he took it to the kitchen window and deposited it outside.
    ‘Thank you,’ I breathed.
    Cam didn’t reply. Instead he shut the window carefully, put the pan by the sink, and turned around to gaze at me.
    Suddenly the air felt electric between us, like it always did while we worked side by side at the bar. I’d done my darndest to make sure those moments were confined to the bar, trying to feign ordinary interaction outside in the real world.
    Today there would be no feigning.
    I held my breath at the intensity in Cam’s eyes as he slowly began to make his way towards me. When he closedthe distance