CHAPTER SIX
Six fifty-seven, and Cam knew Gabriel was in the building. Along with his family, all of them. His parents had their usual suite, his sister on her own in the bridal suite even though that was premature, his brothers in executive rooms, not to mention his uncle, assorted aunts, and myriad additional relatives. Getting enough free rooms at this late stage hadn't been easy but they’d managed it with overspill into the hotel next door. Added to that there was chaos in the back rooms organizing a Dallas royalty event.
All he could think was that he was so pleased the wedding itself was being held at the Stafford family home outside the city, because just one night here with all of them was enough for him to have his own private meltdown. Not to mention he had to handle his dad’s sixtieth in a few months’ time. More family. More drama. More fucking stress.
At least no one could pull the pity crap on him this time. He had a boyfriend now. Well, Gabriel, anyway. Much to Six’s concern and obvious disgust.
Cam had spent the entire time since the elevator car telling himself he’d done exactly the right thing. He could cross one more thing off his to-do list. Book for a suit fitting, buy some more dog food for Gidget, get Six to help him find and wrap a gift for the not-very-happy couple, hire a hooker. The kind of list any man might have going on.
Didn’t matter that Six wasn’t talking to him, or at least avoiding him when he could, Cam was convinced this was the only way. His dad had already made noises about taking the Stafford Royal away from Cam, and that wasn’t happening. Being blind didn’t make him incapable, and having a solid partner with him would prove he was as far away from abnormal as he could be.
He knew his staff, had a team he trusted, even if Six wasn’t talking to him, and knew this business like the back of his hand, as befitted a kid who’d grown up in a hotel.
Stupid that he needed arm candy to prove he was able to handle it all.
But now, with only a few minutes to go, knowing that Gabriel had already picked up his deposit that morning made everything so real. Cam was apprehensive, uneasy, a sense of foreboding his friend today. His thought processes were erratic, an irrational fear that Gabriel would stand up in front of everyone and explain how poor blind Cam had to pay for a partner. His mind was going to the worst-case scenario, and he had to settle his breathing before Gidget became any more agitated.
Cam wished time would speed up so that it was past the event already, when he’d be back at work and in control of everything again. Some of the engagement party guests would stay longer, he assumed, but he could handle them by hiding away in his office.
No one expected him to be a host.
But he knew how many flower arrangements there were, had liaised with catering, organized things as mundane as table sizes, he’d done all the groundwork, and now he just had to act serene and in charge.
A knock on the door startled him, and Gidget pressed against his side.
“S’okay, girl,” he reassured her. If he was going to do the big reveal, then having his service dog next to him was probably a good start.
He didn’t bother asking who was at the door—no one got to this part of the hotel without Six’s approval. Only Six ever visited, and he didn’t knock.
Cam opened the door and stood back a little so Gabriel could come in.
“Hi,” Gabriel said.
His voice sent prickles of awareness down Cam’s spine. He’d never had such a visceral reaction to a voice before.
“And who are you?” Gabriel said. “Hey, gorgeous puppy,” he added, and there was the noise of Gabriel fussing over Gidget. Cam opened his mouth to explain that Gidget wasn’t a dog who wanted to be petted by anyone other than him and Six, but Gabriel was standing upright again.
“Can I come in?” he asked, and brushed past him, and the scent of him was familiar and as intoxicating as his voice. He sensed it when the shit hit the fan—when Gabriel evidently took a better look at Gidget and the harness Cam was holding—because he heard his sudden, shocked inhalation.
“Yes, I’m blind,” he said without formality. “This is Gidget, my guide dog, and I do still have some vision in the periphery, although that will inevitably disappear. Questions?”
There was a pause, pregnant with a hundred questions. Cam had rehearsed that line so many times, having learned that it was best to take the upper hand so there were no awkward pauses or questions.
“That explains the glasses inside,” Gabriel murmured. “No questions,” he added, although he likely had a lot of things he wanted to ask. Didn’t matter; Cam had a whole mental list of the subjects he needed to cover.
“Please help yourself to a drink.” He gestured to the unit that held the brandy he liked along with other bottles he never touched.
“No thanks.”
“I have bottled water in the fridge, and soft drinks. Help yourself.”
“I’m okay,” Gabriel said. He sounded like he was still in that confused state people often got into when they first realized Cam couldn’t see them.
“Let’s sit, then. We have a lot to cover in the next hour.”
Cam sat in his usual place, sensing that Gabriel took the opposite sofa. Gidget settled next to Cam, leaning on his leg.
“Do you always have to wear the glasses?” Gabriel asked. “Is that, like, a blind thing?”
Cam needed them to sharpen the fuzziness as much as he could. Of course, that was getting harder and harder now, and soon he likely wouldn’t bother at all. After all, no one looking into his eyes would know that he couldn’t see them unless they were in his peripheral vision. His eyes were blue and normal, and Adam, despite being a lying, cheating asshole, had called them pretty. That was all he knew.
“Mostly,” he answered, but didn’t go any deeper. Clearing his throat, he launched into what he needed to say. “So, my sister is having an engagement party. We don’t see each other much, but we do text. She’s my step-sister and she’s marrying my step-brother.” Cam held up a hand. “I know, it’s weird, but I’ll explain.” He gestured to the paper that sat on the coffee table between the sofas, a diagram that Six had drawn up for him.
He waited until he heard the rustle of paper, then proceeded to explain as best he could. “Ann married Sebastian and had me. Sebastian had an affair, Ann left him and married Oscar, and Ann and Oscar had Chloe, who is four years younger and my half-sister. Okay?”
“So she’s your half-sister and you share a mom,” Gabriel said.
“Yes. Anyway, Sebastian married the woman he’d been sleeping with, and they had two children, more half-siblings, Luke and Sophie. Luke is two years younger than me, Sophie four years. Sophie is married to a guy called Mitchell; he’s an idiot, loves spending money, but Sophie seems happy, so I can’t comment. None of the four of us has kids yet, so that’s easy to handle. Now, this is where it gets complicated. My half-sister Chloe and my half-brother Luke are getting married in three weeks on Sebastian’s estate.”
“You mom’s daughter and your dad’s son are marrying.”
“Yeah, and you understand that this is not like siblings marrying.”
“Do I look stupid?” Gabriel snapped, then coughed. “Shit,” he said. “I didn’t mean to say see, I meant to say… jeez.”
“And you can stop worrying about upsetting me with words like ‘look’. You used a turn of phrase. I get that.”
“Okay.”
“Where was I? Right, this means that my mom has to deal with the woman my dad cheated on her with. My mom hates the new wife, blames her for the marriage breaking up, my dad’s new wife tries too hard, blah, blah. Did I mention there are no grandchildren as well? Not to forget the fact that the wedding is in September at Dad’s property outside Dallas. The tension at this engagement party will be intense, but Six assures me you have signed a full non-disclosure agreement, which believe me he would enforce if anything went wrong. Also that the deposit for tonight has been paid.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said, but he sounded confused, and likely not about the complicated extended Stafford family.
Cam sighed inwardly. Best to deal with the elephant in the room.
“And now to the blind thing. I began to go blind when I was twelve. It wasn’t obvious at first, but it progressed quite quickly. Like I said, though, I do have some peripheral vision.”
There was one of Gabriel’s famous pauses, but that could be because he was nodding and would all of a sudden realize that Cam couldn’t see him.
“Are you nodding at me?” Cam asked.
“Shit. No. Yes,” were the three answers given in quick succession. “My bad.”
“It’s fine,” Cam continued. “A person’s voice communicates personality very effectively, before you start on about not knowing you.”
“What? Where did that come from? I wasn’t going to say—”
“And I don’t need you to lead me around.”
“Okay.” Gabriel sounded almost defensive then, and Cam realized he’d laid everything out in a professional way that had likely come across as confrontational and put Gabriel on edge.
Cam wished he could see people’s expressions. Gabriel had set hard limits but likely hadn’t considered adding “no eating with family members” as a proviso, and now Cam was adding his own about not leading him around.
But he couldn’t afford to look fragile in any way, because he was strong and determined and bucked the trend.
He thought about his dad and brother and their hotels in Chicago and San Antonio respectively. He thought of his mom, his step-mom, his half-siblings, all wrapped up in their own lives and not the most welcoming bunch. He recalled the judgments they all made about what their brother/son could handle. Then there was the extended family and their pity. He’d heard it all.
Gay? And blind? Poor Cam will never be anything more than a cripple. Have you thought about sending him away? And what if he ever does get a boyfriend? Who’s to say that any man would stay with someone who can’t see?
Poor Cam.
He turned slightly to his side so that he could look at the hazy image of Gabriel in his peripheral vision. Some people made the mistake of thinking he couldn’t see at all, but he could make some things out if he really tried. Gabriel was facing him; that he could ascertain. His expression was less obvious, though, his face nothing but a blur. At least he hadn’t turned and walked out.
“I think that’s it,” Cam said as cheerfully as he could. He was actually waiting for Gabriel to walk, probably with anything of value. Although he wouldn’t get far—Six would lock him down before he got outside the hotel.
“What do you want me to do, to be?”
“Just be there,” Cam asked, aware that was a lame answer.
“I mean, do you want me to tell people I’m in sales or something?”
“Well, I don’t want you to tell them you’re a hooker I pulled in for the night,” he joked.
Cam heard the soft intake of breath and cursed his inability to make a joke without the stress of tonight making his words sound harsh. “I just mean tell them…” He paused. He hadn’t actually thought past introducing Gabriel as his date. What if Six was wrong and Gabriel had a look about him that screamed hooker? What if he handed out business cards at the event? What if this was so fucked up that he ended up being laughed out of the room? Suddenly he felt out of control, and his fingers twitched in his lap to call for Six.
“I’ll tell them I’m exploring my options, give the impression that I come from money, right? I mean, this suit is fine, and I look the part—even your psycho bodyguard thought so.”
“You’ve seen Six.”
Gabriel let out a snort, a huff of disapproval. “Seen him? He was waiting outside the hotel and escorted me up here. Didn’t say a word until we got to the door.”
“And?”
“He still didn’t say a word. He just looked at me, and he didn’t tell me to leave.”
The one thing in this world that Cam believed in was his friend. It was perceptive of Gabriel to have picked up on that, and Cam didn’t know why the other man’s understanding of Cam and Six’s complicated friendship meant so much to him.
But it did.
“What color is your suit?”
“Dark blue.”
“Your shirt?”
“Pale blue. My tie is like this weird bluey-green that I didn’t have much say over. Your tailor was adamant this was the right one.”
Cam touched the underside of his tie just at the base, feeling the raised bump that suggested it was a red hue. He’d picked red because he wanted to be bold, and he’d pulled out his nearly black suit with a white shirt.
“Do I look okay?” he asked. He would normally ask Six, but Six had been absent, and now he knew where he’d been; sticking to Gabriel like glue.
“You want to know for real?” Gabriel asked.
“I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t mean it.”
“Stand up.”
Gabriel stood; Cam could tell as the tone of his voice changed with the distance, and he stood too.
“Turn around.”
“What?”
“I can’t tell if I don’t see all sides of you.”
With an irritated huff, Cam turned his back to Gabriel and spread his hands. “Okay?” he asked.
Then he felt Gabriel’s hands on him, skimming from the shoulders of the jacket, down his arms, tugging on one sleeve, then running fingers down over his ass and patting his thighs. The move was so quick it was barely there, but Gabriel wasn’t paying lip service here—he was genuinely checking Cam was all good. And if that meant brushing his ass, and if that also meant that Cam liked the feel of the other man’s hands on him, then what was he going to do about it?
“Turn back,” Gabriel murmured, and Cam did as he was told.
More touches, firm, necessary, a straightening of the tie, and then he felt Gabriel move away, a quick movement of air.
“You look good,” he said, with an edge in his voice.
Nervously, Cam found that bump in his tie again. Red, his tie was red.
“Yeah?”
“What else do you need me to check?” Gabriel asked, his tone a little more even. “You haven’t missed any spots shaving.”
“I don’t—that’s all done by feel. I know what to feel for.” He added that last part like he had to explain, which was just stupid.
Gabriel didn’t pick him up on it. “Your hair is neat, and you smell really nice.”
Cam felt disappointment surge inside him. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but he was being a needy idiot who wanted to be told more than that he was neat, good, or smelled nice. And why the hell did he want that, when Gabriel was just some street guy?
He jumped when Gabriel placed his hands on his biceps and squeezed gently. “You are a very handsome man,” he said, and he wasn’t being patronizing, or at least he didn’t sound like he was. Then he ruined it. “Is that what you want to hear?”
All the soft-and-fuzzies that Cam had been feeling fled, and he shrugged out of Gabriel’s hold. Gidget pressed into his side, likely picking up on his peak in emotion, but she didn’t do her normal thing, where she moved between Cam and the person who was responsible for his anxiety.
That was the biggest thing in all this; Gidget didn’t move an inch. She didn’t like people in Cam’s space, but somehow Gabriel had reached the same lauded position as Six.
Something about that made Cam irritable and edgy, and even rubbing his finger over the bump on his tie wasn’t enough to settle him. He needed to bring this back around to business.
“No talking, right? Just stay by me, refill my drink—no alcohol, none, just water. Smile, maybe a few PDAs, enough to make this convincing.”
Silence, and then the air moved and the scent of Gabriel was closer.
“What sort of affection?” Gabriel asked, way too close for comfort. Cam stumbled back, his calf knocking the occasional table, but he didn’t fall, because Gabriel gripped his arm.
And he didn’t let go.
Cam attempted to shake free, a small frisson of excitement running through him, but Gabriel wasn’t releasing his hold.
“Do we hold hands? Kiss? Can I touch you at the base of your spine when we walk together?”
“No,” Cam said, aghast. “My family is very particular about social graces. I mean a few smiles, that kind of thing. Maybe holding hands is okay.”
Gabriel tutted, and he was no longer on edge from the nerves that Cam had detected when he’d first arrived. This was teasing Gabriel, this was Gabriel sliding into work mode. He still had his hands on Cam, and Cam should be scared, or at least nervous, but Gabriel’s touch was experienced, secure, firm, and Cam wanted that.
Badly.
Finally he managed to shrug free—or Gabriel let him go, he didn’t know which—and he straightened his jacket again, feeling the lines of the fabric against the muscles of his body. He was acutely aware of where things should lie, and everything seemed to be in place. He pressed his watch, and it told him in a soft tone that it was seven thirty-three.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Gidget, up.”
He heard all the sounds that indicated Gidget was up on her usual spot on the sofa, and he mentally checked off the food and water that was available in the kitchen. He reached out and scruffed Gidget’s fur, then walked to the door, Gabriel a few steps behind him. Right at the door, with his hand on the handle, he stopped.
“Stop them,” he said. He knew what he meant. Stop his family from pitying him, stop the questions about his sexuality, his lack of a partner, the problem with his eyesight that they didn’t understand and thought was terrifying. Stop them from taking the hotel away from me.
“I get that this is important,” Gabriel said, like he’d read his mind and knew exactly what Cam meant. “Let’s do this.”
As soon as they reached the foyer and Cam heard the sound of his mom’s voice, his chest constricted.
What the hell had he been thinking?