She'd been wrong all along.

Camden Skinner was the one trying to kill her. With pleasure. After giving her one of the strongest orgasms of her life, he already had her on the brink of another.

His mouth was a menace, put on this earth to drive her out of her head. She was certain of it. And then she wasn't certain of anything at all because he had her there.

Right there.

Right. There. Again.

"Fuck, Cam!"

Yara thought her back would snap when she arched into the bone-melting pleasure. Didn't think she could handle any more. But then Cam was between her legs, hard and insistent, and parting her flesh with ease.

She hadn't even registered when he put on the condom but was glad one of them had the presence of mind to remember safety.

He drove in hard and stayed there, holding her on the precipice while her aftershocks threatened to turn into a lot more.

"God, you feel so good."

"Cam..."

Her words were gone. Her mind was gone. She was gone when he finally moved. It was a true out-of-body experience as he pressed into her again and again.

He whispered feverishly into her ear, words she couldn't make out and not all of them in English.

Yara's arms felt like lead weights, but she wrapped them around his back and pulled him down.

"Don't wanna crush ye, lass."

"Want to feel you," she confessed, sliding her fingers into his hair.

"Yara..."

The rhythm was brutal. And if she hadn't just had two earth-shattering orgasms, Yara knew she wouldn't have lasted long. But she had, and so she tried to make it good for him.

She met his thrusts, arched into him, whispered encouragement. Before long, he was screaming into her hair where it spilled out on the pillow. A spike of warmth touched her inside as she felt him release.

"Fuck," he huffed, breathing like he'd just run out of a burning house. "Fuck, woman. Fuck."

"Enchanting," she teased, and he chuckled.

Cam lifted his head to look down at her.

Yara ran both hands over his hair, smoothing it back from his forehead.

"You canna expect me to be eloquent when you've just shagged my brains out."

She couldn't stop the smile that sprang up.

"What am I going to do with ye?" He asked, rubbing his nose along hers.

It was a sweet gesture, one he seemed to be fond of. One she could easily get used to.

He slipped out of her, and she felt the loss acutely.

"Let me get cleaned up."

When Cam returned from the bathroom, he gathered her into his arms. Apparently, the gun-toting investigator-turned-bar owner was also a cuddler. So many contrasts wrapped up in one guy.

Yara loved mysteries, and Cam was the biggest she'd ever come across.

She wanted to know him. Everything about him.

"I can hear you thinking." He spoke softly, drawing shapes on her back with his fingertip.

"Sorry."

He hugged her closer. "Don't be. Anything you care to share?"

"I was just thinking about the turn my life has taken." She propped her chin on her hand to look up at him.

Cam ran his hand over her hair and down her back. "You've been through a lot for someone so young."

Yara couldn't argue with that. "So much has happened these last two years. Marcus was furious when I told him I wanted to renegotiate my contract or I was going to walk. And then the media shitstorm happened. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. Which shows you just how naive I was."

"Not naive, trusting. You want to believe the best of people."

"Maybe," she conceded. "It's strange to say this, but the night I nearly drowned may have been the best thing to ever happen to me." She met his gaze. "Up 'til then, anyway."

Cam nodded.

"I don't know where to go from here."

"You don't have to go anywhere."

Yara blinked.

He grinned, ducking his eyes. "I mean to say you don't have to make any big decisions right away. It's going to be crazy for you for a while, once the world finds out you're, you know, not dead. And then there's the stuff with Kaine. Once that dust settles, you'll be in control of your career. You'll have time to decide, to get your bearings. Decide where you want to be, and who you want to be."

"I suppose." Yara rested her head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

God, it felt so...right.

"And you know," he added softly. "I'll help ye for as long as you want me to. I'll stand by you even when you don't."

And that right there was the most frightening thing of all. Because she wanted that. Wanted him. Worse, she thought she just might need him.

* * *

She awoke early. Her throat was a desert, and she needed water, so Yara padded quietly into Cam's kitchen. She helped herself to a glass from a cabinet and filled it with ice cold water from the dispenser on his fridge.

The condo was immaculate.

Stainless steel appliances gleamed in the dim light as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

It was spacious, with high ceiling and muted, neutral colors.

Spying a door in the corner, she walked that way. It was ajar, so she pushed it open with her foot and was startled to find a large office.

Yara flicked on the light and gasped.

It was her. Everywhere she looked, she saw herself.

Photos were pinned to one wall, some from her career but others from before she left Philly. High school, college, shots she'd never seen.

Next to the photos were print-outs, stuff about her disappearance. Camden had circled names and dates, clearly trying to solve the mystery.

On the opposite wall stood a gun case, about six feet high. It was filled with what could only be described as an arsenal. Matt black handguns, gleaming steel revolvers, and polished wood-handled rifles. Maybe sixteen in all, they lay dormant behind the locked door. The glass pane was thick. Likely bulletproof.

Between the weaponry and the wall filled with her, she could only stare as the chill returned to her bones.

He'd said he'd been obsessed, said he'd been looking into it, but this...seeing it, she didn't know what to think.

Yara felt him walk up behind her before he even made a sound.

"I thought you were exaggerating."

"I tried to tell you."

Yara turned to him. His eyes were wide, wary, full of fear. Cam was shirtless, his pajama bottoms riding low on his hips. Christ, he was beautiful. But that edge of danger, the one she'd sensed the night they met, the one she'd seen evidence of the night the reporter followed them, it was there beneath the surface. It was there in the case against the wall.

Her first instinct was to run.

But her second was to stay.

In the end, she took a small step back.

Cam's nostrils flared, and his gaze dropped to the ground. He stepped to the side and walked around her, giving her a wide berth as he made his way to his desk.

Cam sat in the office chair there and flicked on his desk lamp.

"I didn't want Skin to take on Kaine as a client."

"I heard Pierce say something to that effect." Yara moved to the chair opposite, curling her legs under her when she sat. The leather was cold.

Cam reached behind him and pulled out a hoodie, handing it to her over the desk.

Yara slipped it on over the tee she was wearing. It was his, so it fell almost to her knees, but it wasn't much defense against her shivering.

"Thanks," she said after zipping it up. She tried to ignore the Wall of Yara to her right. It was too weird to contemplate, though she knew he had been conducting an investigation into her disappearance. She just hadn't known how far down the rabbit hole he'd traveled.

Cam cleared his throat. "I understand if that creeps you out."

He nodded toward the wall.

"I guess I underestimated how invested you were."

He sighed. "I felt responsible. I feel responsible for what happened to you. For our part in it. I guess I...when you disappeared, I..."

"I saw you once," she said, remembering. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I did see you. Once. You were coming out of Kaine's offices in South Beach. I'm pretty sure it was you, though it could have been Pierce."

She chanced a look at his eyes, which were trained on her. He looked skittish, like a race horse ready to bolt out of the gate before the start.

"Pink jacket or white?"

"Hmm?"

Cam pushed a pen around the desktop. "Pink jacket or white?"

"Oh, white."

"That was me."

Yara nodded. "You looked uncomfortable."

His eyes narrowed over the smallest of grins. "Did I?"

"I remember thinking 'wow, that guy does not want to be here.' Or maybe it was the jacket. It didn't suit you."

"Both." He twined his fingers behind his head and leaned back. It offered an unobstructed view of his well-defined pecs and Yara was momentarily distracted.

"I didn't want to be anywhere near Marcus Kaine, and I hate suit jackets. Especially white ones."

Yara offered him a grin before her gaze traveled back to the wall.

She got up and walked over to it.

Memories assaulted her. Singing in her high school choir, performing at the senior talent show, open mic night on her college campus. There were photos of her with Siv and their friends at a rally. Another of her with her parents which hit her like a punch to the chest.

She let out a shuddering breath.

"I know you miss them. All of them." Cam's voice was quiet over her shoulder. She hadn't heard him move that time.

"I do, but this...all of this...it's a hologram. You get that, right?"

Cam nodded. "I do. I know."

Yara shook her head.

"How do I know that? You said you were obsessed, but who says that? Who does this?" She gestured at the collection. "I get that you felt guilty, that you wanted to...to solve the case or make things right, or whatever, but...I'm more than that. More than this."

"I know that, Yara." Cam reached for her, but she stepped back before he could touch her.

"Don't, just...give me time to wrap my head around it all." Yara didn't dare look him in the eye. She couldn't bear to see the pain she knew she'd find there.

He cared for her, she knew he did. She just didn't know if it was a by-product of his guilt or something more. And there was no sure-fire way of figuring that out.

Chances were, whatever was happening was between them would fizzle out when her case was over. And if so, Yara couldn't risk getting in any deeper with Camden Skinner. She'd lost enough. She didn't think she could stand to have him only to lose him too.

"Maybe I should take the couch for the rest of the night." Such resignation in his voice.

Yara nodded. "Yeah. I think that's for the best."