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"Alright," he said. "Tell me. What's a lunk-blaster?"

Chapter 27

Mason

Cami blinked. "Excuse me?"

Oh, man.She was so beautiful, standing there with her tousled hair and bedroom eyes.And don’t get me started on what she was wearing.

As far as my question, it wasn't what I'd planned to ask. I'd been planning to ask why she hadn't called my security firm – or hell, even me – as soon as Veronica started making trouble.

But once again, I'd gone off-script. It wasn't just a problem. It was arecurringproblem, which meant that I was in deeper trouble than I'd realized.

See, here's the thing about mistakes. If you make a mistake once, you can deal with it. But once you start making the same mistakes repeatedly, you've got to look deeper into the causes.

But me? I was looking deeper into Cami's eyes.

We were standing several paces away, and the only light in the kitchen came from the small motion-activated lighting that ran along the floorboards.

But that didn't change what I saw.

In front of me, I saw the person who'd been haunting my thoughts for too damn long. And that look in her eyes – it was distracting the hell out of me, making me want to drop the report and pose a whole series ofnewquestions – questions I had no right to ask.

What was she thinking?

Did she have a boyfriend back home?

Was she wearing a bra under that tank top?

The answer to that last question was obvious, and I worked hard not to stare as her nipples visibly hardened in the quiet kitchen.

The kitchen wasn't cold.

And neither was she.Under my gaze, her cheeks grew rosy and her lips parted. For a long moment, neither one of us spoke.

In the end, it was Cami who broke the silence, asking in a breathless voice, "That's your question? Seriously?"

My gaze held hers. "Sure, why not?"

As I watched, her tongue darted out between her lips and grazed her upper front teeth. When my eyes followed the motion, she gave a little gasp and clamped her lips shut, as if to rein in whatever she'd been thinking.

Shit.

Did she have any idea what she was doing to me?

I sure as hell hoped not.

I put on my best poker face and made a forwarding motion with my hand. "So go ahead. Tell me."

"Sorry, what?"

"Lunk-blaster, what does it mean?"

"Oh." She blew out a long, trembling breath. As she did, my gaze strayed once again to her lips, and I felt myself swallow. She had nice lips – full, pink, and natural, too.

In my world, this wasn't as common as you'd think.

In the back of my mind, I wondered how long it had been since I'd kissed someone whose lips hadn't been pumped full of whatever to make them look more appealing.