Page 25 of Best Laid Plans (Rock Harbor #1)

He loved the little self-satisfied smile that worked across her features, her eyes still closed. “At least we’re finally on the same page about something.”

Elle was beautiful in the morning. It had been Cam’s first thought when he’d woken up five minutes ago, the rising sun streaming through Elle’s bedroom window.

Her hair, finally dry, was fanned across the pillow in a wild tangle of darkness.

It looked incredibly soft, and Cam resisted the urge to reach out and run his fingers through it.

This version of her, peacefully sleeping, was a stark contrast to the hellcat he’d discovered in bed last night.

He smiled and flexed his long legs, feeling the pull in his muscles. He liked both versions. A lot.

They hadn’t explicitly talked about falling asleep together, but after another round of sex last night, he’d closed his eyes for a second, and now it was morning.

He didn’t know the protocol for this. Usually, he didn’t make it until the sun was up. There was always some convenient excuse on the tip of his tongue about only being able to fall asleep in his own bed or having an early morning at the restaurant to do inventory.

Elle knew that none of those things were true. And worse, he didn’t want to lob his normal reasons to sneak away. But he was refusing to let himself think about that too deeply.

Elle stirred next to him. She pushed a tangle of hair away from her face, watching him through sleepy eyes. “You’re here.” It was a statement, and Cam loved the sleepy rasp in her voice when she said it.

He scratched at his stubble, mulling his answer over carefully. “Once I woke up here, I didn’t know whether staying or leaving would offend you more. Plus, you keep the thermostat like we’re in the arctic. I was working myself up to walk through the apartment almost naked.”

Elle let out a grumbly laugh at the same time her eyes drifted from his face down to his exposed torso.

“I probably would have been offended if you slunk off in the night and then we had to have an awkward conversation in the kitchen later. Or, if you spent so much time down in the restaurant that finally I’d have to come find you and tell you to stop being an ass,” Elle acquiesced, starting to wake up. She rubbed her eyes and blinked.

“So, we’re… good?” Cam hedged. There had been enough miscommunication between the two of them for a lifetime already .

Easing herself upward, Elle leaned against the headboard and looked at him. Her lips still looked swollen from his kisses, and Cam was finding that he didn’t mind that morning visual a single bit. Guess there was something to say about spending the night, after all.

“You have been an exemplary one-night-stand, Cameron. No notes. No feedback.” She picked up her water bottle on the end table and took a long sip before offering it to him.

Cam took the bottle, surprised at how calm she was being about everything. “A night of good sex has really done your amenability wonders.”

Elle stretched her arms out and with the hand on Cam’s side, ruffled his hair playfully. “It was good sex. I really needed that. I’ve just been so stressed out lately that it was the perfect reset.”

So that’s how he tamed the tiger that was Elle Pierce. It would have been a perfect solution if this wasn’t a one time thing. But he couldn’t have known how good it would be. How well they’d fit together.

Still, it didn’t change anything. “Well, I’m glad we got that out of our systems. Now things can go back to being…”

“Combative?” Elle supplied before grabbing her water bottle back with a playful smirk and taking another long draw.

Cam groaned. “Not exactly the word I’d use.”

She bent her knees underneath the covers and put her elbow into the pillow, shifting to face him. “I think that it’s clear we’re both here to hide from some things, and I don’t want to do anything to add to what you have going on. I mean that.”

Too late. Because now, he’d slept with his best friend’s little sister, who was also the daughter of the closest thing he had to a family. And fuck if he didn’t want desperately to do it again. In for a penny, in for a pound. “What are you hiding from?”

“I’d call what I’m doing ‘licking my wounds,’” she said after giving the question some thought. Which was a visual that Cam absolutely didn’t need, and he gritted his teeth, hoping his body didn’t have a physical response that she could see.

He cleared his throat. “And what wounds would those be?”

She gave him a long look, like he was messing with her, but when she was met with the sincere curiosity in his eyes, he finally got his answer.

“I can’t get a new apartment without a job.

And I can’t get a job because the market is shit, and no one wants to hire someone with an MBA when they can pay a bunch of associates half as much.

I called my MBA program when I was laid off, and they told me that while they’ll reach out to possible connections, over fifty-percent of recent grads are still unemployed.

And we all graduated more than three months ago. ”

Cam winced. “That’s pretty brutal.”

“It’s just one of those things, I guess. It seems like you really need to know someone to land a job right now, and my rolodex of Fortune 500 hiring managers is woefully slim.” Her lips twitched, and for the first time, he could see how much she was affected by the current state of her life.

“Just go plant yourself in any one of the top restaurants in the city. You’ll see dozens of those assholes come through.” He knew exactly the type that Elle was talking about, and he hated the idea that her professional success was in their hands.

Elle sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “At some point, I decided to play the game, and that was my choice. I just didn’t realize how rigged it was. I feel like I’m starting a game of Monopoly and most of the board is already filled.”

“You loved Monopoly growing up,” Cam said, remembering the hours he’d spent at Elle’s behest playing with her. She’d always kicked his ass.

“That’s when it was fair! You win some, you lose some, but we were all starting from the same place.

I can’t compete with people coming out of their program with zero debt and a list of their dad’s business contacts to call for a job.

Or daddy himself.” That one felt personal, but Cam wasn’t going to touch it right now.

Part of him liked the idea that Elle had thought the world was a fair place.

It was such a surprisingly positive outlook for her to have, when it so obviously wasn’t the case.

The other, more realistic part of him, felt badly for her.

It was a lesson he’d learned a long time ago.

When disappointment came early, it was less crushing when it happened again later.

“So what are you going to do?” Cam asked, genuinely curious. Elle was not the sit-and-wallow type.

She groaned and shrugged. “I guess what I’ve been doing.

Sending resumes every day if there’s any job posting for something I’m remotely qualified to do.

Keep hounding the MBA program to connect me with companies.

Try to put myself in the line of sight of people I can network with.

God,” she said, embarrassed, “I even considered reaching out to my cheating ex to see if he could put in a good word for me anywhere because as far as I’m concerned, he owes me one.

And as a nepo-baby extraordinaire, it’s the least he could do to right the wrongs in this fucked up world. ”

Cam’s whole body went rigid. “He cheated on you?” This fucking guy! What kind of idiot would cheat on Elle? Smart. Gorgeous. Sinfully good in bed. Acerbic on good days, a ball buster on others. Which honestly, Cam needed to get him out of his ‘woe is me’ funks sometimes.

“With my best friend, whom I was living with. Don’t worry though, I caught them at his apartment, so it could have been worse.” Her words were sarcastic, but there was such a grim resignation in her voice that it made Cam want to wrap her up in his arms.

“Elle, I say this with complete seriousness, but I will start my own company and hire you before I let you reach out to that asshole,” he said protectively, his hands already clenching into fists.

She laughed and kicked him lightly under the covers. “I appreciate that, Cam, but we’re a walking HR violation.”

“One time thing, remember?” The disappointment in his own words hit him squarely in the chest.

Elle’s demeanor changed, and she pulled her foot back to her own side. She blinked and swallowed, like she was strengthening her resolve. “You’re right. One time thing.”

“But we can still be–”

“Friends?” she supplied, though he couldn’t quite catch her tone.

He did want to be Elle’s friend, he realized.

Maybe there was a world where he wanted more than that, too, but it wasn’t a possibility.

So, he’d settle for less violence and more conversation.

It was something, at least. “Seems better than two people, one of whom hits the other with a baseball bat?”

“That baseball bat was aimed at an intruder, Cam. I won’t apologize for defending the homestead,” she said, a soft smile on her face that Cam suddenly wanted to capture on camera to keep.

As quickly as it was there, it was gone, surprise overtaking her features.

“Are you going to the country club today? I don’t actually know how that conversation with Sandy ended? ”

Cam lifted his eyebrows and folded his arms over his chest. “Because you abandoned me.”

She laughed and pushed his shoulder, her fingers warm and soft against his bicep.

“Again, something I won’t apologize for.

But I do want to know what’s going on.” The way she looked at him, so genuinely curious, with her hand tucked underneath her head, made Cam feel seen in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever.

He didn’t have people who checked in about his day–unless he was working for them.

Or someone who asked him questions about himself, just because they wanted to know the answer.

It was strange, but not entirely unwelcome.

A lazy morning in bed, talking about life and bantering back and forth.

Yeah, it wasn’t half-bad at all, he’d just never thought it was something that he’d get to experience.

He liked Elle, as more than just someone who he’d shared a night with.

And he also realized that he was in a unique position to help her.

Even if it meant that he had to put himself in a literal circle of hell, he was going to do it.

Just to see a smile on those beautiful lips again, which he was growing a little addicted to seeing.

And if he was the one causing it–even better.