Free Be Mine Forever by Kennedy Ryan

sweet, Peter.” She tugged his elbow, giving him a grin for free. “Next time we’ll do something you like.”
    “I like spending time with you, so that’s a sure bet.” He ran a finger down her cheek and dropped a kiss on her hair, pulling her hand to his and linking their fingers. “You mind if I pass on that literal coffee? Just realized we have an early conference call with the folks in Kenya.”
    “Oh, that’s right,” Jo said. “Forgot about that.”
    “Taking over the world again, sweetheart?” Her father asked the question without lifting his eyes from the chessboard, but the fond smile on his face was for her. She walked over to perch on the arm of his leather chair and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.
    “You know once we have Haiti up and running, we want to start with Kenya.” She reached over her father and made a few deft moves, castling Cam’s king without glancing his way once. “We’ve got the first kids in Haiti waiting.”
    Cam leaned back in the leather armchair, lacing his fingers over his chest, never looking up but considering his next move. She and Cam were the only ones who’d ever been able to match her father and Aunt Kris. She loved playing with him but wouldn’t be indulging that anytime soon. He made a brilliant maneuver, looking up at her with “your move” sketched between his raised brows. Tempting as it was to engage with him, she stood and walked away, ignoring the unspoken invitation.
    “I’ll let you know how the Kenya call goes, Daddy,” she said over her shoulder, relooping her elbow through Peter’s. “The call is…what time again, Peter?”
    “Seven o’clock.”
    “Oh, you do need to get home.” She walked him back out of the study. “Night, gentlemen. I’m walking Peter out and then off to bed.”
    *  *  *
    “He’s like a brother to me.”
    Exactly the words Cam needed Jo to believe, but they had filleted him when she’d made the comment to the Ken doll fingering her face moments before. All Cam’s bodily functions had ground to a halt, completely immobilized by the sight of someone touching Jo intimately. Peter Halstead touched Jo like it was just the beginning. Like him stroking her face was merely a prelude to everything else he wanted to do to her. He’d pulled her close. He’d kissed her hair. He’d been subtly possessive.
    “Head not in the game anymore?”
    Cam wrenched his eyes from the doorway Peter and Jo had just gone through, forcing his attention back to the board, where his bishop was now imperiled.
    “How…When…?”
    “While you were distracted by my daughter and her date,” said James Walsh, or Unc as Cam and Walsh had always called him.
    Cam ignored that. He was so not having this conversation. He considered his vulnerable bishop.
    “I can still salvage this.”
    “Yes, if you move fast, but Peter seems pretty determined to get the girl.”
    Cam abandoned his focus face and narrowed his eyes at Jo’s father, who was conspicuously concentrating on the board between them.
    “I meant the game.”
    “I told you at Christmas what you should do.”
    “And I told you then you were an awful father for pawning your daughter off on someone like me.”
    “I’m an excellent father with a proven track record of brilliance.” He shook his rook at Cam. “She’s dated worse.”
    Cam didn’t have any response to that. He and Walsh had always guarded Jo like the family jewels. Not much trash had gotten past the front door, but once in a while, a prick or two had slipped in. Always quickly dealt with and dispatched.
    “She deserves better than me.” Cam forced out the words he knew he needed to say. “She deserves someone like him.”
    “You mean Peter?” Unc finally looked up from the board, his eyes, so uniquely silver like Jo’s, shrewd and knowing. “He’d be an excellent match for my daughter.”
    Cam pressed his back teeth together, swallowed a snarl, and nodded.
    “Too bad he’s not the one she