Still, what was happening between us, that was different. It was more than just lust–it was something pure and good. And goddamn it, even though I hadn’t said it like I knew she wanted me to, I knew I loved her too.
I splayed my hand over her tight belly, trailing my finger along the edge of the spandex material of her bikini bottom while I sucked on the taut peaks of her nipples. I hooked a thumb just inside the elastic waist, moving to skim the line of her mound with my finger. Pausing, I lifted my head from her breast.
“Is this okay, sweetheart?”
“Yes,” she panted, pushing her hips up against my hand. No word had ever sounded sweeter. I grinned and brought my lips back down to resume suckling on her nipples.
I continued to move my hand down and under until my fingers met with her slick folds.
“Shit, you’re so goddamn wet,” I cursed. Her thighs clenched, almost as if she were embarrassed by that fact. I nudged them apart again and moved up her neck to whisper in her ear. “That’s a good thing. It tells me you like what I’m doing.”
“I do like it, Fitz,” she mewled.
Every time she said my name, or whispered her delight, it made me feel like I could move mountains. Being with her, watching her reactions was allowing me to see a whole new side of her. She was opening herself up to me, showing me who she was, and nothing in the world was more goddamned beautiful. Everything about this girl brought me to my knees.
It had been a long time since I hooked up with a girl who I knew for more than a few hours. And when I did, getting to the finish line had always been my number one priority. But knowing Cadence, knowing who she was inside, somehow changed things. It was hard to believe the difference it made. I actually wanted to make Cadence feel so many amazing things–things that would turn her inside out–even if it meant sacrificing my own pleasure. She was the only girl I ever wanted to hold on to for more than a fleeting few moments, and the idea that I was the only one who had touched her like this made everything even better. I didn’t think it was possible, but that thought made me harder than I already was.
She whimpered again, and her head lolled to the side. I slowed my strokes, lingering over the one spot sure to send her over the edge. Her body tensed, and I caught her damp heat. She clung tight, nails biting into my shoulders. She was right there.
“That’s it, baby. Hold on to me.”
It was only a matter of seconds before she came apart in my hands.
“Fitz!” she cried out and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She flung her arms around my neck and made a sweet noise of surprise. When they fluttered open again to look at me, she looked dazed, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“You good, sweetheart?”
“Mmmm,” she purred. “God, what was that?”
“What was what?”
“I felt like I was going to explode.”
I chuckled, nearly forgetting how innocent she truly was.
“I take it you’ve never had an orgasm before?”
She smiled sheepishly.
“Um, I guess not.”
I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows at her teasingly.
“Not even by yourself?”
Her face flushed ten different shades of pink, a reaction I fully expected.
“No! Of course not!” she shrieked.
I laughed and pulled her tighter into my arms.
“You’re so cute when you get all embarrassed like that.” I paused to rain reassuring kisses over her cheeks. Cupping her face, I looked earnestly into her eyes. “I was only teasing you. But you did you like it, didn’t you?”
She nodded shyly.
“I want to feel that again,” she admitted.
I flashed a devious smile as I roamed a hand down her firm, tight belly once more.
“The night’s young, sweetheart. Let’s see what I can do about that.”
15
FITZ
I came to Camp Riley with the expectation my time here would be awful. As it turned out, the days were flying by, and I found myself wishing more and more for time to slow down. I didn’t want to go back to my old life for so many reasons, and it wasn’t just because of what my father had in store for me. There was a certain level of peace and tranquility here so unlike anything else I’d ever experienced. Each morning, I’d start the day with the arduous tasks Mr. Jimmy wanted completed. I was often dripping with sweat well before eight in the morning, but I didn’t mind.
While I worked, I could hear the music rehearsals and would occasionally sneak a peek at the main stage. As hard as I was working, the students here were also putting in their time. The art students used their creative vision to build a stage set from scratch. Other students practiced their music, dancing, and performing all day. It was spectacular to watch, and I realized I hadn’t given the kids here enough credit. They really were protégés of their craft.
The work day had now ended. My sweat-drenched t-shirt clung to me as I headed to the bathhouse to grab a shower. Just like every other day since arriving, my legs and back ached. However, I wasn’t going to complain. I knew once I called it quits for the day, I would have the lake waiting for me. And Cadence.
Feeling refreshed from the shower, I slipped a t-shirt over my head and looked at my reflection in the bathhouse mirror. I rubbed a hand over my jawline. I could use a shave, but that would mean cutting into my time with Cadence. After running a quick hand through my hair to smooth out the unruly ends, I grabbed the bag that contained my toiletries and headed for the door.
When I stepped out into the sticky early evening air, I nearly ran straight into Devon. He was carrying a small drawstring bag, and I assumed he was about to hit the showers too.
“There you are. Where the fuck have you been?” he demanded.
“I didn’t realize I needed your permission to shower,” I shot back with a smirk.
“You know what I mean, man. I meant, where have you been all week? For that matter, where the hell have you been all summer? I’ve barely seen you.”
“What can I say? I can’t help it that Mr. Jimmy split up the work so now we’re on opposite sides of the camp.” I tried to sidestep Devon, but he put a hand on my shoulder.
“I know where you’ve been during the day, numbnuts. Where have you been going at night? And don’t try to tell me again you haven’t been seeing Cadence.”
I shrugged his hand off and headed in the direction of the barn. Devon didn’t take the hint and fell into step beside me. More than likely, he thought I’d gone over the deep end. He’d been nagging me for half the summer to hang out with him, but hanging out with Devon also meant spending time with a group of girls who I wanted nothing to do with. However, I knew I’d have to give him something if I wanted to get him off my case.
“I’ve been hiking,” I lied.
“Hiking?” he repeated in disbelief.
“Yeah, you know. Enjoying the great outdoors and spending time trying to clear my head.”
“Clear your head of what?”
“In case you forgot, we both got into a shitload of trouble,” I said dryly. “I’m trying to figure out where I go from here. Like, what’s the next step? Just working out basic life crap.”
That part was true–sort of. I was trying to figure what to do about my relationship with Cadence. I knew what I wanted. I wanted her. But what I wanted didn’t necessarily mean it was possible. I had to find a way out of the deal I was locked into with my father–if one would even call it that. Other than my idea to take off to Canada, I was coming up short.
As we approached the barn, Devon shook his head.
“You’ve been acting weird since we got to this place, Fitz. The two of us used to always hang out. And I’m not just talking about prowling for chicks. We haven’t thrown back a beer together since before coming to the camp. Come out tonight. There’s this girl I want you to meet. Her name is Rachel–pretty, big tits, just how you like them. Plus, she’s been eyeing you up for a while.”
�
�I’ve met her. I’m not interested,” was all I said.
“Jesus, man. What happened to you? This Cadence girl is really messing with your head. I figured you would have worked her out of your system by now. What happened to staying off the radar? You’re asking for trouble with that one.”
I had thought similar things going in, yet I couldn’t resist that forbidden fruit. I figured once I’d got past the challenge she originally presented, I’d move on. Never did I expect things to go this far with her.
“I’m fine.”
“That’s a load of bullshit. Does she know?”
Ice cold dread flowed through my veins, freezing everything inside. I knew what confessing everything to her would do. It would mean the end and I didn’t know how to begin to tell her the truth.
“Know what?” I asked, pretending like I didn’t know.
“Don’t be obtuse. You know what I’m talking about. Does she know that you have to–”
“No. She doesn’t know,” I snapped, abruptly cutting him off. It was like he had fucking ESP or something. “Look, I know what you’re going to say. I’ve already thought about all of it. I just haven’t found the right way to tell her. She isn’t like other girls, Devon. Cadence is different.”
Just as I spoke the words, Mr. Jimmy stepped through the large barn doors. I quietly hissed at Devon to be quiet.
“Ah, Fitz. Just the man I was looking for. Come with me, son.” He wasn’t smiling. Mr. Jimmy was normally always smiling.
Shit. Did he hear what I said to Devon?
I glance at Devon nervously. He just shrugged.
“Catch you later, Fitz. Have a good night, Mr. Jimmy,” Devon called over his shoulder and headed off back in the direction we’d come.
Apprehensively, I followed Cadence’s father into the barn. He headed toward his large workbench. I eyed up the tools that littered the surface–nut, bolts, different types of drills… and a hack saw. My balls instantly tightened, the fear of being cut off very real.
“I just came from The Flourish,” Mr. Jimmy began. “Seems we’re sold out of Bugles. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Fuck! He knows about us.
Of all the things sold at the camp store, he mentioned that one. I always brought Pepsi’s and a bag of either Bugles or Doritos to snack on when Cadence and I were at the lake. He has to know. There was no other explanation for why he would ask me that. I was fairly certain Mr. Jimmy wouldn’t like the idea of someone like me–a much older, rich kid who’d gotten himself into serious trouble–messing around with his pristine daughter. Hell, messing around was an understatement. I’d spent the better part of my evenings for the past two weeks touching Cadence in every way possible.
“Ah, no sir,” I responded, hoping he couldn’t see through the lie.
He pursed his lips. I eyed the hand that still precariously rested on the workbench next to the hack saw. My heart began to pound.
“Humph. That’s odd.” He scratched his head in what was clearly mock confusion. “Anyway, a package came for you today.”
“A package?” Much to my relief, he moved his hand away from the saw and picked up a rectangular box wrapped in brown paper, my home address listed on the return label. I nearly sighed in relief. I had been so distracted by all the noise in my head and the heavy weight in my chest, I nearly forgot. “Oh, yeah. It’s from my dad’s housekeeper. I asked her to send me a few things from home.”
“I see.” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously for a long moment before he finally spoke again. “Well, I’ve got to be off. The missus is holding dinner for me. Tomorrow, we need to work on the cottage on the far east side of camp. We couldn’t rent it out this year because the foundation is starting to crumble. The roof is also in need of repair. You’ll need to meet me there at six tomorrow morning.”
There was no need to point out the time. That’s what time we started every morning. I suspected his reminder was meant to be a silent warning.
Got it. Don’t keep your daughter out too late.
“Yes, I remember.”
When he finally left the barn, I exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. I wasn’t sure if Mr. Jimmy knew the truth about why I was sent to the camp. I also didn’t know if my father was checking in to get reports on me. Either way, it was now even more important for me to tell Cadence. There were only four weeks left at camp. Now that her father appeared to be sniffing around, I knew I was going to have to tell her the whole truth. I had to man up before she heard it from someone else.
My fear was once I did, our evenings at the lake would come to an abrupt halt.
Cadence was already at our spot on the dock when I arrived at the lake. The blanket was spread out, and I could hear Candlebox coming through the radio speakers. Dahlia was prancing around on the beach, her long, shaggy hair wet and plastered to her body. She bounded in my direction when she saw me approaching.
“Hey, girl,” I said and crouched down to let her lick my cheek. “Been swimming without me I see.”
I looked up when I heard Cadence laugh.
“There’s no keeping that one out of the water,” she called out.
I glanced back down at Dahlia.
“Is that so?” I said to the sopping wet dog. I smiled and lowered my voice to a whisper. “I’ll tell you what. I promise you a full hour of fetch tomorrow night if you can give me a bit of quiet time with Cadence tonight. Deal?”
Her tailed wagged happily in response, but it didn’t do much to brighten my spirits. I wasn’t even sure if I could keep that promise. The knot in my stomach grew as I approached the dock. There wasn’t much of a sunset tonight, a fact that seemed to only darken my mood further. The sky had been overcast most of the day and I absently wondered if we’d finally get a bit of rain overnight.
Cadence stood, facing me with her long blond hair mussed from the slight breeze in the air. She smiled brightly, and my breath caught. She was so goddamn beautiful. She was like a deity I secretly worshipped. Any thoughts I had were stolen right out of my head as I watched her with pure male appreciation.
“Hey, sweetheart. I missed you today.” I set the package I was carrying on the dock and pulled her into my arms. She pressed a soft kiss to my mouth.
“I missed you too.”
“Remember the surprise I told you about? It’s here,” I murmured against her lips.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Rhonda, my dad’s housekeeper, managed to sneak some of my mixed tapes out of my room and shipped them to me. I didn’t want to tell you before because I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to get them past my father.” I paused, cocked my head to the side, and threw her a lopsided grin. “I figured we’ve exhausted nineties alternative music.”
Cadence narrowed her eyes at me but smiled.
“Is that a complaint?”
“Not at all,” I laughed and bent to pick up the box. After tearing off the brown paper, I opened the lid and pulled out one of the tapes. “This one has some classics on it.”
“I’m scared now,” she joked.
I tsked her and squatted down to the Boombox to eject the existing tape. Replacing it with one of mine, I pressed play. The track Love Comes Quickly sounded in the night. I looked up at Cadence. Her eyebrows shot up.
“Eighties synth-pop?” she asked.
“Don’t knock it until you’ve heard it. This is one sweet ass song. The Pet Shop Boys are hella good!” I stood and pulled her back into my arms, guiding our bodies to move in time with the music and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Tell me about your day.”
“Nothing too exciting. Daddy had me reordering supplies for The Flourish all day. This year’s campers are wiping us out of snack foods almost daily!”
“Ah, yeah,” I mumbled. “He might have mentioned something about that.”
She pulled back to look at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Just wondering what we can do tonight. I’m no
t sure about a swim. It looks like rain is moving in.”
“Funny you should say that. I was thinking about the question-and-answer game we played a few weeks ago. You still owe me five answers, so I made something to change it up.”
She stepped back and pulled a folded paper square from her pocket.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s an origami fortune teller. Normally, you’d ask a question, and it tells you the answer, but I did it in reverse. Instead of a fortune, you’ll get a question.” Placing her index fingers and thumbs underneath the four corner folds of the paper, she held it out in front of me. “Pick a number.”
I looked down at the folded paper. Four different numbers were ornately drawn on each of the corners. It was clear she had spent some serious time making it.
“I haven’t seen one of those since Jenny Becker got it taken away by the teacher in sixth grade. Are you serious right now?”
“Dead serious. Now, pick a number.”
I grinned at her, amused by the solemn set to her jaw over the adolescent game.
“Okay. Five,” I said, playing along. I was genuinely curious to see where she was going with this. She moved her fingers to open and close the origami five times until it stopped on four colored circles.
“Pick a color.”
“My favorite. Green, like your eyes.”
“G-R-E-E-N,” she spelled out. “Pick another color.”
“Green again, sweetheart. Always green.”
Her face fell.
“I was hoping you’d pick a different one and come to that last.” With a resigned look, she unfolded the paper flap with the green dot. She glanced back up at me, her apprehension evident as she read it. “Do you love me, Fitz?”
Cadence Untouched: A Dahlia Project Novel Page 12