by C L Wesley
Cameron and Angela easily put away a bottle of Jose between the two of them. We selfishly did not mind as each time the salt was licked off a new part of our bodies, almost becoming a competition as to how far the other would go. Losing track of time, the last call lights came on telling us it was time to head home. It was in that moment I was glad that I brought the truck and not the bike.
Saying goodbye to Dave and Angela, we headed to the truck. We got a whole block before I picked Cam up and carried her the rest of the way when I thought I spotted Damien Carini’s Tesla alongside the road. I was careful to make sure I was not being tailed on the way home, not that it would matter, we all know where everyone lives and make sure to avoid those areas out of respect.
I pulled into the parking garage and leaned over to see if she would wake up noticing her phone in the consul when it vibrated. Fifteen messages from Luca. She either ignored him or left her phone in my truck on accident.
I had to carry her again from the truck and I was secretly hoping she was not going to throw up on me. I walked through the foyer and headed to the couch where I sat leaving her on my lap. “Cam, we are home baby.” I patted her thighs. “Come on kitten, time to wake up.”
She nuzzled her face into my neck before mumbling, “No.” She wrapped her arm around my neck, “Don’t move. The room is spinning.”
“Are you going to be sick?” She mumbled something incoherently cluing me in to get her near the porcelain throne and thank god I listened to my intuition because I spent the next hour holding back her hair and forcing her to drink water. She finally passed out laying across my lap on my bathroom floor. I was debating which bed to put her in when she started to mumble my name. “What’s wrong Cam?”
“Cappie?” She questioned making sure I was there.
“I’m here kitten.” I scooted her closer and adjusted my grip on her.
“I wish you were the one who found me that night.” I kissed her forehead.
“Me too kitten, me too.” I stood and walked into my room laying her in my bed. I’m so fucked.
22
Cameron
Holy fucking shit my head hurts. I roll over and realize I am in Cappie’s bed wearing nothing but my bra and panties. Oh my God! I sat up and immediately leaned back against the headboard. The room was spinning, making me feel sick. What the hell did I do last night? I see my phone sitting on the nightstand. It’s 1:05PM! I also see a few messages from Luca.
9:04 PM- L: Meeting went well. I know you are mad at me but I want you to know I am thinking about you.
10:45 PM- L: Good night sweetheart. I’ll see you tomorrow.
1:08 AM- L: We really need to talk.
Great! What could I have possibly done wrong now?
1:14 PM- Me: What did I do now?
1:16 PM- L: How was the Cuervo?
I dialed Luca’s number and he picked up immediately.
“It was pretty fucking tasty. What is it I did wrong now that has you testy with me?” I snarl into the phone closing my eyes.
“I don’t want you living with my brother anymore. You are going back to the manor today. Marshall will be there by 2:30 to pick you up.” Luca practically screamed into the phone.
“No!” I screamed back. “I am not some prized possession Luca. You want to talk over dinner, fine, but I will not go back to the manor. You will not keep me.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe!”
“I AM SAFE!” I screamed as Cappie came running into his bedroom.
“Cam, I’m sorry.” I hear him take in a deep breath. “Will you please still go to dinner with me later? We can discuss living arrangements then.”
“Yes, but I will not go back to the manor unless it is to visit Lou or your mother.”
“Understood. I will see you tonight sweetheart.” His tone changed immediately with me.
“Okay. Be safe.” I clicked my phone off and looked over at Cappie. “Good morning.” I say with a smile.
“You sure do argue with my brother a lot.” He walked over and sat down on the side of the bed. “How’s your head?”
Cappie made me spaghetti and meatballs for my mid-afternoon breakfast. The marching band pounding the drumline in my head was finally starting to subside as I loaded a second helping of pasta onto my plate. “Thank you for cooking.” I slurp a noodle into my mouth with the utmost ladylike manners.
“Carbs are good for hang overs.” Cappie was a bit quiet today and a bit short with me.
“Want to watch The Ranch on Netflix? The new season is out.” I ask before shoving an insanely large meatball in my mouth.
“Sure. I’ll watch a few with you until Luca comes then I’m going to the gym.” Cappie put his dish in the sink and crashed on the couch waiting for me to start the show. “So how much do you remember about last night?”
I finish up my plate and snuggle up next to Cappie with a blanket on the couch. Leaning against his side I look up at him with a devious smile, “I remember making you sticky with tequila shots.” He didn’t say anything after that, he dropped his hand from the back of the couch and rested it on my hips rubbing his thumb back and forth across my hip bone. I wondered what it was I was supposed to remember.
Cappie left for the gym about a half hour before Luca showed to pick me up. I could tell he was avoiding his brother but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Luca was right on time walking through the foyer looking like a GQ model wearing light colored jeans and a simple white t-shirt that hugged his chest and arms. “Hey beautiful.” He said as he walked straight towards me. I waited for the butterflies I used to feel but they never came, perhaps because I was pissed at him.
“Hey yourself handsome.” He really was handsome, his bright hazel eyes staring back at me with so much confusion. He walked until he was right in front of me, unsure of what to do next. It’s sad to say it makes me happy that Mr. Serious is clueless. I helped him out, wrapping my arms around his waist and burying my head in his chest. I leaned back, looking up at him. It took a moment but he finally leaned down and brushed his lips against mine, cautiously, gently. I moved my arms reaching up around his neck pulling him closer to me while he made a sexy little growl. Our kiss grew more frantic and desperate. Luca picked me up by the back of my thighs and carried me to my bedroom where we missed our reservation due to some much-needed make-up sex.
“Well we have no problem connecting that way, do we?” Luca says stretching out next to me.
“No, we need to learn to talk and not argue with each other.” I say as I lay my head on his chest, moving my head one way, then the other, unable to get comfortable. “It’s amazing how just a month ago we barely spoke and now we fight like an old married couple.”
“You must be starving. Do you still want to go to dinner or we could order in?” Luca sat up.
“Let’s go out. I don’t like being cooped up.” I grabbed my clothes off the floor and proceeded to get dressed.
Luca
Dinner went rather well with Cameron. She didn’t make me grovel after I apologized for acting like an ass. She explained how she felt about moving in with me and why she was not ready for that. If I had my way, I’d make her, but I also want her happy so I gave in to living separately but being together. I’d just prefer she not live with Cappie, however she is safe, and for the sake of not fighting, I’ll try to come to terms with it.
The next few weeks we established what I believe was a normal relationship. We went on a few dates, she had surprised me a few times for lunch, she spent the night with me a few times despite her nightmares she seemed to be embarrassed about. I wasn’t sure what her hold up was because she had fit in the manor better than I did. She would sit out with my mom, cook meals with Lou, Stephanie came out with the kids and they had swim days. It would be her normal life from here on out with no worries about the Carini’s. My father and I believe that is now water under the bridge assuming Cappie’s report of Damien’s car may have just been coincidence.
I wa
s sitting at work looking at my phone when I came across Elina’s text message from that Saturday night I was in Chicago. For someone who said she’d never lie to me, she still hasn’t told me about her night out with Cappie and when I questioned that fucker, he said it was just hanging out. I stared at the pictures Elina sent me until my mind went crazy with possibilities.
4:55PM- Me: Hey sweetheart, any plans tonight?
4:59PM- C: I just made dinner, want to join us?
A third-wheel with my baby brother-not really.
5:01PM-Me: No thank you, I’m kind of stuck at the office for a bit.
5:02PM- C: Want me to meet up with you after you finish?
5:04PM- Me: Sure. Come to the office about 7. We can grab you some desert.
5:05PM- C: See you soon! XOXO
A few minutes before seven, security called up that Cameron was on her way up to my office. I greet her with a kiss that she returns feverishly and then she hands me a Tupperware container of dinner. “Now you can have desert with me.” She winks before sitting down.
I join her at the table in my office. “I have to ask you something that has been bothering me. What happened between you and my brother the weekend I was in Chicago?”
I watched her intensely. Eyes focused on me, “Nothing really. Friday, I stayed in and Saturday I had lunch with your mother, then Cappie took me out to an ATV course then to Duffy’s pool hall with his trainer and his wife.”
“Did you just play pool?” I asked as I took a bite of the delicious stuffed pork chop she brought me.
“I drank a lot, I played pool, I danced with your brother, I did a ton of tequila shots.” She leaned forward over the table still keeping eye contact. “Dave’s wife was jealous so I did do tequila shots off Cappie. Probably not the smartest move but I wanted her to know I was no threat to her. I figured Cappie was a safer bet than a stranger.”
I did not approve of such behavior and I did not like how she looked with him in the pictures. “Safer eh?”
She walked over to me straddling my lap. “Luca, you are the only Morano that has ever been inside me.” And just like that, I skipped dinner and went for desert, fucking her on the table, my desk, up against the bookshelf, even against the windows giving the Cleveland skyline a show.
“Still think I am an old man?” I laugh as we settled onto the chair we started in.
“Not at all, Luca.” She smiled and brushed her lips against mine.
23
Cappie
One word can sum up the past few weeks- avoidance. I’ve pulled away from Cameron as much as possible since my brother sent me the pictures that Elina had texted him, they put a fear in me I’ve never wanted to experience. I already knew I was fucked due to the level of attraction I have for her but when I look at those pictures-damn, especially the picture of us dancing together. She had her body molded to mine, her left arm resting on mine, the right bent holding our hands at my chest. Her beautiful face was tipped upwards looking at me who was smiling like a fool. If one didn’t know any better you would think this was a loving couple enjoying the dance. Fucking Elina, I never saw her that night but the place got pretty packed. If I had known, we would have went somewhere else.
Cam is out with Luca tonight. I’ve been secretly hoping since she left that she comes home tonight. We have gotten in this crazy and tortuous habit of co-sleeping in my bed and despite my avoidance issues lately, she still comes in when she gets home, no talking needed, just cuddles up next to me. It’s a win-win for both of us, she doesn’t seem to have the nightmares and I get to blue-ball myself every single morning when she wakes up in my arms. I know it is wrong and selfish to do that to my brother, knowing he sleeps with her, but I get the better part of her. I get the real Cameron with her raw, intimate moments that I know she doesn’t show my brother. One of these days I am going to have to be the bigger person and ask how this affects her. In attempts to get out of my own head, I turn on Monday night wrestling not knowing that at the current moment my heart was about to get broken, until I looked at the text that just came through.
C: Luca just showed me his new place and asked me to move in.
Me: And?
C: I said yes. I need to get out of your hair and let you have your bed back.
Me: K
C: Just k?
Me: What do you want me to say Cameron?
C: Nothing at all. Your dinner is in the warmer.
What the fuck was that? Was she asking my permission? Am I reading way more into this? Did she want me to tell her not to? I had no fucking idea what to say. I couldn’t exactly tell her what I was really thinking. Getting up to get a can of coke, I opened the warmer and there was a note.
Because your momma won’t make it for you- Cam
I pick up the plate and see cabbage rolls all tucked together on a bed of the red tomato sauce. Letting my temper get the best of me I throw the plate across the room watching it break into tiny shards as it hit the sliding glass door. “FUCK!”
Cam never came home that night and Marshall came to pick up her stuff. She texted me that she felt I was upset with her and that Marshall would be by to grab what little she had at my place. I told her I wasn’t mad and that I would see her Sunday at my parent’s house. I had written at least a thousand unsent text messages to her over the week. She texted me a few times and like the dick I am I didn’t respond with anything more than a ‘good’ or ‘lol’. I was secure in my decision to be an ass until she texted me Friday night.
C: I miss you Cappie
Awe fuck! There is no way I can ignore her now.
Me: I miss you too. How’s the co-habitation?
My phone lit up, she was calling. I paused wanting nothing more than to answer the phone. Finally, I swipe right to that angelic voice. “Hey there.”
“Hi Cap. How are you?” She sounded sad.
“Just busy finishing the summer quarter out. How are you, kitten?” I sat back on the couch wishing she was snuggled up into my side.
“I’m okay, I guess.” She took in a deep breath. “Alone again.”
“Chicago?”
“Yes.”
I struggled with an internal fight before I finally caved. “Margaritas and taquitos?” I ask her.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” I hung up the phone and changed my clothes. I opted for the bike tonight knowing that one- she loves it and two- she has to press herself against me to ride on it. I arrived precisely twenty minutes later at Luca’s new condo. It was a beautiful building about ten minutes from me with views of Lake Erie and the marina. I pass several of the family’s security team on my way through the lobby. I think there is more security here than at the manor.
“You look amazing.” I say as Cameron opened the door. She was dressed in a burgundy colored sundress with multiple dainty straps crisscrossing her shoulders and back, her hair was pulled halfway up with her crazy mass of curls spilling down her back, and then there was the black strappy heels that fueled a thousand nights of fantasies for me.
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” She smiled. I will keep this traditional look of my leather jacket and jeans in mind. “Shall we?” She pressed the button for the elevator and looped her arm through mine. Home- she felt like home.
I took her to this little Mexican restaurant over by the ball field. It was nestled in between several larger restaurants but had the best taquitos I have ever tasted. We placed our orders and caught up with small talk over margaritas and Coca-Cola. “So, living with Luca, how is it?”
“Honestly, I feel like a prisoner in what is supposed to be my own home.” She sipped her frozen cocktail. “He’s a good man, but so intense all the fucking time.”
“Kitten, my whole family is that way.” I shoved a chip full of salsa in my mouth.
“Not true, you’re not.” She smiled and joined me in my mission to devour the basket of chips on the table.
“But I used to be. Cam, you can’t forget who I w
as before you met me. I was just like Luca-worse even. I had his lifestyle plus the addiction to drugs and alcohol which made me a bonafide entitled asshole.”
“I haven’t forgotten. You just give me hope that he can change too.” Her facial expression did not match the words coming out of her mouth.
“Do you love him Cameron or are you with him because of the accident and the Carini’s and the feeling you owe him?” I didn’t realize I was bouncing my leg up and down under the table until she reached under and put her hand on my knee to stop the fidgeting.
“Honestly, I don’t know anymore. Initially, I would have said I was falling in love with him but there was so much he kept from me and lied about. I promised myself I would never love a liar. I watched Willa get hurt so many times with the tiniest of white lies.”
It was at that moment that our food arrived and I watched as Cameron enjoyed each bite. I knew she would love this place given her culinary background. The owners were from Mexico and everything about this place is authentic and not the classic tex-mex that you usually find in a Mexican restaurant in Ohio. Cameron patiently waited while I stuffed myself stupid on taquitos, watching the people salsa on the dance floor. Giving up my last batch of taquitos, “Want to dance?” I stood up and she placed her hand in mine, giving me the smile that melts my insides.
I led her to the dance floor where I spun her around and pulled her against me. “I can’t dance like this.”
“You couldn’t ride on my bike either and here you are.” I swayed against her. “It’s like riding on my bike with me, just hang on kitten.” I moved us both and she picked up on the moves letting herself relax.