Challenge

by Amy Daws

  “After I fuck you for the first time you do.” His face looks cocky but his eyes look tense. “Don’t tell me it wasn’t good. I’m not stupid.”

  “It was better than good,” I offer and definitely mean it.

  “Then why the sour face?”

  I know I won’t be able to get away from his question. Honestly, he deserves an answer. I don’t want him to think that I didn’t like it. “It just felt…different than what I imagined.”

  “Different how?” he asks.

  “Nothing. This is daft.” I quirk a brow at him. “That was the best sex of my life, Camden Harris. Is that what you need to hear?”

  “That was the only sex of your life, Indie Porter.”

  The sound of a buzzer interrupts the tension brewing between us. Camden looks at the time. “Fuck.”

  “What?”

  “I completely forgot.”

  “Forgot what?”

  “My sister was coming over.”

  “Vi? Oh God. Should I hide?” My eyes are wide with worry. I don’t want his sister to know what’s going on, no matter how psychic his family is. His brother last night was one thing. We were in a public setting. But his sister seeing me here is a whole different thing. I’m still his doctor for the next three weeks. I’m going to be operating on him. This is bad. This is very, very bad.

  “No. You’re not going to hide,” he says as he rustles in his dresser for some clothes.

  “Cam, I wouldn’t feel right operating on you if your sister knows we’ve—”

  “Had the best sex of your life?” he finishes.

  “Yes!”

  “She’s not going to care. What she would care about is me hiding a girl in my closet. My sister would castrate me. And she’ll know. There’s no use hiding it.”

  “This is awful,” I groan. His family is everywhere. How do people live like this? “What should I do?”

  “Put some clothes on to start.”

  He tosses me a pair of compression tights and a T-shirt, reminding me of our tryst in the hospital bathroom. Gosh, that feels like ages ago now.

  “Hey,” Vi’s voice calls from the entry.

  I yank the shirt down over my head and bounce on one foot as I shove my legs through the leggings. “She has her own key?”

  He shrugs as if it’s totally normal for his family to waltz in and out of his flat.

  “Where are you—Oh!” Vi comes face-to-face with Camden as he tries to exit his room to stop her before she walks in. He puts his hand on the doorframe, blocking her view of me, but she drops her head and catches me adjusting the band on the leggings. “Well, hello to the both of you. I didn’t realise you had company, Cam.”

  “Hello, Vi.” I give a self-conscious wave, wishing like hell my hair wasn’t still wet from our shower. I wince when I see Cam’s is still wet as well.

  “Hiya, Dr. Porter.” She grins lasciviously. “Nice to see you again.”

  “I was just—”

  “Dr. Porter was just making a house call.” Camden turns away from the door and strides over to stand beside me. “My knee needed tending to.”

  Vi looks at the both of us skeptically as he throws a casual arm around me. “I’m sure that’s not the only thing.” She cuts Cam a glare. Her tone isn’t chastising, it’s laughing. It’s laughing a lot. She’s taking the piss as if this is something she sees from her brother on a regular basis.

  This is far too embarrassing. I don’t want her to look at me as if I’m one of those girls, even though I am. I know this isn’t going anywhere…and I’m okay with that. But I’m not okay with nice people like Vi getting the wrong impression of me, as if I’m a slut who bangs her patients on a regular basis. I need to leave before I do something stupid like mentally justify my Penis List…out loud.

  “I’ll be going now so you two can have your…erm…family time.” I shimmy out from under Camden’s arm and wince at the fact that I’m going to have to put my heels on with these tights.

  “Do you like pancakes?” Vi asks as I grab my shoes up off the floor and move past her. “They are Swedish so they’re better than regular pancakes. They’re like a French Crepe and a pancake had a Swedish baby.”

  I pause in the doorway, staring back at Vi with Camden standing behind her. He looks as if he’s trying to hide a smirk and failing miserably. I think I die a little. “I’d really rather not.”

  “Hush. You must be hungry.”

  Camden surprises the both of us by barking out a laugh. “Oh yes, she worked up an appetite all right.”

  My eyes turn to saucers just as Vi twirls on her heel and punches Camden right in the abs, catching him completely off guard. He topples over, squatting on the floor and gasping for air. “Fuck, Vi. What happened to your fists of ineffectual fury?”

  She crosses her arms and smiles proudly. “This baby gives me super powers. One of which includes smelling an arsehole when I see one.” She looks back to me. “Come on, Dr. Porter. It’s lunch time and you’re getting pancakes.”

  After insisting she call me Indie, we make our way down the hall and into the kitchen. It’s the first time I realised that I’ve only seen Cam’s bedroom, the hallway, and the bathroom since I arrived here last night. It’s a standard bachelor pad. Not much for décor, but the furniture all looks really comfortable.

  Camden says he has a call to make, so I sit at the kitchen island and watch Vi busy herself by making coffee and food.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I ask, feeling like a prat just sitting here.

  “Nope. I made these yesterday, so I’m just popping them in the oven to reheat.” She moves confidently around the kitchen as if she’s cooked here before. When she’s done, she sidles up beside me. “Our mum was from Sweden, so this recipe is truly authentic. They are impossible not to like. I make them all the time for the boys.”

  I smile softly. “That’s a lovely way to remember her.”

  A fleeting look of surprise mars her face, but she’s quick to conceal it. “So…you know about our mum?”

  I open my mouth to defend my remark, realising how what I just said was so incredibly personal and horribly inappropriate. “No…erm…not much. Just that you were all young when she passed. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” She looks off into the distance. “We probably don’t really talk about her enough. I’ve been thinking about her a lot more now that I’m starting my own family.”

  “How far along are you?” I eye her abdomen as if it would have grown since I last saw her.

  “Just hit fourteen weeks yesterday.” She touches the nonexistent bulge. “I never even knew what the weeks meant before. I’d hear someone say how many weeks they were and ask, ‘How many months is that?’” She laughs and I laugh with her. “I’m excited to see how my brothers do as uncles. It should be a riot.”

  “You and your family all seem so close.” I vaguely wonder what that would feel like.

  My grandmother was so distant even when I was home. My parents were even worse. The Harris family all seem to be on top of each other constantly. Ruling as a committee on the surgery; hanging out in Cam’s patient room so long they got into a fight; Vi having a key to Cam’s flat. It’s crazy.

  Her brows lift. “We are…Sometimes annoyingly so.” Her blue eyes are bright on me now. “So are you off for the rest of the weekend then?”

  “Yeah, as second year residents, we work really long stretches. Then we get four or five days off. I go back to work on Thursday.”

  “Oh good, you’ll be back in plenty of time for Cam’s surgery. We’re all ready to get this over with and see him back on the pitch. Although, who knows? It could be a different stadium by then. He’s so talented. I’m really excited to see what the next few days bring for him.”

  “Different stadium?”

  She lifts her brows. “Arsenal is a great step up. If he got an offer from them? It would be a long time coming for him. I’ll miss watching him at Towe
r Park, but at least he’d still be based in London. It’s just hard because we all grew up in Tower Park”

  She continues on about the magic of Tower Park Stadium and watching her brothers play together. While I appreciate her vigour for the sport their family has built their lives around, the voice in the back of my head wants to speak up. Healing, refocusing, and rehabbing should be Cam’s focus, not his contract.

  I bite my tongue, though. Partly because I genuinely like Vi, but mostly because, right now, I’m not his doctor. I’m certainly not his girlfriend. I’m just someone he’s having sex with, no strings attached.

  Disappointment creeps into my soul over the powerless feeling mixing my professional career and my social life affords me.

  “…What are yours and Camden’s plans for the weekend?” Vi’s question snaps me out of my internal musings.

  “I um…er—”

  “I can think of aerobic exercises we could try,” Camden says, his voice surprising us both from the kitchen doorway behind us.

  “Cam,” Vi starts, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Can you maybe, just once, not be the gravy-sucking sex pig you’d like us all to think you are?”

  His lips squish off to the side as he contemplates her question. “No can do, Vi. I like seeing that lightning bolt vein pop on your forehead every time I say something that sets you off.”

  She rolls her eyes and stands up to check the food. Camden flops down on the stool beside me, spreading his legs wide so our thighs brush together. He waggles his brows at me, and I hate myself a little bit for smirking.

  “You know what would be brilliant?” Vi asks, snapping our attention away from each other. “Camden, you should give Indie a tour of Tower Park. The guys are all away this weekend so it’ll be dormant. Tower Park completely empty is even better than packed to the roof with roaring fans…It’s…It’s magic.” She shakes as if she’s just given herself the chills.

  “It is magic,” Camden agrees, his brow rising with a naughty gleam to it.

  I frown at his weird expression. “Sounds nice?” I have no idea what to say in response. A tour of Tower Park sounds rather date-like and that is definitely not a part of our arrangement. I’m feeling twitchy with all this familial meddling.

  “It’s better than nice. You’ll see,” Vi says, placing a mug of coffee in front of me.

  Camden’s eyes lose all good humour as he stares at the cup in my hands as if Vi’s just given away his favourite toy. I silently offer it to him. He scowls and shakes me away as if he wouldn’t touch this cup with a ten-foot pole. It’s all very peculiar, which is nothing new for Cam.

  After we finish eating, I head down the hall to Camden’s room to switch back into my dress from last night. With Vi projecting all this girlfriend type warmth at me, I had to get away. Add in Cam’s weirdness over coffee and I’m bursting for some space.

  When I come out, he’s propped up on the counter by himself as if he was waiting for me.

  “Your sister leave?” I ask, looking around the room.

  “Yep. Her and Hayden are going baby gear shopping or something.”

  I nod and stare down at my feet. “I think I need to go home and get some clothes and, I don’t know…just relax a bit.”

  Camden frowns. “We don’t have a lot of time to waste here, Specs.”

  “I know but…erm…”

  “What?” he prods.

  “Well, I’m sore for one.” I feel a flush of embarrassment move over me. There’s an ache between my legs that is not all together pleasant. I’m afraid that if I stay we’ll only make it worse.

  The corner of his mouth tilts. “Where exactly are you sore?”

  “Shut up, you know where.” I adjust my glasses. “And I’m not sure we should do this Tower Park thing your sister suggested.”

  He shoves himself off the counter and folds his arms over his chest. “Why not?”

  “Because it sounds like a date and that’s not what we’re supposed to be doing here.” My lips form a thin line as I try to gain some semblance of control back over this plan of mine.

  “I’m aware of what we’re doing.”

  “Oh…well—”

  “I have plans for you, Specs.” He moves toward me and pushes me up against the frame of the doorway. Back in my heels, I reach just below his chin now. One of his hands cups my waist and the other snakes around and palms my arse, bringing me into him. “You see, football and sex are interchangeable for me, and fucking you at Tower Park is going to be fun…for both of us.” He waggles his eyebrows, barely lightening the mood of his hot hold on me.

  My groin actually pulses with need and it hurts. The wickedness of his mouth, the promise of his firm grip, and the challenging twinkle in his eyes excites every part of me.

  I smile. “Well, when you put it like that.”

  AFTER MAKING FIRM PLANS FOR tomorrow and leaving Camden’s flat, I couldn’t wait to postmortem things with Belle. Growing up, I never had friends to confide in so she has certainly become my sounding board. Plus, since she created the Penis List with me, it’s only natural that she earns some dirty details.

  “Oh my God, you look different,” Belle says as she slides into the velvet green booth of our favourite pub in Bethnal Green, Old George. It’s a renovated 18th century pub with exposed brick, mismatched furniture, and a cool, dark atmosphere. The hipster bartenders with swirlie mustaches fit right in with the vintage décor.

  “I do not look different, do I?” I hold my cheeks because I can feel the heat of my blush.

  Her dark eyes widen. “I bet if you stood up and walked, you’d look like one of those cowboys from Brokeback Mountain.”

  I frown. “Why would you say Brokeback Mountain?”

  Her shoulders lift. “I dunno. It’s the only cowboy movie I can think of that has a lot of riding.” She waggles her eyebrows suggestively.

  I shake my head at my severely strange friend and hand her my glass of red that I ordered while waiting for her.

  “So how was it? How did you leave it? How big is he? Did you spend the night? Or did you go home right after?” She takes a big gulp and hands my glass back to me while gesturing to the sever to bring another.

  “Down, Sheba,” I jest. “Let’s start with what’s most important.” I lean in and whisper over my wine glass, punctuating every word, “The sex was intense. Intensely good. Intensely fun. Intensely hot. Intensely overwhelming. Just…very intense.”

  Her eyes are on fire with barely contained excitement. “Sounds intense.”

  “But it was also sweeter than I expected.” I take a sip, contemplating everything in my head. As mind-blowing as everything was, he did confuse my Penis List a bit.

  “What do you mean?” Belle asks.

  “He was gentler than what I expected. I’m not complaining, but in the hospital, he was all cocky, arrogant, demanding playboy. This morning when we did it, he was patient, calm, and attentive. There was no spanking or throwing me up against a wall…or anything horribly naughty like I thought a typical Penis Number One would be like.”

  Belle rolls her eyes as a bartender hands her a glass of red. She doesn’t even look up. “I wouldn’t have wanted that to happen during your first time anyway, Indie! That would have been terrible. You have to build up to that stuff.”

  “I know. But I just…I don’t know…There were moments he looked at me as if…”

  “As if what?”

  “As if he was deeply connected to me. It was…unnerving.”

  Her brows lift. “The guy is good.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, he’s a master. Only the best players know that if you can make a woman feel more than just the physical during sex, it makes everything better. He’s obviously very experienced.”

  “Well, that’s what we wanted, right?” I ask, feeling a strange pull in my belly at the fact that I’m reading into him so much. Even if the way he’s doing it with me isn’t unique, I’m not complaining. I checked a ver
y important box today. And by box, I mean my vagina.

  “Right! This is all good. This sounds perfect. So how did you leave it?”

  “Well, we sort of fooled around afterwards in the bathroom.”

  “You slut! Continue.”

  I laugh. “The bathroom stuff was hot. Like, crazy masculine hot. He talked dirty and only used his hands on my clit, nothing more. I thought I was going to pass out.”

  “I’m hating you a little bit right now.”

  Ignoring her remark, I add, “After all of that, I was sore, so we both agreed a night apart would be good. But we made a date to see Tower Park tomorrow and continue our arrangement there.”

  “Like screwing at Tower Park?” She starts to giggle when I smile and nod. “This all sounds perfect.”

  “It kind of is. But God, it’s so hard. My vagina is like…awakened or oversexed or something. It’s tender and I’m hyperaware of it, which only makes me want to have more sex.”

  Belle shoots me a knowing smile. “You’re like how a person is when they first get Netflix. They can’t stop binge-watching all the shows. It’s quite cute.” She giggles again affectionately.

  “He got weird at lunch, though. His sister stopped by unexpectedly with food. I thought it would be awkward, but she was great. He was fine at first, but then he got cagey. He kept eyeing my coffee. At first I thought maybe he was against caffeine because he’s so dedicated to his health, but he had a cup, too. He kept staring at me over the rim of his mug the entire time. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

  Her nose scrunches. “Was it a sentimental mug?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “That’s odd. But he still wants to screw you at Tower Park?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then that’s all that matters. Forget the rest. You’re in it for the sex. Not the coffee.” She winks naughtily at me.

  When I get back to my flat, a strange sensation overcomes me.

  I kind of miss Camden.

  It’s so stupid because analytically I know I don’t want anything more from him. We’re just screwing. But he’s so much fun that I can’t help but wish he were here.