“This is fine,” she breathed out.
Samuel was gentle with her the whole time, but she didn’t mind. She didn’t hate how rough he could get some times, but even she couldn’t say how she would react to it in that moment. Samuel slowly lifted her shirt off of her, and he skimmed his hands over her body making her shiver in a good way.
Camila grinned, as she unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it from his shoulders. She planted kisses down his chest as he worked the hook on her bra. After a moment, they were both bare from the waist up. Camila through her head back as he captured her nipple in his mouth. She melted into the bed as his tongue laved over her, and he pressed kisses over every inch of her exposed skin. When he ran out of skin to kiss, he slowly moved her sweatpants down her legs, and continued, going slowly and driving her crazy.
Once he removed her pants and panties completely, he took care of his own and the returned to her so they were both lying naked. Camila spread her legs and Samuel fit his hips in the space between them. She felt him, pressed against her sex. They both shifted, until she felt the head of him at her entrance.
“Are you sure,” he whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth and holding himself still.
“Yes,” Camila answered, wiggling against him. She felt breathless with anticipation.
With a kiss to her lips, he thrust forward, sliding smoothly into her body.
“Ah,” she sighed, clutching at him.
They were still for a moment and then Samuel started to move.
Camila mirrored his movements, rocking her hips against his. Their bodies moved together, panting breaths and light moans filling up the room in moments. They held each other as they made love, her hands roaming the length of his back, feeling the shifting in his muscles as his body flexed with every thrust of his hips.
“So beautiful,” he whispered, as he poured kisses all over her where his lips could reach, her face, neck, shoulders and down to her chest. The pleasure built and built, and they peaked in unison, trembling together.
After they made love, Camila fell asleep. She snuggled into Samuel’s side and had the most relaxed sleep she’d had since everything had happened.
Samuel woke her up again hours later, bringing her dinner. They ate and watched another movie, a silly comedy this time, and then they both went to sleep, wrapped in each other’s arms.
* * *
The next morning, she awoke to Samuel shaking her arm. Stretching, she sat up and smiled at him. “Good morning,” she commented before seeing his expression. “What’s wrong?”
“Jacobs just called. Your mom and Brianna are headed up here. We may be playing host to some police officers as well.”
“What? Why?” Camila asked suddenly fearful.
His lips flattened as he sat down on the bed next to her. “We’re all joining protective custody. The police lieutenant insisted, apparently. After Jacobs explained, I can’t disagree with it. Adrien is dangerous to all of us right now. The lieutenant agreed to let us stay here, but he wants us all together. Jacobs said they’d send people to guard us.”
“I thought you said your team had it covered.”
“I’m not saying they don’t. But we don’t know how long this is going to take, and we can’t stay here indefinitely. I’ve had all of the accounts that Adrien has access to frozen. So unless he has money I don’t know about, which is entirely possible, we’ll make it difficult for him to get to us.”
“Okay. Do we have enough here for everyone?” she asked.
“We’ll figure something out. How about you go on in and have a shower, relax a bit. You don’t have to worry, sweetheart. I’ll keep you safe.”
Camila nodded and bit her lip, feeling uneasy. Still she allowed him to coax her to the bathroom for a shower. This was familiar to her. Before, when Adrien had first escaped from prison, the police had wanted to put them under protective custody. The police even patrolled by the mansion to look after them. Samuel had been against it, he’d wanted his men to keep them safe, but he’d given in. In the end, it hadn’t mattered. Adrien still kidnapped her.
It won’t be like that this time… right?
The situation now was different. Adrien had been obviously sick, so he was limited in what he could do. He didn’t even know about the safe house, so he didn’t have the knowledge of the layout or anything, even if he managed to find it somehow. She was safe here. She had to believe that.
She decided not to worry about it and put it out of her mind while she was in the shower. Then she joined Samuel and they prepared breakfast together. She was feeling relaxed and happy as they cleaned things up. As she was putting the last dish in the dishwasher, there was a knock at the door.
Samuel went into the living room and pushed the intercom next to the door. “Hello?”
“It’s us.”
Camila recognized her mom’s voice. Her mom and Samuel’s sister had arrived.
Samuel opened the door and smiled as Bri crashed into his arms. “I’ve missed you too, Bri.”
Bri snuggled closer, squeezing him in her arms.
“Hi, Mom.” Camila was enveloped in a hug of her own. Her eyes met Samuel’s over her mother’s head and they both smiled. “I’m glad you’re both here.”
Chapter Twenty
A week passed and the four of them got used to living in the safe-house together, while the manhunt for Adrien continued.
Since they were closed inside the safe-house, they listened to the news on the radio and TV, hoping for something, but nothing was ever said. Samuel assured them that it was fine, that they had opted to keep all of this out of the news and if it was really important, then he would have a call from Jacobs, but so far, there had been nothing worthy of their attention.
Camila worried though, about things she couldn’t do anything about. One of those ‘things’ was Tansy. She may not have killed her herself, but she still very much felt guilty about that and about living in her home and using her things.
“Sweetheart, her body was recovered, and her family members were contacted,” Samuel assured her. “Tansy had a proper burial.”
“How do you know?” Camila asked, resting her cheek on his chest. “How can you know that?”
Samuel rubbed her back and placed a kiss on her head. “Because I am the one who arranged for it all.”
Camila pulled back and looked up at him. “You did?”
He pulled her close and nodded. “When…” he paused and took a settling breath, then continued, “Do you remember that first night here?”
Camila nodded.
“Do you remember your nightmare?”
“No,” she whispered.
“You were so upset, you kept repeating her name. When I heard Jacobs mention she was the owner of the farmhouse, I realized. I couldn’t let what Adrien had done go. I had to do something to make it right, somehow. Not that anything could really make it right. Paying for the funeral, arranging for her family to fly in on my private jet, giving them something for their loss— that I could do. So I did.” He rubbed her back in gentle circles.
Camila’s heart filled with love for the man who held her. “You’re a good man, Samuel Kane.”
“I know we weren’t able to be there, but I did send a family representative in our place. He assured me it was a beautiful ceremony and she has been laid to rest in a nice plot under a willow tree.”
“Thank you,” she murmured with a sigh. As kind as his actions were, she was still lost in her head, worrying about things she couldn’t control. She barely ate for most of the day, but Samuel didn’t let her get away with it for too long. The next morning when Camila woke, she was still feeling a bit depressed and rather grumpy.
“Come on, love, time to get up.”
“Don’t want to,” Camila complained burying her head in her pillows.
“Nope, I’m not going to let you wallow. Come on, help me with breakfast.” He pulled her up from the bed.
Camila grumbled a little, but went with
him, following him down the hall. “You didn’t have to wake me up extra early just to make breakfast,” she said with a sigh, lying down with her arms folded on the table.
Samuel sighed as well. “I did have to, because it seems like you’ve forgotten. You can't go a day without food. You’re eating for more than just you, sweetheart.”
“I didn’t go without food yesterday,” she mumbled. “I did have some eggs in the morning and a glass of milk in the afternoon…”
“You can't call that eating, Camila, sweetness, because you barely touched those eggs, and milk is not food.”
He went back to cooking, and she didn’t have anything else she wanted to say, so she just sulked and waited for him. Minutes later, he brought a plate for her over to the table and sat down across from her. He had his arms folded over his chest with a stern expression on his face. It felt a lot like when her mom used to do it to her when she was really little, to get her to eat stuff she didn’t particularly like because it was the only food available.
Am I being too childish?
With that thought in mind, and Samuel’s gaze on her, she picked up her fork and started eating. Actually, she was starting to feel a little hungry, anyway.
“How is it?” he asked.
She nodded as she took another bite. “Good, as always.”
“And your stomach?”
She tilted her head, confused. “Um, fine, I guess?”
“When was the last time you felt any morning sickness? You felt it… before you said.”
Ah. Camila just realized something. Why Samuel was so concerned over her not eating for a day, and why he woke her up early just for this.
It wasn’t that Camila had forgotten about the pregnancy. It was the other thing that kept popping up in her mind, but she tried not to think too much about it.
The doctor had given her a rough estimate of the conception. It was over two months ago, which totally ruled out Adrien. It was hers and Samuel’s baby, but Camila couldn’t bring herself to be excited for it. Sure, her relationship with Samuel was slowly going back to what it had been when they were still happy and mostly carefree, but she was still having nightmares over the thing with Adrien.
She had yet to forget the trauma that bastard put her through, and now she had to worry about a coming child?
Camila hadn't thought too deeply about it, because she had a feeling she wouldn’t like the direction her thoughts would take on this.
Samuel sighed again, after a long pause where she didn’t respond. He uncrossed his arms from his chest to lean forward and fold them on the table. He was frowning slightly at her.
“I’ve been trying to give you space, so I haven’t asked. I’ve had quite a few thoughts myself. But, Camila, at some point we’re going to have to talk about this.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it. She wasn’t sure what to say exactly, but noise coming from the hall interrupted them. She looked up as she saw Bri and her mom coming down the hall.
“What are you two doing up already? Eating alone…” Morganna glanced at Camila’s plate, and she shot them looks of suspicion before going to check if there was more. She clicked her tongue when she found nothing. “And so selfish, to only make it for yourself.”
Samuel chuckled. “I only made some for Camila hoping she would eat after her fast yesterday.”
“I wasn’t fasting,” she grumbled.
On the inside, she was actually relieved that Samuel didn’t bring up the issue with her mom in the room. She didn’t think Mom had forgotten about the pregnancy, either. She wasn’t sure what Brianna thought about it, either, but until she had an answer for herself, she didn’t want to talk about it.
Brianna smiled and walked over to them, hugging both Samuel and Camila from the back, before going over to Morganna. Camila could see her mom smiling at the younger girl, and knew she was totally smitten with Bri.
Her mom made breakfast for the rest of them, and they all sat down at the table and ate. Camila finished first since she had a head start, and then headed back to the bedroom.
Not long after, Samuel walked into the room as well and closed the door behind him. He moved to join her on the bed, sitting sideways on the edge of the mattress.
“Are we talking about this?”
Camila smiled at him, but it wasn’t happy. “Is there a reason to even talk? This is still happening whether we like it or not.”
“There’s still plenty to consider, sweetheart.”
She was laying back on the pillows with the TV on, though she could barely see what was playing. Samuel clearly wasn’t going to let her escape this now that he’d brought it up. She shifted until she was sitting up with her legs folded, then brought one of the bigger pillows into her arms, and she hugged it.
It was strange for her to know she had life growing inside of her, even if the other half of that life was Samuel, the man she was in love with. Camila had thought of children before, but she was still pretty young, and she wasn’t entirely sure she even wanted kids, either.
So, for her, this whole thing was troublesome. But thinking that way about a new life made her feel guilty, especially so when she thought of how many lives had been lost...
“I’ll tell you right now, love,” Samuel said, his voice gentle. He was once again speaking up when she couldn’t reply. “I’m not the kind of guy who supports abortion. I hate the very idea of it. That being said, I understand if you don’t think this pregnancy is right for you right now. I won’t interfere.” He took her hands in his, meeting her gaze. “You’ve been through a lot already, sweetheart, and I know this will only tax you more. Whatever you chose, I will support you. Please, let me help you.”
Camila bit down on her lip, and felt her eyes sting with tears. It was nice to hear Samuel say all of that. It relieved some of her fears. She hadn't actually thought he would abandon her because of it, but hearing the confirmation did help to get rid of some of her apprehension. Only a small bit of it, though.
“Honestly,” she sighed. “I’m not for abortion, either. It’s not the baby’s fault I was kidnapped after conceiving them. I’m not sure if I’m ready… but even if I don’t keep him or her, they deserve to live.”
She closed her eyes and buried her face in the pillow. She felt the bed shift as Samuel moved closer, and felt his arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. Then, he pressed a kiss to her hair.
“Whatever you decide,” he murmured. “I’m with you all the way. Whether you keep the baby or not, I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.” He kissed her head again and then he chuckled. “But I’m not going to lie, if you decide that you want to keep the baby, I am going to love them, and they won’t lack for anything. Ever. And neither will you.”
Slowly, Camila pulled her face from the pillow to look up at him. Samuel had this soft look on his face as he watched her. He stroked his fingers through her hair a little, then leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together.
“There’s actually more that I wanted to talk to you about. What do you think about… legitimizing the baby?”
She blinked at him. “What do you mean legitimize?”
He chuckled, eyes slipping closed in a long blink. “I never thought I’d be having a shotgun wedding, but Camila, love, I want to marry you. I want to be here for you, to protect you, always. And this baby, even if they weren’t mine, I’d want to raise him or her as ours, carrying my name. I love you, Camila. I wish I could have promised to you in a better way, and made it more romantic, but thanks to the situation we find ourselves in right now, this is the best I’ve got. I don’t even a ring…”
Camila’s eyes went wide, and her heart beat hard in her chest. He just said he loved me. Samuel loves me. She touched her stomach and thought over his words. He said he’d love the baby, even if it wasn’t his… Her heart swelled with love and her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t even realize she’d held her breath, until she felt her lungs ache and she inhal
ed in a gasp.
“You—” her voice broke as she stared at him, afraid that she was dreaming.
He pulled back, just enough so she could see his grin. “I mean it, sweetheart. Every word. I’m asking you, Ms. Camila Blake, if you would marry me, love me, and bear my children.”
Camila just stared at him for the longest moment. Then, she released the pillow, and wrapped her arms around Samuel’s neck instead. She let out a quiet laugh, even as tears ran down her cheeks.
“Yes,” she whispered, desperately. She had to let him know she loved him too. “I love you, Samuel.” She held his face in her hands and stared into his eyes. “I knew… I knew you would come for me, you would find me. I knew you would save me. The entire time I was gone, you are what gave me the strength to fight, to escape, to get back to you, and I tried so hard to get back to you.” Tears slid down her cheeks but she couldn’t stop there. “I love you, Samuel, with everything I have. I don’t know how this will all end, but… yes. Yes to everything.”
She wrapped her arms around him and he held her. They stayed like that, just breathing each other in, their hearts beating together as if they were already one.
“I love you, Camila,” Samuel whispered softly.
“I love you too,” Camila pulled back and gave him a smile, her cheeks stained with happy tears. She rubbed her hands over his cheeks and they shared a few sweet kisses.
“Should we tell your mom and Bri?” he asked after a few minutes.
Camila shook her head, no. “Not yet. I want… I want this to be for just us for a while… is that okay?” she asked shyly.
Samuel hugged her to him. “That is definitely okay.”
“Can we wait until… after?”
“Yes,” Samuel stroked her hair and smiled at her. “I think that might be a good idea. Then we’ll have a big celebration.”
Camila nodded. “I’d like that.” Camila smiled. Some of the stress she hadn’t realized she had been feeling fell away and she felt lighter.
Shattered Obsession: Book 3 of the Obsession Trilogy Page 13