Butterfly Girl

by Greenleigh Adams

  My mother couldn’t stop smiling the whole time we were there. When I was clearing the table with her as the others were doing the dishes, she whispered in my ear, “Cameron, there is nothing that makes a mother happier than seeing her children so happy.” I definitely was happy with Lex. I was happier than I had ever been with another human being. I was sure she enjoyed seeing both of her twins happy, with the Charlie-Louis show and all, too. With Louis being like a second son to her, maybe she included him in the category of “her children.” I wondered what she thought of Claudette’s situation.

  My oldest sister had recently moved in with my parents after living an hour away in a Delaware beach town for several years. She attended college, and immediately following her undergraduate degree, she pursued an MBA. Rather than work in the corporate world as Charlie and I assumed she would, she decided to work retail after grad school and managed a coffee shop for the last five years.

  When her boss decided to open a new shop in our hometown, she very happily accepted the position to open and manage the new store. Rather than rent an apartment, she moved back into our parents’ house during that transition time. One might see a twenty-five-year-old moving back in with Mom and Dad as an admission of failure, but Claudette saw it as an in-between residence while she decided on returning to Sandy Cove for good or going back to her Delaware beach town once the new store was up and doing well. The owner was letting her decide which store she wanted to make her permanent employment.

  Claudette and Travis had had some interesting interactions that evening. She actually treated him like a friend—if that was even possible. I didn’t witness any giggling or the tossing of her blond hair that she was famous for when she spoke to him. She didn’t stare into his eyes like he was the only person in the world, but rather they talked about whatever random topic came up with ease. It was the other weird thing about the evening. I wondered if Claudette seeming content and relaxed was also part of my mom being delighted about seeing her children happy.

  “So am I staying at your place tonight? Or do you want to stay at mine?” I asked Lex while leaving my parents’ house.

  “I don’t think we need to spend every night together, Cam.” Her focus remained on the road ahead, even though I was the one driving.

  “Well, of course not. You work three nights a week.” I assumed now that we had a title and relationship status, it meant we would be sleeping together. Besides, what if she has another nightmare? I needed to be there for her.

  “I’m having a hard time trying to adjust to all the changes going on in my life at the moment.” Her apprehension was apparent as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  “Lex, the last thing I want to do is upset you. If you don’t want me to spend the night, I will respect that. I have to go to work early in the morning, so I can just go back to my apartment. Those field hockey and soccer players like to practice at six forty-five.” I really did want to respect her alone time, but I felt like it was going to slowly squeeze the living breath out of me.

  “So if you stay at mine, you’ll need to get up even earlier to run back to your apartment and get ready for work?” She finally turned toward me and leaned the side of her head against the leather interior of my truck. Did she not understand that I would go without sleep just to spend more time with her?

  “Yes. I suppose that’s true.” I tried to keep my eyes on the road, but she looked so beautiful with her light brown hair splayed across the back of my truck’s seat.

  “Then I suppose I should stay at your place.” Did those words actually come out of her mouth? She made the statement so matter-of-factly I wasn’t sure how to react.

  Of course I would try to play it cool. I would desperately try to hide the fact that inside, I was jumping up and down with excitement, just like the GIF my mother had sent me recently. “Okay. Do you want to stop by your apartment to get anything?”

  “Yeah, just drop me off and I’ll come by in a little bit.”

  I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not. She might change her mind and not show. Then again, I could use the extra time to straighten my home up some, maybe change my sheets and make my bed.

  “I can wait while you grab your things, and then we could go over together.” The sheets weren’t that dirty.

  “Nah. You don’t have to do that. I want to drive myself so I have my car tomorrow when you go to work.” She reached over and brushed her hand against my thigh.

  A sudden rush of warmth shot through my entire body from just her palm touching my leg. I swallowed and continued an attempt at staying focused on driving.

  “I have to work tomorrow night, so I’ll most likely need to go back home before you come back after work.” So she was a practical one. That realization brought a smile across my face. She was sweet and innocent…and practical. My heart turned to mush.

  “Do you always think everything out?” I glanced away from the road for just one second to peer in her direction. “Haven’t you ever just done something spontaneous? Like…something impulsive.”

  “Cam, I am able to live in the moment, if that’s what you mean. But I do believe in anticipating what’s to come.” Damn, she was sexy and didn’t even know it. My pants became tight just thinking about what’s to come.

  After a few more minutes of driving, I dropped Lex off at her apartment with just a brief peck on the lips. I wanted to walk her to the door, but being on the first floor, she reminded me that I could actually see her apartment door from the parking lot. I got the feeling that she didn’t want me to walk her up. I was still trying to figure her out. I didn’t mind, though. I had the rest of my life to learn everything about her.

  9

  Alexis

  I had no idea what I was doing. I had a boyfriend. I was going to spend the night at his apartment. I wasn’t sure what to pack. I didn’t know what to do about any of this. There were so many things about me that Cam hadn’t discovered. And there were some things that I didn’t ever want him to find out. Then there were some things that I guess I probably should share with him. I really had never thought about how many secrets I actually harbored.

  He was sweet and patient, and I never would’ve imagined I’d end up here—with Cam as my boyfriend. I tried so hard to avoid him when he’d come into the ER to visit Charlie. I actually found the swagger in his step and the blatant flirting repulsive. Tiffany and Cecilia liked it too much, and I just didn’t see it. I mistook his confidence as cockiness.

  But some part of me felt as if I had been waiting my whole life for him. That little girl on the bus loved him. She needed him, and he was there for her. I remembered trusting him back then. So why am I having such a hard time trusting him now? Sure, times had changed. I had seen way more shit now than that little girl had at five years old. But had he changed, too? He seemed very much like he wanted to resume his Batman status and distract me from my issues. He had been kind and understanding. I wasn’t sure I deserved him. He had made it clear that he was interested in hearing about my secrets, but I didn’t want to reveal everything to him. It just wasn’t going to happen.

  I was still caught up in my thoughts when I pulled into Cam’s apartment complex. After hoisting my overnight bag over my shoulder, I took in a huge breath and walked one foot in front of the other up the stairs to his apartment. The door was slightly ajar when I approached.

  “Cam…” I searched the living room but didn’t see him. I pried the door open further so I could enter. “Cam…” I stated again while shutting the door behind me. I tossed my bag on the floor and cautiously began walking down the short hallway. His bedroom door was open, so I peered inside.

  He was actively shaking a pillow into a pillowcase when I repeated, “Cam.”

  He turned in my direction, quickly dropping said pillow onto his bed. “Hey, Butterfly.” He approached me with a quick kiss on the lips, and my pulse increased in rate and intensity. “Sorry. I didn’t think I’d hear you knock, so I left the door open. But
then I didn’t hear you come in.” He reached into his pocket as he added, “I have something for you.”

  I looked at his hand emerging from the front pocket of his jeans and saw a copper-colored key emerge.

  He regarded me quizzically for a moment. Obviously, he saw the shock written across my face. I was certain my cheeks turned white because I felt the color drain from my head and neck. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was at a loss for words. He ignored my wary reaction and reached for my hand, nonetheless. Then he placed the piece of metal into my palm, closing my fingers around it.

  “Don’t look so devastated. It’s so you can come and go whenever you like. You’re my girlfriend, so I want you to have a key to my place. I don’t expect the key to yours. I just want you to understand that you are always welcome here.”

  I felt my chin beginning to curl downward to my chest when I felt his finger pull my head upward so my eyes met his.

  “Charlie and Louis also have keys…but you are the only woman I’ve dated that I wanted to give my key to. Charlie and Louis are my two best friends, but now with you back in my life, you aren’t just my girlfriend, you’re one of my best friends, too. So please, always remember that I’m your friend. I was your friend when we were kids, and I’m your friend now that we are grownups.”

  “Okay.” With a whoosh from the release of the breath I didn’t know I had been holding, it was all I could manage to say.

  “You will eventually trust me. You may not have completely trusted me when we were kids, but I swear, you can trust me with anything. Always.” His finger left my chin and his strong arms wrapped around me. I guess I was getting better at accepting hugs. I stood there with the warmth of Cam pressed against me, and I didn’t feel compelled to step back or wiggle myself free from his hold.

  Instead, I snaked my arms around his neck and pulled him in to me. Where did that come from? “I’m going to try.” I really wanted to be able to confide in him. I’d been unnecessarily carrying around a lot of secrets. He hadn’t made a big deal about my jerk of a father…well, no more than was essential. He didn’t hold it against me. I guess I always feared that I would be shunned and discarded for my background if anyone found out about my past. But this man clearly wanted to be with me regardless of my disastrous childhood. Could there really be kind, gentle men in the world who are thoughtful and caring?

  He gazed into my eyes while I was lost in my thoughts, so I missed the look on his face that indicated he was about to kiss me. I flinched when I felt his mouth touch mine, and he quickly withdrew, shooting me a questioning look. “You okay?”

  My lips quivered in response to his sudden departure. I felt slightly dazed—not only from my previous thoughts, but also from the warmth of his body and the soft caress of his lips, causing a power surge of swirling emotion within my chest. I wasn’t sure if I was okay. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be okay again. I needed to trust this feeling. It was actually a very good feeling. This closeness between us felt wonderfully perfect.

  I decided right then and there that I needed to remember who I was. I was Alexis Armstrong, and I wasn’t scared of anything. I could be bold and daring, and I shouldn’t worry about what anyone thought of me. Cam stood nearly twelve inches from me, so I had to reach a little ways to pull him back toward me. I grasped his cotton shirt, and he leaned forward.

  Then, standing on my toes, I brushed my mouth against his. A small moan escaped from his throat, and he cupped my face with his hands as he deepened our kiss. What started as light brushing and pecking turned into a fury of heavy need. With a minimal amount of urging, I relaxed my jaw to allow him access to explore freely. He devoured my mouth like he was starving to taste me. His tongue was minty. I figured he must’ve just brushed his teeth because the taste of chicken cacciatore and beer that he’d feasted on at his parents’ house was noticeably absent. He smelled of soap and a woodsy fragrance that I decided I was infatuated with. It was a scent that was unique to him. Had he always smelled so delicious?

  His lips left my mouth and began a trail from my jawline down the hollow of my throat, shifting the neckline of my shirt to give gentle pecks along my collarbone. A strange feeling stirred within my belly. It wasn’t a bad, sickly feeling. It was an intensely good, amazing feeling.

  “Cam,” I huffed out in my near-breathless state because the man really did take my breath away.

  “Yes, Butterfly,” he said in between his lips’ caresses, but never losing focus of the trail he left behind.

  “Kiss me on the mouth again, please.”

  Without any protest, he reconnected his soft, roaming lips to my mouth and nibbled at my bottom lip. My head buzzed with drunken dizziness. I didn’t think I had ever been kissed like that. I just knew I never wanted it to stop.

  With our mouths still fused in their uncontrolled passion, I slipped my hand beneath his cotton shirt. I just wanted to touch him. I ran my fingers over the hard ridges of his abdomen while our kissing continued, but with a swift motion, Cam broke us apart for only a fraction of a second to pull his shirt over his head and toss it to the floor.

  With our mouths once again joined in their ecstasy, I moved my hands from his abdomen to his impressive pecs and then down his biceps and forearms. My God, he was smoking hot! I’d never had an attraction like this to anyone before.

  As he brushed his fingertip across my breast, grazing my nipple with his touch, I felt a sensation shoot through me. I literally gasped at the tingling feeling rocking through my core. I had never experienced anything like that before. He stopped our kiss and, again, gave me the are-you-okay look. I smiled and nodded emphatically.

  He returned his attention back to my nipples and rolled his fingertips across them over the material of my shirt and bra. I guess his imagination of what I looked like beneath my clothes wasn’t enough for him. He slid his hand beneath my shirt, and I felt the instant heat of his palm on my belly. Did the temperature in his apartment just increase by twenty degrees? The overwhelming need to pull off my shirt whirled through me, so I willingly indulged in that fleeting thought. With a swift pull, I yanked the soft, stretchy material over my head and tossed it on the floor somewhere near Cam’s.

  His hazel eyes shone with a hunger and desire I hadn’t seen him wear before. He commenced with kissing me again, touching the exposed skin of my chest and the top of my breasts. When he sucked at my nipple through the lacy covering of my bra, I knew that last bit of material needed to go. As I struggled to reach behind me with not a coordinated, graceful motion in the least, Cam reached around me and released the clasp of my bra with one efficient, nimble motion. I chose to ignore the fact that he had clearly practiced that move. He had done this before. I pushed that thought away and tried to focus on this one moment in time.

  When I shucked the undergarment off my breasts and now stood before him completely exposed from the waist up, he quickly resumed his gentle sucking to my sensitive nipples. I could feel them harden from the wetness of his mouth. The swirling motion he did with his tongue flooded my senses with waves of pleasure, making me dizzy. I mean, oh my God.

  Cam looked up at me and smiled. Did I say that out loud? He didn’t let me regain my composure enough to even be embarrassed. I was quickly losing all ability to think. I was losing my ability to stand. And as if my brain transmitted that thought to my lower extremities, my legs felt as if they wouldn’t support my weight any longer. But just as I was about to melt into a puddle on his bedroom floor from the Jell-O-like feeling in my lower extremities, he pulled me closer and guided me to his bed.

  It was a comfortable bed. But soon, I was writhing beneath him as he sucked one of my nipples into his mouth while rolling the other between his thumb and index finger. “If at any point you don’t want this, just say so, and I’ll stop.”

  I heard his words, but was he insane? I didn’t ever want him to stop. I shifted my hips against his, and I could feel the evidence of his arousal. I briefly wondered how many women had had that effect
on him, but that was short-lived. I couldn’t think clearly for much more than a moment. He reached for the waistband of my shorts, and I moved to allow him better access so he could more easily unbutton the denim.

  I lifted my hips so he could shimmy my shorts and panties down my legs with one swift motion. Kisses across my nipples and down my abdomen followed, and soon, I felt his finger within the swollen folds between my legs. A warm and amazing moistness flowed out of me, coating my lady parts. Cam moaned again. “You’re so wet, and it’s driving me crazy. Everything about you drives me crazy.”

  He slipped a finger into me with ease, and once he began to thrust in and out, I was soon matching his movements with my pelvis. He skillfully slipped another finger inside me and began applying pressure with his thumb on a very sensitive nub seated at the top of my swollen folds of flesh. When his tongue swirled my nipples again, a trembling force raked over my body. Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Ohmigod.

  I thought that was my voice I heard, but considering I was somehow floating above my body at that moment, I wasn’t entirely sure. The waves of pleasure continued for several moments, and when the release of what was probably the only orgasm I’d ever had in my life had completely exhausted me, I welcomed the relaxation to take over my body. My eyes closed, and I felt at peace. I felt calm and thoroughly comfortable.

  “I wasn’t expecting that,” I uttered while still basking in the afterglow and keeping my eyes shut.