Cameron (Wild Men Book 7)

by Melissa Belle

  “Why would we stick around here tomorrow?”

  “Why not?” He’s already putting on his signal and pulling off the exit.

  Why not? “Because it’s a business trip.”

  “So? Business mixed with pleasure never hurt anybody.”

  My gaze stays on Cam and he blushes.

  “Is that all right?” he asks, driving into a gas station.

  I shake my head. “Craig wants us back.”

  “I know. But we’re currently stuck in one hell of a blizzard, Savannah.”

  “You’re right. We should find a hotel.”

  “Leave that to me.” He grins at me. “It’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

  Due to the storm, every hotel in town is sold out. All except for one. Cam makes a reservation for two rooms, and we drive a few blocks. The snow’s coming down stronger than before, and the windshield wipers are working overtime. I can barely see in front of me, and I exhale in relief when we reach the lighted parking lot of the hotel. The castle-shaped resort is beautiful and clearly expensive.

  “How much?” I reach for my purse.

  “I’ve got it,” he says firmly.

  “Cam…”

  “I’ll be able to expense it through the team,” he insists. “At least part of it. We got stuck in a storm; driving isn’t safe.”

  We grab our bags and hurry through the snow into the lobby, only to find out that the reservation desk made a mistake. A big one, at least for an introverted virgin who’s never even been on a date.

  Only one room is left.

  “Only one…” My voice fades into nothing as I stare at the receptionist behind the counter.

  “It’s two beds,” the friendly, young clerk says in a hopeful tone. “Each a queen. Will that work?”

  “Su-ure,” I say, my voice coming out all wobbly.

  Cam takes my arm and we walk until we’re out of earshot of the desk clerk.

  His gaze is steady on mine. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” He gestures to the floor-to-ceiling window. “The snow’s coming down pretty badly. But I’m fine with whatever you want.”

  “I don’t think there’s much of a choice,” I murmur. “It’s not safe to drive.”

  “I know, but your eyes are so wide right now. Is this about sharing a room with me?”

  I reach for my courage. “It’s okay. We can stay in the same room for one night. Right?”

  “I promise you can trust me,” Cam says.

  I nod. “I do. Trust you.”

  He inhales sharply. “That means a lot, Savannah. I don’t take your trust lightly.”

  While he goes back to the front desk to get our key, I sink down on the lobby couch and call home.

  “YES,” Molly says happily. “One room. Awesome.”

  “It’s not like that,” I say.

  “Really? Tell me tomorrow when you don’t sleep with him. New Year’s resolution accomplished.”

  “Not happening. Sleeping with him would be illegal!” I say to her. “Remember the employee handbook? It says that fraternizing between…”

  “Oh, please.” Molly heaves a large sigh. “Burn that damn handbook, I beg of you. Sex between two consenting adults is not illegal. And that boss of yours breaks every rule in the book with the way he treats you and the hours he cons out of you.”

  “Mol, that’s not the point.”

  “I’m looking up Lovelake now on my laptop.” I can hear her typing. “It’s got six thousand residents. That’s about the same size as Climax.”

  “Huh.”

  “Did you drive down Main Street yet?”

  “No. I don’t think so, at least. We could barely see where we were going with this storm.”

  “Very cute. Much cuter than Climax. Lots of little shops—wait, is that a bakery of some kind? I think it is, but I can’t quite zoom in close enough to tell…”

  “Mol, I really need to go.”

  “By the way, you told me about Cam’s famous brother, but you didn’t tell me his cousins are famous too.”

  “Two of them play football.”

  “You know how I love football!” she says. “Dylan and Colton Wild are his relations?”

  I burst out laughing. “Yes, they’re his relations. And they’re also his best friends. Cam went to the Super Bowl to watch the year the Cougars won.”

  Molly shrieks.

  “If you two meet, you can ask him about it,” I say.

  “I’m not going to mention it to him, not unless it comes up naturally. That would be so rude. But remember to fill me in when you get back here tomorrow. You know, on all the sex you two had.”

  “Shut up.”

  Once Cam and I are inside the room, I sink down on my comfortable bed and debate how to broach the subject of sleeping; specifically, my concern that I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep now that he’s going to be next to me all night long.

  The room is beautiful. It’s low-lit with a huge television across from the beds, and both beds have thick, cream duvets. A huge painting of the Minnesota plains hangs on one wall, and another painting features galloping wild horses.

  My gaze flicks over to Cam. Our eyes catch, and he licks his lip in this really distracting way. I can’t stop looking at his mouth. God, he has the most gorgeous teeth—I bet they’d be great at nibbling my…

  “It’s supposed to stop snowing tonight,” Cam says, breaking the awkward silence that’s settled over the room.

  “That’ll be good.” I stand up abruptly. “It’s late. I think I’ll get ready to turn in.”

  “Not yet.” His mouth turns up in a mischievous smile. “The lady at the front desk said the resort has an indoor skating rink. With alcoholic beverages.”

  “Like spiked hot cider?”

  He stands up. “Exactly like that.”

  His gaze is so intense it’s unnerving. “I don’t know. The rink will be cold.”

  “So? I’ll keep you warm.” He winks at me.

  He reaches out his hand, and I stop overthinking everything for once. I grab my coat, and we walk down the long hallway to the elevator. An empty car is waiting, and we take it down to the lobby level.

  The ice-skating rink is enormous with miniature pine trees placed all around the outside.

  “This is so pretty,” I say as I look around.

  We take seats at one of the many little café-style tables that sit next to the rink, and Cam goes up to the bar to order us drinks.

  When he returns, we sip our hot ciders slowly. And we do what we’ve been doing since we started working together—we talk.

  “Climax is such a hockey town,” Cam says as I gaze into his eyes and watch him take a sip of his cider. “I guess that’s why I’ve always felt kind of like an outsider.”

  “What about moving?” I say softly.

  I say it so softly Cam has to bend his head close to mine in order to hear me.

  “I would like to move somewhere new.” He holds up his cider to click mine before taking another sip. “But new is challenging, I guess.”

  “You and your brother have got to be two of the few kids who learned to play ice hockey rather than football down south,” I say. “At least that’s what my mother would say. She’s from Georgia.”

  Cam nods. “My dad’s dream was always to be a professional athlete, so that became his dream for his sons. He grew obsessed with ice hockey from watching it on television, and he had my brother on skates at age eight, and me by three. Declan did a lot of his training in the south with a professional coach. But he also got sent away to camps in the summers. My dad didn’t get to be as involved as he wanted to be.”

  “How did you end up in Climax?”

  “My dad got a job transfer. He jumped at the opportunity. He found Climax and said it was a good family town—small and safe. And it is those things. We were lucky to find it, but I didn’t go to school in town. I did a PG year at a prep school to prepare for college hockey, so I didn’t really grow up in Climax. Not like you did
.”

  Cam’s eyes are so midnight black tonight I’m having trouble looking directly at them. Trouble’s not exactly the word. I adore looking right at them, and I could do it forever, but I’m having trouble acting like I only want to be his friend.

  I finish my cider and we walk over to the skate rental booth.

  Cam tells the attendant what he needs and then turns to me. “What size do you need, Savannah?”

  “Seven,” I say.

  I smile to myself when I realize that I should have been the one to place the order since I know Cam’s shoe size, his pant size, and his shirt size. Ordering team uniforms would have finally proved to be good for something. My gaze travels to Cam’s jeans, specifically below his waist. There’s only one size of Cam that’s not in the guide, and it’s the part of him I’m the most curious about.

  “The wind chill has got to be under twenty outside,” I babble as we make our way to a bench to put on our skates. “That’s practically inhuman, you know.”

  “Uh-huh. But it’s not nearly that cold in here.” Cam grins at me. “You don’t want to skate, do you?”

  “I can skate.”

  “I know you can skate. You’ve been seen on the ice after practice.”

  “Once in a while,” I say self-consciously.

  “So how come we’ve never done this together?” His skates are on his feet now, and he puts out his hand to me.

  “Probably because you skate for the Cannons, and I work at a desk. Or on the bench.”

  I give my laces one last tug and take Cam’s hand reluctantly. Thank God we’re wearing gloves, because my palm is cold and clammy.

  The moment we step onto the ice, a teenage couple nearly collides with us.

  “Hey, watch it!” I say sharply.

  Cam laughs. “See? There’s that stick again. You honestly should play hockey.”

  ‘I’ve tried it,” I say.

  “Really? When?”

  “When I was a kid. It was only for a short time.”

  “Well, we’ll have some fun now.” Cam still has my hand in his, and he starts off slowly around the circumference of the rink.

  I dig my blade into the ice. “Come on, we can go faster than that.” I push off hard and achieve that feeling of flight I’ve always loved, the sensation of dancing on ice.

  The ice is amazingly clean, not all choppy like it gets after a hockey game at the rink. I skate as fast as I can from one end of the ice to the other. Cam’s next to me for the last ten steps, and when I reach the wall, he stops with me.

  “Shit, you’re really good,” he says. “How old were you when you first learned to skate?”

  “Probably four or five. My father became coach when I was three, so sometime after that.”

  “Did you have lessons?” he says.

  “Only from him.”

  “Push the blade out to stop,” Coach McMann would say. “Push off to start. Harder, push harder! No, no, no, that’s no good. You’ve got to get more muscles in those legs; you got that problem from your mother. But practice makes perfect, Vannah.”

  Around and around the rink we’d go until I could do it without holding his hand.

  When Cam lightly touches my hair, I do the unexpected. I reach out to hug him. He hugs me back and holds me tightly against his chest. I inhale his masculine scent and the tender way he holds onto me.

  “I like you, Savannah,” he says into my ear. “I like hanging out with you.”

  I take a step back. “Me too. Want to skate some more?” I say abruptly.

  He studies me for a moment. “Sure,” he says eventually. “Lead the way.”

  Cam matches my pace and we go around and around until I’m dizzy. I stumble and start to fall forward, but Cam catches me by the arm.

  He reaches out to touch my cheek. “You’re beautiful.”

  The words slide right off his tongue with no hesitation and no doubt.

  My breath catches in my throat. “I guess we should get some sleep.”

  “One picture first,” he insists as he pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and holds it in front of us.

  “I don’t think this is going to work. We’ll be super close up.”

  But Cam puts his arm around me and holds out the phone, and I break into a smile as he snaps a picture.

  Once we return to our hotel room, I excuse myself for the bathroom where I change into my sweatpants and sweatshirt. Cam’s already in his bed when I come out. I climb into my bed, and after saying a quick good night, he turns out the light.

  Somehow I manage to doze off. Until—

  Go fuck yourself.

  I hear those three words in my dream like they’re real.

  For most of my life, they were real.

  “No! I’m sorry!”

  I sit up straight, breathing heavily.

  The room is dark, and it’s a few seconds before I realize exactly where I am and who I’m with.

  In a hotel room with Cam.

  I try to even out my breathing, but he’s already crossing the room.

  “What is it?” He sits down on the edge of my bed. When he puts his hand on my arm, I jump. “Sorry. What happened?”

  “Just a nightmare.” My face flushes with heat. “I’m so sorry I woke you. You can go back to sleep. I’m fine.”

  I lie back down and turn away from him.

  I expect to feel the mattress bounce back up when he stands.

  But that sensation never happens.

  Instead, after a moment, the mattress sinks behind me.

  It barely registers in my brain that Cam’s actually lying down in my bed, but then

  he shifts so close that his chest touches my back. His arm slides around my waist, and he holds me close. I lie like a statue at first, afraid if I move he’ll mistake it for something sexual. But he keeps his arm firmly around me, and he kisses the back of my head lightly. I relax into his embrace, and eventually I fall asleep that way, in Cameron Wild’s arms.

  Cameron

  Savannah’s breathing evens out, and I know she’s fallen back to sleep. I brush her long hair off her neck and just barely resist putting my lips on her exposed skin. I want to kiss her so badly that I ache. I want to kiss all of Savannah’s pain away and make her the kinds of promises I never thought I’d be comfortable making to a woman. I’ve seen my cousins change when they met the right woman, but I honestly never thought it would happen for me. Certainly not for years.

  But lying here with Savannah in my arms, I feel a tug in my chest, and the sensation pulls at me. I want to strip her naked and get to know each and every secret part of her. She’s revealed more of herself the longer I’ve known her, but I still haven’t scratched the surface. She’s got a fortress around her, and I want her to let me inside.

  Savannah

  With Cam’s arm around me, I go into another dream. This time, it’s a sexy dream where Cam and I are in the water. His mouth is on my breast, and I’m clutching at his short hair and moaning.

  I awake with a jerk and immediately flip onto my back. I peek over at Cam, who’s staring at me.

  This is exactly why I didn’t want to sleep in the same room.

  “Another nightmare,” I mumble, clutching the top of the sheet in my fists.

  “Didn’t seem like a nightmare.” He presses his lips together like he’s trying not to laugh.

  “Was.” The curtains do a good job of blocking out the light, but I look over at the digital clock. Not even five a.m. “We should try to get some more sleep.”

  I turn away from him again.

  Again, he wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me flush against him.

  And I crack.

  A girl can only take so much closeness, especially one as turned on as I am.

  “My sisters and I made New Year’s resolutions this year,” I mumble.

  “Oh, yeah?” he says in my ear. “What was yours?”

  “That’s the thing,” I say. “I thought maybe you could help me with it
.”

  “I’m sure I can.” His tone is confident. “What’s the resolution?”

  Mic drop moment as Savannah Virginia McMann puts her heart on her sleeve for the first time ever.

  “To lose my virginity.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Cam’s arm tightens around me. “Y—you—” His voice comes out strangled, and he clears his throat twice before trying again. “You want to lose your virginity?”

  I nod, grateful my back is to him so I don’t have to see the look on his face.

  “Yes. I’m twenty-two, and I want to have sex. Good sex,” I add.

  “Savannah…” He mutters a string of words into my hair.

  I don’t hear all of what he says, but the words “Fuck” and “Christ” are definitely in there.

  “I’m sorry,” I say immediately. “I’m sure that’s not the kind of resolution you thought I’d need help with.”

  “Not exactly,” he says in a calmer tone. “Why don’t we talk about this later when we’re both completely awake?”

  So I close my eyes and will myself back to sleep.

  When I wake up, Cam’s no longer next to me. Before I can wonder where he is, the bathroom door opens, and he steps into the room. I wonder if we slept cuddled together for the rest of the night, or if he moved away from me once I fell asleep the last time. After I asked him to take my virg…

  I raise my eyes to meet his, which are studying me.

  “Good morning,” I say, trying my best to sound casual.

  “How’d you sleep?” he asks me.

  “Fine. You?”

  “Great.” He comes over and sits down next to me. “I’m sorry if I startled you, you know, by sleeping in the same bed.” He pauses. “After your nightmare, I just did what felt right and…”

  I bite my lip.

  “I had a nice night, Savannah.” His cheeks flush.

  I smile at him. “Me too.”

  Our eyes catch.

  Cam chuckles. “We’ll talk about the other thing later. First, let’s go get some breakfast. I have somewhere in mind.”

  We park on Main Street in Lovelake and step out onto the sidewalk.