Cami reached out to him, her fingers catching his, drawing his hand against her face.
"You were here when it mattered, Griffin. No one else has ever been there for me the way you were today."
He smiled, but Cami could see regret and sadness tingeing the edges of his lips, which made her heart hurt.
"We need to get you to the hospital so a doctor can look you over. You might need stitches for some of these cuts." The paramedic spoke from behind Cami, and she shook her head at his words.
"I can't go to the hospital. I have to look after my sister."
"Cami, you need to go. You can't look after Sophie like this," Griffin said, "I'll follow you down with Sophie and we'll meet you at the hospital. We can sort something out later."
Cami nodded and allowed the paramedic to properly settle her onto the stretcher. Cami winced as her movements caused the skin on her back to stretch, and she whimpered and clutched at Griffin's hand.
"I'm going to give you something for the pain. Sharp scratch," the paramedic said, and with all the other thoughts crowding Cami’s mind, she barely felt the needle sliding into her arm.
A warm fuzzy feeling poured into her body, her fingers tingling as it spread out from her hands and beneath her skin.
"She'll sleep now. It'll be a much more pleasant journey for her." The paramedic’s voice seemed to be coming from very far away, and Cami fought against the darkness that weighed heavily against her lashes.
"I'll see you soon," Griffin said, bending over her as he pressed his lips against her forehead.
Cami tried to talk, to call out to him. It suddenly seemed vitally important that he know how she felt about him. But her body refused to cooperate, and Cami was left with the words I love you trapped inside her mouth as the darkness finally claimed her.
Chapter 25
Cami dumped the pile of letters on top of the table. In the weeks since the situation with her stepfather, life had been nothing but endless court appearances and trips to the police station.
The thought of finally having some peace and quiet was enough to make her want to throw a party.
Without thinking, she scooped up her cell phone and stared down at the missed calls from Griffin.
Avoiding him had almost been impossible, and it wasn't just because he was ridiculously persistent. Cami didn't want to avoid him. She wanted to call him up and invite him over, feel his warm embrace around her, the taste of his lips against hers…
She closed her eyes, her mind instantly transporting her back to the night they'd shared together. A night when the world had seemed filled with endless possibility.
But Cami knew she'd been naive and, no matter how much she wanted Griffin in her life, no matter how much she loved him, they didn't have a future together.
She'd seen the look in his eyes the night he'd come to the hospital after he'd saved her life. His expression of pity as the doctors bandaged her wounds had been enough for her to know that there could never be a future with him, no matter how much she wanted one.
Cami wanted Griffin to want to be with her. She didn't need him to stay with her out of a sense of guilt and twisted loyalty.
The doorbell rang as Cami pushed away from the table, attempting to brush all thoughts of Griffin from her mind.
She moved down the hall, bending to pick up Sophie's sweater that had been discarded next to the stairs. Out of the two of them, Sophie seemed to be the one best coping with what had happened.
She'd finally come clean and told Cami that nothing had ever happened between her and Bradley. He'd tried, but he gave up when she fought back.
It had been one of the most difficult and simultaneously relieving conversations Cami had ever experienced in her life. And once Sophie had been tucked safely in her bed that night, Cami had sobbed into a bottle of rum for hours.
The doorbell rang again, and Cami hung Sophie's sweater over the stair banister on the way to answer it.
She tugged open the door and froze, her heart instantly thudding against her chest as Griffin glared at her.
"So you're not dead then?" he greeted her as he stepped closer to the door.
"I…" Cami struggled to find the words before giving up. She couldn't lie to him; he deserved the truth so he could move on.
"I've been avoiding you. What are you doing here?"
"I know you have, and I want to know why. What have I done to warrant avoidance?" Griffin asked, his green eyes flashing with anger as he studied her.
"Because there's no point in us prolonging the inevitable. It's not going to work out between us anyway, so before either of us gets hurt we should just cut it off now," Cami lied, her heart aching as she imagined watching Griffin walk out of her life forever.
"You're crazy, do you know that? I should have guessed that you were mad from the first moment I set eyes on you, when you insisted on serving me that vile battery acid disguised as whiskey."
Cami felt her temper flare and she started to slam the door in his face, but Griffin wedged his foot in the door, forcing it open.
"I don't have to listen to you insult me," she said, pushing against the door as hard as she could. "I don't want you here. I don't want your pity when you look at me and think about the terrible things that happened to me."
Griffin pushed the door open and stepped into the hall. Cami started to turn away from him, but he grabbed her arm and swung her back around to face him.
"That's what you think is happening? You think that I could ever look at you and pity you? Because if that's what you think, you don't know me at all," Griffin said, his voice vibrating through Cami's chest as he crushed her body against his.
"When I look at you, I see the woman I love. The strongest, bravest, most stubborn woman I've ever met. A woman I'm proud to wrap my arms around and call her mine, if she'll let me." His voice was hoarse with emotion, and Cami could feel tears welling in her eyes as she stared up into his face with shock.
This wasn't what she was expecting. A declaration of love from Griffin was the very last thing she'd ever thought she'd hear, and yet here he was, telling her he loved her.
"You can't mean it, Griffin. Not after everything… we hardly know each other," she said, confessing her fears.
"We've got time, but I know I love you, Cami. I know I can't be without you. Not now, not ever!"
He crushed his mouth to hers and Cami gave herself up to his kiss. Her knees buckled and he scooped her up into his arms, carrying her up the stairs as though she weighed nothing at all.
This time Griffin didn't need directions. He pushed the bedroom door open with his foot, and Cami suddenly found herself beneath him on the bed.
He stripped her quickly, his hot kisses and feverish touch robbing Cami of her senses.
Cami helped him out of his clothes as quickly as he had undressed her, and then they were naked on the bed together. The feel of his body as he pressed himself between her legs and thrust up into her with one fluid motion sent Cami's eyes rolling back into her head.
His mouth came down on hers once more as he found a rhythm that had Cami digging her nails into his back. The pleasure built inside her, spiralling up and up inside her core as he stroked his length over that sweet spot deep inside her body.
Cami cried out as Griffin's body tensed, an orgasm washing over her that made her buck and heave beneath him as he came with her. With one final thrust, his body melded with hers and he roared against her neck, spilling himself within her.
His heat spread upwards and Cami's orgasm spiralled once more. She clung to him, her only anchor in a sea of bliss that sought to steal her away completely.
Griffin gathered her against him, rolling across the bed and taking her with him.
Cami tensed as she felt his hand slide down across her scarred back.
"Don't…" she started to say, but he had already turned her around. Cami could practically feel his heavy gaze boring through her skin.
She wasn't perfect. She was marked, the s
cars her stepfather had given her a permanent reminder that she was damaged goods. Cami waited to hear Griffin's condemnation.
She jumped as his lips came down against her back, a trail of gentle kisses against her scars that said far more than words ever could.
Cami sobbed in his arms as he held her close, his body cradling her, protecting her.
"I love you, Cami," Griffin said, his words dropping into the silence that her subsiding sobs had left.
Cami turned in his grip, her hand cupping his face as she traced the lines of his lips with her thumb.
"I love you too, Griffin," Cami said, her voice a husky whisper as she stared up into his green eyes that had darkened once more with the promise of passion.
Cami hooked her leg over his hip and Griffin growled as he rolled her until she was beneath him once more.
"Don't ever hide from me again. A life without you in it, Cami, is no life at all."
Cami opened her mouth to respond, to tell him just how cheesy he sounded, but he growled and crushed his mouth over hers, swallowing her words with his kiss.
* * *
Griffin's cell phone buzzed on the locker next to the bed and he rolled over, cuddling Cami's warm body closer to his and scooping up the phone and peering down at the screen.
The number wasn't one that he recognized, but it was a regular occurrence in the weeks that had passed since the incident with Spike and Cami's stepfather.
Griffin swiped his thumb across the screen and pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hello?" he said, his voice groggy with sleep.
"Griffin, is that you?" The familiar voice sent the hairs on the back of Griffin's neck standing to attention.
"Dyson, why the hell are you calling me?" Griffin instantly went on the defensive, his mind taking him back to the last time they'd spoken, and the bad blood that existed between them.
"Can't a brother ring another brother and check in?" Dyson asked, his voice as smooth as ever.
"No. So get to the point because I'm not interested in your games. You made yourself perfectly clear the last time we talked."
"Fine." Dyson's voice was edged with tension. "I was hoping you could tell me who the hell George is and why he's trying to blackmail me. He seems to know all of you and he's pretty pissed at Riley in particular."
Griffin's mind went blank as he slowly untangled himself from Cami's sleeping form.
"I don't know who George is. Why would I?"
"As I said, he knows all of you. No matter." Griffin could practically hear his twin shrug. "I thought I'd give you a call before I decided to pay a visit."
Griffin's blood ran cold and he opened his mouth to answer, but Dyson beat him to it.
"I can't wait for the family reunion, Griffster. It's going to be a blast…"
The line went dead and Griffin gripped the phone tightly in his hand, staring down at it in shock. Whoever this George was, he had to be pretty bad to draw Dyson out of the woodwork. And that could only mean one thing.
Griffin stared down at Cami, still sleeping next to him. George must be bad news, and Griffin would now have to be more vigilant than ever. He'd already nearly lost Cami once, and he wasn't about to let it happen again.
Griffin set the phone down on the locker and climbed back into the bed, his body locking around Cami's, as though that alone could protect her from whatever was coming.
He would protect her. For the first time in his life, Griffin had someone truly worth fighting for. And there was nothing on this earth that would take her away from him. Not so long as he had breath in his lungs.
* * *
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