by Lauren Wood
“Thanks again Leo.”
“No problem Cameron. I hope to see around again.”
I took the bag out of the backseat and smiled in response with a wave. I would most likely never see him again and I was okay with that. I would miss this moment into the mad world of the affluent, but now it was time to come back down to reality.
Getting to the door wasn’t that hard and I quickly found the floor of the dentist that I was going to be working with. Dr. Flemings seemed nice enough, even if his eyes were a bit too lecherous for my liking. He was very accommodating, much like Grey had been and I told myself then that I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Sometimes men are just nice because they really are.
Grey’s words played in my ear and it gave me some confidence as I made my way through the rest of the day. How could I feel bad about anything when a man like that says I am pretty?
The day went faster than I could have imagined and by the end of it I had a smile on my face. Everything was working out as it was supposed to and the more I thought about it, the more I knew what needed to be done. When I left the dentist’s office, I was ready to tackle the world. I had to check on some arrangements that I had made for an apartment with a roommate. I didn’t have the same anxiety in me as before because I knew if nothing else, I could call Grey. But it was unnecessary.
I met Anne after I called her. She was the one that I had spoken to through email correspondence when I was first planning to come here and it didn’t take long to see that while we didn’t have much in common, we clicked well enough. When I saw the apartment it was smaller than Grey’s by any stretch of the imagination, but it was bigger than I thought it was going to be.
“I think this will be great Cameron. I remember when I first came to the city. Finding a place you can afford is the first hurdle. You are lucky to find this place at the price they are asking. We are going to get along famously.”
Anne was tall and thin, with jet black hair that she wore tied up in a ponytail. She was girly and dramatic, her speech and hand motions claimed it, but she was also kind and smiled a lot. She looked like she was happy and I would take that over a moody girl any day of the week.
Now I had to find the rest of my stuff and the parking garage where I had left my car when I went to Grey’s house. I wasn’t sure where in the city it was, but Anne knew and she drove me over there. It was nice to have someone else in the city that I knew and I was starting to think that everything was going to work itself out.
“So I thought you got in last night?”
“I did, but I came in late because my car broke down and I had to wait till someone came and helped me. Then when I got to the hotel, my room was rented out and I had to ask the same guy that helped me to let me stay with him. He had offered and he was real nice and left me. But he sent a car to pick me up and I had to leave my own here.”
We had stopped in front of the parking garage that was vaguely familiar.
“Who did you stay with? Did you know them?”
I told her that I really didn’t know him. I had just met him and when I told her that, Anne looked at me like I was lucky that I hadn’t been raped and killed.
“This is New York. You have to be more careful.”
“Yeah, that is what Grey said too.”
“I am serious Cameron. I came here from a small town in Ohio. I thought that things were like it was back at home, but unfortunately I found out the hard way that it wasn’t true. I don’t want you to have to go through what I went through.”
I almost asked her what happened, but whatever it as, it was obvious that it bothered her and I didn’t want to make her eve more upset. I was going to have to be more careful, I just hadn’t seen it as that big of a deal. Maybe it was and I really was that lucky it was Grey that I met and not someone else.
“I am glad Grey as the one that helped me. He was really nice and a complete gentlemen. He did try to kiss me, but when I told him I wasn’t going to have sex with him for his kindness, I think I offended him.”
“Well I would have thought the same thing. No one in the city is going to help you without expecting something in return. Sad, but true fact.”
“So what do you do for a living?”
“I am a dancer.”
That answer struck me a little off. She didn’t look like a dancer or what I thought of a dancer anyway. She was far more stylish for it and she didn’t seem to be the type. What was the type though?
“Well that is exciting I bet.”
“Not really. I work with guys all the time that are horrible and all I can do is grin and bear it. That is why I stopped dating men a long time ago. I guess I just seen too many of the bad ones and I don’t want to have anything to do with them. I just want to be happy and women do that for me.”
She was dropping bombs left and right and I had to notice that she did it after I paid my part of the rent. Her sexuality didn’t bother me one way or the other, but I worried that she would think I was the same way.
“Well to each their own really. I don’t worry about all of that. I think people should do what makes them happy.”
“What makes you happy Cameron?”
I grinned at her and shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I am sure I will figure it out. I came here for an adventure. I can’t think of a better place to go than here.”
Anne agreed. “I found myself here too and I will never go back. The city grows on you and I literally can’t think of anywhere else I would rather be.”
I was starting to feel the same way. This city was something new and exciting and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. It had already been an adventure and I hadn’t even been here that long. I just knew that there was going to be lots more surprises that were in store for me. There was no other way to feel but optimistic about the future. It was looking rather bright.
Chapter 7
Grey
Cameron didn’t call me. I rode home with Leo and I asked without asking about her and he told me that he hadn’t heard from her since he dropped her off.
“She is not really our style Grey. I think it is good that you are getting away from chicks like Kaika. They are a whole different class of women.”
I was surprised by his words. Kaika was about as classy as they got. She came from a good family and had almost as much money as I did. That was part of her charm, we were supposed to be together, but it never translated into anything more than just a well-made match.
“What do you mean?”
“Cameron had better behavior. She treated me like a person instead of an employee. I don’t know Grey; there was something about her that drew me in. Are you dating her?”
I couldn’t believe where this conversation was going and I disliked even worse the answer to his question. I should have been able to say that I was, but Cameron had shut me down. It was not something that I liked to admit to myself, let alone out loud to someone else. I wasn’t told no very often and I know now how much I hated it.
“No, we met by chance and I was just helping her out. She is new to the area.”
“A stranger that you met by chance?”
I agreed with a slight nod. “I need to know where you met a girl like her, because I never find anything good.”
“I met her at a rest area. Her car had overheated and we just started talking. I offered her a bed if the hotel was booked and that was that.”
Leo whistled through his teeth. “You have more restraint than I do. Any more, I don’t know if I could have walked away from a woman like that. There aren’t many of them left.”
I hadn’t had much of a choice, but again I wasn’t going to admit it. “She was not looking for that and I wanted to respect it. Cameron is different and she is not like the women I usually meet.” In a way I wish she was because I was left wanting her desperately, but it doesn’t matter now. Now I had to wait and see if she called. It was not a place I liked to be in and there was a thought in mind to go out and drink a little bit of he
r away, but I wasn’t going to do that. I wanted to, but instead I was going to go home and get some work done. I couldn’t think of it as waiting for her, I just couldn’t. It would just drive me nuts.
“You could have had her Grey. You can have anyone you want. Do you really think she was any different in that way than all of the rest?”
I knew that I could have pressed it, but I didn’t want it like that. I would make her come many times over and she would be hooked, but I wanted her to submit to me. It was more as far as I was concerned. I just wanted more from her, so much more.
“Probably, but I like to get the woman to give it up to me, against her best thoughts. It’s not a game. I just want her to want me, as much as I want her.”
Leo was surprised as much as I was for my confession. I usually didn’t talk this way and it was because I felt so differently about Cameron. Still wasn’t sure why, but not everything had to make sense, right?
“Sounds like you got it bad. I don’t think I have ever seen you like this over a broad Grey. Good for you. “It is the best when they twist us up, isn’t it?”
I felt twisted up in all ways and none of them felt very good. All I could think about was Cameron and her vision of beauty in the mirror when she was standing naked in the bathroom. It was all I could think about and Leo’s words weren’t helping take my mind to another direction.
“I don’t know about that, but she is pulling me from my boredom.”
“So when are you going to see her again?”
“I don’t know if I will or not. She has my number.”
“And you are going to wait and see if she calls?”
I nodded that I was and he just shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know if I would leave that shit up to chance. You need to lock it down Grey. Do whatever it is you do to women and make her fall for you. I wish I had that power like you do. I couldn’t let her get away and nothing would be better than her feeling the exact same way.”
Again, I felt a bit of jealousy that he was paying her that much attention, but he was right. She was beautiful and in the city she wasn’t going to stay single long. I needed to get her in my bed and underneath me before I lost my chance. But I didn’t have her number and I didn’t have a way to find her. That was before when my confidence was high and I was sure I would hear from her. Now I didn’t know if I would and the idea of her not coming back upset me a bit too much for any liking.
“I don’t have her number.”
“You have never let anything stop you before. If you don’t want to put in the effort, I will give it a go and see if I can find her.”
I grimaced at his smiling face in the rearview mirror. “No, that won’t be necessary.”
“Well then…”
I got his point and the car was stopping in front of the apartment building.
“Are we going anywhere tonight boss?”
Lately I had been going out a lot, but for once I was just going to stay in. And not wait for a call.
“No, I think I am going to call it a night Leo.”
“Really? Are you going to have another late night drive?”
I sighed to myself. It was like nothing was ever sacred or a surprise to anyone. Everyone seemed to know what it was that I was doing and it bothered me a little more each time it was brought to my attention.
“No, just going to stay home and look over some briefs that I have been meaning to go through. I haven’t been getting it all done at work. A little too much partying and too many women.”
Leo grinned, but there was something about his expression that told me that he still wanted to talk about Cameron some more. I didn’t want to talk about her. I couldn’t and I certainly didn’t like the way he talked about her. He was right though. Cameron wasn’t going to stay single that long if she stayed in New York. She was too beautiful for that and she didn’t even know it. That was the best kind of woman after all.
Leo dropped me off and I thought about the day. I went to the room she had stayed in, hoping that she had left something, but it was clean and arranged back to the way it was before. It was like she had never even stayed there. Was it all something that I made up? It almost felt that way with every bit of her gone like she had truly never existed.
I sat down on the bed, remembering the stolen kiss and wishing that I had pressed for more. She would have said yes. I am sure of it. I am sure that she would have let me, because she had been as turned on as I was. Leo was right. I could have had her, but she had been acting different than I was used to. It was not like she was playing hard to get, she was hard to get.
That left me in a sort of bind and when Scott called to see what I was up to, I said I wasn’t up to anything.
“Well come out with me Grey and we will have some fun. I am here for a little while longer and I know that there is somewhere that will make our day turnaround.”
I had a feeling that he was talking about the strip club again and even though the last time had caused me so much trouble, I knew that he was right. It would take my mind off of Cameron and that is what I needed most. I wasn’t used to worrying about women and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like waiting around for my phone to maybe ring. I was not used to it at all and it wasn’t something that I wanted to get used to.
“Yeah, hell. I don’t want to stay around here all day. Meet me there and I will be there in about thirty minutes.”
Scott agreed and I got off of the phone with him, full of mixed emotions. It wasn’t what I wanted to do with my night, but it was what was going to happen at the moment. If I couldn’t stop thinking about her normally, then work be damned, I would go to the tried and true method of drinking her away.
It didn’t take long to get ready and make my way out for the night. I wasn’t going to call Leo for a ride, not after the conversation we had earlier. I was sure that he was going to ask about her again and I just didn’t want to hear about her or talk about her. I wanted to forget that I had ever met the vixen. She was causing problems and I hadn’t even gotten her underneath me yet.
Why the hell couldn’t I stop thinking about Cameron?
Chapter 8
Cameron
Life was getting close to normal. It had been almost two weeks that I had started working at the dentist’s office and a little longer than that I had been in New York. I didn’t regret it; in truth I loved the city. It was everything that I could have imagined it to be and so much more.
The city was alive, almost buzzing with life and it was hard to say if I was coming or going half of the time. Anne kept me busy when I wasn’t at work and there was only sometimes late at night that I missed Muskegon and everyone there. I knew it was still there, unchanging and a bit of nostalgia filled me from time to time, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. If a person could fall in love with a city, I had and I can’t say that I was ever going to tire of it.
I checked the clock and it was already almost four. I was going to get off in another hour and then me and Anne had plans to hit up a party later tonight. There was always something to do and having Anne as a roommate kept me around a lot of people. If we didn’t go out, there were usually people that came over to hang out. Either way, this new life I had was fast-paced and I was trying to get on with it.
The front nurse gave me a slip of paper about the new client and I went to the waiting room to call his name. Grey Haas. It wasn’t him, right?
When I saw that it was Grey, the man that had helped me so much when I first got here and I was rather shocked to see him. He liked the look on my face.
“You have an appointment?”
He grinned a little bigger. “That is what the paper says.”
“I didn’t know that you go here.”
“I don’t, but you work here so I figured if you weren’t going to call me, I was going to have to track you down. I always get my way Cameron and you are worth a little effort to track find you.”
There was something different in his eyes that I hadn’t
seen before. He wanted me, that was clear, but now he looked like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. My body responded and I looked away, afraid that my eyes were as clear as his on my intent. I had stayed up many nights, thinking about what it would be like to have his hands on me.
“Well today it looks like you want a cleaning from what the paper says. I will get you into a room and prepped.”
“Are you going to be the one that does it?”
I nodded that I was and I worried that I wasn’t going to be able to be that close without feeling something for him. It was virtually impossible to not feel something, especially in my nether regions when he was around. He was handsome and just perfect. If he hadn’t kissed me and called me beautiful before, I would have thought that him showing up here really was just a coincidence, but I knew that it wasn’t. He was here for me and I think I was finally ready for him. I still wasn’t fully sure, but I wanted to be.
I didn’t look back, motioning once for him to follow me into the back. He did so as I asked, but he followed behind very closely, a little too close and he was making me nervous. What did he want?
“I didn’t think I would see you again Grey.”
“That’s a shame because I have been thinking of nothing else. I waited for you to call, but it became clear that you weren’t going to.”
“You helped so much. I didn’t want to bother you anymore. You seem to be a pretty busy man.”
“I am never too busy for a beautiful girl Cameron. You sell yourself short. Most men would give their left ball to be with you.”
The things that came out of his mouth.
“So is that what you are suggesting that it takes?”
He looked nervous for a moment and I shrugged. “Must not want me that bad, huh?”
I was just messing with him and it took Grey a minute to realize it. How many people would joke with him? He didn’t seem to be able to take it very much. “You don’t get told no that much, do you Grey?”