A CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL: Best Friend to Lovers Romance
Page 7
“I want… you,” she whispered. “And not just as my friend.”
Cam continued to stare hard at her for a long moment before he turned without saying a word and resume walking.
Her emotions in a twisted tangle, her body a mess, Lana fell in step. They passed the playground, the football field, the ancient set of uprights and bleachers, and headed towards the area that had once been a campsite of sorts.
It probably hadn’t been used in over twenty years. It was ringed by trees, large, towering things. The grass was about as long and towering. It wasn’t burned short and crisp and brown by the sun like the school football field always was. It was as though the trees and the line of shrubs interspersed at the base of those trunks protected the area.
The old fire pit, barbeque stands were the only indication the area had once had designated spots. They were ancient, rusted things that were a guaranteed tetanus shot if you even glanced in their direction.
“When did the merry go round disappear?”
“I don’t know. Probably when someone lost a limb and someone else finally decided to do something about it.”
Lana laughed. “You always have the best response for everything.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Cam pulled her forward, leading her through the tall grass towards the tangle of shrubs they once used to play in and explore.
“As kids, these seemed bigger too. More exciting. Definitely more fort like and explorer worthy.”
“Our moms used to get so mad. They could always tell when we’d been playing here because our clothes and hair would be full of burrs.”
“I know. My mom had to cut them out of my hair that one time. She was not impressed.”
“She told you that you weren’t allowed to come here again.”
“So we just came here more.”
“I picked the burrs out of your hair before we left so she wouldn’t know.”
Lana turned into Cam. She didn’t drop his hand, just used her motion to propel herself against his chest. The action took him by surprise. His lips parted in shock as she reached up, wrapping her hand behind his strong, firm neck. He got the idea pretty fast and lowered his face to hers.
White hot heat unfurled wickedly through her veins as Cam’s lips crushed hers in a spine-tingling, bone-melting kiss. A twisting sensation gripped her heart hard as her lips parted under the sweetest amount of pressure. She sighed deep in her throat and Cam kissed away the exhale.
The kiss was deep and slow and all pent up passion. It wasn’t unleashed or wild, but firm and unyielding and incredibly beautiful. It was so long in coming, so unexpected, and so right.
He kissed her like there was no tomorrow. If the world crashed down around them, she knew she’d die a happy woman.
Eventually, Cam pulled back, both of them breathing heavily, their bodies tight and heated and aching for more.
“I’ve never had a kiss like that,” Lana admitted on a rough exhale.
“I’ve wanted to do that for a very, very long time,” Cam agreed, speaking at the same time she did.
“How long?” Hardly aware that she’d done it, she raised a trembling hand to her tingling lips.
“If I told you, I’d be giving away all my secrets.”
“Would you?”
Cam’s eyes flashed. “Or you’d think I was pathetic.”
“Not possible.” Lana reached up and pulled Cam’s face back to hers.
This time the kiss wasn’t deep or slow or sensual. She kissed him in a fevered frenzy, her senses reeling, heart exploding, a smoldering desire taking over.
This time it was his groan she captured. His lips parted and she swept her tongue inside, eager to taste, to explore, to join them in any way she could. His hand rose frantically to her breast, cupping it through her thin blouse and the sweater she wore overtop. She groaned as his index finger found her already hard, straining nipple. He caressed it right through the sheer lace bra she wasn’t sure why she even bothered with.
Fireworks exploded behind Lana’s closed eyes. White hot, raw, ragged need burst between them, nearly burning them up. Her one hand remained tangled around Cam’s neck, her other dropped low, to his jeans. She found the button and started fumbling mindless with it.
Cam broke away and took an unsteady step back. “Whoa,” he panted. “We’re in the middle of a very public place…”
“No one ever comes here,” Lana protested crossly. “I thought you said you’d wanted to do this for a long time.”
“I do,” Cam sighed. “I do want to do this. You don’t even know how you’re killing me right now just by standing there with your eyes blazing fire like that. It’s just that when we do this… I want to do it right, so that it means something. I don’t want to toss you on the ground like an animal. I don’t want it to be some hurried thing where we have to worry about scandalizing the town your parents still live in.”
Lana’s heart squeezed softly in her chest. This was Cam. He was always the rational, overthinking, protective one of them. The one who always, always thought of her first, who put her first. She couldn’t even begin to process what he’d said about wanting her… Her laugh started as a low, slow chuckle and spread to an outright giggle. “My god, what a story that would be.”
“I’d rather not have it told. I’d rather it just be us.”
“Tonight?”
Cam hesitated. “In your parent’s house?”
“Yes. I can’t wait any longer. Can you?”
“No,” he actually admitted.
“I’ll wait until everyone is sleeping. I’ll wake you up.”
“Don’t bother. I won’t be able to sleep,” Cam groaned.
Lana held out her hand, a strange, silent agreement hanging between them, threading them together. How long had her desire for them been there? Perhaps they’d been sown together, two lives as one, for much longer than she even knew. Was it possible to love someone so completely and not even be aware of it?
“I guess we can walk the long way home. Give ourselves a chance to cool down.”
“What does it matter? My parents already think we’re dating. I guess… I guess now we don’t have to pretend.”
Twin spots of color appeared on Cam’s golden tanned complexion. She felt a little like blushing herself.
“The long way,” Cam repeated. “I can’t walk into the house and pretend like I don’t want you. Dating is one thing. Animalistic desire is another.”
“And how do you propose we hide it?”
“Take our fill of it here, enough to tide us over until tonight,” Cam said huskily before he bent his head and claimed her lips once more.
CHAPTER 11
Cam
The following hours were the longest of Cam’s life. He kept wondering if he’d made some mistake. If Lana would turn him down when it was just them in a bedroom lit only by moonlight, only them awake, just their desire between them.
He agonized over it all evening. By the time it was an acceptable hour to go to bed, he felt raw and achy all over, like his very skin was chaffing from the inside out. They still waited another couple hours, until the house was totally and utterly silent.
“Cam,” Lana whispered. The sheets rustled as she shifted, turning on her side. She’d left the blinds open, as the window was high enough to allow for privacy. She hadn’t closed them, like she actually wanted the silver glow of the night spilling into the room, illuminating at least part of the bed.
The fact that he might actually finally see her in all her naked glory nearly undid him.
“What?” He ground out past clenched teeth. He inhaled deeply shaking all over.
Ironically they were both dressed in their pajamas. They both kept to their separate sides, as though afraid if they crossed that imaginary line in the middle there would be no going back. They wouldn’t be able to control themselves.
At least I wouldn’t be able to. There was still a doubting, disbelieving part of hims
elf that couldn’t believe any of this was real. It all played out no different than so many of his fantasies or his imaginings over the years. Had he been a fool to turn Lana down at that old campsite? He could have dragged her off into the bushes when she was heated and ready before she had a chance to change her mind.
“Cam?” She whispered again, more insistently.
“Yes?” He snapped back to the present, his body tense, waiting. She was probably going to tell him she’d changed her mind.
“Are you going to take my clothes off or not?”
“God, Lana, if you’re trying to kill me, it’s working.”
“Not trying to kill you,” she whispered back, eyes flashing in the moonlight. Her lips turned up in a delicate, beautiful smile that looked utterly delicious. “Not yet at any rate.”
He stiffened, that hard heat ripping through his veins and flooding his bloodstream. His heart kicked up a notch, doing the crazy beating out of his chest thing with a ferocity that startled him.
It was like a bomb went off between them. She rolled over, into him, at the same time he moved, hands finding her, tearing away her clothes. Her thin camisole slipped over her head with ease, he tore her pajama bottoms away next. Her own hands were deft, busy ripping off his t-shirt and divesting him of his own pants.
Lana’s hands, her mouth, her glorious wet, hot mouth, was all over him. She started at his neck, kissing, suckling, licking, inhaling his scent in a manner that was almost purely animalistic. It was exciting, unleashing her baser nature.
Something ripped loose inside Cam as well. All his careful reserve was torn away. The barrier he’d put up in his mind to keep him separate from this moment, to keep him sane and in control, crashed down hard. He was left standing in the ashes, his passion growing and rising around him.
A feral growl was torn from his throat as Lana’s hot mouth closed over his nipple. He hissed something that was halfway between a curse and something not entirely intelligible as far as language went.
Cam’s hands brushed over her back but she pushed them off, intent on having him her way. He leaned back against the pillow with a groan.
Hell, she can have me any way she wants. Anytime.
He closed his eyes and just enjoyed her ministrations. The little sounds, half whimpers, half stifled moans she made as her tongue flicked out to taste him, to caress his tight, aching nipple, nearly brought him to the point of insanity.
Her glorious, beautiful tongue plied his nipple, sending a thousand shivers racing through his body, drawing him as tight as a bowstring. His breath strained in his chest, the sounds he made pulled from his throat, little more than a rattle of sound.
His hands clutched at her long hair, trying to gain a foothold on a world that was spiraling out of control. His fingers closed around the soft, silken strands right as she bit down on his nipple. He cried out, trying to stifle the sound at the last second, aware that they weren’t alone in the house.
Lana actually giggled softly, obviously enjoying the power she had over him. She enjoyed his complete and utter surrender to her in that moment, even if he’d reverse the tables on her later. She licked the spot she’d just bitten before she pulled back and blew gently.
He tangled his hand in her hair, trying to pull her face to his. He wanted to grind his lips against hers, taste the passion in her mouth, on her skin, everywhere.
Lana pulled away, tugging her hair gently out of his grasp. Obviously, she had other ideas. Which was sexy as hell. If there was something hotter than a woman, his woman, taking charge, wanting to pleasure him, Cam didn’t know what it was.
She pulled away and then her hands, those talented, gentle, soft, feminine hands, drifted over his tightly muscled stomach. She traced the outline of ridged abs, trailed her fingers over the smattering of dark hair that began right below his navel and continued lower.
She followed that path right to his cock. He was so damn hard the second her sweet touch landed on him he nearly exploded.
He made another groan and his head hit the pillow once again. His eyes remained open though and he stared forward, at the dark, beautiful silhouette of Lana bathed in the silver glow that drifted in from the window. She looked like a goddess, the light defining and accentuating full breasts with dark, pert nipples, a flat belly, gently rounded hips and the most shapely, long legs.
“You’re going to kill me,” Cam groaned.
“That is the whole idea,” Lana whispered wickedly.
Her hand closed around his cock, wrapped him tight in her little fist and slowly, agonizingly slowly, began to caress him. She started at the velvet tip, getting her fist slick with his own arousal, before running her tight palm down his shaft, right to the base.
His balls slammed up against his body, so tight it took all his willpower to stop himself from finishing right there. Not that it would be finished. He doubted he’d be any less rock hard than he was at the moment, pounding in agony, even if he came.
“Do you like this?” The playful tone of Lana’s voice suggested that she knew full well that he did. She stroked him up and down, from tip to base yet again, just to accentuate her question.
“What do you think?” Cam ground out. He clenched his jaw so hard it was a miracle his molars were still at the back of his mouth and not ground to dust.
“I think it could be better,” she said silkily.
Cam was about to respond, to ask how on earth that would be possible, when Lana bent. The second he felt her warm breath on his velvet tip he nearly shot out of his skin. His body jerked hard and he took a herculean amount of willpower to keep himself together.
Lana went slowly, tempting him, tantalizing him with her warm mouth. She slipped the tip in, suckled him gently, the little pulls and tugs driving him absolutely wild. When he thought he couldn’t bear it a second longer, she used that wicked little tongue of hers.
Cam couldn’t take it any longer. He couldn’t control himself and he didn’t want to shock her with what was about to happen. Instead, he reached down, fisted his hand roughly in her hair and jerked her head up to his. She let out a squeal of surprise, half tinged with pain and he swallowed it up as he slammed his lips on her.
He tasted the spice of himself on her breath. Whatever shred of control he had left broke completely. He wanted her under him, screaming, moaning, as he owned her, took her, brought her to pleasure again and again. He wanted her screaming his name, or at least whispering it in a broken moan so that none of her family would hear.
In one swift move, he brought his arm up and flipped Lana around, so that he was the one on top. She stared up at him, eyes wide and glistening in the darkness. She was waiting, waiting for him to claim her.
Slowly, so very slowly, those beautiful, kiss-swollen lips turned up in a perfect smile of happiness.
CHAPTER 12
Lana
Lana realized she was about to receive double payback for what she’d just done. She couldn’t believe how bold she’d been. She just couldn’t take laying there a second longer. Her devastating need for Cam overrode any good sense she might have had.
She’d felt so wicked on top, the one in control, the leader and the seductress. Now that the tables were turned, the hunger on Cam’s face easy to see even in the darkness, she felt so much smaller, at his mercy.
Cam bent his head then and began the slow, torturous exploration of her body. His lips hit her neck, his tongue snaking out to taste her skin. His feral groan of pleasure sent an explosion of sensation racing through her. She was already overheated, already worked up, as wild and aching as Cam must be himself. She’d never known that touching another person could bring her such pleasure.
As Cam’s mouth trailed hot kisses down to one breast, breathing became a difficult challenge. Lana’s fists balled in the messy sheets, her fingers curling painfully under the onslaught. His lips teased her breast, finally capturing her nipple. She gasped, her back arching upward, forcing herself further into his warm, wet mouth.
She imagined all the things she wanted Cam to do to her and her back arched even further off the mattress, her hips tilting upwards, searching for him.
He pulled away, a wicked smile turning up his lips. “You tortured me. You brought me to the brink. Should I do the same to you?”
“No,” she panted. “Take me further. Take me with you, Cam.”
Her husky plea did something to him, unleashed whatever beast lay just below the surface. He let out a sound that was more like a low growl than anything.
“You have no idea what you’re asking,” he said hoarsely.
Lana gulped. She’d never heard him use such a dark, dangerous tone before. She swallowed hard.
“Maybe not,” she admitted. “But I still want it.”
Cam moved so swiftly she was hardly aware of it until his hands gripped her waist. His mouth planted hot kisses along the sensitive skin on the inside of her thigh. She shivered violently, her entire body rocked with the tremor. Her hips jacked upwards again, searching, a silent, aching plea for him to end the thundering that stole up her legs, ripped through her core and turned her body to a puddle of white-hot liquid want.
Her hands moved, her fingers finding and tangling through Cam’s short hair. She pulled his face to her roughly, spread her legs in a shameless act that betrayed just how much she needed him.
He didn’t pull away and he didn’t deny her. She suspected doing so would have been just as hard on him as it would have been on her. His hot mouth found her core. He licked her sweetly, exploring her folds, tasting her arousal as she’d tasted him.
She whimpered and arched towards him, opened her legs wider, gave him access to every single intimate detail. He licked her hotly, his tempo increasing, his glorious mouth sending shockwave after shockwave racing through her heated blood.