by Lindsey Hart
“Cam,” she ground out. Her hands tightened in his hair.
He carefully stayed away from her clit, licking and tasting her sweetly, hotly. He found her entrance and his tongue flicked over it. Lana saw stars. Her vision actually turned black even though her eyes were open, her head propped up, watching absolutely everything.
She gasped and finally threw her head back, collapsing back onto the mattress. Her hands fell away to her sides, her fingers still grasping uselessly. Her heels, planted firmly on the bed, scrabbled for a foothold. The tingles started in her toes, white-hot and merciless in their travel upwards.
And that was when Cam’s tongue found her clit. She moved her hand on time, planted the fleshy part of her palm between her teeth to stifle her moans. Those tingles traveled up her legs, up her thighs. They hit her core and her stomach at once, crashing over her, a sharp burst of molten agony that sent her careening into another dimension.
Cam knew she was there. While he suckled her clit, applying the sweetest amount of pressure, slowly circling it with his tongue, he inserted a finger inside of her. The pleasure grew even more intense, if it was possible.
Lana gave herself up to it. She climbed higher and higher until she stepped off that cliff again and floated, floated on endless waves of hard pleasure. Pleasure like she’d never known before. Her body shook, twisted, her hips jacking off the bed again and again, shamelessly pushing against Cam’s mouth and his glorious hand and what he was doing to her body.
He finally stopped when her panting breaths eased. He slid his hand away and lifted his face. The look in his eyes was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen in her life, because there was love in that dark gaze, clear even in the soft silver glow of moonlight that hardly even slanted over the bed. She was pretty sure, through her own heavy lids, she was looking back at him the exact same way.
CHAPTER 13
Cam
She feels it. She feels all of it.
Cam was sure of it. She felt the same, invisible connection that had always been there. It was changed, deepened, transformed into a love that went beyond anything they’d ever known before.
He saw it in her eyes and it drove him absolutely wild.
“There isn’t any going back,” Cam mumbled.
Lana arched her back, shifting in the bed like a natural born seductress. He nearly groaned. Did she have any idea what she did to him just by existing? Tasting her, finally tasting her, pleasuring her, loving her the way he’d dreamed of doing for so very long nearly brought him to his knees.
“Come here. Stop thinking.”
He started. His eyes flew to Lana’s beautiful, full lips. They curled up in the most inviting, sexy smile he’d ever seen on anyone in his life. His whole body tensed and his cock ached, pounding with the need to be buried inside of her.
He’d nearly come just by tasting her. He wondered if she knew it? Did she have any idea how he ached for her? How his body burned for her? How he could never be sated just by having her once or twice? Hell, he wouldn’t be sated having her a hundred times. He wanted her and he wanted her for the rest of his life.
Of course, he didn’t want to scare her senseless. He didn’t know what this was truly about for her or what she wanted. She didn’t know anything except that in that moment, they were both naked. She’d just climaxed in his mouth, around his finger. He’d brought her that, that incredible soaring pleasure. He wasn’t going to ruin it all by asking her to promise him the rest of her life.
No, if he only had her this once, just this one time, he was damn well going to make it worth remembering. His soul was tangled up with hers long before this moment. Now it was finally free, free to dance with her, share with her, delight with her. There was no going back.
“I said stop thinking,” Lana commanded again. Her voice was gentle, her tone silky and husky all at once.
“Sorry,” Cam mumbled. He tried to force his body to move, but he seemed frozen in place, kneeling between her glorious thighs.
“Don’t be sorry. Just come here. My blood is on fire. What you just did… that was just the start. The ache is even worse now. I need you to come here and banish it.”
Cam groaned. “Oh god, don’t talk like that. I won’t even make it inside of you.”
She arched a brow and shifted wickedly. “In that case, maybe I should be the one in charge.”
“I doubt that would change the outcome.”
“Well… who says that’s wrong? I promise I won’t judge.” Her smile grew even wider. “Besides, I just came. Fair is fair isn’t it?”
He knew then, could tell by the look on her face, that she didn’t plan on giving up anytime soon. She had no plans for stopping whatsoever. She might actually kill him, sometime during those long hours of the night.
Finally, his body unlocked and he moved, shifting over her, covering her lithe, feminine body with his. His hard planes hit her lush curves as he turned her easily, tumbling her so that she came out on top.
“I have a feeling that we’ve done this once before.”
“You said you wanted to be in control,” Cam ground out roughly. His chest felt a hundred times too small for his breath. His lungs burned furiously with the effort to breathe.
“Yes, I did say that.” Lana leaned forward, her glorious lips claiming his own.
She kissed away whatever breath he had left. Her tongue pushed through his lips, a forceful onslaught. His whole body tensed as he felt her moving over him, the delicious warmth of her thighs straddling his waist. She reached down between them and captured his cock in her palm. He pulsed there for a second, his heart pumping a mile a minute, praying that he’d at least have the fortitude to make it inside of her.
She rose up, shifted slightly and then he felt the tight warm slickness of her core. He slid easily to her entrance. She was so damn wet it nearly drove him to come right there. He ground his teeth, somehow managing to hold back.
She lowered herself down slowly, taking every single inch of him inside her tight heat. Her inner muscles gripped him, held him captive. She bore down, clenching and unclenching.
He ripped his mouth away from hers. “God, Lana,” he panted.
She didn’t stop. Instead, she started swiveling those delicious hips in a slow grind that nearly turned his mind inside out. He saw black. Her hands came down on his shoulders and she rose up before she sunk back down, taking the entire length of him inside her, taking him deeper.
She did it again and again, hands digging into his shoulders, hips swiveling and grinding as she rode him hard, taking from him exactly what she needed.
She trembled above him, the tremors violent, shaking her. He finally opened his eyes and watched her come. She was so hot and ready it wasn’t a wonder it had taken her only a couple minutes to find her climax.
He finally felt free to take his own pleasure. He gripped her hips hard, his fingers digging into her soft flesh. He rocked her hard, slamming himself into her over and over again.
She slammed her hand over his mouth, capturing his violent groan as hot spurts jetted deep inside of her. He trembled and shook, still slamming into her, his hips pumping viciously, their hip bones grinding into each other.
When he finally opened his eyes he found Lana staring into his face. It wasn’t unnerving or disconcerting. It was completely sexy, the way she wanted to stay connected.
“I’m sorry…” he stammered. “I should have asked you…”
“I’m on the pill,” she leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Which means that we can keep doing this. All. Damn. Night.”
He groaned low, the sound torn from somewhere deep inside of him. His cock, as hard and aching as ever, pulsed deep inside of her. “You’re going to kill me.”
“That’s the aim, isn’t it?” Her giggle turned to a gasp of surprise as he deftly flipped her onto her side.
His hips were already moving, filling her, loving her, as he bent to whisper an affirmation in her ear. “I’ve wanted this for a
s long as I can remember. I’ve loved you since I was old enough to know what that honestly meant.” He caressed the silky curve of her hip, hardly aware of what he’d just said.
She froze for a second, just a split second before her body once again moved in rhythm with his own, stirring his blood, starting that racing, white-hot heat all over again.
CHAPTER 14
Lana
Sometimes the most confusing parts of life were a little less confusing after a talk with your mother. Lana was up early the next morning. She blinked into the darkness of the room. The bedside clock read just after six. Her mother was also an early riser.
She needed to talk to her more than anything in the world. Maybe it would help sort out the tangled, confused thoughts that kept her awake half the night, long after Cam found his own blissful rest.
His arm lay heavy across her, his leg tangled with hers. It felt so amazingly… right. Beautiful. Utterly incredible. Like all the years of their life had led them to the point they’d reached last night.
Lana just didn’t know what that meant for their friendship. They were just fake dating, weren’t they? She’d thought so until Cam whispered his passion-filled confession in her ear. It had been pulled from the very depths of his soul.
I’ve wanted this for as long as I can remember. I’ve loved you since I was old enough to know what that honestly meant.
His words reverberated roughly through her skull. Lana sighed and closed her eyes. What exactly was she supposed to do with such a confession?
She turned her head into the crook of Cam’s neck, slightly, gently so as not to wake him. She inhaled his husky, masculine scent. It wasn’t exactly fresh, after a night in bed. The sharpness of sweat mixed with the tang of spent passion, but overriding everything was the natural scent of his skin.
Why have I never noticed it before? She of course, hadn’t been this close to him in years, but there were times before. A friendly hug, sports, a whispered secret, sitting on the couch watching a movie… surely she should have smelled him before, but she couldn’t recall a single time that she’d noticed.
Which made sense given that she’d been thoroughly oblivious to the way Cam felt.
And also apparently, to the way I feel.
She couldn’t say when it had happened or what caused it. She’d never pined for Cam, not in the way one lover misses another. Her heart ached at his absence, but in the way a friend misses another separated by time and distance.
Or was it more than that?
Lana slowly shifted her arm. She untangled herself from the heavy limb across her shoulders then just as carefully removed her leg from underneath Cam’s.
He stirred a little in sleep but didn’t wake up. She slipped from the bed and paused, just for a minute, to study Cam’s beautiful features in the near dark. His face, the face of a friend, was now something more. She’d given herself to him last night and he’d given his soul in return.
He’d spoke of love, but she didn’t truly know what that meant or felt like. Where did friendship end and love begin? She knew what desire was, but what was love?
Lana shook herself. She hastily dressed in a new set of jeans, a camisole and an oversized knit sweater. The clothes were pulled roughly from her backpack and put on with little thought. She wanted to get downstairs and talk to her mom about everything. Her mom would know what to do. Hopefully, she could provide some clarity to Lana’s confused, jumbled thoughts. If her own mother couldn’t, she didn’t know who could.
The house was dark and quiet as Lana slipped downstairs. She paused in the kitchen to grab a banana on her way to the living room. Once there, she took a seat on the couch and stared at the Christmas tree, lost in her thoughts.
She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that, frozen in place, the fruit that was going to serve as her breakfast forgotten on the couch beside her. She started when she heard footsteps in the hall.
Lana’s head swiveled around and she was ready to offer a good morning to her mom. The words died on her lips when she realized the intruder wasn’t her mother at all, but Dale standing in the door to the living room.
It seemed like her mother had slept in after the Christmas craziness of the day before. Lana froze. She said nothing, just watched as Dale stepped into the room. He walked with the airless grace of a man who had gone through life always getting what he wanted. He seemed a little oily, a little slithery, like a snake.
Why couldn’t I see it before? She’d always known Dale wasn’t really a nice guy at heart. No, he was far worse than that, but she’d still wanted him. What on earth was wrong with me? Any attraction she’d once felt in her childish heart had died a hard death during the football game, when she’d seen Dale hit Cam so unjustly and so viciously. Or was it long before then? Maybe it was and she just hadn’t realized that she’d lost her childhood crush and grown into a woman.
“You’re up early,” Dale said casually. He walked over to the couch and took a seat beside her.
“Yeah,” Lana muttered. She huddled as far she could go, into the arm of the couch. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and Dale as possible.
There was a heavy silence between them, uncomfortable and loaded. Lana wished she could get up and walk away, but she figured that would be outright rude.
“Tell me honestly,” Dale said in that husky, smoky voice of his. He turned to study Lana with lowered lids, that half-open bedroom-eyed gaze that used to drive her wild with longing. Now it just made her want to run. “Are you really with Cam? Truly?”
“Yes,” she said softly, glad that after last night it was true. A fresh wave of warmth spread through her and she smiled, content in the secret that she was now a part of. Hers and Cam’s alone, for the time being. It gave her more than just a small amount of pride to be the one Cam chose. The one he wanted.
“Why? You could have anyone. Why would you choose a guy like Cam?”
“Because he’s smart. Kind. Giving. He’s a doctor for goodness sakes. He always wanted to change the world and now he’s doing that.”
“And you think he’ll stay here? No, he’s going to head back to South America, back to his little village where he can continue making a difference. Or, if not, he’ll go somewhere else. Do you honestly think he’ll stick around for you? Do you think you’re enough for him when he has the entire world that he needs to help?”
Lana swallowed hard past the sudden lump that formed in her throat. She knew Dale was just jealous, which ironically enough, had been her exact intention. She regretted it now. All of it; her stupid, childish plan and the way she’d made Cam go along. He’d only agreed because it was the only way he could be with her.
It hit her hard, that realization. Her heart ached at the thought of how casually and carelessly and blindly she’d tortured him with her stupid request.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s here now and that… that I care about him.”
“Yes, anyone can see that, but come on, Lana. We both know people like you and me weren’t built to just be with one person. There isn’t one single person on earth I would want to spend the rest of my life with. That sounds more like a lifetime imprisonment than any kind of ideal, romantic notion.”
Just a few short days ago I might have agreed with that, at least to a small extent.
It hit her hard, like a tidal wave of consciousness, just why she’d never been able to find someone to settle down with.
Because no other man is Cam.
Dale leaned in, his blonde hair falling into his face in a way that used to be alluring. His eyes flashed with something that was more than just jealousy. Hatred? Lana shuddered. She wanted to lean back, but she had nowhere to go. She was pressed as far into the side of the couch as she could get.
“You should be with a real man, Lana. Someone who truly knows how to please a woman.”
“You might be able to please a woman, Dale. I don’t think anyone would dispute that fact.” Lana gulped
. “I used to think I wanted that. I don’t think it’s any secret that I always had a crush on you.”
“Yes. The little sister of my best friend. Jason would have killed me if I tried anything. It didn’t mean I didn’t want to. It doesn’t mean that I still don’t want to.”
The thought of Dale laying his hands on her made Lana want to scream. “No. I mean, I used to have a crush on you. That used to be true. I would have given anything for one more kiss after that one I had at the kissing booth. That stupid, stupid fundraiser.” That damn fundraiser had started an obsession which lasted, wrongly, nearly fifteen years.
“And you don’t anymore.”
Dale leaned in even closer. He edged up to her, so close that she could feel the heat of his thigh through his jeans. Every movement was purposeful, measured. He flexed his arms and moved at just the right angle to show the way his thin black t-shirt stretched over his chest. His breath smelled like spearmint gum. It made Lana want to gag. She knew she would never chew that flavor herself again.
“Stop it Dale. I’m going to the kitchen. Do me a favor and don’t follow me.”
Fast as lightning, his hand snaked out and covered hers. It was large, warm, strong and all wrong. She nearly screamed but held it back. She tried to stand and retreat, but Dale held her fast.
“Come on, Lana. You’re only kidding yourself. No one has to know. It’s just us, right here, right now. If we don’t take this opportunity we might never get another chance.”
“Oh, I’m very well aware of that,” she hissed. She wished someone would come into the room and save her. “Please let go of me, Dale. This is extremely embarrassing, considering we’re at my parent’s house and I’ve already said no.”
Dale frowned. His blue eyes flashed with disdain and maybe even confusion. She could tell that he wasn’t used to being told no. He was a man who always, always had his way.