by Simply BWWM
Natalie wanted to tell her everything and explain to her how wrong she was and why he shouldn’t be revered by any woman anywhere, but her aunt came up to them just then and started a conversation about other things, and Natalie was honest enough with herself to admit that it was nice to be distracted from thinking about him or talking to him at all, so she let it go.
Charisse and Wilson had the time of their lives, and then they kissed their friends and children goodbye, and they left in a long black limousine, heading out on their honeymoon. Natalie watched them go and felt tears coming to her eyes. It was done. Her mother was married and blissful, and their lives would never be the same again. She blew kisses to the car as it pulled away, and then she went back to the party for a short while, just until the guests began to leave.
Adam and Theresa looked as if they had the hosting in hand, and so she didn’t feel too bad about slipping away from the reception just a short while later and heading to her room. She walked in and kicked her shoes off, sighing with happiness and relief that it was over and that her mother was so happy.
She stood before the full-length mirror and reached up to unpin her hair. Dark curls cascaded down her neck to the middle of her back, and she ran her fingers through her hair to comb it out slightly. It was then that she heard her bedroom door close.
Turning with a start, she saw Cameron standing there, lowering his hand from the door. His tie was gone, and his shirt was unbuttoned partway down. His eyes were locked with a powerful intensity on her.
“Tell me why you’re keeping such a distance from me,” he demanded.
She drew in a sharp breath and walked over to her bed, turning her head away from him. “I told you, I’ve just been busy.”
He strode over to her from his place by the door and grasped her shoulders in his hands, turning her to face him. “That’s not it. Now tell me what’s going on! I can’t stand you treating me this way!”
She lifted her chin and wished that she could laugh at the irony. It was fine for him to ignore her, but it wasn’t okay for her to ignore him. She couldn’t laugh though; he was standing much too close, he was holding her in his grip, and everything inside of her was spinning wildly.
He searched her eyes with his. “Is this about what happened on the boat? Are you nervous about that? Feeling bad about it? Is that it?”
“What is it that you think happened on the boat?” she asked, her mind going directly to the redhead who had kissed him.
He looked at her in astonishment. “We kissed, Natalie. When we kissed… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
She stood before him, her heart pounding, her mind racing, her body drawn with an almost magnetic force to him. “The least bit curious about what?” She knew somewhere in the back of her mind where common sense was tucked away that she shouldn’t ask.
He stared into her eyes. “Curious about what it would be like to kiss again,” he answered in a serious tone. He pulled her to him, pressing his lips to hers and parting them, tasting her with a ravenous kiss. She melted under the heat of it, not able to pull away, desperately wanting to savor the feel of it and of everything about him.
Breathless, he lifted his mouth from hers and gazed into her eyes again. “Curious about what it would be like to do more than kiss…” He reached his hand to the side of her strapless dress and unzipped it. She gasped, and her eyes widened, but his mouth was on hers again, and she was suddenly lost in the tidal wave of emotion and desire that was sweeping over her.
He moved his mouth along her cheek to her ear as he slid her dress from her. “I want to know what it’s like to touch you, to feel this beautiful body of yours against mine, to feel you and hear you when I give you an orgasm.” He breathed against her skin as he kissed her and began to slip his own clothes off.
Everything inside of her was spinning like a hurricane, and she couldn’t think at all, she couldn’t resist, she didn’t want to. She had held in all of her desire for him and denied herself what she wanted so badly for too long, and with every kiss of his mouth against her skin, she couldn’t deny that all she really wanted was more of him.
Losing her breath, her heart pounding wildly in her, she kissed him in return, wrapping her arms around his neck and moving her hands over the sculpted muscles of his back. The feel of him beneath her fingers made her body rage with need and passion, and he met hers equally with his own burning desires.
He let her go long enough to stand back and look at her in her bra and panties, his eyes locked on her, his hands moving over her with tenderness and care, just as she had seen him moving his brush across the canvas.
“You amaze me,” he whispered, letting his fingertips drift over her mouth, down her chin, and then to her breasts, where he traced the upper curves of them delicately, and then slid the material from her body and let it fall to the floor. He groaned with need as he stared at her breasts, cupping them and bringing them to his mouth to kiss. He took his time exploring them with his hands and his tongue as she held him and let her head fall back, burning with pleasure with every touch.
He slid his hands from her breasts down her waist to her panties and for a moment, he ran his fingers firmly over the outside of them, down between her legs, and she gasped at the feel of it, finding new tremulous pulses awaken in her. He pushed her panties off of her and then fell to his knees before her, pushing her body against the edge of the bed as he buried his face between her thighs, kissing and sucking, biting gently, and delving his tongue deeply into her body as his hands held tightly to her hips.
She cried out, digging her fingers into the waves of his hair and twisting it into knots as he moved his tongue around her to the point that she shivered with intense release and called out his name, coming hard and gasping for air.
It wasn’t until then that he pushed her back fully on the bed and moved between her legs, sucking at her nipples and bringing his mouth to hers, kissing her hard and hungrily as he brought his erection to her, taunting her with it for a moment, sliding it along the outside of her and drawing out the wetness from her before he pushed himself into her, one inch at a time, filling her with the thickness of it as she clung to him and cried out again, her eyes closed, her head pressed back into the pillows behind her.
She had never felt such intensity or pleasure in her life, and as he began to move with her, she swayed her hips in rhythm with his, losing touch with everything in the universe except him. Moaning from his chest, he thrust himself deeply into her, over and over, rocking his body against hers, as both of them wrestled in their passionate embrace.
Cameron paced himself, not letting himself lose control with her too soon, and so they held fast to one another for a long while that night, feeding their desires until their passions overwhelmed them and consumed them, and they found their releases together, though he had brought her to her fullness time and again throughout the night.
When at last he flooded her with his orgasm, shuddering against her with the powerful explosion of it, he called out her name like a prayer and buried his face in her neck, breathing hard against her skin.
Intense satisfaction and pleasure washed all through her, and she embraced him and kissed him softly afterward as the heat began to cool, and their heartbeats slowed. He held her for a long while, kissing her now and then, tracing his finger over the curves and lines of her body, and then at long last, he kissed her once more and stood up.
“You are far better than any fantasy I could conjure up in my imagination.” He gave her a smile and pulled his clothes on. She watched him, not saying a word to him, and he turned and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him.
Chapter6
Sleep took her, and she stayed asleep long into the next morning, having been so weary from all of the stress that she had been under and from the work she had done for the wedding. When she woke, her first thoughts were of him, and she reached her hand out to touch the pillow besi
de her, smiling with happiness at the memory of the passion that they had shared the night before.
She knew at the edge of her thoughts that she might regret what had passed between them someday, but just then, that morning as she laid in the bed where they had created a fire like she had never known, she didn’t want to think about what might come or what repercussions there might be; she only wanted to bask in the glow of the pleasure that had overtaken them both.
After a while, she rose and showered, dressing and getting herself a cup of coffee from the kitchen. She picked up her cell phone and called Ophelia, who had just gotten up herself, rested from the big party the night before.
“Girl, are you vertical? That was quite the party last night! I’m still not sure I’m over it completely! What a great time and a beautiful wedding!” Ophelia sounded as happy as Natalie felt.
“Yeah, it was pretty incredible, wasn’t it? I am so glad that my mom’s big day turned out so perfectly. Those kinds of things can go wrong so fast, but everything went really right for her and Wilson, and I am so glad about that.” She smiled, thinking of how sweet it had all been and how happy she was for her mother.
“So, what are you doing today?” Ophelia asked curiously.
Natalie grinned. “Well, that’s what I was calling you about. I was hoping that you’d have some free time to go and get lunch in the city. I was thinking sourdough bread bowls on the wharf. What do you think?”
“Oh honey, you know I never turn that down! I’ll meet you there; give me an hour?” Ophelia sounded as excited about it as Natalie was.
“Sure! That’s perfect. I’ll see you there.” Natalie smiled and ended the call. It was a favorite date of theirs to meet up on the wharf near Pier 39 for the best sourdough bread in the world, shaped into a round and then scooped out and refilled with creamy clam chowder. Nothing tasted as good as that to them.
They had been going to share the meal for years, always meeting in the same spot and usually getting the table they liked most. Natalie headed out to her car and drove away from the house, up to San Francisco, singing to the radio in the car all the way with the window down and the breeze blowing in tousling her hair and playing with the curls at the end of it flirtatiously as she drove.
She and Ophelia nearly arrived at the same time, and they got their bread bowls with clam chowder and sat down together at a table. They had a terrific view of the bay and the boardwalk. People passed by going every direction around them, sailboats and bigger boats cruised over the water before them, and puffy white clouds floated past in the big blue sky overhead. It was a perfect day.
“It feels like a postcard, doesn’t it?” Ophelia said with a grin as she looked around and took it all in.
“It sure does. A picture-perfect postcard. I love living near San Francisco. I really missed it while I was away.” Natalie grinned too as she soaked up the sunshine and atmosphere.
Ophelia turned and looked at her thoughtfully. “Are you going back out into the world again to do more photojournalism work or will you stay here and just work locally?”
Natalie shook her head. “I’ve got too much wanderlust in me. I love traveling. I love being out in the world. I will stay here for a little while because it’s nice to be home, but I know before too long I’ll want to go out again. So, I will work here locally while I’m here. I know I can submit things to the Chronicle and all kinds of other publications, but it won’t be too long before I’m out on the road again.” The idea of it pulled at her, as it always did, and she promised herself that it would happen again soon.
“I don’t mind you being gone because I know it’s what you love, and I want you to be happy, but I do miss you when you’re away.” Ophelia gave her a half sad and half proud smile.
“I miss you too,” Natalie answered, leaning over and giving her best friend a hug. “The online video calls are a big help though, aren’t they? And you know you are so welcome to come and visit me anytime no matter where I am in the world, though I know you’d definitely prefer some places over others.” She laughed, thinking of it. Ophelia would want to be near the ocean, and some of the places that Natalie went to were pretty far from the sea.
“I’ll think about that. Give me your destination list, and we’ll work on it.” Ophelia grinned and took a big bite of her lunch. When she swallowed it, she turned to look over at Natalie with a feisty grin on her face.
“So, that stepbrother of yours, the younger one, Cameron, he’s quite a pretty man, isn’t he! How are you two getting along?” she asked, prying somewhat.
Natalie felt a bonfire burst upward inside of her just at the mention of his name and the thought of him. She couldn’t hold back the smile on her face, and her cheeks warmed as she looked down at her bread bowl.
Ophelia didn’t miss it. “What? What is that look? What did I miss?”
“Well, things have been really tough between us, very hot and cold, and it’s been really frustrating, but then last night after the party, things kind of unraveled between us, and uh… we wound up spending most of the night in my bed.” She couldn’t believe that she had done it, let alone believe that she was saying it out loud. The words sounded wrong in her ears as she heard herself speak them. She had slept with him. There was no getting out of it.
Ophelia’s mouth fell wide open. “You slept with your stepbrother?” She gaped at Natalie in utter disbelief.
Natalie nodded her head slowly. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“How on earth did that happen?” Ophelia asked in amazement.
With a sigh, Natalie thought back over the previous weeks. “I’m not sure, really. When we met, he was so cold, so awful to me, but then he got really hot with me right after, welcoming me to the family and kissing my cheek, getting close to me. Then, he was cold again, and he practically ignores my entire existence at the house anytime any of the family are around. Then, he got hot with me again, and I went to a party on his yacht, and while I was there, he kissed me. I mean… he really kissed me. In fact, if we hadn’t been interrupted, it might have gone all the way just then. There’s some serious chemistry between us, but he got called off and then…” She trailed off, thinking of the redhead who kissed him.
She didn’t want to think about the redhead. She didn’t want to tell Ophelia what a playboy her stepbrother was and how stupid she was probably being by having sex with him and letting him add her to his list of conquests. She decided to leave out the redhead.
“Then, we were at the wedding, and we were walking together; I guess things just clicked. He came to my room last night after the party, and then… well, he stayed a long while. I woke up alone this morning, and I’m good with that, but he was with me for a long time.” Natalie felt a bubble of happiness rising up in her, and she smiled wide.
“That’s wonderful!” Ophelia gushed. “I’m so happy for you, but I want you to think about this really carefully before you go any further.” Her face became more serious then, and Natalie cocked her head to one side.
“What do you mean? Think about what?” she asked, wondering what there could possibly be that she hadn’t thought about yet.
Ophelia turned and faced her, planting one of her hands on the table. “I just think you need to be really careful with him. I mean, this is a brand-new family dynamic, and there’s no telling what might happen, you know, where it will go or how both of you will feel. You don’t want to go causing big trouble right at the very beginning of a new life for everyone. Not that I mean you would be causing it on your own, but you two acting this way and carrying on, you two together might cause irreversible damage to each other and to the family as a unit. I’m just saying to take your time with it and be careful. There’s a lot more at stake here than just you having a fling with a guy. A super-hot guy, I’ll admit, but still. There’s a lot at stake.”
“I know you’re right,” Natalie admitted with some dejection. Her inner happy bubble deflated somewhat.
“I am right.” Ophelia nodded her h
ead. “You live in the same house together, and he’s your stepbrother, and that’s just a little weird.”
“It is a little weird, even for me, and I’m the one who was with him last night. Being with him wasn’t weird, but our parents are gone on their honeymoon right now; when they get back, it might be very awkward to try and explain any of this.”
“Well, just give it a lot of thought, and take your time. Okay?” Ophelia gave her a smile and a big hug. “I’m here for you, honey. I’m looking out for you.”
“Thank you.” Natalie gave her a smile.
She didn’t know what it was going to be like at the house or with the rest of the family, but more than that, she wondered what it was going to be like between the two of them. They hadn’t talked about anything. There weren’t any rules. There weren’t any guidelines. It was just thrown into the wind, and they would have to see what happened.
After her lunch with Ophelia, she drove back down to the house and worked in the library. She kept finding herself thinking of moments from the night before, and she kept having to push them out of her mind. She had to make herself focus on her work and not let herself think about anything else, especially Cameron.