The Billionaire From San Francisco: A BWWM Taboo Romance (United States Of Billionaires Book 5)
Page 12
“That. Don’t you miss that?” he asked breathlessly.
She felt tears stinging her eyes. Yes, she missed it. No, she did not want to tell him and in doing so betray herself yet again for the umpteenth time. “I can’t afford to miss that. This whole thing between us that you’ve been doing, that we’ve been doing, it has to stop.”
He furrowed his brow and shook his head. “No, it doesn’t!”
“It does!” she insisted adamantly. “I’m leaving!”
She had said it to him aloud finally. She hadn’t told anyone but Ophelia, and Ophelia kept secrets like Fort Knox kept gold. No one knew until just that moment. Cameron’s face contorted with pain, and he shook his head.
“You’re what? What do you mean you’re leaving?” he asked in worried confusion.
“I’m leaving. It’s too much for me to be in the house with you there. I can’t take it, so I’m leaving.” She was a little angry that she was telling him first instead of her mother, but it had already happened, and there was no going back from it.
He shook his head again, frustration building up in him as he continued to hold her shoulders and keep her close before him. “Why are you doing that? Why are you so insistent on breaking us apart?”
His voice was rich with emotion, and it surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to really care at all.
“Why? Are you serious? Why am I breaking us apart?” she shot back at him as anger fired up in her, adding to the fires of desire that were already beginning to burn in her. “I’m leaving because you’re so hot and cold with me, and it’s a pain in the ass! You come on to me, and I like that, because I like you and I want you, but then you turn cold and distant and you have other women around! So, I’m out in the cold while you’re busy with your flavor of the week, and then you come back to me all hot and hungry for me and expect me to be there for you and not to care about the other women! Well, I do care! It bothers the hell out of me! I can’t stand this tug of war with you; you want me, then you don’t, then you do, and all the while there are other women on your line, like one just isn’t good enough for you!”
He stared at her and listened to every word she said, still holding fast to her shoulders as she railed at him.
“I want some peace, Cameron! I want some distance from you so that I can be happy and not have to worry about what you’re doing and with whom! I want to be with someone who wants me all of the time, not just whenever it’s convenient!” She shook her head, and tears filled her eyes. She tried to hold them back, but there was nothing for it. A couple of them spilled over the edges of her eyelashes, and she wiped them away, bitter that they too had betrayed her true emotions to the man in front of her.
Cameron looked as if someone had finally turned a light on over his head. “Natalie, listen to me. It’s true that there have been quite a few women in my past, but they’re all still there, in my past. I don’t have anyone except you in my life right now! Not since you’ve been here, because from the moment I saw you, you were all I could think about. You know that I can’t keep my eyes or my hands off of you! I told you, you’re like a drug to me; I just can’t get enough of you, and the more I have of you, the more I want of you! I’m seriously becoming addicted to you!”
He meant every word he said, and she could see that he did. Still, she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Cameron, we can’t do this. I can’t do this with you.” She felt weak and saddened, especially talking with him about it all; it only made it worse for her.
“No.” He gave his head a shake as he looked sharply at her. “It does matter. I know that you feel the powerful chemistry between us. I know you feel it! I see it in you every time I touch you, every time I kiss you, every time I touch your body, and I know exactly what you’re feeling because I am feeling the same thing too! You can’t stand there and tell me that you don’t feel this!”
With that, he pulled her to him again and kissed her passionately, opening her mouth and twisting his tongue around hers as he locked his arms around her and held her tight against him.
Her whole world began to spin out of control, and every argument she had seemed to dissolve in the heat that erupted between them. His hands found their way to her curves, squeezing her hips firmly and pressing them against his hardening groin.
She moaned softly and wished with everything in her that she could say no, that she could push him away, but if she was a drug to him, he might as well be the same to her. It was all that she could do to stand as he made her feel so dizzy, setting her body alight with flames of desire.
Breathless and ravenous for her, he lifted his mouth from hers and looked into her eyes. “Tell me. Tell me that you don’t want more of that. Tell me that you can’t feel it, that it isn’t the most powerful thing that you’ve ever felt in your life.”
She shook her head. “I can’t,” she admitted with a weak voice. He said nothing more, but instead kissed her again and slowly walked with her through the kitchen to the cabin behind it. Pushing the door open, he made his way in with her and pulled her tight into his arms, his hands firm on her backside, bringing her snugly against his hips and showing her just how hard he was for her.
Need burned through every part of her, and she reached for his shirt, pulling it from him as he slipped his shorts off and then moved his hand beneath the skirt of her dress, sliding his fingers up her inner thigh until they reached her core.
Massaging her body against the outside of her panties, he pressed firmly, and she moaned in his ear. Then, he slipped his fingers beneath the material and into her body, manipulating her slowly at first and then more rapidly as she clung desperately to him, her eyes closed and her lips parted as she moaned her pleasure, until at last she trembled in his arms and came hard for him.
He was trembling himself then as well with need for her. He pulled her panties off of her and laid down on the bed, bringing her still in her sundress on top of him. He pushed the material of her skirt up to her thighs and moved both of his hands to her hips, guiding her to the solid erection waiting for her, and a moment later he slid her slowly down over him, as both of them groaned loudly with their intense pleasure.
She began to sway her hips over him, and he held fast to them, moving her over his body at a slow and steady rhythm. As their bodies heated and their desire grew, he had no patience for the dress that she was still wearing, and he reached his hands up and pulled it off of her, tossing it aside.
He brought his hands to her bra slowly, running his fingertips over the lace and the soft fleshy curves of the swell of her breasts that showed at the top of her bra. Leaning upward toward her as she continued to rock her body over his, he kissed the tops of her breasts and then pulled her bra off and freed them, only for a moment before his hands closed over them, bringing them each in turn to his mouth to bite and suck, to tease and taunt. She moaned again, and he slowly rolled her over to her back and began to move in her as he was above her, nestled in between her legs.
She wrapped her legs around him and drew him into her deeper, holding tightly to his back and losing all of herself to him, reveling in the joy and ecstasy she felt, and not letting herself think anything at all about what was to come in the future. All she could focus on was that moment, and that moment was the greatest sex she had ever had in her life.
As he pushed himself deeply into her and drew himself back out again, over and over, she could not help but reach an orgasm, and then another, and before long, another one after that. He would not stop in his passionate lovemaking, and he wanted to touch and taste every part of her, bringing her to the height of breathtaking love over and over again.
He had given her so much pleasure that she wanted to give him some extra in return. She rolled him over to his back, and in one movement, she lifted herself from his body. He stared at her, startled, but she lowered herself to the space between his knees and took his erection into her mouth, running her tongue over the length of it as he pressed his head back into the pillows and
groaned, clenching them in his fists as the fire overwhelmed him.
She began to suck hard at him, though pausing here and there to tease the tip of him with the tip of her tongue and her teeth. He groaned again loudly and reached his hands down to close them gently around her head as he moved himself into and out of her mouth while she licked and sucked at him, biting gently and then sliding most of the length of him down her throat.
His body trembled and tensed everywhere as his orgasm overtook him, and he came hard. She smiled to herself and rose back up from him, kissing her way from his relaxing erection over his hardened belly to his muscular chest and then to his mouth. She bit at his lower lip and kissed him lightly, and then he wrapped her in his arms and held on tight.
“I just can’t get enough of you, and you keep surprising me. I don’t want to get enough of you, Natalie. I have never felt about any woman before the way that I feel about you. Please stay, please stay in my arms, in my bed, wherever I can have you. Just stay,” he pleaded with her.
She said nothing; she only kissed him long and sensually, and then she pushed herself up from the bed and slipped her bra and panties back on. He watched her with a saddened expression on his face. She slid her sundress back on and looked over her shoulder at him.
“That was the best ever for me,” she said quietly, and then she walked out of the room and went to the deck outside for some fresh air.
She couldn’t afford to let him try to change her mind. It had been powerful hearing those words from him, and she wished that she could believe them. She wished that they had meant something good and strong and real, a relationship that they could have, because she would have wanted to try that with him, but it wasn’t what he meant. He never said that they would be anything, that he wouldn’t be with any other women in the future, that they would talk to their parents, that he wanted her for anything more than just sex. He hadn’t said any of it at all. All that he had said was that she was good in bed and that he wanted her to stay in his bed and in his arms. That was it. She wanted more than that or nothing at all. She deserved more.
She didn’t want to tell him that she wanted more and then wait for him to try to use that as leverage to keep her, maybe playing games with her or leading her on making her believe that he would give her more, or maybe meaning that he would give her more just so that he could keep having sex with her.
She wanted it to be organic from him, to come directly from him, because he wanted more with her, not because she wanted more, and he was trying to please her or get whatever it was that he wanted.
Cameron emerged from the lower deck not long after, and he got the boat ready to sail, saying nothing more to her about what had happened below deck. He sailed them back into the dock at the house and before he let her get off of the boat, he took her in his arms and kissed her once more, long, sweet, passionately, and just as they began to warm up again, she pushed herself away and gave him a sad look.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, and she stepped from the boat and walked back up to the house to pack.
The Final Chapter
Natalie went to her room and pulled her suitcases out, filling them with all of her clothes and her scant belongings. It was hard for her to leave, knowing that it would be breaking more than her and Cameron apart. In a very real way, it would be breaking the whole family apart.
When she was all packed, she took her bags out to her car and loaded the trunk with them. Then, she went back inside and looked for Charisse and Wilson. They were sitting on the sofa in the den watching an old Vincent Price movie together.
“Mom, Dad. I need to talk with you please,” she told them anxiously. She had no idea what she was going to say to them, but she knew that she couldn’t just walk right out of their home without a word.
They paused the movie and gave her their full attention. “What is it, sweetie?” her mother asked, looking at her curiously. Wilson’s eyes were on her as well.
She cleared her throat and then sat down on one of the sofas near them. “I wanted to tell you that I’m leaving,” she began, waiting to see what their reaction would be.
“Leaving?” her mother asked in surprise. “Whatever for? What’s going on?”
“Are you all right?” Wilson asked her, leaning forward as if he was ready to spring into action to help her if she wasn’t.
She drew in a long, deep breath and tried to find some courage within herself. “Yes, I’m fine. There’s some work that I want to do north of here, so it’s just easier on me if I go up that way and stay there. I really don’t want to commute,” she lied. She had her chance to tell them the truth, that she had fallen for her stepbrother, and that she had been having a hot affair with him, but he was too busy being a playboy to commit to her, so instead of having to deal with him under the same roof, she was leaving. She had considered telling them that, but it hadn’t come out.
“Oh, well if it’s a good story that you need to get, then I certainly understand, although I’m so sad to see you leave. I’ve just gotten used to having you around here, and I was gone for the honeymoon, so that was extra time that I didn’t get to see you while you were here.” Her mother looked positively heartbroken, though she was trying her best to remain supportive and encouraging.
Wilson sighed and looked sad as well. “What about weekends? Can you come home on weekends or something?” he asked hopefully, trying his best to lessen the blow.
Charisse turned to look at him with an adoring smile as she placed her hand on his knee. “Oh, it doesn’t really work like that, darling. She doesn’t work Monday through Friday and have weekends off. It’s more like a day to day thing.” Charisse turned and looked back at Natalie then.
“You could come home in between stories though, right?” she asked, following Wilson’s train of thought.
Natalie shrugged. “If it’s possible and it works out, I could try to.” It was her way of saying no. No, she could not come home in between, because then she’d have to see Cameron, and there was no doubt in her mind that her parents would be telling both boys and Theresa anytime Natalie was going to visit so that they could all be home to see her. That wasn’t going to work, but she couldn’t tell her parents that either. So, she lied again, hating every word that was coming from her mouth and hating the fact that she didn’t have the guts to tell them both the truth.
Her mother stood up and walked over to her, and Wilson followed. Charisse stood before her, and Natalie rose from the sofa to hug her mom. Wilson wrapped his arms around them both.
“I love you, baby girl, and I know that you are doing whatever it is that you need to do. So, go do it, and no matter what, you will always have a place here, a home, and you will always have a family to come home to. I’m so proud of you and of all the work that you do. I know that it takes enormous sacrifice to do what you do, and though it’s a sacrifice that we all make, it’s always worth it. It’s definitely worth it, my dearest,” Charisse told her in her ear, and the words cut Natalie to the quick, because she knew that her mother meant them, and in certain times of her life, those words would be true, but they weren’t true just then. Her mother was pouring her heart out to a daughter who was lying to her because her affair with her stepbrother hadn’t worked out. Natalie was sick with herself.
Wilson let them go and looked intently at Natalie for a moment. “Don’t go just yet; I have something for you. I’ll be right back. Wait here.” He left them, and Charisse looked at her closely.
“Is it only work? Is that all that it is?” she asked, and Natalie realized that her mother knew that it was more than what she had said. It was a little bit of a relief to know it and to feel the comfort that came with someone knowing her so well that they could see through anything she said. The only people in her life who could do it were her mother and Ophelia, and it was astronomically rare that she ever lied to either one of them, which made it hurt just a little more this time.
“Yeah, it’s just work. There’s nothing else,”
she told another untruth. “Don’t worry, Mom. Everything is okay. Thank you, though.” Natalie wanted to punish herself for what she was doing.
“Besides, I’ll be able to get some visits in with you here and there. I don’t want to be too far away from you because I haven’t spent nearly enough time with you, and I really want to, so maybe on my light days you could meet me halfway, and we could have visits then. Would you be all right doing that?” She was going to have to drive north a little herself on those days to make her mother believe that she had driven south to meet her halfway.
“Yes, darling. Of course. I’d be glad to meet you anywhere, anytime, and I will. Just let me know when and where.” Charisse gave her a heartwarming smile and wrapped her in another hug. “Just when I got you back, I’m losing you again. Ah, me.” She sounded so sad, and Natalie knew that her mother would never tell her just how sad that she was; she would keep it to herself so that Natalie would feel less guilt.
There was no measurement for the guilt that Natalie was feeling just then. She did her best to stand her ground and look like she was telling the truth. Wilson came back to them then and walked up to Natalie. He handed her an envelope.