by Joss Wood
But how Cam decorated his house had nothing to do with her. She wasn’t staying. In a few days—the authorities were asking residents to stay away for another week but Vivi was convinced they were being overly dramatic—she’d be back at her house, among her things, things that reflected her personality.
“The point is—”
Cam lifted a “hang on” finger when his phone rang. He picked up the device and after a couple of “yups” and a “that’s fine” and a “look after yourself,” placed the phone back on the table. “Sally isn’t coming in today. She has a bad case of flu and she feels awful.”
Oh...
Oh!
That meant that she and Cam were alone in the house. Wanting to keep Clem’s routine as normal as possible she’d sent her to day care and, as a result there was no Clem to interrupt them or Sally to consider. Totally, utterly alone. Vivi knew the moment Cam realized the same thing, because his eyes deepened and focused on her mouth. His blatantly hungry stare sent a river of lust down her spine, pooling heat between her legs. She knew that if she moved, gave him the smallest sign of encouragement, they both could be naked and screaming in a heartbeat.
She really wanted to get naked. She might not scream but she’d definitely moan.
“Camden.”
It was one word, small but potent, and he heard her unspoken demand. Come over here and kiss me.
Cam released a low growl and Vivi watched, fascinated, as he rocketed to his feet, the fast movement causing his kitchen chair to topple over. By the time the chair hit the floor, she was in his arms and his mouth was on hers, his tongue sliding past her teeth to take possession of her mouth. He tasted like strawberry jam and coffee, sweet and hot, and those sparks he mentioned morphed into a dozen fireballs.
Wanting to get closer, Vivi pushed her breasts into his hard chest, curling into his heat. She wanted more, needed to see him, taste him, have access to those gorgeous muscles. Vivi lifted her hands and attacked the buttons on his shirt, silently cursing when the buttons refused to cooperate. Cam solved that problem by pushing his hands between them, the backs of his hands scraping over her nipples. He gripped the sides of his shirt and ripped it apart. Buttons scattered and Vivi quickly pushed his shirt off his shoulders, down his arms. She needed to feel his skin, his heat. Standing on her toes, she pushed her mouth against his, wanting a harder kiss, and Cam obliged.
He tilted her head by holding the back of her head while his other hand pulled her T-shirt up her back, allowing cool air to touch her back. He was only her second lover, and this was only the third time she was doing this, but she didn’t feel self-conscious or shy. How could she when Cam interrupted his kisses with compliments, telling her how hot she was, what he intended to do to her? She was inexperienced but that didn’t matter. Cam was in control.
Right now, in this instance, she let him be.
Vivi muttered her displeasure when he pulled his mouth off hers so that he could do away with her shirt, but a second later his hands covered her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples and his mouth trailing down the side of her neck.
Cam kissed her, finding all those long-neglected places craving his touch and a few that she didn’t know existed before this moment. She was fire and heat and need and want, a pulsing field of energy that started and began with him. If she wasn’t so desperate for this to end in a big bang, Vivi would’ve been worried about how precisely in tune with each other they were.
They were ice and cream, milk and honey, matches and gas-soaked kindling. They worked, somehow bigger and better than before.
Vivi sucked in a breath as Cam pulled her nipple into his mouth, sucking her through her bra. Frustrated by the barrier, she reached behind her to unhook her bra and pulled the fabric down her arms, her breath catching at Cam’s now blue-black eyes.
If the massive erection tenting his cargo shorts wasn’t a clue, then his dark eyes would’ve been. He wanted her. Right here and right now. And having such a man—strong, virile, so experienced—desire her made her feel powerful and intensely feminine.
As Cam bent his knees to suck her nipple, Vivi locked her arms around his head, dropping kisses onto his wavy hair. She sighed as his teeth scraped her and whimpered when he moved his mouth across her breast to her sternum and licked his way down to her stomach. Cam hit his knees and his hands gripped her hips, his thumbs on her mound. Vivi couldn’t help herself, she rotated her hips, silently telling him what she needed. Cam used one hand to flip open the button to her cotton shorts, and when the fabric fell to the floor, he gently inserted his finger into the V of her panties and ran his finger down her thin strip of hair.
“Is this what you want, Vivi?”
Vivi shook her head and couldn’t get the words past her tongue. When she didn’t answer, Cam sat back on his heels and stared up at her, his finger flirting on the edge of her clit. “Vivi, I need to know...can I carry on? Should I carry on?”
Vivi nodded and pressed his hand into her, lifting her hips so that he had better access to her secret places. She released a small cry of pleasure when his finger stroked her, skating over her folds and slipping into her wet channel.
“So wet. So hot,” Cam murmured.
Vivi widened her legs and wrapped her arms around her waist, assaulted by the waves of pleasure. God, she was teetering on the edge of an orgasm. But she wanted him inside her, filling her, completing her.
“Come inside me, Cam. I need you.”
“Protection.”
Vivi shook her head. “I’m on the pill.”
Cam surged to his feet, one hand fumbling at the band of his shorts. Vivi swatted his hand away and slipped the button from its hole, gently sliding his zipper down. Reaching under the band of his underwear, she freed him, wrapping her hand around his thick, pulsing cock. Vivi looked down and sucked in her breath. Like every other part of him, it was so beautiful, ferociously masculine.
Cam’s compliments dried up and it was his turn to whimper. She stared down at him, her fist encircling him, her thumb sliding across his tip. Wanting to feel every part of him, she spread her fingers out so that she cupped his balls, gently massaging him. Cam jumped in her hand and she felt his shudder. Yeah, control wasn’t anything either of them possessed anymore.
This time, this one time, control was severely overrated.
Vivi gasped when Cam wrapped an arm around her butt and lifted her up and into him, walking her to the breakfast table. She heard the crash of plates, the ping of cutlery hitting the tiled floor, and then she felt the cool wood beneath her back, her legs being pulled apart. Cam stood between her knees, his eyes glittering, his cheeks flushed. He removed her panties and then he was probing her entrance, thick and hard and wonderful. Vivi dug her heels into his hips and pulled him forward and Cam sank in an inch. He closed his eyes and she watched, fascinated as he fought for control, fought the urge to plunder and pound.
But she wanted both. Using her core muscles, she did a sit-up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down so that his mouth met hers.
Against his lips, sucking in his sweet breath, she murmured the words: “I need you. Now.”
Cam’s thumb skated over her cheekbone, across her lower lip, and he left his thumb there when his mouth enveloped hers. As his tongue slid inside her mouth, his erection pushed into her and she felt sensations she’d never felt before.
Overwhelmed. Taken. Fulfilled. Completed.
Vivi was on the verge of shattering when Cam’s mouth turned tender. His kisses became more thoughtful and he slowed his hip action, taking her down an inch. Vivi murmured in protest and tried to insert a hand between their bodies but Cam pulled her hand away to place it on the table next to her hip. Pushing his hand under her butt, he lifted and tilted her and Vivi felt him scrape an area deep inside her. She didn’t want to come, not yet, but she couldn’t stop her free fall...
&nbs
p; Exquisite sensation battered her and she willingly stepped into the ball of energy, allowing Cam to sweep her away. As she tumbled through space, through galaxies both familiar and undiscovered, she was vaguely aware of Cam’s shout, his tense body, him pumping his seed into her. Then he joined her to dance on the stars.
Back on earth, her eyes flew open and she stared up into Cam’s shocked face. “What the hell was that?” she muttered.
“God knows,” Cam responded, his hands on her hips. Vivi dug a fork out from under her butt and tossed it to the floor. She stretched back against the table, arched her back and then realized that Cam, still inside her, was, astoundingly, still hard. She could’ve sworn that he’d come, too.
Cam pushed a strand of hair off her forehead and smiled softly. “I came, I saw, I was blinded in the process. But something about you, apparently, makes me recover superfast.”
Vivi’s eyes widened. “Uh, I, we...holy...” Cam covered her breasts with his big hands and played with her nipples and Vivi closed her eyes, loving the sensation. “That feels amazing.”
Cam sank himself a little deeper and Vivi felt herself melting...straining for more. Cam smiled, dipped his finger between their linked bodies and found her clit, rubbing his thumb over her most sensitive spot.
Vivi climbed. And climbed. And within minutes, she was ready to fall apart again. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who recovered fast.
Eight
Vivi stood in Joe’s ruined kitchen, looking at the list of everything they’d lost in the fire. She lifted her head when she heard the front door open and the sound of masculine footsteps headed in her direction. Looking down at her grubby white T-shirt and filthy jeans, she hoped the representative from the insurance company wasn’t an hour early—she’d hoped to clean up and change before meeting with him.
Vivi laid her clipboard on the steel table and raked her hair back from her face, securing her heavy ponytail with a band from her wrist. Picking through what was left of The Rollin’ Smoke was hot, dirty and sweaty work and she was glad she’d sent Joe home to rest. Her old friend was not taking the loss of his restaurant well and whatever pain she could spare him, she would.
Vivi bit her lower lip, wishing she hadn’t been so reckless with her promise to resurrect this place. After spending a few days among the detritus, she was starting to think that rebuilding Rollin’ would be impossible. The insurance payout would barely cover the replacement costs of a third of the equipment they needed and none of the furniture. They was no provision for loss of trade and they had just enough money in the company account to pay the staff this month. It was clear that they’d have to release the staff and tell them to find new employment.
She had savings and job offers in her in-box, but she knew that most of her colleagues lived from paycheck to paycheck. Unlike her, they weren’t living in a mansion with a billionaire who was determined to make up for years of not paying child support. She’d lost the battle on the new car—she was now, temporarily as she told him, driving a nifty new Jeep—and Cam had hired a personal shopper to restock their closets as her house was still off-limits.
There hadn’t been any argument about her moving into his bed. Being with him, loving him and having him love her, was exactly where she wanted to be. She could handle playing house for another week or so. She’d enjoy his spectacular body, the fast, expensive car and living like a princess for the next week, and then she’d go back to real life.
“Hey.”
Vivi saw Cam in the doorway of the kitchen and returned his smile. And man, he had a hell of a smile. It made her feel all gooey inside, like a perfectly cooked chocolate brownie. Vivi closed her eyes and shook her head. She was losing it, comparing Cam’s smile to a brownie, his body to a work of art, his eyes to the color of the Mediterranean Sea...
“Enough, dammit.”
“Sorry?”
Vivi did a mental eye roll. Now she was talking to herself? Cam McNeal should come with a danger warning.
“Nothing, ignore me.” Vivi tipped her head to receive his kiss, a gesture that was becoming as natural to her as breathing. Which was a bad thing since she was leaving his daily life in a short time. “Hi.”
“Hi back.” Cam’s thumb brushed against her cheek and he lifted one eyebrow. “You are a hot mess, Vivi.”
At least he’d qualified the mess with hot. “I know. I’ve been trying to ascertain if anything in here can be salvaged.”
Cam kept his hand on her back as he looked around the damaged kitchen. “And can you?”
Vivi shook her head. “Very little. The smoker, the industrial ovens and the electrical equipment were all soaked and the electrics fried. And even if they could be rewired, they are now a health risk. The crockery and cutlery have been washed and boxed but that’s not worth a whole lot. The furniture in the restaurant all needs to be replaced and the entire building needs to be repainted. It’s going to add up to tens of thousands of dollars, Cam.”
Cam picked up her clipboard and flipped through her papers. When he grimaced, Vivi’s stomach sank to her toes. “Basically, you’re looking at setting up a new restaurant, Viv.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Can Joe take out a loan, approach his bank?”
Vivi wrinkled her nose and placed her elbows on the table, holding her face in her hands. “I’d like him to, but he’s close to retirement age, Cam. I’m asking him to take out a huge loan to rebuild a restaurant when it makes better sense for him to take the insurance money and invest it.”
It was hard facing the truth but Vivi had experience in dealing with the reality of the situation, not the fantasy. Okay, she was living a fantasy life with Cam in his lovely house in the best area in town, but that would end. Real life wasn’t housekeepers and fancy cars, a hot man in her bed, a full-time dad for Clem. Her future reality would be dropping Clem off with him for weekends, having him around for Clem’s birthday parties, discussing their daughter’s progress on the phone.
She could look at the future and see it clearly...and Rollin’ didn’t have much of a chance. In fact, if she gave Joe permission to retire—she knew he was only sticking around because of her—it would cease to exist. It was looking increasingly likely that she’d have to find a new job, in a new kitchen, run by people who neither knew her nor cared about her. She wouldn’t be able to bring Clem to work, to take time off when she needed to, and wouldn’t have the freedom of being her own boss.
“I think this is it, Cam.”
Vivi felt his big arms surround her, felt the kiss he placed in her hair before he bent his head to place his cheek against her temple. “We’ll find a way, Viv. Let me help.”
She wanted to allow him to pick up her clipboard and wave a magic wand, throw some money at the problem and restore Rollin’ to what it was. He was rich enough to do that, astute enough to make it work. But if he did that, if she allowed him to take over, it would just be another thing she lost control over, another part of her life that she’d have to share with Cam. Rollin’, her job here and the people were hers. She’d washed every dish, learned every recipe, developed her own. She’d nagged and moaned and laughed with her staff, mentored them as Joe had mentored her. This kitchen was her domain, the one place she had complete hold over. If Cam became involved, because he wasn’t the type to sit on the sidelines, she’d lose autonomy.
She might as well go and work for another restaurant.
“I can help you, Vivianne. Let me,” Cam whispered in her ear.
But then it wouldn’t be hers. It would be his because Vivi knew that he who held the cash exerted the control. She shook her head and patted the arm that was hooked around her waist. “Thank you but...no. Everything comes to an end, and this, I think, is the end of this journey.”
She felt Cam stiffen and he jerked away from her. She slowly turned and saw the disappointment on his face and, worse, the
hurt in his eyes. “Why won’t you let me help you? I invest in companies, in case you’ve forgotten, and I’d like to invest in you.”
If she wasn’t sleeping with him, if she wasn’t the mother of his child, would he still be making the same offer? If she came to him as a stranger, would he be jumping in as eagerly as he was now? She didn’t think so. “It won’t work, Cam.”
“Why the hell not?”
Vivi folded her arms and made herself meet his eyes. “Because then it wouldn’t be mine. It would be yours.”
His sexy mouth thinned. “I don’t understand.”
“If you threw a vast amount of money into this place, you would then become my boss, and this wouldn’t be my happy space anymore. While I don’t own any shares in this business, Joe treated me like a partner, not an employee.”
“And you don’t think I can do that?” Cam demanded, irritation coating his words.
“I think you like your own way and you are not scared to demand it,” Vivi said, carefully choosing her words.
“I have many interests in many businesses. I can be a silent partner.”
“Could you be that with me?” Vivi demanded.
“I don’t see why not.” His frown deepened at the skepticism he saw on her face. “What? I can back off.”
Yeah, sure. “Like how you backed down when I said I didn’t need a new car? The way you listened to me when I told you I didn’t need a personal shopper, or that Clem was too young for a professionally designed nursery? It’s like you hear my words but they have no meaning.”
“That’s because you are stubborn!”
“No, it’s because you are controlling.” Vivi whipped back. She waved her hand around, trying to encompass the kitchen. “This has been my domain for three years. I know every inch, every piece of equipment. I know that the mixing machine sticks on three, that the oven is a half degree off, which pan makes the best sauce. This is my domain, Cam.”