by Stacey Lynn
“Yeah? You like watching me work in jeans and Fireside polo shirts?”
Yeah, I did. The jeans hugged his ass and thighs perfectly. I’d looked. Lots. Now that I could do it without hiding my attraction to him, I did it again. Sweeping my gaze down the length of his body, even folded into the driver’s seat he was still one of the sexiest men I’d ever met. Ever seen. My pulse kicked up and desire began swirling, a weight pooling deep inside.
He pulled his hand from mine and the teasing, light banter evaporated. He lifted his hand and slowly twisted his wrist, as if examining every line, every vein, every inch of it.
“When do you know?” He turned to me. “When do you know when it’s time to say goodbye to your dreams…or your fears…or your past? And what happens when you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing?”
He dropped his hand back to my thigh, but the warmth was gone.
Each question chilled me further until ice ran in my veins. He was pushing without intending to, possibly without realizing. Every question he asked was one I’d asked myself a hundred times since I stepped off that plane in Jamaica.
“We’re here,” he said, pulling up to a new complex just outside Latham Hills. I recognized the building immediately. Blue had rented an apartment here, and then Trina was going to move in before she decided she’d rather live with Declan.
“This? This is where you’ve been staying?” I asked, unable to keep the laughter out of my voice. I’d been inside Blue’s old apartment. Decorated in a shabby-chic palette, with pastel colors and all things unique and feminine, it was the last place I could imagine David living. “How did I not know this?”
“Don’t know why they didn’t tell you,” he said, reaching out and running his thumb along my smiling lips. The hint of pleasure danced along my skin, sending shocks to the tops of my thighs. “Maybe Blue didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But I’ve made a few changes. I was subleasing it until her lease ran out in August and then I took it over. Finally got rid of my place in Chicago and moved a few things in. The rest went into storage.”
He slid out of his Escalade, and I opened my door, meeting him outside mine as I shut it. “Well then, by all means.” I grinned up at him. “Show me what you’ve done.”
Chapter 27
David
The desire to show her a dozen things, mostly naked and in bed, or on my couch, or on my kitchen table, spurred my feet to move quicker.
Giggling behind me at whatever look I must have shown her, Camden followed me, our hands held together, stretched between us. I hated distance with her. Next to me in the car, unable to pull her close until her head rested on my shoulder, was too far away for me.
When I’d gone in to talk to Grant earlier about working at McGregor Motors, I hadn’t expected his response. To hear him tell me he’d been waiting for the moment I pulled my head out of my ass and returned hit me harder than any punch to the stomach I’d ever taken.
I didn’t want to run the company, but if I stepped through those doors, dressed in the designer suit Camden had just teased me about, that’s exactly what would happen. As the vice president of Operations, Grant had spent the last fourteen years, ever since he’d married Lindsay, in preparation for the day when he knew my dad would hand over the company to me and Grant would be at my side. He’d met Lindsay in high school; and while my dad never pushed him toward that decision, it was something Grant claimed he wanted, to be involved in the family business that had become as much a part of him as Lindsay had.
What I didn’t realize was that he was still hoping someday I’d stand at his side, with him teaching me everything he knew.
The hope he’d had when I asked him, when he told me there’d always be a place for me at McGregor Motors, made me stumble backward until my ass hit the chair.
“What?”
“You heard me.” He poured a glass of whiskey, something my mom kept on hand only for Grant’s and my periodic visits. “This is your family, David. Your legacy. What did you think would happen? You’d walk in here someday, ask me that exact same question, and I’d tell you, ‘Hell no. There’s nothing for you’?”
I hadn’t known what to expect. His revelation had still shocked me.
“Why would you expect this?”
“Because it’s your family, and you’re a McGregor, and nobody does family like a McGregor.”
I laughed at that, then took the glass of whiskey he offered and drained it. The burn slid smoothly down my throat and warmed my stomach.
“I still need to think about it. I’m still deciding, I guess.”
“Okay, David.” He chuckled, as if the decision was made and I was the only one unaware of that. “Just let me know. In the meantime, I’ll have someone from maintenance come up and start on that name for your office door.”
I chuckled along with him, shaking my head. Grant was quiet and calm, the opposite of Lindsay. Yet he was just as headstrong and stubborn, in a subdued way, whereas my sister steamrolled over you with her pretty smile and coaxing ways.
I snapped out of the thought, my unfailing memory of the certainty of Grant’s reaction, when we reached the door to my apartment. It was smaller than what I wanted; less permanent, too. I had thought about starting to look for homes to buy after the upcoming holidays when the market always picked up, but now I wasn’t going anywhere. Not until I knew if Camden would consider going with me.
She shifted the weight on her feet.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered, grinning. “Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, this isn’t weird, right? We’re going to one of my friends’ apartments to…” Blush stained her cheeks. She was becoming so much more comfortable with me, I was seeing it less and less. My thumb ran along her cheekbone as the color receded.
I wanted to coax it back. “To do what?”
Her eyelids fluttered closed. “You know.”
“I was going to suggest a drink and a movie.” I leaned forward, blocking her body against the door to the apartment. One arm bent and above her head, my forearm pressing against the door, I settled my other hand low on her hip. “Was there something else you wanted?”
Her tongue slid along the seam of her lips. “I don’t…”
“Can’t think straight? Have a hard time speaking when I’m this close to you? When my breath tickles your ear and your body is burning for something more than alcohol?”
She whimpered, arching her hips toward me. God, she was so obviously sexy, so needy.
“I promised you I’d go slow. Just this morning we discussed this.”
“I don’t want slow.” Her voice was breathy. She shook her head and reached out, yanking my hips to hers. Her fingers slid through the belt loops and she tugged, pulling me until I was flush against her center, and rubbed herself along the friction of my denim.
Smoky, cloudy green eyes focused on mine. “I don’t want slow, David. I want you.”
I brushed my lips across hers, breathing in the scent of her and her inhale, the taste of her, and pulled back before the kiss deepened and I took her in the hallway where neighbors could see us.
I pulled her against my side with one arm wrapped around her lower back and unlocked the door, taking her mouth with mine as I shoved her inside.
“It’s a good thing you have me, then, isn’t it?”
She mumbled an incoherent response. Her body warm and melded to mine, I decided the night of a drink and movie could wait.
“You’ve seen the place, right? So there’s no need for a tour?”
She hummed. I took that as an answer.
This was the part of her I loved. The soft parts of her only I got to see. It had nothing to do with her curves or her flesh; it was her expression and the way she gave herself to me so easily, so readily, even when I’d almost broken that.
“Upstairs,” I murmured, sliding my lips to the crook of her neck. “It’s my favorite room anyway.”
—
She stood in fron
t of me, flushed with desire, fidgeting with nerves. Her eyes scanned the room and her lips parted as her chest rose and fell in tight, quickened breaths.
“You okay?” I pressed my fingers to her cheeks before sliding them back to her hair and down the length of it. I wanted her hair fisted in my hand when she was beneath me. Her entire body quivered as my fingers glided through the length of her hair, tugging it gently when I reached the ends.
Her eyes popped open. “I’m good.”
“You look nervous.”
She shook her head, a timid smile tilting her lips. “I’m not, but I want to make sure I always please you.”
Silly girl. She had no idea how much she already did.
My hand fell from her hair to her hip and I pulled her against me. Too many clothes separated us, something I’d rectify soon. But I wanted her pliant and excited, not nervous and intimidated.
I looked down at her, trying to let everything I felt for her, the fact that I was falling in love with her—had been falling in love with her for months, ever since I first saw her—shine in my eyes. I hoped like hell she saw it in the darkened bedroom.
She lifted her hand and pressed her palm to my cheek, urging me down to her. She let out a shuddering breath right before she rose to her toes and pressed her lips to mine.
I was done for. Gone. Lost in the sea of complication that was everything Camden with the taste of her trembling lips pressing against mine.
I took over, moved my other hand to her neck and held her against me, sliding my tongue into her mouth. Her body tightened and shook, showing me her physical desire, and I could no longer wait to feel all of her again. Explore her body with a patience I hadn’t shown in Jamaica, but hoped I had now.
She’d wanted slow, and I’d promised I could give it to her.
Tonight would be hours of slowness, hours of me taking my time…bringing her over the edge over and over again.
I stepped back reluctantly, licking my lips to absorb every drop of her, and my hands went to the loosely tied belt at her waist. “Ready?”
“More than I ever thought possible.”
I laughed softly as I quickly undid the cotton belt and let it fall to the ground. My hands went to her abdomen, where a button had been hidden by the belt, and I undid it quickly. I stilled my hands, forced myself to not rush through any moment. The fabric of her dress was soft against my palms as I caressed her shoulders, but nothing could beat the softness of her skin when I began pushing the dress down her arms, reveling in every inch of her.
It fell to the ground, pooling like a pile of feathers at her feet.
Damn…“You’re beautiful,” I whispered, my voice husky and thick. “Everywhere. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.”
Her hands went to my hips, her fingers sliding to the front of my jeans, but I stopped her. “We’ll get to me. You first.”
“I had that this morning.”
“And you’ll have it again.” Always, I thought. I tried to bite back the word out of fear of scaring her, but what the hell. I was all in and she needed to know that. “You’ll always come first with me, Camden.”
She inhaled a gasp at my serious tone and my eyes reluctantly pulled off her flat stomach and the curve of her breasts, grazed over her flushed collarbones and throat, and met her gaze.
“I mean that. You know that, right?”
She nibbled her bottom lip before popping it free. “I’m beginning to believe it.”
God, she slayed me to the core. When I first saw Camden, I never would have thought she carried an ounce of insecurity inside her. Always so poised, so perfectly dressed and made up, I never could have guessed the depth of her.
“Believe it,” I whispered, hovering my lips over hers. “And then get on the bed. I seriously, very badly, need to taste you.” I kissed her quickly and smiled. “Everywhere.”
A quiet laugh fell from her lips, but she moved backward until she was sitting on the bed. As she scooted back, she unhooked her bra, then shimmied her silvery lace panties down her long, toned, and tanned legs.
I followed her movements with my eyes and undressed. Her eyes drank me in with a hungry stare as I reached behind my neck and tugged off my shirt. I dropped it to the floor with her dress and divested myself of my shoes and jeans, leaving on my boxer briefs for now. If I freed my cock, I’d grow too impatient to keep my promise to her.
I leaned over the edge of the bed and took her ankles in my hands, then brought them up to my mouth and slid my lips over them, alternating legs and grazing every inch of her like I’d promised with my kisses and my tongue.
She laughed softly when I kissed the area behind her knee. Her skin pebbled with pleasured bumps as I relentlessly covered her body with my kisses. My cock demanded attention and my balls grew heavy with need until I climbed onto the bed and spread her legs.
My hands slid along her thighs, my lips following. My self-control broke when I reached her center.
“David!” she cried out, arching into me as I licked through her slickened core. Her fingers dug into my shoulders, spurring me on, and I didn’t stop.
I feasted on her, my fingers working her clit, alternating teasing circles with my tongue and my hands. I slid my hands up to her breasts, tugging and playing with her nipples while her body bucked beneath me, more wildly, more fiercely, and more freely than I’d seen her move.
It was delicious. It was mind-boggling, inspiring to know that the Camden everyone else saw let herself go when she was beneath me, under my touch.
Her thighs quivered, trembling with the need for release, and I gave it to her. Sinking fingers deep into her wet sex, I pressed against her with my tongue.
Her body convulsed as she cried out my name, chanted she was coming, over and over again, while I took her over the edge. I slowed with the rhythm of her body, using a free hand to shove down my boxer briefs.
As her orgasm left her, I pulled my body off hers for only a moment so I could dig out a condom from the bedside table. I ripped it open and rolled it on and met her back on the bed.
“I was going to go slow, was going to take hours with you,” I whispered, kissing her neck and tasting the salt from her sweat. “I can’t.”
Her hands fell to my hips, slid around to my backside, and cupped my ass, tugging me against her.
“Don’t. Please don’t go slow.”
I groaned. The feel of my dick sliding through her heated folds was almost too much, but I needed her in a different way.
“Roll over,” I commanded, my voice rough. I wasn’t bossy in bed, didn’t tend to be, anyway. But I needed to be deep inside her, holding her hair, driving her crazy, more than I could remember ever needing anything before.
I rose to my knees as she moved and when she was on her hands and knees in front of me, I slid my hand down the length of her back. Wrapping my other hand around my dick, I slid it through her crease.
She shivered, gasped, and moaned. What a beautiful sound. It was that moment I knew—that sound, that need coming from her unbidden and unable to be hidden, was a sound I wanted to hear every day, forever.
“David,” she whimpered as I teased her. “Please. Now.”
“You got it, honey.” I sank deep inside her, her walls tightening around me. Heat exploded around my sheathed dick and I groaned. “Fuck, you feel good. I can’t wait to have you bare, feel the inside of your walls rub against my dick, Camden.”
I seated myself balls deep. Slow was forgotten.
Desperate need and desire clawed through my veins, inflaming my skin. My balls pulled tight as I began to move. I thrust against her without an ounce of control. I lost myself in her, lost myself in the feel of her, in the pleasured and desperate cries she made as I slammed against her, repeatedly, until I couldn’t hold anything back.
Leaning forward, I wrapped my hand around her hair, tugging her backward until she was on her knees, her back pressed to my chest. My other hand slid to her front and ran over her clit.
/> “Kiss me,” I growled, pulling on her hair fisted around my hand until she turned to me. “Kiss me and give me everything.”
She whimpered and my mouth hit hers. And as she came, I released everything I had deep inside of her, swallowing her groans and her cries while I gave her mine.
Chapter 28
Camden
Sunlight pouring in through a window and a warm body pressed beneath me reminded me exactly where I was when I woke up. Not that I could ever forget the night before. After David had taken me rough and fast, we’d cleaned up and climbed back into his bed where he’d put on a movie, snuggling me up to his side. We were twenty minutes into a playful comedy before I shifted my legs, slid one of my thighs over his, and grew restless.
I couldn’t help myself around him. I didn’t want to help myself around David. He was proving himself to be everything I’d ever wanted in a man. His preppy pretty-boy looks attracted me to him. His character, the way he cared for his friends and his family and even the patients that he’d lost, sold me on the kind of guy he was. Rough and strong and intelligent, but also compassionate and full of heart and loyalty.
With David by my side, I would never have anything to fear again.
Opening my eyes, I saw his beautiful chest beneath my cheek. Sparse, coarse hair sprinkled over his chest and down the center of his abs to where it disappeared at his waist, hidden by the sheets pulled up to his navel. I trailed my fingertips over every edge of his chest and stomach, reveling in the way his abs tightened as I freely explored his body.
He flinched when I ran a finger over his side.
A quick laugh burst from his lips, and I lifted my head to see David smiling at me, sleepy and amused.
“Are you ticklish?” I asked, dragging my finger over his side again.
“Yes.” His abs tightened as he laughed the word. “Only there, though. You found my sweet spot.”
I could think of more sweet spots he had, other areas I wanted to get my hands and my lips around.
“Good morning,” I whispered, moving my hand away from his side so I didn’t tickle him again.