“Are you sure?”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she whispered, “Positive.”
They kissed again, and knowing that this time they wouldn’t stop or be interrupted heightened Veronica’s arousal. She whimpered in protest when Cam left her far too soon to trail his lips and tongue down her neck and into the V of her dress. Strong hands cupped her ass as his tongue teased the top of one breast.
“Yes,” she purred, gripping his shoulders to keep upright. Cam had removed his sport jacket once the crowd began to thin, and she’d been watching the play of muscles through the starched white button-down every time he shifted and moved. She wanted to feel those muscles beneath her hands, skin on skin.
Cam dropped lower, and she realized he’d taken a seat on the bed. His reasoning became clear when he reached down to remove her shoes. Veronica cooperated, still clinging to his shoulders. Once the boots were off, she dropped to her natural height, bringing her breasts down to his eye level. Gazes locked, he undid one button at a time until her dress hung open. Leaning forward, he kissed a spot several inches above her navel, his hands caressing her hips with a gentle touch that bordered on reverent.
Veronica shrugged the dress to the floor, and to her great satisfaction, Cam stared in wonder before running a hand across her skin. Exploring. Admiring. Worshiping.
“Better than I imagined,” he muttered.
“You’ve been imagining this?” she asked, dazed by the raw appreciation in his eyes.
“For days.”
When he reached for her, Veronica stepped back. He was still wearing way too many clothes.
“Let me undress you,” she demanded, taking on Cam’s assertive tone.
Without a word, he rose off the bed to stand before her. “Whatever you want.”
Her body clenched at the promise in those words. “I want it all.”
Chapter Nine
If this was how he would die, Cam would leave this life a happy man.
From the moment Veronica Shepherd stumbled into his life, nothing had been the same. She made him want things he’d thought impossible. Love. Laughter. A family. The fear of continuing the cycle of his childhood had kept him on the outside. Kept him distant. Apart.
And then he met Veronica.
The twill dress shirt slid down his arms to land on the floor. Confident hands edged behind the hem of his cotton tee, sliding the fabric up his torso. Veronica gasped before a smile curled her lips. “You really are perfect.”
“Not even close,” he replied, unable to be anything but honest. Cam dragged the shirt over his head, revealing the long, jagged scar across his collarbone.
Eyes wide, she stepped closer, trailing a finger along the flaw. “What happened?”
Tensing, he said, “My father was a violent man.”
She looked up into his face, concern and compassion softening her expression. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
If she’d offered pity or empty platitudes, Cam might have been able to keep his walls intact, but the simple articulation of basic human kindness ripped them away. “He made me what I am,” he said, his voice taut.
Veronica shook her head. “No. You made yourself into the man that you are. I don’t need your life story to know that.”
If she was trying to break him, she was doing an excellent job. She reached for the clip at the front of his trousers and proficiently stripped the slacks away, taking his socks and shoes with them. Moonlight from the window lit her face, revealing eyes the shade of a storm cloud.
“I want to taste you,” she breathed before sinking her teeth hard into her bottom lip. She was waiting for permission. As if there was any doubt he’d give her anything she asked.
“Please.” A one-word plea he rarely uttered.
Like a woman on a mission, she pressed him onto the bed and dropped to her knees. Hot lips teased the inside of his thigh before she shifted to blow warm breath across the bulge in his boxer briefs. Cam hissed, clenching handfuls of the purple comforter. Slender fingers slid beneath the legs of his briefs, pressing along until she found her target.
Another hiss escaped his lips, this time accompanied by a mumbled curse. When the touch retreated, his hips slid down the bed as if chasing the connection. With a deep-throated purr, she slipped two fingers into the waistband, and Cam lifted for her. The moment the cotton slid away, he sprang free, hard and pulsing, shaking with anticipation.
As she leaned in to place a kiss on his tip, Cam stopped her with a hand over his dick. “Is this where you lived when you were married?” The words came out on a growl as his control hung by a thread.
“What?” she said, rightfully confused.
“Is this where you lived? With him?”
Veronica gently removed his hand. “No. He’s never been in this bed.”
Relieved, Cam nodded before dropping back onto the mattress. When wet lips suckled down the side of his shaft, he sat back up. This was a sight he wasn’t about to miss.
She smiled while she worked, concentrating on the task. Cam struggled to breathe through the experience. And it was an experience. Every suck. Every blow. Every purr and lick and bite. His brain shut down within seconds, every nerve ending in his body focused on one appendage and the raw pleasure Veronica was giving him.
As the pleasure intensified, he began to buck, the reflex out of his control. When she increased the speed, he grunted her name, trying to warn her. Trying to hold out as long as he could.
“Baby, I can’t—” The orgasm rocked him, and his body went rigid with release. The tremors were still spiraling through his limbs when he realized Veronica had taken him in. All of him. She’d lit him on fire and swallowed the flames.
He lay smoldering as she crawled up his body to straddle him, catching his eye as she licked her lips. A wide smile split her beautiful face as she said, “I see I earned a glimpse of those dimples.”
At her words, Cam realized he was smiling. A full smile that didn’t feel at all out of place or unusual. With one quick movement, he switched their positions, and she squealed in surprise. Hands pressed against the mattress on each side of her head, he did a push up that brought their mouths together, his essence still on her lips, and a smile on both their faces.
“You’ve earned more than the dimples,” he drawled, and her eyes darkened again. “It’s your turn to slide over the edge.”
* * *
“Oh, God. Right there, right there, right there…”
Veronica dug her nails into his back as Cam’s mouth did wonders to a spot behind her ear. She had no idea that could be an erogenous zone. Then again, with Cam pressing her into the bed, his hands seemingly everywhere all at once, her entire body was an erogenous zone.
His ridiculously talented tongue trailed a hot path down her neck and into the valley between her breasts. She still wore the bra and panties, though the strong hand tugging at the elastic band of the thong was threatening to render the pair useless. Veronica curved her leg over his back and pressed her calf to his ass, giving the access he needed to remove the slip of lace.
With an impressively smooth move, he shifted the both of them from one side to the other, and she saw the new purchase fly through the air in her peripheral vision.
“You’re so wet,” Cam murmured against her cleavage as one finger slid up and down her folds. “So slick.”
The evidence spoke for itself, so she felt no need to utter a response. Not that she could have. Not when that finger dipped inside, setting off explosions behind her eyes. His name tumbled off her lips. His full name.
“Cameron…”
He pressed deeper as she clenched around him, her hips bucking, begging for more.
“I need to get the condom from my wallet,” Cam whispered in her ear.
Veronica shook her head. “Nightstand. Top drawer.” No woman went on a matching panties shopping spree without ensuring her supplies were stocked.
Full lips covered hers once more as another fi
nger slid inside. His thumb joined the party, rubbing circles around her clit. Shallow panting was accompanied by intermittent moans as her hips rocked hard against him. A breathy sob escaped when he finally broke contact long enough to snag the box from the drawer.
“Hold on, baby.” He made short work of the box, tossing it aside before he opened the pouch with his teeth. Veronica nearly came just witnessing the feat.
The sheath in place, Cam braced between her legs and teased her opening while doing that hot push up thing again to kiss her. She’d expected him to take her right away, but Cam had other ideas. First, he lowered his head to suckle her breast through the lacy bra. Her back arched as lightning shot to her core. When his teeth clenched onto her nipple at the same time he pressed just his tip inside, Veronica shattered into pieces with his name on her lips.
Nails digging into his flesh, she rode out the waves, but before the last one crested, Cam drove in to the hilt, hurling her into another mind-bending orgasm that stole her breath and made her scream with release.
Veronica had never been so thoroughly sated yet so thoroughly aroused at the same time. Cam moved at a steady pace, and once she could control her limbs again, she met him thrust for thrust. The act was primitive, raw, and emotionally overwhelming. She was vaguely aware of a tear sliding down her cheek when the tension peaked again, and as Cam had promised, she soared over the edge. For the third time.
Reaching up, she cupped his chiseled face in her hands as he grunted one final time, shuddered, and collapsed on top of her. Chest heaving, Veronica ran her fingers through his sweat-dampened hair, too in awe to say a word.
* * *
With paralyzing awareness came paralyzing fear. Cam never wanted to lose this woman. Veronica had a way of healing him. The part of him he’d thought damaged for good. It wasn’t about the sex. Or the innocent way she teased him. Or the way she’d touched his scar as if it had happened yesterday. It was her. All of her.
How the hell did that happen in three days?
Aware of his weight bearing down on her, he rolled to the side, landing on his back and pulling her tight against his side. Veronica curled into him and draped a long, slender leg across his thigh. The air in the room felt heavier, and he sensed she felt it, too. Something had shifted. Changed between them. Not knowing what she was thinking was killing him.
“You okay?” he asked, brushing the hair off her cheek.
“Okay is an understatement.” She glanced up, and he saw his own thoughts reflected in her expressive blue eyes. “Are you okay?”
He was miles from okay. “I need to get rid of this.” Cam waited for her to lift up before pulling his arm out from under her.
“The door on the right is the bathroom,” she said as his feet hit the floor.
“Thanks.” Running through the motions, he cleaned up and washed his hands.
Reason said he should dress and leave, but there was nothing reasonable about what they’d just done. Or how much he wanted to do it again. And again. While he was in the bathroom, Veronica had crawled under the covers, and when he returned, she held them up for him to join her with uncertainty in her expression. As if he might refuse the offer. Chest tight, he slid between the sheets and pulled her once more against his side. Her body relaxed, and the moment Cam held her, his did the same.
“That was intense,” she said after a long silence.
“Did I hurt you?” Cam asked, concerned.
“No. Of course not.”
He needed to find the right words before the chance passed him by. “You’re special, Veronica. I’ve never known a woman like you.”
She drew circles in the hair on his chest with her finger. “I haven’t felt special in a long time. Until this week.”
Cam lifted her chin. “You are special. Don’t ever forget that.”
“This sounds like the beginning of a goodbye,” she said, pulling away.
Shit. “No,” he said, leaning up on his elbow. Cam ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Veronica slid from the covers on the other side of the bed and grabbed a silk robe off the back of a chair. “I’m not making you stay.”
“Damn it, Veronica.” He bolted from the bed and marched around the end to stand before her. “I just had the best sex of my life, and I’m trying to tell you that I want to keep seeing you. When I say I don’t know what I’m doing here, I mean I don’t know what to do in this situation. And I don’t like not knowing what to do. I just know I want you. In bed and out of bed. Do you understand?”
Blinking up at him, she said, “I’ve never heard you put that many words together at one time.”
Not the response he was looking for. “This isn’t a joke. Not to me.”
Face softening, she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m sorry. You just looked so upset, so I wanted to tease you into a smile.”
God, she was perfect.
“No one has ever had this effect on me. I’m not sure how to process it.” Cam trailed his thumb along her jaw, unable to fully relax. “There are things about me that you don’t know. Things you might not like.”
“Have you killed anyone?” she asked, pressing her cheek against his touch.
“No.”
She brushed the scar on his shoulder. “Did you hurt the man who did this to you?”
“No.” He would have if a heart attack hadn’t taken him first.
Veronica slipped the robe off her shoulders and leaned into him, drawing an immediate response from his dick. “Then can we talk about those things a little later?”
Filling his hands with her ass, Cam locked her against him. “Yes.”
* * *
Walking would be a bitch come morning, but Veronica wouldn’t change a thing about tonight. Once Cam got over his awkward moment—which stole a bit of her heart, though she’d kept that to herself lest she scare him even more—they went back to enjoying each other. The new bra didn’t last long, and Cam proved he was as good with direct contact as he had been through the frilly lace. He also proved she wasn’t the only one good at going down.
The man knew what to do with his tongue.
Veronica was still tingling all over as they lay tangled in the afterglow. “Are you still freaked out?” she asked.
“I was not freaked out,” Cam replied, rubbing his thumb over her bare hip.
“You seemed freaked out.”
She’d sure as hell been freaked out. For one, Veronica had never cried during sex before. And not the cry-because-it’s-so-bad kind but the this-is-a-life-altering-experience kind. She’d also never had three orgasms in a matter of minutes. Who knew that was even possible?
Cam lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. “I was being honest with you.”
“I appreciate that.” Time to see how far she could push this honesty thing. “Can we talk about those things you mentioned earlier? The things I don’t know about you?”
His chest lifted and fell with a sigh, taking her up and down with it. She should probably climb off of him, but this was such a comfortable spot.
“I didn’t grow up like you did.”
That much she knew. “Let’s start with the basics. Where were you born?”
“Linton, Indiana.”
“Did you grow up there?”
The thumb on her hip stopped moving. “I was taken away when I was five.”
Taken away? That didn’t sound positive. “Taken away from your father?”
“By my father.”
Cam’s heart rate accelerated, and she kissed his chest. “You don’t have to keep going.”
He squeezed her hand. “I don’t talk about this much.”
Even without the details, she didn’t blame him. “Just talk and I’ll listen,” Veronica said. “Stop whenever you want.”
“My mother died when I was three,” he said. “He slammed her head against a wall. I didn’t know that until I was older.”
“I’
m sorry,” she whispered, kissing his chest again.
“She was a junkie. And young. She had me when she was seventeen.”
The lack of emotion was eerie. “Do you remember her?”
“No. After that, I spent eighteen months living with my grandmother—my mom’s mom. I’d hear her and my aunt talking about my father coming to get me. There were no men around to fight him off, and I lived in fear of the day it would happen.”
“Was he in jail?” Veronica asked.
“Yes. But he got out in less than two years.”
“And he came for you.”
Cam nodded. “In the middle of the night.”
That poor little boy. She wanted to travel back in time and protect him. To save him from a nightmare she could hardly imagine.
“When I was sixteen, I ran away. I don’t know if he ever even looked for me.”
“Did you go back to your grandmother?”
“We were in Chicago by then. I did what I had to do to survive. I did things I’m not proud of.”
He didn’t need to go on. “The important part is that you did survive. That’s what matters. That you’re here now.”
Dark eyes met hers for the first time since his story began. “There were days I didn’t think I’d make it.”
“But you did.” Veronica edged up his body to press her lips against his. “You fought and you won.”
A strong hand slid into her hair. “You’re good for me, Veronica.”
Laying her head on his shoulder, she replied, “You’re good for me, too, Cam.”
Chapter Ten
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 blared into the silence, jerking Veronica upright in bed.
“What the. . .” muttered the man beside her.
“It’s my phone,” she mumbled. Fumbling for the cell, she held it close to her face with one eye open to see Ash’s name on the screen. “This is supposed to be my day off.” Veronica swiped to reject the call and dropped back to the pillow. “Go away.”
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