Passion's Sweet Surrender

by Ronica Black

  “That’s terrific,” McKenna said, breaking Blake’s trance. “I’m so happy for you, Cam.”

  Sloane leaned over and patted Cam’s shoulder. “We all are.”

  Cam blinked from what Blake had assumed was her own trance. She glanced up at Blake, scanned her face quickly, then down to her hands which were still holding tight to the table. She straightened and then swallowed as her eyes returned to Blake’s.

  She can see everything I’m feeling.

  She knows I want her.

  Oh, God this is torture.

  Blake released her grip and forced herself to return to eating. Cam did the same, eventually tearing her gaze from Blake to rejoin the conversation. But every now and again their eyes would meet as they caught each other secretly admiring the other. It was the most erotic meal of her life and it didn’t seem to matter that they were surrounded by other people. Blake couldn’t help but stare at her, couldn’t help but notice every single, subtle movement. Like the way Cam’s mouth enticed her as the fork slid out from her lips. The way her jaw flexed as she chewed. The slight movement along the column of her throat as she swallowed. Then Cam brought the beer to her mouth and pursed those sweet lips for a drink, and after Blake watched the rise and fall of her throat again, her gaze traveled to Cam’s fingers wrapped around the bottle. Those long, lean, talented fingers. She recalled how those fingers felt on her skin and how Cam’s lips often followed close behind, tasting where her fingers had touched. Blake finally had to close her eyes to sever the stirring her mind was creating, and when she opened them she found Cam staring right into her.

  “Dinner was great,” Cam suddenly said, wiping her mouth with her napkin. “But I should get back and see to the dogs.”

  “Wait, no,” Sage said. “You can’t leave yet. This is our last meal together as a group.”

  Blake’s heart fell to her feet.

  Sage, shut up.

  Shut up.

  “Sage,” Sloane said. “Cam doesn’t have to stay because of that.”

  “No, but I thought she might want to.” Sage looked at Cam. “We’re leaving day after tomorrow.”

  Blake’s fingers burned she was squeezing the table so tightly. Pure panic besieged her.

  “I didn’t know,” Cam said. “You and Rylee will definitely be missed. Things will go back to boring the second you two leave.” She smiled at them both and Sloane laughed.

  Sage shook her head. “It’s not just us, Blake’s leaving too. She’s riding back with us.”

  Oh, God. No. Fuck. She wasn’t supposed to find out like this.

  Cam blinked again and her smile faded. She shifted in her seat. “I didn’t know that either.”

  “Tomorrow night we’re going into town, so this will be our last dinner here together at the house,” Sage said.

  “Why don’t you come with us tomorrow night, Cam?” McKenna said. She was treading carefully, Blake could hear it in her tone. She’d obviously picked up on the drastic change in Cam’s mood.

  The others also encouraged her.

  Blake remained quiet, stiff as a statue, dying inside.

  Cam smiled but it was cordial and nothing more. She pushed her chair back and stood. “I’m afraid I do have to go for tonight. And I don’t know about tomorrow. But just in case I can’t go, I’ll say my good-byes now.” She extended her hand and shook Sage’s and Rylee’s hands and then she held her hand out in front of Blake.

  The pain in her eyes was piercing and Blake lost her breath. Somehow though, she managed to take her hand and Cam dropped it almost immediately.

  “It was very nice to meet you all. You are all…unforgettable.” Rylee laughed and Sage appeared to be swooning as Cam wished them a good night and stepped out into the sand.

  Blake stood, unable to watch her walk away. She grabbed what dishes she could and hurried into the kitchen. She was running water into the sink to begin scrubbing them when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

  “Blake.”

  Blake stilled. “Not now, Kenna, please.”

  “Go to her.”

  Blake closed her eyes. McKenna did know. When she knew for certain, Blake wasn’t sure. It could’ve been as little as sixty seconds ago, or days before.

  “Kenna. I can’t talk about it.”

  “I’m not asking you to. But you do need to talk to Cam. You must.” She turned Blake around to face her.

  “I didn’t want her to find out like this,” Blake said. “I’ve been meaning to talk to her, to tell her. But we haven’t had a chance to be alone and honestly, I didn’t want to do it. I was hoping we could at least have tonight. One last night of happiness before I had to tell her I have to leave now…”

  “Go.”

  “What if I only hurt her more? She’s been through so much, Kenna. And you saw her face just now.”

  “You can’t let it end like this, Blake. Even if you finally decide to go ahead with the clinic and plan on moving down here, you can’t leave her like this. It’s so sudden.”

  “I know, that’s why I didn’t want to do it. I just told her the other night I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and now I’m having to tell her otherwise. It’s hurting her, Kenna. I can already see it and it’s hurting me too.”

  “All the more reason to go talk to her.” She looked over her shoulder at their friends on the patio. “Go now. Out the front door. I’ll tell them you went for a run.”

  Blake started to protest but the window to flee without being seen was closing. She nodded, having no further words to try to explain her trepidation. Then, as she saw her friends begin to gather up the rest of the dinnerware to come inside, she hugged McKenna and hurried out the front door.

  Chapter Forty-one

  Cam paced in front of the fireplace, the bottle of wine she’d grabbed sitting open and chilled to perfection on the end table next to the couch. The elegant glass she drank from was beckoning, but she couldn’t bring herself to drink. Nor could she cry, or get a fire going, or scribble down thoughts in her journal. All she could do was pace and run her hands through her hair as her restless heart pounded, desperate to keep the advancing, resolute pain at bay.

  The dogs barked and rushed to the back door. The way their tails were going, Cam figured Blake was headed up the stairs. A moment later, there was knocking and Cam stalked to the door and yanked it open.

  Cam opened her mouth to speak, but the sight of Blake standing there in that sleeveless sweater Cam was sure she’d worn just for her, with the dying sun a golden backdrop illuminating her breathtaking beauty, caused Cam to react on instinct, and instinct alone. She took her hand, pulled Blake inside and slammed the door.

  She could tell by the look on Blake’s face she was startled and confused.

  When she tried to speak, Cam pushed her against the wall and smothered the words with her mouth, plunging into Blake hungrily, pressing her body to hers, ensuring she couldn’t move.

  Blake made a noise, a muffled plea, but Cam responded by edging her feet apart and undoing the button of her jeans with a hurried hand. She tore them open and went for the zipper, shoving her pants down as best she could. Blake’s pleas softened from alarm to approval. She raked her nails up Cam’s back, beneath her sweater, and Cam made a noise of her own. Blake’s desire sparked to life then, and she kissed her back vehemently, her own tongue meeting and matching Cam’s. Her hands moved from Cam’s back to her front where she shoved up on Cam’s bra, freeing her breasts. Then she stroked and played her nipples, and Cam did the same to the soft skin just above Blake’s panty line.

  Cam broke away from her mouth before she went any further. Blake told her everything she needed to know with her eyes, and Cam eased her hand into her panties and into her slick folds. Blake inhaled sharply, widened her eyes, and then pinched Cam’s nipples. Cam cried out in sweet torture, flames shooting through her. She rubbed Blake harder, played her swollen clit, and watched as Blake moaned and her breath hitched. She was trying so hard to control herself, and wh
en she tilted her head back against the wall, jerked her hips, and bit her lower lip, Cam laughed wickedly and attacked her neck. Blake answered with a firm tug to her nipples and Cam cried out again, lost all resolve, and slid her fingers up inside her.

  Blake’s cry was loud enough to ring Cam’s ears, and the noises that followed were deep, and throaty, and laced with the pleasure that was obviously surging through her. She tugged on Cam harder, elicited another cry, and laughed herself as she leaned in and licked Cam’s lips.

  “Fuck me,” she said.

  Cam plunged farther into her, and she released her hold on Cam and dug her nails into her shoulders and then up into her scalp as Cam began to fuck her, gliding her fingers in and out, again and again, stopping every so often just to look at her face, leaving her hinged, her fingers up deep inside, Blake clenched and was pulsing down around her.

  Cam burned the image of her face into her mind, while the feel of being encased in her burned its imprint into her brain. Then she fucked her some more, her mouth next to Blake’s, their lips touching and parting, their breathing hot and shared. Cam wanted to breathe her in and hold her there forever. Tried to with every quick breath she garnered with the thrust of her fingers.

  Blake began to call her name and Cam fucked her until she could call no more, her head lolling back helplessly, eyes unfocused and glazed. Her hips kicked hard and fast against her, demanding the incessant rhythm of Cam’s fingers. A rhythm that increased in both speed and pressure. Blake’s body went into a frenzy, fucking Cam with its entirety as her hands threaded and pulled at Cam’s hair. And then she came, screaming out into the oncoming night, screaming for Cam, for more, more, more. Cam felt the flood of her climax gushing down her fingers and she pumped her until her voice caved, her head fell forward, and her body went limp. She collapsed against Cam and Cam held her, easing herself from between her legs.

  She walked her to the couch, sat her down, and slipped off her shoes. Then she removed her jeans and panties. Blake blinked at her as if she just regained consciousness.

  “What are you doing?” She was hoarse and it turned Cam on almost as much as her screams.

  Cam opened her legs by sliding her hands under and around her upper thighs and pulled her to her.

  She started trailing kisses on her warm skin, already able to see the glistening of her dark pink center.

  “Cam?”

  Cam answered her silently, working her way to her flesh, where she wasted no time in delving in and taking her with hungry lips and heavy tongue. Blake jerked and sighed, and then fell back against the couch, relenting with surrendering moans to the return of pleasure. Her hands returned to Cam’s hair, massaging and tugging, as her body writhed and began to move in motion to take advantage of Cam’s generous mouth and for a long while, the only sound to be heard was that of Cam feasting, and Cam took her sweet time, relishing every second, loving the satin feel of her flesh. And when she delved lower, and got a taste of the hot silk of her arousal, she went at her like she was starved, first priming her with deliberate licks to her outer rim, then plunging into her and drawing it out to saturate her tongue.

  Blake went crazy, opening her legs farther, clawing at her and yanking on her hair and sweater in an attempt to get her closer. She panted for more, bypassed begging altogether, and went straight into demanding. Cam thoroughly enjoyed her reactions, almost as much as she did tongue-fucking her. But her own desire began making demands and she couldn’t resist giving Blake what she wanted most. She moved back up and paid worship to her full, swollen clit, assaulting it with swirls of her flattened tongue before taking it in her mouth to finish her off.

  She sucked her and pulsed her with her tongue at the same time and Blake came almost instantly, coming up off the back of the couch, tearing at Cam’s head, screaming with strangled, throaty cries. She forced her flesh into Cam’s face, fucking her fiercely with wild, uninhibited thrusts of her hips. She fucked Cam so long and hard and furiously, that when she finally came down, she did so with raspy cries and pleas of sweet surrender, begging Cam to stop, and when she did, she really, truly began to cry.

  Cam rose and embraced her and they fell back onto the couch, wrapped in each other’s arms.

  Blake started speaking, started apologizing about having to leave so suddenly, but Cam didn’t want to hear it. She couldn’t bear to hear it.

  “Shh,” she placed her finger to her lips. “Not now. Not tonight.”

  Then, she closed her eyes and nuzzled Blake’s neck, inhaled her scent, and held her like she never wanted to let her go.

  Chapter Forty-two

  Cam sat on her couch, staring mindlessly at another sunset. She never thought she’d see one she didn’t like, but this one, vibrant and radiant as ever, would’ve chilled her to the core, had she still had one. As it was, she sat unaffected, broken and hollow, staring into the blur that the room and sunset had melded together to become.

  Blake had left hours ago, claiming she needed to go pack. Cam had been able to keep her most of the day, after spending a long, restless night together, making passionate love. They’d spoken very little, preferring only the sounds and sighs their lovemaking elicited, often times spending endless minutes at a time doing things to each other with the sole intention of bringing forth those sacred sounds. Cam had kept trying for those sounds long after Blake had lost her voice completely, wanting to capture any last audible breath she could. And when there was finally no more to be had, Cam plied her with pleasure simply to feel and inhale what ragged breaths she could still exude. Blake, she’d sensed, was trying to do the same. Whether they were wrapped up together on the couch, tangled up in her bed, writhing on the blankets in front of the fire, they just could not seem to get enough of each other, and Cam knew she’d never forget the image of Blake undulating atop her, riding her fingers, her beautiful body arching as she came in the flickering firelight, her beautiful face overcome with passion and pleasure.

  She would never forget it, and unfortunately, that just might be what finally did her in. She eyed the wine once again sitting next to her, her ever faithful companion. And yet again, she couldn’t bring herself to drink it.

  The dogs barked and ran to the door. She knew it was Blake. Could feel that it was Blake. But she didn’t move, didn’t react. Her heart and mind seemed still. Unaffected. They remained that way even when she heard Blake knock. And when Blake entered on her own a minute later, Cam’s ambivalence remained.

  Blake closed the door softly and stood quietly. The dogs were trying for her attention, but she only greeted them briefly. Cam saw all of this without directly looking at her, her stare into the blurry oblivion keeping her rapt.

  “Cam?”

  Her voice was like the softest grain of sandpaper. Noticeably uneven but not overly rough. Her vocal cords had had some time to recover. Her nerves, however, were evident, and they seemed to be considerable, and it occurred to Cam that Blake needed reassurance, but she couldn’t do anything further with the realization.

  “Cam?” Blake came toward her. Cam was aware of it, but she startled anyway when Blake touched her.

  “Cam, look at me.” Blake tilted her chin, ensuring she did.

  Those eyes.

  Those beautiful sea glass eyes.

  Cam inhaled sharply as all the pain and reality that she’d somehow been fending off, set in. She winced, her struggling lungs trying to inhale again. “You’re leaving,” she let out.

  Blake knelt before her, took her hands in hers. “I didn’t know that I’d have to leave this soon. Honestly, Cam I didn’t. I was just as shocked and heartbroken at hearing that as you were. I didn’t want to tell you at dinner, or at any time, really. Cam, I don’t want to now. I don’t want to do this.”

  Cam smiled at her through pooling tears. “It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not okay. We should’ve discussed this sooner, whether I was leaving now or weeks from now.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Cam brought Blake’s
hand to her mouth, breathing in the scent on her wrist. She drew it into her lungs as she tasted it with her lips. She closed her eyes. “I don’t ever want to stop breathing you in.”

  “Cam—”

  Cam opened her eyes. “But I have to. And it’s okay.”

  “No. Cam it’s not. I don’t want to leave you, especially not this soon. But my father called yesterday morning. I’m needed back at the practice as soon as possible. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be leaving like this.”

  “But you would still leave eventually.”

  Blake seemed to search for a way to respond. “Yes, but—”

  “You have things to think about. With the clinic, your family’s practice, your life.”

  “Yes, but, Cam—”

  Cam kissed her palm. “I understand. You have a life. A big life. In Phoenix. Mine is here.”

  Blake looked anxious, confused. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying it’s okay. I’m saying I understand. I’m saying…” Cam closed her eyes again. “Good-bye.”

  Blake tore her hand away and cupped her face. Cam opened her eyes and found Blake staring into her.

  “I have a lot to do, a lot to consider and think about, but that doesn’t change how I feel about you. I want to be here. In Mexico. Working in my clinic. That’s still what I want. And now, there’s you, too.”

  “That may be. But ultimately it doesn’t matter.”

  “Why are you saying that?”

  “Because one of us needs to face reality.”

  “Which is?”

  “That this can never work.”

  “What can’t?”

  “You and me. You have a great big life ahead of you. In Phoenix, Mexico, wherever your dreams may take you. My life is simple. And it’s here. On this beach, with my dogs. And we’re so different. You—I drive you crazy. Would ultimately drive you crazy.”

  Blake dropped her hand from her face. She stood. “I know what you’re doing.”