by Rina Kent
“It’s exclusive.” He stepped up and placed his hands on my shoulders, similar to how Sebastian had, but now the touch warmed. Butterflies flew in my stomach instead of it churning with disgust. “For both of us, it’s exclusive.”
My face scrunched at the underlying meaning. “Are you talking about Hunter?”
He stayed silent but nodded.
“Hunter texted me Friday night at like one in the morning saying that you liked me, and that he hopes I’m giving you a chance. Today, he was just talking to me. Mostly about you.”
“He texted you?”
“Yes,” I said, dragging the word out. “I assumed you knew that. Actually, I figured you were with him. Don’t you have parties on Friday nights?”
He let out a breath, smiling as if someone just pulled a hundred pound weight off his chest. “It ended early. Listen, do you uh,” he glanced around and let out another big breath. “Do you want to hang out tonight? Maybe at my house this time?”
His tone changed with his last sentence. It was deeper, more intense. We’d made out many times since this thing between us had started, and my guess was Camden was getting anxious to do more. His house had a lot of privacy. Closed doors.
I rubbed my lips together as I considered it. Did I want to? Yes. Did I think I was stupid for wanting to? Also yes. But apparently, I was already being stupid, and it wasn’t as if we had to have sex. He wouldn’t push… I don’t think.
I opened my mouth to speak, but his lips smothered the words before I had a chance. When he pulled back, I was breathless. “Yes?” he asked, cocking a brow and smiling.
I swallowed and nodded.
“Okay.”
Cam
“Is this really your favorite movie?” I asked Eden, who was leaned back against my headboard, hugging a pillow to her chest.
She glanced to me long enough to stick her tongue out before going back to the movie playing on my TV—The Princess Bride.
The way her eyes glossed over was too cute to break her concentration again, so instead, I just stared at her, smiling each time she did. She gripped the pillow, and she belted out a laugh at something in the movie.
My smile widened, and she turned to me as if finally sensing my stare. “Quit looking at me like that,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s creepy.”
“I’m just thinking of a line that I want to write for you tomorrow.”
She shifted so that her back was straighter and loosened her grip on the pillow. “What is it?”
“If I told you, it’d ruin it tomorrow.” Amusement entered my tone, but her face softened and grew more serious.
She grabbed the remote from the nightstand and lowered the volume of the television before turning to face me fully, her elbow resting on the headboard and her hand holding her up. “Do you have them memorized, or do you google them? Honestly?”
“Little bit of both. Some I have memorized, some I don’t remember the exact words, so I look them up.”
“You have entire Shakespearian plays memorized?”
“No, I have lines from plays memorized. My mom’s big into Shakespeare, and she used to read them to me as bedtime stories. Why does it matter?”
She shrugged. “No reason. You’re just… I don’t know. Unusually smart. Is it mean if I think you’re kind of wasted on football?”
“Excuse me?” My tone sharpened, and Eden shook her head, letting the hand holding her up fall to her side.
“Nothing. That’s not what I meant. Sorry.”
I’d puffed my chest out on instinct, but seeing her expression, I let it deflate. I scooted closer to her and placed my hand on her knee, running my thumb over denim and waiting for her to jerk it away. When she didn’t, I continued. “Football is who I am. It’s who I’m supposed to be.”
She placed her hand over mine and halted my movement. I trailed my gaze from her knee, over her stomach, her breasts, and up to her face.
“You can be anybody you want to be, Camden. You don’t have to let other people decide for you.”
I moved my hand to the inside of her knee and up her thigh, carrying hers along with me. She inhaled sharply and turned to face in front of her.
“Which parts of me do you like?” I moved my hand up more, now situated at the top of her inner thigh. If her pussy clenched, I would’ve felt it. “This part? The nice part? Mean part? Football? Shakespeare? Math?” I chuckled when I said the last word, as if this was all a game to me. It wasn’t. I really wanted to know. I needed to know.
“All of it,” She whispered, circling my wrist with her palm. She didn’t move it, she simply held it in place. I couldn’t go farther, but I also couldn’t pull back. Not for the first time, Eden’s pupils dilated, her breathing hollowed and shook. She wanted it, but I’d learned my lesson from last time. She had to say it.
“All of it? Even the football?”
“Even the bully,” she whispered, cringing as if she were admitting it to herself for the first time as well.
“Do you like to fight me?”
I put pressure against her hold, falsely trying to move my hand where I knew she wanted it but knowing she’d hold my wrist in place. She didn’t disappoint.
“Not like that.”
“Are you sure?” I whispered into her ear before nipping her lobe. Her breasts rose slightly as her lips parted and she drew in another sharp breath.
“I don’t know,” she said, now trying to move my hand away. She turned to face me and shook her head. “I really don’t know.”
“I do.” I removed my hand from her thigh and cupped her face. “I know what you want, but I’m not going to give it to you unless you tell me it’s okay. You’re scared, Eden. I get it. But I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Her gaze darted between my eyes and my lips. “Do you like it when I fight you?”
“Yes,” I said, without hesitation. I adjusted so that we were closer, our clothes touching.
“Does it make us weird, or is that normal?”
She was starting to lose me, and I blinked a few times trying to focus on the question. Was she talking about rough sex? Probably not. That would’ve been normal. What Eden and I had, the fireworks that sparked when she challenged me, or even when she was just in the same room, that wasn’t normal. At least not for me.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think we should spend a lot of time questioning it.”
She sighed and dropped her eyes to my chest. “Are you like this with other girls?”
“Like what?”
“This.” She waved to the TV. “The movie, the lake, the notes. Is this your thing or is it different? I won’t be mad, I just want to know.”
I moved her head up to face me and leaned in until my lips grazed hers. I inhaled her scent and shuddered when my cock strained against my jeans. “Nothing about you is normal. Nothing about what I feel for you is normal. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Eden, but I don’t have girlfriends. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing, and no, I’ve never done this before.”
I pressed against her lips, even as my mind screamed at me to pull back. I had a plan. I’d bring her back here and I’d let her make the first move. If she wanted me, then she’d kiss me first. But she did want me. She’d wanted me for a long time, I just needed her to admit it.
I broke our kiss and looked into her eyes, smiling at the lack of color. Only a brown ring circled the black. “Do you want this, yes or no?”
“It depends,” she said, shaking her head.
“Depends on what?”
“On if I’m the exception to your ‘no girlfriend’ rule.”
My eyes trailed down her neckline to the blue shirt. A panther was on the chest and below it was ‘Lincoln High Orchestra Band Camp 2019’. Girlfriend. She wanted me to call her my girlfriend before she’d do anything with me… Damn it.
“I’ve never been exclusive with anyone, so I’d say I’ve already made the exception.”
“So then say it,” she whispered, inches aw
ay from my face. Sweet breath fluttered over my skin, making its way into my nostrils, my mouth. I could taste it, smell it, and I wanted more. I wanted her tongue, her skin, her arousal. I had to fucking have it.
“I can’t.”
Eden pulled back and the fire between us dimmed. I gripped her arm and yanked her toward me, her head bending to look up at me. Surprise flashed in her eyes, but she quickly righted herself.
“But I will. I just need more time.”
“I get it,” she said, subtly attempting to shrug out of my grip. “But it’s okay, I can wait.”
“But you want this. Right now. I know I’m not imagining things.”
“I’m not the kind of girl that does things without a commitment.”
“Then listen to me.” I let go of her arm and placed my hand on the small of her back, scooting her toward me until we touched again. “I’m not having sex with any other girl. I’m not talking to any other girl. Isn’t that a commitment?”
She glanced over my shoulder and narrowed her eyes as she thought.
“Hunter knows about you and me. Your friends know about you and me. I just,” I ran my thumb over her jawline and restrained myself from leaning in. “It’s hard for me to announce to the whole school when I’ve never done that before. You know?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. Her eyes turned to focus on me. “So really, this is a relationship, just not one that we’re publicizing.”
“Exactly.”
Her shoulders shook as she trailed her eyes down to my lips, then to my chest. “Okay.”
“Say it.”
Her eyes snapped to mine, and she hesitated before licking her lips. “I want this.”
“Me. You want me.”
She nodded and hesitated a few more moments. It was like her mind was holding onto the last few unbroken strands of a piece of rope, not giving up until they snapped.
I stared into her eyes, mentally pulling out a pair of scissors.
She took a deep breath and placed her hand on my chest. “I want you.”
Snip.
Eden
Camden crawled off of the bed and walked over to the door. Metal clanked as the lock clicked into place. He glanced back over his shoulder, a grin plastered. “Learned my lesson about that one.”
I laughed and relaxed back on the bed. His jokes about sleeping with another woman shouldn’t have been funny to me, but somehow it was. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t see Sherry as a threat. Whatever had gone on between her and Camden was over.
He stalked over to the bed, lifting his shirt over his head when he stood above me. Tanned skin covered muscle that belonged more on an NBA player than on a boy from my school. The boy I was sort of dating. The one standing over me.
This could not be real.
The bed shifted as Camden sat down beside me, and I scooted over to make room for him. His hand rested on my knee, as it had before, and my skin ignited. Every time I shifted, the wet spot in my panties rubbed against my skin. The slickness coating my folds became more apparent, and another jolt of electric current shot to my clit.
Everything about Camden heated me, excited me, built up an itch that I couldn’t quite scratch, even when I was alone in my bed with that damn shirtless picture of him on my phone. Now, he was in the flesh, and saying no to him… It wasn’t possible. My willpower was all used up. My internal battle lost.
I wanted him.
As his girlfriend.
As his lover.
As his enemy.
I’m not sure how much it mattered in that moment.
His hand trailed up my thigh and stopped when he reached my apex. He scooted closer to me and used his other hand to lift my shirt over my stomach. My skin chilled with the cool air in the room, but Camden’s hand that glided over my skin, settling just below my bra, set my nerves on fire and left the cold a distant memory.
“You nervous?”
My eyes had been preoccupied by his hand, but I lifted them to take in his smirk. His eyes were black but still managed to shine with the gold ring around them. He was two things at once—always.
I shook my head and guided his hand under my bra. His palm pressed against my already hardened nipple, and I closed my eyes at the sensation. “Nothing to be nervous about,” I lied, scooting down so that I was lying flat with my head against his pillow.
He removed the hand from my knee and used it to tug my shirt up to my neck. “That’s right.” He yanked his hand from beneath my bra and flipped me over so that I was on my stomach. “There’s nothing to be nervous about.”
He worked the shirt over my head and down the length of my arms in smooth, steady pulls. The image of Hunter pulling a similar move forced its way into my mind, and panic spread throughout my body. I tugged my arms underneath me and clenched my eyes shut, taking a breath. Then another.
“You all right?” Camden asked, trailing his fingertips just below the back of my bra.
He was straddling me, the energy emanating from him a force that sucked the oxygen from the room. Or maybe it was the hard-on poking against my tailbone. Whatever it was, it was intimidating.
I nodded into his pillow.
“Good.”
My bra snapped and it splayed open over my back. Camden urged me up and moved the bra the rest of the way off before putting his lips to my ear. “You know you can tell me to stop at any time, right?”
“Yes.”
Both his hands cupped my breast and squeezed.
“But you like this. You don’t want me to stop.”
I shook my head.
“Do you want me to go further?” An explosion erupted in each of my nipples as he pinched them between his fingertips. I arched my back into him, my head now in the crook of his neck.
I wouldn’t say yes to that. I wasn’t even sure what the correct answer was, but I didn’t want to think about it. I only wanted to feel. To let go, stop fighting it.
I was so sick of fighting, and his hands on me, his power over me? It felt too good. Too sweet. Too peaceful.
Too right.
The fingers pinching my nipples eased, and he dropped me back to the bed before flipping me over. He was in a crouched position in order to do that, but instead of sitting back down, he reached for the button on his jeans and popped it. The ominous sound of the zipper followed.
I brought myself up on my elbows and peered down at the pants that he slipped over his hips. “Um, shouldn’t we kiss some more?”
“You want me to kiss you?” he asked, his brow raising in question. Some of the tension he exuded cooled as he paused what he was doing.
“I don’t know,” I said, massaging my hair back from my face. “I just thought there’d be more foreplay.”
He chuckled and jerked his jeans the rest of the way. More electricity shot to my core, and I silently chastised myself for being turned on by that. What the hell was wrong with me?
“This is the foreplay, baby.”
He scooted up my chest and tucked my arms underneath his legs, pinning me. He held himself up part way, but there was enough weight on my chest that it was hard to breathe. I peered up at him, and the question must’ve been plain on my face because he chuckled before growing serious. “You trust me?”
I wiggled underneath him and cringed as I fought to breathe.
“Yes or no, Eden?”
Glancing up at him, I was finally able to take a breath. His legs were wrapped around me, smothering me with his weight and his scent. Every smell that entered my nostrils was him. Everything I could feel, the weight on my chest, the leg hair prickling my stomach, his satin sheets rubbing against my back, it was all him. Still, I wanted more. I wanted closer.
My eyes shifted to the outline of his dick in his boxer briefs. The V poking out was already ingrained into my mind from his picture, but up close, it wasn’t enough to look. I wanted to taste.
“I trust you.”
He lifted off me to tug his boxers to his hips. Air sucked into my
lungs with harsh breaths, but it was robbed from me as Camden threaded his fingers through my hair and yanked me forward, the tip of his cock poking against my lips. I peered up at him, and the smirk was nowhere in sight. The gold ring around his eyes was even smaller.
“I like to do the work.” He tightened his grip in my hair and squeezed his legs against me to make sure my arms couldn’t move. “So open your mouth and relax.”
“I’ve never done this before,” I blurted, panic entering again. I darted my eyes around the room and writhed beneath him. He wasn’t letting up, but then again, I hadn’t told him to.
I was in control.
I was in control.
I was in control.
I closed my eyes as I repeated the sentence over and over.
“Like I said, all you need to do is open your mouth and relax… or we can stop.”
“Stop like, for good?”
“If you want, or we could make out for a while. We could do some of that regular foreplay you had in mind.”
It was clear in his tone that that wasn’t what he wanted. This was what he wanted, and the next thought hit me like a train, sucking even more breath from my tiny lungs—this was why he had sex with older women. Girls my age wouldn’t want it like this, or at least I didn’t think they would. But for some reason, I did. Maybe. There was certainly a level of excitement to it that I couldn’t deny.
And if we did it the other way. The normal way. It wouldn’t be him. It’d be the same guy he pretended to be with Leilani and whoever else he chose to sleep with.
I didn’t want that.
I didn’t want fake.
He sucked the remainder of the air between us into his lungs in one sharp inhale as my lips parted for him. The tip of his cock poked against me again, and I opened my mouth wider. Inch by inch he filled my mouth, smooth skin grazing over my teeth.
“Swirl your tongue around it,” he said, his voice as hoarse as mine had been. As if remembering I needed to breathe, I sucked in air through my nose and pushed it back out. His weight had lifted some, so it wasn’t all on my chest, but with the way he held my head, it’s like it put a kink in my trachea.