by Kent, Rina
Dead silence.
The faces in the crowd looked to each other in confusion, but the whispering hadn’t started. None of that mattered. I only had eyes for one of those faces.
I handed the microphone back to the DJ, who took it like I was handing him a bomb. The music started back up a few seconds later, and I made my way toward Eden.
“Holy shit,” she said, holding a hand over her mouth to suppress her amused smile.
“That bad?” I glanced around, the twisting in my gut seemingly permanent. Plenty of eyes were still on me, including Coach’s. He was headed straight for me.
“You didn’t have to do that.” Eden dropped her hand and shook her head, the smile now fully visible. She cupped my face in her hands and kissed me. When she pulled back, she didn’t even react to the cat calls around us. She didn’t seem to even realize how much we were being stared at. I, on the other hand, didn’t have an ounce of comfort left. “But thank you. And yeah, I guess I’ll be your girlfriend.” She winked and kissed me again. This time longer. More passionate. People cheered around us, but it slowly faded away. My beating heart raced for a new reason.
“Cam.”
I broke the kiss and peered at Coach. He didn’t seem the least bit amused by my awkward declaration. I turned to Eden and smiled, barely suppressing a laugh.
“Meet me at the Jeep?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eden
Leilani squealed as Hunter came up behind her in the pool and dragged her back by her hips. Laughter filled the air, mixing in with Eminem’s voice blaring from the speakers. I shifted on Camden’s lap, turning to him and watching as his soft lips moved, deep in a conversation with Trey.
White teeth shone as he smiled and shook his head at a comment from Trey. Something about the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver… I think.
“Whatever you say.” Camden turned back to me, his smile widening. “What do you think, babe?”
I laughed and grabbed the cup from his hand before setting it down on the table separating us from Trey and Paige. “I think you talk a lot when you’re drunk.”
His hand cupped the back of my neck and he pulled me in. “Maybe you should shut me up then.”
“Somebody needs to,” I laughed, closing the distance to kiss him. When his tongue snaked its way into my mouth, I pulled back. With the way my face heated, I was certain my cheeks had turned red.
“Oooo, Eden’s got a boyfriend,” Paige joked, laughing and sloshing beer onto the patio.
“Yeah, she does.” Camden laughed right along with her.
I’d been drinking Mountain Dew for most of the evening, but with the way Camden and his friends acted without judgement or inhibitions, I finally understood the appeal of alcohol. It was crazy. Two months ago, I’d been here rolling my eyes at their behavior, but tonight I was sitting on my boyfriend’s lap, laughing along with the rest of them. It didn’t even feel weird or like I was the odd man out. It felt like I belonged.
“Do you wanna go someplace more private?” Camden whispered in my ear. He ran his palm in a circle over my knee before sliding higher.
“Cam, Eden, we need two more people. Let’s go.” Hunter splashed water onto the patio and lifted himself up on the edge. Steam billowed off him from the heated water coating his skin.
“Nah, we’re busy,” Camden answered for us. “Next time.”
Hunter’s eyes met mine, and he shook his finger at me before giving me a wink and turning his attention to Trey and Paige.
Camden’s hand settled between my legs, and his fingers poked into the material of my leggings. My eyes snapped back to him. I grabbed his wrist and pulled it down my leg. “Could you not?” I asked, keeping my tone light.
He pursed his lips in a fake pout, and I rolled my eyes. “Where do you wanna go?”
“Really?” he asked, his eyebrows lifting.
I shrugged. “You know, to talk about our newfound relationship and stuff. Hammer out all the boundaries.”
“Damn, do you know how to have fun or what?”
“Just shut up and answer my question.”
He chuckled before playing with a strand of my hair, letting it fall and brushing his fingers over the exposed skin of my neck. “We could go upstairs. There’s a few guest bedrooms.”
“Is there one you haven’t slept with another girl in?”
“Uh—”
“Never mind, don’t answer that.” I looked up as I thought. The last thing I’d want to be thinking about was a different time Camden had sex, so Hunter’s entire house was probably out of the question.
“What about the Jeep?”
He bit his lip and slowly shook his head.
“You are such a whore.”
Camden laughed. “But I’m a pretty whore, right? Why are you worried about that, anyway? It’s not like they don’t change the sheets.”
I went to speak, but Camden pressed his lips to mine, stealing my words. He pulled back and ran his hands through another lock of my hair. “I don’t want us to think about the past. This won’t work if we do.”
His humor had vanished, and he was all seriousness now. It sobered me some from the excitement in the air and my own thoughts.
He was right. If we didn’t use this as an opportunity to start over fresh, we’d fall apart. Too many things had happened. We needed a clean slate, and after what he’d done at the dance, I didn’t need to worry about trusting him anymore. I needed to worry about forgiving him. And I chose to forgive him.
I glanced over his shoulder into the house. It was jam packed since Camden invited the entire dance. “You think we’d be able to find someplace private?”
Camden smiled and leaned in to kiss my ear before whispering, “Let’s go see.”
His hand left my leg, and I lifted myself from his lap. He stood and took my hand before leading us into the house, lifting his middle finger into the air when a few people behind us cackled.
It was strange not to feel embarrassed by it. I gripped Camden’s hand tighter and laughed as we passed through the door. I’d been the school slut for months, and now that I was actually here, at a party, about to have sex with my boyfriend, there was no judgement. No embarrassment. No anything. My group of friends would’ve wrinkled their noses at the thought, but not Camden’s. I was starting to think I liked them better.
Had Hell frozen over?
We made it upstairs, and I started when Camden shoved me into a wall. His lips found my neck, and his hands wound around my waist. “Are you overthinking again?” he asked, his voice already sounding hoarse. He sucked on my neck and moved his hands underneath my shirt, sliding up to cup my breasts.
I gripped his wrist and glanced around the hallway. “Not here.”
“Why not?” he asked with a chuckle. “We’re not fooling anyone.”
His words were a little sluggish. A little less smooth than usual. His face was flushed, and his eyes had half-hooded lids. He was drunk, happy, and had an animalistic look in his eyes that made me realize he’d been holding back before. It was sexy and worrisome at the same time, and an exciting shiver ran up my spine.
I shrugged his hands off me and took his wrist. “Come on,” I said, leading him to the first door we came to. I assumed it was a guest bedroom, with the bland decor and lifeless vibe it had. Cozy enough, but not lived in.
Camden’s hands were on me again as soon as the door clicked shut, and I took a step away from him, lifting my lips into a smirk.
“Babe, come on.”
“You want me?” I asked, taking a step back when he came toward me.
He paused and chuckled, letting his arms fall to his sides. “You know I do.”
“Then lay down on the bed.”
His head tilted, but a half smile curled on his face. “You tryin’ to take charge?”
Instead of answering, I just raised a brow and waited. He chuckled again before shuffling over to the bed and laying down, lacing his fingers behind his head on the pillow. “Sa
tisfied?”
I clicked the lock on the door and sauntered over to the bed, swaying my hips more than usual. The smile vanished, and his eyes darted up and down my body. More of that need took hold, so strong I could smell it in the air. It clouded the room with the most delicious type of tension, and I loved it. I loved all of it. His life. His future. Him. It felt too soon to say the words, but with no alcohol in my system, he could make me feel blacked out drunk. He tore down all my walls, shut down all my reasoning, and ripped his way straight into my heart. And I fucking loved him for it. Just for being Camden Knight.
“Am I satisfied?” I asked, still smirking. “Not even close.”
He went to lean up as I sat on the bed, but I placed a hand on his chest to urge him back down.
“Eden, what’s up?”
“This time, we’re going at my pace.”
His face fell, and he pulled his hands from behind his head to rest on his elbows. “You haven’t been liking it?”
“Of course I have.” I smoothed a hand over his chest and scooted closer. “I just—I want to try something a little different.”
“Different how?”
He’d sobered some, and I could hear the sliver of disappointment in his voice. When we’d had sex it had been on his terms. How he’d wanted it, when he’d wanted it, where he’d wanted it. Now, his eyes glazed over as if he was picturing us, passionately kissing in the missionary position. It wasn’t what he wanted, and he’d made that obvious. Lucky for him, I didn’t want that either.
“I can tell you like to be in control. I get that, and I like it, but I also like to know what’s going on. I want to have some control as well.”
“Babe, if I’ve made you uncomfortable, I’m—”
“You haven’t made me uncomfortable. Just listen, okay?”
He nodded and pushed his tongue into the side of his cheek while he waited.
I searched my mind for the right words to say, and blood rushed to my cheeks when the words jumbled into a hot mess. If they didn’t make sense in my head, how where they going to make sense out loud?
“You know how you tell me you know what I want?”
His eyes narrowed to slits, but he nodded.
“Sometimes I can’t tell what you want. Sometimes I think you might be holding back.”
“If I need to hold back more, then I can. It’s not a big deal.” He placed his hand over mine and forced a small smile, clearly trying to hide the fact that it was a big deal.
“But I want to know what you want. That’s the part that makes me feel out of control. I don’t know what you’re about to do or what you want, so even though I know I can tell you to stop, it’s like… It’s like I still don’t feel as if I’m giving you the go ahead.”
“So…”
“So I want you to tell me, right now, what it is you want… and then we’ll do it.”
My cheeks were hot as coals, but my voice was cool. I turned my attention to Camden’s chest, tracing an invisible pattern in his shirt when his laugh snapped my eyes back to his face. The confusion was gone, and in its place was pure amusement.
“Are you saying you want me to talk dirty to you?”
“No, that’s not—” I smacked my lips together. I did think knowing what he wanted would give me a better sense of control. It was too hard to say no to things in the moment. If I knew what was coming, I could feel like I’d agreed to it without so much of an internal battle.
But there was also a buzz on the back of my neck that travelled over my shoulders and down my spine at the thought of hearing the words come from his lips. So, yeah, I wanted him to talk dirty.
“Kind of.”
He chuckled again and scooted over on the bed before patting the space beside him. I lay down next to him and shivered when his hand cupped my hip and jerked me into him. His dick was straining against his pants and poked into my thigh.
“You really wanna know what I want to do to you? No holding back?”
“Yeah.” The word was a whisper brushing over my parted lips.
He let go of my waist and snaked his hand underneath my leggings, finding the sweet spot and rubbing me over my panties. My eyes fluttered closed, and my breathing grew deeper. How could he have this effect on me before we’d even started?
“I want to rip these panties off of you and put your ass in the air. Shove your face in a pillow to smear that God awful makeup.”
“You don’t like it?”
I opened my eyes fully, momentarily taken out of the imagery. His face was dead serious, but his finger kept moving over my clit. Softly. Like he wanted me present enough to hear everything he said, but relaxed enough to agree to it all.
“No, I don’t.”
A small pang vibrated my chest, but the pressure on my clit overshadowed it. I’d been complimented a hundred times tonight on how well I ‘clean up’. I guess it was more flattering for him to like my normal look better anyway.
“I wanna bind your hands behind your back with something that’ll leave a mark so that I can see it tomorrow. Then I wanna shove my cock into you, hard. I want it to hurt a little bit, and I want you to scream loud enough that I have to shove your face in the pillow more to muffle it.”
My eyes widened, and I pulled back an inch. “Cam—”
“You told me not to hold back.”
Still, he was stone-cold serious. His finger kept rubbing me, but it slowed, as if he was waiting for me to tell him to stop.
“I know, I just—”
“I can improvise. It doesn’t have to be just like that… Isn’t that why we’re doing this? So that you can tell me what’s too far?”
He spoke in a defensive tone. As if I was attacking him. How afraid was he of rejection? How far was I willing to go to save him from it?
What did I want?
Instead of my mind, I searched my body for the answer, focusing on every sensation that coursed through me. Arousal pooled in my panties. Camden’s touch was still electric. My skin was hot, my nipples were hardened buds, and my thighs clenched to the beat of Camden’s rhythm, aching for more.
Did I want what he was saying? As always, my mind said no while my body said yes.
I swallowed and shifted closer to him, lowering my hand to his and pressing him harder against me. “Keep going.”
“You sure?”
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. When I pulled back, there was only an inch between our mouths.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “Don’t stop.”
“I wanna come inside you. Watch it drip down your thighs after I’m done. I fuckin’ hate condoms.”
I shook my head. “Too far.”
“I’ll buy you a morning after pill.”
“You gonna buy me the herpes medicine too? You’ve had sex with Leilani.”
Camden laughed, and the sexual tension lessoned, but I think I might’ve liked us this way the most. I smiled back, his amusement contagious.
“It’s not nice to insinuate girls are sluts, remember? Besides, if you sucked my dick thinking I had herpes, then maybe you’re the one with the problem.”
“That’s why I put on the makeup.” I laughed again and bit my lip, pointing to the corner of my mouth as if there was a herpes outbreak underneath the foundation I applied.
Camden gave his head a shake and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I’m gonna come inside you, and you’re gonna like it.”
With that, he shot up on the bed and pulled his shirt off, exposing the bare chest that stole my words. Every. Single. Time. Fuck, he was hot.
He flashed me his teeth before ripping my shirt over my head as well. I lifted my arms and let him pull it off me, but when he went for my pants, I grabbed his arm.
“You’re not having sex with me without a condom.”
He rolled his eyes and tugged my leggings down, freeing himself from my grip in the process. I was down to only my bra and panties, but it wasn’t so cold like it was at Camden’s house. My skin was on fire.
He stood from the bed and gestured toward my bra. “Are we gonna make this scenario come true or what?”
“Depends. Are you going to put on a condom?”
He reached into his back pocket and held the foiled packet up for me to see.
My eyes narrowed, and I scooted up on the bed. “You were carrying that in your pocket all evening? That’s some confidence you got there.”
“I’m dating Easy Eden. It was a sure thing.” He winked and twirled his finger in a gesture to tell me to hurry up.
I sighed, but didn’t manage to suppress the smile that teased my lips. He was joking. Old me would’ve ripped into him, stormed from the room. I would’ve expected candles and an hour-long make out session before considering having sex. But damn it, I liked the jokes. I liked that he made me laugh, that he challenged me, that he pushed me.
And I liked to push back.
I stood and picked my shirt up from off the floor. “Mm, guess you should work on hedging your bets.”
When I went to put it on, Camden tore it from me. I took a step back, and he gripped my waist and jerked me toward him. The sexual tension was back, and he stared into my eyes a moment before crashing his lips to mine. He tasted of beer, but he seemed to have lost his buzz. His movements had been much less sluggish since coming to the room.
His fingers threaded through my hair, and he tugged my head back, breaking our kiss.
He moved to my neck, down my chest, until he dropped to his knees and his face was at my breasts. He unhooked my bra and jerked it off my shoulders, making me gasp at the sudden friction teasing my sensitive nipples.