I hummed, feeling depleted and numb, letting all my weight fall on him. I reopened my eyes, realizing only then that I’d closed them at some point. Cameron’s nostrils flared. His mouth parted with a rough exhale. I moved my hands over his chest, feeling how hard he was breathing.
I met his gaze, that deep shade of green swirling with need. I wanted to see him. I wanted to—
Cameron kissed me again. Hard and soft, all at once. I melted against him, my hands seeking, going down his chest, and reaching the edge of his coat. I slipped my fingers underneath, just like I couldn’t before, and hooked my thumbs on the loops of his pants. “Ah, love,” he breathed out, followed by a humorless laugh. “I’m not fucking you in the middle of the woods.”
I tugged at his pants, releasing a breath. “But only I finished. I owe you an orgasm.”
“You don’t owe me a single thing.” He kissed the tip of my nose, then lowered his voice to a dark rasp, “I promise to come as hard as I’ve ever done when I’m finally inside you. But not here.”
My throat worked, the sweet taste of happiness and possibility making my lips turn up. I bit back on the smile. “Presumptuous of you to think that that’s in the cards for you.”
That lopsided grin took shape. “Foolish of you to think that I’m not still playing the long game here.”
My face fell, my heart jumping to my throat. I stared back at him, trying to squash the hope in my gut, the need to demand that he really mean those words. “Cam—”
My phone rang. And I… Had it done that before? I was vaguely aware.
With a grunt, Cameron stretched his arm and pulled the device out of the front pocket of the backpack.
He handed it to me, and I picked up the call without breaking eye contact with him.
Foolish of you to think that I’m not still playing the long game here.
How long? I wanted to ask. How—
Josie’s voice came through the line, but I was so focused on Cameron’s eyes, on the eruption of hope and fear in my chest, that I wasn’t making out any of her words. Not until a certain phrase slipped through.
“What?” I blurted out, snapping right back into the real world. “What do you mean my mother is here?”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Adalyn
Cameron pulled up a few feet before Josie’s Joint.
He killed the engine, and the silence that filled the car made it easier for me to hear my heart beating in my chest. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
His palm fell on my thigh again, heavy and warm, and my whole body awoke at the touch. Goodness me, is this what adolescence should have felt like? This restlessness, this sultry warmth climbing up and down my bloodstream, this… horniness.
“What are you sorry about, love?” the man beside me asked, like I didn’t have about a hundred reasons to apologize.
“Because you organized a beautiful night, and instead of gazing at the stars, I somehow managed to babble at you, leave you sexually frustrated, and get you to pick up my mother.”
He shook off a laugh that made me glance at him. Ugh, he was really so handsome when he smiled like that. “I thought I’d made myself clear…” he said, throwing his door open.
I started frowning, but then my gaze was glued to him, his ass, his shoulders, all of him, as he walked around the car with confident long strides. This was possibly worse than being sixteen.
Cameron pulled open the door and leaned inside. “The stars in the sky are not going anywhere,” he said, his voice nothing but a low rumble. “You don’t babble, ever. You shared something with me after I asked.” His head dipped, his expression turning severe. “I’m the furthest thing from sexually frustrated,” he added, his eyes sweeping down my neck, and all the way to my chest before returning to my mouth. “If anything, I’m starved.” He cleared his throat. “And I’m curious and a little excited to meet your mother.”
“Of course you are,” I murmured. “Everyone is curious, and a little excited, where Maricela Reyes is concerned.”
“Let it go,” he said, before kissing me hard and fast on the lips. “Whatever is making you worried, make it disappear. There’s no use for it now.” He touched his forehead with mine for an instant. Just a touch. “I’m here.”
My throat contracted as I looked up at him. But that part of me that had been always willing to fight him, to contradict him, was down for the night, and probably would be from now on, seeing as I was incapable of resisting Cameron Caldani anymore. The truth was that I loved when he did that, when he stated things so certainly. It made me feel lighter, less burdened. It made me want to release the control to him, just so he’d prove to me that I could.