14. Cam

fourteen

Cam

My entire life, my room was my sanctuary. The one place I wasn't looking over my shoulder for the knife coming at my back. In my room I could lock out the endless string of junkie boyfriends my mom brought through. When I was older, with Archer, my room was the place I could shrug out of the cut and the responsibilities it carried.

Caught in that brief, fuzzy place between sleep and wakefulness, I panicked.

When I was a kid, I'd bolt upright, gasping and ready to fight. As an adult, I tempered that to a brief start—clenching my fists and waiting for the next bad thing to come at me. Even my sleep was a fight for survival.

But not this. The phone on my dresser bleeped an alarm. Two sharp tones and nothing more. This time, in that in between place, I burrowed into the inviting hum and stretched. My arm was heavy, pinned against something soft, pliant, warm.

Riley stretched against me, pressing into me so that her ass rubbed across my groin. I went from half mast, just waking up, to a raging hard on before she'd so much as mumbled in her sleep.

Damn.

Only a thin sheet separated us. I'd never woken up curled around a woman like this. Not even those I'd screwed. I'd never cared enough to stick around. Or to leave yourself vulnerable.

Choosing to ignore the voice in my head, I turned all my attention to Riley. In her sleep she'd rolled into me, the blanket she'd used thrown half over my legs. Her body was pliant against mine, teasing me. Fuck . I wanted her so bad.

I shouldn't.

I knew better.

But I nuzzled her head anyway, kissing the spot just behind her ear, then lower to the curve of her neck.

She stilled for a second, before she twined her fingers with mine and pulled my hand against her stomach. "Cam?"

Her tentative whisper barely audible over the hum of the air conditioner, but it was enough for me to pause. In that few seconds of quiet, I could vividly recall the way she'd tasted when I kissed her, the feel of her lips gliding across mine, and the way she'd surrendered to the pull between us. The careful, considerate young woman had turned into something else entirely. And I really liked being the one responsible.

I wanted more of it, needed it, craved it. But still, I waited.

"I've—I—" She stopped, unable to say more.

But I didn't need her to say it. I could see it. The innocence, the way she didn't seem to trust to look at me, the hesitant way she moved that was so fucking sexy.

Princess was a virgin.

The untouched thing was never a turn on, I preferred my partners willing and experienced. Time to bail. Abort Mission.

Not this time. Desire shot all the way from my chest to the tip of my cock that twitched with it. The first person to touch her, to be inside her, to make her come. All Mine.

I should leave. And yet… "Tell me when you want me to stop."

Nuzzling the hair from her neck with my nose, I kissed the skin there, nipping and suckling a line down her shoulder as I dragged my hand across her stomach and over her hip. I didn't stop the slide of my hand until her fingers slipped free. Only then did I retrace the path, this time digging in a little with the blunt tips of my fingers.

Her little gasp told me I didn't have to be gentle. I shifted, letting her roll on her back beneath me. Hovering over her, much like that first night, I kissed her. She tasted of everything I'd ever needed. Warm, wet, and full of life. Her tongue twisted against mine, her fingers traced up my stomach, over my chest, and then down my arms, leaving little chills in their wake.

Even her touch drove me out of my mind.

When I broke the kiss, she reached for my face, confusion barely visible in the dim afternoon light from the living room.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Easy, darlin." I left her warmth long enough to kick out of the sheet and sweep the blanket away. With my knee between her thighs and a hand braced on either side of her head, I looked down, wishing I'd turned on the light. But I couldn't leave her, not even for a second.

"You're fucking beautiful." I said the words between ragged breaths.

She blushed and glanced away. The tiny hesitation was my undoing. She had no clue, absolutely none. Not of the men that turned to look when she walked in, of the way their gazes lingered, of how much I'd wanted her since that very first night when she'd fought against me.

She wasn't struggling now.

I dropped my head to her stomach, kissed the hem of the form hugging leggings she wore, and got the briefest taste of her skin there. Inhaling the heady scent of her, needing more, I pushed her shirt up and kissed the skin around her navel.

Riley's hips wiggled, and she squeaked a groan when I traced the rim of her belly button with the tip of my tongue.

"That…shouldn't be so hot," she gasped out.

Grinning against her, I kissed higher, alternating between kissing and sucking until my nose grazed her bra. I nipped at her nipple through the silky material and she thrust her crotch against my knee, hands twitching as she grabbed for the sheet that covered the mattress.

I could take her right then, jerk the leggings off and drive in. Bury my cock inside her. It ached and throbbed to do that very thing.

And yet I rolled half away, hooked my thumbs in the waist of her leggings and pulled them over her hips, then lower, as the material rolled across the narrow line of hair that disappeared between her legs.

I gave her a cheeky look and lifted my left eyebrow.

She couldn't meet my eyes.

"Every inch of you is a new surprise."

"Shut up," she mumbled on a gasp as I ran the tip of one finger down that line, stopping just before she parted for me.

I laughed and watched her writhe against me in the semi-dark. Still mostly dressed, hair a mess over the pillows, chest rising up and down as fast as my heartbeat, she was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. No, the way her wet lips parted with excitement was the sexiest.

"I'm going to make you come, darlin. When you do, I want you to say my name."

"Cam." She gasped half breathless.

"Cameron," I corrected her. Nobody ever called me that and I couldn't figure out why I wanted her to so damn bad.

"Cameron." Her gaze caught mine, held it in the semidarkness.

"Yeah, baby, just like that."