Page 15

CHAPTER 15

CAMDEN

A s soon as I got into my car, I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. When Jenner’s hand had touched my lower back on the way out of the building, I’d thought I’d come unglued.

Even small touches from him sent my hormones spilling over. My horny cup runneth over, so to speak. Which was why I couldn’t go to lunch. An hour across from him, just the two of us—not a chance. Not right now, anyway.

He smelled like summer and sunshine, which drew me close when I hated him. I didn’t know what he wore or if that was just his natural smell, but damn, did it do it for me.

At least with the script to write, I had an excuse to go home. After all, this was a favor for him and to the charity, but I wouldn’t have even known about it if it weren’t for him. With me volunteering my time, they wouldn’t have to use any donations to hire someone because their in-house person was only part-time and already had a ton of her regular work to do.

Not to toot my own horn, but this might’ve been a little beyond what she could handle, anyway. I was a newbie—obviously—since I hadn’t even graduated with my degree yet, but I’d spent years watching my mom with her PR team.

I could do this and it’d be an amazing experience .

Once I was home, I grabbed a Diet Pepsi and my laptop then settled onto the couch so that I could work. That was after changing, of course. I wasn’t about to sit there in a skirt. No. I put on a pair of comfortable yoga pants and a T-shirt.

Before I got started, I ran through what I thought the social media spots would look like. We’d talked about it pretty in depth, so I thought I had a handle on it.

But the first thing I wrote was garbage. It would’ve gotten me a D at best in my classes. So I deleted that.

And the process continued. We were looking for three spots, which meant three scripts because we didn’t want Jenner saying the same thing in each one. There was a lot of deleting during this time and a lot of me forcing the image of his mouth out of my head.

Then, I had them. All three. They were perfect in my opinion and Jenner had said he’d be all right with whatever I said, which even I knew had been his way of trying to make me hate him less.

If only he knew I realized that it wasn’t all hate that I felt toward him.

Still, I wanted him to be comfortable with the scripts and thought about texting them to him. Instead, I wanted to stretch my legs because I’d been working on this for four hours with a few breaks for a snack in between. Now that it was going on five, I needed to move. We’d been at the non-profit for almost two hours this morning. It had been a long-ish day. Food would also be nice at some point .

And that was when I got the idea to take this over to Jenner myself then grab dinner on the way back. Maybe I’d see what Harlowe and Brooks were doing. Though it was his day off, so I didn’t want to intrude on what little family time they had. So I’d probably skip that.

Still, I planned to do the rest.

I grabbed my jacket and keys then headed over to his house.

Jenner didn’t live far from Silas, though I didn’t think that had been totally intentional. Jenner had bought his house first when he’d come back to Kalamazoo the year before my brother. He’d always wanted to be on the Knights, whereas Silas had not.

None of my brothers had wanted that, but Brooks hadn’t complained when he’d gone to our team in the draft. It was almost like he’d already known it was going to happen and had been content with it. He had also been able to milk a bigger signing-on bonus.

When I pulled up to Jenner’s house, I decided to go into the driveway when normally, at anyone’s house, I would’ve parked on the street to ensure no one was going to block me in and I could get away anytime I wanted to. But today, I felt like pulling into the driveway.

It wasn’t until I cut the engine that it occurred to me that maybe I should’ve sent a text first. Who was I to assume that he was home—alone—in the first place ?

But I was here now and he probably had already heard my car when I’d pulled in. There was no turning back now.

Much more hesitant now with an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach and the sound of my heartbeat in my ears, I slowly made my way to his door.

Jenner had bought this beautiful old craftsman when he’d gotten his signing bonus. I’d overheard him talking to Brooks—who had already been on the team—about it, saying that he hoped he’d get traded to Kalamazoo soon and he was. Part of it if, I thought, was that he wanted to be close to his parents since his mom had already been sick by then. She wasn’t sickly most of the time, but that threat of cancer was always there looming and it had an effect on Jenner.

This was home to him and he would’ve played wherever life took him, but the fact that he got to stay here was like the cherry on top.

I squeezed my fist tighter to stop the barely noticeable trembling so that I could knock on the door.

How reckless not calling or texting first was. That had probably set me up for an uncomfortable interaction and it wouldn’t be anyone’s fault but my own. When he didn’t answer, I was about to turn and scurry off back to my car.

Except he opened it before I could even complete a half turn.

His eyebrows pinched together. “Camden?”

“Hey.” I cleared my throat quickly and willed my pounding heart to take a break. “I’m sorry. I should’ve called first. I finished the scrips and was kind of excited about it, so I just came over. That’s rude. I should’ve texted. You could be…” I took a deep breath and blew it out. “Busy.”

Because the idea of Jenner with other women had always bothered me. As much as I hated admitting that to even myself.

“I’m not busy,” he said as he stepped aside so that I could enter his house.

Jenner was still wearing jeans and the long-sleeved T-shirt from this morning. He didn’t have shoes on because he was inside the house, so he was only in socks and his hair was a little messier. Like he’d run his hand through it a few times.

But those blue eyes watched me intently.

As soon as he shut the door, I pushed my shoes off then followed him into the living room.

“Do you want something to drink?” he asked.

“No, thank you.” I sat on the couch like I’d been here a hundred times before, which wasn’t true at all. I could count on one hand how often I’d been to his house and I’d have a few fingers left. When there was something here, I avoided it like the house was haunted. “So, I finished the scripts for each of the spots. They’re funny and… well, I shouldn’t be bragging about them since I wrote them.”

“Sure, you should.” He sat down beside me and I should’ve rethought where I’d decided to land. He was too close. His arms brushed against mine. In theory, you could say it was needed because he had to see what I was showing him, but I’d printed it out. He could’ve read it anywhere. “You should be proud of your work. ”

“Just read it.” I thrust the paper toward him. “Then decide and please be honest. It has to be good.”

First, I set up spot one so he could envision it then went silent so he could read through what he was supposed to say. Then I did the same for the other two. He snorted as he read, which meant he at least found it funny. I wasn’t going for full comedy here, but there was some levity needed.

“These are great,” he told me as he handed the paper back to me. I didn’t need it but took it, anyway. Then our gazes met.

“Really?” I asked, trying not to get my hopes up.

“Really.”

“You won’t be embarrassed to say any of that?”

He chuckled quickly. “Not at all. I think they’re great. When are we doing this?”

I bit my lips together, unsure whether he was going to like this or not. “You have a day game on Saturday. They’d like to do it in the morning. It should honestly only take an hour. But we can move it to the evening, though that’s harder because of the kids and it costs more with the camera people. Honestly, I’ll just pay for the extra.” What good was an obscene amount of money if I didn’t use it for things I was passionate about?

“No.” He set his hand on my knee as if he knew that I’d immediately stop talking because all I’d focus on was that hand touching me. “I mean, I can’t do it in the morning because of the game.”

“Right.” I blew out a quick breath. “I knew that. It’s why I suggested the evening. Though I told them I’d run it past you in case you wake up freakishly early.”

He laughed and sat back but didn’t move his hand. “I do not. I wake up usually fifteen minutes later than I’m supposed to.”

I had to snicker. He’d been like that in high school too. “They just would really like it done on Saturday because you have the long road trip coming up and they’d like to launch this ASAP. So Saturday night would be better.” My gaze flashed to his again. “Unless you’re busy.”

“I’m not busy.”

“No plans?”

“None.”

Nodding, I said, “All right. Saturday evening.” I grabbed my phone to look at my calendar. “If the game is at 1:40… Say it’s three hours, though I know you guys can do it in less. Do you need to eat before you come? Yes, right?”

“I can grab something to eat on the ride over if you agree we can get dinner after.”

Dinner. With Jenner. I wasn’t so sure about that, but here I was at his house, suddenly very comfortable with him. “Yeah. That’s fine. 6:30, then?”

“Yeah. I’ll be there.”

Right away, I tapped out a text to Kimberly and Marceline, letting them know what we had decided. That way, they could set everything up. I also added on that I needed the information for the two boys Jenner was playing with so I could send them the information and scholarships for our summer camp. That way, they’d have time to accept if they wanted to before camp filled up. Though I’d make room for them either way.

“You’re really good at this,” he told me as I pressed send .

“Thanks.” Though part of me didn’t want to take him seriously, given how easily he’d dismissed my feelings before. I was trying to remind myself that he’d been a lot younger then and there had probably been a reason behind it. I was just too chicken to ask. Or too chicken to mess up this new dynamic we suddenly found ourselves in.

“So you’ll work for the team when you graduate?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I let out a long sigh. “I haven’t talked to my mom yet to know if there’s a spot available.” I turned on the couch so that I’d be facing him more and he did the same. This meant that the hand on my knee was no longer there, but he rested his arm along the back of the couch and pulled a lock of my hair between his fingers.

If I didn’t know better, I would say he was flirting. But Jenner Greene would never be flirtatious with me.

“But I want to,” I kept explaining. “It’d be great experience even starting at the bottom with an organization like the Knights. But I also don’t want it to be just because my mom owns the team. I know I’ll be a nepo baby either way, but I want to be treated like any other newbie.”

“You should use whatever leg up you can. I did.” Though I didn’t know what he meant until he kept explaining. “I used Coach Kincaid. He’d already had players go to the MLB. It gave me a leg up. Being friends with your brothers also opened up some things. You think I turned that shit down? Not a chance.”

“Yeah, but nepotism feels yucky. All of the guys worried about it before they were drafted too. Like they’d only be drafted because they were Conrad Briggs’s sons.”

“Right. And that opened some doors for them, for sure. You can’t pass up an opportunity just because it makes you uncomfortable.”

This might’ve been the most vulnerable I’d been with him since the night I’d told him that I’d loved him. It should’ve been harder for me to talk to him after five years of never being alone with him and making sure my hate walls were up.

But I didn’t hate him. He’d hurt me, that was true. I’d gotten physically hurt because of that. But that hadn’t been his fault. It was like finally being alone with him had made me realize that I’d only hated him because we were never alone.

“I really admire your talent and ambition,” he said quietly. It wasn’t until then that I realized he hadn’t let go of my hair yet.

I snorted, but it was a nervous reaction. “My talent? You’re the one who can take a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball to the ribs and still play.”

“That’s not talent,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s stupidity. Plus, a hundred miles an hour?” He shook his head. “If that hit my ribs, I’d probably be out of the game. ”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Ninety-five miles per hour.”

“Maybe.”

After quickly wetting my lips, I added, “Maybe we should have Cobb test it on you. One side ninety-five, the other a hundred.”

He groaned and dropped his head back. “I’m not a masochist.” Then he leveled himself out so that he was looking directly at me with something in his eyes that I couldn’t place. “But if it got you to not hate me, I’d do it, Camden. You wouldn’t have to ask me twice.”

Jenner almost broke my heart again right there. I had to swallow down the emotions. He wanted me to forgive him and at this point, I wanted to, but I didn’t even know what had actually happened that night. Why he’d said the things he had.

Right now, I didn’t care.

He suddenly leaned over and pressed his lips to mine, a lot like he had in the kitchen at Brooks’s house. His tongue licked at my seam so that I’d open for him as he wrapped his arm around my back to pull me closer.

I was almost lost in this kiss when my senses came back and I put a little space between us. Not a lot. His breath still feathered over my skin.

“Why do you keep doing that?” I asked him, hoping for an answer that would make me feel better about what I thought might happen tonight.

“I think you know.” Then he dove in to kiss me again .

We were there on the couch when he leaned me onto my back so that he could hover over me. His fingertips trailed across my cheek like I was something special, fragile, that he needed to take care with.

When he pressed his body against mine, all of the resentment I had for him was gone and now I was just a woman with the man she’d always loved. Ugh. As much as I tried to hate him, this moment right here showed that I’d been unsuccessful.

Giving into him wasn’t my proudest moment.

I threaded my fingers into his hair and let the feeling of him against me take over. My heartbeat thumped in my ears for a completely different reason than when I’d come to his door as my body warmed. When he broke the kiss to drag his lips down my neck, my breath quickened.

This was Jenner Greene and his lips were on me.

It was surreal. I’d imagined this moment a lot. Fought seeing it a lot after the night I was hurt. But he’d been the one I’d wanted since I’d known how to want a man.

Feeling brave, I pulled my fingers from his hair and settled my hands on his shoulders for a short stop on their way under his shirt. Jenner’s body was hard muscle covered by soft skin. As I ran my hands over his chest, he sat back and pulled his shirt off so that nothing interfered with my exploration.

His mouth touched the swells of my breasts and I almost wanted to pull my own shirt off, but I was reminded of my scars and froze .

I’d had sex before, but usually, I kept my shirt on. If a guy pushed my shirt over my breasts, then the bigger scar was still hidden. Not the one near my ribs, but once they saw a woman’s breasts, it was almost like they didn’t notice anything else.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding breathless and full of desire.

I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip, not wanting to tell him. How could I? I tried to act like everything was always fine because for the most part, it was. But these ugly scars—jagged and still very noticeable—were a reminder of something I’d rather forget.

“The scars?” he asked quietly as he rested his weight on his arm. I nodded silently. “Baby… I don’t care about them. I know they’re there.” He ran his hand over my cheek. “Do you not let people see them?” This time, I shook my head quickly. No guy I’d been with before had seen them. Jenner swallowed hard. “Do you want to stop?”

“No,” I answered quietly, though my voice sounded too eager. “It’s just… a reminder of…”

“I know.” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against mine. “I was there, remember. I saw them before…” Then he took a deep breath and said, “Trust me.”

And it was like that was all I needed. He maneuvered us so that he could slowly pull my shirt off my body. As he kept our gazes locked, heating me with just a look, he reached around and undid my bra, freeing my breasts to the air. My nipples hardened more, but still, he didn’t look away. Not until he slowly slid his gaze from mine to the scar above my right breast. It was big and it was ugly. It was the reason I always wore bathing suits with a thick strap.

Then he leaned down and kissed it. My toes curled into my feet. Nobody touched those scars. Nobody. Yet he did and I let him. Then he did the same with the other one before meeting my gaze again for a split second before descending to kiss me again.

Only this time, his rough hands cupped my breasts. Calloused fingers scraped across my nipples in the most pleasurable of ways. It was hard to describe. It didn’t hurt and in fact had me ready to let go.

My reaction made it seem like my body was made for him and he was the only one who knew exactly what I needed.

Working up that bravery I’d had before, I slipped my hand into his jeans and lightly brushed against his cock. If I’d thought the skin on his chest was soft… It was nothing compared to this.

But when I made contact, he pulled back. “Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that.”

I narrowed my eyes on him and tilted my head to the side. “Really?”

“I mean… I did, but just not right then.”

I gave him a coy smile as he took a deep breath.

“If we’re going to do this,” he said, “I think we should go to my bedroom.”

Reaching out my hands for him to help me up was my answer. He pulled me up and didn’t let go until we were in his bedroom. There were a couple of lights on for which I was thankful. This way, I’d be able to see everything and remember it all. If this was a one-time thing—yes, I remembered how that had turned out for my brother and Harlowe—I didn’t want to be in the dark.

Jenner made quick work of my yoga pants and panties as well as his own jeans so that we were both naked, then he led me to the bed, where he had me lie back. At first, his gaze roamed over me and it was like I could feel it. Like an actual tough caressing my body as he sat back. It was intense so when he buried his face between my legs, my back arched and my breath caught as his tongue trailed over me. He crawled up my body to spread my legs wide before burying his face there.

There were sounds coming from my mouth and chest that I should’ve tried to control, but there was no way I could as Jenner worked his magic. He sucked and licked his way to my orgasm. One that slammed into me so hard, I curled my fists into the pillow under my head.

I wanted it to be my turn, but when I reached for his cock, he pulled away.

“I’d love for that to happen, but if you do that now, I’m going to explode in your mouth and that’s not where I want to explode tonight.”

Snickering, I covered my lips with my fingers to try to hide how much I loved that statement from him. It sounded like he’d been waiting for this as long as I had.

Jenner grabbed a condom from the side table drawer and ripped it open. Once again, there was something I wanted and I was going to be brave .

“Do you think you need that this one time?” I asked, my voice sounding like someone’s Great-Aunt Patty, who’d lived a hard life of drinking and smoking and was asking you to rub her weary feet.

“Uh…” He froze like the question pour ice water over him. “I don’t think either of us wants a baby.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. But I have an IUD, which I’ll honestly probably never get again, so I shouldn’t get pregnant. Or at least the risk is tiny.”

“You sure about this?”

I nodded again. “Unless you think—”

“I don’t think any of that.” He kissed me deeply again. It was like he knew I was going to say that unless he thought one of us was going to give the other something… which, let’s be real. The risk was more on me, but I was in a risk-taking mood. Though I didn’t think he’d allow me to risk this if there was any chance he could pass something on to me.

Then he tossed the condom into the abyss and climbed back on top of me.

If it was going to be this one time, I wanted to feel him. Not the latex.

We worked each other up again before he pressed himself against me. In one confident move, he was inside me, filling me to the point that I wouldn’t have been able to take much more. He groaned and I moaned before he started moving.

He slipped his hand between us to rub my clit, which had me going off like a firework on Fourth of July for the second time. It didn’t take much with him, apparently .

“You feel better than I ever imagined,” he said against my shoulder before dropping a wet kiss there. Suddenly he paused.

With my hands on either side of his face, I brought him up so that I could see his eyes. I’d know if this was the truth or just pillow talk by looking into his eyes. “You’ve thought about this?”

His tongue swept over his bottom lip. “An embarrassing amount of times.” Then he thrust hard into me, making my head fall back and a breathless grunt escape.

Jenner pushed, making me full of him, again and again, until he found his release.

His head dropped against mine and all I could do was close my eyes and relish in the idea of just how much certain muscles were going to be tomorrow. I hadn’t had sex in a while and some muscles went unused.

Now they’d been thoroughly used and stretched.

Once he’d moved off me, reality slipped in. I’d just had sex with Jenner. My brother’s best friend who’d hurt me more than anyone else in my life. What had I been thinking?

I knew exactly what I’d been thinking. I had wanted him for a long time, I’d been horny, and he’d kissed me.

The question was: How did he feel about all of this?