Page 20

CHAPTER 20

JENNER

T he lights of Camden’s car flashed across my front windows, causing a glare for the slightest moment. It was late afternoon, but her car had daytime running lamps. They weren’t bright, but they were enough to catch my eye.

I hurried to the door and opened it so that I’d be waiting for her. We needed to have a talk before I left on this road trip because, with her, I didn’t want to leave anything open-ended. I was gone a lot because of my job and even I knew that the best thing to do was make sure your girl was secure in the relationship.

Not that I’d been in one since I’d become a pro, but I was around enough guys whose women didn’t feel as secure as they should have.

“Hey,” she said with a smile as she breezed past, making my chest puff with the thought of how comfortable she already was at my house. There was no hesitation for her to come it. Then when she kicked off her shoes and dropped her purse near them, it was clear she wasn’t uneasy about being there.

“Hey.” After closing the door, I cupped her cheeks so that I could kiss her properly. The moment my lips touched hers, she relaxed into me, placing her hands on my hips.

I could’ve stood there kissing her all night. Which was new. Normally, kissing was a stop on the way to the big show and I hadn’t enjoyed just kissing since high school.

When I brought it to an end, she smiled up at me with her hazel eyes sparkling. “Just so you know, Harlowe knows I’m here.”

I snorted and moved us farther into the house with my arm around her shoulders. “I assume.”

“She was with me in the car when you texted. We were almost to her house and she drove so we didn’t have to change the car seat.”

“I don’t care, Camden. Tell her. Tell them all.” Because that was exactly what I wanted to happen so that we could be out in public together. “Do you want anything? Drink? Food?”

“Not right now. I ate a hot dog at the game.”

I groaned. “Aren’t they gross?”

She shook her head as we settled on the couch. “Baseball park hot dogs are their own food group.”

“If you say so.” I quickly ran my hand over her hair. “I hate that you always have to come to me. I don’t want you to think I’m calling you to me like a dog.”

She dropped her head back to laugh, exposing her neck, making me want to lean in and kiss it, but I didn’t. “I live with my parents. It would be weird for you to come there, now wouldn’t it?”

That, I had to give her. Besides, she was graduating soon, so maybe she’d be moving too.

“I want to talk to you about us together,” I told her. We were each sitting on the couch with one leg on the cushion facing each other .

She furrowed her brows. “You want to be with me? You don’t do relationships.”

“I told you that I love you. Of course I want to be with you. I’ve always wanted to be with you.” Telling her the truth was like my chest fully inflating for the first time in years.

“OK, but what does that mean to you? Commitment isn’t your thing is it?”

I swallowed hard before saying, “It is with you. I won’t break your trust, Camden. I know what it’s like to be cheated on, so I’ll never do that.”

After a moment of contemplation, she nodded. “I don’t think you would.” So at least there was that and honestly, I’d never known Camden to be the jealous type. Actually, I didn’t know much about her dating life in general. She’d kept that shit close to the vest to keep it from her brothers and I always appreciated that. I hadn’t had to hear about it, either, that way.

“I want to tell my family,” she said suddenly. “Especially Silas.”

“I’m ready to do that now.” I scratched at the back of my head. “Actually, I was going to do it on this road trip so that you didn’t feel any of the fallout. I mean, if they call you, hanging up or ignoring is an option.”

“No. You need to let me do this. It’s my family.”

So I let out a sigh. At least she wasn’t planning on keeping us a secret for long. “I’ll be patient,” I agree. “But don’t wait too long.”

“I won’t, but you’re all gone for eleven days, so it’ll at least be until then. And maybe once they know, we should start slowly. Spend time together. Be more comfortable around each other when my family is around because they’ve all thought I hated you for at least the last five years.”

“You did hate me, though you were the only one uncomfortable.”

“I didn’t hate you, exactly,” she countered.

“Yeah, you did. And you had a reason to because I’d done a shit job of keeping some distance between us that sent you running, which had ended with you getting hurt.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth but didn’t acknowledge what I’d said. If I could’ve done that night over, I would’ve done it very differently.

“What about Silas?” she asked.

“What about him?

“He’s going to be angry about this.”

Letting a relaxed smile curve my lips was one of the best ways I could think of to put her at ease. “I understand you’re worried about him. Afraid of what’s going to happen because they’re all about to find out I was the reason you got hurt that night, but I don’t care. I don’t care what your brothers think. I’m too old to care about what they think.”

“But—”

“He and I will deal with it. If he has a problem, he’ll get over it. Maybe he’ll threaten me a little.” I chuckled, but we threatened each other all the time.

She raised an eyebrow. “You don’t care about being threatened? ”

I shook my head. “Not even a little, but because all he’s going to end with is that if I hurt you, he’ll kill me. Since I’m not going to hurt you ever again…”

“OK, but you’re going to let me tell them, right? I just need a little reassurance on this.”

“Can I be there?”

She shrugged and glanced down before meeting my eyes again. “I’d rather tell them without you there so there’s not a whole thing before they calm down.”

No way. I wasn’t about to leave her there to handle the fallout alone. “I don’t really want you dealing with it alone.”

She scoffed. “They’re my brothers. They love me.” Then she sighed. “Just trust me to know what I’m doing.”

Clearly, she was more worried about their reaction than she wanted to admit. If this was how she wanted it, then I had no choice. “All right. Fine. But call me if you have any problems. I’ll be ready to come over.”

She snorted. “I’m not going to need you to rescue me from my brothers. But thank you.”

I let a beat pass between us before asking, “When is graduation?”

She rolled her eyes as though I’d just asked the most ridiculous question she’d heard in a while. “The tenth, but it’s a game day and I only get four tickets if that was why you were asking.” Her beautiful eyes jumped up to meet mine. “Not that I’m assuming you’d want to be there or anything.”

“I mean… I do. I would want to be. ”

“I have a ticket for my mom and dad and Harlowe. Only one left. I can’t choose one of my brothers to go and again, it’s a game day. So you couldn’t go even if I wanted you to. But either way, I can’t bypass them for you on this. It’d be obvious and who knows if they’ll know by then.”

I gave her a scowl. “They better know by then, Camden. They know me too well and are going to see something is different.”

“I know. I’m just saying…”

“Well, our first home game after this road trip is the ninth. So I have something planned for the two of us.”

“What?”

“Just something to make this whole thing feel more normal between us.”

She smiled over at me and said, “I could do with some normal.”

Before I could respond, my phone rang. When I saw my mom’s name, I pushed to my feet. “Why don’t you order us some dinner? Whatever you want, I don’t care.” Then I answered the call. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“I wanted to call you right away. My doctor just called.”

My stomach tightened and suddenly, I wished I hadn’t asked Camden to order food. “He called on a Sunday?”

“He knew we’d be worried until we heard, but all of the tests came back clean, so I’m in the clear for now. ”

My knees threatened to weaken, but I locked them in place. Worrying about my mom was always in the back of my mind, even when it didn’t seem like it. “I’m so glad to hear that.” Even I could hear the relief in my voice.

“Us too. Now you don’t have to worry for a while.”

“Neither do you.” After telling her that I loved her, we ended the call.

“Good news?” Camden asked as she sat on the couch waiting for me.

“Yeah. My mom’s tests were all clear, so she’s good for a while.”

Camden gave me a relieved smile. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

“Me, too.”

We stayed on the couch until the food arrived then ate slowly as we talked. We didn’t have the television on as I told her a little more about what had been going on with my mom. The biggest thing to my mom was that she hadn’t passed Li Fraumeni on to me so I could never pass it on to my kids. That was what she cared about the most when it came to her diagnosis.

Then we didn’t talk about anything important. I’d forgotten what it was like to just want to talk to a woman. Hear about the things going on.

I didn’t care about the containers sitting on the table when my hungry lips touched hers. I’d been with a lot of women, but had never once—not since high school—been nearly as hungry for any of them. But Camden had opened a part of me that I had long since closed and if I was being honest with myself, the one girl in high school I had proclaimed to love hadn’t felt like this.

This clearly needed to head to the bedroom, so I pulled her up as I stood and we kissed our way to my bedroom, clumsily climbing the stairs, pulling clothes off as we went. By the time we got there, I was still in my jeans with the button popped and the zipper undone, but Camden was in only a bra and panties.

“I’ll be honest,” I told her, “I didn’t figure you for a lacy bra.”

She wet her bottom lip and gave me a smile. “I don’t always wear them, but I do for you.”

I gently palmed her breast, running my thumb over the already hard nub that was probably aching to get out, to show my appreciation. Her breath came more rapidly, causing her chest to rise and then fall. Then I took my hand down her flat stomach to slip inside her matching panties. She spread her legs a little to accommodate me.

Fuck. She was already so wet for me. I needed these last scraps off her. No matter how sexy they were.

First her bra, then I slid her panties down, tempted to use my tongue on her before I stood up.

“Do you know that I was thinking about you the first time I touched myself?” she said quietly.

My gaze jumped to hers before I could stand. “What?”

She nodded quickly. “When I was, like, sixteen. I was thinking about you touching me this way the first time I had an orgasm. ”

I slid both of my hands up her arms until they rested on the sides of her neck, where I trailed a thumb to that small, hollow mark at the bottom. “Show me,” I told her because seeing her touching herself when I had her worked up was now the only thing I wanted from life.

She looked up at me with a shy smile. “I’m not doing this alone.” Her cheeks pinked to tell me she felt at least a touch shy.

Oh, yeah. I could do that.

Slowly, I moved her back to the bed so she could lie down. When she did, she spread her legs for me, showing me her pretty pussy and just how wet I’d already made her. My mouth watered, but seeing her touching herself would come first.

Camden raised an eyebrow, so I quickly got rid of my jeans and boxer briefs, letting my concrete cock roam free. Then I wrapped my fist around it and said, “Ready when you are.”

She trailed her hand down over her stomach, her fingertips just barely touching her skin as she watched me watching her. When her fingers brushed over her clit, I gave my cock a pull. Fuck, that felt good. Then she added pressure and her back arched. Right then, I knew we wouldn’t be able to do this long or I was going to be cumming all over her.

Not how I wanted this to end.

It was hard not to let my eyes close from pleasure, but I didn’t want to blink and miss even a moment of this. As I glided my hand over myself, she did the same, but then she suddenly stopped and sat up .

Before I could protest, she licked the precum from the tip of my cock and I groaned before threading my hands into her hair and guided her to take me in her mouth.

“Fuck,” I muttered at the feel of her wet mouth. With each pass, she twirled her tongue around the sensitive head and I didn’t want to know where she’d learned to do that, but I fucking appreciated it. But when she looked up and made eye contact, her eyes watery from the last time when I’d hit the back of her throat, that was almost the end. I pulled out of her so quickly that her mouth made a popping sound.

I dropped to my knees and spread her legs, which forced her back onto the mattress. With her spread out in front of me, I couldn’t help but groan. “Fucking beautiful.” Then I moved my face closer.

One swipe of my tongue and she gasped before her head fell back against the bed and her back arched. Then I licked again with more pressure and her fists tightened on the blanket. Her breath came in small gasps.

When I slid my tongue against her opening, her fingers clenched in my hair and she said, “Oh, god.” Yeah. She was getting close.

The way her body moved gave me better access to her tight cunt and her moans filled the room. Luckily, I lived alone. No one for her to worry about. One of her legs came to rest on my shoulder as she said, “I’m so close.”

All that did was make me want it more .

As I paid attention to her clit, I pushed a finger inside. “Jenner,” she gasped. “Yes. Yes. Ye—” The sound was cut off as her muscles tightened and her pussy pulsed against my finger. But I kept working. I’d always liked eating a woman out, but with Camden… It was like a starving man with his last meal.

“Jenner,” she said, gently pushing my hand away as her orgasm came to an end. “Too sensitive.”

So I pulled back and wiped a hand over my mouth, but I could still taste her. “That good?” I asked and it sounded as cocky as hell even to me.

She groaned then brought me down onto the bed on my back and climbed over me. Camden wasted no time sliding down my cock. In one stroke, she was fully seated, and I was grabbing her hips and groaning.

Then she started moving and watching her breasts bounce as she did was fucking beautiful. I could only take so much, then I rolled us until I was on top of her, kissing her like it was the last time I was going to do it.

It sure as fuck wasn’t.

Then I rolled her onto her stomach and pulled her hips back so I could enter her from behind. She was even tighter at this angle and I was only able to thrust three times before I came inside of her. When I was done, I slowly lowered her down onto the bed and pulled out of her, eliciting a groan from her lips like she missed me being there. I kissed up her back until reaching where her neck and shoulder met where I bit into her skin. Enough for her to feel it, but not enough to leave a mark .

Camden let out a happy sigh as she lay there, which made me snicker. It was like she had no intention of getting up at all. “I’m going to use the bathroom. I’ll bring back a washcloth.”

“No,” she said tiredly as she rolled over. “I’d rather use the bathroom.”

So I stepped back and waved my hand out to indicate that she should go first. Once she was in there, I went out into the hall to the other bathroom to take care of things. I came back in, still naked, but she was lying on the bed, under the blanket with one of my T-shirts on. Since the one I’d been wearing was somewhere between here and the living room, she must’ve gone into the drawer to get it.

And I fucking loved that she was comfortable enough to do that.

Camden’s brown hair was lying around her on the pillow while she had a tired smile on her face. The smell of her lotion or body spray… whatever it was, that vanilla caramel was set to create a Pavlovian response from me. I’d smell it and my mouth would water as I thought of her.

“You were good with all of that, right?” I asked as I slid in next to her.

She snuggled down into me. “More than good. I’ll be feeling you probably until you get back.”

Now I groaned. “You keep talking like that and we’re going to have to do that again.”

She snickered. “Don’t threaten me with a good time. ”

But we didn’t have sex again. Instead, we lay there, holding each other until we fell asleep. I had an early flight the next day and wasn’t so sure she could stay awake long enough to do anything.

But one thing was clear. I wanted this life with Camden Briggs and now that I’d had a taste of it—figuratively and literally—there was no going back.