Page 18 of Pomegranate Kiss (Charmed in Charleston #2)

Chapter Eighteen

C am had been good on her word. She’d wasted a month trying to get to know Nazir, and all that time only reinforced what she knew from the start. He wasn’t for her. In fact, nobody sparked her attraction or even her attention in the wake of the fallout between her and Lex. She wanted to ask Danny how Lex was doing, for some scrap of information, but that would mean cracking the whole secret between them wide open.

She couldn’t go there yet.

However, she was beyond ready to get some time away from her parents. Their endless comments about Nazir and how beautiful she’d look in a sari for her wedding scraped away at her a little more every day. Every time they made mention, her anger and irritation didn’t fade but compounded. After spending time around someone she’d been able to be a hundred percent herself with, she couldn’t shove herself into the box of “good daughter” again, even if it led to what she feared. She’d always been able to go home, to visit her parents, and the idea of losing them, losing that space—fuck.

Cam stepped hard on the pedal, flooring it down route seventeen back to Charleston. She was finished entertaining her parents’ attempt at arranging her marriage, she was finished with lying to herself, and she was finished being two hours away from Alexis Dukas. She didn’t care if she needed to show up on her doorstep or pry her out of the club—she’d make sure they had the conversation she meant to have with her at Danny’s wedding, rather than the shock and run that followed.

She’d completed her first semester back in college with one more to go, and since winter break stretched ahead of her, Charleston had been her top destination. Now that she’d committed, she couldn’t turn away, but a thump-thump-thump pounded in the back of her brain with how badly she needed to be done. How badly she wanted to return to her apartment and the home she’d made in Charleston.

How she hoped and prayed Lex would talk to her this time.

The houses cropped into view along Savannah highway, a beautiful residential sprawl of red-bricked two stories and charming white ranchers. She’d cracked the window open, even with the bite in the air, because she wanted to catch the first gasp of the salt breeze mingled with magnolias. Staying at her parent’s house confirmed her sneaking suspicion that she’d been drifting for a while now, and her time apart drew her in a different direction. She’d been cruising on a highway her parents had designed, but now, she was getting off at the exit.

Instead of continuing to fight herself, the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to embrace those differences.

Cam gripped the steering wheel a little tighter as she neared the turn. Her calves clenched with her nerves. She could head home to her apartment deeper in the city instead of heading to what would probably be a rejection.

However, she regretted holding back the first time, and even though her nerves buzzed like she might take off, a single email bolstered her right now. She peeled into the development parking lot, weaving through the side streets toward Lex’s townhouse.

A few days ago, Matty Dukas had shot her a short email.

My sister’s a stubborn shit, but she hasn’t been the same since you left. I’m not going to tell you to come out of the closet if you’re not ready—not my place and frankly, not my concern. But if I were in your position and had someone like her? Someone who’s always been unashamedly herself, who was willing to fight for the people she loves? Taking those first steps out wouldn’t be half as terrifying.

His words jangled around in her brain until they felt a lot like resolve.

She pulled into a parking lot that had become so familiar. After she went to Lex’s place for the first time, she’d slept over there far too many nights to forget which house was hers. Once she tugged the keys out of the ignition, the situation slammed into her. What would she even say to Lex? She’d rehearsed about a hundred speeches, but none of them sat quite right, and the sheer proximity of the woman tended to make her lose her sense.

Beneath the humming of her nerves, her heart lurched at the idea of seeing Lex again. She’d wanted her these past few months so badly she could taste the hint of pomegranate from her lipstick that night and the spice of ginger when they’d kissed.

Cam tapped her steering wheel three times before she pushed herself up out of the seat. She needed to face this.

Cam strode down the walkway, even more nervous than she’d been her first visit to Lex’s place. The red-bricked townhouse stood out amidst the others with the black door she could guarantee Lex had painted herself. When she reached the “Go the Hell Away” welcome mat, her fingers numbed. She lifted her fist up to knock anyway and then took a step back to wait.

If Lex was in there with another woman, she might die. Cam swallowed back bile. She’d been technically dating another guy, so she didn’t have much room to talk. Not like she’d sought out Nazir. She only got to know him as an effort to pacify her parents.

The pound of footsteps echoed from inside the house until the door creaked open.

Lex stood in the doorway and stared at her like she’d seen a ghost. Cam drank in the details, her black muscle shirt that looked so damn good against her olive skin covered in tattoos. She was barefoot, and strands of her pixie cut twisted every which way, but that tousled look made her even hotter. Lex’s pale flash of disbelief fast purpled to anger.

Lex clutched the door for dear life. “What do you want?”

Cam had been preparing for the question the entire car ride over, but the moment the words hit the air her answers vanished.

“To see you,” Cam said, the truth slipping from her lips. Maybe she should launch with apologies or explanations, but Lex might not even be willing to listen. Whatever fear had whispered in her ear during their final weeks together seemed to be the furthest from the truth. Because the ticking bomb of a woman standing before her didn’t let any of the softness she’d come to witness past her rebuilt walls.

Lex gave a flourish of a bow. “Here I am. You’ve seen me.”

She made the motion to close the door, but Cam slipped her foot in the way, stepping through the frame. Lex’s eyebrows drew together, her expression darkening. Cam remained steady. Storms never frightened her anyway.

“Look, I know I held things back,” Cam said, keeping her grip on the door. “But you did too. We owe it to ourselves to have the conversation we meant to have before you found out about my plans.”

“Don’t think that’s appropriate when you’ve got a betrothed all lined up,” Lex responded, her hazel eyes flashing and her voice corrosive. “Seriously, what are you doing here, Cam? You used me for six months, fucked off to another state, and then got yourself into an arranged marriage from what I’ve heard. Believe me, words aren’t necessary—your actions speak loud enough.”

Damnit. Danny must’ve told Lex the situation with her parents she’d been venting about.

“Sure, throw the judgement my way,” Cam shot back, stepping further into the house. Lex was infuriating, angry, and more hurt than the stubborn woman would ever admit. “From the outset you said you didn’t want commitment, and that’s all I’m looking for. I wasn’t clear about my own bullshit, true, but never once did you say you wanted anything more than those six months.”

Lex’s mouth opened, but whatever she might say she swallowed back. Instead, Lex shut the door behind her. The tension in the room thickened like the onset of a thunderstorm, the intensity of this woman something she craved and missed more than she could’ve known.

Cam took a step away and then another, until her back bumped against the wall. Lex prowled forward, those hazel eyes darkening with emotions she couldn’t identify.

“Thought you were straight, babe,” Lex growled, her words vibrating in the air between them. “Getting yourself a husband seems to be exactly what you’d been aiming for.”

“That’s what my parents want,” she shot back, her hands balling into fists. Mere inches separated them, and Lex loomed close enough she could smell the campfire and clove of her, a scent that wrapped around her like a lullaby.

“Yeah, and what is it you want?” Lex asked, her husky voice driving her nuts. Mere minutes in her presence and her body reacted like she’d been doused in kerosene and lit on fire.

“You know what I want,” Cam whispered. Lex made her feel in a way she forgot she could, made her hope and dream for something deep as the Atlantic, as broad as the horizon.

“That’s not good enough right now,” Lex said, inches between them as she reached forward to slide her finger under Cam’s chin, tilting her head up until their eyes locked. Her gaze flickered with a vulnerability that lured Cam in from the start, a softness behind the poisonous sting of her words she hid behind.

“You,” Cam mouthed, her heart squeezing tight in her chest. “I want you.”

At the words, the heated air in the room combusted. Lex lunged in for her, crushing her mouth to Cam’s with a kiss that was the furthest thing from sweet. Cam reached out to grip her by the waist as Lex closed the distance between them to press Cam harder into the wall. Yes, yes, yes. She missed this so much. No one else got her soaked like this with a single kiss, and no one else made her feel the way Lex did, like she’d stepped out into a neon green field after a rainstorm.

She sagged against the wall, holding onto Lex for dear life. Cam slipped her hands beneath Lex’s shirt, feeling the strong muscle of her chest beneath, the smooth skin that made her ignite. Lex snarled at her like a furious force of nature as she kissed her with a desperation summoned from their time apart. Lex’s teeth sank against her neck, and Cam let out a moan.

Nothing about this was gentle, or sweet. That had been bled from them in the wake of their implosion. However, Cam would take her any way she could get her. She missed Lex more than she could ever explain, like she’d lost the arm she painted with. The phantom sensations had haunted her for months now to the point it grew unbearable.

Cam ran fingers through Lex’s pixie cut and with her other hand glided up her chest further to cup her breast. She slipped beneath her sports bra and thumbed over her hardened nipple, loving the way Lex ground her hips against her each time. Lex snapped the button of Cam’s corduroys and in seconds had them halfway down her thighs. She dragged her panties down with equal force in a way that left Cam gasping.

She was so drenched for her, so ready for this to the point reason flew out the window. Lex bit and sucked at her earlobe, her neck, her shoulder, the sensations growing so intense Cam became wet clay in her hands, the moans exploding from her. Lex reached down to cup her pussy, and she didn’t care how shameless she appeared as she ground against her hand.

“God, you fucking taste so good,” Lex growled, the words sharp as a paring knife.

“I missed you so damn much,” Cam breathed between moans. Lex smothered Cam’s mouth with hers as she devoured Cam again and again. The long, rough kisses made her lips swollen. Then Lex slipped two fingers between her folds, rubbing her juices along the seam before she plunged inside.

Cam let out a cry, thrusting her hips forward to urge Lex deeper in. Lex pumped her fingers into Cam’s pussy with a building force that had her writhing. After months of a dry spell longing for this touch, each stroke Lex delivered was explosive. Lex’s mouth barely left hers, only to bite her neck, her shoulders, and then she’d return to sucking on her lower lip, devouring every moan to come from her.

The moment Lex began to swipe her thumb against Cam’s clit, the motion caused Cam to blink back stars, bringing her closer and closer to the edge.

Cam ran her hands up and down Lex’s waist, trying to memorize these curves, the feel of them against her palms. Her eyes heated with how much she’d missed this. How she’d regretted the way things left off every day since the wedding. Lex pumped into her until all thoughts obliterated from her mind, and each graze to her clit had her pussy throbbing from the overload of sensations.

She let out a gasp as her orgasm crashed through her. Her vision blanked out, and the shuddering waves wracked through her entire body. She gripped onto Lex’s hips for stability as the bliss she’d been craving coursed through her. Lex’s lips separated from hers, but the normal tenderness didn’t follow, the caresses against her neck and the warmth she’d once coaxed out from the Arctic woman.

Lex pulled her fingers out of Cam and wiped them on her pants. She stepped away as if they were strangers, as if this was no different than their first collision in the bathroom of Notes Nightclub.

Cam didn’t realize how much that would hurt. How much she missed what had unfurled between them that died as easily as a crocus in a cold snap.

“Please, can we talk,” Cam pleaded, hating the vulnerability in her voice. She pulled her pants back up, fastening the button as her shoulders heaved in the wake of the orgasm that ripped out of her.

Lex leaned against the wall beside her. She stared at the wall on the opposite side of the foyer where a piece of art hung along the wall, a woman bound in black rope.

“I still don’t know why you’re here, Cam,” Lex murmured, something lost and devastating in her voice. “You say you want me, and you’re good when we’re physical, sure. But the moment our arrangement ended, you moved away for months to a place I couldn’t follow. You know I’m on parole. And no matter how you claim this arranged marriage isn’t what you want, I don’t see you coming out to your parents or fighting it hard.”

Cam opened her mouth, her tongue dry. She wanted to tell her parents, she did. But the free-fall wasn’t something she could survive. If she were being honest with herself, part of her kept the charade with Nazir going because pretending to go on dates with him felt safe. Because it didn’t make her blaze with anything real.

He offered stability and had the acceptance of her family.

Yet the one person she wanted was Alexis Dukas.

Lex’s nails dug into the wall behind her, and she wouldn’t look her way. “You want truth, Cam? I’ve always been everyone’s good time, experiment, or freak show because I’ve always fallen for girls who swerve straight at the last second or never were interested in the first place. And I’m done. I’m done chasing people in the closet. You talk big about how you want commitment, but if you wanted that with me you wouldn’t be wasting time in Savannah with an arranged marriage in the works.”

She looked to her at last, a finality in her eyes that socked Cam in the stomach.

“Go home, Cam. Go to your betrothed, have your family and dozens of fat children. I’m gay and proud of it. I might’ve dealt with all the sneaking around for the six months you were mine, but I came out when I was in high school, and I won’t let anyone make me feel like I’m in the closet again.”

Cam swallowed hard. The hurt in Lex’s voice rang clear, and her words hit like a slap. She wasn’t wrong. She’d known what she wanted for a bit, and yet once she returned home, she’d lapsed into the same cycle of letting her parents take the rein over her life. She’d compromised, compromised, compromised, until she struggled to know what belonged to her or who she was.

“I’m not giving up, Lex,” she said, even as she took the first steps toward the door. The heat between them hadn’t disintegrated, even after the way they’d both sliced each other open. But she’d been the one to make the first cut, and after seeing the gasp of vulnerability that remained behind Lex’s impassive mask, she couldn’t turn back.

She’d hurt her. Not on purpose, but she’d dragged her along for six months unwilling to even admit she had no interest in men. That she’d always been interested in women, but the avenue had never been one she’d been allowed to consider.

She waited for the tug at her wrist, hoping Lex would change her mind and ask her to stay. But when she reached the door, Lex remained where she leaned against the wall, staring at the ceiling like she might burn holes through it. Cam dipped her head in goodbye before she walked out the door.

Three weeks home from winter break. Which meant she had three weeks to try to convince Lex she was serious this time.