Chapter 34
The only problem with summer once you grew up was that it was over before it felt like it got started. Or that could have something to do with taking summer classes, which seemed to suck the summer right out of life.
Prying one eye open, I groaned. First I saw my bracelet—not the silver one. Cam had replaced it with several loops of rope that carried an infinite charm. Then I saw the time. Why had I set the clock for this early? I didn’t have class until nine.
The bed shifted beside me.
And Cam didn’t have class until ten. It was going to be a light semester for him as he was winding down on his college career.
A sleepy smile pulled at my lips as I rolled onto my stomach, stretching my legs out and pointing my toes. The sheets slipped over my bare skin and ended up somewhere at the foot of my bed. There was either a perverted ghost in my bedroom or Cam was wide awake.
Lips pressed down between my shoulder blades as a hand flattened on the base of my spine. Fingers trailed up, causing a wave of little bumps to race across my skin.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” Cam’s voice was thick with sleep.
Ah, this was why I set the alarm for so early, which was so different from a year ago. I had been worried about being late, annoyingly anal about it in fact. Now I set the clock an hour early for a little bit of one on one time.
“Morning,” I mumbled, closing my eyes as he ran his hand up and down, stopping at the cleft of my cheeks and going straight to the nape of my neck.
He kissed the center of my back and then his lips were on the flare of my hip. Warm breath danced over my lower back and then he kissed my right cheek.
I giggled, wiggling.
“You know what they say about a guy who kisses a girl’s ass? Literally?”
“He knows his place?”
“Ha. Ha.” He swept my hair off my neck and kissed me there. “He’s absolutely in love with the girl.”
“Is that so?”
“So,” he murmured, grasping my hip with one hand.
“Where did you learn that?”
“On the Internet.”
“Classy.”
“You know what else I’ve learned?” He lifted me up and slipped his arm under me. “That women’s breasts are at their perkiest in the morning.”
“What?” I laughed.
“Yep,” he replied, cupping my right breast. “I have to check out that theory.” He squeezed gently and my nipple tightened. He moved onto my other breast and did the same thing. “I think what I’ve read is right. Your breasts are exceptionally perky this morning.”
Breaking into a fit of laughter, I smacked his hands away, but my laughter quickly died off when his hand returned with a lot more purpose. His fingers worked their magic on the tips and it wasn’t long before my hips were moving in restless circles against the sheet.
“I love how your mind works,” Cam said, shifting behind me.
I looked over my shoulder. “Huh?”
He nodded at the clock. “Setting it early. You, my dear, are brilliant.”
“I know.” I smiled, and then rested my cheek on my pillow. My heart was already racing, my body ready. I was ready. “So you going to do something with the extra time or wow me with your knowledge of the seedier side of the Internet.”
“Bossy.” His lips brushed my shoulder and his hands went back to my hips. “And I would send you screaming to campus with my knowledge of the seedier side of the Internet.”
“Good to know.”
Cam lifted me again. “Can we?”
He always hesitated and asked before we did it like this. Something about that always warmed me; the thoughtfulness of it all and the fact he was aware that there were still moments when I was awkward as all hell when it came to intimacy or when I just didn’t want to be touched. Those moments were few and far between, but still existed, and he watched for them and adapted.
We both had adapted.
During the summer, I had started meeting with one of the campus counselors once a week and I would continue until it was no longer needed and maybe one day, I could help someone with my story and experiences.
“Yes,” I said, and for extra effort, just in case he was confused, I pushed my rump against him. Cam growled deep in his throat. My smile spread.
He settled between my legs and I drew my arms up to my shoulders, putting his weight onto them. Lifting up slightly, I turned my head and his lips immediately found mine. I loved the way he kissed me, like he was drinking in my very essence. One kiss from him and I was melting in his hands. That’s how good they were.
Cam broke the kiss as he shifted his hips forward, slipping into me from behind. The pace was slow and unhurried and yet still so absolutely shattering with each stroke. I dropped my forehead to the pillow, my breathing ragged as I rocked back against him. His hands landed on mine, threading through my fingers as his pace picked up.
“I love you,” his voice was a beautiful, hoarse whisper in my ear that sent me over the edge. Release took us both, seconds apart.
It was my whisper in his ear that took us both when we finally made it the shower.
I ended up four minutes late for class, but I walked in anyway, shot the professor a sheepish grin and took my seat.
#
The weather was pleasant and not sweltering hot, so our little group took our lunch outside, sitting under the shade of one of the thick oaks near the library.
Jacob tipped his bowler hat up, the one from last year’s Halloween party as he frowned at the dozen or so styrofoam cups in front of him. He was building a pyramid. I didn’t ask.
I popped my straw through my cup as I kicked off my flip flops. Brit reached for my toes and I shot her an evil look. “You touch my feet, you die.”
“She’s serious.” Cam nudged me. “I touched her pinky toe once and almost lost a finger.”
“That’s not the only thing you almost lost.”
“Oh, that sounds serious.” Brit glanced at her tub of mayo and then her fries. She sighed. “I miss Ollie. I loved grossing him out with my fries.”
“Well, you have all of us to gross out.” Jacob’s lip curled. “Which you are doing right now.”
“It’s not the same.” She pouted. “Ollie was hot.”
“Excuse me?” Jacob almost knocked over his pyramid of awesome. “I’m hot.”
Cam frowned. “So I am.”
I elbowed him in the stomach.
“Well, since I must explain the obvious.” Brit plopped her fry in the mayo with flourish. “Jacob, you don’t like girls. Cam, you’re hopelessly devoted to Avery, and that left Ollie.”
I grinned.
Jacob looked up, his lips slipping into a small grin. “Well, there is one more.”
Twisting at the waist, I followed his gaze. Jase was across the road, heading for us.
Brit sighed. “Yeah, I couldn’t handle him.”
“Why not?” I asked, eyeing Cam’s friend.
She made a noncommittal sound. “He’s not the relationship kind or so hear.”
“And do you want a relationship?” I asked her.
“No.” She laughed, dabbing her fry. “But I have a feeling with someone like him, you get one taste and you will always want more.”
“Sort of like crack?” Jacob suggested.
“Or Cheetos,” Brit supplied.
Cam made a face as he swiped some of my fries. I sent him a death glare that I ruined when I kissed his cheek.
Jase dropped down beside us, stretching out his long legs. He looked a little off, his near perfect features pale. “Okay. Am I hallucinating or did I just see your sister walking into Knutti?”
“You’re not hallucinating,” Cam replied. “You saw her. She enrolled here late.”
“Oh.” Jase’s eyes’ narrowed as he stared off into the distance. “That’s… that’s good.”
I caught Cam’s eyes and he shrugged. With his gaze still focused on something no one else saw, Jase reached over Cam and hijacked a handful of my fries.
“What the hell?” I exclaimed.
Cam laughed. “Your fries are not safe.”
“Obviously,” I muttered, eyeing them both.
Jase winked at me and he was as ridiculously attractive as Cam doing it. “You all coming to the luau this weekend?”
I nodded and it struck me again how much difference a year made. This time last year, I wouldn’t even considered a party, especially one being thrown by a frat. I smiled to myself as I finished off the rest of my fries before the boys devoured them.
“Are you guys really having a pig?” Brit asked. “Because last year, that wasn’t a pig. It was a wild turkey and that was gross.”
Jase laughed. “We’ll have a pig this time.”
Beside me, my side pocket of my messenger bag vibrated. Curious to who it could be, because everyone who contacted me was sitting here, I flipped open the pocket and pulled out my phone.
It was a text—a text from a normal telephone number. A Texas area code.
It’s Molly. Can we talk when u have the time? Please.
A little tremor went down my arm as I stared at the message. Molly hadn’t contacted me since I left Texas. Nothing from her and the texts before that were never this friendly, even though this didn’t scream best friends foreva.
I immediately texted back. Yes. Call you this evening.
Several minutes passed as I stared at the phone. Molly had texted back with an okay, and I was still stunned.
“Everything okay?” Cam asked, placing his hand on my lower back. Concern pinched his brows.
“Yes.” I dropped my cell back into my bag. Everything was okay. Maybe not perfect, but life wasn’t meant to be perfect. It was messy and sometimes it was a disaster, but there was beauty in the messiness and there could be peace in the disaster.
I don’t know what my life would’ve been like if I hadn’t decided to uproot my life and break free from my past. I knew it wouldn’t be like this. And I also knew if I hadn’t met Cam, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. Maybe I would’ve come around eventually on my own, but I was woman enough to admit that I had help.
And I was woman enough that whenever I looked up at the night skies and saw the Corona Borealis—or something that vaguely resembled it—I thanked it.
Leaning back against Cam’s chest, I tipped my head back as I reached up, cupping his cheek. I drew his mouth to mine and kissed him softly. “Thank you.”
His lips curved up on one side. “For what?”
“For waiting for me.”