“How’d that—why is your face so red?” Cam caught my chin and gently turned me toward him. “Did she hit you?”
“Yeah.” I winced at his explosive curse. “But I think it made her feel better after she got it all out of her system.”
His eyes narrowed. “That does not make it fucking okay.”
“I know.” I wrapped my hand around his and pressed it to my sore cheek. “But it’s over. I’ve said what I need to and I don’t think I’ll be hearing from her again.”
Cam opened his hand, gently palming my cheek. “Avery…”
“You were right. I didn’t really need to do this, but I’m glad I did. I’m okay with it.” Closing my eyes, I turned my head, pressing a kiss to his palm. “Take me home, Cam. That’s where I need to be.”
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.