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Cam stutter-steps as he walks over to the couch, and a smirk lifts a corner of his lips up.
“What side is yours?” Cam asks. He grabs a pair of underwear from one of his bags.
I can’t resist watching him with his backside turned to me—an impeccable backside at that. He catches me staring as he turns around, and smiles.
“I-I don’t care. I practically sleep in the middle, to be honest,” I mumble as he walks over to me, wearing only black boxers. “But you can have this side.”
I step away from him and walk over to the light switches and turn them off. The only light that remains is a lamp in my living room.
As I spin around, I’m startled when Cam is right in front of me instead of by the bed, where I left him.
Silence surrounds us, and it makes everything else more noticeable—the charge in the air, the way our chests rise and fall, and the way he carefully closes the distance between us.
Without a word, he lifts his hands to my face and cups my jaw on each side, and his thumbs begin to stroke my cheeks with a featherlight touch.
I pull back from him out of instinct, immediately feeling guilty for reacting to him that way. I can’t always help it, being triggered by things that remind me of Trey. Sometimes, I’m not even aware of it consciously; it’s my body that is reacting. Whether in fear of what could happen or fear of what previously did.
Cam has never made me feel scared of him, and I have to remind myself of that before I lean further into his touch. What we did on my couches was intimate, but this feels so much more vulnerable.
Taking a deep breath, I’m suddenly overcome with emotion from what I feel for him. I didn’t want to fall for Cam. Well, I guess that’s not entirely the truth. I wanted to fall for Cam, but Trey made me not want to. But I can’t control it anymore, and I’m not sure I ever could.
Cam’s eyes bore into mine with such ferocious sincerity and adoration. His lips part, and he leans down toward me so slowly that I know it’s because he’s giving me a second to pull away if I want to. But that is the last thing I will do right now.
I lift my head against his hands, and it’s all the permission he needs for his lips to melt into mine.
He kisses me gently and sweetly, but I can feel the passion in the touch of his fingertips, in the way his body lines up with mine, and in the way his lips aren’t saying a thing.
He knows he doesn’t need to always fill the silence. Instead of saying something he thinks I want to hear, he touches me gently, showing me how soft and tender he will be with me. It shows me so much more than a compliment could. Our bodies speak to each other in a way our words never will.
His forehead rolls onto mine for a brief moment before he pulls away, biting his smiling bottom lip.
“How long do I have you for?” I ask him as I walk over to the bed and pull the comforter and top sheet back.
“My flight leaves tomorrow at two p.m.,” he says as he waits for me to crawl into bed before he does the same.
We both roll onto our sides and face each other. It’s exactly what we do when we FaceTime, except that I can reach out and actually touch him now.
“Okay,” I breathe. “Will you be back?” My hand quivers beneath the blanket with nervousness.
He smiles at me. “As soon as I can.”
“Good. I’d like that,” I say softly.
His blue eyes are locked on to mine, and I can’t look away. They look so different right now than they did when we first met. Granted, we were in a dark club with flashing lights. But if anyone had looked close enough, they would have seen what I saw too. A wall, a mask, a barrier, whatever you want to call it, sat between his eyes and mine. But as we lie side by side, nothing sits between us. It’s an odd feeling—to be so exposed to someone else—but it feels right with Cam.
Reaching his hand out to me, he runs his fingers through my hair and tucks the runaway strands behind my ear. “Can I hold you while we sleep?”
I nod as my cheeks redden and my stomach flutters. “Yeah.”
I roll over onto my back and then the other side and inch backward to him.
His fingers wrap around my waist, and in one movement, he pulls me flush against him and adjusts his arms, one tucked under my head and the other wrapped over my waist.
I’m not only enveloped by him, but by the scent of green apples, amber, and musk. Closing my eyes, I inhale through my nose, feeling waves of comfort wash over me with each breath.
“Good night, Nikki,” he whispers into my ear.
Nikki. There’s that damn name again.
