CHAPTER 1
Cameron
Chelsea stared at me with her nose crinkled like I were a mysterious creature with a bad smell. “What do you mean he jumped out of the window before the date was over?”
I closed my dorm room so that the whole campus wouldn’t know about my epic failure and threw a couple of outfits in my backpack to get ready for the weekend. I didn’t know why I even bothered telling her about my complete dating fuckups she hooked me up with when every time she’d just look at me like that and then find someone even worse to hook me up with later.
“Cameron, you’re not getting rid of me that easily. You’re gonna tell me everything. Now.”
“You told me to be spontaneous and slutty, so I suggested bathroom sex.” She had her way in making me speak anyway. She had that tone, that powerful charisma that I admired and wished to have one day.
“That’s a good move, and that rasp in your voice when you’re inviting is sexy as fuck. No guy would leave before he hit that ass.”
“Right? Well, no. That didn’t happen, and it was a terrible idea.” I couldn’t believe I’d even made that suggestion, but any sex was better than no sex. I was in fucking college—third year for fuck’s sake—and couldn’t score a date that lasted more than one night that Chelsea had to intervene and set ones up for me. Yesterday, I hit a new record, though. He didn’t even finish the night.
“Are you telling me he said no? He went running for the hills rather than stay and fuck you before the date even ends? That doesn’t make any sense. He’s a guy about to score. He wouldn’t just leave. What the fuck really happened, Cameron?”
I sighed, frustration coursing through me. “Well…he…wanted to choke me, but I laughed, probably longer than I should have. Then he spanked me, called me a naughty girl and went to choke me anyway, demanding I called him Daddy. I kinda, might have reached for his hand, twisted it and choked him instead. I think I made him cry…just a little.”
Chelsea gave me the stare again but without the crinkled nose. Then she burst into laughter.
I rolled my eyes, finishing packing. “It wasn’t funny, especially the daddy part.”
She cut the laughter and rubbed my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Cam. I should have told him. I just didn’t think it was my place to mention it.”
Telling a boy the father of the girl he was about to blind date took his own life two years ago because that shit happened to veterans all the time, or so we were told, wasn’t exactly a turn on. “Well, I did.” Not the suicide, but the fact that Dad was a great soldier that taught me how to fight, no one would ever fill his shoes and no matter how much I missed him, I would never call anyone else Daddy. “And that’s when he begged for his life because apparently I was still choking him this whole time. I tried to apologize, but the second I took my hand off his throat, he yelled, ‘that bitch is trying to kill me,’ and just jumped out of the window.”
“I’m gonna kill him for you, babe. Don’t worry about that pathetic loser,” she said, snorting a laugh. “Next time, I’ll—”
“There will be no next time. I’m begging you.”
“You have to get laid, Cam. That dry spell isn’t good for your vagina. We all love and are grateful for toys, but you need to catch a dick every now and then.”
“I don’t think I’m good at sex.”
“Says who?”
“Every boy I’ve been with never came back for an encore. That says a lot.”
“You just didn’t find the right guy because you haven’t explored all your options yet. There are so many kinks out there. I once had a guy whopaidme to boss him around, clean up and cook for me and then whip him if he failed to make me come.”
I blinked at her. “Wow. Paid you to live every woman’s dream?”
“Yes, babe, and it is my mission to get you someone who makes yours come true.”
I zipped my backpack. “Don’t bother, Chels. I’m going away for the weekend anyway.”
“Do you have to go every weekend? You’re missing all the good parties.”
“You know I do. My sister is everything to me.” Ever since Dad, my sister, Annie, had to go live with Sylvia. I didn’t trust that woman to take care of herself, let alone a fifteen-year-old girl. I wished there had been anywhere else for Annie to stay or I could have taken care of her myself. But we had no other relatives but our shitty mother, and I couldn’t find a closer school to San Francisco unless I was willing to lose my scholarship at CIT.
I wished I could have afforded it, but Dad left us nothing but a small house and a Challenger. The military compensation was there to cover Annie’s school and living expenses as Sylvia couldn’t pay for either. My only option was to suck it up for the next couple of years, spend five days a week worrying sick about Annie and take the six-hour trip from Pasadena to San Francisco every weekend to give Annie some of the care she deserves, until I graduated and got a job. Then she’d come live with me so far away from that woman and all her shit.
My phone chimed in my pocket. I looked at the screen. It was Sylvia. “Speak of the devil.” I glanced at Chelsea. “I have to take this.”
“Okay, but before you go, I’m gonna bring yousomething. Take it with you and use it to get familiar with it. They’ll come in handy with your next date.”
That girl never gave up. Before I swore, she took off, so I glared at the phone and tapped the green icon. “I’m coming as usual, Sylvia. Already packed and have my bus ticket. Don’t worry, you won’t have to take care of your own daughter for the weekend.”
