Those weresonot the words.
I felt like I wanted to cry. Salt stung my eyes and my throat constricted, but I didn’t want him to know. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I’d built this up in my head and he didn’t feel what I felt. I pushed it down. Far, far, far down.
‘Well, I have something to say too. Your ground game is not as good as you think it is.’ It came out with a little too much venom.
Silence.
Heavy and thick and . . . sad?
Cam let out a small breath. ‘Sorry,’ he said quickly. ‘I didn’t mean that. I don’t know why I said it. I just . . .’ He ran his free hand through his hair and shook his head. ‘I wanted to say something else, something . . . but . . .’
‘You’re too scared to say it out loud,’ I whispered, and we smiled at each other again.
He nodded. His eyes were still so full of those words, the now very unspoken ones. I hoped he could see them in my eyes too.
‘Maybe one day soon, very soon, I think we’ll be ready?’ It was a question.
I nodded. ‘Hopefully.’
Cam smiled at me, and we both knew we were not talking about our wrestling games.
‘I have faith in us,’ he said playfully.
I smiled. It didn’t need to be said out loud right now. Not yet anyway. And I was okay with that. Because in that moment, I could feel it, and it was as real as the sensation of his finger tracing over my lips.
‘There’s something else I need to tell you that I should have told you ages ago.’ He pulled my bottom lip down with his thumb.
‘And what’s that?’
‘How sexy you are.’ His hand left my mouth, travelled down my neck, across my collarbone and came to rest on my shoulder. ‘How much I love your body, especially this muscle here.’ He traced the line of my bicep. ‘I love how it’s able to dominate me and lock me in place.’
I burst out laughing, all the previous tension gone now. ‘Other men find it intimidating.’
‘Oh, believe me, it is. You intimidate the hell out of me, Lizzy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.’
I reached out and touched the tip of his nose. I ran my finger down the bridge, then moved it across his cheek and onto the hand that was propping his head up, stopping when I arrived at his pinky finger. It was still slightly crooked. ‘Sorry about this,’ I said, meeting his gaze.
He smirked. ‘You’re not sorry.’
‘Okay, you’re right, I’m not.’ I smiled at him. ‘Given the chance, I’d do it again.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’d break my finger again?’
‘A girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do, and if—STOP!’ I screamed, tears suddenly rolling down my cheeks as Cam started tickling my ribcage. I hated being tickled, and was so sensitive there. He knew this, of course, because there had been many times while wrestling when I’d had to fight the urge to laugh or scream or both. ‘Stop. Please, I beg you.’ I was fully laugh-crying now, and when Cam finally let me go, I gave him a little shove in the chest. He looked down at my hand and smirked.
‘So it’s going to be like that, is it?’
‘Like what?’ I smiled and then deliberately pushed him again.
His hand shot out and he grabbed me around the wrist. Such big hands . . . Then he pushed my arm back, pinning my wrist to the headboard behind us. He shifted closer to me, heat radiating off him. My eyes flicked downward, to where his cock was straining once more.
‘I’m going to have to punish you for that,’ he said.
I pulled myself up and looked him straight in the eyes. ‘Not if I punish you first.’
‘What did you have in mind?’ He dipped his head, pulling one of my nipples into his mouth. He applied the slightest pressure with his teeth, then released it again. My entire body jerked to life.
‘I’ll tell you once I’m back from the bathroom,’ I said, twisting my wrist loose. Sex on a full bladder was never a good idea, especially considering the kind of sex we had. It was not gentle. I jumped out of bed, my naked body now perfectly on display for him. I walked to the bathroom slowly, knowing full well he was staring, probablygaping. I liked this feeling, this power that my body, my lips, fingers and tongue had over him.
