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He looked away, eyes distant. I could tell just thinking about it was painful for him, and I didn’t want to make him relive that.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I murmured, softly running my fingers through his hair, tenderly massaging his scalp.
“No.” Cam shook his head, kissing my knuckles. “I want you to know. I want you to knowme,Princess. The good, the bad… Everything.”
I nodded, wordlessly encouraging him to go on.
“He was diagnosed with cancer when I was ten, and it was… fuck, Ella. I’d never wanted to take away someone’s pain as badly as I did then. He was my little brother, after all. I was supposed to protect him. To take care of him. And…” Cam shook his head, blinking away the tears. “Chemo worked, for awhile. He was still sick, but the cancer was shrinking. He was getting better. Except, he didn’t. Dec… he was only eight. He looked so little in that hospital bed, tubes in his body and I?—
“My parents… they’ve tried their best. But it’s been hard.” His voice was rough, like it was painful just to say the words. “They don’t really know what to do with me. I feel like they’ve been handling me with a pair of white gloves ever since then. Like if they lost me too…”
“Cam.” I wrapped both arms around his neck, tugging himin close. Practically holding him against my chest. Wishing I could take some of the pain away.
“That’s why I want to take care of you.” He shrugged, burying his nose my hair. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t,” I croaked out.
“No matter what he says to you—about us—I need you to know that.” Cam titled up my chin to bring our lips together in a soft press of a kiss. “I’m in this for the long haul, okay?”
“Okay.” Snuggling deeper into him, I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking about all the things we’d left unsaid. All the words we hadn’t uttered.
Ones I was starting to feel were true, down in the depths of my soul.
We hadn’t talked about it again, but Cam seemed a little lighter after telling me about his little brother. Like it was easier for him now. There was an ease in the way he touched me, kissed me, in how he started sharing more details about his life with me. How he’d grown up. What his mom was like. How he wished his parents hadn’t shut down after they’d said goodbye.
Maybe his honesty was the reason I couldn’t get enough of him. Or maybe it was something else. Something deeper than that. Words that I hadn’t been able to say.
That first night together had unlocked something in me—or maybe it was just him—a hunger that kept coming back. Somehow, it was better each time, like our bodies had known each other better than we had the whole time.
That was the best excuse I had for our sneaking off into his bedroom in the middle of a party for somealone time.The reason I was currently readjusting my top, skewed after Cam had used his fingers and tongue to drive me wild.
“How do I look?” I asked him, using my fingers to fix my unruly hair.
He grinned. “Like mine.”
I playfully shoved at him before opening the door, the party down below still blaring. Midterms were over, meaningeveryonehad something to celebrate.
Meanwhile, I was trying not to focus on meeting Cam’s dad. He’d met my parents, so why was I so stressed about meeting his dad? It felt different. Before I’d left for the semester, my parents had given me their stamp of approval on myboyfriend.In some ways, he was my first serious relationship. Maybe that was why it mattered so much to me.
We headed down the stairs, fingers interlocked.
There was a group of people crowded around in the center of the room, a loud commotion drawing my attention away from the man at my side.
“What’s going on over there?” I murmured, looking away from Cam and towards the source of the noise.
The girl lookedpissed,and the guy in front of her was none other than Cam’s friend. “You…” A feisty brunette scowled at Adam, the front of herwhiteshirt soaked through with what I could only assume was beer. “You asshole!” She shouted the words at him.
I was pretty sure everyone in the vicinity was staring at them.
Cam winced. “Think I need to go break it up?”
I shook my head. “I think she’s got it covered.”
“Sorry, beautiful.” Adam offered her a boyish grin. “Can I help you clean up?”
That only made the girl’s face redder. “No!” She threw her hands up in the air before storming out the front door, murmuring something under her breath.
Adam caught my eye and shrugged. “It was an accident.”
