Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
The tension in her body vanishes automatically. “That easy, huh?”
“For us, it could be,” I say, knowing deep in my soul that it could be.
As easy as breathing.
“Your confidence blows me away.”
Unable to resist any longer, I move in, my lips right over hers. “You blow me away.”
I watch as her eyes slowly drift shut. “Benny?” she asks in a low, breathless way that has every inch of me hard.
“Yes, Cammy?”
Her lips curve. “Will you kiss me?”
My heart revs up, feeling as if I’m doing laps upon laps for Coach. “Oh, my beauty, you know the answer to that.”
Before either of us can make a sound or a comment, my lips take hers. My fingers bite into her neck and her hip as I devour her mouth. Needing every single taste her lips have to offer. She tastes of the rosé she was drinking, but also just her sweetness. I have been thinking of her lips, her kisses, every single time I had the pleasure of seeing her over the last three years. These last couple weeks, when I’d kiss her cheek, it was with the hopes she’d turn and meet my mouth. Now, though, I don’t have to hope.
I’ve got her exactly where I want her.
When the buzzer sounds for the dryer, we both jump with surprise, and then her giggles break our kiss. I lean my forehead into hers as I open my eyes to find hers still closed. “Benny.”
“Yes?”
“You said you’d help me with my clothes, and I need to do them so Callie doesn’t yell at me and call me a raccoon.”
I try to hold back my laughter, but it’s not possible. When her eyes meet mine, her joy lights up her face, and everything in me prays it’s as easy as I said it was.
That she won’t destroy me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Benson
“So, why are you doing laundry here? Couldn’t you have gone to your mom’s?”
The look on Cameron’s face tells me that’s the last thing she wanted to do. Her brows knit tight, her lips twist into a grimace, and the way her eyes cut to mine is not in a playful manner. I sit cross-legged across from her, folding endless numbers of leotards. She has to have a hundred. I’m honestly proud of myself that I’m not trying to hump her handling these little scraps of fabric, knowing they’ve touched her in all the ways I’ve yearned to. The feel of the material leaves me squirming to make room in my pants. She hangs one of her shirts as she says, “I’d rather throw everything out and buy all new than go over there.”
“Really? I thought you two were close?”
She shakes her head but doesn’t look at me. “Did I tell you that she was forced to have me?”
“I don’t think so,” I say, and already, I’m pissed. How could anyone be forced to do anything when it comes to Cameron? It’s a damn gift to be in her presence. Jesus, I sound like a whipped fool, and this relationship is, what? Twelve minutes old? Thankfully, her words draw me from my thoughts. “Yeah, she got knocked up with me when she was seventeen by her pastor, who was like forty or something. Her family forced her to have me because it was God’s will.”
I nod slowly. “Well, that’s fucking disgusting.”
“Agreed.”
“And explains why she was a pain in the ass when it came to your choice.”
Her lips quirk at the side as she glances over at me, but then she looks right back down at what she is hanging. “I love that you said that.”
“What?”
“That it was my choice,” she says softly, her voice almost a whisper. “You never forced me or pushed me in any other direction. You went with what I wanted.”
I meet her gaze. “Because it’s your body, Cam. I may have added something to it, but at the end of the day, like I said back then, nothing would change for me. Everything would have changed for you.”
She nods. “I know I thanked you back then, but truly, I couldn’t have gotten through most of that without you.”
We share a small smile. “I wanted what you wanted.”
I always have, since apparently I allowed her not to speak to me for all this time, but look how that patience paid off.
Cameron looks away then as she exhales, and her shoulders fall. “Since then, though, life has been pretty shitty with my mom. I could blame it on the abortion, but it was more than that. My being here at Bellevue brings out the worst in her.”
“How so?”
“I’m a gymnast, and she sacrificed a lot for me growing up to do this sport.”
“I get that, but shouldn’t she be proud?”
“Sure, and she is to an extent, but gymnastics can be a very toxic sport. It’s a team sport yet also an individual one, and everyone is against everyone. It brings out the worst in people more than the best, and I’ve felt like my mom was never proud of me unless I was winning.”