With growing need, I attacked Cameron’s mouth. A startling realisation had happened while we descended from that death trap of a ride.
A part of me that had remained dormant for months had awoken in sharp relief.
A side that badly wanted sex. With Cameron.
“Wait, slow down.” He dug his fingers into my hair, his gaze wild in the dark interior of the RV. “I thought ye were in shock.”
“Nope.”
Then a notion occurred to me. He’d kissed me because I was afraid of heights.
I shot my hands to my mouth. “Oh shit. I thought you wanted this.”
Cameron sighed. He reached out and grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest. His heart thundered. Then he gestured south, and I followed his gaze to the hard length concealed in his pants.
“No concerns on that part, lass.”
Oh.
I couldn’t stop my grin. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Cameron muttered something to himself, but this time he reached for me. I moved into his touch, wallowing in the instant rush of happy emotions. Kissing Cameron was like walking in sunshine.
His lips took mine, and Cameron backed to me to the wall opposite the door. In the RV, with its tinted windows and privacy blinds, we were entirely alone, at least until Rory returned. I tugged on his soft hair, urging him closer. My body lit up, all too aware of his.
Slight terror edged at my mind, but I just allowed it, acknowledging the emotion but not indulging it.
Cameron devoured my mouth, his confident kiss quickly seducing me when I’d only needed a few words to seduce him.
One of his hands gripped my face, keeping me in exactly the position he wanted, and the other snaked to my hip. “Ye are so fucking beautiful,” he told me between kisses.
“Right back at you. You drive me crazy.” I’d never met a man so handsome. So capable.
Cameron made a sound of amusement, and his lips left mine to travel from my cheek to under my ear.
God, who knew that was an erogenous zone. Heat zipped along my nervous system from everywhere he touched.
I angled my head to give him better access, taking the opportunity to run my hands over the bulky muscles of his arm. The shape of him, the strength he wore with ease, did something to my brain.
The power this man wielded, simply by being strong, left me in pieces.
But when I glanced my hand over his shoulder, the scarred one I’d never stopped wondering about, Cameron slowed.
He laid another, gentler kiss to my throat.
“I was shot,” he said.
Shot. Holy fuck.
It must have been bad. The extensive scarring spread wide, my memory of it fresh.
To think that he’d been hurt that badly. This solid, caring man.
I brushed over his T-shirt, above the scars. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I survived.”
I ran my hand down my own body, Cameron’s gaze following it to my waistband.
“I was assaulted,” I said. My voice quavered.
It was all too necessary to mention that. My kindly therapist had explained that healing took time. But I wouldn’t know how I was doing until tested in certain situations.
Such as deep in a clinch with someone about to touch me.
Cameron swore under his breath, and he rested his temple against mine. His lips pressed to my cheek, and he held them there in a kiss.
“I’m so sorry.” He repeated my words.
Need had been building between us for so long. This felt inevitable, but also momentous.
By mutual agreement of touch instead of words, our mouths met once more. Though we’d calmed, the weight of the conversation hanging over us, the urgency was still there.
It was easy to give in to more pressing matters.
I needed Cameron closer. I trusted him, with my life and everything else. If he had limits, too, I wanted to know them, even as I learned my own.
I slipped my fingers into the hem of his T-shirt then under to his taut, hot skin.
Cameron’s mouth curved into a smile. “Want my shirt off?”
I gave a shy nod.
He obliged, stripping the obstructing item.
Instead of staring at the sight of his injury, I kept my gaze on his beautiful eyes. In the low light of the room, they glimmered with emotion.
With both hands, I traced the muscles of his chest, moving up to fan my fingers out over his shoulders. His lean body, the rounded swell of his muscular frame. Cameron was so well-made. Under my fingertips, I outlined the dents and scar tissue of the damage done to his beautiful flesh.
“You’re perfect,” I told him.
“I’m torn up.”
“Battle-scarred. Still perfect.”
I moved my fingers up into the soft hair of the nape of his neck and brought him back down for a long, drugging kiss. The pace of our encounter seemed to belong entirely to me.
There was urgency in the crush of Cameron’s body against mine, but he didn’t push me at all. I stripped my own shirt, leaving him staring.
“Christ, woman.”
“Touch me, I won’t break.”
“I might.” He grazed his hands up my waist, one finding the clasp of my bra and unsnapping it. “Is this okay?”
“So good.”
“The moment anything gets too much, tell me.” Then he took two handfuls of my bare breasts.
I dropped my head back against the wall.
“No complaints here,” I said, then I moaned when his thumb brushed over my hard nipple.
He ducked his head, and his mouth took the place of his fingers.
Oh God, that felt amazing.
I moaned, and he sucked harder. Then Cameron dropped to his knees in front of me. He splayed a hand over my belly.
“I want to make ye come.”
A thrill ran through me. I yanked the button of my shorts, opening them. With Cameron’s help, I eased them and my panties down, kicked my sandals off, and then I was standing in front of him, back against the wall, completely naked.
Cameron made a sound of delicious approval, his hands stroking over my sides, then drifting around to my arse. In a slick move, he grasped my thigh and lifted my leg over his bare shoulder.
Bringing my core to his mouth.
He licked me right between the legs.
Sex had never been the biggest deal for me. Foreplay even less so. But right now, I was revisiting my opinion.
With less grace and more animal instinct, I braced myself, allowing Cameron to roam my body. He took another long lick, his hand at my breast before he drifted it south to hold me open for him.
Then his fingers found my clit, and his tongue entered me in a hard thrust.
Inside, I convulsed.
“Fuck,” I moaned.
Cameron groaned in answer, then repeated the action. “Grind on my face, princess.”
I rolled my hips, and he fucked me with his tongue while his fingers drove me wild. Then he took over again, his hand at my hip keeping me in position so all I could do was accept the pleasure he was giving.
Cameron seemed to read my every sound. He set a rhythm that had me squirming, increasing the pace when I cried his name. In minutes, he’d got me hotter than it would have taken any other guy hours.
I had barely touched myself since the bothy.
He switched it up by easing two long fingers inside my soaking wet heat, then he sucked on my clit. The new move, and the intensity of the moment, brought on my orgasm in a wave of pleasure.
It had built slowly, and I’d chased the sensation, but the strength of it floored me.
I yelped out loud then draped myself over Cameron. He worked me through it, but his mouth found my too-sensitive nipple. He sucked hard.
It was too much and not enough. I needed him closer.
Inside me.
Satisfied.
As soon as my vision cleared and my convulsions stopped, I dropped to my knees. Through panting breaths, I said, “That was incredible.”
Cameron kissed me. I expected him to leap up and strip his jeans. Grab a condom and fuck me into next Tuesday.
Instead, the kiss slowed until we were making out on the floor.
My pulse slowed. My acute happiness settled into a building heat.
Then Cameron shifted his weight, pressing me down.
Panic hit.
I jerked, splaying my hands on his chest.
Instantly, Cameron rolled up and off. On his haunches, he watched me.
I sucked in a breath and scrambled up to sitting. “Sorry.”
“What just happened?”
“I… I’m not sure.”
“What did I do?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s not you. It’s all me.”
“Then it isn’t ye either.”
I got the implication. It was my assault rearing its ugly head.
“That precise position,” I tried to explain. “It sparked a memory, and my brain flipped.”
For several seconds, Cameron remained quiet. “Can I hold ye?”
I nodded, too annoyed and unhappy at myself for words. Cameron’s arms came around me, and he picked me up in a deadlift from the floor.
“Can we get into your bed if I don’t lie on top of ye?”
I tucked my head against his shoulder, and he carried me through the dark RV to my bedroom. How he knew which was mine was anyone’s guess, but he set me on the sheets, his arms around me.
“After the shooting,” he said quietly, “I used to flinch whenever anyone pointed at me. Even just with a damn finger. I hid it, and I dinna think anyone noticed, but I felt like such an idiot.”
“How did you get shot?”
“A madman on the estate. He stalked my cousin and had her and Max at gunpoint. Lochie and I went out to save them. I rushed the man, and he pulled the trigger. They were picking shotgun pellets out of my shoulder for months after.”
“God. How terrifying. You’re a hero.”
“Naw. But I learned a lesson or three. The man fell to his death, but I still get the urge to lock all the doors at night and check everyone is in and safe. I dinna think that will ever go.”
I stretched and pressed my lips to his scarred skin.
He stroked my hip, the action comforting.
It was my turn, if sharing your darkest moments lined up in a row, but I couldn’t take myself back to that movie set. To the couch where it all happened. Not now while I was trying to get over it and move on.
“Going onstage tonight was supposed to be me fixing myself. I had lyrics prepared. Exposing ones. That was the thing I thought Leo would’ve shared with you.”
“Thank ye for telling me now,” Cameron replied.
He kissed my hair, and I huddled closer to him.
I’d spent so many nights lying awake and remembering all the bad things.
Tonight, somehow, I fell directly asleep.
Ashort while later, Cameron left my bed. I watched him go, and angst cramped my stomach.
Just like at the bothy, he was doing a moonlight flit.
Then murmured voices came from outside the room. A short while later, he returned and sat on the edge of the bed, his shirt reinstated.
“Just Rory coming home.”
“Oh! I locked her out.”
“It’s fine. I was awake.”
I stared up at his handsome features. Tomorrow, I’d have to leave with Rory. Drive for hours. Smile at her mom and keep my damn mouth shut. Just like always.
But that dose of anxiety ranked behind a brand-new one—being away from Cameron. Over the past two days, I’d swung closer and closer into his orbit to the point he’d forgiven my awful actions, and seemed to want to be friends again. Max had called him a straightforward man, but he wasn’t.
The degrees of complexity to Cameron McRae begged to be explored.
“I’d better go,” he said softly.
“Do you want to come with us tomorrow?” I asked in a rush. “I don’t mean as a guard, but for fun. It’s a long drive, so we can talk. If you aren’t working. Shit, you will be. Never mind.”
“Glad ye asked. I’d love to.”
My heart squeezed. “Are you sure?”
“Aye, woman. I’ll clear it with Gordain.”
He placed a gentle kiss to my mouth. Then he climbed off the bed and, with one long searching look, left my room.
