Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Cam squeezed more paint onto her back, smoothing it across her shoulders. She felt his fingers playing down her spine.
“What are you drawing?”
“Your backbone.” Squatting behind her, he heated the small of her back with his laugh. “’Cause you’re the strongest person I know.”
“Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes, but pleasure bloomed in the smile on her face.
“It’s true. I don’t even think you realize how much you’re like Ms. Kris.” Cam stood behind her, sketching over her shoulder blades.
“And what’s that?”
For a moment he didn’t answer. Not with words. Not with a laugh. Maybe he was so absorbed he hadn’t heard her question.
“Cam, what’s that you’re drawing on my back?”
“Wings.” Something deep and sweet lingered in his voice even after he cleared his throat. “You and Ms. Kris are my angels. She’s up there looking out for me. She left you on duty down here.”
Jo couldn’t not face him then. She turned, reaching for him, but he stepped back, holding up his blue-covered hands.
“Let me finish. You’ll ruin my masterpiece.” He smiled, stepping close enough to touch her stomach. “And here, we’ll do something fun.”
Jo pressed her chin into her neck, trying to see what he was drawing across her stomach.
“Idiot,” she breathed, laughing at the six-pack of Heineken he sketched across the collection of subtle muscles in her stomach.
He squatted again, bringing himself level with her hips, and his eyes smoked up with heat and humor. He smoothed paint across the tops of her legs and drew lines in an up and down pattern, bracketing the juncture of her thighs.
The dark hair curling around his head drew her fingers in, but he only allowed the caress for a moment before pulling back to inspect his handiwork with a devilish grin.
“And what is that?” she asked, scared to hear his answer.
“That is a privacy fence for your lady garden so no one can see.” He singed her with a glance up her body until their eyes collided, want steaming up the room. “No one but me, of course.”
“Are we almost done with this?” Jo couldn’t hide how much she wanted him. He had to know this was a slow torture.
His face sobered and he reached for the tube of paint. Moments before, he’d met the passion in her eyes head-on, but now he seemed to be looking everywhere but at her.
“Almost done. Just hang in there.”
He grabbed her hands and drew a heart in each palm. His throat worked for a few seconds, like the words were stuck there. After a moment, he glanced up at her, the confession in his eyes before it left his lips.
“My heart is in your hands.”
Before she had time to respond to that, he spread the paint over her chest, his fingers being extra tender around her nipples. Her chest heaved waiting for him to touch her and take her, but he didn’t. He finally met her eyes, not even looking away while he wrote across her heart with his index finger. Jo closed her eyes, focusing through just her skin on the letters he engraved there.
First came the I.
Jo’s heart raced from zero to a hundred.
Then the word LOVE.
The hope swelling up inside could only escape as a gasp through her lips.
He took his time writing the last word, slowing the motions of his fingers until she wasn’t sure he’d ever finish those three letters.
YOU
Jo gripped Cam’s shoulder, afraid her weak knees would buckle. The force of those words etched onto her chest with his love almost made her stumble. She opened her eyes, and it was what she saw in his face that shook her. Even if he hadn’t just written it there over her heart, she would have known from that look alone.
“I love you, Jo.” Cam’s voice dropped to a reverent whisper, and you would have thought he was in a church instead of standing in front of a naked woman. “I’ve been running from that for a long time.”
“Cam—”
“Baby, let me get this out.” He looked down at the words scrawled across her chest and gulped. “I didn’t want to love you.”
Jo tried not to hurt when he said it.
“Let me explain.” He reassured her with a look, with a finger drawing a heart over hers. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me, but I’m afraid I’ll be the worst thing for you. There are still things I haven’t told you.”
His eyes bore holes in the tarp under their feet.
“Dark things that I wish you’d never have to know, but one day I’ll have to tell you.”
He looked back up at her.
“If I hurt you, Jo, it will drive me out of my mind. Sometimes I already feel like I’m losing it. While I’m in my right mind, here with you, I am going to do something really selfish. I’m going to ask you not to give up on me. Sometimes I run, and if I think I’m a danger to you, I know I’ll run. Don’t give up on me.”