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)
I walk to her, lifting her out of the chair and then sitting down before bringing her into my lap. She turns so her butt is beside me, but her legs are over my lap, her arms around my ribs as I hold her tightly against me to ward off the cold. We don’t say anything at first, just listen to the crackle of the fire, and for the first time since arriving in Boston, I finally feel at ease. I lean my head into hers, kissing her temple as I brush my fingers over her hip.
“Have you talked to your mom?”
We had gone to lunch with her dad before we flew out. He was pleasant, but I could tell Cameron was struggling with the fact that her mom didn’t show. “Somewhat. She was mad I came up here instead of doing the meet. Said I was choosing a man over my sport.”
I sigh deeply, aggravated. “I don’t get why she doesn’t like me.”
“It’s not you. It can’t be. I really do feel she’s just jealous I found happiness.”
I cuddle her closer. “I told you to go to the meet.”
She shakes her head. “And as I told her, I did choose you over my sport, and I regret nothing.”
I kiss her temple, and she leans into me, threading our fingers together. “Thank you.” She gives me a look, but then she squeezes my hand three times, and my breath catches. “Do you know what that means?”
“What?” she asks, her brows pulling in and knitting tightly together.
“Squeezing my hand.”
“It means something?”
I nod with a sneaky grin, and then I squeeze her hand once. “I.” A second time. “Love.” And on the third time, I say, “You.”
Her eyes widen as her lips part, pink tinting her cheeks. “So you had me saying I love you before I even spoke the words? You play dirty, Jeannot.”
I chuckle as I nuzzle her neck. “I did it so even if I didn’t say the words, you’d feel them.”
She trails her lips along my ear. “I love you.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, cuddling closer to her, moving my lips along her neck, getting drunk on her scent. “I love you.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Benson
We stay wrapped up in each other in the pond house in the middle of the forest for a long while. Neither of us needs to fill the silence that surrounds us. We exist together, just the way I love to. When the room is nice and warm, I sit up as she takes off her jacket and mittens.
“Emery showing up was unexpected.”
“Unexpected is putting it mildly,” I say as she leans back to look at me. “I don’t know how that’s going to play out.”
“I’m just glad Ava isn’t here.”
“Same.”
“Though, why didn’t she come?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Quinn told me to leave it be.”
“It’s all so weird,” she muses, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but where you are during all this.” I cup her neck, rubbing my thumb along her throat. “Which is why Emery showed up. She knows Quinn needs her.”
I don’t know why that has my throat working past everything I’m feeling, but it does. “I do need you, Cam. Always, not just for this.”
“I know,” she says simply, moving her hand over mine before she leans her nose into mine. “Just as I need you.”
I kiss her, and as tends to happen, our kiss deepens. I take slow nips of her lips, running my tongue along hers, and it wasn’t my intention to kiss her until I’m unable to breathe or totally lost in my lust, but that’s how it always is with Cameron. There is no stopping, no thinking, just feeling. Feeling all of her and everything she gives me.
She pulls back, heat in her eyes as they meet mine. I thread my fingers into her hair, bringing her lips back to mine, wanting desperately to lose myself in her lips. I feel her fingers moving along the front of my jacket, undoing it before she trails her lips from my lips and along my chin. I open my eyes when she pulls back, pushing my jacket off my shoulders, while her eyes don’t leave mine. My mouth goes dry at her heated gaze, and she throws my jacket to the floor and starts to unbutton my shirt.
“You’re beautiful,” I remind her, and I love the little smirk that turns her lips up.
She finishes unbuttoning my shirt, and then her eyes land on the spot where my tattoo sits on my chest. “Every time I have you naked, I never look at your tattoo, and this is the perfect moment.”
My breath catches, and all my words are lost. I wasn’t prepared to tell her about my tattoo. I thought she would have asked about it a long time ago, but we never focused on the ink—rather, on making the other come.