Unstoppable Love: The Kelley Family Series

16. Ava

I almost came from his words alone, and even now I was still pulsing. My panties were wet, and every time I shifted, I felt the evidence of his words and his closeness like a warning bell. God. The things he said to me. The look in his eyes when he implied he’d jerked off to me for years. Years.

As we sat in my living room, Pitch Perfect was indeed on TV because I wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to watch it for any reason. I was sitting on the floor in front of my coffee table, propped up on my knees, eating my chicken and dumplings, trying to figure out how I got there.

Nothing made sense, and everything felt right.

It was the exact opposite of how I’d lived the last few years where everything I did made perfect sense but nothing felt right.

Occasionally, Cameron chuckled. It was impossible not to laugh at the jokes. The movie was the bomb. I’d give anything to be brave enough to glance back and watch his face as he did it, too.

I wasn’t, though. I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to sit close to him on the couch at all. In fact, I’d been avoiding him since he told me his thoughts toward me weren’t gentlemanly. Who said those kinds of things?

A month ago, he was kissing me.

One night ago, he was tearing out my heart.

Like the idiot I was, I was now hanging out with him.

I wasn’t forgiving him, though. That I couldn’t do.

So what in the hell was I doing, allowing him into my house so he could eat my delicious food—even if he bought the stuff for it—and laugh at my favorite movies, giving me even more memories of us I’d have to get over as soon as this blew up in my face?

“Ava?” Cameron called, and my spoon clanked against my bowl.

“Yeah?”

“You think any harder and your head’s going to explode.”

Freaking Cameron Kelley. If only I’d noticed how much he paid attention to me. How much he knew me.

I glared at him over my shoulder. “I’m not doing anything.”

I wasn’t. I was watching my movie. Eating my food. Okay, so I was trying to figure out what would come after the food and movie part of the night, but that was it.

He pointed a finger at me and swirled it in a circle. “Is that why you have those tiny lines in between your brows? You always get like that when you’re concentrating.”

“How could you even see those when I was watching the movie?”

“I didn’t. I just knew you were doing it.”

“Ugh.” I turned back to my dinner and had three more bites before I couldn’t eat anymore. “You don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

He huffed and said nothing, but when I looked back at him, he was now resting with his back against the couch, arms thrown along the back of the cushions. His legs were spread, looking like the king of the castle, and I was never going to get the scent of him off my brand-new furniture.

“That’s all right.” He was smug. Far too smug. “I know enough, and it means I get to spend from now until whenever learning about the rest of you.”

He was so cocky. So arrogant. I shoved to my feet and grabbed my plate. I needed space. A moment where I wasn’t overwhelmed with his presence and his woodsy and citrus scent. And his stupid, beautiful blue eyes that seemed to peer straight into my soul every time he looked at me.

“Are you done?” I snapped.

He grinned. The jerk. “No.” He brought another scoop of dumplings to his mouth, and I stood there, like the moron I was, watching the man wrap his lips around the spoon, wishing they were on my…

Shit.

I spun, stomped all the way to my kitchen, which wasn’t far, and dumped my plate and bowl in the sink.

I’d clean up when he left.

I grabbed a glass, filled it with water, and when I returned to the living room, Cameron was watching. Waiting for me?

“Come here, Ava.”

He patted the cushion next to him.

I went to the loveseat instead.

Cameron chuckled.

“What?”

“Tell me something.”

I shrugged, and it must have been enough to give him the okay to continue.

“Are you sitting all the way over there because you’re worried I’m going to break my deal and touch you? Or are you worried you won’t be able to keep your hands off me?”

“Neither.” I snorted. “Maybe I don’t want to be that close to you.”

Hurt flashed in his eyes before he wiped it away. “Prove it.”

I scowled. Stupid Cameron. He knew this was hard for me, and he was still pushing. And when I was pushed, I fought back. Especially with him. This was the song and dance we did that would take more than a meal for me to erase.

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes and climbed back to my feet. I plopped straight down on the cushion next to him, tucked my feet under me, and held on to my glass of water like it was a lifeline.

He was right. Being this close to him, it was going to be difficult not to touch him. Not to want him.

“Which one of these movies is your favorite?” he asked and went back to holding his dumplings bowl in one hand and eating out of it. He’d at least had the grace to drape a napkin over his lap, not that he’d dropped a single speck of food yet.

“This one, for sure. But your sister’s weird and thinks the third one is the best.”

Cameron ate. I sat next to him and watched the movie. It was a while into it before I finally relaxed enough, and when I did, Cameron’s arm went to the back of the couch. We still weren’t touching, but we were close, and every time I shifted, my shoulder brushed against his arm. Every time I breathed, I inhaled his scent.

It was all it took for my body to remember how good it felt to be touched by him. My lips burned to have his on mine. His hands on my body like he’d done in the hallway of Tom’s. To have his hips pressed against mine so I could feel the heavy weight of his erection pressed against my core. I swallowed thickly, closed my eyes, and tried to push it all away.

And I didn’t think it’d happen. Figured I’d just close my eyes for a minute to get control of myself, but the next time I opened my eyes, I was in Cameron’s arms, and he was walking me through my house.

“I fell asleep,” I mumbled.

“Even rested your head against my shoulder while you did it. Best night of my year.”

He walked into my room, dark and warm, covers unmade because I rarely made my bed, and he set me down on the side where I slept last night. “You’re not supposed to be touching me.”

“Wasn’t letting you sleep on the couch,” he said, “and you were out. Didn’t think you’d wake up when I picked you up.”

I stretched, and the covers scraped against my shorts, reminding me I was still fully dressed. “I need to change.”

“I can help.” His damn smirk was recognizable in the dark.

“You can leave,” I stressed.

He chuckled, shaking his head while he headed out of my room. “I’ll lock up. Get some sleep, beautiful, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

I yawned and covered my mouth, and that yawn froze when he called me beautiful.

The last twenty-four hours had left my head spinning with all the changes, and it must have made me exhausted because, as Cameron closed my bedroom door, I didn’t get out of bed to change.

I rolled right over, closed my eyes, and fell right back to sleep.

And when I woke again, I wasn’t in Cameron’s arms, but I also wasn’t alone.

The smell of sausage had me jumping from my bed and rushing into the kitchen.

“What are you doing here?”

Cameron’s back was to me while he had two frying pans on my stove. Sausage and eggs. He was still wearing the same clothes he’d worn the night before.

He’d left.

Hadn’t he?

He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Cooking you breakfast before I need to get on the road.”

“You… you’re…” I shook my head. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“Told you I was going to spend as much time with you as I could. I put you to bed and slept on the couch last night, and I gotta agree with Meredith. That third one is pretty damn good.”

“You… you watched all the Pitch Perfect movies.”

He shrugged and went back to cooking. Like he lived there. Like he belonged there. Like this was something we’d done every morning for years. Basically, Cameron was acting like cooking me breakfast was no big deal, and I was once again left spinning.

“You said you were going to lock up.”

“I did. Then I slept on the couch. Coffee’s ready if you need it. Oh, you had something to delivered to my house all those weeks back. It’s there on the table.”

My yarn and crochet hooks. I’d forgotten all about that and didn’t bother looking at the box now.

I was trying to figure out how I slipped into a wormhole that took me into an alternate world where things like Cameron cooking me breakfast and calling me beautiful were possible.

“Am I dreaming?” I asked.

That had to be it.

Cameron glanced at me again and smirked. “You dream about me cooking you breakfast?”

“No… I?—”

He interrupted like I hadn’t said a word.

“My dreams are better. They involve you and me, far fewer clothes, and definitely doing something more exciting than eating.” He winked. “Well, sometimes I’m eating.”

My knees wobbled, and I slapped my hand against my island to stay standing.

Definitely a wormhole. Definitely something was going on.

But with the way he was smirking at me, eyes heating as he took in the heat flooding my face and sinking to my chest, a heavy swoosh whipped right through me as I gaped at him. “You’re not playing fair,” I finally rasped.

“Beautiful”—he pointed the spatula at me—“I’m not playing at anything. Go get dressed. Get some coffee. I’ll have breakfast ready in about ten minutes, and I don’t have a lot of time before I need to leave.”

I kept gaping at him. When I sat on the beach in Destin with Lydia, planning out the changes I was making to my life, I’d been fully prepared to give up on this dream.

And there it was. Cameron, turning me on, telling me what to do, cooking me breakfast, and putting me to bed. All happening when I least expected it.

He’d hurt me.

He’d broken my heart.

But him trying to heal that pain was starting to feel really damn good, too. And like the fool I’d been for so long over him, I was having a hard time fighting it.

I did what he told me to do. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and ran a brush through my hair before throwing it up into a clip. Then I slid into leggings, a sports bra, and a tank top and was back in the kitchen while he was grabbing my plates, finding everything so easily, and he’d done that last night too.

Cameron Kelley was making himself at home in my new home.

And I was losing my nerve and my courage to stop this from spiraling further.

I liked it too much, even if I wasn’t sure I believed him that this would work.