Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
natalie
“NATALIE NOELLE LONDON, I need to know everything.” Ellie’s black hair was thrown into a bun on top of her head, her short, wispy bangs swept to the side, framing a face with a gleaming expression as she plopped down into the seat across from me at the Bellflower Bar.
She wore an oversized graphic tee with a black cat on the front that said, Karma is a Cat. “How was the cardio?”
I took a long sip of my mimosa before I answered, my face growing hotter by the second. “It was definitely the…all of the above option.”
“I knew it.” Ellie crossed her arms over her chest with a look of triumph. “He looked like a man of many talents.”
I sighed into my drink. “Cameron is…amazing.”
“Oh?”
Ellie seemed surprised by my response, and I realized how I must have just sounded: wistful and infatuated, like this man had put a spell on me. So unlike me, as evidenced by my best friend’s raised brows and twitching smile.
But last night.
How was I supposed to act any other way after last night?
As though his first performance of the night hadn’t already been mind-blowing, Cameron fucked me two more times.
Once in front of the bathroom mirror, taking me from behind while never moving his eyes off me in our reflection.
And once more when we were curled up in his bed, a slow, sensual joining of our bodies that once again changed my perception of sex, pushing me to a new limit until we were both gasping and falling asleep within minutes afterward.
He might not have even pulled out.
I should care about that, right?
I hadn’t wanted to leave this morning. I’d see him in a few days for that baseball game, assuming Chloe wanted to go, but we’d be back to pretending our relationship was professional, friendly.
We agreed to five lessons, though. That meant two more, right? I’d get two more nights with him but just didn’t know when they’d be yet.
“I mean, in bed. He’s just amazing in bed.” I sat up straighter, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Of course.”
“Of course,” Ellie repeated slowly. “But you know…”
I shook my head, already knowing where she was going with this.
“Ellie—”
“He won’t be your lawyer forever, Nat,” she cut in, determined as always. “And he seems like a genuinely good guy. I was talking to his brother-in-law for a while last night, Beau? He said Cameron is—”
“Sully hated that, by the way.”
It was an asshole move of me to derail her points about Cameron by bringing up my brother and the ex she’d never gotten over. But I also wanted her to know that he’d never gotten over her, either.
Ellie froze.
“What?”
“Sully kept glaring at Beau.” I lifted a brow. “Couldn’t keep his eyes off wherever you were.”
“I know he’s your brother, but…” Ellie rolled her eyes, but I saw the flush working its way up her neck. “Sully can go to—”
“What can I get you ladies to eat today?”
It was probably for the best that the waiter interrupted.
Ellie wasn’t ready to talk about how she really felt about Sully.
And I wasn’t ready to talk about how I really felt about Cameron.
Cameron was all smiles when he picked me and Chloe up for the baseball game. To no one’s surprise, Chloe was very excited, from the moment I asked her about it to the moment Cameron showed up in front of our house.
And I wasn’t sure if her enthusiasm was simply that infectious or if Cameron was truly that happy to be bringing us, but his dimples hadn’t disappeared once since we got into his car.
Not when we got stuck in traffic near the stadium, or when we had trouble finding parking—driving probably hadn’t been a great idea—or when we had to hike a handful of blocks to make it to the entrance, and Chloe whined that her feet hurt.
I’d tried to talk her out of wearing her new sandals, knowing that we might have to walk a lot, but she was insistent. Consequences of your own actions and all that.
“You got this, Champ,” Cameron encouraged, flashing her a grin as they strode beside each other on the sidewalk.
“Is it much further?” she asked, screwing her face up when she looked at him, half-blinded by the sun.
Cameron shook his head. “Nah. And I’ll make you a deal. If you can make it there, I’ll give you a piggyback ride on the way back later. ’Kay?”
Chloe’s brows shot up, and she stuck her hand out immediately. “Deal.”
Cameron took it with a chuckle, shaking.
“Dad says I’m too heavy for piggyback rides,” she added after he dropped her hand, conveniently waiting to add that information until after Cameron had already shaken on their deal.
But Cameron just laughed. It was bright and full-bodied and sent an odd sensation careening down my spine.
“Maybe for him,” he said, and he did, to his credit, try to contain his grin a little bit as he glanced down at Chloe. “But you’re not heavier than your mom, are you?”
Chloe seemed confused by that. “No.”
“Well, I did have her on my shoulders the other day,” Cameron said, and I choked on the hot summer air, slapping a hand over my mouth. He shot me an amused look that explicitly said I’d better keep it together. “So I feel pretty confident I can handle a nine-year-old piggyback ride.”
“Really?” Chloe looked a little awed by Cameron’s strength, and I noticed her sort of eying his muscles in his short-sleeved Red Caps T-shirt, making it even harder to control my facial expression.
Cameron nodded. “Yeah, I was helping her reach something.” A slight pause, his glittering eyes darting to me. “On the ceiling.”
Oh, I reached something alright. Went straight through the ceiling, actually.
“You’re in trouble,” I mouthed.
“You felt secure up there, right, Mama?” he asked, ignoring my comment.
I was going to kill him.
I nodded, clearing my throat. “Of course.”
“See?” Cameron gave Chloe a warm look. “There you go.”
My daughter considered that for a second before checking over her shoulder to ask me, “What was on the ceiling?”
“Just a…spider, honey.”
“Ewww.” A whole-body shiver worked through her. “Not at our house, right?”
“We took care of the spider. Don’t worry, Champ.”
“Cam took care of everything,” I added and then decidedly didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.
I wanted to.
“Sure did,” he muttered and then cleared his own throat, like he knew we weren’t sticking to our own rules very well.
I so badly wanted to say fuck the rules, reach out, and I don’t know, take his hand? Slip beneath his arm? I had no idea what, exactly. But not touching him felt wrong today.
There were so many reasons that wasn’t possible, though.
So, we were more careful after that. Once we made it into the stadium, Cameron led the way to our seats, which were somewhere between home and first base, not too many rows up from the field.
Chloe should have sat between us; that likely would have been for the best. But I hadn’t been thinking when I filed into the row behind him, and now our legs kept brushing and arms bumping, and I was trying very hard not to think about the last time we’d been in close contact.
Heat swirled, heavy in the air, both from the summery evening and the proximity of Cameron Bryant.
When I glanced over at him, a crooked smile slipped onto his face, like he was enjoying this entire situation far too much, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
His eyes flicked to the hat on my head, which he’d let me borrow, and his lips parted to say something.
But a second later, his smile fell, gaze drifting to something over my shoulder.
“Can I help you?”
Cameron’s voice was harsh and hard, and his expression a surprising mix of both as he glared at whoever was behind me. I turned quickly to see a man looking my way from a row in front of us.
“Oh, sorry.” The man laughed shakily, clearly unnerved by Cameron’s intensity as he ran a hand through short, light brown hair.
He looked like he could either be a finance bro in his midtwenties or a college frat boy who was coasting on his dad’s credit card.
Hard to say for sure. “I was—I just thought I recognized her. Hi.”
He gave a little wave to me, and I felt Cameron’s body grow stiffer beside me. I noticed his hand out of the corner of my eye, how it moved closer to my leg, flexing, like he wanted to curl his fingers over my thigh.
He didn’t, but somehow, I felt the heat of his touch anyway.
I gave the stranger a tight smile. “Hey.”
I hoped that would be it, and the man might turn back around, but instead, he doubled down, readjusting his whole body so he could get a better look at me. “Am I sure I don’t know you?”
“Yeah,” Cameron said flatly. “You’re sure.”
“I don’t know you,” Chloe muttered beneath her breath as she sank back into her seat, and I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.
Shaking my head, I cleared my throat. “Sorry, no, I don’t think we’ve met.”
I was trying to be at least a little polite.
But then his eyes dipped to my cleavage instead of focusing on my face, even though the red tank top I had on was relatively modest, and I didn’t care so much about being polite anymore.
Especially because Cameron immediately noticed and leaned forward in his seat, undoubtedly to say something else. So I cut in, “Hope you enjoy the game.”
“You, too.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. And after one more glance my way, he turned back around.
“Weirdo,” Chloe muttered.
“Chloe,” I admonished before glancing at Cameron to find him stewing, his eyes still on the back of the man’s head while his jaw clenched and unclenched.
“What’s in the bag?” I asked, trying to distract him. I pointed at a plain canvas bag that I’d been wondering about since we got out of the car earlier and he’d swung it over his shoulder.