Chapter 41 #2
He shrugged, the corner of his mouth twitching as he held his hand out, and I walked back to him, taking it. “Do you like them? I’m sorry if you had another idea for that patch of soil.”
I had to swallow past the lump in my throat before I could answer. “I love them. I’ve been meaning to plant something there for a while. I can’t wait to watch them grow.”
Cameron gave me a warm look. “Me too.”
We walked to his car, and he opened the door for me—always a gentleman, it would seem. Although he also wore this crooked smile that told me he had plans for tonight that would make me rethink whether that was true.
“Where are we going to eat?” I asked as I slid into the front seat of his car, itching for more details.
“Somewhere…unexpected.”
“Oh?”
That caught my interest, but I had to wait while Cameron shut my door and walked around to get into the driver’s seat. He took his time buckling his seat belt and then looked pointedly my way, waiting for me to do the same. I reached back to grab it.
“I really have no interest in taking you somewhere I’d have to share you with other people,” he finally answered, taking the buckle out of my hands and clicking it in place for me before resting his hand on my thigh, adding heat to an already warm day.
“I knew you were going to look as amazing as you do, and I’m fucking tired of keeping my hands off you in public, Natalie.
” Cameron slid his hand to my knee, giving it a little squeeze.
It reminded me of how he’d touched me under the table during my deposition, both keeping me grounded and sending my body into overdrive.
He was doing the same thing right now.
“Oh,” I repeated, feeling flustered.
“Unless you’d prefer I keep my hands to myself?” he asked, casting a speculative glance my way.
He started to loosen the grip he had on my knee, and I immediately placed my own hand on top of his, stopping him.
“I didn’t say that,” I said, breathless. My entire body flushed hot, and I wondered if Cameron could feel the heat radiating off my skin, beneath his touch.
His lips quirked to the side, his dimples making an appearance. “That’s what I thought.”
So smug, but I didn’t even care.
“That’s one of the best parts about this.” I smiled at him while he pulled out of his parking spot, and like he could sense my smile, his grin grew bigger, too.
“What is, baby?”
“That we don’t have to hold back or pretend that this isn’t…something.”
He chuckled darkly in that way that made all my hairs stand on end. “Oh, it’s something, alright.”
Cameron slid his hand further up my leg while driving one-handed, not taking his eyes off the road, and I struggled to form coherent thoughts, let alone sentences.
“But you should know not everything has changed,” he added. “The rules are the same, Natalie.”
He gave my inner thigh a little pat, like a command to open further, and I obeyed without thinking.
“The rules?” I gasped when I felt his fingertips tracing a path upward. “Like that you’re in charge?”
Cameron shook his head. “First of all, I’m only in charge when you want me to be. Understood?”
I glanced over at him. “You mean, in the bedroom?”
He drew lazy circles on my inner thigh, drifting his touch back toward my knee and then back up again, making me squirm.
“I mean anywhere or anytime you need me to be,” Cameron answered, as calmly as ever. “Whenever you want, I’ve got you.”
I stared at the road in front of us, blinking.
I’ve got you.
What a strange concept.
“But even then, you can tell me no,” Cameron added. “That’s the rule I want you to know. That you can always tell me no. Us being together, this—” He squeezed my thigh again, as though to make sure I was listening. “—doesn’t mean you can’t.”
I shook my head because the thought of that seemed foreign to me. “I’ve never wanted to tell you no, Cameron.”
“I know,” he acknowledged, his tone patient and honest. Like it was just a simple truth that I’d always wanted him, in every scenario.
“But I want this for the long haul, baby. And one day, you might want to tell me no. And I’m trusting you to do that.
” When I continued to stare at him, slightly mystified by this entire conversation and where it was coming from, Cameron lowered his voice.
“I know you did things with that man you didn’t want to, and that’s never you and me, got it? That’s never you and me.”
Emotion rammed into me like a freight train, his words colliding in my brain and finally making sense.
Because he was right. Korey never physically forced me to do things I didn’t want to, but he emotionally manipulated me into it, making me think that maybe if I did what he wanted, I’d finally feel some semblance of love.
It never worked, never made me feel any different. And finally, I learned to say no. And I said it a lot, finally ending with the resounding no that ended our marriage.
Cameron was right. Him and me? We were different than that. So very, very different. And I had no problem promising him that. I’d found my voice, and he only ever encouraged me to use it.
I cleared my throat. “I’ll say no, Cameron. I promise.”
“Yeah?” he checked, glancing over at me with a glittering gaze that made my pulse triple in rate as I nodded in response. His hand then slowly slid back up my inner thigh, teasing as it inched higher. “So if I wanted to pull your skirt up and play with this pussy in traffic, what would you say?”
I didn’t look away from him when I answered, “Nothing.”
Cameron’s hand flexed on my thigh, a low groan coming out of him.
And I couldn’t help but smirk. “You couldn’t wait until later?”
“No,” he admitted, and the hoarseness in his voice made me believe him. “What about our entire relationship has given you the impression that I’m good at resisting you, Natalie London? I risked my entire career just for a taste of you.”
“I think you got more than a taste,” I laughed, ignoring that little twinge of guilt that I still felt whenever I thought of what could have gone wrong.
Instead, I focused on my current flood of feelings, brought on by his wandering touch.
I canted my hips, wanting, needing more of it. “And I’m no better.”
I had no idea how to resist him, either. Not now, in the middle of traffic, and not before, in a conference room at Gardner Law.
“Mm,” Cameron hummed, sounding satisfied. “You love when my hands are between these thighs, don’t you?”
He hooked a finger beneath the hem of my underwear, and I sucked in, clutching the door handle.
“Among other things,” I said after getting a hold of myself.
“Fuck.”
Cameron readjusted his grip on the steering wheel, and all I could do was stare at the veins in his hand as the fingers on his other one tugged my underwear to one side.
I was panting now, heart racing, palms sweating. Cameron’s body seemed just as tense, and it was deeply gratifying to know that I had the ability to affect him—this normally calm, cool, collected man—as much as he affected me.
Shifting in my seat, I tried to spread my legs wider, give him better access, because oh my God, I needed it. I needed him to actually touch me instead of ghosting his fingers over my slit.
“Natalie.” Cameron’s voice was hard, and I was glued to it. “Who’s allowed to touch this pussy besides you?”
He swiped two fingers between my legs, letting them drift over my clit, and I released a whimper.
Again. I needed him to do it again.
But he stopped, fingers hovering until I answered him.
“My boyfriend,” I answered breathily. “Only my boyfriend.”
“God, baby.” Cameron made a guttural noise, his entire body reacting to that.
We hadn’t used titles yet, but I knew it was only because he was waiting for me to be ready.
And I was so much more than ready for this to officially be everything that it was.
He rewarded me, his fingers making another pass through my pussy. “And who’s that?”
I squirmed when he stopped again, waiting for my answer.
“You.”
“Fuck right it’s me,” Cameron growled and then gave me what I wanted, thrusting inside me and causing a gasp to fly from my lips.
And then his thumb grazed my clit, moving in tiny flicks, and I nearly lost it, gripping the handle on the door harder and flinging my head back, eyes squeezed shut because it was just so good.
“So fucking glad we both know now that you’re mine,” he rasped, slowly working his fingers in and out of me. “And this pussy is mine. Isn’t that right?”
I barely managed a nod, and Cameron curled his fingers, hitting a spot inside me that felt like a reward but was really a reprimand.
“Yes,” I cried. “Yes, Cameron. Baby.”
“Oh, hell,” he groaned, and I saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. “You have no fucking idea what it does to me to hear you say my name like that.”
I moaned, the only feasible response when he was playing with my pussy so expertly.
Somewhere in my consciousness, I realized that other cars were all around us, that even though no one would really be able to see anything, it was conceivable that we weren’t being discreet.
But God, it only heightened the experience.
And it was almost like Cameron was reminding me that the thrill of us wasn’t over.
That he was going to continue to show me what sex could be like, but only with him.
“Yes, be loud for me, Natalie,” he encouraged, even as I felt the car round a corner. My eyes flicked over, watching him expertly turn the wheel with one hand while he continued to work me over with the other. “We’ve had to be so quiet lately. Are you going to let me hear you tonight?”
I nodded.
“Good girl,” he murmured as he pulled into a parking lot I didn’t recognize. “I can’t wait.”
And then he slipped his fingers from inside me, readjusted my underwear so it was back in place, and pulled my skirt back down.
I stared at him, in a mix of horror and arousal, as he flashed me a playful smirk and sucked his fingers clean.
“Ready?” he asked, as though he hadn’t just fingered me to almost completion.
“I— But—” I wiggled in my seat, crossing one leg over the other to try to appease the ache between my thighs.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” His grin was practically diabolical. “Did you want to come?”
I pressed my lips together, trying not to let a little whine of disappointment slip out of me.
It was no use.
Cameron’s eyes blazed bright, feral in the way they worked over me.
“Well, I want you to sit on my face, Sunshine, but sometimes we have to wait for the things we want.” He licked his lips like he was imagining it and then opened his car door. “Come on, baby.”
And because following Cameron Bryant was the easiest thing in the world, I stepped out of the car and took his hand.