Chapter 7 #6
Now, so many years later, Cameron could almost admit that Thomas leaving had been the second-best thing he could have done.
At the time, though, it had felt like the end of his world.
He’d just found out he was sterile due to the damage his biological parents had caused him, and not even his shitty boyfriend would stay with him.
This was the other reason Cameron didn’t really date.
He didn’t want to have this conversation with random people he met on dating apps.
Hell, he didn’t want to have it with his fated mate, and yet here he was.
Fate sure was a bitch.
He kept his eyes closed as long as he could bear it, but finally, he couldn’t take the silence any longer. He cracked one eye open to find Emory still sitting there, his hands lying useless in front of him as tears trickled down his cheeks.
“Emory?” Cameron whispered.
“I am so, so sorry, Cameron. I…I don’t know what else to say.
I’m so sorry that happened to you at such a young age and then again in college when you were still just a kid.
And now…to have to tell me about it because of my family…
” He said the word like a curse before shaking his head, causing tears to fall onto his sheets. “I’m just so sorry, honey.”
Cameron didn’t have to wait for his octopus to spur him forward.
He scrambled back onto the bed, abandoning his discarded shirt and instead opting for the warmth of his fated mate’s arms. He nearly bowled him over when he crashed into him, but Emory quickly steadied them with a hand on the mattress and his other arm wrapped tightly around Cameron’s back.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Cameron said, his voice slightly muffled from his face being pressed into Emory’s shirt. Emory began carding his hand through Cameron’s hair again, while his other hand grabbed a fistful of blanket and yanked it around Cameron’s shoulders.
“I feel like I have everything to be sorry for. You shouldn’t have had to—”
“No, really, Emory, it’s alright,” Cameron interrupted, fisting his shirt in rather the same way his octopus kept curling and uncurling his tentacles. “I probably should have told you earlier or—”
“Absolutely not. When would you have told me? At the airport?” Emory’s eyes were set with a steely determination now, and Cameron’s argument died on his tongue.
“You had no reason to tell me until now, and even now, it feels like this should have been your choice, not something you felt you had to do because of my overly zealous family.”
It seemed like maybe Emory had some of his own family shit to deal with.
“It’s okay, Emory,” Cameron tried again.
“It’s really not. Our first morning together, and me and the stress of my family have ruined it.”
Emory looked devastatingly sad, which was fair enough.
What had happened to Cameron was sad and horrible and had taken him a very long time to come to terms with.
He didn’t expect Emory to know how to handle it, but he also didn’t know what to do with this misplaced guilt he was holding.
Cameron’s octopus flapped around anxiously, demanding that Cameron fix it, but he was sort of at a loss.
Something must have shown in his face, because Emory’s jaw tightened and he raised a hand to wipe down his face. “I’m…really not helping the matter, am I?”
Cameron opened his mouth, though to say what, he had no idea, but Emory shook his head and sighed.
“I’m sorry. I used to hate it when I’d tell people about my dad dying, and they’d get all worked up, and I’d end up having to comfort them.
I feel like not only did I stress you to the point you had to run away to…
to burrow into my bedding. Then, when you tried to tell me why, I made you hold my grief over it. I’m really, really sorry, Cameron.”
Cameron was speechless. Utterly speechless.
Even his octopus didn’t know how to react.
When he’d told Shay about Thomas’ abuse, and anytime he casually mentioned—or gods forbid, tried to morbidly joke about his past—everyone around him would flounder around until Cameron got so uncomfortable, he just stopped telling people.
Sure, Emory hadn’t handled it like a pro right out the gate, but he’d course-corrected in a way Cameron didn’t even know was possible.
“I accept your apology,” he whispered, tightening his fists even tighter in Emory’s shirt. Both he and his octopus were in total agreement that they had no interest in letting their fated mate go now.
Emory huffed a breath through his nose, but didn’t say anything.
His octopus twitched his tentacles, and Cameron’s fingers flexed in his shirt.
Perhaps a bit more explanation would help them move on?
“If it helps, I didn’t run away with the explicit intention of burrowing in your bedding.
I needed a moment to gather my thoughts, but your bedding smells so strongly of you that it made me and my octopus feel safe.
And burrowing in your bedding—or actually any bedding really—makes me feel safe, so… I just sort of did it.”
“My smell…makes you feel safe? Even though you were running away from me?”
“I wasn’t running away from you!” Cameron said forcefully, because this was really important to get right.
“I was running away from the idea of losing you. I was afraid that you were going to say it was non-negotiable, that we have to have kids, and then when you found out I couldn’t birth you those kids, I would lose you.
And…I don’t want to lose you over this, Emory.
” Cameron whispered the last few words, but he knew Emory heard him by the low growl that emanated from deep in his chest.
“I will never make you do something to appease my family. You are my fated mate. I know, and I fully agree, that just because we’re fated doesn’t mean we’re a sure thing. But I’m going to try my absolute hardest to make us a sure thing.”
Tears began to form in the corner of Cameron’s eyes, but he felt like he’d used up all his words for the morning. So, instead of forcing any more out, he lifted his head until their mouths were a hairsbreadth apart.
“Can I kiss you?” Cameron whispered, and Emory grunted in affirmation before they both leaned in, and their lips met for a second time.
While their first kiss had been exploratory and almost teasing, this one rang with intensity.
They exchanged unspoken words and badly needed affirmation through the gentle swipe of their lips.
Each breath they shared was a promise, and even if Cameron wasn’t sure they were quite ready to make every promise, when Emory tried to pull back, Cameron dragged him back in for another round.
He was still shirtless, and he felt every brush of Emory’s sleep shirt against his skin.
He wasn’t turned on as much as he was locked in.
Every atom of his being was focused on his fated mate.
His octopus was only semi-present in his mind, hovering on the edge, pleased with the connection they were forging.
He felt Emory’s energy as an ever-present force, pulling him in almost as easily as gravity kept him pressed to the mattress.
By the time their kiss came to an end, they were both gasping for breath.
Emory’s eyes were a dark amber color, and Cameron felt drawn in, like a moth to flame, ready to start a third round of kissing.
At the last moment, Emory diverted him by pressing a soft kiss to his cheekbone, just as he’d done the night before.
“You have a few scars on your face,” he murmured, running his lips softly over the marks Cameron often forgot about.
“Yeah,” Cameron sighed, and Emory brushed the pad of his thumb over the marks. “I think they’re the ones I scratched the most when I was a kid. They don’t bother me now, though. None of them do.”
Emory’s smile was bittersweet as he extricated them both from the mess of blankets and sheets. “Small mercies, huh?”
Emory retrieved Cameron’s discarded shirt and waited patiently for Cameron to pull it on before offering him his hand, much the same way he’d done the night before.
Cameron couldn’t help but feel like maybe there was a deeper meaning behind the gesture.
It was almost as if Emory was offering him the choice to stay or go.
To finally truly accept his invitation into this relationship. This partnership.
Cameron and his octopus reached forward as one and accepted his hand.