Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
Anyone with eyes could sense the change in the Rosebank siblings. It was like deep black waters stretching between them, widening with every avoided look. Yet that didn’t deter anyone at the pool party. A chance to party at the Rosebank mansion? Yeah, no one was turning that down.
Cameron counted at least forty people in attendance, just a small portion of the senior class.
People Gavin entrusted Ethan and Luis to hand pick.
The criteria? Simple. People who didn’t annoy Gavin and anyone Ebony wanted.
The last part was easy, because as popular as Ebony was, her friend group was remarkably small always reminding Cameron how reserved the princess of Stardust actually was.
Looking around across the massive pool to the other side, away from the blaring speakers and under the shade of a massive magnolia tree, sat a large cabana.
Draped in white netting, it partially obscured its occupant but Cameron could make her out.
He could see her dark legs against the white cushions and the flash of purple from her criminally small bikini.
Cameron wasn’t the only one looking. Even from across the yard, where Gavin was playing basketball with a group of guys, Cameron could see his glacial demon gaze drifting back to the cabana every few minutes.
Noting her every shift of movement and keeping track of any guy who strayed too close.
All the while Sienna, for some fucking reason Gavin's new girlfriend, desperately tried to stay in his line of sight cheering him on from the side of the court.
Cameron was lounging at the end of the pool, the water lapping at his chest when a brunette waded towards him. Her bright polka dotted bikini top barely covering her breasts.
"Hey Cam," her syrupy sweet voice demanded that he look at her.
Swallowing back an annoyed sigh, he complied, smiling. "Hi Shanel."
Having captured his attention, her eyes lit up even as she gave him a practiced pout. "You haven't called me in a while."
But you have called me, dozens of times. Was what he wanted to say but he just settled on a smile instead.
Shanel blinked and he could see her trying to think of something to say to capture his attention. "You want to go get something to eat." She pointed to the man standing under a large umbrella manning the outdoor kitchen in a black chef's outfit.
Like all his parties, Gavin spared no expense.
A DJ played in the far corner of the yard, one chef served drinks and desserts inside while another worked the grills and pizza oven outside, and a woman acting as a butler moved through the crowd offering drinks and picking up trash people left behind.
"Yeah Cam, go put some meat in your mouth." Luis appeared behind them grinning. "Or better yet in her mouth."
Shanel growled in anger and threw water up at Luis, but he just dodged and laughed while Ethan shielded his hotdog.
"Don't get mine wet!" Ethan shouted.
Glaring after them as they retreated Shanel turned back to him and huffed before letting a slow seductive smile spread across her lips. "Or we can do that, too."
Cameron honestly considered it for a moment.
Memories of summer resurfaced and his cock jolted in his shorts at the mental images of Shanel swallowing him to the hilt.
She was very good, but the invitation didn't sway him.
Turning around, he lifted himself from the water and stood up, water dripping from his shorts.
He ignored Shanel's pouting face and looked over to the basketball court where Gavin, Ethan, Luis, and a few other guys were.
He could go over there but the swell of pride rushing through his veins prevented him.
"You know I don’t give second warnings…stay the fuck away from her."
The bastard's words still rang in his head. Where did that prick get off telling him what he could and could not do? She was his fucking step-sister for Christ's sake! She didn't belong to him. Why was everyone in this fucking town forgetting that?
From here he could hear Ethan say something and everyone laughing.
Cameron didn’t bother hiding the twitch in his brow as he glanced at his friends.
There has always been a slight rift in their friendship amongst the four of them.
It wasn’t just the fact that Ethan and Luis had known Gavin longer than him, it was something more.
It started in the summer of their sophomore year.
Gavin had begun interning at his father's company, Rosebank Capital Management, starting at the lowest level possible: manual labor.
The evil smile on Grant Rosebank's face as he informed his son what his summer would consist of still haunted Cameron to this day.
"If you want to run my company one day you're going to earn your way up to the throne." But it was what Grant said next that had surprised Cameron. "And you three are welcome to join him."
That day Gavin hadn’t given his father the satisfaction of a reaction, he’d already told all of them what his dad was planning.
Supposedly, it was some tradition all the Rosebank men followed.
What threw Cameron was how quickly Ethan and Luis agreed.
From that moment on, the three of them had spent past summers working around town on various Rosebank properties, sweating through construction sites and landscaping work under the hot sun.
Cameron had denied the offer. Gavin was his friend and he respected his father immensely but he drew the line at working for him.
Something about working like a goddamn sharecropper in the heat all summer just for the hopes of working for his rich, white-boy best friend in the future just didn’t sit right with him.
His decision changed something in the dynamic of their friendship.
A line was drawn between them, one that told Cameron exactly which side Ethan and Luis would stand on if things ever broke apart.
Annoyed, he got out of the pool and considered going inside to grab a drink. Just then a breeze drifted in and he could see the soft netting around the cabana flutter, revealing Ebony's long figure stretched across the cushion. Alone.
Cameron scanned the area and found Taylor talking to a girl near the loungers. The princess of Stardust was currently unguarded. Seizing his chance, he ran a hand over his wet curls and walked over to her.
She was stretched out on the cabana like an old school pin up from a magazine. Laying on her stomach with a pillow under her chest she was reading something on her phone while she let one foot point lazily into the air.
Cameron's breathing slowed and his heart race increased. Her bikini was purple and barely-there. Two scraps of cloth against her dark skin that made it hard to remind himself he couldn’t just reach out and touch. Hell, it made it hard to breathe.
He tried not to look. But he did. Every inch of her was naturally sun-kissed and soft.
The flare of her hips, the dip in her back.
Did she even know what she looked like lying there?
She had to, right? The most popular girl in all of Stardust who barely graced people's presence was wearing practically nothing right now.
Cameron cleared his throat, catching her attention, because the sight of her like this was almost unbearable and he needed to distract himself.
Pulling her gaze away from her phone, she looked at him. Did her eyes just light up a bit? Please God, he didn’t ask for much, he mentally prayed.
"Hey Cam, what's up?" Fuck, even her voice sounded sexy right now.
Feeling confident under the ray of her smile he knelt down beside the cabana until they were eye to eye. "Nothing much, just tired of fake laughing with everyone else and wondering if you would take pity on me and let me hang out with you."
She gave him an understanding look and scooted over, silently giving him permission. Fuck yes! He held back his grin and slid in beside her.
As soon as he was inside, he let out a deep sigh and looked up to the two fans pointed down at them. "Holy shit, are those misting fans?"
"Yep." She gave him a smug smile.
"No wonder you look peaceful as fuck in here." He laid back onto the soft canvas pillow with his hands behind his head. "You have your own oasis."
Ebony turned onto her side and propped her head up with one hand.
The position did nothing to help him. All it did was press her breasts together and show off the delectable curve to her waist. Prying his eyes away from her, he looked out to the party.
The curtains obscured people's faces and he wondered how many people were watching him right now.
They were no doubt running to the secret Reddit account filling it up with outright lies and speculation.
He was tempted to look over to where Gavin was but caught himself, instead he asked. "So, why aren't you swimming?"
One dark brow lowered and she gave him a quizzical look. "Can you swim in a pool with thirty people in it?"
He let out a short laugh that nearly turned into a groan as his traitorous eyes dropped back down to the smooth globes of her barely covered breasts. "Fair point," he managed to say.
A peal of obnoxious but familiar laughter cut through their tranquil air like an air raid siren signaling bombers. They both winced at the sound.
Cameron couldn’t help but say the obvious out loud. "Out of all the girls in school, why the hell Sienna Chase?"
Ebony gave him a look that said she couldn't agree more, but she was far too polite to say it. Instead, she said, "Do you know what's up with him? One day everything was fine and then the next…he's acting like this," she gestured behind her toward the basketball courts where Gavin was.