10. Cameron
10
CAMERON
I’m staring into Lizzie’s green eyes as she moves her hand down her dress. I feel like I’ve stopped breathing. I have no idea what I’m doing.
I shouldn’t be flirting with her.
Shouldn’t be feeling possessive of her.
I definitely shouldn’t be jealous of Reid because he got to be alone with her and touch her foot. In a medical setting, no less. And I don’t even have a thing for feet.
I don’t feel in control right now, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to pay for it somehow.
I look down as she lifts her dress nowhere near as high as I want it to go, but enough to get a glimpse of the bruise covering her skin. I’m livid and about to lose my shit. Her body is marred by one of the worst bruises I’ve ever seen, and I saw quite a few in my football career.
“Fuck, Lizzie,” I say, grinding my teeth together. I move my hand to reach out, wanting to skim my fingers over her mottled skin and take away the pain. “You’ve been walking around with this all night. That’s not okay, sweetheart.”
I catch myself at the last minute. Shit. I can’t touch her right now without risking losing my self-control and my goddamn mind.
So, I use that hand to grab Lizzie’s and drag her inside my house through the front door. I forget everything but her, my mind focused only on making Lizzie feel better. Which is why I’m completely thrown off and startled when I hear my sister speak.
“Hey, Cam.” Morgan pops her head up from the couch in the living room where she’s watching TV. “Oh, hey, Lizzie,” she says with a coy smile on her face.
“Hey, Morgan,” Lizzie and I say at the same time.
“How were the girls?” I ask.
“Perfect angels. They fell asleep about twenty minutes ago,” Morgan replies while turning off the TV and getting up off the couch. She walks to the kitchen and grabs her bag off the counter and then searches for her keys.
“Thanks again for watching them tonight,” I say as I lean back against the counter, trying to be all cool and casual.
“No problem at all. Let’s grab dinner next week, Lizzie, and catch up?” she offers.
“Yes. I’ll text you.”
“You two have a good night.” My sister winks at us and then goes to leave.
“Oh, it’s not like that, Morgan. Cameron was just going to give me some cream for a bruise I have,” Lizzie says quickly. Probably trying to convince my sister that this is in no way romantic or sexual.
In the meantime, I want to ask my sister to stay because I know I can’t stop whatever is happening, even though I know I need to.
But I don’t.
“If that’s what you kids are calling it these days, so be it. I don’t need the details.” Morgan puts her fingers in her ears and keeps walking to the front door.
“Aargh. Good night, Morgan,” I say on an exhale, wishing she would stop being the annoying little sister she is.
Lizzie’s face is bright red, and I know she’s embarrassed and wanting to escape. I quickly walk Morgan to the door and wait until she gets in her car and starts to drive off before I walk back into the kitchen.
“Sorry about that. Morgan is just getting me back for all the years I’ve tortured her as the overbearing big brother.” I realize I’m running my hands through my hair, something I do when I’m nervous.
Lizzie laughs and then starts wringing her hands together, clearly as nervous as I am to be alone together. Well, not really alone, because my daughters are upstairs sleeping, but alone enough.
“You can just give me the cream, and I’ll be on my way. I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I feel like you already cut your night short for me as it is,” she says, avoiding eye contact. I can’t take another second of not seeing the moss-green orbs that I dreamed about last night.
“Lizzie.” I walk up to her and lift her chin so we’re finally looking at each other. “Let me take care of you. Okay?”
She takes a deep inhale and then breathes out. She doesn’t answer me verbally, but she nods, giving me permission. I go to the medicine cabinet in my kitchen and grab the arnica cream, her eyes following my every move.
They widen slightly as I kneel in front of her. My face is level with her pussy, and I can confidently say that I didn’t have that on my bingo card for tonight.
Still, I keep my eyes on her as I lift her dress up and tuck the hem into the edge of her underwear in a PG-13 way to hold it out of the way. I angrily groan and can feel my blood pressure rising as I look at her perfect skin, now marred with black-and-blue bruises. “I want to go outside and punch the fucking mud for doing this to you, Lizzie.”
“It’s my fault. I should have been watching where I was going.”
Her eyes move from mine and down to my hands that are wrapped around her upper thigh, the fingers of one hand resting under her ass while the others are dangerously close to her pussy.
I remove my hands, grabbing the bottle of cream and squeezing a healthy dollop onto my palm. I rub it between my hands to warm it and then start to gently massage it into her soft skin. When she winces, I lessen the pressure.
“I’m sorry, baby. This is going to hurt no matter what, but I’ll try to be gentler.”
“Thanks,” she whispers but pauses before speaking again as I rub the last of the ointment on her skin. “For doing this, I mean. Taking care of me. It’s very neighborly of you.”
I take a deep breath and consider my reply. I need to make myself clear, since I know that’s what she’s asking by making the neighborly comment.
“There’s nothing neighborly about what I’m doing with you, Lizzie. I wasn’t even able to resist you for twenty-four hours. No matter how many pep talks I give myself, I just can’t seem to stop thinking about you.”
I feel her body tense and see her swallow before she removes her dress from under her panties and lets it fall back into place.
Great.
Way to say too much and take things too far.
“I’m having another pottery workshop next Wednesday. You should bring Mackenzie and Addy. I think they’ll really love it.” She steps around me and grabs her bag off the counter before walking to the back door. “Thank you again, Cameron. For taking me home and whatever this was. Good night.”
She opens the door, and I watch her quickly make her way across the yard.
I watch her until I see the lights turn on inside of the barn. I take a deep breath and rub my hands down my face out of frustration only to quickly remove them once I smell the arnica cream.
What the fuck am I doing? I just scared her off by sounding fucking unhinged.
I wash my hands, turn the lights off downstairs, and lock up, then make my way upstairs to check on the girls.
Once I make sure that they’re alive and peacefully sleeping, I text Morgan to make sure she got home safe and thank her again before I step into the shower.
I make it cold to calm myself down, but nothing works. I take my dick in my hand as my thoughts drift back to my neighbor. I keep remembering the way she lifted her dress outside. The curve of her hips, the softness of her skin. The way she looked at me when I was down on my knees for her. Like no one ever did that and how much I wanted to do so much more.
That does it. Her name’s on my lips as I come, and fuck me…I feel guilty now. And so fucking stupid.
I towel myself off and throw some boxer briefs on before I climb into bed, but I can’t sleep. Reid and Liam were right. I’ve got a full-on crush forming, and it’s not going to end well for me. Lizzie doesn’t need a divorced, single dad with all my baggage, and I don’t need a young woman who’s barely lived her life and has so much more in front of her.
I probably just need to get laid, and then I’ll feel differently about her.
I won’t slip up like that again.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself as I finally drift off.