Chapter 12 Cameron
twelve
Cameron
What else am I enjoying a little too much?
Zhuri’s yellow sundress. The skirt flows in the breeze, and the top shows off her cleavage, and I really fucking hate how she’s even more attractive now than she was at eighteen.
What I don’t understand, though, is why I’m noticing it so often now. I assume it’s because we’re constantly in each other’s vicinities, but who really knows.
What I do know is that her yellow dress looks so fucking good contrasted against her smooth, dark skin.
Goddamn her for looking like that.
Sure, we may be on the shores of Lake Granby right now thanks to the party Sean decided to hold for the team before practices start next week, but did she really need to look that hot for a party with her teammates?
She really has me starting to wonder why I ever hated her at all. It was so damn petty of me to hate her solely because she hated me. I know that was Jack’s doing, but I decided she was just an extension of Jack, and since she hated me, I was going to hate her, too.
Eleven wasted years when I don’t actually hate her at all anymore, if I ever truly did to begin with.
“Why are you staring at Zhuri?”
I choke down a cough as I spin around and face Sidney. “I’m not staring at Zhuri.”
“Sure, you weren’t,” he chuckles. “You two do seem to really be getting along now.”
“We are. I’ve been getting to know her, and she’s not so bad.”
“Words I never thought I’d hear you say about Zhuri Hart.”
“Fuck off, Gagnon,” I laugh lightly.
“Bet and I have been friends for years, but our best friends despised each other. Maybe we’ll actually be able to see each other now.”
I roll my eyes. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Right now, I wish I did.”
Sidney throws his head back and laughs before waving over to Zhuri, Bet, and Isla, and the three of them immediately come over to join us.
“Hello, gentlemen,” Isla says, giving an exaggerated curtsy.
“Cameron is not a gentleman,” Zhuri chuckles.
Instead of being annoyed, my mind goes somewhere it really shouldn’t.
“I can be a gentleman when I want to be.” I catch her gaze now. “But I don’t think you’d want me to be, ljepota.”
“Cameron!” she chides, unease washing over her. “Do not try to flirt with me.”
“I’m not flirting with you, Hart.”
Zhuri’s look is challenging, and our friends don’t take their eyes off of us. “We literally met when you tried to flirt with me.”
“Eleven years ago,” I add. “I’m not flirting with you now.”
“Whatever you say, Kovacic.” She winks, and our friends break into soft laughter.
“Anyway,” Elisabet pipes in. “The captain of Sean’s boat is heading out for another cruise around the lake. Wanna join us?”
“Yeah, I’ll come,” Sid replies.
“Nah,” I mutter. “But you guys have fun. I’m gonna make my way over to the bar again.”
I watch as the four of them climb onto Sean’s yacht, and then I make a beeline straight to the bar, grabbing myself another beer.
I take a long pull from the bottle as Theo walks up beside me.
“Cheers,” he chuckles, clinking his beer bottle against mine.
“Cheers, man. Having fun tonight?”
Theo sighs. “I’d be having a hell of a lot more fun if the women surrounding me weren’t my fucking teammates.”
I throw my head back and laugh. “It’s the fucking offseason, Hughes. Give Addison a break, will you?”
He smirks. “If I gave her a break, she wouldn’t have any work left to do.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
“Think any of the women will give her some work this year?”
I think it over. “Based on what I’ve heard, Isla might. Clara, Aili, and Avery are all married, I believe. Not sure about anyone else, though.”
“You don’t think Zhuri gets out and has some fun?” Theo waggles his brows.
“I mean, I’ve never heard of her doing that,” I shrug.
“Could mean the Dragons had great PR, too,” he chuckles, and I can’t help but let my mind wander a bit.
Zhuri has clearly told me that just because she doesn’t exploit her sexuality doesn’t mean she’s not sexual. And a very heated game of truth or dare beer pong had her admitting that Jack was terrible in bed.
I wonder if she does let herself have fun, or if she’s too conscious of her image to have any type of fling.
But I imagine it anyway.
Zhuri is somebody who likes control, but I bet she’s an obedient thing in the bedroom. She’d listen to everything her partner tells her to do, seeking out praise for listening. She’d love to be taken care of, but would love even more to take care of you.
I let out a breath and push those thoughts from my head because, wow, I don’t need to fucking think about Zhuri in the bedroom.
Nico and Wes find me as the boat makes its way to shore again. Theo apparently left sometime while I was lost in my head.
“Cam!” Wes drawls. “Come out on the lake with us.”
“Supposedly, the boat has a better bar than the beach does,” Nico adds.
“You guys go ahead,” I reply, watching as our friends step off the boat. “I’m going to stay back here.”
“When did you become so borin’, Cap?” Wes shakes his head.
“Get the fuck outta here, Caddel.”
Nico and Wes relent, laughing as they jog over to the others, convincing them to get back on since I’m “too boring to do anything fun.”
Bastards.
Zhuri, though, looks over at me curiously and declines to join them, instead walking straight up to me.
“Yachts not your style, Cammy?” she teases.
“Something like that,” I mumble, taking another long pull of my beer.
She cocks her head to the side. “You don’t like boats, do you? You were very anti-cruise during our first would you rather game.”
I let out a long sigh. “Boats are fine. It’s… water.”
“Water?”
“Open water specifically. It’s always unnerved me.”
“I never pictured you being afraid of water.”
“Open water. Pools and all are fine. But it’s not like I go around advertising that I have a phobia of fucking water,” I scoff. “The guys would love ripping into me for that.”
“I could dig into them,” Zhuri says nonchalantly. “Bet they’re all afraid of something, too. You could use it to hang over their heads.”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes me. “You aren’t innocent at all, are you?”
“Never claimed to be,” she smiles. “Just cognizant of who gets to see that side of me, so the media can’t run wild about the unprofessional black woman.”
“Fuck the media.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” she says lightly, and I start laughing again.
“Have you always been this fun?” I ask earnestly.
Zhuri shrugs. “This is who I am. We just hated each other too much for you to see that.”
“I don’t hate you now.”
She smiles. “I don’t think I hate you either. I still don’t like you or anything, but I don’t hate you.”
“The most praise I’ll ever get from you.”
“Come on, Cameron. I think Venda, Reggie, and Lev are starting the limbo.”
Zhuri walks off ahead of me, and I follow after her. “You’re six feet tall, Hart. There’s no way you can bend like that without knocking the pole over.”
She flashes me a bright, mischievous smile. “Watch and learn, pretty boy.”
“Fuck me,” I mutter under my breath.
The more time I spend with Zhuri, even if it’s just been for events focused on the team, the more dangerous it becomes.
I like her wit and her jabs. I like her light flirting, though I get the impression that’s just her having fun and not actually flirting with me.
Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it, though.
And I’m really fucking enjoying it.