Chapter 42
The rain pelted down on us as we sprinted through it.
Lightning was splitting the sky open with flashes so bright they were almost blinding.
We reached the villa drenched and out of breath.
I pushed the door open, having to wrestle the wind for it, before slamming it closed after us.
And then we were alone. Standing opposite each other. Face to face.
Cam’s shirt hung open and his wet trousers clung to him like a second skin, outlining every single inch of him.
My own clothes weren’t far behind; my dress was plastered to my body in such a way that I could feel my nipples straining against the thin wet fabric.
We stood there staring at each other, chests rising and falling in sync.
And when finally my breathing had calmed slightly, I pointed a finger at Cam.
‘You!’ I said, although I wasn’t really sure what exactly I was accusing him of.
‘Me what?’
I walked up to him and poked my finger into his chest, hard. And then my finger decided to go rogue and misbehave, and before I knew what it was doing, it was trailing down his chest towards his abs – so rock hard – and then hooking itself into his waistband. I pulled him towards me.
‘Me what?’ he asked again, this time with a smile.
‘You drive me mad!’ I said. It was the only thing I could think to say. ‘You irritate me and fucking drive me insane and I want to, I want to . . .’ I tugged harder.
‘Want to what?’
I let the waistband go and it snapped back hard against his abs with a sound like steel hitting steel.
‘Oh my God! Are you kidding me?’ I moaned. ‘And why, oh why, do you have to look like this. It’s infuriating. It’s . . . You’re . . . It’s . . . FUCK!’
‘Want to hurt me? Punish me?’ he asked, and then he caught hold of my hand and pressed it onto the not-so-subtle bulge that was pushing against the fabric of his trousers. He moaned the second I touched him.
I nodded. Because I did want to hurt him. And fuck him. And maybe fuck him while I was hurting him . . .
‘So hurt me,’ he said. ‘Do your worst with me.’ He stepped closer, flattening his body against mine, trapping my hand between us. He gripped the sides of my waist with his hands and ground into me.
‘Is that what you want?’ I asked, not sure if I would actually give it to him, or whether I would punish him by not giving it to him.
He laughed, as if he could read my mind. ‘That feels like a trick question.’
I shook my head and then moaned when he ground into me again. And that was all it took, all it took for Cam to slide his hands under my legs and pull me up onto his waist. I wrapped my legs around him and he started walking us across the room, fully in control of the moment.
Not any more.
I grabbed his hands and pulled them off my thighs, and then dropped back down to the ground. He looked at me for a moment, before a small, knowing smile spread across his lips.
‘You always were a feisty one, Lizzy Brown.’
‘Feisty?’ I said, glaring at him. ‘A chihuahua is feisty, Cam.’
He chuckled, then reached out and grabbed the fabric of my dress, yanking me towards him again.
‘You’re going to tear it.’
His smile grew. ‘Then we’ll be even.’ He glanced down at his shirt, then with one hard tug, he ripped the dress right off my body. The sound of the material pulling apart and the seams splitting only added to the heat of the moment.
‘Better,’ he said, his eyes roaming my body. ‘But now we’re going to have to do something about that underwear of yours.’
‘Are we?’ I asked.
He nodded slowly. ‘I think you should take it off.’ He brought his face down to my neck and kissed it, sending a jolt through my body. I reached down and gripped his waistband again, twisting the fabric around my hand.
‘Take yours off first,’ I said, and he burst out laughing.
‘Always a competition between us, even now.’ He buried his head in my neck again and I felt him inhale against my skin. ‘God, you smell good. You’ve always smelt so fucking good. I’ve missed it.’
I tilted my head to the side, giving him greater access to my neck. ‘But how about we drop the competition now,’ he said between kisses.
‘And why would we do that?’ I asked, floating away on the wave of pleasure that was building inside me to tsunami-like proportions.
He pulled his face away from my neck with a force that took me aback. Then he locked eyes with me, with a frightening intensity.
‘Because, Lizzy, there’s no need to compete now, since both of us are going to win in this particular situation.
’ And with those words, and no more objections from me, he picked me up again.
His fingers dug into the backs of my thighs as he walked us backwards towards the bed . . . wait, no, past the bed.
‘Where are you taking me?’ I asked.
‘Shh,’ he said with a smile. ‘Stop trying to be in control of everything.’
I raised a brow at him. ‘What, and let you be in control?’
‘Just for once, why not? Trust me, you’ll be thanking me very loudly in about three minutes.’ And then he let me go. I gasped as I fell, and the second my feet hit the floor, he spun me around, gripping my waist tightly.
‘See that shower over there?’ he asked, lips pressed against my ear.
I nodded, unable to speak as his hands snaked from my waist to my ribcage and then around to my breasts. He cupped them, not delicately but with force as he pushed them together.
‘We should probably wash this rainwater off, don’t you think?’
I nodded again, and then a small moan escaped my lips as he released my breasts and moved his hands down, pushing them between my thighs.
‘Maybe in, say, I don’t know . . . that shower?’
I nodded again, my moans getting louder as he slipped one of his hands into my underwear, cupping me tightly.
‘I want you naked and in that shower in thirty seconds, or else.’ And then he let me go.
I stood there for a second looking at the shower, trying to catch my breath; that is, until he gave me a small but firm smack on the ass.
‘Twenty seconds, baby,’ he said playfully.
I didn’t wait for him to continue; I ran for the shower. But before I climbed in, I stopped and turned around to face him.
He pointed to my panties and tutted disapprovingly. ‘Ten seconds.’
I wanted this. I wanted this even though I knew it was probably a monumentally bad idea.
‘Three, two, one . . .’ His eyes zoned in on me and a slow smile spread across his face as I pulled them down and let them drop to the floor. ‘Just how I remember it.’
She stripped like she meant it. Like she’d been holding back for too long and had finally let those walls of hers crumble. Her panties hit the tiles in a wet heap, and she stood there in nothing but a tangled knot of curls.
Seeing her totally naked like that hit me like a punch to the gut.
Every memory I’d buried – well, tried to at least – every thought of her I’d ever tried to escape all came rushing back.
I stood there for half a second too long, my breath caught somewhere I didn’t know existed, halfway between my lungs and my lips.
She had this effect on me. Always had. The way she moved, the way she looked at me like she was daring me.
Always daring me, challenging me. The thing with Lizzy was that nothing ever happened in half-measures.
Not her anger, not her laughter, and definitely not the way she kissed me like she was trying to kill me.
We were always either about to kill each other or fuck each other, or both. Most of the time it was both.
And yet it never felt reckless. It felt inevitable.
And tonight, right now, in this shower, it was very, very inevitable.