Be Mine Forever (17 page)

“Your lady garden?”

“Yes, my lady garden to be all—”

“Freshly waxed. Yeah, you mentioned that.” Cam’s hand wandered down her side and into her yoga pants, into her panties. With no prelude, no warning, his fingers thrust inside her again. “I like your lady garden just the way it is right now.”

Jo’s breath hitched, getting trapped in her lungs and refusing to come out. Her mouth throbbed under his hungry stare, like he was already tasting her, already possessing her in a dimension they just hadn’t reached yet.

“Remember I said I was going to worship you?” He slid his fingers in and out, adding a third, using his thumb to brush across the bundle of nerves swelling and begging for his touch.

Jo just nodded, her mind and mouth already emptied of words by the steady, sensual pull and push of his fingers. Of his hand coated with the evidence of just how ready she was for this to happen.

“I was wrong. I think this first time, I’m gonna have to fuck you.”

T
ake this slowly.

Cam said the words to himself, a silent mantra in his head that his hands and cock seemed determined to ignore. God, he was finally going to have Jo. He had wanted her, maybe a secret he even kept from himself, ever since she’d shown up at that pool party with daisies on her bikini and an ass no one had suspected was under the loose clothes she’d worn up until that night.

His mind said
slow
, but his legs and feet maneuvered her to the bed with urgency. His eager hands pulled the T-shirt over her head, pushing the hair behind her shoulders so his eyes could devour her nipples, like rubies floating in milk. And these yoga pants—they were in the way. He pushed them down her slim hips and over the gorgeous exaggeration of her ass. Oh, that would be his soon, too. He wanted to crawl into every hole, wanted to lick every crevice, wanted to claim every inch of this perfect body. To erase every trace of any man who had had the nerve to come before him. He was fucking feral about this woman, and she had no idea.

Jo stood before him completely naked and he barely remembered shedding her clothes along the way. This passion was a blur. This was the danger, that he’d get so caught up in these feelings, these urges, these compulsions to possess her that he’d lose control. He’d staunched this for so long. Now that he’d decided it was time and he was ready, it was like emotional hemophilia. He was a free bleeder. Even the barest nick could send him gushing, and he couldn’t have that. It would be messy. It would be dangerous for him to lose control that way, especially with Jo.

She looked at him with so much trust, like she was waiting for his next move, and whichever way he led, she would follow. He’d never seen her this pliant. This…submitted? That wasn’t a word anyone who knew Jo would ever associate with her, but it kept encroaching on his mind. This sense that she wanted his pleasure even more than his. He recognized it because he felt the same way. He coveted the sounds she’d make when she came. The way her body would weep during orgasm. He hadn’t even thought about how it would feel to be buried inside her. All the sensual entropy he was drowning in was about her. All her.

“I choose worship.” He kissed down her neck until he could lavish one nipple between his lips.

“I thought you chose fucking.” Her words rode on a breath to reach his ears. Whatever he wanted. It was imprinted in her eyes, in the arms down at her side, waiting.

“We have all night. We can do a little of both.” He squeezed one bare butt cheek, his mouth already watering at the thought of sinking his teeth into that perfect roundness. “Maybe a lot of both.”

“You’re messing up my plans, Mitchell.”

“Is this the lady garden again?” Cam laughed, but it faded fast like a winter sunset. “I don’t care about that, or if your hair is straight, or if your nails are done. It’s going to be perfect because it’s you and me. Finally, it’s you and me.”

So much heat. So much need. Cam radiated it and Jo absorbed it, letting it warm and fill her. She had waited half her life for this moment, and her hair and nails were a mess. Nothing was the way she’d envisioned it.

Take that back.

The way Cam looked at her—that was just as she’d hoped it would be. His lips scattering kisses across her arms, breasts, feet—perfect. Oh, good Lord, his mouth between her legs, licking and nipping and sucking—absolute nirvana. Watching his mouth hollow around her, seeing the flex of lean muscle in his chest and arms as he hovered over her. He was the kind of man you never expected to see in real life, and he was in her bed making love to her in centimeters and seconds, immeasurably drawing out the pleasure until she ached and burned with the need to reciprocate.

“I want to touch you, too.” Her mouth surrendered the words in pants. One of his hands caged her wrists above her head while he suckled gently at her breasts.

“Not yet.” He pulled her earlobe between his teeth, nibbling the soft flesh like an appetizer. “You first.”

Oh, she was first. Over and over again, the pleasure broke through her and inside her until she lay quivering and jerking and twitching, her body a coda of shivers. She was at his mercy, inhibitions scattered on the floor with the clothes he’d peeled from her body. Her hips thrusting into his mouth, into his fingers, seeking satisfaction.

“It’s good?” He dipped his tongue into her belly button, then moved back down, curving his big hand under her butt, pulling her deeper into the heat of his mouth.

“You know it is.” Jo grappled for control, loosened and unraveled by every gentle touch. By the kisses he drizzled across her neck and down her body and between her legs. “I need you. Inside me. Please don’t make me wait anymore.”

He pulled her up, sprawling her over his thighs, one leg on either side of him, his fingers spreading her to take him. One hand lifted her, still gentle but with undisguised anticipation and strength.

“I will remember this moment for the rest of my life.” Cam tangled his fingers in her hair, holding her head still, arresting her eyes with the hot urgency of his. “When I was closer to you than I’ve ever been to anyone. I want to fuck your soul.”

When he lowered her onto him, she dropped her head to his shoulder. She would wait another lifetime if it meant having this moment. This joining, where their flesh merged, passion hyphenating their bodies. The emotions flashing between them like the conversation of thunder and lightning. She lifted her head and stared into his eyes. There was no doubt in her mind it was the same for him.

He dropped his head back, closing his eyes and groaning, one arm pressed against her naked back, fingers twisted into her hair. The other hand claimed her thigh and guided her, pacing the syncopation of their hips rocking into one another. She could see his control slipping like a rope through his fingers. The clenched jaw. His full mouth tightened across his teeth. She had left control far behind, and she wanted to undo him.

“I need you deeper.” She dropped the words into his ear, loving the tension knifing through him at the raspy words. “Harder, Cam.”

“Baby, I don’t want to hurt you.” His eyes entreated her not to press him, not to stretch him beyond the limits he’d set.

“I’m not afraid of you. If you’re rough, I’ll like it.” She tongued his Adam’s apple and licked down his neck. “I promise you I’ll like it.”

With a growl, he pressed her back into the mattress, fanning her hair out over the pillow. He pulled her legs up over his shoulders until her bottom was flush with his hips.

“Tell me if it hurts.”

“It won’t. You won’t.” She squirmed closer, her body greedy for every inch of him. “Take it.”

And he did. He braced his hand against the wall over her, his beautiful features twisting with the agony of every thrust. He gripped her leg over his shoulder, turning his head to suck the skin above her ankle. He drilled into her for an eternity and it still wasn’t enough. He pulled her legs down and flipped her until her shoulders pressed into the bed and her butt was in the air. He spread her knees with his, taking her from behind without warning or a word. His body commanded hers with every downstroke. He sank his teeth into her shoulder and toyed with her breasts until she clenched around him. She pulled the pillow to her face to absorb the scream ripping from her throat, but he tossed it to the floor.

“Let me hear you.” He dripped sweat onto her back, his love an exertion that wrenched his body over hers. “That sound you’re making, that’s mine. I want it.”

He pounded into her, smudging the fine lines between rapture and pain until she didn’t have words for the exchange they made. The healing for the wounds, the tenderness for the hurt. A wail of lust and love rent the air between them until he swallowed that sound. Captured it in a kiss and overtook her. His body subdued hers, but in the end, as he shuddered into her, gripping her like air in his starved lungs, he was at her mercy. It was over too soon and it was endless.

C
am pretended to read the
Wall Street Journal
on Jo’s iPad while she prepared coffee. He glanced at his phone to check the weather—for show. His eyes kept wandering to her tall, slim form moving around her kitchen in a paisley patterned silk robe. He could tell it cost the earth, but it could have been burlap for all he cared. Jo completely naked under the silk—priceless.

During the night, they’d lain like spoons in a drawer. He’d resisted her silky nakedness as long as he could before he had to lift one long leg and plunge back in from behind, making her breath hitch. She’d barely been awake before she was climaxing around him. And this morning, he’d had her again in the shower, a primitive mating against the wall, spiraling them into a wet, consuming heat. Their sounds of base pleasure bouncing off the tiles.

He’d known it would be like this. He had addict in his blood. He’d watched his mother twitch and scratch and foam at the mouth for her next high. And as disgusted as he had been by her incessant need, he’d always figured he had that capacity inside him. So he’d stayed away from drugs. Usually drank in moderation. He had never wanted to need something so badly he couldn’t set it aside if he had to.

Until now.

There was no setting Jo aside, and if he had to walk away, he’d be no better than his mother. Fiending and twitching, want and need burning through sense and good intentions. Last night, he’d taken a beautiful, dangerous step with Jo, and even if there was a way back, he didn’t want it. He’d known sex with her would be the best he’d ever had. She was too fiery, too much of a challenge to be less than his equal. He hadn’t anticipated their intimacy would swallow him whole, that he’d lose unrecoverable bits of his soul to her, not just while he pounded into her like a raging bull, but when she fell asleep naked in his arms. When he’d fallen asleep in hers.

He hadn’t escaped the nightly hell his dreams always delivered, but when he woke up, frantic and searching for the cold steel comfort under the bed, he’d found Jo instead. She’d snuggled into his side, mumbling in her sleep, thrown one leg over his hip, and sighed. There was no room for demons in her bed. Cam had lain awake for another hour, letting the steady rhythm of her breathing lull him back to sleep.

She smiled at him, setting coffee and a bagel on the table.

“It’s not a hot breakfast like you made for me,” she said, forgoing the chair across the table from him and perching herself on his knee. “But the bagels are pretty fresh. Q picked them up from the bakery yesterday.”

“They’re fine.” Cam took a bite, not tasting it, already forecasting when he could be inside her again. “What are your plans for the day?”

“Well, I still have my lady garden appointment at ten o’clock.” She took the coffee mug from his hands, sipping before giving it back to him.

“Your lady garden was fine to me.” He set the coffee on the table and pulled her back against his chest. He parted the robe, sending his hand up her bare leg.

“And…” She paused, pulling his hand away and giving him a pointed look. She knew him so well. “Mani-pedi and hair appointment.”

Cam frowned, reaching up to pull a clump of her wild hair into his fist.

“What are you doing to your hair?”

“I was going to get it treated to make it straight and easier to manage.”

“I like it this way. Kind of wild and untamed.”

Her eyes whispered their secret. The secret of just how wild and untamed she’d been last night. Cam had been afraid he’d be too rough for Jo, but he had a row of scratches down his back and a constellation of bite marks to prove she gave as good as she got.

“Consider it canceled, then, but the others I’m keeping.” She leaned in to kiss him lightly, pushing her fingers into his hair. “There’s a board meeting this afternoon, by the way, so Daddy will be home later. Peter and I have a presentation we need to get ready for.”

Cam fought the sudden urge to hurl his coffee against the wall.

“What?” Jo turned to the side, resting her forehead against his. “What just made you go all tense on me?”

He considered not telling her. Did he really want her to know what a jealous, insecure idiot he was when it came to that guy?

“Peter.” He dropped the name in the quiet of the kitchen and waited for her response.

“Baby.” She brushed her hand over his bed-rumpled hair. “We’ve been over this.”

Cam turned her until her legs slid out from beneath the silk robe, hanging on either side of his thighs. He wrapped his hands around her tiny waist. Did she know most women would give their left arm to have her dimensions?

“I don’t want him.” She nuzzled into his neck, drifting her fingers down to toy with his nipple. He was shirtless and wearing only boxers. His growing erection would be inescapable.

Focus.

“But he does want you.” Cam pulled away from her curious hands, cupping her jaw and tilting her head to meet his eyes. “He’s in love with you, Jo.”

She dropped her eyes to the floor where her toes brushed the stone tile.

“He does have feelings for me, yes.”

“And you? What do you feel for him?” Cam’s spine went ramrod straight, braced for her answer no matter what it was.

“We’ve been through this.”

“Tell me again.” He kissed the spot behind her ear that smelled like her shampoo and body wash and hope. “I need it.”

She peered at him through the long, curly length of her lashes.

“I like him as a friend. I do find him attractive. That’s not a crime, is it? To recognize that someone is attractive?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk about crime and Peter in the same sentence because I want to strangle him every time I catch him looking at you.”

He closed the inches between their mouths, sucking her full lips between his. His hands glided over her slender back, across the slight flare of her hips, and down to cup the luscious curves of her ass. She started a subtle thrust against him, and before he knew it, he was thrusting back. He shoved an urgent hand into the silky hair falling around her face. He pushed the robe off her shoulders, letting the lapels fall open until their hearts beat against each other through their skin.

The kitchen door opened behind them, and Cam jerked the robe back up around her shoulders, clenching the lapels together. Walsh and Unc filled the entryway. Jo looked over her shoulder, clutching Cam’s naked arm for support.

“Shit.” Jo mixed the curse with a husky laugh, seemingly undisturbed to be caught half naked in the kitchen by her father and cousin. “Hey, Daddy. Walsh.”

Jo was the only one with any composure, flipping around on Cam’s knee before standing to face them. Walsh’s and Unc’s mouths both hung open before they recovered.

“Hey, baby girl.” Unc walked over to them, raising his eyebrows at Cam, clad in just boxers in his kitchen. He leaned down and kissed Jo’s hair. “You’ve been a good girl, I hope.”

Jo looked back at Cam and quirked her lips.

“I think I was very good, Daddy.”

Shameless.

“What the hell is going on?” Walsh demanded, anger snapping his brows together. “Am I in the freaking Twilight Zone? Unc, is it every day you come home to your daughter straddling Cam in the kitchen?”

Unc walked over to the coffeepot and poured himself a cup. He looked at Walsh over the rim, sipping and taking his time responding.

“She’s a grown woman, Walsh, and Cam’s a grown man.”

“This is not okay.” Walsh turned turbulent eyes on Cam. “How could you do this? To Jo?”

Cam was just about to speak, not knowing what would come out of his mouth, when Jo turned on Walsh with hands on her hips.

Oh, hell. Here we go.

“How dare
he
?” Jo popped the words across the kitchen at Walsh like a rubber band. “How dare
you
come in here high and mighty and inserting yourself into a situation you know nothing about?”

“Oh, I don’t know?” Walsh folded his arms over his chest. “I think I do. I’ve seen this before more than once. It won’t end well, cuz. You know that.”

“What I know is that this is none of your damn business.” Jo narrowed her eyes at Walsh, gesturing toward Unc casually leaning against the counter and sipping his coffee. “If my own father is fine with my relationship—”

“Relationship?” Walsh cut his eyes between Cam and Jo before landing on Cam like a stack of bricks. “How long has this been going on? What the hell, Cam? This is Jo we’re talking about.”

Cam stood, ignoring Walsh’s eye roll and heavy sigh at the sight of him in only boxers.

“It’s not what you think.” Cam scratched at the back of his neck. Searching for words to reassure Walsh about something he barely trusted himself.

Jo turned her head, eyes welling with hurt. Her bravado cracked and her bottom lip trembled. Shit. Did she think he was going to deny her? He reached for her hand, pulling her against him and dropping a kiss on her hair, still damp from their shower.

“What I mean is that you probably think I’m going to just”—Cam glanced at Unc, uncomfortable with what he needed to say in front of Jo’s father but determined to put it all out there—“just hit it and quit it.”

“You must admit there’s a bit of a precedent.” Walsh relaxed his mouth, shaking his head and allowing his disappointment to press past the anger. “We’ve always protected her, both of us. I thought she was off-limits.”

“I’m standing right here.” Jo sliced her hand through the tension-thickened air. “I’m not a child, Walsh.”

“I know that, Jo. Of course I know that.” Walsh toggled a glance between Jo’s and Cam’s obviously less-than-dressed figures. “I only want what’s best for you.”

“Spare me your misplaced paternalism, cuz.” Jo rolled her eyes and cocked one hip even farther out. “You have no say in my love life. You’ve always thought you could dictate to me, but you can’t.”

“I’m not trying to,” Walsh said. “I just think…I’m concerned about your happiness.”

“And his happiness?” Jo waved between the two men. “Were you concerned about that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Walsh, we’re all ecstatic for you and for Kerris and for the girls, but your happiness came at a price. And in many ways, Cam paid a lot of it.”

Walsh met Cam’s eyes, and all the awkward guilt and hurt they’d spent the last year and a half chipping away at rose between them.

“And yet, he was at your house at Christmas. Trying,” Jo continued. “You call him and ask him to check on his ex-wife, pregnant with your twins, and he’s there. He had to watch Kerris in labor with your girls. Do you think that made him think about the baby girl he lost? Maybe just a little bit?”

Walsh’s eyes, resting on Cam, clouded with all the things they’d put behind them.

“Man, I didn’t even think about—”

“My point is, he deserves to be happy, too. And I know you find it hard to believe, but I make him happy.”

“Of course. I don’t find that hard to believe. I—”

“And he makes me happy.” Jo firmed her mouth and pointed a finger in Walsh’s direction. “You will not ruin this for me with your irrational overprotectiveness. I’ve put up with your cock-blocking half my life.”

Was anyone else uncomfortable with Jo’s father hearing this? Maybe that was just Cam…

“If you think I’m going to tolerate—”

“Jo.” Cam kept his voice quiet and even, despite the battle royal of emotions warring inside. “Stop.”

Mouth still open, the next set-down stymied on her tongue, she turned to him.

“Don’t let him ruin us.” She said it so softly he wasn’t sure anyone else heard it, but tears stood in her eyes.

This was difficult for him, yes. Facing Walsh’s displeasure and her father catching them grinding on each other in the kitchen—it was uncomfortable, all of it, but she was worth it. She needed to know that.

“Hey, why don’t you go get dressed? I don’t want you to miss your pampering today. Mani-pedi,” he leaned down to whisper, letting her feel his lips curve against her ear. “The lady garden.”

She rewarded him with a shy smile and pink cheeks, so at odds with the virago attacking Walsh moments before.

“Okay. You’re right.” She nodded, pulling the robe a little tighter around her before tipping up on her toes and kissing his cheek, heedless of the mini-growl that escaped Walsh’s lips behind them. “I have meetings all afternoon. Will I see you tonight?”

“Of course.” He turned her by one silk-covered shoulder toward the back staircase. “You go on up. I want to talk with Walsh for a little bit.”

Jo shot one more glance Walsh’s way, a warning and a defense. She parted her lips like she was ready to unleash on him again, but Cam pressed one finger over her mouth and pointed to the staircase. Without another word she went upstairs.

Cam turned his attention to the two men standing in the kitchen. Their mouths hung open again, just like when they’d walked in minutes before. If anything, they looked more shocked now than then.

“What?” Cam grabbed his coffee, wishing he had Dr. Jack Daniel’s to make this scene easier.

“You just managed Jo,” Unc said, a smile overtaking the shock on his face. “I don’t even want to know how you did it, but I feel like I just witnessed a solar eclipse. No telling when we’ll see that again.”

“I did not
manage
her.” Cam frowned, not liking to think in those terms. He loved Jo’s independence and fire. He was the last person who wanted to squelch it. “I reasoned with her. You should try it. Unless you wanted to hear about Walsh cock-blocking your daughter some more?”

“No, I think I’ve had enough of that.” Unc dumped his coffee in the sink, rinsed out the mug, and placed it in the dishwasher. “Actually, I’ve had enough of all of this. I’m jet-lagged. Going to catch a nap before this meeting.”

“Unc, that’s all you have to say?” Walsh asked.

“Walsh, I’ve watched my daughter set her own hopes and desires aside for years helping others and taking care of everyone else. It has been apparent to me for a long time that she has feelings for Cam. I, for one, just want to see her happy.” Unc looked over at Cam, giving him a lopsided smile. “And believe it or not, I trust him.”

Cam swallowed, humbled that one of the few men who’d seen his potential trusted him with his greatest prize—his beautiful daughter.