Personal Assets (Texas Nights) (28 page)

“Let’s get out of here.” He took a half step back and grabbed her hand. His thumb rubbed across the bare spot on her finger. “Where’s your ring?”

Allie had to breathe through the emptiness in her midsection. “I forgot to put it back on after I showered.”

To her relief, he dropped the topic. They were three steps from the door when Roxanne cut them off. “Allie, I need to talk with you for a minute. That is, if you can pull yourself away.” She gave Cameron an appraising smile.

It had to be serious for Roxanne to interrupt what was clearly a sex run. Allie told Cameron, “I’ll meet you at your place in half an hour.”

She squeezed his hand and turned to follow Roxanne.

“Allie.” He yanked her back, wrapped his hands in her hair and gave her a searing, no-holds-barred kiss. When he released her, she was out of breath again, which seemed to satisfy him. “Don’t be late.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Allie was climbing Cameron’s front porch steps when the door swung open. He held the door wide. He’d showered and changed into jeans, and only jeans. God, he was beautiful. Brawler’s body, schoolboy’s hair, laborer’s hands, poet’s mouth. For some reason, that made her want to cry. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.”

He shut and locked the door. “Roxanne sure seemed in a hurry to talk to you about something earlier.”

Yep, like how Allie hoped to save their sinking ships with his brother’s financial pontoons. But it wasn’t a done deal yet, so there was no reason to discuss the possibility with Cameron. Besides, she doubted they would engage in much conversation tonight.

“It was nothing big.”

“Have something to do with why you were hitting grand slams with that fungo bat this afternoon?”

“Indirectly.”

“Dammit, Allie.” He ran his hands over his wet hair, ruffling the back into little duck tails. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a relationship when you won’t talk to me?”

That startled a laugh from her. “It’s usually the woman complaining about communication problems.”

“What in hell’s been normal about our relationship from the start?” he muttered. “You were about to tell me why you were out of sorts today.”

No, she wasn’t, but really what would it hurt to tell him part of the story? “I met with Nelson Bramhall at lunch yesterday, and let’s just say it didn’t go well.”

He followed her across the living room, tailgating so close she was forced to crane her neck to look at him. “That greasy guy with the office down the hall from your dad’s?”

And didn’t that describe Nelson perfectly?

“If we’re going to
communicate
, can we at least sit?” She flopped onto his couch and curled up at the end. “I’ll tell you, but you’re going to have a fit.”

“Guys don’t have fits.” He sat beside her and stretched his arms along the back of the sofa.

“He wanted me to sleep with him in exchange for money to repay the loan.”

Cameron jackknifed out of his relaxed pose. “The hell you say.”

“Guys don’t have fits, huh? Looks like a temper tantrum coming on right now.”

The muscles in Cameron’s arms and neck were so tight, silver dollars could’ve bounced off them. “Tell me.”

“There’s nothing else to tell. He bought me lunch. One including raw fish, but that’s beside the point. Then he offered me seventy-five thousand dollars for access to my ‘personal assets.’”

He shot off the couch and rounded the ancient oak coffee table. “That little asshole.”

She laughed. “Hey, at least he offered me a fair price.”

He pointed a finger at her. He was taking this way too seriously. “Allie, this is not funny.”

She tried to stifle her chuckles, but the stress of the past two weeks came tumbling out. “I...I’m...sorry.”

“I don’t care who he is or what he wants, but he needs to learn he can’t treat a woman that way.” His eyes went narrow and mean. “Especially not mine.”

Allie couldn’t breathe. Oh Lord, did he realize what he’d said and what it implied? Did he think they were still playing by the original rules, while she wanted to move so far beyond that? Her chuckles turned into something between a laugh and a dry sob. What would you call that—a slob? That thought just made it worse, until she felt herself hyperventilating.

“Princess, don’t do this.” He knelt beside her and pushed her face to her knees. “You know I want to help you with this mess. We’ll work it out.”

No,
they
wouldn’t. Allie closed her eyes tight and blocked out thoughts of anything but tonight. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Okay.” He slid his arms beneath her legs and behind her back. “Let me take care of you.”

She nodded, letting him have his way. After all, taking care of people was what he did best.

* * *

Holding Allie in his arms reminded Cameron how small she was. Her personality, her desire to work everything out for herself made her seem bigger somehow. But even the strongest person needed to rest sometimes. Needed to let someone else take the burden. Needed to give up control.

Moonlight squeezed through the blinds, striping his bedroom with dusky shadows. Cameron sat on the bed, cradling Allie in his lap. Her head rested in the curve of his shoulder. A warmth he’d never felt for another woman melted the tension from his body. This was the first time she’d fully trusted him. Even after the sexy scene in his garage the other night, he’d sensed she’d still held something back.

Tonight he’d take care of her physically. Tomorrow was for everything else.

“Everything’s going to turn out fine,” he murmured against her hair.

“No more about this tonight, okay?”

Since she wasn’t willing to let him help any other way, he would comfort, protect and love her with his body. He slid his palms from the crown of her head, over her shoulders, to her waist, finally grasping her hips. He eased her from his lap and laid her back on the down comforter. He removed her sandals and massaged the sensitive arches of her feet, coaxing a low groan from her.

When he stood, Allie’s eyes were closed, lashes still against her cheeks. She was trusting him with her body. He wanted more, wanted everything from her, but tonight her letting him care for her would have to be enough.

He stroked his fingertips from the hollow at her throat to her breast, pausing to feel the heartbeat there. Her pulse wasn’t erratic. Yet. Just a sweet, steady thump against his palm. His touch drifted from her chest to her waist, tracing the swells and hollows in between.

“I’m going to undress you.” He wanted her naked, completely open and willing to let him love her.

He toyed with the straps at her shoulders and slid the fabric down to reveal her breasts. Her nipples were tight, and he paused to roll one between his fingers. She arched her back, and he tugged her dress past her hips to reveal a heart-stopping pair of white satin panties. There were things to be said for being involved with a woman who had immediate access to a store full of lingerie. Within a minute, she was in the center of the bed, dressed only in her sexy underwear.

“I love the way your skin feels.” Cameron skimmed his hands over her exposed flesh, goose bumps rippling in his wake. She felt like a calm pool of scented water, with surprises waiting below the surface.

“I love the way you smell.” He arched over her, trailing his lips and tongue along the same path until he rested his head above the scrap of fabric between her legs. “Especially here.” The warm, feminine scent radiating from her skin made him want to rip the satin away and bury his face between her legs.

God, he wanted inside her. Inside her skin. Inside her heart.

Her breathing accelerated, lifting her breasts against the lace of her bra. The taut outline of her nipples was clear through the fine fabric.

“Please,” she said, but her arms and legs remained relaxed and her eyelids never opened.

He released her bra, exposing those perfect little breasts. He drew back, appreciating the sight of Allie lying across his bed, completely available to him. Unable to wait any longer to taste her, he spread her legs with a slow sweep from knee to inner thigh.

Lust rushed through him at the sight of her, damp and bare to his gaze. He dipped his head and touched her with the tip of his tongue. She jerked in response. He opened her with his thumbs and licked her tender, sensitive skin. He was relentlessly thorough, even when she began bucking against him frantically, trying to press against his mouth. He held her steady, banding her thighs with his hands. The sounds she made were demanding and desperate. Wordless pleas for him to push her over the edge.

He lifted his head. “And I love the way you taste.”

At his words, her hips arched off the bed, opening her body to his control. He moved higher, curling his tongue around her clitoris.

“Oh, for the love of Jesus, please.” Her words were low and broken.

He loved taking her higher and higher, testing how far he could push until her body met the limit for pleasure. Using gentle suction, he drew her into his mouth and gave his attention to her orgasm. Within seconds, Allie cried out and pushed against him, whimpering her surrender.

Cameron released her and pressed a soft kiss to her inner thigh. She’d given him everything he’d asked for. Still he wanted more.

He stood and unzipped his pants to ease the ache. It was then he noticed tracks of sluggish tears tracking down Allie’s temples. “Princess, what’s wrong?”

Her arm slashed across her face, smearing the evidence. “Nothing.”

When a woman said
nothing
it almost always meant
something
, so he promised, “Whatever it is, I’ll make it better.”

He stripped off his clothes, pulled her arm away from her face and entwined their fingers. Then he lay on the bed so their arms stretched above their heads and their bodies pressed together. He was fully aroused and Allie had to feel him against her belly. But this skin on skin contact was about something more than sex. It was about the connection made between a woman and a man when they were both at their most vulnerable. It was about being so close to someone that endings and beginnings had no meaning. It was about taking, and ultimately, about giving everything the other person was willing to accept.

Looking at Allie’s damp, flushed face, her tangled hair and pliant body, Cameron felt something inside his chest break loose and hurtle toward some final emotional ledge. If he went over, he’d never return to the place he’d been a few weeks ago. He closed his eyes and jumped.

* * *

Allie couldn’t explain her tears because she had no idea herself. But she suspected it was the tender way he’d loved her, taking her to a place where self-protection could no longer fight emotion. To a place where lovemaking wasn’t only about pleasure. To a place where love demanded everything—heart, body and soul.

It was as if she could finally see through a window that had been fogged over her entire life.

Unable to say the words and risk him pulling away, she wound her arms around him and kissed the places she could reach. Lips, cheeks, chin. Soft and languid butterfly kisses. She smoothed her palm over the curve of his shoulder and down the tough muscles in his arm. Her hand came to rest on his hip, where bone and muscle and sinew met. His erection pressed between them, a reminder that Cameron had given her pleasure, but not taken his own.

She gently pushed his shoulder, and he rolled to his back, taking her with him so they rested chest to chest, heart to heart. Time swam hazily as she explored his torso, pausing to suckle and tease his flat, golden-brown nipples. She brushed her fingers through the fine dark hair trailing to his penis. His muscles jumped beneath her hand as she circled his navel with her fingertips. She could’ve contented herself with petting him for hours, but the tension in his body shouted his need for release.

Pushing her hair away, Allie rose to her knees and straddled him. His face was harsh and he grasped at the bedcovers with fists that tightened and released.

Rocking up and back, Allie slicked her flesh along his length. Her own tension began to build again. But this time wasn’t about her. Cameron’s expression was intense, his jaw clenching with each forward motion of her hips.

His eyes were open and filled with something Allie couldn’t quite define. Lust? Yes. Need? Yes. Love? Undecided.

She lifted as though to take him into her body, but his wide, calloused hands tightened on her hips.

“Condom,” he rasped out.

She’d never in her life forgotten that important little detail. Until now. Until this man.

He yanked at his bedside drawer and pulled out a fistful of foil packets. They each grabbed one, but she ripped hers open first. She forced herself to take a breath. With unsteady hands, she rolled the condom on him. His hips thrust up, rubbing his hot, tight skin along her palms. Everything inside her loosened in response.

She rose to her knees, and he let her ease over his erection even though his body was vibrating below her. The sensation was both powerful and humbling. She sank down, taking him so far inside her that he filled every empty space.

His eyes closed and his head fell back, making a long, beautiful line of supple skin from his chin to the place where they were locked together. His hands convulsed once on her hips and he arched under her.

To torture them both, Allie began to pull away, clenching her inner muscles around him. He jerked and tried to draw her back to meet his body, but she resisted. She created a steady rhythm of warm, wet friction on the out-stroke and sweet, simple fusion on the in-stroke. It felt so good, she could sense herself giving in to it. The world shrank until it included only the two of them and the movement of their bodies.

Cameron’s chest was covered with a fine misting of sweat and every muscle on his body was taut, ready to snap at any second.

They’d said barely a word, but their bodies were in deep communication.

Suddenly, he gripped her hips tighter and thrust into a sitting position so his face was even with her breasts. She wrapped her legs around his hips, leveraging him even deeper.