Page 78 of Beautifully Devoted

“Yeah, you did.” His smile turns soft. “Feel better?”

The question sobers me, because while I do, I also feel a little like shit for relying on Cam—again—to make me feel better. This time with sex.

“Yes and no. Did I hurt you?” I ask, since I can’t bring myself to admit how selfish I feel.

His hand slides over the sheets until it finds mine and he links our fingers together. “No. Told you, you wouldn’t.”

“I’m not just talking about your ass, Cam. My dad fucked with my head today and I took it out on you.”

“He fucked with both our heads, Kitcat. And I wanted it just as rough as you did. For different reasons maybe, but I still wanted it.” His brown eyes are so sincere just looking at them calms my nerves. And apparently, they can see right into my soul since he says, “I don’t want to hear any shit about ruining my first time bottoming either. I loved every part of it. Don’t take that away from me by attributing the whole thing to your feelings about your dad. He only gets credit for putting us both in a mood, not for how you wrecked me after.”

“Fair. We’ll give my dick the credit.” He chuckles as I give his hand a gentle squeeze. “But I do have one question about what happened today. You said your dad already notified Coach and the police that my dad’s in town. How could he have done that if we didn’t tell him about seeing my dad until today?”

Cam sighs and releases my hand so he can cup his around the back of my neck. “I saw him yesterday, when Bennet and I went to get food.” His thumb brushes over my jaw as he speaks. “I called my dad then and asked what I should do. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it right away.”

“I know why you didn’t. I’m not gonna lie and say it doesn’t sting a little, but I know you only wanted to protect me. You always want to protect me, Cama—” I stop myself in the nick of time. “Cam.”

“So, you forgive me?” His thumb brushes over my lip.

“For looking out for me? Always.”

Cam leans into me and brushes his lips over mine, and despite the epic orgasms we’re still recovering from, we manage to find the energy for another one before dragging our asses downstairs to make juice.

Cameron

There isn’t a single set of eyes that doesn’t track us as we walk through the quad, which is packed with students enjoying the afternoon sun. That isn’t unusual in the sense that there are always eyes on Jagger, but this time they’re on me as well, since my fingers are linked with his. And since people stop their games and conversations as we pass, it’s especially obvious.

I don’t know if he grabbed my hand because he made a conscious decision to confirm that the kiss rumor is true before anyone had the chance to ask, or if he just wanted to hold my hand. Either way, our trek through campus is the equivalent of walking the red carpet.

And I am not a fan.

I get it, of course. Not only is Jagger recognizable because of his star status on the football team, he’s just too fucking gorgeous not to attract attention. But neither of those factors are behind the looks we’re getting right now, which is taking away from the novelty of having my first boyfriend.

It was so refreshing when we walked through the store the other day, holding hands and flirting, and sneaking kisses. We were just any other couple since we weren’t surrounded by students. On campus, we—Jagger especially—don’t have that anonymity, so it’s harder to focus on him instead of the fact that every head we pass swivels around to follow us. Probably wondering why he’d settle for me.

“I feel like a zoo animal,” I mutter as we make our way toward the stadium for practice.

“Because people are admiring how cute we are together?” Jagger completely misses the discomfort in my tone.

“Because we’re on display, being paraded around for entertainment.”

“How are we being paraded around when we’re just walking to practice?” He bumps our shoulders together without relaxing his grip on my hand.

“You know what I mean,” I groan. “Everyone’s watching like they’re waiting for the train wreck to happen. Like we’re the stars of some cheesy reality show.”

“Should we give them a show? I can kiss you.”

“I don’t want you to kiss me for show. It’s bad enough our first kiss happened cause we were calling Anna’s bluff. I’m not gonna make a habit of kissing you to shut people up.”

We walk a few dozen yards in silence before Jagger tugs us to a stop, forcing me to face him. “I don’t regret that, you know.”

“Regret what?”

“That calling her bluff led to kissing. I’m not sure we’d have done it otherwise.” A slight breeze ruffles his dark hair, and I’m grateful my hand is locked with his so I can’t reach out to settle it.

“You think we could’ve gone on indefinitely having the mind-blowing sex we do and not ended up kissing?”

“I think we were both scared of ruining our friendship, and living under the delusion that as long as we didn’t kiss, we couldn’t screw it up.”

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