Page 6 of When You Are Mine

“I’m glad, too.” Kerris lifted the silver domes covering the dishes to reveal roast chicken with vegetables, risotto, and snow peas. The aroma of freshly baked bread wafted from beneath linen napkins, luring her to dive into the feast.

They ate with only a few comments, laughter and the sounds of silverware scraping plates punctuating their companionable silence.

“I’m stuffed.”

Kerris lay back on the soft cushion supporting her and patted her tummy. Eyes heavy-lidded, she listened to the crickets’ chatter and the river’s rumbling just over the hill. The late-night lullaby could have easily lulled her to sleep if Cam hadn’t leaned down beside her, propped on one elbow. She peered up at him, smiling and wondering when he had become so dear. She traced the dark slant of his brows.

“Thank you.” Kerris barely had the energy to raise her voice over the rush of the river.

Cam pressed warm lips to her eyelids and the lashes feathering her cheeks. His kisses wandered from her eyes, across the tilt of her nose and the curve of one cheekbone, before settling over her mouth. He skimmed her lips once, twice, and again before she opened her mouth, brushing her tongue against his. She hoped for a measure of the fire she could sense building inside of him, but it never came.

She had stopped believing in the lightning strike of desire. She had assumed that if this beautiful man with his lean, muscled body and sensually curved lips couldn’t stoke a fire inside of her, no one could.

And she’d believed that. Until tonight.

Cam’s hand wandered across the curve of her breast and slid over her hip, down her thigh, and moved in for a more intimate touch.

“Cam.” Kerris placed her hand over his, halting his progress.

“Hmmmmm.” The vibration of his groan hummed through her like a revving engine. He lay his forehead against hers, obviously working to regain control. “You’re right. We need to talk.”

“Talk about what?” She sat up, pulling the neckline he had tugged aside back into place, tired from the mental paces tonight’s encounter with Walsh had put her through.

“Kerris.” Cam gulped with uncharacteristic nervousness before starting again. “Kerris, you know we both had really shitty childhoods.”

With a laugh as bitter as it was short, Kerris nodded. She wasn’t sure what was worse, her mother abandoning her on the orphanage steps or Cam’s mother actually thinking she could pull herself together long enough to raise him. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Cam’s mother had tried for the first twelve years of his life. He had only alluded to parts of it, keeping his deepest scars covered. Yet another thing they had in common.

“You know I love you.” He stroked one finger over the full bow of her mouth. “I’ve never had a family of my own. I mean, the Walshes took me under their wing, and Walsh is the closest thing I have to a brother, but I don’t belong to them. And they don’t belong to me.”

“People don’tbelongto each other, Cam. People love each other.”

“No, baby, peopledobelong to each other.” The conviction on his face glowed brighter than the candlelight. “We just don’t know about it because we never had it. Don’t you want that? To belong to someone? And have him belong to you?”

His words, though softly spoken, echoed her deepest desire. She could think of only one person who had truly loved her, and Kerris had been taken away from Mama Jess’s foster home cruelly and abruptly. No one had looked at her with that much love in a long time, but it was there on Cam’s face now.

“Marry me.” The tremor in Cam’s voice made her more nervous than the words he’d spoken.

Kerris struggled to even her erratic breaths, but could not. Heat rushed to her cheeks under Cam’s probing, waiting stare. The blood thumped at her wrists and temples, reminding her that she was alive and not a statue-still shell frozen by his words.

“Cam, I just graduated, and it took me longer than most. Don’t you think we need a little time?” Kerris ran damp palms along the fabric stretched across her legs. “I’m only twenty-five. Maybe we should—”

“Not now. I know you’re not ready. I know we’ve only been dating six months, but I want you to think about it. And at the end of the summer, I’ll ask you again.” He tugged the orchid in her hair away and placed it in her lap, kissing behind her ear and slanting her a cocky grin. “And you’ll say yes.”

She raised her lashes, forcing herself not to look away from his hungry stare. He was so into her.

Please don’t let me hurt him.

She smiled through her confusion, thinking of the friend Cam had been to her. Thinking of how comfortable she always felt with him. How patient he’d been with her abstinence. Maybe the night that haunted her had bankrupted her heart and stripped her body of its capacity for physical desire. She had abandoned love-struck delusions of butterflies and goose bumps. Perhaps what she felt for Cam was all she was capable of. It felt good. It could be enough.

The situation with Walsh had been her imagination. Or a fluke. After all these years of isolation and numbness, that rush of desire, that sense of…rightness…couldn’t have been real. With a stranger? With Cam’s best friend?

“Did you hear me?” Cam’s eyes were fixed on the expression she had pulled into place to hide her thoughts. “I said you’ll say yes at the end of the summer.”

“Cam, I can’t make any promises.” Kerris toyed with a chunk of bread from the basket, tearing it into tiny pieces in her lap.

“Just promise me you’ll think about it.” Cam lifted her chin, gently compelling her to look at him.

She set her disturbing thoughts aside and laced her smile with all that she could promise.

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