Page 37 of Pomegranate Kiss

Cam had been preparing for the question the entire car ride over, but the moment the words hit the air her answers vanished.

“To see you,” Cam said, the truth slipping from her lips. Maybe she should launch with apologies or explanations, but Lex might not even be willing to listen. Whatever fear had whispered in her ear during their final weeks together seemed to be the furthest from the truth. Because the ticking bomb of a woman standing before her didn’t let any of the softness she’d come to witness past her rebuilt walls.

Lex gave a flourish of a bow. “Here I am. You’ve seen me.”

She made the motion to close the door, but Cam slipped her foot in the way, stepping through the frame. Lex’s eyebrows drew together, her expression darkening. Cam remained steady. Storms never frightened her anyway.

“Look, I know I held things back,” Cam said, keeping her grip on the door. “But you did too. We owe it to ourselves to have theconversation we meant to have before you found out about my plans.”

“Don’t think that’s appropriate when you’ve got a betrothed all lined up,” Lex responded, her hazel eyes flashing and her voice corrosive. “Seriously, what are you doing here, Cam? You used me for six months, fucked off to another state, and then got yourself into an arranged marriage from what I’ve heard. Believe me, words aren’t necessary—your actions speak loud enough.”

Damnit. Danny must’ve told Lex the situation with her parents she’d been venting about.

“Sure, throw the judgement my way,” Cam shot back, stepping further into the house. Lex was infuriating, angry, and more hurt than the stubborn woman would ever admit. “From the outset you said you didn’t want commitment, and that’s all I’m looking for. I wasn’t clear about my own bullshit, true, but never once did you say you wanted anything more than those six months.”

Lex’s mouth opened, but whatever she might say she swallowed back. Instead, Lex shut the door behind her. The tension in the room thickened like the onset of a thunderstorm, the intensity of this woman something she craved and missed more than she could’ve known.

Cam took a step away and then another, until her back bumped against the wall. Lex prowled forward, those hazel eyes darkening with emotions she couldn’t identify.

“Thought you were straight, babe,” Lex growled, her words vibrating in the air between them. “Getting yourself a husband seems to be exactly what you’d been aiming for.”

“That’s what my parents want,” she shot back, her hands balling into fists. Mere inches separated them, and Lex loomed close enough she could smell the campfire and clove of her, a scent that wrapped around her like a lullaby.

“Yeah, and what is ityouwant?” Lex asked, her husky voice driving her nuts. Mere minutes in her presence and her body reacted like she’d been doused in kerosene and lit on fire.

“You know what I want,” Cam whispered. Lex made her feel in a way she forgot she could, made her hope and dream for something deep as the Atlantic, as broad as the horizon.

“That’s not good enough right now,” Lex said, inches between them as she reached forward to slide her finger under Cam’s chin, tilting her head up until their eyes locked. Her gaze flickered with a vulnerability that lured Cam in from the start, a softness behind the poisonous sting of her words she hid behind.

“You,” Cam mouthed, her heart squeezing tight in her chest. “I want you.”

At the words, the heated air in the room combusted. Lex lunged in for her, crushing her mouth to Cam’s with a kiss that was the furthest thing from sweet. Cam reached out to grip her by the waist as Lex closed the distance between them to press Cam harder into the wall. Yes, yes, yes. Shemissedthis so much. No one else got her soaked like this with a single kiss, and no one else made her feel the way Lex did, like she’d stepped out into a neon green field after a rainstorm.

She sagged against the wall, holding onto Lex for dear life. Cam slipped her hands beneath Lex’s shirt, feeling the strong muscle of her chest beneath, the smooth skin that made her ignite. Lex snarled at her like a furious force of nature as she kissed her with a desperation summoned from their time apart. Lex’s teeth sank against her neck, and Cam let out a moan.

Nothing about this was gentle, or sweet. That had been bled from them in the wake of their implosion. However, Cam would take her any way she could get her. She missed Lex more than she could ever explain, like she’d lost the arm she painted with. The phantom sensations had haunted her for months now to the point it grew unbearable.

Cam ran fingers through Lex’s pixie cut and with her other hand glided up her chest further to cup her breast. She slipped beneath her sports bra and thumbed over her hardened nipple, loving the way Lex ground her hips against her each time. Lex snapped the button of Cam’s corduroys and in seconds had them halfway down her thighs. She dragged her panties down with equal force in a way that left Cam gasping.

She was so drenched for her, so ready for this to the point reason flew out the window. Lex bit and sucked at her earlobe, her neck, her shoulder, the sensations growing so intense Cam became wet clay in her hands, the moans exploding from her. Lex reached down to cup her pussy, and she didn’t care how shameless she appeared as she ground against her hand.

“God, you fucking taste so good,” Lex growled, the words sharp as a paring knife.

“I missed you so damn much,” Cam breathed between moans. Lex smothered Cam’s mouth with hers as she devoured Cam again and again. The long, rough kisses made her lips swollen. Then Lex slipped two fingers between her folds, rubbing her juices along the seam before she plunged inside.

Cam let out a cry, thrusting her hips forward to urge Lex deeper in. Lex pumped her fingers into Cam’s pussy with a building force that had her writhing. After months of a dry spell longing for this touch, each stroke Lex delivered was explosive. Lex’s mouth barely left hers, only to bite her neck, her shoulders, and then she’d return to sucking on her lower lip, devouring every moan to come from her.

The moment Lex began to swipe her thumb against Cam’s clit, the motion caused Cam to blink back stars, bringing her closer and closer to the edge.

Cam ran her hands up and down Lex’s waist, trying to memorize these curves, the feel of them against her palms. Her eyes heated with how much she’d missed this. How she’dregretted the way things left off every day since the wedding. Lex pumped into her until all thoughts obliterated from her mind, and each graze to her clit had her pussy throbbing from the overload of sensations.

She let out a gasp as her orgasm crashed through her. Her vision blanked out, and the shuddering waves wracked through her entire body. She gripped onto Lex’s hips for stability as the bliss she’d been craving coursed through her. Lex’s lips separated from hers, but the normal tenderness didn’t follow, the caresses against her neck and the warmth she’d once coaxed out from the Arctic woman.

Lex pulled her fingers out of Cam and wiped them on her pants. She stepped away as if they were strangers, as if this was no different than their first collision in the bathroom of Notes Nightclub.

Cam didn’t realize how much that would hurt. How much she missed what had unfurled between them that died as easily as a crocus in a cold snap.

“Please, can we talk,” Cam pleaded, hating the vulnerability in her voice. She pulled her pants back up, fastening the button as her shoulders heaved in the wake of the orgasm that ripped out of her.

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