Page 45 of Stray for You

Normally, I’m quick on my feet, but Cameron’s dark eyes leave me disarmed.

“Oh, um, yeah, I don’t mind,” I say.

“Don’t mind what? Watching more of this? Or changing it?”

“Um, this show is fine,” I say. “It’s, uh, maybe I should get the ice cream.”

I take our empty bowls and hurry to the kitchen, eager to cover my stumble. How is this so damn easy for Cameron? I’m the one with the silver tongue, and I can barely manage a coherent sentence in his presence. Meanwhile, he’s as cool and calm as ever.

I deposit the mac ‘n’ cheese bowls in the sink and grab theice cream out of the freezer. I don’t bother with more bowls, just snag a couple spoons and bring the whole thing back to the coffee table. Cameron has fortunately started the next episode of detective shenanigans. We dig into the ice cream as we watch it, and this time I do my best to actually pay attention. It’s hard when the only investigation I care about is how deep down my throat I can fit Cameron’s—

No. Julian, be good. We’ve got to be good.

This isn’t the hasty, meaningless hookups I usually engage in. This is way too important to treat like a fling. I’m not here merely to have sex with him, though, boy, do I ever want to have sex with him. This is a whole week in each other’s space, and the tension is already so high that the air in his apartment feels hot enough to melt the ice cream into soup.

I sneak a look at Cameron. He opens his mouth for a spoonful of ice cream, and I watch his lips as he cleans off the spoon. His tongue flickers out, catching a bit of ice cream on his lips, and my thoughts burn away in a haze of lust.

My spoon clatters onto the coffee table.

I startle, and so does Cameron. I didn’t even feel the spoon slipping out of my fingers. I didn’t notice at all, too transfixed by Cameron beside me.

“You okay?” Cameron asks, dark brows drawing down.

“Yeah, sorry, yes. Just the … time difference or something.”

It’s a blatant lie. Cameron saw me during that conference. He saw how easily I adjusted to a new timezone. That sort of thing is a matter of survival for someone in my line of work. Still, he doesn’t comment on it, and I breathe a tiny sigh of relief.

It is going to be so hard to act normal this week.

Surely, he knows I’ve wanted him since the second we met in high school. Surely, he realizes I’m helpless around him. I mean, I couldn’t even hold back when it looked like our parents were going to get married. If that doesn’t scream desperation, I don’tknow what does. It was kind of messed up how I acted back then, but I was caught between wanting him so bad it hurt and wanting my mom to be happy. I was going to slip up eventually. It’s unfortunate it happened when our moms were in the next room over and could catch me, but Mom always assured me that wasn’t a factor in the breakup, that things were heading that direction anyway.

Now, I don’t need to exercise any such caution. Cameron has let me into the most intimate parts of his life. He’s mine for this next week, and I don’t need to pretend anymore that that’s anything less than my every fantasy come to life.

“Hey,” I say, “let’s go to bed.”

Cameron quirks an eyebrow, but that’s the biggest reaction I get. “The episode isn’t done,” he says.

I tug his spoon out of his hand, put the lid back on the ice cream, and set our dessert aside on the coffee table. I take his hand in mine, my other hand sliding around his waist as I lean close to his ear.

“I don’t really care about the show, Cam,” I say.

This time, I get a shiver, a delicious little shiver that trembles against my lips. I take my chance, kissing his exposed neck, trailing down to where his shirt covers his shoulders. I start tugging at the collar, trying to reach more of him, and Cameron squeezes my hand tighter for a moment.

“Couldn’t even last a day,” he says, but the grumbling is pure affect.

“No, I couldn’t,” I admit freely.

Cameron huffs, but with far less genuine annoyance than I might have expected. “That’s kind of pathetic.”

“Mhm,” I agree, nuzzling against his neck, kissing my way back up it. I find his earlobe and tug it between my teeth, and Cameron sucks in a deep, full breath.

“Fuck,” he says. “Fine. Come on. Let’s go.”

He rises from the couch, and I hop up after him like a happy puppy. He keeps a hold of my hand and heads for his bedroom, the one room in this apartment I haven’t seen yet. The one room I’m never going to want to leave.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Cameron

---