Page 36 of Why Cheese?
Cam’s face scrunches in thought. “I don’t understand what half of those things are, but I am disheartened to hear you have suffered such fools who fell into your path.” He cups his palm to my cheek and I hope I don’t burn it with my awkward blushing.
“Violette, you are more striking than your namesake. These past few days without your cheery presence have been a dark chasm in my life. I do not regret drenching you in my flirtatious compliments, and I hate that I cannot give you enough to make up for the wounds the world’s caused you.”
I laugh and cry at once, then slap a hand over my mouth to keep more from coming out. “Really?” I eke out from below my palm.
Cam smiles patiently and pulls away my hand. “If I were lying, would I have brought you to a romantic bridge over an indigo pond in order to do this?”
Do what?
His fingers slip back, teasing my hair, before they fall flush to my skin. Cam guides my hand to his hip and leaves it there so he can curl a tendril of pink hair behind my ear. “Miss Violette.” He cups under my chin, lifting my face until all I can see are his dark eyes glittering with stars. “You are beautiful.”
My entire body quakes in anticipation and a partial urge to leap into the pond full of swan poop. But the second my lips can sense his, they still. I close my eyes so tight my forehead hurts and lean up.
First kisses are supposed to be awkward. All those lips, and noses, and tongues, and teeth trying to figure out where they go without biting something. But as Cam teases my hair at the nape of my neck and circles his thumb over my chin, I fall into paradise.
Fireworks. Those huge, expensive ones they shoot off at ballparks explode in my eyes. My fingers tighten around his hip, somehow locking around his belt loop as I try to pull him in. The way his bottom lip teases while his juicy top one flutters between both of mine is magnifuckingcent.
“Wowza.”
Cam breaks the kiss and I moan at the loss. Opening my eyes, I find a laugh on his pink, flushed lips and it hits me. “Did I just say…? Oh, goodness.”
“A compliment of the highest order. Now, shall I accompany you to your room?”
“Yeah. Yes. We should… We should hurry.”
He pats my hand as I pick up the pace alongside him. “The sweetest words I’ve ever heard.”
It doesn’t take us long to get through the lobby, up the elevator, and to my door. “This is me,” I say, doing my best to unlock it without beaming ‘I’m gonna fuck this guy’ energy down the hall. Yeah, it’s not working.
Cringing, I shove it open and rush inside to drop my bag. Cam strolls in with his impossible, nonchalant swagger. “Not quite the penthouse suite.” He eyes up the old box TV on a crumbling dresser and the water stain on the ceiling. “Ah, but here is all that matters.” Cam extends his hand toward the bed that hasn’t been slept in for nearly twenty-four hours.
I shove the door closed and slide in the chain. Then I touch the deadlock.
They’ll slit your throat if you don’t do it. Pull out your intestines. Use your lungs as pool floaties.
The gremlin’s louder than ever. With my back turned to Cam, I shift the lock fast back and forth until hitting number five.Whew, that’ll keep us safe.
“Better?” he asks.
I laugh, about to tell him that it worked when I glance over my shoulder. Unforgiving motel light shimmies down his naked chest. Tight. Taut. Ooh, I want to squeeze those so bad.
I stare directly at his hips, and my brain shorts out. I want to trail down that deadly V and nibble on his hip.
Okay. Calm down. One step at a time.
Smiling, I try to glide over to him sexily. The first step works well, my hips rolling like an ocean. Then I take the second and slam my toe into a table leg. Damn it.
Cam chuckles. In one fell move, he swoops me up into his arms and carries me to the bed. “Allow me.”
I fall to my knees on the mattress and he joins me, extending his legs wide as he reaches for my cheek. I part my lips in anticipation of another mind-bending kiss.
“First, if you don’t mind…” Cam toys with the knotted twine around my waist.
“Oh, yeah. Of course.” I’m wearing Roq’s shirt. That’s gotta be awkward. I tug on the twine, certain it’ll give up but the knot only tightens. “This is, um... It’s tricky.” I try the other side, but it too tightens the knot.
“If I may.” Cam caresses a hand across my belly. I hold my breath, uncertain what he’s going to do. He grips the twine and, with just his hands, rips it in half. My makeshift belt tumbles away.
“My delightful little pixie,” Cam whispers in my ear. He doesn’t wrench the shirt off, but cups around my waist. “We shall make sweet, filthy love until your bones turn to jelly. Then once more for luck.” As luck leaves his mouth, he bites my earlobe and I shiver. At the same time, he slides his hands up my chest until they rest just below my tits.
