Page 48 of Hard Rock Sin
The T.A. cocked his head, an impatient look on his face.
I looked down at my notes. Pure scribbles. Mostly my lily designs, but also some quick character studies that looked suspiciously like Cameron.
"Anyone else?" he asked.
A young woman in a peasant skirt spoke up, answering with ease. The T.A. nodded and moved on.
I stared down at my papers again. This was one of the reasons my brother didn't want me involved in the rock star lifestyle. I was supposed to be concentrating on school, not partying.
But I hadn't spent most of the night partying.
I had spent it watching movies with Cameron.
That thought made shivery butterflies take wing in my stomach, just like a lovestruck fourteen year old girl. It would have been embarrassing if I didn't enjoy the feeling so much.
Whenever I remembered that I'd also pulled off my panties in front of him and handed them over, those butterflies were replaced with an aching between my legs.
One half of me wondered why the hell I'd done that.
The other half scoffed and told me I knewexactlywhy I'd done that.
And I also knew it could never happen.
I continued going to my classes, doing my readings, and writing essays. I was beginning to get exhausted from all the schoolwork. I looked forward to coming home at the end of every day.
Home. I'd begun to think of Cameron's place as home. It was certainly more of a home than the room in the dorms had been at my boarding school. I'd shared it with a roommate. It hadn't exactly been a private space.
At Cameron's I had an entire floor to myself. No sharing bedrooms, or bathrooms, or common rooms. I could hide away in one of the libraries, snuggle up in a comfy armchair, and do my readings in peace. No risk of any students coming in to distract me.
I'd begun to wonder if my brother might agree to let me live with Cameron even when school started. I knew he liked the idea of my living in college dorms. There was round the clock security. Every building needed its own keycard to get in. I could use one of the campus volunteers to walk me home when it got dark. The entire thing was practically a commune unto itself.
But I'd come to enjoy the freedom I had living with Cameron. Coming and going as I pleased, not needing to account for my whereabouts every time I left the house… Living at Cameron's gave me more freedom than I'd ever thought possible.
And as much as I tried to ignore it, there was one more reason why living at the mansion appealed to me.
Every night before I went to bed, I opened the app Cameron installed on my phone and surveyed the grounds. I made sure all the alarms were on, that every door and window was secured. I made sure there was no way someone could be hiding in the house. There was no one lying in wait.
It was stupid. I should have been over it by now. But I couldn't deny the sense of safety and security I felt living in that mansion.
And Cameron. Even when he wasn't home, it still felt like he was there for me. He'd leave me extra slices of pizza in the fridge with a note to help myself. He'd turned the heat up on the pool one degree because I'd mentioned off-hand that the pool was a bit cooler than I had expected.
Cameron Thorne was turning out to be a much different person than I'd originally thought he was.
One evening when I was at home, studying as usual, I heard voices coming from the first floor. Cameron had been right that sound carried well in his mansion.
I wondered if it was Jen and Noah coming to visit. I headed downstairs, intending to greet them.
I stopped and darted back up a few steps when I found an older man and woman in the foyer. The man had salt and pepper hair and wore a business suit. The woman was a light brunette and wore a fashionable shift dress, high heeled pumps, and a casual yet chic updo.
Cameron was there, standing in front of the two of them. His expression was one of shock.
I wondered whether or not to interrupt. For a moment I wondered if these people were Cameron's lawyers — god knows what kind of trouble he could have gotten into — until the woman pulled him into a careful hug. She pressed a kiss to both his cheeks and stood back.
The man took Cameron's hand and gave it a firm handshake. Cameron returned it robotically.
"What are you guys doing here?" He sounded befuddled. "You're supposed to be in Tokyo or Milan or something."
"Plans changed," the man replied in a firm, but not unfriendly, tone. "I hope we're not interrupting anything?"
