Page 70 of Be Mine Forever

He pounded into her, smudging the fine lines between rapture and pain until she didn’t have words for the exchange they made. The healing for the wounds, the tenderness for the hurt. A wail of lust and love rent the air between them until he swallowed that sound. Captured it in a kiss and overtook her. His body subdued hers, but in the end, as he shuddered into her, gripping her like air in his starved lungs, he was at her mercy. It was over too soon and it was endless.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Cam pretended to read theWall Street Journalon Jo’s iPad while she prepared coffee. He glanced at his phone to check the weather—for show. His eyes kept wandering to her tall, slim form moving around her kitchen in a paisley patterned silk robe. He could tell it cost the earth, but it could have been burlap for all he cared. Jo completely naked under the silk—priceless.

During the night, they’d lain like spoons in a drawer. He’d resisted her silky nakedness as long as he could before he had to lift one long leg and plunge back in from behind, making her breath hitch. She’d barely been awake before she was climaxing around him. And this morning, he’d had her again in the shower, a primitive mating against the wall, spiraling them into a wet, consuming heat. Their sounds of base pleasure bouncing off the tiles.

He’d known it would be like this. He had addict in his blood. He’d watched his mother twitch and scratch and foam at the mouth for her next high. And as disgusted as he had been by her incessant need, he’d always figured he had that capacity inside him. So he’d stayed away from drugs. Usually drank in moderation. He had never wanted to need something so badly he couldn’t set it aside if he had to.

Until now.

There was no setting Jo aside, and if he had to walk away, he’d be no better than his mother. Fiending and twitching, want and need burning through sense and good intentions. Last night, he’d taken a beautiful, dangerous step with Jo, and even if there was a way back, he didn’t want it. He’d known sex with her would be the best he’d ever had. She was too fiery, too much of a challenge to be less than his equal. He hadn’t anticipated their intimacy would swallow him whole, that he’d lose unrecoverable bits of his soul to her, not just while he pounded into her like a raging bull, but when she fell asleep naked in his arms. When he’d fallen asleep in hers.

He hadn’t escaped the nightly hell his dreams always delivered, but when he woke up, frantic and searching for the cold steel comfort under the bed, he’d found Jo instead. She’d snuggled into his side, mumbling in her sleep, thrown one leg over his hip, and sighed. There was no room for demons in her bed. Cam had lain awake for another hour, letting the steady rhythm of her breathing lull him back to sleep.

She smiled at him, setting coffee and a bagel on the table.

“It’s not a hot breakfast like you made for me,” she said, forgoing the chair across the table from him and perching herself on his knee. “But the bagels are pretty fresh. Q picked them up from the bakery yesterday.”

“They’re fine.” Cam took a bite, not tasting it, already forecasting when he could be inside her again. “What are your plans for the day?”

“Well, I still have my lady garden appointment at ten o’clock.” She took the coffee mug from his hands, sipping before giving it back to him.

“Your lady garden was fine to me.” He set the coffee on the table and pulled her back against his chest. He parted the robe, sending his hand up her bare leg.

“And…” She paused, pulling his hand away and giving him a pointed look. She knew him so well. “Mani-pedi and hair appointment.”

Cam frowned, reaching up to pull a clump of her wild hair into his fist.

“What are you doing to your hair?”

“I was going to get it treated to make it straight and easier to manage.”

“I like it this way. Kind of wild and untamed.”

Her eyes whispered their secret. The secret of just how wild and untamed she’d been last night. Cam had been afraid he’d be too rough for Jo, but he had a row of scratches down his back and a constellation of bite marks to prove she gave as good as she got.

“Consider it canceled, then, but the others I’m keeping.” She leaned in to kiss him lightly, pushing her fingers into his hair. “There’s a board meeting this afternoon, by the way, so Daddy will be home later. Peter and I have a presentation we need to get ready for.”

Cam fought the sudden urge to hurl his coffee against the wall.

“What?” Jo turned to the side, resting her forehead against his. “What just made you go all tense on me?”

He considered not telling her. Did he really want her to know what a jealous, insecure idiot he was when it came to that guy?

“Peter.” He dropped the name in the quiet of the kitchen and waited for her response.

“Baby.” She brushed her hand over his bed-rumpled hair. “We’ve been over this.”

Cam turned her until her legs slid out from beneath the silk robe, hanging on either side of his thighs. He wrapped his hands around her tiny waist. Did she know most women would give their left arm to have her dimensions?

“I don’t want him.” She nuzzled into his neck, drifting her fingers down to toy with his nipple. He was shirtless and wearing only boxers. His growing erection would be inescapable.

Focus.

“But he does want you.” Cam pulled away from her curious hands, cupping her jaw and tilting her head to meet his eyes. “He’s in love with you, Jo.”

She dropped her eyes to the floor where her toes brushed the stone tile.

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