Page 28 of Delirium

Another step and the backs of my knees hit my bed. Grateful for the support, I eagerly collapsed onto it.

A mistake. My movement left Camp towering over me, a look of absolute worship across his face.Maybe not a complete mistake.

“I might have thought about it once or twice.”Or three times. If I was counting.

Camp sank to his knees in front of me, hands on my thighs. “You’re a bad liar, Scarlett.”

I grinned. “When I want to be.” I was slowly burning, a pile of embers lingering where I once sat.

His hands pressed my legs wider, and without thinking, I obeyed and spread my knees. He sank deeper between them, gripping hard. “You try so hard to act like you don’t need anyone,” he breathed, trailing bruising fingers up my hip.

“And you don’t do the same?” I gasped as he grabbed a handful of my thigh, kissing up my leg. “You’ve been doing a damn good job of acting like a lone wolf since you got on this boat.”

Camp paused, looking up at me from between my legs, hands still gripping my thighs and pushing them apart. “Maybe it’s time for us to both accept it’s not healthy to be alone for this long. Maybe in order to stay sane, we need to be around other people from time to time.” He pressed a light kiss on the inside of my leg. I squirmed against the gentle touch.

“Is that what this is then? I’m sure doctors would love to know that the cure for insanity is a quick fuck.”

He laughed quietly against my skin. “What do you want this to be, sweet girl?”

Words failed me, and anything to make me sound cool or chill or relaxed flew out the window entirely. “I think I want you to touch me.”

“I can do that,” Camp murmured. He settled back between my legs, alternating light-as-air kisses with teasing touches. “Relax, Scar. I’m not going to hurt you. I want to make you feel good. I want to make you let go.”

“I just…” I looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore how his casual use of my name made me feel. “I haven’t done this a lot.”

He froze. “Like…ever?”

I was suddenly grateful he couldn’t see the blush spreading across my face from my current position. “I’m not a virgin. I’m just not…experienced.”

Camp sighed. I couldn’t tell what emotion went along with his exhale.

“Listen, if it’s too weird, I get it. No hard feelings. You can go back to your room, and we can forget this ever happened.”

The bed shook, and it took me longer than it should have to realize Camp was laughing. Laughing atme.

I flew upright. “Listen. I get it. I spent too much time focusing on school and not enough focusing on dating. Ha ha, very funny. You got your laugh. You don’t need to do it in front of me though.” I tried to kick my legs around him, doing my best to cover my underwear with very little to work with.

Camp held my legs in place with a strong grip, a sober look on his face. “You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at how I got so goddamn lucky. You’re freaking smart, sweet girl. Your brain works in amazing ways. But the fact that I might know more than you in this? That I canteachyou this?” He shook his head, pressing another kiss to my trembling thigh. “Not a laughing matter. It’s fucking hot as hell.”

I stopped fighting him, something in his voice making me relax against his touch. “Really?”

“Really.” His hands crept higher, sending shockwaves of desire through my entire body. “But you tell me. Say the word, and I’ll stop right now.”

I could stop him, and he’d listen. I knew he would.

“Don’t stop,” I whispered.

The briefest of nods, and he sank his teeth lightly into my thigh. “Thank fuck.”

I laughed. “What happened to ‘I’ll stop right now?”

My laugh was cut short as Camp kissed just along the edges of my shorts, high enough to make something squeeze low in my belly.

“I would.” Another kiss. “I would do whatever you asked me to.”Kiss. “But doing something and wanting to do something are two different situations, sweet girl.”

His finger stroked a line, brushing against the thin outline of my panties.

Camp raised his head up, blue eyes shades darker than normal. “Can I?”

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