Page 27 of You're So Vine
I sit there in the Dodge for a few more minutes – like an idiot. No response. I check my mirrors and pull out. Phone stays silent all the way to Martinburg.
At the RiteAid, I get a box of Durex and a three-pack of cotton briefs. It occurs to me that I could come across as some kind of sex pervert, holding a woman hostage. But the guy at the checkout barely glances at me. Which is good because by now I’m so wound up, I look shifty as hell.
Doesn’t help that I keep checking my phone, like I’m awaiting confirmation of a ransom drop. No call or text from Lee. I shouldn’t be worried; she could be working on a new painting. Could have got all inspired at the wedding and rushed back to her studio to get started. Could be out in her garden.
Or could be she’s been abducted by aliens or whirled to Oz in a tornado. Pointless to try and guess. Lee will get back to me when she’s ready. My job’s to start up the truck and drive.
Almost home. Pass the turnoff to Flora Valley Wines. Shelby would have said if there was anything wrong with Lee. Unless Lee didn’t want to spoil her big day…
Give it a rest, Cam.Time to focus. Ava is only three minutes away. And as I’m the one currently in possession of the Hanes three-pack, she’ll still be wearing no underwear.
I half expect Ava to hear the truck and open the front door. But it’s me who opens it. No sign of her in the kitchen, either. Must be upstairs.
I have a moment of hesitation. Like I said, everything’s moving way faster than I’m used to. Responsible Cam is muttering about letting Ava rest properly and reminding me that a good talk can be way more intimate than sex. But Primal Cam can’t forget the feel of his hands on Ava’s bare taut rear. And he takes the stairs two at a time.
There she is, lying on the bed. Room’s warm now from the risen stove heat, and she’s decided to ditch my shirt and, once again, greet me naked.
“Hey,” she says, with a smile.
“Hey yourself,” I reply, and dump my phone and purchases on the bedside shelf.
“Want to join me?”
Primal Cam knows a rhetorical question when he hears one. My boots and jacket got taken off downstairs, only shirt, jeans, and jocks to go. Forty seconds, tops.
Ava kneels on the bed. It’s elevated, so she’s at the perfect height to undo buttons and belts. I let her. The touch of her hands on my skin raises goosebumps. Raises something else, too.
Done. I am naked as a jaybird, as Doc Wilson almost certainly says. Ava reaches out to pull me onto the bed with her. Her eyes have that lust darkness to them, and she shivers all over when I run my thumb over one nipple, put my mouth to the other. We are bothveryready for this and there’s nothing – no Doc Wilsons, no lack of condoms – stopping us now.
My phone rings.
ChapterNine
AVA
Ido not frigging believe it. Not the phone ringing – given our luck so far,thatI can believe. What I don’t believe is that Cam stops to check who it is. He doesn’t even hesitate. Sits right up like he hasn’t been trailing slow kisses from my breasts downwards, like I haven’t been arching in pleasure, begging him to get a move on because foreplay-schmoreplay – I’m ready!
The phone rings, and he freezes, and then it’s like he forgets I even exist. He’s off me and sitting on the side of the bed reaching for his phone in half a second. I’m so astonished, I don’t even know how to react.
At least he doesn’t answer it. But he does tap out a quick text. And he waits for a response. Blip. It arrives. Cam nods, slowly sets down his phone. And only then seems to realize what he’s done. He turns around, face all guilty alarm. His mouth opens and shuts, as he obviously tries to figure out what to say to me. Guess I’ll have to kickstart things myself.
“Must have been important.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry, Ava,” he says. “Just … I was worried and…”
He shakes his head, like he can’t believe what just happened. Join the club.
“Who were you worried about?”
Cam swallows hard. He’d rather not tell me, but he’s going to. Small point in his favor. Not that I would have let it go until he did.
“Shelby told me her mom left early this morning,” he says. “And that’s not like her. Lee’s sociable. She wouldn’t skip out and miss the day after her daughter’s wedding. So, I got—”
“Worried. Yeah, I know.”
I nod slowly. I don’t want to fight. I want to get back to the sexy action. But my sexy hot feelings got instantly quashed when all the ones I hate most got roused. Vulnerability, weakness, ignorance – I see them all as a threat. And when I feel threatened, I tend to get pissy. I’m pretty frigging pissy right now.
“And were you right to worry?” I won’t ease up. “What did she say?”
