Page 26 of Challenge
She stiffens slightly but turns her head and answers, “Well, I want more than good I guess.” She adjusts the frames of her glasses and turns to face me again. I love how small she is next to me like this. I love that when she looks up at me, her eyes have to squint a little from the lighting above my head. “I’m twenty-four, Camden. I’ve waited this long. Surely it isn’t an impossible task to find a great shag at this age.”
I chuckle at her pensive expression. “Sweetheart, you needn’t even ask.”
Her jaw drops as her eyes snap to mine. “Well, aren’t you just a cocky sod.”
I shake my head, tilting her chin up so she looks at me instead of my chest. “Specs, if you want your first time to be greatness, I’m right fucking here.” I close the last twelve inches between us and twine my fingers with hers, pulling her back to my bed. “But you’re right, it can’t be here.”
“Obviously.” Her voice is wobbly as she looks away with a small flicker of disappointment and a huge splash of shame marring her pretty features.
“But it will be me.” My voice is self-assured.
She pulls her large pink lower lip into her mouth and chews it nervously before looking at me and saying, “I don’t think you could be any cockier.”
All humour drains from my face. “I’m not cocky. I’m certain.” I reach out to pull her lower lip from between her teeth and rub the pad of my thumb along it. Bits of it are raw and chapped from the overtime she’s been working on it.
Her eyes flutter closed as she says, “I’m mortified.”
I smile at her hunched posture. “You don’t need to be embarrassed.” I turn her face to look at me. “But I do think you need to stop lying to yourself about what you think we could be for each other.” Her eyes flicker quickly between mine. They look sad but hopeful. “After I’m out of here and you don’t have the stress of getting caught hanging over you, we’re going to do this. And I’ll make it better than good, Indie. I’ll make it so great that when I walk away, you’ll compare every bloke you ever meet to me.”
She smiles, a resigned look of satisfaction on every inch of her face. “Just sex?”
“That’s all I’m offering.” I watch her for her reaction.
An appreciative smile takes over her face. “You couldn’t be more right for this than if I hand-picked you from a catalogue.”
“You’re damn straight.” I wink and silently beg my cock to simmer down. “Now let’s get some sleep before my blue balls create a new colour in the rainbow.”
“YOU THINKI’M SLEEPINGin here again?” I ask, pulling out of Camden’s large hands and standing up off the bed. I’m about to burst with insecurity and detaching for some space is exactly what I need.
“I don’t think, I know.” He looks up at me, his jaw taught with determination. “You’re staying.”
“Cam, last night was a fluke, and we’re lucky we didn’t get caught. Doing it again would be tempting fate. I could get kicked off your surgery.”
There are two sides of me that I am fighting with. The old side of me that’s a scared young girl being thrust into a world that’s completely out her comfort zone so she follows all the rules and aces all the tests. Then there’s the side of me that wants to make up for lost time and be daring and bold and take risks.
But not at the expense of my job. “My career is just as important as yours.”
“I never said it wasn’t.”
“That’s why I need to go. But me leaving doesn’t change anything between us. You have my number. Call me when you’re out of here. Right now I need to focus.”
“So do I,” he snaps in a self-deprecating tone.
“What does that mean?”
“I need you to stay, Indie.” His voice is low and pleading, and his eyes are strained. “Please.” He swallows hard and watches me for my answer.
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Because I’m afraid if you leave, I will, too.”
His words shock me. I stare back at his gorgeous, tortured, vulnerable face. Then I walk over to him and stand between his legs, cupping his face in my hands. “You can’t leave, Camden. You need this surgery. And you have nothing to be nervous about.”
He closes his eyes before speaking. “You are my distraction from running out of this place, screaming.” His eyes pop open as he adds, “Football is all I have and, fuck, if this doesn’t work—”
“It will work,” I reply, nodding my head but knowing that there are never any guarantees in life.
He looks as if he’s on the brink of truly losing it this time, and I realise that what I’ve been sensing all along is right. From the moment he came into Patch Alley, I could see it in his face. Even in the ICU and his demeanour last night when he talked about Arsenal. He’s battling something—something bigger than just nerves.
