It was none of his business.
“Then Mac told me if I broke your heart, he’d break my face. But I broke his face first.” He held his hand out toward her, his knuckles scraped. “It still hurts.”
“Want me to kiss and make it better?” What had just compelled her to say that?
His eyes darkened. “Yeah.”
She took his hand in both of hers, brushed her lips across his warm, damaged skin. He’d hit his brother over her, in defense of her. The realization was still staggering. “Better?”
“Maybe.” He slipped his hand from her gentle grip, his cloudy gaze locked with hers, his expression earnest. Curious. “I need to know. Is there a chance I could break your heart, Chloe?”
She wasn’t sure how to answer. Her heart was already breaking for him, not that she’d ever admit it. She was in love with him.
But she couldn’t say it. Not yet. That was the hardest part of all.
“I break everyone’s heart,” he whispered, rolling on his side, shifting closer to her. He took her hand, slid his fingers between hers, his thumb brushing across her knuckles before he linked their fingers together. “My family’s, my friends’. I don’t know how to stick anymore, even when I want to.”
“I could teach you.” She cleared her throat. If he turned her away now, she was done. She couldn’t face the humiliation of being so open with her feelings for Cameron any longer if he shut her down. Or worse, turned it into a joke. “If…if you want to know how.”
Without a word he moved over her, cupping her face with his calloused hands. “Every time,” he murmured, his expression grim, his gaze pained. “Every time I’m ready to pull back, you have this way of reeling me in.”
She released a shuddering breath, not knowing what to say. And then she didn’t have to speak at all. He settled his mouth on hers, softly, sweetly. Turning the kiss instantly hot, wild. Deep.
Heaven help her, the man could kiss. He tasted fresh and minty, his tongue doing wicked, erotic things, and she responded to him like the hopelessly in love fool that she was. Clinging to him, her legs tangled with his, she wound her arms around his neck, buried her hands in his silky soft hair.
“You make me want to stick,” he whispered close to her ear just before he nibbled her earlobe. “For you, Chloe, I’d do just about anything.”
Oh, God. Did he mean it? She’d fall apart if he didn’t. If this were nothing but meaningless, drunken rambling she’d never forgive him.
?
??All this romancing has nearly pushed me past my breaking point,” he murmured, his breathing ragged, his expression edgy. “I want you. So damn bad it’s taking everything I have not to attack you.”
He kissed her again before she could reply and she melted into the mattress. His hands were everywhere, pushing the hem of her camisole up past her ribs, exposing her. Lifting away from her, he stared at her stomach, his gaze lingering on her almost bared breasts. “Tell me you don’t want this.”
She tilted her head back, her gaze meeting his defiantly. He was trying to trick her. She knew he wanted her to deny him. It would be easier that way. After all, he was the one breaking her single simple rule. But it was her rule to break, and their sweet summer romance had run headlong into the sexy, passionate romance category.
“I want this,” she whispered. “I want you, Cameron.”
…
Cam had half hoped she’d turn him away. Tell him she couldn’t go through with this so he’d have no choice but to release her. Leave her bed and sleep on that godforsaken couch for the rest of the night, his body aching with wanting her.
But she wanted him. Maybe she even needed him as badly as he needed her. He’d already said too much, admitted far, far too much. When it came to Chloe, he had no control of his emotions.
None.
Without a word he slid his palms up, taking the fabric of her thin tank top with him over her breasts, lingering on her lush, soft curves. She whimpered, arched into his hands, and he pushed the tank up, wanting it off.
She lifted her arms, allowing him to remove it, and he pulled the tank over her head, tossing it onto the ground. She didn’t move, didn’t so much as flinch as he studied her, his breaths coming rapidly as he drank her in. Open and vulnerable and so achingly beautiful he was almost afraid to touch her.
Knew that once he did, there was no going back. She’d become his.
And he didn’t know if he could ever let her go.
Her arms still stretched above her head, she watched him, her gaze glassy, her face flushed. “There doesn’t have to be any walls between us, Cam.” Her voice trembling, she visibly swallowed. “I don’t understand why you keep throwing them up.”
She accepted him so easily, put no conditions on him besides the no-sex thing, and that had been a form of protection. From him. Her own sort of wall she’d thrown up, and he’d eventually worn it down anyway. “You deserve better—”