Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“What’s a while?”
“The last time was in Paris a few months ago.” Cam hung his head and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “She said I was rough.”
The word “rough” abraded Jo’s nerves and commanded the hairs on her arms to attention. Fear built a bridge to fantasy in her mind and she started running across it right away. Rough sex with Cam sounded like a heavenly spiked dream.
“Rough how?”
“I don’t know.” Cam shrugged. “It’s not that I blacked out or anything, but I kind of lost myself for a few minutes.”
“I think that’s pretty typical.”
“She had marks on her I didn’t remember leaving, Jo.”
“What kind of marks?”
“Bruises where I gripped her thighs too hard. Bites on her…” Cam swallowed and Jo could have sworn she saw red creep under his olive skin. “Bite marks on her ass. Scratches on her back.”
Jo popped to her feet and lifted the hair off her neck. She fanned her face.
“I think I need some air.”
She walked out to the front porch and sat on the swing, dropping her head into her hands. Good God, was it too dark to run? Did she have her knitting kit? She was so wet and hot between her legs, like a kerosene fire. Bite marks on the ass? Was it so wrong that all she could think was, “Yes, please”?
Cam walked out onto the porch, leaning against one of its beams.
“I knew I shouldn’t have told you.” He walked over to sit beside her on the swing, taking her hand between his. “If you want out, tell me now. I don’t blame you for being scared. I don’t even know what I’m capable of. I’d kill myself before I’d hurt you, Jo. Even if we don’t go any further, you have to believe that.”
She could pretend that it was fear that had run her out of the cottage, or she could own up to the steamy truth that him bruising and scratching her basically left her sopping wet.
“Cam, I don’t want out.” She covered her eyes with her hand, even as her words gave up the truth. “I want way in.”
Cam pulled her hand down, forcing her to let him see. The porch light highlighted the confusion on his face.
“So hearing that didn’t scare you off?”
“After all these years, you think that is what will finally rid you of me?”
Cam pulled her onto his lap and set the swing in motion with one foot.
“Does it look like I’m trying to get rid of you?” Cam kissed the top of her head and laced their fingers together. “So you’re not scared I might bite you? Like lose control and hurt you if we…”
“When we, buddy. I’ll overheat like a radiator if we don’t soon.” She smiled when his chuckle rumbled through her back. “And I’m the opposite of scared.” She hid her face in the crook of his neck. “I hightailed it out of there because I was so turned on by the thought of you biting my ass.”
Cam pulled back so fast she almost fell off the swing.
“Are you shitting me?” His eyes widened, his mouth hanging open a bit. “Jo, we are a dangerous combination.”
“Let’s live on the edge together, then.”
“You’re into knife play, too? That’s a relief. I thought it’d be a problem.”
Jo went stiff and glanced by increments until she reached his face. Geesh. Knives!
The laugh he apparently couldn’t hold back bounced off the trees in the quiet around them.
“I’m just kidding, baby. I’m not into knives.”
Breath deflated Jo’s chest.
“What are you into?”
He cocked his head to the side, running a finger over her cheekbone.
“You.”
“Are you trying to distract me from the conversation we were having by being irresistible?”
“Pretty much.”
“Cam!”
“There’s nothing more to talk about. Now you know what happened. The nightmares. The fact that I’m afraid I’ll lose control and scar you when we finally do it.”
“Did you just say ‘do it’?” Jo laughed and wrinkled her nose. “Are we in high school? Should we also neck in your car or meet under the bleachers?”
“What should I say?” He leaned forward until the words misted her lips. “When I fuck you? Is that what you want me to say?”
“Is that what you’re going to do to me?”
Say yes. Say yes. Say yes.
The humor seeped from his eyes but didn’t leave them empty. Something Jo recognized as tenderness filled up those eyes that could undo her between blinks without much effort at all.
“I think that what I’m going to do to you, I’ve never done to anyone else. I fully expect to worship you, Jo.”
“I don’t want to be worshipped.”
“Too bad.”
Chapter Twenty
Pretty impressive, huh?”
Cam looked away from the infinity pool and back to his agent Sebastian. You’d seen one pool drop over the edge, you’d seen them all.
“Sure. Yeah.” Cam studied the Malibu mansion grounds of the producer who had flown them in almost a week ago now. “Is this meeting gonna happen or what? We’ve been here a week and I haven’t met this producer yet.”