“More?”
Her eyes slid to mine, widening with meaning. “No,” I said, unwilling to believe it. “Thatcher is fucked up, but he wouldn’t... Why, do you think someone hurt you?” The words lodged in my throat.
I’d assumed the video was the end of it, but what if it wasn’t? What if someone had actually physically hurt her?
Bile rushed up my throat as I breathed in through my nose, trying not to lose my cool.
“No, I... I don’t think so. I didn’t feel anything... you know?” She gave a little shrug as if it was no big deal.
But it was a big fucking deal.
“Fuck,” I ground out, clutching the back of my neck. “And I... we...” I’d touched her yesterday morning. Me. After someone might have... I leaped up, pacing back and forth.
“Cameron,” Hailee said, but I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t get the image out of my head of her lying there, out of it, while someone stripped the dress from her body, laughing, whispering taunts about how much she wanted it, how easy she was.
Bile rushed up my throat. No one had been recognizable on the video, the angle of the camera zeroed in on Hailee. Her body.
Hailee’s hand curled around my arm and I froze, my heart jackhammering in my chest. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I would know if anything had happened, and it didn’t.”
But it could have. If Flick hadn’t have found her when she did, it could have.
Slowly, I turned to her. Hailee’s eyes were red and puffy, and her smile didn’t reach them. “None of this is okay,” I said quietly. “When I think about them doing that to you... of them possibly hurting you, I...” Swallowing, I wrapped an arm around her waist, anchoring us together, and dropped my head to hers, breathing her in.
“It was just a cruel prank, Cameron.” Both of Hailee’s hands gripped my arms now, but I couldn’t figure out if she was holding me closer or trying to keep me at a safe distance. “Jason will—”
“Ssh.” I pressed my thumb to her lips. “Jase is the last person I want to talk about right now.” This shit with Thatcher, between him and Hailee, it had to end.
It should have ended long before now.
Her eyes flashed with surprise as she sucked in a shaky breath. “Why are you here, Cameron? Why did you come?”
It was the question I’d asked myself more than once on the ride over here. But the second I’d opened that link, I couldn’t think of anything but getting to her.
“Because I care about you, Hailee,” I confessed. “I care about you so fucking much.”
Her expression faltered and then she was burying her face in my chest, sobbing into my t-shirt. My hands slid into her hair, coaxing her face back to mine. “I will fix this, I promise.”
I didn’t know how yet but I would. It had gone too far. Hailee didn’t deserve this. She’d never deserved any of it.
And I’d been too much of a fucking coward to stop any of it.
Tears collected in the corners of her eyes and I slid a hand down her face, brushing the drops of moisture away with the pad of my thumb. “Don’t cry, Sunshine,” I said. I can’t bear it.
Hailee’s mouth curved. “I really hate it when you call me that.”
“And I really love the way you blush when I do.”
“What are we doing, Cameron?” Her eyes pinned me to the spot, searching for answers. Answers I wanted to give her but wasn’t sure she was ready to hear.
“What we should have done a long fucking time ago,” I choked out, my grip on her tightening.
And then I kissed her.
Chapter Thirty-One
Hailee
“Cameron, wait.” My hands slid to his chest, pushing gently. He jerked back, his eyes simmering with lust and something I didn’t want to acknowledge. “We can’t—”
“We can,” he said without hesitation. “Tell me you don’t want this, Hailee. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want me.”
I want you.
I want you so much it terrifies me.
But the words were lodged in my throat and all I could do was stare back at him.
“Hailee, I’m done pretending,” Cameron breathed out, lowering his head to mine. “I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first day I laid eyes on you.”
“We were just kids.” I rolled my eyes. There was no way he could possibly mean that.
Could he?
Cameron’s hands slid up my arms, resting on my shoulders. “I want you, Hailee Raine. You.” His eyes burned into me, igniting a fire in my stomach.
“But we… we hate each other.” It was a useless argument. One I knew no longer applied where me and Cameron were concerned. The tug of his mouth into a smirk told me as much.
“Nah, Sunshine, it’s not hate, it’s—”
I smashed my lips to his. I didn’t want to hear what he thought this thing between us was, not yet. I just wanted to feel. To forget. I wanted him to help me escape the shitshow my life had become, just for a little while.
Cameron groaned with approval as I pushed my tongue into his mouth, pressing my body against his. But it wasn’t enough. I needed more.
I needed all of him.
My arms looped around his neck and pulled until we fell onto Felicity’s bed landing with a whoosh of breath and a tangle of limbs.
“Shit… Flick,” I rasped. “We shouldn’t—”
“She’s not here.” Cameron stared down at me, his weight crushing me in the most perfect way. “I sent her to keep an eye on Jase.”
“You did?” My brow rose, unsure how I felt about that.
“If you want to stop...” He started pulling away, but my fingers dug into his shoulders.
“I don’t want to stop,” I breathed out, my heart crashing violently in my chest.
“Thank fuck.” Relief settled over him and Cameron dipped his head to kiss my jaw, moving lower to suck the hollow of my neck. A soft moan worked its way up my throat, spilling out as a needy sigh. He rocked back onto his haunches. “Up.”
I sat forward, letting him work my t-shirt over my head, shivering as his fingers brushed my bare skin. Cameron yanked his own t-shirt over his head and my eyes drank in the inches upon inches of tanned muscles. Our eyes connected, as he crawled back over me, pressing me into the mattress. “I want to touch you, Hailee.” His gaze held a silent question, and I nodded, my mouth dry, my mind clouded with desire.
Anticipation vibrated through me as he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the curve of my chest. Cameron’s hands slid underneath my back, fumbling with the clasp of my bra, and the material fell away from my body as he tugged it off, cool air dancing over my sensitive skin. His eyes darkened with lust, his Adam’s apple pressing against his throat as his fingers traced over my pebbled skin. “Perfect,” he whispered, before capturing one of the pink buds in his mouth.
I arched off the bed, smothering a moan. “You like that, Sunshine?” Cameron looked up at me through dark lashes. Pressing my lips together, I fought a smile, but he saw right through me, dipping his head once more to give my other breast the same attention. The feel of his hot mouth, the graze of his stubbled jaw against my skin, had my heart fluttering wildly, my stomach coiling so tight I gasped his name.