He turned to me with such a look of horror in his eyes that I thought he might keel over from a heart attack any second.
“It’s powdered sugar,” I said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “I made cupcakes. The bag of sugar exploded on me, and I guess I didn’t wipe it all off my face. Look, I’ve got the cupcakes right here. The person who sent the picture into the tabloids is just a fucking bitch who wanted to make trouble.”
Dad’s face fell with relief, and he turned back to the gossip journalists as I held the container up. “Okay, it wasn’t Photoshopped, but it’s goddamned powdered sugar! Cam was making cupcakes when that photo was taken, and he has them right here,” he repeated in case any of them hadn’t heard me.
I opened the contained and pulled out a cupcake with a grin, and some of the reporters began to laugh as the ludicrous misunderstanding dawned on them.
“Are they for Anya?” one of them asked.
“He doesn’t have to answer any of your questions,” Dad interjected in an icy voice before I could reply. “But yes, I assume these are for his girlfriend, who I’m proud to say is a fine young woman. That’s all I have to say on the matter. Now please respect our family’s privacy and leave us alone.”
With that, he began to stalk away from the crowd, and I followed him, but not before turning my head over my shoulder and flashing a wink at the crowd as I sank my teeth into the cupcake I’d shown them.
“Just give us one quote, Cam!” one of them shouted after me.
“My frosting is awesome,” I called back out to them. “Maybe you’ll see me on an episode of Celebrity Chef soon!”
That was the only quote those gossip fiends were getting from me anytime soon.
Dad and I walked in silence for a while, and as we rounded a corner, we both started chuckling at the same time. The whole incident had just been so goddamned ridiculous that it was actually fucking hilarious.
“Cupcakes!” Dad said, spluttering as he tried to stop laughing. “Can’t say I saw that coming.”
“No shit,” I said. “It’s insane.”
“I know those cakes are meant to be for Anya, but hand one of them over, son. After all that excitement, I could do with a sweet treat.”
“Sure thing.”
He took a bite and wrinkled his nose. “This tastes a bit like charcoal.”
“Still good, though, right?”
“Good enough,” he said, still chuckling.
Our laughter finally died off, and we kept on walking as we chewed on our cupcakes.
“Thanks for doing that back there, Dad,” I said after I’d swallowed my last bite. “I don’t think I could’ve fought them all off with my bare hands.”
He chuckled. “No problem,” he replied, licking frosting from his upper lip. “I could kill those paparazzi bastards. They’ve got nothing better to do with their time than make up things and tear people to shreds in their stupid publications. Like a school of piranhas or something.”
“Why were you so sure I didn’t do it?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “It looked pretty bad. If I saw a picture of a guy like that, I’d probably assume the dude had just been snorting coke.”
He began to look slightly uncomfortable. “Cam…those things I said the other night…like I said earlier, I didn’t mean them. I was just angry, and you’re not a bad kid. You’ve done a few crazy things in the past, but when Anya showed me those photos today, I knew you were innocent,” he replied. “I just knew.”
“But how?”
“I remembered how you behaved when you returned home after searching for your mother two years ago. You were devastated. You never said this to me out loud, but I knew you’d never touch any kind of illegal substances after that, considering how much she messed up her life by using.”
“Well, thanks for believing in me. And thanks for what you said about me and Anya.”
He sighed. “Honestly, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to come to terms with, but after you left the other night, I thought long and hard about it. The only thing that really bothered me was all the media attention it was getting, and I worried how it would affect my business. But that was selfish of me. Besides, any publicity is good publicity, as they say.”
He cleared his throat again and continued. “It isn’t your fault that you’re famous and that every part of your life is broadcasted across the media, including your relationships. I’m the one who got you that race car driving gig in the first place, and I’m the one who’s been pushing you to pursue your modeling career more seriously lately, so the increased exposure is mostly my fault anyway.”
“Nah. I could’ve just gone back to college and studied business like you did when you were my age, and I could’ve stayed out of the limelight. I didn’t have to say yes to any of the things you offered. You were just helping me get back on my feet after all the shit that’s happened in the last couple of years.”
“Well, regardless of that, I want you to know I’m okay with you and Anya being together. Even if you two break up down the track, I think you’re both mature enough to keep it from affecting the rest of the family.”
“Thanks, Dad. And forget about the other night. Everyone was emotional, and things got heated. It’s okay.”
We walked in silence for a moment, and then I remembered something Dad had said earlier. He’d said Anya had shown him the gossip blog photos of me with the supposed cocaine on my nose.
“So Anya saw the photo today, huh?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Was she upset?”
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped a little. “So…she thinks I did it?”
He shook his head. “No, of course not. She was upset because she knew you hadn’t done it, and she didn’t want to see your name being dragged through the mud again.”
My heart soared. Anya really trusted me, and I didn’t know why I’d doubted it for even a millisecond. I guess it hadn’t been easy to get her to trust me in the first place, considering all the ridiculous things that had happened in the past which made me look like a deceitful dick, but that was over now.
No matter what curveballs the universe decided to throw our way from now on, she’d always believe in me and see the good in me, even if I couldn’t see it myself. A fuzzy warmth filled my body at the thought, and I was ninety-nine percent sure I’d never, ever be able to stop smiling.
As for the missing one percent…I’d find that as soon as I saw Anya’s face again.
Chapter 25
Cam
Three years later
“You know, you used to yell at me for being messy, but look at this.”
I picked up three different sweaters from my bedroom floor and tossed them onto the bed, and Anya giggled.
“Maybe if you weren’t constantly tearing my clothes off and throwing them everywhere, we wouldn’t have this problem,” she replied, sitting up in bed and leaning back against the plush headboard.
“Good call. Let’s be celibate from now on,” I said, feigning a somber expression.
She launched a pillow at me, and I dodged it and then pounced on her, making her squeal as she writhed under me.
Anya had been living in my apartment for a year now. I’d wanted her to move in sooner, but we’d figured that it was easier for her to finish her degree whilst still living in her dorm at college. Since the move-in, my apartment had gone from looking like a constantly-cluttered bachelor’s party-pad to a tidy, mature-looking place, and I had to say, I loved the change. My Dad had told me something when I was younger, and it really rang true now—it took hands to build a house, but hearts to build a home.
Our apartment was definitely a home now.
Some guys didn’t like to be tamed; they wanted to live the playboy lifestyle forever, and they’d never settle down. Once upon a time, I’d thought that was how I would turn out…but then Anya had walked back into my life and changed things forever, and I couldn’t be any happier. It wasn’t like I’d b
een neutered or anything. I still liked the occasional party and drinking session with friends, and I still had strong urges to beat the fuck out of anyone who even considered hurting her, but she’d shown me that I could do better than the way I used to live.
She made me a better person with every single day that went by.
She’d shown me that I could have real friends; people who wouldn’t sell me out to the tabloids for a few dollars, and people who wouldn’t drag me down with their party-hard lifestyles. I could have tons of sex, only now it was with one woman and it actually meant something. No more mindless hookups for me, and believe it or not, I actually had more sex now because of that. Anya and I were so perfect together that we barely ever wanted to get out of bed, even though after three years we were well out of the honeymoon period of our relationship.
Yeah, life was pretty fucking great.
The tabloids had forgotten all about our sex tape scandal ages ago, and no one batted an eyelid when they saw me and Anya walking around together. And speaking of sex scandals…everyone’s favorite socialite Jana Langford was in some pretty deep shit at the moment. A few weeks ago, she’d been involved in her very own media scandal when an amateur hardcore porn video of her participating in a threesome had surfaced of her on the internet. From what I’d heard, it made our accidental Twitch sex tape look tame in comparison.
It sucked for her, and I even felt a little sorry for her, but I guess that old saying was true—what goes around comes around. She’d tried to screw with my life by being a fucking bitch and telling everyone I was on drugs, and now karma had come to get her. There was also another model involved in that same amateur porn video, and guess who it was? Yep, Tiffany—the bitch who’d almost fucked things up for me and Anya in the first place by pretending to have hooked up with me.
Funny how things turned out sometimes.
As for me, I hadn’t returned to racing once my suspension period was up. I didn’t need the thrill of fast cars anymore now that I had Anya. She was all the thrill I needed, so instead, I poured my time into other exploits. I was still doing the occasional modeling campaign, but I was focusing most of my energy on a new sports agency for race car drivers which Anya and I had started eight months ago after she graduated from her business degree. It was hard work, but it was worth it, and my Dad had never been happier and prouder of me.
Anya had continued her online game streaming for the last few years, and she’d made enough money to contribute half the capital we’d needed to get our business off the ground. I’d contributed the other half from my own funds, and we’d hired Shania as our public relations manager as soon as she finished her studies. Christina and my Dad had helped her move to the city two and a half years ago, and she was practically part of the family now.
I had to admit, it was a pretty weird family—stepsiblings who were dating each other, a secret lovechild from an ex-husband’s affair, and two parents who’d run off to Vegas to get married in the first place—but it worked for us. It was still a family, and we were all happy. Besides, Anya and I wouldn’t just be dating for too much longer. We’d be something else entirely.
But that was an issue for another day…
Right now my cock was hard as a rock; rigid as hell as I grabbed Anya’s arms and held them up above her head.
“Stop tickling me!” she said, squirming and giggling as she tried to push me away.
I grinned. “I’m not trying to. I’m trying to hold you down so I can get these damn pajamas off you, but you keep struggling.”
She relented and let me strip the satin top and shorts from her beautiful body, and I peppered her neck, breasts and stomach with kisses before sliding myself further down the bed and propping myself up between her legs.
She sighed as goose bumps cropped up all over the soft skin of her thighs, and I looked up at her with a grin before lowering my mouth to her pussy, inhaling deeply and tasting every inch of her as my tongue lapped at her. Her hands clutched at the bed sheets, balling them into her fists as her legs quivered, and I brought her just close enough to the edge to tease her before moving back up and settling between her legs. She practically cried as I pulled away from her throbbing clit, and when I pressed my cock right up against her sopping entrance, her entire body began to jerk involuntarily, ever-so-close to orgasm but not quite there.
“Please, Cam…more,” she begged, eyes wide and pupils dilated with desire.
I kissed her neck as I slowly eased into her, and she gasped as I stretched her around my shaft. Her hands clasped around my back, nails digging into me, and we easily found our rhythm, our bodies moving together like they’d been built for each other. Only moments later, my skin was slick with sweat. I groaned as Anya clenched and released her muscles around me, milking my cock for everything it had. Fuck, it felt amazing.
“Fuck me,” she moaned. “Harder.”
“You wanna be fucked hard?” I growled.
“Yes,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper now. “Please.”
I pulled out and flipped her onto her stomach. “On your hands and knees,” I commanded, making her whimper with desire as she followed my orders and arched her back. Every inch of me screamed for her, my cock throbbing for sweet release.
Gripping the headboard of the bed, she braced herself as I slid inside her without mercy or hesitancy. She cried out as I filled her, and my hands slid over her hips, tightly gripping her as I fucked her. My first thrusts were short and slow, but soon she was begging for me to fuck her harder and deeper. I could barely even make out her words at this point, let alone think rationally…her body just blew my mind every fucking time I was inside her, rendering me savage and primal in all my movements.
I moved my hands further up her curves, gripping her waist as I fucked her with deep, forceful thrusts. She moaned and whimpered, begging for more and more as my cock slammed in and pressed up against the sweet spot inside her pussy with every hard drive into her, and my jaw tightened as heat built in the base of my groin.
“More…oh…yes, yes, yes!” she screamed as an orgasm crashed over her seconds later. “Oh, god…don’t stop!”
Reaching around, I grasped her tits and pinched her nipples between my fingers as I slammed into her, and my mouth grazed her ear with a kiss before whispering all the dirty things I was going to do to her every day for the rest of our lives. She gasped her acquiescence, and I growled one last thing to her.
“You’re mine,” I said. “All mine.”
“Yes…” she murmured before moaning as I grabbed her hair and pulled it, turning her head over her shoulder so I could kiss her gorgeous lips.
Her tongue slid inside my mouth, swiping against mine, and I finally let go, savoring every sensation as my climax rushed up my cock. I slapped her ass cheeks with one hand as I came, and she moaned her approval, body bucking against me as her legs shook. I crashed over the edge, coming harder than ever before, and I let out a powerful groan before pulling out and collapsing onto the sheets.
Anya rolled over next to me, trembling in my arms. I could feel her heart racing as my hands lazily slid onto her chest, and I knew my pulse matched hers.
“Jesus…do you think that’ll ever get boring?” she said a moment later.
I grinned and wiped the sweat from my brow. “Nope. I guess we’re lucky.”
Suddenly she sat bolt upright. “Crap! I told everyone on my Twitch channel that I’d do a video today. I almost forgot.”
I smiled and pulled on some boxers and a shirt as she quickly dressed as well. “Why don’t I join you?”
She raised her brows. “In a game? Last time I invited you to play this game, you kept yelling and asking where the guns were. There aren’t any guns! It’s medieval themed.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll just sit here quietly. Maybe I’ll work on some stuff for our real job,” I said, pretending to be offended.
She shook her head and laughed. “I’ll find a way for you to join in,” she said, jumping up and head
ing over to her desk, where her laptop sat. “A lot of people on there have actually sent messages asking about you. Maybe it’s time I introduce you properly.”
“Well, yeah, it’s been three whole years now,” I said, ruffling her hair. “I think it’s safe to say you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.”
She logged into her channel and turned the webcam on—which, by the way, we were now very careful about turning off after she was finished—and then waved at the screen. “Hey, everyone! I’m going to be showing you guys how to beat the monster in the Dark Temple in about half an hour, but first, someone else wants to say hi!”
She beckoned me over, and I waved at the webcam and grinned.
“I’m sure you all know who Cam is. Anyway, a few of you have been asking me to tell you how we first got together all those years ago, and believe me, it’s pretty funny. We played some pretty mean pranks on each other, which I’ll tell you all about in a sec. So here goes. This is a short summary of our story…”
I rubbed her shoulders and watched the number of viewers on the side of the screen go up and up as she spoke. We’d never given any sort of public interview about our relationship, but Anya’s gaming fans loved her, and they just wanted to know about us out of pure curiosity. There was nothing sordid about their interest, and none of them would go and sell all the details to a magazine. Hell, even if they did, neither of us really cared. We’d been through much worse in the past.
I leaned down and whispered in her ear as she continued to speak. “I love you.”
She didn’t reply, seeing as she was in the middle of a sentence to her fans, but I could see her answer in her eyes on the screen, where it displayed the live video she was making. I love you too.
What we had together hadn’t always been great. We’d dealt with a lot of crazy stuff, and there were a few times when I’d thought Anya would never come back to me. But that was all over now. We were in this for the long haul, and all we needed to survive was our love. I was still young, and there weren’t a lot of things in this world that I was one-hundred percent certain about…but that much I knew for certain.
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