I would like to say I gently raised his arm off me person, slipped quiety out of me bed, and walked naked… yet, confidently to the safety of my bathroom where the clothes I had taken off before me shower were still tossed on me sink. I would like to say, but I can’t. I went to move Dalton’s python sized arm from around me waist and it tightened instead. Like a dolt, I started trying to pry his large fingers off me waist but they didn’t budge. That’s when I heard him snicker. The ass hat had been awake this whole time and was laughing at me efforts to save me and himself the shame of facing one another!
Too pissed to care about my nakedness, I threw me head back and felt it connect with his nose. The steel band that had been around my waist was gone and I felt him leap back out of the bed shrieking about his nose. I didn’t wait. I took the opportunity to run for the toilet and gathered the quilt around me like a Roman toga and bolted. However, Dalton must have recovered from the hit to his nose because he stepped in the trailing quilt as I sailed past him and I came to a halt as I realized I was, once again, naked in front of him. I turned and he smirked at me, his nose dripping just a wee bit of blood but he didn’t even look as if he noticed. His eyes blazed with something I couldn’t identfy as he looked me up and down like I was something he wanted to taste from head to toe.
He took a step toward me and I stumbled back until I hit me ass on the desk near the bathroom door.
I guess he sensed my intention to make a break for the toilet again because he bent down, picked up the quilt and started walking toward me very slowly, his eyes never letting mine look away.
My heart started pounded, and I was afraid I was going to have another panic attack. Just as he got within a breath of me naked body, me head tipped back since I couldn’t seem to look away from those mesmerizing green eyes. He brought the quilt around me shoulders. I gripped the two ends with trembling hands, not sure of what he would do next. Not sure of what I wanted him to do, I just stood there. I didn’t have to wait long for the answer. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt the warmth of his entire body against me. I sighed and felt meself relax in his embrace. It was nice, it was more than nice, it was epic. He pulled back and again his eyes searched mine but I have no idea for what, he leaned in and instead of kissing me lips he kissed me forehead. I blinked in surprise and he smiled, his full dimpled, sex on a stick smile.
“Get dressed hellion, you and I need to talk and there’s no way that’s going to happen with your sexy body standing there, butt naked, while my cock tries to salute you,” he laughed as he pulled away and again I could only stare at the man. Did he really think me body was sexy? I actually looked down at meself in wonder.
Two fingers pulled me chin back up to his green gaze, “Yes, your body is sexy Camille, if it wasn’t my cock would be laying limp against my thigh instead of flat against my stomach,” he told me. I however, refused to even glance down in that direction.
“Twenty minutes Camille, meet me at the gazebo. If you fail to show up I will spank that delicous looking ass,” he warned as my mouth dropped open at his words.
I should have told him to fuck off. I should have made it clear that I hadn’t been spanked since I was a child and wouldn’t allow it now. I should have said a lot of things. Instead, I merely nodded as I watched him get dressed and let himself out of me bedroom.
Dalton
Exactly twenty-one minutes later Camille emerged from the house wearing the same blue jeans and green sweater that she’d had on earlier that day. Instead of a headband she had pulled her brown locks into cute ponytail and her face was completely free from make-up. In short, the woman looked beautiful. I was having trouble remembering the rules I had just set for myself, rules I had just put in place moments before she had walked outside.
“You’re late,” I teased as she approached. I saw the wariness in her eyes and I knew this conversation was either going to move us closer to a truce or get me a way trip to the local hospital.
“Psssh! The Irish have their own time schedule, I’d recommend that any dates you make while you’re here that you schedule them for a at least an hour earlier than when you actually need to arrive, cause you’ll be late if you don’t,” she told me smiling. A smile, I noticed, that didn’t meet her eyes.
“I’ll keep that mind, please join me for a chat my dear!” I tried to keep my voice light, so I didn’t frighten her. She looked at the spot I indicated near me and chose to continue up the steps past me and hoist herself up onto the frame, letting her legs dangle over the side.
Okaaay. She was a little more freaked out than I thought. I stood up and decided to sit in the same position, on the opposite side so that we could face each other but she would still have some space.
I rubbed my hands up and down may face trying to figure out a way to start the conversation when she suddenly blurted out, “I’m sorry about fallin’ apart on you upstairs… I don’t know what happened… I mean, I do know what happened… I just… aw fuck,” she finished as she hung her head eyes cast downward at the wooden floor.
Fuck giving her space! I walked up to her and pulled her chin up so that she had to look at me. “I want us to be friends Camille, all things aside we are going to be seeing each other a lot after Synclair and Reece get married, so why can’t we be friends?” I asked. She looked at me for a moment and I could see the confusion on her face.
“Do you usually kiss yer friends like that Dalton?” It was a good question and I wanted this to work. I owed it too her to be honest.
“Honestly, no. I don’t usually kiss my friends, especially when they’re naked in my arms,” I told her as her eyes widend when she remembered what had happened in her bathroom.
“I don’t really have friends that are girls, I mean Synclair and Sara are more like sisters than friends and trying to have casual sex and stay friends doesn’t seem to work out so well,” I explained. I had never been this forthcoming with a woman before. I wasn’t using my usual charming words or trying to reassure her that just because we were casual, didn’t mean that I didn’t care. Nope, none of my normal bullshit seemed to apply to Camille and for the first time in my I didn’t want to charm or bullshit, I just wanted to be honest.
“So, you want to be friends then?” She asked, those big blue eyes looked up at me and I could swear they were sad.
“Yes, I want to be friends but I won’t deny that I’m attracted to you, I think we can help each other,” I told her trying to gently lead her into the real conversation I wanted to have.
“Help each other how? It seems like everytime we’re in a room together we’re either fightin’ or….” she trailed off and her eyes darted down again. I knew what she was saying, we were either fighting or kissing, there didn’t seem to be a huge middle ground.
Deciding to approach it another way I asked, “Camille what do you feel when we kiss?”
As expected she jumped off the railing and made like she was about to bolt, I blocked her with my body and bent down to catch her eyes.
“I’m not being a dick here Camille, I think I can help if you let me, just tell me how you feel when we kiss?” I could tell by the way her eyes narrowed that she wasn’t sure I wasn’t fucking with her. I let my expression speak for itself, I wasn’t joking, I wasn’t kidding, I had no hidden agenda of trying to get her into bed, I really just wanted to help this woman. Come on baby, let me in just a little.
She sighed and hoisted herself back up on the railing and I took a spot next to her.
“It seems like, at the moment before we kiss it’s a force of nature, I don’t even realize I’m kissing you until I am actually doing it and the times you have kissed me have happened so suddenly that I don’t have to time to over think it. Then I don’t think at all. Literally! I seem to lose all sense. Me hands itch to explore yer body and I feel like I want to get so close to you that I would be happy if I could just melt into your skin, so we could be like one being,” she finished and looked at me.
I couldn’t talk,
I was so hard that I physcially hurt. Holy shit, that was not what I had expected her to say. Say something you asshole before she mistakes your stupid silence for something that makes her feel like bolting! This was one of the rare moments when my inner voice was spot on.
“That’s great,” I said a little too high pitched. Insert mental face palm here.
“I mean that’s good! That’s how you should feel, so what happens that makes you want to pull away?” I asked trying to get back on track.
She smiled sadly, “I don’t know, upstairs when you were kissing me I was right there with you but when you copped a feel on me breast I got scared,” her voice only a whisper.
Scared? Shit, did she think I would force her? “Scared that I wouldn’t stop? Scared of what Camille?”
That got her attention, her eyes blazed in anger for a moment and she shook her head, “No Dalton, I’m not afraid you’d hurt me or that you’d ever force me, I know you’re an upstandin’ lad,” she said.
Relieved I waited for her to continue.
She sighed, “I start thinkin’ about what a soft belly I have, how many beautiful women you have been with, how little exeprience I have, I mean what can I offer you that some woman already hasn’t gone and given ya? I’m not stupid Dalton, I see how women look at you, they practically eye fuck you from acorss the room! How can I compete with that? I mean I’m just… well.. me,” her voice sounded so sad that I wanted to gather her up in my arms and just hold her. But I needed more if I was going to help her, I had to find out when all this started.
“Did Sean ever compare you to other women?” I asked. Her wince was answer enough. Fucking asshole, I seriously need to find that joker and smash another fist into his mouth.
“It started when we were just teens. I was just hitting puberty and suddenly I had breasts, and my waist thinnned a bit. Also, there was no denying my arse filled out a pair of trousers. He would tell me that me tits didn’t seem to match my body and when I got older, I should have them enlarged.”
“He said this to you? At like what? Twelve? Thirteen?” I stared at her in disbelief.
She nodded and I used my finger to ask her to continue. I didn’t trust myself to speak at the moment and I didn’t want Camille thinking that any of my anger was directed towards her.
“Sean and his friends would make fun of me arse and he would always tell me that I was eatin’ too much food. He thought I was thick and entirely too soft in the middle. He told me that in the film industry beauty is important and ugly people were only hired as extras in horror films. I guess at the time, I was so in love with him or thought I was, that I just blindly believed everything he said,” her gaze met mine and she gave me a sheepish smile.
“He’s an idiot! His friends are idiots and he was wrong to ever make you feel like you were less than perfect just the way you are,” I told her taking her cold hand in mine. I started rubbing small circles on the back of her hand and I smiled when her breath hitched a little.
“I guess it kind of made me insecure because the lads always teased me because my real Da lived in America. Even though Jack’s parents were from Dublin, the kids didn’t consider him a true Irishman because he wasn’t born here, so by extension they didn’t consider me full Irish either. No one actually knew that Walt wasn’t me real Da until Ma confided in Sean’s mother, Briona. Once the news spread that me real father was an American I was teased incessantly. Even Sean’s Ma, seemed to distance herself from me. She used to hug me everytime I saw her and then suddenly she didn’t hug me anymore. She even stopped talking to me Ma for a bit, it wasn’t until Sean started showing interest in me again that that they started spending time together. My mother tried to make excuses and tell me it was because Briona was busy taking care of her own Ma, but I knew. I used to hear me Ma complaining to Walt at night in the kitchen when they thought I was sleeping,” she paused and looked at me.
“Did I mention that you grew up surrounded by idiots? Kids can be cruel and they often make fun of whatever is different. But the adults? There is no excuse for that kind of stupidity,” I told her unable to hide the anger in my voice. She pulled back stunned by my feral tone.
I quickly grabbed her hands and pulled her into a tight hug, “Nope, you don’t get to do that! You don’t get to feel responsible for my feelings. Camille, you shouldn’t have to feel responsible for anyone’s feelings but your own,” I told her. When she pulled away, I reluctantly let her go. She leaned against the railing and smiled at me.
“Right about then was when Walt started treating me differently, everything seemed fine up until people found out that Walt wasn’t me biological father. I think the fact that he couldn’t have a child of his own embarrassed him so much, that when me Ma agreed to marry him and let him raise me I think he saw it as a way to save face. I think he resented me for that being taken from him. It was long before he started to treat me differently. It was small things at first, little things like nitpicking at whatever I was wearing, or getting on me about my grades. We used to go to town every Sunday after church and have lunch but he stopped taking me and Ma. That’s when I tried to go with him to work, I thought if I was interested in what he was interested in that I could get back some of the affection that I had somehow lost. When I went to the University, I told him I wanted to study design and architecture, but he told me I needed to go into teaching because I couldn’t expect to get married anytime soon. I took that to mean that no one would want the bastard child of an American, who ran some bar in Las Vegas. Even when I knew that Walt was using my design changes to sell jobs to his customers, I went along with it because I felt guilty that I had somehow disappointed him,” she looked at me as if she was waiting to see if I wanted her to continue.
“Oh honey, you can’t stop now!” I teased trying to lighten up the heavy air around us.
“Well, as you know, a few years back Finn showed up with his mother from Wales. Walt was through the moon. In a matter of months he was spending time with them at a flat he got for them in town and was hardly ever home. When he was home, he and Ma would fight terribly and he would tell her how old and worn, she had started to look. When he finally was able to divorce me Ma on a technicality, he immediately moved in full time with Finn and his Ma, Diana.”
We sat quiet for a moment, neither of us sure of what to say. I was finally starting to see where Camille’s hesitation came from. She had a tough exterior to hide the softer on. The only time you can’t keep up a false front is when you’re in the throes of passion. When you’re kissing, touching, and feeling, you can’t focus on making sure no one sees the real you. Camille wasn’t uncomfortable with sex, she was uncomfortable with the idea of being vulnerable and then rejected.
“Tell me about Sean,” I told her, hoping to pull her out of the emotional abyss that talking about Walt seemed to sink her into.
Her eyes sparked with anger and she raised her chin definitely. That a girl! There’s my hell cat!
“Sean is a shitty article altogether from the seventh layer of hell! I let him pick at me for years. I let him decide what I was worth, I supported him while he lived in town. I had a job with Walt, went to the University and stayed up all night going over his lines for his auditions with him. The truth was Sean never loved me, he can’t see past his own ego. And I should have known that me best mate, Tara, was shaggin’ him. She had never been as good a friend to me as I had been to her. I guess I was so grateful that someone that beautiful and popular wanted to be my friend that I ignored all the warnings, especially from Keela,” she smiled. It was the first real smile I had seen since we had started this conversation.
“I take it Keela’s not a fan of Tara or Sean?” I asked already guessing the answer.
Camille laughed and I swear nothing had ever sounded as beautfiul as the way her laughter filled my head.
“Keela hates both Tara and Sean with a passion, she does! She thinks they both deserve each other and whenever either Tara or Sean are in town, she always m
akes sure they know how much she despises them.”
“I take it she uses the talent that most Irish seem to have, for delivering crude insults?” I teased again. I liked seeing her smile and right now I’d walk on my hands backward, if she would just keep grinning at me like that.
“Aye, Yank, we Irish do know how to cast about a good insult now and again,” she said in a thick, exggerated Irish accent that made me laugh.
“So, now that we know why you don’t feel comfortable and why you pull away from getting close, I need to ask you some questions and I just need straight honest answers,” I told her in a tone that told her I was absolutely serious. I didn’t want her to think for one second that I took her feelings lightly.
She nodded and for the first time her blue eyes showed trust. somehow during our conversation she had started to trust me and I would be damned if I fucked that up. It felt good, really good. I was getting close to a woman and I wasn’t looking for the door or trying to get some sexual response out of her.
“Okay, what exactly have you done, sex wise? Kissing, touching, heavy petting, oral, I need to know it all.” I held my breath when her eyes got as wide as saucers. For a moment I thought she was going to bolt but then she cocked her head to the side and regarded me thoughtfully. I saw the second her decision was made, and I knew Camille was brave enough to see this through.
“Sean tried intiating kissing a lot. He told me I was really bad at it and I suppose I was, but I felt like he was gagging me when he would stick his tongue down my throat. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I would start to panic and push him away. After a while he stopped trying. The idea of failing at giving him a blow job practically gave me hives. You can imagine if his tongue made me feel like I couldn’t breathe, just think of what the idea of his cock down me throat, did to me! So when he was feeling randy, I would give him a hand job until he came and then he would go to sleep. There were a few times he came to me apartment plastered and tried to fondle me. He squeezed me breasts so hard it hurt. I tried to reason with him but he was drunk and not listening. He shoved his finger up inside me. It hurt so much I made him stop,” she stopped for a moment and looked at me. I gave her an encouraging smile and tamped down the rage I was feeling rise in me.
Lucky Charms: A Hudson Family Series- Book 3- Dalton and Cami Page 18
