by Bijou Hunter
Camden glances around as if looking for help. I watch him and wait. Despite our food getting cold, I want to push him and see what hides underneath his cool exterior.
“You were my baby mama with one guy. I said you were a thief to another. A third might have heard you're a dude.”
Sinking deep in the booth, I can’t believe someone would think I was a man.
“I hate you,” I mutter.
“Don’t be like that. None of those guys were worth your time. You deserve a strong man with great teeth and his own place. Someone who brings flowers and takes you out to eat and convinces you to dance. Yeah, that kind of guy sounds great.”
Camden grins, obviously quite satisfied with his efforts. I shake my head and try to get angry, but I hadn’t wanted to date any of those guys. It still hurt getting stood up by so many of them. What kind of loser was I if a loser didn’t want to date me?
Now I know the losers did want to date me. Not that my life is suddenly better from having this knowledge, but my confidence definitely enjoys a shot of adrenaline.
“Why me?” I ask after too much time in my head.
Camden is halfway through his ribs when I speak up. “Oh, you’re still talking to me? I wasn’t sure since you were just sitting there.”
“I’m a dreamer. I like being in my head. I told you that information less than ten minutes ago. You might have great teeth, but your listening skills need work.”
Camden slides even closer. “I waited for you. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
Fighting a smile, I shrug. “I guess. I mean, how hard could it be to wait for a few months?”
“So hard that I needed medical attention on several occasions.”
“Why?”
“Oh, Bourbon Babe, are you so clueless about sex that you have to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Wanked the dong too often.”
“Eww,” I say, laughing despite all the maturity in the world.
“Don’t tell me you never masturbate.”
“Not with a vibrator.”
“Shit. Say that again but slower.” When I only stare at him, he adds, “It’s been a long few months.”
“I use my hand like you, but I’ve never injured myself. You must be weird or doing it wrong or probably weird.”
Camden’s gaze drinks me in, and I feel like the sexiest woman alive. “You could teach me a better way. I’m all about learning.”
“I’ll be horrible at sex. I just know it.”
“I thought the same thing when I was young but turned out I was a natural. I bet you are too.”
“You’re mocking me.”
“Teasing you is all. Don’t be sensitive.”
“I’m always sensitive.”
“Always?”
“Every waking moment.”
“I like that. I’m never sensitive, so you always being sensitive would make us a good match.”
“Is there anything I could say to scare you off like you scared off those guys?”
“Shit, I doubt learning you were sporting a dick would be enough to scare me off at this point.”
Laughing, I scoot closer to him, and our hips touch. “I’m feeling brave. Won’t last so don’t get too attached.”
Camden shares my smile. “You’re a fantasy come alive.”
“I could say the same about it.”
“That night at the party, you claim you were doing an impression of your sister. Does that mean you weren’t speaking French? I don’t know if I’d be able to tell either way.”
“No, it was French.”
Camden studies me intensely, and I can literally feel his temperature rising. “That was sexy as hell, and I don’t know or like shit about France. I just know you sounded like music when you spoke in French while I kissed your neck. Do you remember that?”
“Yes.”
“Can you say something in French now?”
I look into his mahogany eyes and shiver at the warmth in them. Cupping his jaw, I wish he understood how we can live in the same town yet exist in different worlds.
“You’re effortlessly beautiful,” I murmur in French, and his smile grows. “No doubt, you wake up gorgeous. You’re flawless even when you fail. You’re brutally perfect even when you act like an idiot. How can I ever feel worthy of a man as bright and power as the sun?”
Camden doesn’t understand my words, but he seems to sense the meaning behind them. His lips press gently against mine. He wants me to understand he feels my pain. When the kiss deepens, his hunger remains apparent. Despite my pain and fear, Camden gets what he wants, and he won’t let anyone, including me, stand in his way.
Nine - Camden
Ditching the club meeting early puts me in a world of trouble. I feel like a fucking asshole walking out when my father orders me to sit back down. Despite my oath to the club, I can’t stand up Daisy. She’s too damn sensitive for me to blow off. Especially after I convinced so many other men to walk away.
The look on her face when I arrive tells me she was minutes away from storming back to her trailer and calling me an asshole forever. Once she accepts I’m really in front of her, something staggeringly sexy clicks in her eyes. I’m back in her good graces, and she isn’t only playing along as she was the night before. She’s totally with me on this date, and I’ve got a real shot at fixing what I broke months ago.
Now we’re at the restaurant, coming down from my admitting I’ve meddled in her romances. I feel no shame in lying to those guys. I’d have threatened them if I didn’t think they’d end up whining to her. With the lies, they wanted away from Daisy rather than finding a way to weasel past me.
I might have forgotten to mention how I’d scared off men before Hannah’s party. I’ve had my eye on Daisy for a while. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Besides, she’s calmed down enough to dig into the fattening food. Her expression is nearly orgasmic when she tries the mashed potatoes.
“That’s my Bourbon Babe.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
“Your middle name is Bourbon, and you’re a babe. I thought that was obvious.”
Smiling sweetly, Daisy is in a relaxed mood despite our earlier bitchiness. “I’m giving you a nickname then. I was thinking Cheesestick, but that’s too obvious.”
Daisy remains silent while eating her food, and I know she’s struggling to pick a name that’ll bug me. I don’t care if she calls me pussy willow. Watching her eat the mashed potatoes is worth whatever teasing she attempts.
“I can’t think of one.”
“My mom calls me Cami. Dayton calls me BO. As you can see, I’m used to less than manly nicknames.”
“Everyone calls me Daisy.”
“I’m not everyone,” I say, winking at her. “I never have been, and I don’t see the point in starting now.”
“What’s it like to be different from everyone else?”
“It’s fucking fantastic.” Daisy nearly laughs at my statement, but I don’t think she can see me past the food on her plate. “When was the last time you got naughty with your food choices?”
“Naughty?”
“You look guilty.”
“Well, it’s super fattening.”
“But it’s good, right?”
“It’s fucking fantastic.”
We share a smile before she returns to eating. I find her sexier with every bite. She’s embracing a bad choice, and I want her to dive headfirst into a relationship with me. I might be a handsome guy with cash in his pocket, but I come with a minefield of problems a good woman won’t want to step in. If Daisy’s going to give into the idea of us, I need her to find me as irresistible as those mashed potatoes.
“I miss carbs,” she says, leaning back and patting her stomach.
“Before that night, you ate like a normal person, right?”
“Normal person?”
“Like your sisters, I guess.”
“Yeah,” she says, looking edgy.
&n
bsp; “And you stopped because of Brittany Sams’s rumor?”
Daisy opens her mouth to correct me on how the rumor started, but she changes her mind and only nods.
“Now we’re starting over so that rumor never happened. I assume that means you can enjoy carbs again.”
“Do you not like the way I look now?” she asks, crossing her arms in the classic pissed girl stance.
“I already said you’re gorgeous now, and you were gorgeous the night of the party. No way will you get me to say otherwise.”
Daisy startles me with her sudden grin. “You look afraid.”
“I want things to be solid between us.”
“I’m here pigging out on potatoes and thinking about what you taste like. I’d say things were solid.”
My lips are instantly on hers, and she laughs until I steal her breath. I like the way she moans and leans into my embrace. No longer playing shy, Daisy’s in it to win it.
A loud laugh at a nearby table startles us apart, and Daisy glances around as if suddenly remembering we’re in public.
“You make me…” she trails off rather than finishing.
“Yeah, you make me too.”
Daisy studies my face. “Does nothing really scare you?”
“Not a damn thing,” I say, though I was pretty scared about ruining our date and I’m not really looking forward to the beat down I have coming later.
Daisy’s smile widens. “Everything scares me.”
“No, I don’t think so. You didn’t seem scared standing at the bus stop with those guys nearby. You didn’t seem scared the night at the party. You didn’t even seem scared when you thought I stood you up. I don’t think you’re nearly as scared as you are stuck on what others do. Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean you’re a chickenshit. A lot of people like the idea of traveling but don’t want to travel. They’re not scared, and I don’t think you are either.”
Daisy considers my words. “I am scared of looking stupid or failing.”
“That I believe.”
“I’m not scared of you, but I’m scared of your opinion of me. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, but my opinion is all happiness and joy, babe.”
“I’m sorry for all this talk about feelings and fears. Lame date chatter, I know.”
“It’s all good. You’ve spent months thinking I’m an asshole when in reality I’m the nicest guy in the world.”
Daisy shakes her head. “None of the women in my family have great luck with men. Mom had three kids with three men. Harmony has odd taste in guys. Of course, Ruby was screwed by Bonn. It’s made me overly jaded when I should be only regular jaded.”
Hearing Bonn’s name makes me tense. I know his history with Ruby and why Daisy thinks he’s a jerk. It all makes sense in my head, but I still open my mouth and start shit.
“Bonn is a good guy.”
“If you say so,” she immediately replies, and her body goes stiff next to mine.
“Bonn loves his kid.”
“I never said he didn’t.”
“A lot of women think a man who’s bad at relationships can’t be a good father.”
“I’m not a lot of women. I’m me, and I never said that.”
“But you hold a grudge against him.”
“Not because I think he isn’t a great father.”
Feeling grumpy, I think of how many nights Bonn and I sat on the roof of our condo complex. He never got over Ruby, but he’s still a bad guy in too many eyes. “It was a long time ago.”
“He broke Ruby’s heart. I know a lot of women can get over that, but Ruby isn’t a lot of women either. She loved and trusted him.”
Rather than change the subject, I double down. “He was a young guy with a lot of pressure on him, and he made a mistake.”
Daisy doesn’t back down either. “Ruby was a young woman and pregnant with his kid. She couldn’t walk away from the pressure. If he didn’t want her, he could have ended things. Yes, she would have been upset, but she would have eventually understood. Instead, he said he loved her and then fucked someone else. So, no offense, but who gives a shit about Bonn’s pressure bullshit.”
“He’s always had it hard being on the outside.”
“Ruby was good to him. She didn’t put him on the outside.”
“She got pregnant when they were barely out of high school.”
“His dick got her pregnant.”
“She said she was on the pill.”
“She was.”
Waving my hand dismissively, I resent how she won’t give into me like most people do. “He was overwhelmed.”
“So was she.”
“Well, he did his best, and he fucked up, and she should get over it.”
“You should fucking get over it,” Daisy says, standing up and grabbing her purse. “I’m going home.”
“You’re losing your shit because I won’t agree that Bonn is an asshole?”
“I never said he was. I said he broke my sister’s heart, and she shouldn’t have to get over that.”
“They share a kid, so she should be smarter about shit.”
“You mean, smart like when he fucked some chick and then came home to Ruby? What if he caught some disease and gave it to her and Chevelle? Ugh, forget it. I’m leaving.”
I watch Daisy hurry out of the restaurant. A part of me considers letting her work out her anger a little before I follow, but she looks so damn sexy stomping out of the front door.
Daisy is already on the phone with Harmony when I reach over her shoulder and snag the cell.
“Hey, little sister, things are fine,” I tell Harmony. “Camden will bring me home later. Don’t wait up. Thanks, babe.”
“What the hell?” Daisy cries, reaching for her phone after I hang up.
“You sure like to run away when shit ain’t going your way.”
Daisy glares ferociously at me, but I only smile. She’s a fucking Amazon princess in her delicate little way, and it’s making my cock rock hard.
“Look, you’ve got your sister’s back. I like that you’re loyal. I’m loyal too. Bonn is my friend, and he’s family. I don’t care if he’s wrong or right. I only know if someone talks shit about him then I’m going to defend him.”
“Well, I’m going to defend my sister,” she says and then adds quietly, “especially when she’s right.”
“I know you don’t like me taking his side, but you should appreciate how I’m loyal. That’s a good quality, right?”
Getting my point, she grudgingly smiles. “Yeah, it’s a great quality. Maybe you should teach Bonn about it.”
“His dick has remained solidly in his pants all of these years. That’s a long time for a man. In fact, I read somewhere it’s medically dangerous to go that long without sex.”
“You read that, huh?” she asks and laughs. “Where?”
“Some porn site, I think.”
We both laugh, and I step closer and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “It’s dangerous for a man’s heart not to have sex regularly. I think it’s bad for his dick too, but I didn’t read that far.”
“I love my sister,” she says, relaxing in my embrace. “I saw how Bonn hurt her.”
“Yeah, and I saw how Bonn reacted to losing her. It might be his fault, but I gotta take my man’s side. It’s just who I am.”
“And this is who I am.”
“I like who you are.”
Daisy smiles up at me. “I’m a fan of who you are too.”
“So let’s go back inside and not talk about broken hearts,” I say, nudging her toward the front door. “They have great apple pie, and I need a whole lot of sugar since I’m going home without getting laid again.”
“What makes you think you won’t get lucky tonight?” she asks, walking with me to our booth. “Is it because I lost my shit and ran away?”
“No, I want to take this slowly to show you that my interest isn’t residual horniness from that night.”
&n
bsp; “But you are horny from that night. I am too. It was a hot night.”
Sliding in next to her, I quickly kiss her. “Yes, it was, but I’m not a horny guy looking to scratch an itch. I dig this thing between us so stop running away especially after I just ate and my food is still settling. You don’t want me cramping up.”
Daisy pats my stomach and smiles for me. Soon, our pie arrives, and we dig in. Well, I eat most of it while she watches and talks about her favorite foods. They’re all fattening shit I love. Her eyes light up when she describes her beloved burgers, making me especially hard. From now on, I decide to wear boxers on our dates.
Surviving climbing on and off the Harley without injuring herself, Daisy beams at me as we walk to her trailer. I’m on guard for her mom or sisters. We arrive without anyone showing up, but I feel the entire trailer park spying on us.
“Tomorrow, I’ll come here for dinner,” I say, wrapping her against me. “You can cook anything you want.” Seeing Daisy’s eyes widen in panic, I add, “Never mind. I’ll surprise you with takeout at seven. I want to meet your cats and see where you hang out. We’ll fool around on your couch, and I’ll leave with a raging hard on, and you’ll be rightfully impressed with my self-control.”
Daisy smiles so widely I bet her face will hurt later. “You have it all planned out.”
“Every night since the party, I’ve been planning for this day, Bourbon Babe. You just relax and let me do the thinking.”
Kissing her, I want to swallow this sexy chick whole. She tastes like barbecue and a hint of apple pie. I know I could carry her into the trailer, and she wouldn’t refuse me. We’re both curious as hell to see where our kissing could lead, but I grudgingly step back.
“Tomorrow at seven,” I say and take another backward step. “Now you better run and tell Harmony all the details of our big date. I’m sure she’s curious.”
Daisy gestures to the nearby trailer where her sisters stare at us from the window. I wave at them, and they wave back. Nothing at all awkward about having an audience.
I leave Daisy, who watches me walk away. Before I disappear into the parking lot, I glance back and find her still smiling at me. She looks irresistible, and I know my impressive self-control won’t hold out for too much longer.
Firing up the Harley, I finally check my phone and see a long list of furious messages from Dad and Dayton. I text them to say I can meet them now and instantly receive a message from my brother telling where to meet them. Retribution is coming, but with Daisy’s flavor on my lips, the punishment will be worth it.
