by Taylor Love
Both of his parents had life insurance through their work, which he mostly left alone and let the interest build. They had also started a college fund for him when he was born, and it had a modest ninety thousand dollars in it. He’d had more than enough to support himself that first year in the cheaper state of North Carolina and go to college. It helped that he obtained scholarships as well. In his sophomore year at Duke, he’d made the hard decision to sell his childhood home, as upkeep while being in a different state was too difficult. The money from the sale of the house, plus the insurance, enabled him to get both degrees debt-free, buy his house free and clear, and have a decent cushion while he built his own consulting business. Though his parents had not been present, they’d left him enough tools to build a good life.
Not all of his experience with extended family had been negative. His father’s family in North Carolina had welcomed him with open arms. Of course, he’d visited them almost every summer when the family had taken a vacation, but this was different. He grew close to his cousins, and their parents while he was down there. In fact, he’d lived with his family while getting his undergraduate degree to save money. He was also able to forge a bond with his grandfather for a few years before he passed. That had allowed him to see where his father got a lot of his personality from. Living there for six years had taught him what family could be. Now, he had finally found someone he could envision having his own family with. He just had to make her share his vision.
Andrea slowly made her way to Camden’s place after work. Though it wasn’t snowing now, it had snowed a couple of inches yesterday, and there had been flurries earlier too, which made the roads slick and messy. She mentally swatted away her irritation. This was winter in Michigan after all. Glancing at the time on her dash she figured she would still make it by six. His place was really only about fifteen minutes from her office. She’d given herself a full thirty, due to it being rush hour on top of the bad weather. Cam had told her to show up hungry and for the first time he’d had a clothing request.
Today had been her office’s annual ugly sweater party. In the three years she’d worked there, she had never participated. However she wasn’t trying to wear an ugly sweater for her job this year either, particularly since she was seeing Cam after. Instead, she compromised. She wore jeans like Camden suggested, and a long, semi-sparkly purple sweater, with a matching sparkly scarf. That was as close to a holiday sweater as she got.
She’d told him that he didn’t have to cook her a payback dinner, but he’d insisted. He was still working heavily on his current project, with the goal of completion in the next two weeks. She hadn’t argued with him, as she’d found he could be stubborn about certain subjects. Besides, who was she to turn down a home-cooked meal? She knew he could cook pretty well and after this hectic week, she’d be happy with whatever he put in front of her. She was just glad that it was the weekend, and she was ready to relax. Something she seemed to do easily enough when around Camden.
When she pulled into his drive, she let out a delighted laugh. He hadn’t told her he would be decorating for the holidays. She rarely did. A wreath on her door or a festive sign in her window was the norm for her. She didn’t see the point in anything more. But as she looked at his classic green and red Christmas lights and his lighted plastic Santa in the yard, she was suddenly feeling the holiday spirit. She was still smiling when Camden opened the door and swept her inside.
“You made it, got a little worried. You know fools act like they’ve never driven in snow before.”
“Tell me about it. It wasn’t so bad, I guess. What’s with the lights? I don’t know why, but it never occurred to me that you would be the type to decorate.”
“You have something against Christmas lights?”
“Actually, I love yours, they just surprised me. Soon as I hit the corner, they were, bam right there!”
“Good, they make a statement. Come on in. I hope you’re hungry.”
“I am! This better be good. I skipped lunch in anticipation of your feast.”
“Well that’s putting pressure on me. Can’t have you disappointed, now can I?”
Dinner was delicious and worth the wait. He’d made one of her favorite dishes, chicken marsala. He’d paired it with garlic parmesan noodles, long green beans, and garden salad. When he brought out his Bailey’s pound cake with ice cream for dessert, her eyes got big.
“Hope you don’t mind. It’s literally the only dessert I know how to make.”
“Not at all. I loved it at Thanksgiving! I meant to ask you for the recipe.” Andrea was already digging into hers.
“No can do. It’s a family recipe. My Mom was a good cook, but a horrible baker. My Dad taught her how to make his favorite dessert, and then she taught me how to make it when I was sixteen.”
At the hint of sadness in his voice, that she heard whenever he spoke about his parents, she reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Well, it’s delicious. I’m sure they’d both be glad you’re keeping the tradition alive.” When he gave her a small, sad smile, she decided to change the subject. “So, why did you want me to wear jeans tonight? The way you just stuffed me with all this food is making them real tight.”
Now, a spark of merriment entered his eyes. “No worries. After you finish your cake, we’re about to go work it off.”
Around another bite, she asked, “What?”
“Don’t worry about it. The sooner you finish, the sooner we can go.”
She gave him a side-eye, but focused on the rest of her cake. She never outwardly encouraged his need to surprise her, but secretly she hadn’t been disappointed yet! She finished up as he cleared the table. When they were both ready and she joined him by the door, he still refused to tell her where they were going. As he helped her into the car, she asked, “You’re not going to blindfold me or something?”
“No, but if I ever did, I bet you’d like it. Trust me.”
“Mmm-hmm.” She let it go, but couldn’t help the mental image of being naked and blindfolded that popped in her head. However, he didn’t even ask her to close her eyes as they headed downtown. He parked in a lot near Campus Martius Park and they got out to walk to what she hoped was a close destination.
“Okay, now tell me where we’re going in this cold.” It was nearing 9:00 pm, and was only about twenty-five degrees out.
“We’re going ice skating.”
“Seriously? Can you skate? I’ve never been.”
“Nope, not a lick.”
Andrea laughed incredulously. “So, neither of us knows what we’re doing?”
“Exactly. A new experience we get to do together.” He smiled and gave her cold lips a quick peck.
They reached the rink not long after and as he paid for their entrance fee and skates, she looked around. Behind one end of the rink stood the sixty-foot Norwegian Spruce Christmas tree that was a staple of downtown. She’d read an article last month when the tree lighting ceremony took place, that it was wrapped in more than nineteen-thousand multi-colored lights and ornaments. The enormous tree was breathtaking up close. That light, fun feeling she’d felt upon seeing his house lights were tripled when she looked at the tree.
“Here you go.” He handed her a pair of skates. “Give the man your shoes.”
She came out of her musings to give Cam a smile before complying. They sat on a nearby bench and laced up. “Just so you know, I’ll be blaming you for every fall.”
“You can roller-skate, right?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty decent at that.”
“I heard it’s the same.”
“You heard, you don’t know. I’m still blaming you each time my ass meets the ice,” she said good-naturedly.
He helped her stand up and pulled her against his chest, crossing his arms behind her back to cop a feel of the body part she was taking about. “I have zero problem taking care of that ass.” He gave her a squeeze and she actually giggled. “I mean, your ass is in capable hands.”
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br /> He went to give her another squeeze, but she pushed away from him, almost landing on her aforementioned behind. As she righted herself and carefully turned forward, she looked at him over her shoulder. “Try to keep up, Camden.” With that she made her first few hesitant steps forward onto the smooth ice.
Luckily, it wasn’t overly crowded, although there were enough people for her not to feel as if all eyes were on her. Camden was quickly by her side and they made a slow lap around the open rink. By the second go-round, she was getting the hang of it. While it didn’t feel as natural as roller-skating did, she was pleased to find that overall, staying upright wasn’t an issue. Annoyingly, Camden seemed to get the hang of it, far quicker than she had. He was already making bigger movements over the ice.
By their fourth go-round, he grabbed her by the arm in spite of the squeal she let out and they began to hesitantly skate in tandem. Soon, she relaxed against his arm as they went around and around, just enjoying the atmosphere. Though the night was cold, it was clear and they could see the stars up above. The lighted tree gave off colors that reflected on the ice. So it seemed as if they skated on a kaleidoscope of colors.
She was thinking about how beautiful it was when Camden switched it up and started skating backwards in front of her. “You just have to try and be fancy, huh?”
“That’s not it. I just want to look into your eyes.”
“You think you are such a charmer, don’t you? You’re the one with the amazing eyes and you know it.”
Cam smiled, pleased that his idea had turned out so well. She had not made one objection to their outing and had jumped in with both feet, literally. “You just don’t realize the power your eyes have. Keep looking at me with them and I’ll be falling for you in no time.”
Andrea grinned. “You gone fall all right, but not because of my eyes.”
He went to reply, but at that very moment, a kid of about eight zoomed a little too close behind him, throwing off his balance. Andrea gave him credit, he quickly released her, so she wouldn’t go down with him. He hit the ice on his ass, followed by a small slide. She gave herself credit for not laughing at him as he scowled in the direction of the child.
“Sorry!” his assailant called out as he continued in the other direction.
She was smirking as she reached down to help him up.
“How is this fair?” Cam complained. “Who was looking out for my ass?”
“It didn’t look like you fell that hard.”
“Whatever…I think you should kiss it and make it better.” He grinned lecherously at her.
“How about this instead?” She put her arms around his neck and stretched up to give him what was supposed to be a quick kiss, but his arms locked tight and the kiss ignited like two dry twigs. Just like that, the sights and sounds faded around them until it was just the two of them. She had no idea how long they stood there, almost in the middle of the rink, in each other’s arms.
“Don’t forget there are kids out here. Knock it off,” a passerby commented.
The message must have penetrated at least one of their brains and they parted ways to watch their breath puff out in the air. Finally, she looked up at him and asked, “Did that make it feel better?”
“It definitely did.” He didn’t tell her while the ache in his behind had faded, now another of his body parts was throbbing. He tucked a few escaped coils of hair back into her hood before taking her arm again and setting off.
They were quiet as they started going around again, even so Andrea’s heartbeat wasn’t quite back to normal. She had never been the type to like PDAs, and luckily neither had her partners…that is until she’d met Camden. He was always touching her, no matter where they were. He made it seem so natural and uncontrived that she’d become comfortable with it. She glanced around at the crowd, filled with couples, families and groups of friends having fun, laughing and enjoying the night, just as she was.
She thought over the entire night and sighed happily. Camden was so good to her. First, the wonderful dinner and then the surprise activity. What had he said? Something new for them to experience together. He was always creating “firsts” just for the two of them. Going out of his way to do something sweet or thoughtful. She bet so many women complained about their man never planning an outing, while she never had to worry about that with Cam…wait a minute, was she thinking of him as her man? At this moment, the actuality didn’t really matter. What she realized was that she wanted him to be her man. He was hers for the taking, so what the hell was she waiting on?
She really liked Camden. He helped her have fun and made her happy. She could fall for him. She looked up at the clear sky full of winter stars and finally admitted, at least to her own mind, that she already had. He had given her another perfect date night, and what had she given him? As they approached the spot where they first got onto the ice, Andrea slowed them down and steered them to the very edge. When Camden looked down at her in confusion, she smiled confidently up at him.
“Take me home.” It was time she claimed her man.
Chapter Seventeen
Cam didn’t ask questions as they turned their skates in and headed back to the car, though his mind was racing with plenty of them. Did home mean his house? Or did it mean she was about to go back to hers? After that steaming kiss on the ice, he hadn’t been thinking clearly since. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining what her smile implied, or not. She kept up light conversation about their time at the rink and he pretended to be engaged, when in reality, he was still trying to figure out what home meant. If she meant his home did that mean she intended to finish what they’d started in front of a crowd of people? His dick seemed to think they were headed to the bedroom, and he tried to temper its expectations. He didn’t have a lot of time to contemplate however, as it didn’t take that long to reach the house.
When they arrived, he pulled directly in the drive, as she’d moved her car to the curb before they left. He got out and came around, opening her door. He figured he might as well play it safe. Just like he’d told his dick, nothing was guaranteed at this point.
“I hope you had fun tonight.”
“I did! The whole night was wonderful. Thank you for the unique outing. We should do it again.”
“My pleasure. You should get out of this cold.” There, he’d left it in her hands to do what she would. If it was up to him, they’d be getting warm using skin-to-skin contact.
She reached out and grabbed his gloved hand. “I’m going inside Cam.”
Cam…she called him Cam…she was going inside. These were good things. These thoughts jumbled his mind as they entered the house. It was downright embarrassing how nervous she made him. This woman had already been in his bed, yet here he was, as hesitant and horny as a teenager. Then again, Andrea made him feel things no other woman had, which was why she was so dangerous.
Inside, they both wiped off their feet and took off their winter footwear and gear. As he hung up their coats, she tossed her small purse aside carelessly. Andrea was excited to take this next step with him, and was confident in her decision. When he moved to stand beside her, but didn’t touch her, her smile dimmed. She hated that the usually assured Camden was so hesitant about their physical relationship now. Then again, he had stated she would need to be blunt for them to be intimate again.
“Do you want anything or-”
She quickly cut him off by placing a finger over his lips. “Just you Cam.”
“Are you sure?”
She looked him square in the eyes and placed her palms on his chest. “I’m positive. I can’t wait to show you just how sure I am, when we get upstairs.”
Finally, she saw a flash of unrestrained desire light up his eyes and curve his full lips. Leaning up, she nipped his chin before hurriedly stepping back and running for the stairs.
“Hurry up Mr. Holden, I think we’ve both waited long enough.” She only made it to the third step before Cam was there, wrapping his hands around her stomac
h and pressing his lips to the back of her neck. They stumbled up to his bedroom, amid groping hands and kisses.
Cam turned up the lights a bit and pulled her further in the room, shutting the door. Now that he’d gotten the green light, his body was ready to go! But he was enjoying her playful manner, and didn’t want to rush their first time together in months. He mentally told his body to settle down before grabbing the scarf around her neck and slowly pulling her towards him.
When she was close enough, he leaned down and gave her a slow, deep kiss, until he felt her go soft in his arms. Instead of backing off, he turned the kiss more aggressive as he let his hands roam down to her waist. He reached the end of her sweater and started pushing it up. He felt her shiver at the first contact, of his fingers on her skin. He ran his fingers lightly up and down her spine, smiling against her mouth, as her legs gave way.
To keep her standing, he sent one hand down to her rump, as his other continued its upward journey to the back of her bra. He managed to unhook it with one hand. When it snapped open, Andrea reared back to catch her breath. He noticed her eyes were starting to glaze over, but not nearly enough. It was time to get skin-to-skin. He pulled the sweater up over her body, then quickly reached to remove his own. By the time his head cleared the collar, he was able to watch her bra fall to the floor.
When he stepped close again, it was Andrea’s turn to get her hands on him. His warmth tingled her fingertips, as she gripped his back, their mouths attacking each other. When she felt his hands cover her breasts she moaned, then groaned as he started to roll her nipples between his fingers. God, how her body craved his touch! She started grinding her lower body against his and heard his low chuckle.
