In Too Deep: A Romantic Suspense Novel

by Landish, Lauren

  "So you're that serious about him, huh?" Jay asked, turning the conversation back to Cam. "That must have been one hell of a two-week vacation."

  "Week, actually. There were a few days on each end he was on the island by himself," I corrected him, "but yes, it was. Magical, if you can believe in that."

  "I don't, but there's a couple of Indians around the area who'd take that word more seriously. Either way Miss Browder, you can see why I have a conundrum. In the classical business sense, you're overqualified for anything I have open. The best I have is a part time register job that might lead to a pharmacy position later on if one of my current crew decides to leave. I'll be honest, though, the earliest might be a year or more, there's one girl who's got a boyfriend in the Marine Corps. She says that once he's through his training and then gets a permanent posting she's going to move to wherever he is, but I've seen too many relationships like that through the years in this town."

  "Lima had it's fair share too," I replied. "Half caused by the person in the military, the other half by the person left at home. Someone can't quite keep it in their pants any longer, and stuff happens. I'll be honest with you Mr. Winters, I would have been surprised if you'd said you had anything, all things being considered. You don't know me, I'm not answering a help wanted ad, and I'm new in a small town. I’m grateful that you’re willing to even have me part-time."

  Winters nodded. “I can make a few calls on your behalf. Let me ask you, how fired up are you about staying in the pharmacy game?"

  "Well, I'd like to stay in the medical field area, but that's just because I can talk the language. Management is fine, but field experience is helpful."

  "Okay. They might have a slot up at the hospital, maybe something better for you pay wise if that's important. I'll warn you though, a lot of folks don't like working there. This part of the country's got a hell of a problem with meth. Breaking Bad only made it seem more glamorous, but the hospital's the place they drag those OD'd screwups. You add that in with the alcoholism, and it's not a great place to work. But do you want me to give them a call?”

  I nodded in appreciation. "While your offer is great, of course, full time is better. If you can make those calls or even just give me the numbers, I'd appreciate it."

  Jay nodded. "Okay. Give me until the end of the week, and if I don't give you a call, come on back in Friday right about this time. That should give you some time to get settled in around T or C."

  I smiled in relief. "Thank you, Mr. Winters."

  "It's Jay. You mind if I call you Melina?"

  I shook my head. "Not at all. Thanks again."

  I stood up to leave and shook Jay's hand before going to the door. As I opened it, Jay spoke up again. "Oh, and Melina?"

  "Yes?"

  Jay set his elbows on his desk and folded his hands in front of him. "I know this is just part of the rumor mill, but keep your eyes open. The past year or so, strange stuff keeps happening around town, most of it somehow having a connection to the High School or Cam. Now, I'm not saying he's involved in anything, he's a good guy for sure, but just weird stuff keeps happening. You'll hear most of the stories as you stay around, but don't freak out. I'd trust Cam with the keys to this place and the registers stuffed full of flu season cash, but he seems to be a magnet for things going wrong.”

  Chapter 14

  Cam

  I got home from school to find Melina grinning and at the same time with a perplexed look on her face. "What is it?"

  Coming to the door, she wrapped me up in a hug and kiss, her tongue soft and gentle against mine. I bumped the door closed and pushed the two of us back into the living room, finding the couch and pulling her down with me. Reaching up, I cupped one of her breasts, thrilled to find that she wasn't wearing a bra under her shirt. “What's this?"

  "I got home an hour ago and couldn't help but think about you," she replied, pushing me back onto the cushions. "So I made sure I was ready to show you exactly what I need."

  I couldn't reply as she straddled my waist and ground her hips down onto me, my cock already filling with blood while she kissed me again. Instead, I pushed her shirt up, caressing the wonderful smooth skin that was as arousing as her kisses. Tugging at the cotton, I was able to get Melina to lean back enough that she could lift her arms over her head, freeing her generous breasts for me to enjoy. Leaving my hands on her back I leaned her backward, feasting upon the soft flesh. I love her nipples, they’re so sensitive that I could feel her flutter beneath me when I sucked the hard nubs into my mouth. Letting go of her back, I pushed her breasts together until her nipples actually touched. Using my lips and tongue, I teased them at the same time, Melina throwing her head back nonsensically as she was overcome at the feeling.

  She’d told me during our time in the resort that she was sensitive around her nipples, but when her fingers dug into my neck and she ground her hips down in the beginnings of an orgasm, I didn't believe it. I licked again, sucking both nipples at the same time and running my tongue between them, her moans growing in intensity until she cried out in a strangled squeak.

  "Wow," I said softly, letting go of her breasts to support her as her arms gave way. Holding her carefully so she could recover, I sat back and watched the woman I love. "You’re so beautiful."

  "And you . . . you've only been home ten minutes and I'm already coming!" she said with a soft laugh. "How am I supposed to survive living with you?"

  "We'll figure that out as we go," I replied, pulling her back in for a light kiss. I rolled to the side and lay her on the cushions, sliding off the couch to kneel between her legs as she squealed in delight.

  I eased her shorts down. She hadn't worn panties either, and the heady aroma of her arousal filled my nose, making my mouth water. I hadn't been lying or just engaging in foreplay talk when I told Melina before we had sex the first time that I loved using my mouth. If I have any fetish at all, it’s that I love using my mouth to bring a woman to the height of pleasure.

  Spreading Melina's knees apart more, I inhaled again deeply, savoring the aroma. Looking up into her beautiful brown eyes, I leaned in, extending my tongue to it's fullest length before swiping it over the wetness of her slit.

  "Oh Cam," Melina sighed, still aroused despite her earlier orgasm. It was just one of the many things I loved about her. She was truly into lovemaking, and her body was so responsive to every touch and caress that I stretched my imagination trying to think of new ways to give her pleasure. This time though I indulged myself, licking up and down her labia and gathering her nectar.

  Darting my tongue deeper, I penetrated her as deep as I could, relishing the deeper, richer flavor within. I dipped my tongue over and over, burying myself in her wonderful wetness. She stroked her fingers through my hair and cried out again and again, each moan and gasp giving me joy.

  "Cam, you're going to make me come again," she groaned as she pushed my head away.

  I licked again, this time finding the bright pink nubbin of her clit and flicking my tongue over it quickly. Kissing and licking, Melina could barely breathe, her mouth dropping open and her eyes rolling back in her head as the sensations overtook her. Groaning deep in her chest Melina thrust up into my tongue, her hips rising on their own as I sucked. With a harsh, cry she came again, and I was full and refreshed. “Who the hell needs dessert when I have you?”

  Grinning, she pushed me back with her cute little foot and scooted back. “My turn.”

  I stood up and started swaying from side to side, doing a corny little striptease for Melina while giving her body time to recover. It didn't do my erection any disservice either, the scent of her was so strong in my mouth and nose that I doubt I could have lost hardness if you'd kicked me in the nuts.

  I turned around, teasing her with just a view of my butt as I pushed my shorts down around my ankles and kicked them off. Melina promptly tapped me in the butt with her foot, and I laughed, stumbling forward comically to overplay the point.

  She turned arou
nd and presented herself to me, leaning over the back of the couch while her ass wiggled at me. Taking her waist in my hands, I rubbed her back some, admiring the view. "Are you ready?"

  "One last time, for both of us," she said, looking over her shoulder with those almond eyes of hers.

  I eased in slowly, savoring the feeling. After licking her to such an intense orgasm I was already on a hair trigger, and knew I wanted to draw this out, to make love and not just have wild monkey sex, as Melina jokingly called it one time on the island. The feeling of her tight muscles wrapping around my cock was indescribable. I was in love with Melina before we'd ever had sex, but this sensation sealed the deal for me. She was a drug, and I was a happy addict.

  I paused for a moment when I was all the way inside her, gathering my focus before pulling back slowly, resisting the urge to rush. Melina's contented sigh told me I was doing the right thing as I pushed forward again, taking a slow, easy pace to my thrusting. I luxuriated in the feeling, timing myself with my breaths. After a minute I listened to her breathing as well, synchronizing everything with hers, so that we inhaled when I pulled back and exhaled as I pushed in. "Oh, I love it this way," Melina groaned. "It's sexual and connective at the same time."

  “Isn't it?" I said, my breath coming just a bit quicker. “I’ve never felt a connection like this before.”

  "I . . . uh . . . I . . .” Melina tried to answer, our words lost as the pleasure increased. My cock thrust faster and faster, but still I didn't go hard. Not yet. Instead of smashing against her backside, I pushed and pulled fast but soft, so that the only sounds in the room were the harsh gasps of our breath, the blood rushing in my ears, and the wet sounds of my cock sliding in and out of her.

  I was in heaven, my balls tightening until I was sure I was going to explode. I listened to Melina's sighs and gasps, and knew I had to hold on just a little bit longer. I started with an old trick, doing times tables in my head while my cock filled her again and again.

  I barely got started when Melina's fingers dug into the back of the couch, and I felt the indescribable pleasure of her clamping down around my cock, her third orgasm sweeping over her. This one was different than the other two. Instead of being hard and explosive, this was long, drawn out, a harmonious wave that built upon itself until I also started to come. My body gave everything to her as I poured my heart, soul, and spirit into her.

  Ironically, after nearly an hour of non-stop lovemaking, neither of us were tired. That last orgasm, instead of being draining, had relaxed and invigorated us, although I knew that we'd both be ready to go to sleep early that night. At the time though, we walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower together, saving water and enjoying a few extra kisses. "So how was your day?"

  "Great," Melina said as she kissed me again. "Jay Winters offered me a part time job, and he said he'd check with the hospital pharmacy and a few of the other clinics around to see if there was anything full time. How about you?"

  “Good,” I said, shutting off the water and getting her a towel. “I got my schedule for next semester and it's not too bad. I have a planning period for first period every other day, and my other planning period is last period, so making practice or even getting in some work on my own won't be too difficult.”

  I wrapped the towel around her body and rubbed her down, then finished drying myself off.

  Melina kissed me and smiled. "Now, let's get some dinner. Then I need to talk to you about your interior decorating."

  "What about it?" I asked.

  "There is none."

  Chapter 15

  Melina

  After talking with and rejecting the hospital's offer of night shift work four times a week, I entered Winters Pharmacy for my first shift. I knocked on Jay's door and waited for him to call me in.

  "Hi, Jay. Thanks again for this opportunity."

  "Not a problem Melina. Here, if you can fill this paperwork out, I'll pair you off with Kelly up front to have you do some training in about thirty minutes. Now officially by pharmacy policy you are supposed to do your entire shift today just watching, then next time we can actually trust you to use the laser scanner without blinding yourself, so you're probably going to be bored."

  "If it gets too bad I'll ask if there are any boxes I can stock or something. What do we have?"

  The paperwork wasn't anything out of the ordinary, standard IRS forms and an employee profile sheet. There were also a few other pieces, nondisclosure agreements and stuff like that. I was familiar with all of it and knew that Jay was just doing what needed to be done. Sitting down at the desk I got them all completed and double checked in plenty of time.

  "Oh great," he said, looking them over. "By the way, here's your name tag."

  He handed me a pretty typical looking plastic name tag, with the word MELINA put on with what looked like stickers. Underneath, in a detachable pocket, was a smaller tag that said trainee.

  "That'll stay until the the end of the month," Jay explained, "it's part of the pay structure too. Once you are through the training phase, we bump your pay up. Not a lot, but it's something."

  "I didn't take the job to make a ton of money," I said. "But your offer was for shifts that allow me to spend the most time I can with Cam. Isn't that what's important?"

  "I like that idea, too bad more couples don't think that way," Jay replied. "Okay, well, let me introduce you to Kelly. She'll be your trainer today, we'll see about your next shift. Come on."

  I followed Jay up front, where he handed me a pharmacy apron and helped me pin on my name tag. Kelly was a nice girl, just nineteen, with sort of dishwater blond hair and a mousy face that told me she most likely had spent a lot of nights in high school lonely and alone. "Hi."

  "Hi," I said, offering my hand. Kelly's handshake didn't change my impression of her, nor her quiet voice. Then again, I realized I shouldn't be one to judge. Until meeting Cam, I'm sure a lot of people had the same impression of me. "Thanks for offering to train me."

  "It's okay," she said, giving me a small little smile. We got started by her going over the basics of the register system, which was nearly identical to the system I'd used in Lima. Most registers nowadays are, after all. You scan, the system pops the price, you go to the next item. If something doesn't scan you can either put it in by the UPC or SKU code, or for prescriptions and other items like that you used a customer code that was generated by the pharmacy techs in the back. The system was nearly foolproof, which was probably a testament to the ability for people to screw it up.

  By eleven o'clock I was fully confident in being able to do the job, and Kelly also could see I knew what I was doing. "So what had you move to this dump?" she asked, shifting to small talk. "No offense, just that this isn't exactly a popular place for new people to move. Hell, even with the Spaceport thirty miles away nobody wants to move here."

  “I don’t know if you know him, but I’m dating Cam Swagger," I said simply. "We met on vacation."

  "Oh, Mr. Swagger? You're dating him?"

  "You know Cam?" I said. "How?"

  Kelly blushed and twisted her hands in front of her. "He uhm, he was my English teacher last year. I really liked his class."

  "So how is Cam as a teacher? I've never seen him in the classroom," I said, "although I got to watch him a bit with the basketball team."

  "Mr. Swagger's awesome," Kelly said enthusiastically. "He didn't talk down to us or anything, but still you could tell he expected us to work hard and he was always pushing us to do better."

  The rest of the shift went quietly, until right before the end. I was going over end of shift procedures with Kelly, who was showing me the checklist I needed to go over each time before handing off the register. The little electronic chime over the door buzzed, and I looked up to see two men come in. There was nothing all that out of the ordinary about them, there'd been at least a dozen other men just like them coming in and out during the shift, so I ignored them at the time.

  As I went over the checkli
st again, I got the weirdest feeling and glanced up. There was nothing in sight, but when I looked into the old fashioned security mirrors in the corners of the store I saw both men standing in the middle of one of the back aisles, looking up at the mirror. I swore they were looking at Kelly and I. "What the?"

  “What’s wrong?" Kelly asked, and I shook my head. "What is it?"

  "I just swear that those two guys who came in are staring at us," I said quietly. "See them in the mirror?"

  Kelly glanced up then looked over. "Maybe they think you're cute."

  “With that look? I don't think so. Are they locals?"

  Kelly looked up again, then shook her head. "I don't think so. I've never seen them before. Want me to do a walk-by?"

  I shook my head. "No, just keep an eye out. They're not doing anything wrong.”

  "Okay. Still, Mr. Winters tells us that if we have a strange feeling, we should act on it. Better safe than sorry, you know."

  In that moment, something Jay said came to mind. I'd trust Cam with the keys to this place and the registers stuffed full of flu season cash, but he seems to be a magnet for things going wrong.

  The two men stayed around for another five minutes, and I was just about to do a walk-by myself when they approached the register. One of them, a guy about five eight or so with a compact build bought a Pepsi, his dark eyes studying me intently while Kelly counted out the change from the five dollar bill he paid with. After taking his drink, the two left, and Kelly looked at me. "You're right, that guy was weird. Seriously, he was staring a hole into you. How'd you get into town and already have a weirdo stalker?"

  "You say that like it's a good thing."

  Chapter 16

  Cam

  When Melina told me about the two strange men, I felt a familiar yet uncomfortable feeling creep over me. I'd thought after the last time I had to send a message that it had been received. Instead, it looked like the surveillance had never gone away.