“Sit down for a second. I’m going to go grab my board down by the water. Then we’ll go.”
It felt good to sit down. My body was so incredibly tired. I suddenly felt like I’d just spent ten rounds in a boxing ring and I lost every single one of them.
Cam returned, tossed on his shirt, and grabbed up my bag and his board. “Wait here,” he said as he jogged it all toward the car.
I got up, brushing away what I could of the sand and followed after him. I made it about twenty feet when everything kind of tilted on me. I stopped walking and just focused on the ground, pushing away the worst of the dizziness.
Cam appeared, slowly picking me up and carrying me to the Mustang. I wasn’t about to complain because he was touching me and I loved when he touched me.
He didn’t say anything as he sat me in the passenger seat and buckled the seat belt around my body. Before he pulled away, he pressed a tender kiss on my lips.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“It wasn’t for you. It was for me.”
Well, if that wasn’t just the most perfect thing he could say. Like ever.
I pretty much replayed those words in my head until he pulled into the parking lot of some kind of medical clinic. “We don’t need to be here.”
“Humor me.”
I sighed. And gave in. There wasn’t one woman on this earth that still had ovaries that wouldn’t have given in to his pleading, concerned stare.
Before going inside, I called my boss and explained that I fell and hit my head and was currently at the doctor being looked at for a concussion (I certainly wasn’t going to tell him that I was out surfing before work). I thought he would be angry about it being only an hour before my shift started, but he was very understanding and asked me to bring in a doctor’s slip clearing me for work and being out in the heat when I came to work next.
“Well, at least now I can be home to help Roxie move in,” I said as we walked through the parking lot.
“Roxie’s moving in with you?”
“Yeah. She kicked her cheating boyfriend to the curb and I needed a roommate to help cover rent.”
“Wonder what Adam will say about her newly single status?”
“Why would Adam care?” I asked, watching him out of the corner of my eye.
“I see the way he sometimes looks at her.”
“Probably the same way she looks at him.”
He opened the door to the clinic and ushered me inside, depositing me in a chair and then insisting on checking me in. I settled into the seat and got ready for a wait. All these clinics had a wait. It was the most annoying thing ever.
My phone started ringing, the sound partially muffled from inside my bag. I pulled it out just as Cam was sitting down in the chair right beside mine. The phone rang again and I glanced at the screen and groaned.
It was my mother.
Third time she tried to call this week.
I shut off the ringer and stuffed it back into my bag, promising myself I would call her back after we left the doctor.
“Didn’t feel like talking?” Cam asked, casually draping his arm across the back of my chair. I leaned toward him. The air-conditioner in here was set to arctic.
“It was my mother,” I said, like that explained it all.
“You two don’t get along?”
“Actually, we do. But my mother has very clear ideas about how she thinks I should be living my life. Being here isn’t really one of them.”
He arched a brow. “She didn’t want you to go to college?”
“Maybe community college or a technical school in Beaufort. But moving to Myrtle Beach to study psychology? She didn’t approve.”
“She give a reason?”
“I think she just wanted me close by where she could give an opinion on every aspect of my life. She wanted me to work at a bank, settle down, and get married. Be like her. There isn’t anything wrong with that. It just isn’t what I wanted.”
“Seems like you have a little Pura Vida of your own.” The way he said those two words… they flowed silkily with a slight roll of his tongue. I leaned into his side just a little closer.
The nurse came out of the side door at the front of the waiting room and called my name. I should have known. The one time I actually didn’t mind sitting around and waiting was the one time they called me right back.
Cam stood when I did and I gave him a surprised look. “I’m going with you,” he said in a voice that left no room for argument.
His palm fitted itself against the small of my back as we both followed the nurse into a tiny room with a table covered in that white noisy paper. She took some vitals and asked some questions and then exited the room, leaving us to wait for the doctor.
The knot on the back of my head was tender and I investigated the area around it with my fingers. Cam noticed and pulled my hand away. “Don’t irritate it.”
You’d think I was beating myself in the head with something. “It hurts.” I complained.
“I should have known better than to take a klutz like you surfing.”
I scowled.
“Let me see,” he said softly, coming closer to nudge his hips between my knees and taking my head in his hands. He titled it down and parted the still damp hair away from the sore area.
“What the hell did you hit your head on?” he murmured, brushing his fingers ever so lightly over the raised bump.
“The ground?” I guessed.
“I’m sorry, babe,” he murmured, tilting my head back up and pressing a kiss to the corner of my lips.
If he kept touching me, I was going to find some other way to hurt myself just so he would keep doing it.
There was a rap on the door and Cam pulled away as a doctor in a white coat came in holding a piece of paper. “You hit your head?” he asked, looking up at me.
“I was surfing and I fell. I’m not sure what I hit my head on. The water was too dark for me to see.”
“Did you lose consciousness?”
I thought about how I thought I’d been lying on the bottom of the ocean when really I had been against Cam’s chest. “No, but I was disoriented at first.”
“Headache?”
“Yes.”
“Nausea?”
“Not really.”
The questions continued as he checked my eyes, the bump on my head, and finally he stepped back.
“I would say you likely have a mild concussion.”
“What does that mean?” Cam asked.
“Just means you’re going to have a headache for a day or two. Since it’s mild, some over-the-counter pain relievers will probably be enough for the pain. No driving for a day or two. If you feel any new symptoms, come back here immediately. If the swelling on your head isn’t gone in a few days, come back in. Do not go to sleep for at least two hours. When you do go to sleep, have someone wake you every couple hours just to be sure you’re all right.”
“All that for a bump on the head?” I asked, feeling slightly put out.
He smiled. “I would say it could have been far worse. At least you weren’t alone and he was able to pull you out of the water.”
The doctor handed me a couple papers and told us we were free to go.
I shoved the papers in my bag and braced myself to jump off the tall table. But Cam appeared, gripping my waist and gently setting me on my feet. Without saying a word, he wrapped his fingers around mine and walked us through the office.
When I tried to steer myself toward the reception counter, he pulled me the other way. “I have to check out, Cam. I need to pay the bill.”
“I already paid.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. “What! Why would you do that?”
“Because that bump on your head is my fault.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You were on my surfboard.”
“Cam, I’m a grown woman. I’m not your responsibility.”
“I’m taking care of you today.”
“You are?”
/>
“Yes, so don’t even try to get rid of me.”
An entire day with Cam?
Suddenly, almost drowning and having a concussion seemed like a massive stroke of luck.
9
It was well after ten when Cam parked the Mustang in the lot of my apartment building. This building wasn’t nearly as tall as his. It looked more Spanish style, with a terracotta tiled roof, a pale-yellow stucco exterior, and was longer than it was tall. It was only two stories high with steps running between each of the units. My unit was on the second floor in the center of the building.
“Roxie’s here,” I said, glancing up to see the door to the apartment open with boxes piled just outside the door. “Looks like she’s already moving in.”
“Hey!” I called, stepping around the boxes and going inside.
Roxie poked her head out of her new bedroom. “Violet! I thought you had to work.”
“She hit her head,” Cam explained. (And just like a typical guy, he only said enough to make it sound far worse than it was).
“Oh my God! What happened?” She rushed to my side, looking me over. I gave her a more thorough explanation and then sat on the sofa.
“A couple Motrin and I’ll be fine.”
Roxie hit Cam in the stomach with her fist. “Jerk!”
“Want me to help carry in some boxes?”
“I love you!” she exclaimed, flinging her arms around him.
I laughed.
“I do all the heavy lifting and he gets a hug?” someone grumbled from behind a stack of boxes in the doorway.
When he carried them around the couch, I saw that it was Adam as he disappeared into her room. I gave her an oh my gosh! look and she actually blushed.
Before I could get the scoop, Adam came back into the living room. “Good, someone with actual muscles,” he said, looking at Cam. “Can you give me a hand with her mattress?”
When they were gone, I motioned for Roxie to sit next to me. “So… Adam’s helping you move?”
She nodded. “When I asked him if I could leave last night to look at your place, he offered to use his truck to move me in today.”
“Wow. Talk about a boss who cares about his employees.”
“I told you we’re friends,” she said. Then she added, “He’s been after me for a while to get rid of Craig.”
“He has?” I leaned closer, sensing a story.
“He caught me crying in the ladies’ room one day during work and forced the reason out of me. That was the first time I caught him cheating.”
“Sounds like he’s very protective.”
“I think he’s just glad he won’t find me crying in the bathroom anymore.” She grinned ruefully. Today she was wearing a pair of cut-off shorts and a black tank top, which accentuated her tiny waist and the way her hips flared out provocatively.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Adam was interested in her. “Cam thinks Adam likes you.”
Her eyes got wide as saucers. “He does?”
I grinned and nodded.
Her smile slipped. “Well, he won’t date any of his dancers so it doesn’t matter.”
I didn’t say anything else because the guys appeared hauling a large white mattress. After that, we all worked together helping her get all her stuff out of Adam’s truck and into the apartment.
Correction: they all unloaded Adam’s truck and I sat around unpacking boxes (mostly clothes) because Cam wouldn’t let me carry anything.
When Adam heard about my concussion, he almost forced me to stay home from work that night, but I flat out refused. There was no way I was going to miss work. I needed the money.
Cam wasn’t happy, but that was just too bad.
He also wasn’t very happy when he had to leave me in the care of Roxie so he could go home and get ready for work.
I really wanted to take a nap, but I knew if I did, Roxie would be checking on me every five seconds and getting up for work would be a pain so I took a shower instead.
The cool water felt good as it washed away what was left of the sand and the sea from the morning. I washed my hair gently, wincing when the spray came into contact with the bump. After that, I distracted myself with thoughts of Cam and me in my bed this morning.
Kissing him was like the first bite of really fattening ice cream. Like lying in bed and listening to the sound of a thunderstorm or being a kid on Christmas Eve. Sinful, comfortable, but thoroughly exciting.
He stirred up so many different emotions in me at the exact same time it was a little frightening. But not necessarily in a bad way. I’d never met anyone like him before. Someone who was casual but knew what they wanted out of life. It’s like he knew exactly where he was going, but he wasn’t in a hurry. He didn’t drive himself crazy trying to get to the end goal of his plan.
I liked that.
The way he looked certainly didn’t hurt anything either. My God, his body was the total package. Lean but cut, tan, and smooth. He moved with the grace of an athlete (surfing does a body good) and he smiled like a guy with some kind of naughty secret.
And that dimple… I wanted to lick it.
I’d never felt so attracted to a guy. I’d never felt the kind of sexual charge that coursed through my body whenever he was around. It was so strong that I knew if he hadn’t stopped things this morning, I would have slept with him. I wouldn’t be a virgin anymore.
He said he didn’t want to rush things, but my body didn’t care about how fast we moved. My body felt like it had been waiting an entire lifetime for someone to make me feel like this.
What about my head? My heart?
My head told me waiting wasn’t a bad thing. My head told me every girl should be cautious.
And my heart… my heart whispered that he could be the one. It told me I wasn’t in love with him, not yet, but it was only a matter of time.
If Cam had only wanted one thing from me, his actions would have told me so. Yes, he would have driven me to the medical center; he might even have stayed. But he wouldn’t have followed me back into the exam room. He wouldn’t have paid the bill. And as silly as it was… my mind kept picturing that heart he drew on my cup of lemonade.
It appeared that my heart and my body was ganging up against my brain and trying to overthrow it.
After my shower, I pulled on a white T-shirt dress, thinking it would show off the little bit of tan I got this morning at the beach. I dried my hair into a smooth, straight style and then curled the pieces around my face to feather out over my shoulders.
When I was putting on my makeup, someone rang the doorbell. I peeked out of my bedroom and glanced toward Roxie’s room. Her door pulled open and she stuck her head out. “You expecting someone?” she asked.
“No. Are you?”
Roxie shook her head and bit her lower lip. “Do you think he followed me?”
“Who?”
“Craig.”
Unease slithered through me. “Was he mad you moved out?”
She nodded.
Judging from the look on her face, I wondered if he did more to her than cheat. “Go back in your room,” I told her, walking toward the door.
If it were Craig, I would lie and tell him he had the wrong apartment. Times like this, I wish I had one of those peephole things in the door.
“Who is it?” I called out, deciding I was too chicken to open it and see.
“It’s Cam.”
I let out a relieved breath and pulled open the door. “Hey, sorry about that.”
“What’s the matter?” he said, his eyes narrowing on my face as he walked inside.
“Nothing.”
Roxie opened her door and looked out, the relief on her face plain.
Cam looked at me with a lifted brow. “Nothing?”
“We thought it might be Craig,” Roxie explained.
His lips thinned. “Does he know where you are?”
“I didn’t tell him.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, tryi
ng to change the subject.
“I came to drive you to work. You can’t drive, remember?”
I didn’t bother to point out that Roxie and I both worked tonight and at the same place.
“How’s your head?” he asked, running those onyx-colored eyes over me.
Tease Page 10
