Page 35 of Among the Stars
Chapter Nine
If this washow he would die, Cam would leave this life a happy man.
From the moment Veronica Shepherd stumbled into his life, nothing had been the same. She made him want things he’d thought impossible. Love. Laughter. A family. The fear of continuing the cycle of his childhood had kept him on the outside. Kept him distant. Apart.
And then he met Veronica.
The twill dress shirt slid down his arms to land on the floor. Confident hands edged behind the hem of his cotton tee, sliding the fabric up his torso. Veronica gasped before a smile curled her lips. “You really are perfect.”
“Not even close,” he replied, unable to be anything but honest. Cam dragged the shirt over his head, revealing the long, jagged scar across his collarbone.
Eyes wide, she stepped closer, trailing a finger along the flaw. “What happened?”
Tensing, he said, “My father was a violent man.”
She looked up into his face, concern and compassion softening her expression. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
If she’d offered pity or empty platitudes, Cam might have been able to keep his walls intact, but the simple articulation of basic human kindness ripped them away. “He made me what I am,” he said, his voice taut.
Veronica shook her head. “No. You made yourself into the man that you are. I don’t need your life story to know that.”
If she was trying to break him, she was doing an excellent job. She reached for the clip at the front of his trousers and proficiently stripped the slacks away, taking his socks and shoes with them. Moonlight from the window lit her face, revealing eyes the shade of a storm cloud.
“I want to taste you,” she breathed before sinking her teeth hard into her bottom lip. She was waiting for permission. As if there was any doubt he’d give her anything she asked.
“Please.” A one-word plea he rarely uttered.
Like a woman on a mission, she pressed him onto the bed and dropped to her knees. Hot lips teased the inside of his thigh before she shifted to blow warm breath across the bulge in his boxer briefs. Cam hissed, clenching handfuls of the purple comforter. Slender fingers slid beneath the legs of his briefs, pressing along until she found her target.
Another hiss escaped his lips, this time accompanied by a mumbled curse. When the touch retreated, his hips slid down the bed as if chasing the connection. With a deep-throated purr, she slipped two fingers into the waistband, and Cam lifted for her. The moment the cotton slid away, he sprang free, hard and pulsing, shaking with anticipation.
As she leaned in to place a kiss on his tip, Cam stopped her with a hand over his dick. “Is this where you lived when you were married?” The words came out on a growl as his control hung by a thread.
“What?” she said, rightfully confused.
“Is this where you lived? With him?”
Veronica gently removed his hand. “No. He’s never been in this bed.”
Relieved, Cam nodded before dropping back onto the mattress. When wet lips suckled down the side of his shaft, he sat back up. This was a sight he wasn’t about to miss.
She smiled while she worked, concentrating on the task. Cam struggled to breathe through the experience. And it was an experience. Every suck. Every blow. Every purr and lick and bite. His brain shut down within seconds, every nerve ending in his body focused on one appendage and the raw pleasure Veronica was giving him.
As the pleasure intensified, he began to buck, the reflex out of his control. When she increased the speed, he grunted her name, trying to warn her. Trying to hold out as long as he could.
“Baby, I can’t—” The orgasm rocked him, and his body went rigid with release. The tremors were still spiraling through his limbs when he realized Veronica had taken him in. All of him. She’d lit him on fire and swallowed the flames.
He lay smoldering as she crawled up his body to straddle him, catching his eye as she licked her lips. A wide smile split her beautiful face as she said, “I see I earned a glimpse of those dimples.”
At her words, Cam realized he was smiling. A full smile that didn’t feel at all out of place or unusual. With one quick movement, he switched their positions, and she squealed in surprise. Hands pressed against the mattress on each side of her head, he did a push up that brought their mouths together, his essence still on her lips, and a smile on both their faces.
“You’ve earned more than the dimples,” he drawled, and her eyes darkened again. “It’s your turn to slide over the edge.”
* * *
“Oh,God. Right there, right there, right there…”
Veronica dug her nails into his back as Cam’s mouth did wonders to a spot behind her ear. She had no idea that could be an erogenous zone. Then again, with Cam pressing her into the bed, his hands seemingly everywhere all at once, her entire body was an erogenous zone.