Page 41 of Among the Stars
The jerk was doing it again. “But—”
In her ear he whispered, “Think about me all day. Touching you. Inside you. Making you scream my name.”
Veronica grew wet from the words alone. “That isn’t fair.”
“No, but you’ll thank me tonight.”
Of that she had no doubt.
* * *
Cam knewthe moment he entered his apartment that he wasn’t alone.
“Did you feed that cat,” he called as he dropped his keys in the bowl. Fiona was Janie’s pet, after all. The feline only lived with him because his sister’s vagabond lifestyle didn’t suit the cat’s temperament.
“I did,” Janie said, appearing from the spare bedroom. “Someone didn’t sleep in his own bed last night.”
“When did you get in?”
“Around midnight.”
“I’d have picked you up from the bus station if you’d called me.” He’d have gone back to Veronica’s after, but he’d have picked her up.
Janie shrugged. Eleven years his junior and wiser than any twenty-five-year-old should be, she’d been popping in and out of his life for the last seven years. They weren’t technically related. Cam’s father had married Janie’s mother when their kids were thirteen and two respectively. He’d always wanted to be a big brother, and Cam took on the duty of protecting the toddler from the day they met. Blond and happy, she’d been unprepared for the terror entering her life.
When Cam ran off at sixteen, his first stop had been to Janie’s birth father. He made sure the man knew what was going on in the Rhodes home, and within months, word had reached him that Janie was living with her dad full time. What Cam hadn’t known was that Harlan Tapper had a heroin addiction that would put Janie right back in harm’s way. He never forgave himself for leaving her behind, despite the reality that a life with him on the streets wouldn’t have been any better.
“How’s Colorado?” he asked, retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge. Chinese take-out boxes covered the top shelf. “I see you ordered in.”
“I had to. You’ve got nothing here.”
He’d been busy this week. “Put in a grocery order with Marissa downstairs, and she’ll have it delivered.”
“Already done.
“Colorado?” Cam repeated. He liked to keep tabs on her as much as possible, but that only worked when he knew where she was.
“The gig ended at Christmas. I got a lead on giving surf lessons in Hermosa Beach, so I’ll head that way next.” California was expensive. He’d make sure she had extra cash in her account. “You going to tell me who the new woman is?”
They weren’t the discuss-their-love-lives kind of siblings. “No.”
“I hope she’s less of a bitch than the last one was.”
Janie had been visiting when Cam’s engagement came to an abrupt end. “Samantha isn’t a bitch.”
“She dumped your ass for no good reason.”
There’d been a reason. “We didn’t agree on everything that a couple getting married should.”
“Why do people want kids anyway? Half the ones already here are starving, ignored, or both.”
Cam froze with the water bottle halfway to his mouth. “What did you say?”
She slid past him to retrieve her leftovers from the refrigerator, then grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer. “I heard the fight. And before you accuse me, I wasn’t eavesdropping. I had my door shut and everything.”
He didn’t remember his and Samantha’s final conversation being that loud. They’d dated for nine months before Cam bought the ring. Marriage had felt like a natural next step in the relationship. A corporate merger of sorts. As one of the top managers in country music, Samantha needed a place to develop talent, and Cam had just opened the tavern. They’d both built their careers from nothing and shared a common work ethic. Then there’d been their shared experiences as children. Always.
He’d also believed they shared the same views on having a family. But Samantha had wanted children, and to her surprise, Cam did not.