Page 21 of Below the Surface

“Please don’t say my dorkdom.”

“Dorkdom?”

“It sounded good in my head.”

I laugh. “I love how sweet and gentle you are,” I say.

“Oh? My begging you to fuck me was sweet and gentle?”

“No. That was sexy.”

Cameron groans.

“And that doesn’t change how sweet and gentle you are, Cam. That’s why it’s so sexy.”

“I liked it,” she whispers.

“Which part?”

“All of it.”

I sweep the hair that falls into her eyes aside.

“You said you love me,” she says.

I take a deep breath. There are many people I love. What I feel for Cameron is so much more. I gaze into her endless blue-green eyes. “I’m in love with you, Cam.”

A smile lights Cameron from within, and she whispers my name. “Piper.”

“I want to share everything with you,” I tell her. The truth of it squeezes my heart. I’ve wanted to give to someone—to have someone take from me, too. Sharing myself—every part of me—I’ve reserved that for someone I love.

“You do?”

“Everything,” I tell her. I need to take a few deep breaths before I continue.

“Piper? Is something wrong?”

“No, Cam. Everything feels right. I need you to know something.”

“I’m listening.”

“When I say I want to share everything with you—I mean all the pieces of myself. I want to laugh with you over dinner and sip coffee at breakfast. And I want to take you places you’ve never been—not only in our bedroom—in the world.” I take a nervous breath.

“But?”

I caress her cheek. “I also want to make love with you. Softly. Just the two of us. I don’t think I’ve ever needed that until now.”

Cameron’s lips touch mine briefly. “Thank you.”

“Why are you thanking me?”

“Because I’d just about given up on finding someone who understands me—who accepts me. I know I’m still—I struggle with feeling embarrassed.”

“And we’ll work on that together.”

“Do you ever feel that way?” she asks.

“Do you mean about sex?”