Tempting Cameron Read online

  Not to mention during the fireworks show, when they’d snuck off to hide among the trees. He’d settled on the ground and leaned against the trunk of a mighty pine and she nestled in between his legs. His front to her back, his arms wrapped loosely around her, his chin settled on top of her head as they watched the fireworks go off over the lake.

  It had been a spectacular show, made even better when he leaned in and kissed her stupid. His lips had this magical way of stealing precious brain cells every time they settled on hers…

  “I never imagined the two of you together. You drove him crazy when we were younger.” Jane studied her, probably noted the dreamy expression Chloe knew without a doubt she wore. Thinking about Cam had that sort of effect on her. “I know you used to have a major crush on him, though I never dared ask you about it.”

  Something flitted through her mind. A flash of a conversation between her and Cam, though she couldn’t remember where or when.

  I never told anyone I had a crush on you.

  You didn’t have to. It was pretty obvious…

  She frowned. Had that conversation really happened? Or had she dreamed it?

  “Well, we’re hanging out. Not really dating,” Chloe said, which was the truth. What they were experiencing had no definition. It was an adventure, pure and simple.

  “Huh. Sounds like every so-called relationship Cam has had his entire adult life.” Jane rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me he’s got you under his spell, too.”

  “No,” Chloe said too defensively, jealousy flaring inside her. Silly, considering she knew he had a past. So did she. Probably not as extensive as his, but still.

  Her phone buzzed and she grabbed it from where she’d left it on Jane’s table, checking her text message. It was from Cam.

  Where are you?

  She quickly texted back.

  Your sister’s house looking at honeymoon pictures.

  “Who was it?” Jane asked.

  “Ali,” Chloe lied, keeping her anxious gaze on the phone.

  “You two have plans tonight?”

  “Maybe.” The message came seconds later.

  Meet me at Mitchell’s in thirty minutes.

  Excitement buzzed through her as she quickly typed: Why?

  Taking out my dad’s boat and I want you with me. Wear your swimsuit.

  Excitement bubbling within her, Chloe glanced out the window, saw Jane’s three children playing in the backyard with Jane’s new husband. They were happy, seemingly well adjusted now that their mom was married to Chris. Chloe liked him. He was solid, dependable, and when he looked at Jane, his love for her was written all over his face.

  Chloe wanted a love like that. Not with Cam, she told herself quickly. Never with Cam.

  Okay, maybe a little bit she wanted it with Cam.

  “Want to stay for dinner? Mindy and the kids are coming over later.” Jane shook her head as she opened the refrigerator door and peeked inside. “Easing back into cooking meals every day hasn’t been fun. I was spoiled on my honeymoon.”

  Chris chose that moment to walk in the house, an easy grin on his face. “I’ll make dinner.”

  Jane flashed him a smile in return, pressing her head against his chest when he came to where she sat and gave her a quick hug, kissing her forehead. “And I won’t refuse your offer.”

  “Not a surprise,” he said, glancing at Chloe. “You staying for dinner?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t.” She needed to go see Cam.

  “Another time, then. We’ll have a big family barbecue next time I’m off shift and invite everyone,” Chris suggested.

  “That sounds great. Let me know when.” Chloe stood and went to her friend, kissing her on the cheek. “I’d love to stay but I can’t tonight. How about sometime next week?”

  “Sure.” Jane looked startled at Chloe’s abrupt pending departure. “I haven’t seen you much since I’ve been back.”

  “It’s only been what, a week? You’ve been busy! I bet the kids were glad to have you guys home.”

  “Yeah, they were.” Jane studied her, her gaze narrowed. “And I hardly saw you at the barbecue on the Fourth. You disappeared for a while. I went looking for you.”

  Everyone had gone looking for them. They’d hid in an excellent spot. “I was there, watching the fireworks. There were so many people around, it’s easy to lose sight of each other, you know?”

  “Uh, huh.” Jane sounded like she didn’t believe her. Chloe couldn’t worry about it, though.

  She had a date with Cameron to get to.

  …

  Cam hopped into his dad’s old fishing boat, tossing the giant backpack he’d brought into the bow. Inside he’d packed a couple of water bottles, towels, and a thin blanket.

  Pretty much the same things he’d pack when he used to take Melanie on his dad’s boat. When they would go as far out as they could, closer to the dam where hardly anyone went. Where the water was deep and cool and the sun settled along the horizon, bleeding pink and gold across the sky until it finally disappeared behind the mountains.

  It was a favorite spot, tainted by memories of a shitty girlfriend who’d broken his stupid teenage heart.

  He wanted to erase the memory of taking Melanie out on the boat and replace it with Chloe. She was helping him erase all those other old memories, too, creating fresh and exciting new ones.

  Like the night they’d grabbed a couple of ice creams at Mitchell’s store and spoon-fed each other in the back of his old truck. It had been one of the most erotic experiences he’d ever had. Licking the ice cream from her spoon as she fed him, his gaze had never strayed from hers. The hitch in her breathing when he’d leaned in and licked the melting creamy substance from her lips, their tongues cool and sweet as they slid against each other…

  Yeah, he could break out in a sweat just thinking about it. And what made it worse—or better, depending on his mood—was the fact that it was mostly innocent, the time he spent with Chloe. He’d hardly touched her, certainly had never dived under her shirt or slipped an eager hand inside her panties.

  Not that he wasn’t tempted, because holy hell, he was tempted daily, hourly, every minute, every second he was with her. All this innocent handholding and secret kissing sessions also meant they spent a lot of time with each other actually talking.

  She was smart. Funny. Interesting. Quirky and shy one minute, sly and daring the next, she was a constant contradiction. He wanted to know more. Chloe was a mystery he wanted to solve.

  And he wasn’t much of a mystery lover. Rarely had the compulsion to solve anyone or anything beyond what he photographed. Even then, he was more of an observer, always watching life go by and not ever really participating in it. He always felt like he was surviving, not living.

  The realization rendered him completely still and he settled his ass on the bench seat at the front of the boat so hard, he rocked the vessel, making it bump against the barriers that flanked either side of the slip.

  Spending time with Chloe made him feel like he was actually living again. Spending time in his hometown, surrounded by his family…that helped, too. Tremendously.

  Glancing up, he saw her headed down the walkway from across the road, where she’d parked at Mitchell’s Landing. He watched her, appreciated the sway of her hips, the bounce in her step. She practically vibrated with excitement, even from this distance, and he liked how unrestrained she was. No games, no bullshit. She was simply Chloe.

  She caught sight of him and waved, picked up her step. He hopped out of the boat and waited for her, ready to help her in when she approached. She had her sunglasses on top of her head, her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she wore a turquoise strapless dress that revealed thin, bright green straps that wound around her neck.

  He hoped like hell it was a bikini.

  “Hi.” The smile she gave him would’ve lit the entire sky, it was so bright. “This is your dad’s boat, huh?”

  “Yep.” He wanted to kiss her. There w
ere people milling around—employees of Mitchell’s, tourists bringing in their rental boats for the evening, a few locals who were also coming back from a day on the lake. And he still wanted to kiss her; it didn’t matter who saw. “You look pretty, Chloe.”

  She basked in his compliments, her reaction always making him want to offer more. “Thanks. You said to wear my swimsuit.”

  “I did.” She also usually did whatever he requested, no questions asked. He liked that, too. Felt rather possessive of her, which he knew was ridiculous, but every time he held her, kissed her, the word mine ran through his head.

  Crazy.

  “Do you need help with anything? I brought snacks.” She held up a small cooler and a grocery bag. “A couple of beers and some chips.”

  “Mmm, that’s my girl.” Leaning in, he kissed her. A friendly, smacking kiss that wasn’t enough, so he kissed her again, slipped her a little tongue.

  Left her breathless when he broke it off, which made him grin, encouraged by her reaction. That he could render her into that dreamy state every time his lips touched hers pleased him to no end.

  “Omigod, I think Art saw you kiss me,” she whispered, her cheeks flushed.

  He glanced to his right, saw Art Mitchell standing a few feet away outside the marina office, watching them with a puzzled expression on his face. He was the owner of the marina, a longstanding Lone Pine Lake citizen, and no doubt, he was confused by what he just saw.

  But Cam realized he really didn’t give a crap.

  “Don’t worry about it. Come on.” He took Chloe’s hand and helped her into the boat, then hopped on after her. “Relax. We’ll leave in a few.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need any help?”

  “Just sit there and look pretty.”

  She looked away, casting her gaze out over the water, a little smile teasing the corners of her lips. He chastised himself as he prepared the boat. Needed to stop talking like a lovesick fool and worse, looking at her like a lovesick fool. Do it enough and he’d have himself convinced he was halfway in love with her.

  So not going to happen. He wasn’t sticking around Lone Pine Lake, no matter how much he was enjoying himself. The end of the summer, he was out of here. His agent e-mailed him almost daily, asking when he was ready to go back to work. He needed to appease him and get on with his life.

  But he also needed to spend a little more time with Chloe. He couldn’t let her go. Not yet.

  Within minutes they were pulling away from the marina, Cam steering the boat with ease past the returning ones. As the late afternoon turned into early evening, most everyone brought their boats in. That was Cam’s favorite time to take his dad’s out. The lake was less crowded, the sun not as intense.

  They ended up in a cove not far from the dam, a neatly tucked away alcove that not many people knew about beyond the locals. It was darker here, the trees that surrounded the shore thick, cutting off the sunlight. The water was a dark, calm greenish-blue and deceptively deep. A perfect fishing hole his dad had scouted out years ago, when Cam had been young and tagged along one early, early morning with his dad and Patrick.

  It was one of his favorite spots in all of Lone Pine Lake.

  “This is nice,” Chloe said after he threw the anchor into the water. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been here before.”

  “My dad likes to fish in this spot.”

  “Mine was never much of a fisherman.” She wrinkled her nose and laughed. “Living right on the lake and he’d rather toss his line over the railing at Mitchell’s. Catch little trash fish so he could throw them back out.”

  “How about you? Have you ever fished?”

  Shaking her head, she laughed. “Not really.”

  “Jane and Mindy used to go with us. But they’d always squeal and complain when Dad told them they had to take their fish off their own lines.” Cam chuckled, shook his head. “We stopped bringing them.”

  “That’s funny. I can imagine what a pain Mindy and Jane would be to you guys,” she said softly, her eyes glowing as she watched him. She had this way of making it easy for him to recall long-stowed-away memories with fondness.

  The moment he’d left Lone Pine Lake, he’d abandoned all those warm, happy thoughts. He’d been sullen, a grumpy, supposedly misunderstood teen with a chip on his shoulder. Believed his parents just didn’t understand him and what he wanted to do with his life. Knowing he would go absolutely nowhere in this nowhere town, he’d left.

  And proved his parents wrong.

  They were proud of him. He knew that, had heard it enough over the years to believe it. But he still felt like he had something to prove. What with Patrick a financial banking success and Mac the owner of his own business for the love of God, he still had to fight the feelings of inadequacy.

  Chloe helped combat that, too. Her easy acceptance of him, the adoring gleam in her eyes that had irritated him when they were younger, now filled him with pride.

  Filled him with lust.

  “You should take your cover-up off,” he suggested casually, feeling anything but. Having her close always ratcheted the tension within him a few million degrees. The sneaking around bit aided that as well.

  She sent him a look. “You just want to see me take my clothes off.”

  His blood heated. Well, yeah, that was a given. But since he knew nothing like that was going down, he at least wanted to ogle her. “I figured you’d want to take a swim.”

  “It looks cold.” She glanced down, leaned over the edge of the boat to trail her fingers in the water. “It is cold.”

  “It’s refreshing,” he corrected, tugging his old T-shirt off and tossing it on the bow seat. “Come on. Jump in with me.”

  Her eyes widened when they settled on his chest, her lips parting a little bit, as if she liked what she saw. Perfect. She needed to return the favor so he could do some ogling. He hadn’t seen her in a swimsuit yet and they lived by a lake, for Christ’s sake. “You’re going to jump in?”

  He rolled his eyes, smiling. “Yeah.”

  “I’m more of a wader.” She nibbled on her lower lip, contemplating him.

  “You asked for an adventure, right?” Reaching for her hand, he tugged so she had no choice but to stand. “Take off the dress, Chloe.”

  She pulled her hand from his and reached for the hem of her dress, stripping it off so she stood before him in a tiny two-piece that made his eyes bug out of his head. Bright green with white polka dots, it was sinfully sweet on Chloe’s bangin’ bod. Held around her neck with thin strings, tied on either hip with those same strings, Cameron was filled with the urge to untie it all…

  And have his wicked way with her.

  “Put your tongue back in your mouth,” she murmured, invading his heated thoughts.

  He snapped his jaw shut. “You’re going to jump in with me?”

  Nodding, she let him take her hand again. He led her to the front of the boat, where they stood on the bench seat, making the boat rock gently. “On the count of three,” he said, his gaze unerringly going to all those luscious curves. Her flared hips, her nipped-in waist, and those breasts that were the stuff of dreams.

  His lusty, sex-filled dreams…

  Clearing his throat, he counted down, squeezed her hand before he said three and they jumped in together, Chloe yelping as they flew over the calm lake. The water sucked them under, cold as she said, but it cooled his heated thoughts, the shock of the temperature wilting his burgeoning erection.

  Thank God.

  She popped out of the water with a shriek, coming for him as if she meant to do him bodily harm. “I think my lungs are frozen,” she sputtered, water streaming down her face, her hair slicked back. “It’s sooo cold.”

  He dodged her, swimming out of reach, which frustrated her more. “You’ll be fine. Don’t be such a wimp.”

  Letting loose an irritated growl, she slipped beneath the water, headed straight toward him. With a laugh, he took off. Keeping ahead of her by a few strokes,
he took her around the boat, closer to shore, then farther out, until they were right at the entry of the cove and he finally let her catch him.

  Her breath coming in quickened spurts, she looped her arms around his neck, pressed all that wet, soft skin against him. “You’re hard to catch.”

  The story of his life. “You’re pretty determined.” He slipped his arms around her waist, his fingers resting along the thin band of her bikini bottoms. Only had to slide a few inches and his hands could slip beneath them…

  “I guess you were right,” she conceded reluctantly. “The water is refreshing.”

  “Invigorating,” he agreed, his gaze zeroed in on her lips. They were wet, a droplet of water clung to the corner of them, and he leaned in, licked it away.

  She gasped. “Cameron.”

  He kissed her this time, tightened his arms around her, letting his fingers slip just beneath her bottoms so he was touching chilled, bare skin. “Chloe,” he whispered, unable to say anything else, he was so consumed with her.

  They treaded water, kissing, hands wandering. He leaned into the water, floating on his back and taking her with him.

  He wanted to break all the rules. Forget the sweet summer romance deal. There were too many curves on display in that little bikini, too much skin. All he could think about was how he could get his hands on all that flesh. How he could get inside the pretty little body and show her just what he could do for her.

  Without a word he led her to the back of the boat, urging her to climb up the short ladder. She did so while he waited behind her, eyeing her sexy backside, the bottom curve of her cheeks exposed when her bottoms rode up, making his head spin.

  Like a man obsessed, he climbed into the boat, grabbing the towels out of his backpack and handing one to her. She dried off, as did he, but he was impatient. Scrubbed the towel over his skin haphazardly before he tossed it aside and reached for her.

  Drew her into his arms and kissed her, drowned in her.

  Never wanted to let her go.