10 Years Later

“I have a room,” Cammie said out of nowhere as she held up a blue key card.

“Here? At the hotel?” I stammered. This damn girl made me nervous. I was confident in everything in my life, but this person sitting in front of me turned me into a blubbering teenager all over again.

“No, at the hotel across the street,” she said with that sassy mouth, and I wanted to take control of it with my own. “Of course I have a room here.”

“Are you trying to seduce me, Cammie Carmichael? Because, um, I haven’t seen you in like a hundred years and—” I broke off my teasing when I noticed two girls stumbling our way with giant grins on their faces and drinks spilling over onto their hands. “Just fucking around. Let’s get out of here.”

Cammie glanced behind her and noticed the girls before jumping down from her chair and accepting my hand again. “No funny business, Mr. Thomas.” She pointed a finger at me.

What the hell determined what was and wasn’t funny business, I pretended to ponder, because I wanted to do it all. I was about to have Cammie all to myself, the one thing I’d been wanting more than anything else for years.

The question was—what the hell was I going to tell her first? My mind flashed back to the one football game when I’d lost my nerve to confess my true feelings. I refused to let that happen again tonight . . .

• • •

Sitting in the stands at the football game with my buddies, I’d watched as Cammie sat with Kristy and a few other girls from the softball team, her long dark hair blowing in the night breeze. Usually I missed all the Friday night games because of work, but I’d been given tonight off for some odd reason. All her friends had laughed at something that was said, except for her. She’d given them a half smile, not even a full one, and it had fucking ripped me open to see her like that.

When Cammie stood up, I watched as she shook her head and put her hand up to stop anyone from going with her. She moved through the crowd and walked down the noisy bleachers until she got to the bottom. I jumped up, fed my buddies some bullshit line, and searched for her.

“Cammie,” I called out as soon as I saw her near the brick building that housed the bathrooms.

She turned. “Hey, Dalton. Not working tonight?”

I shook my head. “I got it off,” I said before realizing it sounded like I asked for the night off to come to the game.

She glanced around at the field, the stadium, and the few other people who milled about nearby. “That’s nice. You usually miss all the games.”

“Yeah. I do.” Why couldn’t I say anything worth a shit right now? She had to think I was a complete idiot.

“Well, I need to go to the bathroom, so maybe I’ll see you later?”

“Okay.”

I stood there, not moving a muscle as she disappeared into the restroom. Ever since the night of the senior dinner, I had wanted to kiss her again. My mind had that kiss on repeat, and it replayed far too often. I needed more kisses to pull from, so I planned on waiting for Cammie to come back out, even if it took all night.

Thankfully, it didn’t. When she caught sight of me still standing where she left me, a small smile played on her lips as she wiped her hands on the hips of her jeans.

“They’re out of paper towels. And you’re still here.”

“I am,” I said before grabbing her still-damp hand and pulling her toward the back of the building.

The stadium lighting didn’t reach that far so we stood there alone, surrounded by nothing but darkness and shadows. I reached for her face and held it gently between my palms before leaning in and tasting her lips. She moaned softly against my mouth, and even though I was inexperienced when it came to the opposite sex, I recognized that Cammie ignited a fire in me that refused to be extinguished. The way she tasted made me want to experience her in ways I’d only fantasized about.

Her fingers twisted in my hair at the nape of my neck, and I groaned as she tugged. “Careful, Cammie. You might awaken the beast.” To be honest, I had no idea what the fuck I was even saying, but it sounded convincing enough. Hell, even I was convinced.

She pulled back slightly. “The beast, huh?” she said with a laugh before biting at my bottom lip and pulling it into her mouth. Her tongue played against it, alternating between licking and sucking, and in that moment I realized that the “beast” wasn’t even a part of me. It was Cammie, and she was awake, all right.

Even without her turning me on like the hormonal teenage boy I was, I knew that I liked her. Really liked her. And I wanted to tell her just how much, but I couldn’t find the words. The idea of her rejecting

me stopped me cold from admitting anything to her. I was pretty sure she just liked messing around with me, and that was the extent of it. And if that were true, I didn’t want to know it.

So instead of asking her how she felt or admitting my feelings, I’d kissed her again. And then I’d pretended like that was enough.

No Funny Business

Cammie

Dalton Thomas and I stood in an elevator headed toward my room on the tenth floor. And he was holding my hand.