That Night in Texas

This was it—the best orgasm she’d ever had. Nothing would ever be as good as this. But Cam proved her wrong yet again when he pushed himself into her, pulling her legs up to accommodate him. He pounded into her, demanding that she come again—that she come with him—and those shattered cells disintegrated again.

Cam tensed, hesitated, and when he sank into her that last time, she felt his shudder and knew that he was there with her, fully in the moment, neither of them in control.

* * *

The next morning Vivi ran down the stairs, a broad grin on her face. She felt well rested, a little sore in all those good places that suggested that she’d been well loved—but happier than she’d been in a long, long time. She’d heard that sex was a gateway to the soul, but until earlier with Cam, she’d never experienced it. She’d never understood how powerful sex could be, how making love could open one’s eyes and make one shift one’s focus. Lying against Cam after the third time they’d made love was the most...right she’d ever felt. Vivi felt completely in tune with Cam and was convinced that they were better together than they were apart.

He was what she wanted, the person she and Clem needed. Not for his money or his position, though she deeply admired him pulling himself out of a situation that sounded horrible but because he was strong and protective and loving and flawed. For now, tomorrow, the next ten, twenty, forty, sixty years, she wanted to prove to him how worthy he was of love. He needed to understand that she knew him, that she saw him clearly, that he didn’t need to hide who he was or what he’d done.

That no matter how uncomfortable, transparent and vulnerable he felt, she loved him and would continue to love him.

Rich, poor, she didn’t care. They were stronger together than they were apart. And she thought Cam was finally starting to understand that. Thank God and all his angels and archangels.

Cam had kissed her goodbye much earlier, told her to sleep in and that he would dress Clem and take her to school. She remembered something about him saying he had a Texas Cattleman’s Club meeting later that afternoon and that he might be late. It was Sally’s day off and she had the big house to herself. Thinking that she would take another look at the offers of work she’d received, she walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffeepot.

Sitting down at the breakfast table, she stared out over Cam’s landscaped garden, enjoying the bright blue sky and the lush vegetation. Pulling the laptop Cam loaned her toward her, she tapped her finger on the cover, unable to flip it open. She really needed to spend some time reading through, and understanding, the job offers she’d received. She didn’t want to, she wanted to go back to what was familiar, what she knew and loved. Was she being stubborn in refusing to take Cam’s offer to help resurrect the restaurant? Was she cutting off her nose to spite her face? Nobody was able to open a new restaurant without investors.

There was being independent and then there was being stupid. Was she being stupid or was she just allowing her new feelings—love and lust and hope and giddiness—to sway her?

She didn’t know. But what she did know was that she was in love with Cam, that she probably had been since that night three years ago. He made her temper flare, her heart jump, her libido squeal. He frustrated her and turned her on, made her laugh and made her sigh. He certainly kept her on her toes.

And maybe that was a better reason than her independent streak to keep her from accepting his offer to fund the renovations. How she was feeling, how she thought he was feeling, was a good reason to keep their financial and work interests separate. Why add pressure they didn’t need to such a fragile situation?

Everything had its season and maybe The Rollin’ Smoke’s had passed. And if she let go of her dream of renovating his restaurant, Joe could retire in peace and she could open her own place at some point down the line, when she’d cemented her reputation. Maybe then, she would feel comfortable asking Cam to invest. She’d have more experience, Clem would be older and their relationship would be better able to withstand the rigors of combining business with pleasure.