To Vanessa’s way of thinking, these past days they’d spent together proved how quickly she had succumbed to his charm. What bothered her most was knowing that sooner or later she would have to start withdrawing. Their time together was now a clock slowly ticking away, and every second, minute or hour counted…until the end.
The end.
She inhaled deeply and instinctively snuggled closer to him, and he wrapped his arms completely around her. They’d had a lot of these types of moments, usually after making love when there were no words left to say and he would just hold her. Making the decision to have an island fling with him had been hard, but now what would be even harder was walking away knowing there would not be a repeat. This was all they would have.
“Yes, I’ll go skinny-dipping with you, Cameron,” she finally said, turning in his arms and looking up to meet his gaze. “But I won’t walk out of this house down to the beach naked,” she added. “I’m going to need something to wear.”
A smooth grin curled the corners of Cameron’s mouth. “Will one of my T-shirts do?”
She couldn’t help but laugh, recalling how many times she had walked around in his T-shirts and how very little they covered. She remembered one night in particular when, in one of her seductive moods, she had seduced him while wearing his L.A. Lakers T-shirt. He had practically ripped the thing off before taking her right here on the kitchen table.
“If that’s the best you can do, then yes, one of your T-shirts will do,” she decided to say, trying to block the memories of that particular night from her mind.
“You know where they are.”
A grin tugged at her lips. “Yes, I do, don’t I?” She pulled herself out of his arms. “I’ll be back in a second.”
Vanessa was halfway up the stairs when she glanced back over her shoulder. Cameron was standing in the doorway separating the kitchen from the living room. His hands were braced on either side of the arch and his stance was as sexy as sexy could get. At that moment she wished she had a camera to capture that pose on film so she could take out the photo on those lonely nights after she returned to Charlotte.
She quickly turned back around and made it up the rest of the stairs. Damn, she didn’t need this now, especially not when she was trying hard to keep what they were sharing in perspective. And she definitely hadn’t counted on it.
Cameron Cody was truly beginning to grow on her. Even worse, he was slowly but surely getting under her skin in a way she hadn’t thought possible.
Chapter 12
Cameron heard Vanessa return even before her bare feet touched the last step. He glanced up and tried not to stare. But he couldn’t help himself. The woman did wonders for his T-shirts.
It was his opinion that her body was outright and unreservedly perfect, and as she walked toward him, putting those long gorgeous legs out in front of her, his blood raced, literally pounding through every part of him. His gaze traveled all over her. This particular shirt—the one promoting his construction company—seemed shorter than the rest. The cotton fabric clung to her full breasts and curvy hips.
When she finally reached the bottom step she slowly twirled around with her hands on her hips. “So, what do you think?” she asked as a smile twitched her lips.
He groaned inwardly. What he really thought was that now was a good time to kiss that lush mouth of hers, or better yet, to whisk her into his arms and take her back upstairs. Everything about her, every sensuous detail, was wreaking havoc on his control, his ability to think straight, his ability to resist emotions he’d never encountered before.
“I think,” he said, taking a step forward, “that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, whether you’re wearing an outfit I personally don’t like, my T-shirt or nothing at all. You are simply stunning.”
A warm tingle started in Vanessa’s breasts and moved lower, toward her midsection. The dark, tense eyes staring down at her seemed both serious and deeply enthralled. She bit her lower lip, trying not to let his words affect her so, and found it difficult. They had affected her.
She took a deep breath and glanced down at him. The only thing covering his body was a pair of outlandishly sexy swim trunks that left nothing to her imagination. They seemed like a second layer of skin and clearly emphasized the fact that he wanted her. Her heartbeat sped up at the thought of what would happen once they got down to the beach.