For Now (Forever Book 1) (12 page)

              “Wait, what? You want Ryder?” I gasp.

              “No, don’t listen to me, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m drunk.”

              I want to question her further, but Cam and Ryder exit the club.

              I nod my head to the side to indicate that I want to speak to Cam privately. We walk a few feet away and I notice that Ryder and Isabel are both ignoring each other.               “Cam, I think that Isabel and I need to take a separate car back to the hotel. She’s pretty furious at Ryder for that stunt he pulled in there and a little drunk. She might say something she regrets in the morning.”

              “Good idea, I think that he needs to cool off a little too.”

              Using that little bit of liquid courage that I have, I whisper to him, “You still have my room key right?”

              He nods.

              “I’ll be staying up if you want to come over. Don‘t take too long.”

Camden

              I’m a little pissed at Ryder for making a scene and ending the great time I was having watching Elaina let loose and have fun. But I’m also happy that he threatened that douche that was dancing with my sister. He was way too old for her and I would have probably stepped in if I had been paying attention, instead of ogling Elaina. I’ve always been able to count on Ryder to help me keep an eye on Isabel. Even when we were kids. We scared off a lot of boys when she was in high school.

              We climb into the town car as I say, “Thanks man, for keeping an eye on Isabel, but you need to be careful. Let me know next time. No one will care if I beat someone’s ass.”

              “What the fuck is her problem? Why does she think it’s okay to dance with random dudes at a club. And why the fuck is she so mad that I stopped it? Your sister drives me crazy.”

              “She probably just felt okay since we were both there. Plus she’s a little drunk. I think you both are, maybe you both just need to sleep it off.”

              The rest of the ride is silent. Ryder immediately heads in the direction of the bar when we get back to the hotel. I groan, he’s already agitated and a little drunk, now he’s ready to do some serious drinking. I follow him as I type out a text to Elaina that I’m going to be a little later getting to her room than I thought.

              I catch up with Ryder and he already has an empty shot glass in front of him and another pressed to his lips.

              I sit with him for a while before I ask, “Are you sure you should be drinking? It’s just going to make you angrier. Maybe you should just sleep it off and we can all talk about it in the morning.”

              “I don’t want to talk about this shit with you. I just want to drink to forget about it.”

              I decide that there’s no reasoning with him tonight. I’m just going to wait it out and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Fifteen minutes and five shots later, he gets up from the stool and stomps off in the direction of his room.

              Finally, I can head to Elaina’s room. I hope she’s still up and Isabel isn’t with her.

              I knock on her door and there’s no answer. I knock again, thinking she didn’t hear me, still no answer. I use my key and peek into the room, hoping like hell that she’s alone.  The lights are still on. When I see her, she’s curled up on her side on the bed, asleep.
Well, fuck. So much for getting some time with her.
Her hair is now up and her face free of the make-up. I think I prefer her like this, she looked great tonight, but she doesn’t need all that to make her beautiful. I look down to see what she’s wearing and fuck, she’s wearing my shirt. The sight of her in my shirt makes me smile. I’ve never seen her look more amazing.

              I walk over to her and brush a few loose strands of hair off her face and pull the blankets down then up over her. Amazingly, she stays asleep. I turn out the light, then decide that I might as well crawl in beside her and we can have some time together in the morning. I lay behind her and curl my arm around her. She sighs and seems to relax a little more. I spend awhile watching her sleep before I drift off.

Elaina

              I’m awaked, not from a nightmare, but from a feeling of being too hot. I feel an arm around me and I’m alarmed, until I realized that I fell asleep before Cam could get to my room. He must have decided to stay with me. This pleases me, but I am a little disappointed that I fell asleep without getting to see him.

              I cuddle in closer to him and he lets out a low moan. Oh my God, I can feel his hardness through his boxers. I’m a little nervous, but the pleasure that I got when he moaned like that, gives me enough encouragement to do it again. I push back into him.

              “Please tell me that you are awake and doing that on purpose,” he murmurs into my ear before finding a spot on my neck with his mouth that makes me whimper. I can feel his smile against my skin when I push against him again. Before I have a chance to think about this, I’m on my back and he has removed my shirt. Well, his shirt, I guess. I’m completely bare aside from my panties. The moonlight is streaming through the window and I can see him above me. His eyes are roaming down my body.  I’ve never felt so vulnerable in my life under his intense inspection. I start to move my hand to cover myself. He grabs my small wrists in his large hands and brings them to his mouth, placing a kiss on both of my palms before moving his mouth back to mine.

              “Please don’t hide. You. Are. Stunning.” he says between kisses.

              I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck. I feel his muscular back beneath my fingers. He starts to lower himself. His kisses going from my mouth down to my neck. He finds the spot just under my ear again and I moan. His mouth is moving again to my breast and his mouth closes over a nipple.

              “Aahh,” I whimper. I arch my back and my fingers instinctively dig into his back.

              He moves to my other breast and I begin to pant. All too soon, he stops and begins to move lower. Kissing a trail down my stomach. When he gets to the waistband of my panties, he looks up with smoldering eyes and asks, “Is this okay?” I swallow hard and nod. He hooks his fingers into my panties and pulls them down my legs achingly slowly.

              He kisses me from one hip to the other before lowering and putting his mouth on me. I buck up and he grabs my hips to hold me in place. I pant at the feeling of his tongue on me. He pushes two fingers into me as his tongue moves in circles on me. In just a few minutes, I start to tense. I look down at him between my legs and this is my undoing. “Cam, please don’t stop. Ugh, please.” I yell his name and clench around his fingers.

              While, I try to regain my breath, I whisper, “I want to feel you moving inside me, Cam.

              When Cam pulls away, he removes his boxers and reaches into his pants pocket to pull out a foil packet. After putting it on, he nudges my legs apart and I feel him at my entrance.              

              “Are you sure about this? I don’t want you to feel pressured. We can wait. I want your first time to be perfect for you.”

              “You’re perfect for me.” I reach up and kiss him again.

              “Thank god. The sounds you made, I need to hear you again. You drive me crazy.”  He pushes in a little and we both groan. “God, you are so tight. Let me know if you want me to stop.”

              I respond with a thrust of my hips. He groans and pushes further into me. I feel so full and while it does hurt a bit, I don’t think I’ve felt anything as amazing as the feel of him inside me. He sets a slow pace. His mouth is on mine, devouring me. His movements gradually become harder and faster. I moan and he pulls away to move his mouth to my neck. My body starts to tense.

              “Cam, please,” I whimper.

              “Come for me,” he whispers.

              At his words, I gasp and clench around him. I feel like I’m drowning. My nails dig further into his skin and I rake them down his back.

              “Elaina,” he growls and thrusts one last time and tenses.

              He’s now lying on top of me, his head on my chest. His head is moving up and down with my heavy breaths. He’s still trying to catch his breath too. I rub my fingers, gently over his back. I feel a wetness near his shoulder as he tenses a bit.

              “Oh God, I drew blood. I‘m so sorry,” I say, mortified.

              He chuckles, “Don’t be. It was incredibly sexy.”

              He comes up to lay beside me and kisses my forehead.

              “You are amazing,” he says as he tucks me to his side and reaches his arm around me. We both doze off and for the first time in years, I fall into a dreamless sleep.

Camden

              The last week with Elaina has been torture. My dad has wanted to up the amount of time that Elaina and Ryder are seen together. So basically it’s my job to watch my best friend kissing my girlfriend. I take some comfort in the fact that she doesn’t enjoy, at least I hope she doesn’t. I’m getting really sick of seeing the news and getting emails asking about ‘Ryllie’, their new stupid nickname for them.
How the hell do people come up with these stupid names
? I’m happy that Isabel went home, I got the feeling that she knew that there was something between Elaina and me, though she never said anything.

              What makes everything worse, I can’t even visit her room at night if we’re staying in a hotel because my dad has made sure that she’s now in Ryder’s suite. It looks suspicious if she doesn’t stay with him. She always has her own room in the suite, but how would I explain being there if he sees me.

              But today is going to be different; the guys are working on a new song, so I volunteered to take Elaina sightseeing.

              “You have to tell me where you’re taking me,” she demands when I get in the driver’s seat of the van I rented. We are in Houston now and being in Texas gave me a great idea for something to do with Elaina.

              “Not a chance, it wouldn’t be a very good surprise if I told you.”

              She pouts and I laugh. “You are so cute when you are mad.”

              She tries to keep the frown in place, but her lips twitch.

              When we pull up to a ranch about an hour later Elaina squeals, “Are we doing what I think we’re doing?”

              “Depends on what you think we’re doing.” Elaina told me a few days ago about a friend that she had in Iowa, Macy, who had horses and Elaina loved to go riding with her.

              “You’re taking me riding?”

              “Maybe,” I say as we park in front of a house.

              “Oh my God, you’re the best.” She reaches over the center console and places a huge kiss on my lips before she pulls away and looks around, hoping that no one noticed.

              “So I’ve been told.” I wink at her and open my door, get out and go around to open the door for her.

              A screen door slams and I look up to see an older gentlemen with graying hair and a long, bushy beard, coming down the steps of the house.

              “I’m Michael,” I say shaking his outstretched hand. I can see that Elaina is eyeing me, but I give her a small shake of my head and she lets it go.

              “Nice to meet y’all. I’m Roy. You must be Claire,” he says looking at Elaina.

              “Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you.” She’s clearly confused, but plays along.

              “You been ridin’ before?”

              “Yeah, my friend growing up had horses and I used to go riding with her. But that was years ago.”

              “Like ridin’ a bike.”

              We follow him to the stables. When he’s a little ahead of us, Elaina whispers, “Michael?”

              I shrug, “I wanted to act like your boyfriend today, so I gave him fake names. He wouldn’t be able to look you up. Probably helps that Line 9 doesn’t look like his type of music.”

              She giggles and takes my hand.

              At the stables, there are two large horses. Both are chestnut brown and one has a white star on its forehead. Elaina immediately goes up to the horse with the star and scratches its neck.

              “This here’s White Star. He seems to like you. You’ll take him. Over there’s Trigger. Your young man over here will ride him. Ready to go?”

              She smiles and they look to me. I nod and say, “Let’s go.”

              Elaina easily mounts the horse. I get on, but it isn’t quite as graceful as Elaina.

              As Roy mounts his larger, black horse, he looks to Elaina and says, “You didn’t tell me your guy was a city boy.”

              She giggles and says, “Yeah, he’s from the city, but he isn’t completely a lost cause.”

              “Thanks,” I say looking at her, “That may be the nicest thing that you’ve ever said about me.”

              The banter continues like this for about an hour, them making fun of the city boy, while we ride. I’m having a great time watching Elaina though, she seems to be having fun. She is a natural.

              As we come around a bend in the trail, I see that Roy has set up everything perfectly. I saw a scenic pasture on their website that I thought Elaina would enjoy, so I asked him to set up a picnic for the two of us.

              “Here we are. I’ll be back in a few hours,” says Roy.

              “What?” asks Elaina.

              After making an only slightly awkward dismount, I walk over to Elaina to help her down, but she hops down gracefully without my help. “I asked Roy to prepare us a lunch to have out here. I thought you would like this view.” I turn to thank him, but realize he’s already gone.

              “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

              “It isn’t as beautiful as you.”

              “You can be so cheesy sometimes,” she laughs and shoves my arm.

              “You like it and you know it,” I say, picking her up and putting her over my shoulder and start towards blanket. I take off her shoes on my way.

              She screams in protest then laughs as she says, “I can walk you know.”

              “Oh, I know, I just wanted an excuse to be closer to you.” I say as I set her down on her feet on the blanket. I smirk as she rolls her eyes.

              “You don’t need an excuse,” she whispers against my mouth before her mouth meets mine and her arms go around my neck to pull me closer to her.

              I help her lie down on the blanket and position myself above her, deepening the kiss. It has been a week since the night in her room and it has felt like years. 

              “Cam,” she whimpers as I move my mouth to her neck and my fingers go to the buttons on her shirt. I place a trail of kisses down her as I unbutton each button, slowly. I pull open her shirt. She is wearing a blue bra that looks amazing on her tan skin.

              “Stunning,” I whisper into her mouth before kissing her again. She shivers as I slowly bring my hand from her hip, up to her breast.

              She breaks the kiss and gasps, “Cam, we can’t do this here. Someone will see.”

              “There’s no one around, Roy promised complete privacy,” I say as I unclasp her bra.
Front claps, thank god
. As I move the bra to the side, my mouth finds her already puckered nipple.

              “Oh god” she groans and I can tell that all protest is gone as she reaches her hand up my shirt to run her nails down my back. I pull away and she whimpers in protest until she sees that I’m just pulling away to remove my shirt. I decide she isn’t showing enough skin yet, so I move down her to unbutton, then remove her jeans. Her panties soon follow.

              She shakes her head as I start to move towards her, “No, your jeans are coming off too.” I smile then remove my shoes and jeans. I fish a condom out of my pocket, tear it open and put it on.

              I lie down first since the ground is a little rocky and pull her on top of me. She’s hesitant and tries to cover herself from my intense perusal.

              “Don’t please. I want to see you.” I take her hand away and move them to my chest. She gasps as I help her lower herself on me.
Fuck, she feels amazing
. I groan and this seem to encourage her, she starts to move.  I start trusting up to meet her.

              “Please Elaina, come for me.” I grit my teeth and move my hips a little faster.

              ‘Cam, please,” she groans as her nails start to dig into my chest. She tenses and throws her head back. The feel of her pulsing around me is my undoing and I’m soon joining her.

              We lie there and try to catch our breath. After her breathing returns to normal she tries to get up, but gives up and lies back down on top of me. Her cheek is pressed against my chest. I brush her hair out of her face.

              “You’re incredible,” I tell her.

              “I can’t believe I just did that. What are you turning me into? Last week, I was a virgin and now I’m having sex outside where anyone can see us. You’re a bad influence.”

              I smirk and kiss the top of her head. “I think I’m a good influence. Give me a few minutes and I can show you just how good of an influence I can be.”

              “Easy cowboy,” she says pushing off my chest. She stands and gets dressed. Looking around for someone to spot us and trying to cover herself. “Get dress. What if someone rides by?”

              “Then they will probably think I just had sex with the hottie that’s getting dressed right now. I don’t see anything wrong with that.” But I get up and get dressed anyways.

              We both sit back down on the blanket and I reach into the little cooler that Roy brought out here, to grab us a drink. “What would you like to drink?”

              “Is there any pop?”

              “Pop?” I laugh, “I think you mean soda.”

              “No, pop. Why would you call it soda? You West Coast people are odd.”

              “Um, no. People from the Midwest are the weird ones. Pop is a sound, not something you drink.”

              “Whatever, just give me a water.”

              I laugh as I hand her a water. She takes a sip then moves a little closer. I put my arm around her and kiss her temple.

              “This is really beautiful, thanks for bringing me here.”

              “Anytime.”

              After a few minutes of comfortable silence, she says. “Tell me about where you live.”

              I hesitate in my answer, this isn’t something I want to think about. About a month from now we will be 2,000 miles apart and I don’t have a solution for this yet. I suppose I could fly to Chicago whenever I can get a break, but that won’t be often. Working for Ryder usually keeps me extremely busy. Dad has been helping with some of it during the tour, so I could also keep Elaina happy. Dad seems to think that if she’s unhappy about something, she will go to the press and tell them that the whole thing is a scam, non-disclosure agreement or not.

              While I hesitate, Elaina pulls out two sandwiches and hands one to me. She takes a small bite and waits patiently as she chews.

              “Well, I live in Ryder’s guest house. It’s just easier that way. Not much travel time to work when your boss lives in your front yard.”

              She laughs, “Yeah, I guess not. How did you start working for Ryder?”

              “When we were about 17, Ryder came to my dad and asked him to manage his new band. They had been playing at a few places around town, but weren’t big yet. Dad agreed to listen to him, I think more out of being like a father figure to him than Dad really thinking they could be any good, but Dad was impressed and agreed to take them on. Soon they were signing with a major record label. Everything happened so fast for them after that. When they really started to hit it big, I was 19 and in college. I still hadn’t figured out what to major in, Dad saw this as an opportunity to get me a job and some direction. So, Ryder hired me and I left college.”

              “Is that what you wanted? Leaving college, I mean.”

              “At the time, not really, but after a few years, I’ve gotten good at my job. I get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. I got to meet you.”

              She blushes. “Why didn’t you join Ryder’s band when he started it? You two were close friends right?”

              I laugh, “You wouldn’t want me in a band; I have no musical talent. Dad and Isabel have an ear for music, both naturally gifted. Me on the other hand, I take after my mom, she couldn‘t carry a tune in a bucket. Don’t ever tell her that I said that though. Okay, enough about me. Why did you choose teaching?” I take a bite as she answers.

              “My mom was a teacher. I don’t want to teach just because I want to walk in her footsteps, though I do suppose it might make me feel closer to her. I want to teach because I saw the rewards she got from teaching. Every time, she was able to help a student with something they were struggling to understand, she felt useful. She loved to teach and hated to see her students move on at the end of the year, but every fall, more students would be sitting in her class, ready to learn. I saw how happy it made her and it made me passionate about it too.”

              I stare at her for a minute. “It would be nice to feel that kind of passion about something. I understand why it’s something you want to do. Tell me more about where you grew up.”

              “Well, you already know, I had a cornfield in my back yard.  We lived in an older house with the original hardwood floors and nice crown molding. Dad took a lot of pride in fixing it up. The outside was beautiful. It was a two-story, white house with a large porch on the front. Our neighbors would stop by to talk during the summer and we would all sit out there. Mom and Dad swinging on our porch swing. Braden and I would sometime be playing in the backyard, with the kids from the neighborhood. Dad made us a tree house in the oak tree in our backyard. It was my favorite place to be. After my friends went home for the night, I would just stay out there reading until Mom made me come in for dinner.”