Words and Music by Cameron David (2 page)

             
She turned off the light in the closet and as she walked back toward the living room she resolved to focus on her career. After all, she was being interviewed for the nighttime news anchor position at
Toronto News Twelve
. She dreamed of finding a significant other who possessed her own career driven ideals. Someone who wore suits and spoke with impeccable grammar and with whom she could discuss current events.

             
“Here you go.” She held the linens out to him.

             
Cam stood and sniffed the pillow. “This isn’t from your bed.”

             
“No, it’s from the linen closet.”

             
He forcefully dropped the pillow onto the couch, and then took the blanket she held out to him. He sat and pulled off his black boots while she stood and watched him. He then unhooked his belt and slid his jeans off with efficiency. She didn’t realize she was staring until the broad expanse of his naked chest came into view.

             
He grinned at her—a grin so profoundly full of hunger it had her clenching. “Change your mind?” His palm patted the cushion next to him on the sofa.

             
“N-no. I was just making sure you had everything you need.”

             
“Almost everything.”

             
“I’m just going to…” She pointed toward her room and slowly walked away, leaving him in his black underwear on her navy-blue velvet couch.

             
In her bedroom, she cursed under her breath. It was hard to leave him on the couch. She wanted him in her bed as much as he wanted to be there, but she was trying to be Meg 2.0. This new version of Meg only expended energy on healthy things that would lead to the future she was desperately attempting to build. Sadly, she didn’t see any room for Cam in her
Toronto News Twelve
life.

She removed her jeans and the tailored shirt she wore. Running her tongue over her teeth, she realized she was in need of a brush, and her bladder could use emptying. As she padded down the hallway to the bathroom, she peeked to the left, through the doorway that led to the living room. The glow from his phone reflected in his face. His fingers were wiggling over the device and she wondered who he was texting.

On her way back from the bathroom, he’d ceased texting and was just sitting in the dark. The only light in the room came through the curtains from the street lamps. She wondered what he was thinking about, but thought better about disturbing him. In her room, she removed her bra and climbed under the covers of her bed. She felt directionless. The stars in her world were not properly aligned. For the second time she hoped there would be a future for her in Toronto, and that the stars in that city were better behaved than the stars in Baton Rouge.

She failed to realize that no matter how far or wide she traveled, she would always fall asleep under the exact same stars as she had in the place where she’d started. 

Chapter 2

             
Cam sat up on the couch and yawned. Scratching his head, he recalled how he got here…on the sofa. Meg’s distance tonight had killed him. He punched the home button on his phone to get the time. He should just leave. He wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep, and clearly his presence was unwelcome.
How did they get here?
They were Cam and Meg.
BFFs.

He huffed and reached for his jeans. He’d been so excited this week because he was swinging through his hometown for a show and it meant he’d be with Meg. Only he wasn’t. Meg had been accommodating but detached. He recalled earlier how his fingers had sizzled to touch her when he’d first laid eyes on her. Her thick copper hair had been wild…her blue eyes raging like a rough sea. She’d fortified her composure with confidence. He’d known from his first glimpse of her that they wouldn’t be tangling in the sheets. They always had sex when he blew through town. Even when she’d been
‘seeing’
other men. It was their thing…they couldn’t keep their bodies apart. If they were near one another, they were together. It had been that way since they were kids. And now she didn’t want to be left with the pieces of him.

I’m left holding the reins, but I’ve got no horse. It hurts.

He winced at her earlier words. He’d hurt her. He’d never meant to do that. Hell, he’d kill for her…to keep her free from hurt and pain…he’d kill. He scrubbed his face with his hand. Hadn’t he done just that? By her admission, he’d hurt her. She’d hurt him too when she’d not shown last night. This was it then…at twenty-six years, they’d part ways. He turned his head to view the front door. For some reason, he knew that after he walked through it, nothing would ever be the same again. What he wouldn’t give for one more experience to ingest her—to take her goodness deep inside. To make sweet memories that would last him for the rest of his time.

As he sat on the couch feeling lost and alone, he put on his clothes and boots, and then folded up the blanket she’d given him. He placed the generic smelling pillow on top of the folded quilt. He walked to her bedroom door. He’d have to wake her, but regretted causing her any more harm. The door wasn’t latched, and he pushed it open to bring her sleeping form into view. Only she wasn’t sleeping, but reading an e-book. Her blue gaze melted into his green one. She rested on her stomach, her upper body posed on her elbows, and her legs kicked out behind her, dressed in her usual nighttime attire—nothing but her underwear. He swallowed.

“Hey, I’m going to take off, but I wanted to say goodbye first.”

             
“What time is it?”
             
“Three-thirty.”

             
“It’s the middle of the night. What’s wrong?”

             
“I can’t sleep like this.”

             
“Like what?”

             
“Without you.” His voice was tense and horse.

             
“You sleep without me all the time.”

             
He leaned against the jamb. “I lie in bed without you all the time, but sleep eludes me. When I’m in Baton Rouge, the one thing I can count on is a good night’s sleep because I’m sleeping next to you.”

             
She set her e-reader on the nightstand. With her body turned away from him she slid beneath the covers. Sufficiently covered, she sat against the headboard with a frown. “I can’t sleep either.” She chewed her lip and folded her arms across her chest. 

“I don’t want to be the cause of your pain. It’s killing me that I have been. I’m sorry…I thought we were”—he rubbed at the sting in his right eye—“okay.” The quiet was thick and unyielding, like cold butter. “I guess you better lock the door behind me.”

He backed away from her.

             
“Please don’t go.”

             
She’d whispered, but he’d heard her pleading voice almost cry those three words. She stood and slowly padded her way across the room toward him, the sway of her breasts enhanced by the low lamplight. He shouldn’t stay, he should leave. Meg didn’t want to get physical, yet if he stayed that’s what would happen. Grabbing him by the hand, she walked backward to the bed.

She pulled his shirt off over his head. “I can’t stay away from you, Cam. You were my first love.” She sweetly smiled at their memories. She unhooked his belt and his jeans, and then slid her hands down his hips. His skin sizzled, her touch was home. He stood frozen, letting her undress him. With her palms on his chest she guided him to sit on the bed. She bent and unlaced his boots.

His hand slid into her thick hair. “Meg, I don’t want to leave you to pick up the pieces when I leave.”

She continued her task of removing his boots. “It was always going to be that way. Wasn’t it?”

“You could come with me.”

She stood and worked his jeans down his legs, pulling them from each foot. “If I go with you I lose my identity. Any way you look at it, I lose.”

Her words stung, yet he tried to see things from her point of view. “I’m sorry you see it that way.”

Standing between his spread legs, she placed her palm on his cheek. “I don’t
see
it that way—those are the facts of the situation. I love you, Cam. I would build a life with you in a heartbeat. Only you’re not building a life right now…you’re building an empire. Your music has taken off. You’re in demand. It would be wrong of me to intrude on your work and divert your attention. These stolen moments are all that we get. We’re twenty-six now. I want children, a husband, a family. I want to build my career. I can’t do that from the road. You want to become a rock star, but you can’t do that from Baton Rouge.”

“I want to be with you.”

“Do you want to be with me so much that you’d give up the road?”

“I don’t understand why we can’t be together on the road. You could work for that news blog from anywhere.” There was a time when she’d considered his proposal, but at the last minute
Baton Rouge Thirty Nine
offered her a position and she’d chosen her career over him.

“I don’t want to be a journalist…I want to be an anchor. I want to bring information to people. I like the way they look at me, like I’ve got all the answers. When the lights go on and we’re on air, I get a rush of adrenaline like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and I know that I’m right where I need to be.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Only thing was he also felt that rush when he was deep inside of her.

“I know you do…that’s why I could never ask you to give up all of that to stay here with me.”

“You want a husband?”

She shrugged, “Well yeah, eventually.”

“But not me.”

“Oh, Cam. In a perfect world it would be you. I love you.” She climbed over him, straddling him with her body. “I need you.” A wave of her hips had her rubbing against his throbbing cock. “I can feel that you need me too.”

“I’ll always need you, Meg.” Glimpsing the future, he saw her married to someone that wasn’t him. He saw her swaddling an infant in her arms, smiling up at her husband…not him. He knew he wouldn’t marry anyone unless it were Meg.

“Cameron.” Her plush lips came down on his in an act so sweet he wanted to bottle it so that he could open it when things got sour. “There will always be a place for you at my table. Please don’t make this more difficult by adding drama. We’re best friends and we always will be.” He hadn’t made it difficult—she had—by trying to deny their attraction. And they ended up where they always did anyway—in each other’s arms.

She lifted his arms by his wrists and let them go. They flopped to his side. “You’re being weird.” She undulated on his lap. “Let’s just start the night over. Can we do that, please? I want you.”

             
Fuck it. He wanted her too. In one swift move, he flipped them so that she was on her back in the middle of the bed and he was on top of her. She squealed. “Okay. Let’s start over.” His lips took hers, aggressive and consuming. He’d been without her too long and he was going to take enough of what he needed to last a lifetime.

             
She sighed into his mouth and his hand slid up her warm, smooth skin to caress her right breast. His hand molded to her perfectly, knowing her body. His lips closed around her nipple and delicately bit down.

             
“Do you remember our first time?” She asked.

             
“I remember every time, but yeah, I recall not lasting very long.” He chuckled. “Why?”

             
“I think about it all the time. I don’t know why. We are much better at sex now than we were as teens.”

             
He stared down into her eyes. “You think about it all the time?”

             
“Well yeah. It was my first time and yours.”

             
“We were ridiculous.”

             
“But we needed the closeness only sex could bring. We still do.”

             
She was right. No matter how bad they’d sucked it up when they were teens, they’d become closer than they’d ever been. Inseparable. And then they’d graduated and she went off to college while he went on the road with
Adamantium
—the rock group he’d formed his senior year of high school. They saw each other less but would hook up whenever he played in Baton Rouge. That had been their pattern…he’d play a set, and then spend the rest of the night in her bed.

His nose nuzzled her neck where her vanilla scent was strongest. His body sagged, relishing in the comfort. No one knew the extent of their relationship. Ashton and Harmony knew more than anyone else since they’d been a little loud and drunk a time or two at the plantation.

When Meg had started at
Baton Rouge Thirty Nine,
she’d also begun a relationship with Evan Arnold, head anchor, and total dick mouth. And yet, their pattern held. He knew she was intimate with Evan, and it had killed him. Still, when they were near one another, their bodies fought to be together and longing had overcome right and wrong.

             
Her fingers massaged the ridges of his rib cage. As ticklish as she was if he were to do that to her she’d be dying. To test his theory he inched his fingers up her hip and to her side and gave them a little wiggle. Instant squealing in his ear had him chuckling.

             
“Why are you so mean?”

             
“Sorry, just longing for old times.” He kissed her cheek.

             
Her hand squeezed his erection with force and he groaned. “I need you, Cam.”

             
“I’ll take care of you.” Repetitive thuds vibrated against the wall. Then erotic muffled moans filtered through the apartment. “Sweet monkey Jesus…your neighbors are at it again.”

             
“Yeah, that’s what I get to listen to every night.”

             
“Every night?”

             
“Sometimes they start as early as six o’clock.”

             
He stood to his knees and hitched his thumbs beneath the band of her panties. Sliding them down her legs he said, “Time to give them a little competition.”

             
She smiled shyly before covering her eyes with her arm. Blushing developed across her neck and chest. She was adorable. He reached for her hands and set them on his hips. “Come on. Help me take off my underwear.” She could be shy and proper, but he knew how to work her into a frenzy for him. He recalled how hurt she’d been when Evan
Asshole
Arnold had called her frigid.

             
“How many?”

             
She always asked him for a number. He never lied, but often wondered why she needed to know. Perhaps it was because they never used protection. He used condoms with everyone…except her. He needed to feel her sizzling heat squeeze him. “I haven’t been with anyone since I was last with you.”

             
Her slow growing smile pierced his heart. “I thought rock gods got lots of ass.” She pushed his underwear down to his knees, and then he wrestled them the rest of the way off.
             
“The only ass I want is yours.”

             
“That’s only for special occasions.”

             
He laughed from his belly, recalling how she’d almost passed out from the pleasure she’d received from him on her birthday. “Right, no ass.”

             
His head bent and he took the flesh just above her hip between his teeth, delicately tasting.

             
“Ah!”

             
“Take it Meg,” he ordered.

             
“It tickles.”

             
“Pleasure from pain. How do you want me tonight? Tell me.” Her arm moved to cover her eyes. “Nah-uh." He pushed her arm away from her face. "Tell me what you want. How do you want to feel me?” She bit her bottom lip, her eyes sizzling. “Do you want me to love you delicately?” His finger feather touched her clit—an action that had her hips lifting from the bed only to be blocked by his own on top of her. “Hmm?” He continued his light touch. “Something tells me you want it harder.” His thumb assaulted with purpose and had Meg’s heart beating so hard he could hear the banging against the bones of her chest. His finger slammed into her hard, to the second knuckle and continued to wiggle inside of her. She moaned. “What’s that, Meg?”