Green Mountain Collection 1 Page 19

  CHAPTER 12

  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

  —The gospel according to Elmer Stillman

  Will was holding her so close to him that he was aware of the exact second she fell asleep. How in the world could she sleep when he was strung so tightly he felt like he was going to implode any second?

  Ninety days? He wouldn’t survive nine days wanting her as much as he did. This was truly an unprecedented situation for him. Sure, he’d known desire in his life, but nothing to compare to the needy hunger she aroused in him. With her warm and soft in his arms, he took advantage of the opportunity to run his hand over her back in small circles.

  “Hmm,” she said, snuggling in closer, her breath warm against his neck.

  Her closeness, her warmth, her breasts pressed against his chest, her breath sweet against his neck … The combination was both bliss and torture. How was it possible that she already meant so much to him? How was it possible that he couldn’t wait for tomorrow so he could spend more time with her?

  He’d never felt these things before. Not even when he’d been all wrapped up with Lisa, and he’d been wrapped pretty tightly back then.

  What was it about Cameron that had him feeling this way? For one thing, he’d admired her fortitude after arriving under less-than-ideal circumstances. Despite her injuries, she’d pressed forward with the presentation without an ounce of vanity, at least as far as he could tell. He’d appreciated her interest at what she’d found in the store and he’d enjoyed her obvious delight with the gifts he’d left for her.

  Underneath her sophisticated veneer, he’d seen hints of the lonely young girl who’d been raised by nannies and relied on TV families to keep her company. Her loneliness touched him deeply. The only time he’d ever been truly lonely was right after Lisa left him. But surrounded by his big family, he hadn’t been allowed to wallow for long before they forced him out of his misery and back into life.

  He knew what it felt like to be lonely, but he couldn’t possibly know what it had been like to grow up as alone as she had. She had great friends, people she loved and enjoyed being with, but other than her father, she had no real family. He wanted to surround her with all the things she’d lived without for so long.

  No wonder why she fell in love so easily. She was always looking for something she’d never had. He wanted the chance to give her those things.

  Which took him back to his original thought—how could he feel so much so soon? And why was he lying here so peacefully when he should be thinking about how to extricate himself from this suddenly intense situation?

  He ran his hand over her long hair, letting it spill through his fingers, soft, silky, curly and fragrant.

  No, he wasn’t thinking about extrication, he decided as he yawned. His eyes closed. He wasn’t thinking about getting away from her. He was thinking about how he might keep her right here with him for as long as he possibly could.

  “Will. Will.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Wake up.”

  “I’m awake.”

  “Open your eyes.”

  “They’re open.”

  “No, they’re not.”

  As he forced his eyes open to find her looking at him, he smiled. “Hey.”

  “We fell asleep, and it’s almost three.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, it isn’t. I have to go to Hannah’s or your whole family will know I stayed here with you.”

  “I don’t care what they think.”

  “I care. Not just because of what they might think of me with you, but because of work, too. Please, Will? I know it’s cold, and you don’t feel like going out, but I need to go.”

  “I don’t mind taking you.” He couldn’t resist one last kiss before he set about extricating himself from her sweet embrace when extricating was the last thing he wanted to do.

  As she withdrew from him, she covered her chest with her arms, her face flaming with color.

  Will’s hand landed on her bra, which he gave to her.

  “Thanks,” she mumbled, standing to dress with her back to him.

  Something about the fragile curve of her neck and the fumble of her hands as she tried to put on her bra called to him. He stood, wrapped his arms around her and kissed the spot where her neck met her shoulder, reveling when she trembled. “Let me.”

  Her hands fell to her sides.

  Will hooked her bra and rested his hands on her flat belly. “Don’t start having regrets.”

  “I’m not.” Her hands covered his at her waist.

  “Are you lying?”

  She shook her head.

  “Turn around.”

  Reluctantly, or so it seemed to him, she turned and looked up at him with those expressive hazel eyes that got to him every time. He took her hands and raised them to his shoulders and then rested his on her hips. “No regrets,” he whispered as he kissed her and let his gaze wander down to the fetching sight of her breasts covered by sheer fabric.

  “This always happens,” she said sadly.

  “What does?”

  “I jump in with both feet, and I always regret it.”

  “Not this time. You won’t regret it.”

  “Yes, I will.” Even as she said the words, her entire body arched into him. While her words were saying one thing, her body was clearly saying another. “I need to go.”

  They finished getting dressed, and Will went to find his keys, his mind racing as he tried to think of something he could say to convince her that this time might be different—for both of them. But how could he say that without scaring her off?

  The thought weighed heavily on his mind as they emerged into frigid air that smacked him the rest of the way awake. He helped her into the truck before he went around to the driver’s side. With the engine running, he gave it a minute to warm up.

  “Are we still on for tomorrow night?” he asked. “The dance?”

  “Oh, um, sure. I guess so.”

  Will gripped the wheel tightly, frustration making his teeth grit as he drove into town to his sister’s house. He brought the truck to a stop at the curb after a tense, quiet fifteen-minute ride.

  “Will, I—”

  “No.” He held up a hand to stop her. “Whatever you’re going to say, wait. Give me the weekend. Then you can decide if you can’t do this. But I want the weekend.”

  “I …”

  “One weekend, Cameron.”

  She was quiet for a long moment, so long that Will’s heart began to beat faster as adrenaline zipped through his veins. Her answer was suddenly the most important thing in his life.

  “Okay,” she said softly.

  “Thank you.” His relief was palpable as he got out to round the truck and open her door.

  “You don’t have to walk me in.”

  “Yes, I do.” He kept a hand on the small of her back as they navigated the sidewalk that led to Hannah’s front porch. Under the glow of the light Hannah had left on for Cameron, Will saw her hesitation and uncertainty as she looked up at him.

  “I had a good time tonight,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “I had a great time.” He kissed her chastely, lingering longer than he’d planned when her sweet lips parted under his. Somehow he found the fortitude to pull back from her before another kiss could spin out of control. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She nodded and used her key to open the door while he held the storm door for her. “Night.”

  “Good night.”

  She waited until he was back to his truck to turn off the porch light.

  On the way home, Will plotted his strategy. If he had only one weekend to convince her to give him a chance, he planned to use every minute wisely.

  This must be what it feels like to sneak into your parents’ house after staying out too late, Cameron thought as she crept up the stairs to the second-floor bedroom she’d chosen in Hannah’s home. Not that she’d ever had to sneak into her father’s home. Most o
f the time he wasn’t there to catch her, so she’d done more or less what she wanted after she outgrew the nannies. Now she was discovering that the fear of getting caught sneaking in at three thirty in the morning made her feel giddy and silly at the same time.

  What would Hannah say if she knew that her thirty-three-year-old brother had been out with her until the early hours of the morning? Not much, probably, but still, Cameron was new in town and here to do a job, so it mattered to her that people not think poorly of her.

  It mattered to her that the Abbotts not think poorly of her, she thought, as she brushed her teeth in the bathroom that adjoined her bedroom. The room was gorgeous with rose-colored wallpaper and Victorian-era furnishing that Hannah had told her were part of her late husband’s grandmother’s extensive collection of antiques.

  The four-poster bed had a lace canopy, and the bedside lamp cast a rosy, romantic glow over the room, making Cameron wish that Will were there with her to enjoy the atmosphere. “You’re doing it again,” she said as she turned off the light and tried to relax. “You’re latching on to a guy who is all wrong for you, who lives six hours from you, whose life is as far removed from yours as it’s possible to get. And this time you’re doing it with your eyes wide open with full knowledge of what it will be like when you have to leave him.”

  Even as she gave herself the stern talking-to, images from the evening they’d spent together filled her mind and heart. Building the snow monster, playing with the dogs, wrestling in the snow, making out by the fire. If only he’d been a lousy kisser … If only he’d given her one reason to resist him rather than a thousand reasons to want him.

  She fell asleep reliving the bliss of how lovely it had felt to lay warm and safe in his arms, her breasts pressed against his chest. Remembering the divine tickle of his chest hair had her nipples hardening and her sex tightening with desire.

  You need to stop this, she thought as she drifted off. Tomorrow she would put a stop to it, while she still could.

  Cameron woke to a persistent tap, tap, tap on her bedroom door. She had no idea what time it was, but judging from her overall state of grogginess, it was far too early to be awake, especially after the late night she’d had.

  She dragged herself out of bed, smoothing her bed head as she went to the door. Expecting to find Hannah, she let out a startled gasp at the sight of Will, fresh-faced, well-rested, hair damp from the shower and gorgeous. Flat-out beautiful. And then she remembered how horrible she must look and let out a squeak of protest that made him laugh.

  “What’re you doing here? What time is it?”

  “It’s seven thirty, and I’m here because you’re here.”

  “Hannah …”

  “Is working at the farmer’s market. Most Saturdays.”

  “Oh.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “I’m a wreck.”

  “You’re stunning.”

  “You’re crazy!”

  “Maybe so, but I still want to come in.”

  I’m the crazy one, she thought, as she stepped aside to admit him, closing the door behind him. “Be right back.” She ducked into the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth, trying not to look at the mirror so she wouldn’t know how truly frightful she probably looked. Bruises and bed head and morning breath. Now there’s a sexy combination. What was he doing here so bloody early?

  Prepared to pose that very question she opened the bathroom door to find him reclined on the unused side of her bed. He patted her side.

  “What are you up to, Will Abbott?”

  “Come here.”

  Warily, Cameron approached the bed, keeping her eyes on him the whole time. “I’m here.”

  He held up the covers for her. “All the way.”

  With her better judgment telling her to run for her life, she ignored her better judgment and slid into bed.

  He settled the covers over her before curling up to her, his arm around her waist, her back tucked against his front.

  “Go back to sleep. It’s crazy early.”

  “Yes, it is, which goes back to my original question. What’re you doing here so early?”

  “I missed you the minute I left you last night. I only have one weekend to prove to you that I’m worth the huge chance I want you to take on me. I can’t waste any time.”

  “Will,” she said with a sigh. “You’re battering my defenses.”

  “Good.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment!”

  His soft laughter sent shivers dancing down her spine and every other part of her. “I couldn’t wait to see you again. I couldn’t wait to touch you, to kiss you, to hold you. I loved having you sleep in my arms last night. I want to do that again.”

  “Stop,” she whispered, desperately afraid of the emotions he stirred in her with a few softly spoken words.

  “Those guys you fell for … Did they fall for you, too?”

  “Not the way I fell for them. With hindsight, I was able to see it was mostly a one-way street.”

  “This, most definitely, is not a one-way street. This is a four-lane superhighway.”

  She couldn’t help the laughter or the joyful hope that flooded through her as he tightened his hold on her. “This is the third day I’ve known you, and you’ve worked your way into my bed and into my every thought. How have you managed to do that so quickly?”

  “The same way you’ve managed to do it to me. Go back to sleep for a while. We’ve got all day to spend together.”

  She took his hand and rested it flat against her fast-beating heart. “How am I supposed to sleep when you’ve got that going on?”

  “You’ve got the same thing going on over here. Want to feel?”

  She very much wanted to feel. Cameron turned to face him and placed her hand on his chest. Feeling the fast but steady beat of his heart, she glanced up at him.

  “Told you.”

  “I’m scared.”

  His eyes widened with distress. “Of me?”

  She shook her head. “Of this. Things like this never, ever end well for me.”

  “That doesn’t mean it never will. That doesn’t mean this can’t be something amazing for both of us.”

  “It already is something amazing, and that’s what scares me so badly.” She took a breath, trying to clear her muddled brain. “Before, when it didn’t work out, I was a wreck and it wasn’t anything like this. It was never anything like this. What will happen to me if I get all caught up in you, and then I have to go back to my real life? What will happen—”

  He kissed the words off her lips. “I don’t know what’ll happen. All I know is I want to find out. I want that so badly I don’t want to think about how it’ll end. I want to think about how it’s begun, and how thrilling it is to feel this way. I don’t care that we just met. I don’t care that we have totally different lives in different states. All I care about is the way I feel when you’re in the room.”

  Cameron swallowed the huge lump that had formed in her throat as she listened to him and forced herself to meet his intense gaze. “How do you feel when I’m in the room?”

  “Hopeful. Excited. Intrigued. Fascinated. Curious. Horny.” He said that last word with a shrug and a self-deprecating smile that wiped out the last of her defenses.

  She reached up to bring him down to her, losing herself in the slow, sensual mating of their mouths, the dance of tongues, the gentle sighs of pleasure. As he moved to better align their bodies, she wasn’t thinking about all the reasons this was a bad idea, because nothing about it felt like a bad idea. It felt like the best idea she’d ever had.

  And then his hands were under her T-shirt, warm and rough against her back as his erection pulsed between her legs.

  He tore his lips free, breathing hard against her shoulder. “I didn’t come here for this. I wanted to spend time with you …”

  She cupped the back of his head, cradling him against her. “I love kissing you. I can’t get enough of it.”

  Releasing a
tortured groan, he dropped his head to her chest. “Were you joking about ninety days last night?”

  “Sort of.” How to explain this without sounding like the total loser in love that she’d always been? “After the last disaster, I promised myself I wouldn’t ‘do what I do’ anymore.”

  “And what is it that you do?”

  “Did.” She combed her fingers through his hair, loving the silky texture as it slid between her fingers. “I always leaped first and thought later. I’ve never been promiscuous or anything like that, but I didn’t exactly play hard to get with guys I really liked. And once that happened, I was sunk. For me, sex equals love and that often spells disaster. I’m not capable of casual sex.”

  “Does anything about this feel casual to you?”

  “No,” she said, taken aback by the intensity of his words and his stare. “Nothing about it feels casual. That makes it extra scary.”

  “Then we can be scared together.”

  “You’re scared, too?” she asked.

  “Terrified, but so glad I met you. So glad.” Keeping his eyes open and fixed on her face, he brought his lips down on hers again, softly, devastating her with just the gentle brush of lip against lip. “Do you want to go back to sleep?”

  “Ahhh, no,” she said, laughing. “You’ve got me wide awake.”

  “Then let’s get going.” He lifted himself off her. “We’ve got a lot to do today.”

  His abrupt withdrawal made her want to moan in protest, even though his actions showed that he’d heard—and respected—her concerns.

  As she dragged herself into the shower, she decided she needed to stop sending herself mixed messages. It was becoming harder and harder with every minute she spent with him to remember anything, or anyone, that had come before him.

  Cameron couldn’t recall a day she’d enjoyed more than the one she spent with Will. He took her to Waterbury where they toured the Ben & Jerry’s factory and fed each other samples of the ice cream, particularly her favorite, Chunky Monkey. He kept a near-constant hold on her hand, and when he wasn’t holding her hand, he was touching her lower back or shoulder.

  She was acutely aware of him all day, as they checked out the scenic Trapp Family Lodge and strolled through the picturesque town of Stowe. After a leisurely lunch at a restaurant in Stowe, he took her on the gondola ride to the top of Mount Mansfield. Since they had their car all to themselves, Cameron snuggled in close to him for the ride up the mountain.