Bender (The Core Four #1)(36)
I shifted slightly, making out as if I were going to get up, when I felt the weight of the bed dip next to me. His hand came to my shoulder opposite of where he was sitting and gently pushed me back down. My eyes opened and darted to his. Camden shook his head, telling me I wasn’t going anywhere. Mine narrowed back in return, and I saw a flicker of a challenge cross his features. His head tipped to the side, silently daring me to try and move. When his gaze broke from mine, and traveled down my body, I noted that his pants were no longer resting on his hips. That must’ve been what I heard.
“I’m not having sex with you!” I blurted in a moment of panic.
All motion from him stopped, and he brought those beautiful brown eyes back to mine. “Who said we were having sex?”
“Well, I thought…and you kissed me, you…you took your pants off so I assumed….” I was stuttering, my cheeks flaming.
He gave me a half smirk, as though he were privy to some private joke I didn’t know. “I’m lying next to you tonight to make sure you don’t destroy your new furniture, Blue. Settle down.”
He what? “So wait…you’re not sleeping with me?” I questioned, now slightly confused.
Chuckling he said, “Do you want me to sleep with you?”
“No!” I said, my voice squeaked.
“Riiight.” He leaned in so he was looking down at me. “Don’t think I don’t know what you were feeling a few seconds ago. It’s okay that you want me.”
“You self-righteous son of a—”
“Are we resorting to name calling? Cause if that’s the case, I have a few in mind for you; Vixen, Feisty Kitten, Crazy Bat Lady…the list could go on.”
“I don’t understand you,” I snidely retorted.
“Good, I don’t want you to understand me.”
“Well, I don’t.” He had leaned back, and I crossed my arms over my chest like a pouting child. My emotions were all over the place.
“So did you expect me to walk out of here and trust that you wouldn’t find something else to beat the shit out of all this?” His arm went out, as if to show the display of furniture. “Nah…I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“You can’t just stay in here without my permission.”
“The hell I can’t. And I’m pretty sure it’d be entertaining to watch you try and kick me out.” He climbed into the bed and laid back, pushing his legs under the comforter and placing his hands behind his head. His body was wedged right against mine. Well, more like the bed was so plush that I had no choice but to roll into the side of him.
I was speechless. How did I go from being so furious and wanting to commit murder, to feeling so much lust that I thought I would explode from it? Now I was utterly confused. Unfortunately he was right, I would never be able to move him. My efforts would be futile. “This is unacceptable. Tomorrow morning I’m calling some people and having them remove all this stu—”
“You have no people, Blue,” he interrupted me. His eyes were closed, and he was completely relaxed.
“I do to have people!”
“No you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Dodger already knows that if he even tries to move anything out I’m going to kick his ass. So no, you don’t have people.” He opened one eye to peer at me. I was gaping. “And shut your mouth or I might have to find a way to put it to use.”
Unbelievable. How did any of this happen? I had scooted over to the farthest spot on the bed that I could to get away from him. “Crazy bastard, thinks he can come in here and take over everything. Well, I’ll show him…” I was mumbling under my breath, my body turned away from his.
“Hmmm… what’s that?” he taunted.
“I’m going to pay you back for this. I can’t let you buy me all this stuff and not give you the money for it.”
I was lying on my side one minute, and the next I was flat on my back with Camden hovering over the top of me. “Listen to me closely, Keegan. All of this, it was a gift. I gave it to you because I wanted you to have it, because I think you deserve to have something nice. You think I don’t see how much you struggle; you’re studying, working, going to the gym, school. And up until this point, I hadn’t known you’d been sleeping on an air mattress. There was no way I was going to sleep across that hallway from you, knowing that, and not doing something about it. What kind of man would I be if I were curled up in an actual bed every night, while you were on the floor? I wasn’t going to tolerate it.” His mouth formed a thin line. “You will accept this gift from me, and I won’t hear any more of you paying me back for it. Do you understand me?”
I breathed in through my nose, taking in his words. It wasn’t helping that his body was nearly lying on top of mine, and I still felt the sensation of desire coursing through my veins. “I don’t like things handed to me Camden. I work for them, I earn them. I don’t want to feel like I’m weak, like I’m some sort of charity case.”
“Is that how all of this makes you feel?”
“Yes.”
He continued to stare down at me, a look I couldn’t decipher etched into his handsome features. When a grin slowly began to spread across his face, I knew I wasn’t going to win this argument. Okay, when have I ever won an argument with him? With a casual shrug he said, “Too fucking bad, you’re keeping it. And for the record, I don’t do weak, and you’re not.”