Almost Just Friends (Wildstone #4)(63)

They remained silent for a long few minutes, no sound except the water lapping at the boat, the squawk of birds, and the occasional buzzing of an insect.

“You’re going to be okay leaving this place that you love?” he asked. “For Colorado?”

She looked around at the gorgeous, lush green rolling hills edging the lake, dotted with ancient oaks and the occasional lost cow from neighboring ranches. “Living here isn’t exactly a hardship. And I love my job. I love helping people. But it’s . . . immediate, so there’s no closure. I want to do more.”

“You’ll make a great physician assistant.”

She wasn’t sure she’d get the chance now, but she played along. “How do you know? You’ve never seen me in action.”

“Actually, I have.”

She laughed. “In your bed doesn’t count.”

“Hell yeah, it does.” He smiled, but then got serious. “But I’ve seen you in action on the job too. The other day, you arrived on scene for a guy who’d had a heart attack at the little diner in town. Caro’s. I was across the street getting gas when you and Jenna arrived. You dropped to your knees and began working on him, and you were amazing. From a hundred feet away, I could see your determination, could tell you wouldn’t give up on him, on anyone.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, so she turned back to the sky, then pointed to a cloud. “That one looks like an elephant. I love elephants.”

“You really will make a great PA, Piper. You can do anything you want to. I know it.”

She sighed. “Maybe I should hit on you again.”

“So we’ll stop talking?” he asked, sounding amused.

She glanced over at him. “You make me sound like a better person than I am. Because what I didn’t say was that I wasn’t all that sorry to be getting away from Wildstone for a bit.”

“Past tense?”

“Well, obviously I can’t go now. Winnie’s going to need me.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’ll find a way.”

She let his words wash over her. She’d told him her deepest, darkest shame, that she wanted to run away, from the house, her siblings, everything. And he hadn’t judged her, not even a little bit. “Cam?”

“Yeah?”

She came up on her elbow and met his gaze. “It turns out that I am going to hit on you again. You should brace yourself because I’m going to be very convincing.”

“I brought you out here so you could get away.”

“Captain, my Captain,” she whispered. “Whatever you say.”

He sucked in a breath. “You’re fighting dirty again.”

“I get it, you don’t want to take advantage of me, blah blah. But . . . how do you feel about me taking advantage of you?”

His eyes went heavy lidded, his expression smoldering as he lay back, interlacing his fingers behind his head. “You know what? You’re my neighbor, and your life choices are yours to make, and I’ll support you no matter what . . .”

She was laughing as she climbed him like a jungle gym.





Chapter 21


“Sucks to be the one left behind.”

Later, much later, now in the small interior of the boat, Piper and Cam dozed, lulled by the heat they’d generated. The windows were steamed and night had fallen, blocking the outside world, creating an intimacy that she wasn’t sure she was ready for.

Cam was terrifyingly amazing, and it wasn’t just because he knew his way around a woman’s body. Even out of bed, he was a distraction, and she enjoyed spending time with him.

Which wasn’t good.

But it didn’t stop her from sighing in pleasure as he murmured something inaudible in his sleep and tightened his arms around her, as if to keep her from sneaking off.

Which had been her plan.

But there was nowhere to go unless she wanted to swim back. But even if she could do that without drowning, she’d misplaced all the bones in her body thanks to the orgasms. Content for now, she pressed her face into the crook of Cam’s neck. Just for a few minutes, she told herself, and let herself float away.

She awoke sometime later, violently aroused, with Cam’s mouth working its way down her writhing body. Her fingers were digging into his shoulders and she was making the same “yummy” sounds she made when she ate ranch-flavored popcorn with extra butter.

She already knew he was as incredibly instinctive in bed as he seemed to be everywhere else. He knew exactly when and how to effortlessly take her to the very edge and hold her there just long enough to make her slide her fingers into his hair and tug.

The bastard just huffed a soft laugh against her and then . . . sent her flying. She came back to herself to feel him right there, kneeling between her thighs.

“Open your eyes, Piper.”

It took her a moment to find the right muscles, but she finally managed to meet his dark, wild gaze.

“I didn’t expect you,” he said. “You open me up.”

She might have argued that she was the one opened up at the moment, but she couldn’t joke, couldn’t tease, couldn’t do anything but soak in the sincerity of those words, which filled her both emotionally and physically as he pushed inside her. She gasped his name in a shockingly needy voice, exposing a vulnerability she never liked to reveal. But he was right there with her, laid bare, letting her see everything he felt.