The Real(48)

“Cameron, I’m not dancing with you in the woods.”

“Are you really afraid?” he asked with a hint of a smile as he flipped through his music. I looked around us and thanked the vodka for the brass balls I’d grown in the last few hours.

“No, thanks to Tito, and his vodka, I’m feeling pretty relaxed.”

“Okay then,” he said as he chose a song and set his phone on the console. The heavy bass and whining guitar of “Witchy Woman” by the Eagles started to play.

“Funny,” I said as his dimples shone through the dim light of the cabin. The interior light lit up the rest of his shit-eating grin as he opened his door and walked past the headlights to get to mine.

“I’m not even close to finished wooing you,” he whispered as he led me to stand in front of the high beams.

My hands in his, he kissed each of my wrists before he pulled them around his neck and began to move with me plastered to his body. I followed his lead with ease while he swayed his hips. With no space between us and far too many clothes, I burrowed into his warmth.

Spotlighted by his high beams in the middle of nowhere, he slid his hands up and down the inside of my jacket, caressing me and lighting me up with need. Languid, we floated on a subzero cloud, fully immersed in the other. We were a little drunk, but more consumed by our connection.

Cameron began a slow grind as we drunk-danced in the snow. Twisting my hips, I put on a little show as he watched my movements, and his grin let me know he liked what he was seeing.

One thing I knew without him saying was that Cameron loved to dance. I loved that about him. I loved that he was so confident and had a way of making me feel comfortable when I was out of my element.

We laughed as we stumbled a little in our footing, our bodies bouncing in rhythm. I pushed out my lips as I shimmied up to him, and he turned me around so my back was to his chest.

Party of two, we were getting down in the woods, dancing and giddy. I felt free, I felt important, and I felt loved.

That moment was one of the happiest of my life.

When the song ended, I moved to head toward the SUV, but he pulled me back to him.

“One more dance,” he said as “Hand Me Down” by Matchbox Twenty filtered through the speakers. Cameron began to sing to me, his vodka-laced breath covering my neck, the words of the song touching me deeply.

I followed his lead while he subtly moved, more intent on singing than dancing. Every second of that dance cemented itself in my heart.

If there was ever a definition of woo, it was the fine-ass man singing to me about what I deserved.

I had to fight back tears when his lips took my trembling mouth. I hoped he thought it was from the cold, but the truth was, I was raw. I wanted what we had to be it. I wanted him to be the last man I kissed, the last man I gave my heart and body to. And I didn’t want my heart to be a liar. And only he had to power to make it true.

He said we didn’t deal in absolutes, but my heart was starting to disagree as it beat for him. Cameron was making me a believer.

I was falling.

And falling hard.

I didn’t need anything more from him than what he was giving. But what he was giving was so much more than I’d expected. I pressed into him, doing everything I could to show him how much he moved me.

Because Cameron moved me.

Don’t let me be wrong. Please, God, don’t let me be wrong again.

I looked up into jade eyes and took a mental picture at the expression on his face.

“Don’t make me a fool,” I whispered to him in a plea.

He paused his steps and looked down at me with a mix of emotion.

I shook my head with a smile. “But you can’t promise you won’t.”

He tightened his hold on me. “It’s really not so hard to believe in me, is it? I mean, you are dancing in the woods.”

I smiled. “I am, aren’t I?”

“You are,” he said as the wind picked up and we kissed words away.

Only words made liars out of people.

Cameron said kisses were unspoken promises, and so he kissed me until I understood his.

Our mouths became urgent, and I used his kiss as assurance. Now that I had him, I was too afraid of the other shoe dropping. If I wasn’t careful, I would ruin the here and now with the threat of the unknown.

I had to let go.

I had to let life happen.

And so, for myself, and for Cameron, I let go.

And he was still there, kissing me, touching me, being mine.

If karma and fate truly existed, I would make the exception and believe in them for the sake of us.

“I want you,” I whispered as I clutched him tighter to me. Desperation laced my voice as I pressed my body to his. “Fuck me, prom king.”

His answering groan rumbled through his chest as his hands gripped my ass.

The sound of crunching snow and moving headlights had us jumping apart like a bunch of guilty teenagers. I shrieked as a large truck approached, and Cameron made quick work of depositing me in the Audi.

I yelled for him to get in too as he closed the door. I was being irrational, and I knew it, but I couldn’t help the full-fledged panic that raced through me as Cameron ducked to converse with the driver.

Instead of the relief I should have felt, I had more concern for him and our bubble that had been popped by the intruder. When Cameron pulled back from the truck, he smiled in my direction and jogged toward me.