Camden's Redemption (Gloves Off #4)(31)



“No,” I blurted out. “What makes you say that?”

He shrugged, his voice dark. “I don’t know. The way you two talked to each other was different. He was flirting with you.”

His anger gave me pause. Taking his hand, I pulled him to a stop. “Hey,” I murmured, “look at me.”

When he wouldn’t turn, I stood in his line of sight and made him. “Why are you mad? He wasn’t flirting. That’s just the way Luke is. He’s like that with everyone.” The rain falling across his skin was beautiful, but the way he stared at me made me shiver.

He sighed and looked down at the ground, shrugging his shoulders. “I guess I just don’t know what you see in me. You could have any man you want, but yet you choose to be with someone who doesn’t deserve you. I’m a monster, Brooklyn.” Pulling away from me, he angrily swiped the rain off his face. “You don’t even know the real me.”

Turning on his heel, he stormed through the woods with me on his tail. The mud was thick, but I trudged through it, trying my best to keep up. Camden needed help, but I couldn’t give it to him with lies. Mason was going to kill me if I told him the truth.

“Then tell me,” I shouted. “Tell me who you are.”

“You couldn’t handle it,” he snapped.

That was the last thing he needed to say to me. There was nothing I couldn’t handle. “You don’t think I can handle it?” I snarled. “Which part? The part where you f*cked over your brother and his wife? What about what you did at the Dark Side? I know everything about you, Camden.”

He turned to face me, his chest rising and falling with his rapid breaths. “How do you know who I am?” When I didn’t answer, he stepped closer and grabbed me by the shoulders hard. “How, Brooklyn?”

“We have a friend in common,” I confessed.

He sighed and closed his eyes. “You have got to be f*cking kidding me. Mason.” Letting me go, he stepped back and glared at me. “What are you, a cop?”

I nodded. “I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. I don’t want to lie to you anymore.”

He scoffed. “So this whole time was a lie? You pretended to like me so you could get close to me. It f*cking figures.” Again, he stormed away from me, but I kept pace with him.

“That’s not true,” I shouted. “At first, I’ll admit I didn’t want to have anything to do with you, but then we spent time together. I noticed a change in you from the very beginning when we were at the beach. You’re not the same guy you were a few months ago.”

“You were there?” he snapped. “You’ve been watching me this whole time?”

“And also keeping you out of trouble.”

“Because it was your job,” he growled. “Well, don’t worry. You won’t have to put up with me much longer.”

We were finally out of the woods and on the edge of the pond when he pulled out his phone and started to dial. He was going to tell Mason. There was no way in hell I could let him do that. Racing toward him, he only had one second of surprise before I grabbed him around the waist and we went rolling down the muddy bank and into the water. Before surfacing, I latched onto his body and wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. I wasn’t letting him go.

“What the f*ck are you doing?”

I didn’t want to let go to wipe the water out of my eyes so I blinked it away as best as I could. “I can’t let you call Mason. I don’t want him knowing I told you.”

“Why? Because you’ll lose your job?”

“No, dumbass. No matter what happens, I’m not going to lose my job.”

“Then what?” His blue eyes searched mine, his lips only a breath away.

“Because I fell for you, Camden. It wasn’t supposed to happen. You may have a damaged past, but I see past all that. I know you want to run back to California and face Scar’s people, but I need you here, safe . . . with me. You have to trust me. What I feel for you is real.”

Tilting his face up to the rain, he sighed and closed his eyes. “I’m going to regret this,” he whispered.

“Regret what?”

In one quick movement, he closed his lips over mine and gripped the back of my neck, holding me in place. I willingly opened my lips and let him taste me, his tongue sweeping the inside of my mouth like a starved animal. My whole body clenched and trembled as his hands glided down my back, landing on my ass. He was hard between my legs and I moaned when he pushed himself against me.

“I want you so f*cking bad,” he groaned, sucking my bottom lip between his teeth.

“Let’s go inside.”

His lips trailed down my cheek to my neck and back up. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

I rocked my hips against his cock and bit my lip. “Yes, I’m sure.”

I tried to unlatch my legs, but he shook his head and held them in place. “I got you. I kind of like them where they are.”

Taking one step at a time, he walked up the bank and out of the pond, bending down slightly to pick up his phone that fell just outside the water’s edge. At least his phone was saved. Mine was in my back pocket and spent the last ten minutes submerged in the pond.

“Is someone watching us right now?” he asked as he carried me to the door.

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