Close to You

  Max is Jake’s business partner and a former member of their band. Jake brings him once in a while to join him onstage, and when the two sing together, the harmonies are magical.

  “Yep, that’s my plan. Wanna hang at the restaurant tonight and listen to music?” I ask Landon.

  “I can do that.”

  “Awesome, I’ll see you later.” Riley waves and runs out. And then, as calmly and easy as you please, Landon reaches over and picks Scoot up in his arms. Instead of the bloodshed I’m expecting, Scoot nestles against Landon’s chin, purring.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I mutter, glaring at both of them. “He barely lets me touch him.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I’m irresistible.”

  “You’re something.” I shake my head and watch as he easily slips Scoot into his carrier.

  “There. All done.” I stand and sigh happily as Landon pulls me into his arms for a big hug. “Good luck. Will you be coming into work when you’re done?”

  “Yes, I’ll just run him back here and go in.”

  “Okay, babe. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Well, it might help if you’re on standby with an ambulance and some Neosporin.”

  He just laughs and kisses my head, then leaves. Scoot glares at me from behind his cage door.

  “You’re not in jail,” I inform him. “You just have to go to the doctor.”

  He growls.

  Shit.

  “SO, HOW DID it go?” Landon asks that evening as he joins me at the bar. I’ve been locked in my office all day and into the evening, trying to catch up on work. Being with Landon is awesome, but it’s been bad for my productivity.

  Not that I’m complaining.

  “Well, it was fine—”

  “Good.”

  “Until we got to the office.”

  “Oh no.” He chuckles and smiles at Kat as she joins us. “She took the cat to the vet today.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard the story,” Kat says, and pours Landon his usual gin and tonic. “I just want to hear it again.”

  “What happened?”

  “The cat is evil,” I reply calmly, and take another sip of my wine. “Like, certifiably evil. I could call in a priest, and the priest would agree.”

  “He’s so mild-mannered.”

  I stare at Landon, and then bust up laughing. “Right.” I hold out my arm so he can examine the scratch marks from my elbow to wrist. “I made this up. Of course, this didn’t happen until after the vaccinations. When we first got there, all was fine. I opened the carrier, and he came out, meowing, looking all innocent and cute. He let the male doctor hold him and examine him. He’s perfectly healthy, by the way.”

  “Good to know,” Landon says with a smile.

  “He thinks that Scoot is about two years old. He was malnourished at some point.” I frown, not enjoying the thought of the evil cat being hungry. “I guess he can tell by his teeth? I don’t know. Anyway, he got a couple of shots since we don’t know if he’s ever had any before. He’s been neutered, so probably, but we can’t be sure. So, he got some shots. He sat perfectly still, looking around like, whatever.

  “And then.” I swallow hard. “The vet left me alone with him.”

  “Take a sip of wine,” Kat suggests, and I comply.

  “So I opened the cage and reached for him, and he became this . . . wild creature.”

  Landon is holding his hand over his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter, but it’s not working.

  “His ears went back, and his eyes got super wide and all wildlike and he hissed at me.”

  “He doesn’t like the cage,” Kat says, nodding sagely.

  “You weren’t there, Kat. You didn’t see it.” I take another sip of wine. “He actually scratched me. And I was so surprised, I practically threw him into the cage!”

  “Aw, poor Scoot,” Landon says, earning the glare of death from me.

  “Poor Scoot?” My voice is calm, but I feel my cheeks flush. “Poor Scoot?”

  “You know what I mean,” he says, reaching for my hand, but I jerk away.

  “I bled. And then he screamed at me all the way home, and when I opened his cage, he ran out super fast and tried to trip me . . . and the worst part?”

  “There’s a part that’s worse?” Landon says, laughing.

  “He freaking peed in his cage!” Both Landon and Kat are laughing now. “Have you ever had to clean cat pee? It’s the most disgusting thing ever.”

  “But tell him the rest,” Kat says, waving at me and holding on to her stomach. “Seriously, it’s the best part.”

  “Oh God,” Landon replies. “I have to hear it.”

  I square my shoulders, trying to wrap a little dignity around myself and failing miserably, I’m sure. “Well, I took the cage into the laundry room, and I had it in the big sink back there to wash it out.”

  Kat doubles over, lays her forehead on the bar, and hits it with her fist. “Oh my God, I can’t handle it.”

  “So, I’m running hot water into it, and swishing the water around.”

  “Oh my God, I’m gonna pee!” Kat exclaims.

  “And suddenly, out of nowhere, Scoot jumps into the sink! Which isn’t such a bad thing because after he peed in the cage, he needed a bath anyway. He starts flailing about and howling, and sending water all over me and over the side of the sink onto the floor, and to try to climb out, he latches on to my other arm.” I pull my sleeve up so Landon can see. “And proceeds to almost amputate me as he launches himself across the room!”

  Now they’re laughing so hard that I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of them has a stroke.

  “I’m so happy that my bloodshed is funny to you.”

  “Oh, baby,” Landon gasps, trying to gather himself. “I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s so horrible.”

  “Horribly funny,” Kat agrees, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Damn, my makeup is a mess.”

  “Yes, and my arms are a mess,” I say, which only makes them laugh more.

  “Seriously, it hurts.” I pout, but I have to bite my lips because I want to bust out into laughter with them, but now it’s the principle of it all.

  Jake and Max are onstage, singing one of their old hits, the restaurant is packed, and I’m back here with these two being ridiculed.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Landon pulls me against him to give me a hug. “I should have gone with you.”

  “Why does he like you so much and not me? I feed him! I give him a place to live. I’m nice to the little bastard.”

  “He’s just temperamental,” Landon says reassuringly. “Are you set on staying through the show, or can I steal you away?”

  “I guess we can go,” I reply with a shrug. “I’m not really in the mood for this anyway.”

  “Come on.” He takes my hand and leads me out back where his car is. He must have swapped out the work truck earlier and come back.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Nowhere fancy,” he says, and takes my hand as he pulls away from the restaurant. He looks down at my arm. “Boy, he really got you good.”

  “No kidding. I wonder if I need a rabies shot?”

  “It’s not that deep, and I am quite sure that Scoot doesn’t have rabies.”

  “No, he just has a bad case of the assholes,” I reply, sulking, which only makes Landon start chuckling again. “Keep laughing and you’ll be sleeping by yourself again tonight, funny man.”

  “Oh, come on, I saw your lips twitch earlier. A year from now, this will be the funniest story ever.”

  “I’ll wait until the wounds heal to laugh about it.”

  The car comes to a stop in the parking lot of our old high school. I frown and glance over at Landon. “Did you forget your homework?”

  “No.” He smiles and unfastens his seat belt, then mine, and turns to face me. “Do you remember that day when I was home from college for the summer and you had just graduated but needed to come back to the school for so
mething or other—”

  “I had to pick up my diploma,” I add, already knowing where he’s going with this. Of course I remember that day.

  “Right, and you asked me to drive you over here. When you came back to the car, we just sat here for like an hour and talked about so many things.”

  He leans toward me, his eyes on my lips. “I knew it then, but I was so young, and didn’t know what in the hell to do about it. And you were so fucking young too.”

  “You knew what?” I ask with a whisper, but he keeps going.

  “I had to take a step back and give you room. Time. Time to grow up and experience some life. But I’m not going to keep giving you room.”

  “I don’t want room,” I say. He smiles softly, in that way he does when I’ve done or said something that he finds particularly cute. He brushes my hair behind my ear and rubs my earlobe between his finger and thumb. “You were the one that got away, Cami.”

  “I didn’t go anywhere.”

  “I’m not doing this right.” He licks his lips, and then leans in and stops talking altogether when his lips meet mine. I sigh into him, the way I always do when he kisses me because it feels so damn good. I fist his shirt and pull him closer, then moan when his tongue meets mine.

  God, I can’t get enough of him.

  But suddenly he takes my hands in his and pulls back, and when I open my eyes, he’s staring at me with wide, sincere eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “Absolutely nothing.” He takes a deep breath. “I just wanted it to be here, in this place, where I wanted to say it then and couldn’t, for all of those reasons.

  “I love you, Cami.”

  Chapter 12

  ~Landon~

  She’s not saying a fucking thing.

  She’s staring at me with those incredible green eyes, unblinking. This can’t be coming from left field for her. Jesus, after all we’ve shared, she’s had to have felt it from me.

  “Sweetheart, I need you to say something.”

  She frowns, and that’s it. I’m positive that she’s going to say that she doesn’t feel the same way, but suddenly tears fill her eyes and she squeezes my hand as a smile spreads across her lips.

  “I love you too,” she whispers, and my heart begins beating again. I lean in and rest my lips against hers.

  “I couldn’t hear you.”

  “Yes, you could.”

  I simply wait, and after a moment, she says, “I love you too, Landon.”

  “Thank God. For a second there, I thought I’d just made a huge ass of myself.”

  “No, that was me today at the vet’s office,” she says, her lips still tickling mine. “Telling me how you feel isn’t being an ass.”

  “I’ve loved you for a long time.”

  She smiles and drags her fingertips down my face. “Ditto.”

  I need her. Right now. I kiss her, taking it from sweet and soft to pure need. She reaches for my jeans, but I take her hand away and kiss her palm. “I’m not going to do this here, in the high school parking lot.”

  “Why not?” She looks around, making me smile. “We’re the only ones here.”

  “Because we’re not teenagers.” I sit back in the seat, put my belt on, and start the car. “But make no mistake, I’m taking you home right now. If I’m not inside you very soon, I’ll go crazy.”

  She doesn’t put her seat belt on, but she sits back and crosses her arms. “But it’s so far away to your house! Why did you have to choose the house so far away?”

  “Well, I didn’t anticipate telling you I love you at the high school and then need to make love to you.”

  “You’re a bad planner,” she says, and makes me laugh. I glance over when I stop at a red light.

  “You’re in a skirt.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “You don’t have to wait.” She raises a brow and hitches her skirt up around her hips.

  And of course she’s not wearing any panties. Is it any wonder that I love her? She grips her legs in her hands and pulls up, from her knees to her hips, making me absolutely crazy.

  My dick is so hard I’m surprised I don’t bust out of my jeans. When she tries to reach for my pants again, I shake my head.

  “This is all about you, Cami.”

  “Me?”

  I nod and glance over. She’s not touching herself.

  “Are you shy?”

  “Kind of. I’ve never—”

  “Are you saying you’ve never masturbated?”

  “No, but not in front of someone.”

  “I’ll help.” I lightly drag my fingertips up her thigh, then follow the crease of where her leg meets her center, and she gasps. “Your skin is so damn soft.”

  She swallows hard as I gently run my fingers through her lips, up to her clit, then back down again. She’s already sopping wet, which only makes me that much harder.

  I’m going to fuck her brainless.

  My middle finger presses on her clit and her back arches.

  “Damn, you’re good at that,” she says breathlessly, giving my ego one hell of a boost.

  I simply love to touch her. “You’re so responsive,” I mutter.

  “Of course I am.” She bites her lip and then exhales. “You’re touching me.”

  My finger slips from her clit to her opening and slides inside. I shake my hand, pressing the pad of my thumb against her most sensitive spot, and grin when she simply explodes against my hand.

  I pull into my driveway—finally—and before she can pull herself together, I help her out of the car, pull her skirt down far enough that I won’t have to kill someone if they happen to look outside, and rush her inside.

  I slam the door closed and spin her around, her back against the door, and sink to my knees so I can bury my face in her.

  “Holy fucking shit!” she exclaims, and fists her hands in my hair, not gently in the least. I pull one leg over my shoulder to give myself better access and eat her like she’s a buffet and I’ve been starved for years.

  Because it feels like I have.

  “Landon!”

  I growl, but don’t stop. Her lips are in my mouth, my tongue is inside her, and she comes again, shuddering. I grip her ass, making sure she doesn’t fall, and when she’s done, I stand and hitch her up, her legs around my waist.

  “I need you,” I say before devouring her mouth. I manage to unzip my pants and free my cock, then slide home.

  “Oh God,” she moans against my mouth. “So good.”

  “So good,” I agree, and begin to pound into her, praying my door doesn’t give.

  Explaining that to the landlord would be interesting.

  “Grab on,” I instruct her, and when she loops her arms around my neck, I carry her, still inside her, to the staircase.

  But we don’t get far up before I lower her to the stairs. I can’t help it. I need to move.

  “I love this, but the stairs aren’t comfy,” she says breathlessly.

  I pull back, turn her over, slap her ass, and plunge back inside her. “Better?”

  “Holy fuck,” she groans.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” Neither of us speaks for long minutes as I fuck her, hard, primal, not able to get enough of her. When I feel her come for the third time, I pull out and lead her the rest of the way up the stairs and to my bedroom.

  I strip us of the rest of our clothes and tumble her onto my bed. I can’t help but stare at her. Jesus, have I ever seen anything more beautiful than Cami spread out on my bed, wearing only moonshine?

  No. No, I haven’t.

  “You’re so damn beautiful,” I say, panting, my hands in fists. I still want to fuck her, hard, but damn it, I want to be gentle with her too. I want to make love to her.

  “Need you,” she says, holding her hand out for me. “Come here.”

  I crawl onto the bed and kiss up her leg, kiss her center, and up her body until I’m covering her. I take both of her hands and hold them in one of mine above h
er head, then guide my cock inside her.

  I stop, buried as deep as I can go, and stare down into her deep green eyes. She’s everything I ever wanted.

  She’s everything I ever needed.

  “Landon?” She circles her hips, trying to get me to move.

  “Yes, my love?”

  She stills and her eyes find mine. “I like that.”

  “Which part?” I grin and pull out to the tip, then push back in. “This?”

  “Yes.”

  “This?” I lower my face and pull her nipple into my mouth, teasing it with my teeth.

  “God, yes.”

  “What else, my love?”

  “That.” I rest on my elbows at either side of her head, let go of her hands, and grin when she immediately grabs on to my ass.

  “Calling you my love?”

  She nods.

  “You are.” I kiss her nose and move my hips slowly. “My love.”

  “You’re my love,” she says softly. She drags her foot up the back of my leg and hitches it over my hip, making my eyes cross with how deep I can go. “And I need you to move, babe.”

  “I am moving.”

  “Faster.”

  “No.”

  She cocks a brow. “Why?”

  I don’t answer. I just kiss her, saying without words everything she needs to hear. Because I need to make this last. Because she’s amazing and I need to show her just how incredible she is.

  Because while fucking her was and is some of the best damn sex I’ve ever had, it’s nothing compared to what it feels like to revel in her.

  So I keep this slow, steady pace and make her feel things she never has before.

  “TELL ME AGAIN why I have to go to your girls’ brunch.” I pull into a parking space outside of the popular breakfast joint in Northwest Portland on Sunday and look over at Cami, who looks soft and still a little sleepy.

  “Because you’re taking me to the movies after this,” she says, her voice perfectly reasonable. “There’s no need for you to go do your own thing, just to meet up with me in two hours. Plus, you’re hungry.”

  “I’m always hungry,” I reply as I take her hand in mine and lead her down the sidewalk and inside the restaurant. It’s not as busy as usual, but then, it’s almost noon.

  The girls slept in this morning.