“Because it matters to me.”
“It should not.”
“Says who?”
“Me.”
“Well, you’re wrong, so fight me on it as much as you want. You won’t fucking win.”
I didn’t want to fight him. I wanted to climb all over him and fuck the remnants of our strangest encounter yet into a distant, hazy memory. But as wrapped up in each other as we were, nothing in Cam’s touch was sexual right now. He was comforting me, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
“Hey.” Cam nudged my chin with his knuckles, the heavy rings on his fingers cool against my skin. “You don’t have to tell me shit. Just know that I’m fucking here, okay? And I’m not going anywhere.”
It occurred to me that I should probably have enquired as to how he’d come to be in my flat at all, let alone why he’d come in the first place, but I didn’t need those answers from him. He’d picked the lock on my front door and I hadn’t heard him or seen him on my security system because I’d been... somewhere else, somewhere he’d pulled me back from with gentle touches and kind words.
I said nothing, shifting my weight on top of him from one side of his ribcage to the other.
He winced.
I lifted off him like I’d been burned by his radiating warmth. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You lie?”
He smirked. “Maybe.”
“There is no maybe. You are hurt.”
I drew back to get a better look and flicked a lamp on. Cam’s skin was as obscured by ink in the light as it was in the dark, but I saw the mottled welts all the same and fury burned inside me. He’d been bruised before, but he wasbatteredthis time, and now I was coherent enough to assess him, the lines of pain etched on his face were unmistakable. “How did this happen?”
A pointless question—I already knew. But keeping up appearances was important. Cam couldn’t know I was shadowing his enemies. Not yet, if ever.
He gave me a slow shrug. “Some trouble with a rival club. Wasn’t that bad until I beat the shit out of the punch bag before I came here.”
“One fight was not enough for you?”
“I needed to think.”
“It sounds like you do not think enough... about yourself, no?”
Cam blew out a breath. “I’ve had worse. Can we just leave it at that?”
Not a chance. I was a sadistic bastard and it was time he knew it.
I pressed the heel of my hand into the place I was fairly certain hurt the most, not hard enough to do more damage but with enough force to let him know I saw right through him.
Cam hissed, forcing himself to stay still as he gritted his teeth.
I leaned over him, lips a torturous inch from his. “The easiest way out of this is to tell me you’re in pain and let me help you.”
“This is you helping me?”
“Until you admit the truth, yes.”
“You’re a sick fuck.”
“Yes.”
