He passes me a water, and I take an automatic sip, but find I’m not very thirsty. He isn’t either. Cameron leans back, kicking off his sandals and stretching his long legs in front of us. Then he reaches over, gently tugging me to him so that I’m laying snug against his chest, my head cradled between his chin and his shoulder. I press a soft kiss to the warm skin of his neck and his breath catches, his hold on me tightening ever so slightly.

In the last bits of light, his bright green eyes search mine. “I really like you, Shelby.” My heart bursts into a million hummingbirds at the sincerity in his whispered words, and I’m too overwhelmed to speak. Instead, I turn myself in his arms, getting to my knees and stretching them on either side of his slim hips, taking his face between my hands and kissing him with everything I have.

We try to go slow, but we’re not very good at it. Once I’m straddling him, feeling him strain against me, hard where I’m soft, and his hands are tugging my shirt over my head, his fingers dancing inside my bra, cupping me, before his tongue is flicking against my fevered skin …

I whimper and crush against him and he barks out a surprised laugh before hungrily pulling me closer. He flips me gently onto my back, hovering over me and slipping my shorts down my legs, revealing me to him. The dark hides his features, but the way his breath catches thrums through my veins, and I swear I can hear his heart beating.

Soon we’re both bare and he’s digging in his pack for a condom. He fumbles for a moment before shakily lowering himself next to me on the blanket.

“I want to take care of you first,” he whispers, low. “I’m afraid I won’t last.”

“But…”

“Please, Shelby. I want to be good for you.”

His long fingers splay across my flat stomach and purposefully glide down to my center, dipping and swirling, drawing me out. He captures my whimper between his soft lips and in them, I feel his smile. I’m so close, so close, and he can tell. We’ve been here before, but it’s never been quite like this, bringing me to the brink and for the first time, not stopping, not hesitating. Stars burst behind my eyelids and I crush in on myself, overwhelmed, calling out his name to the smothering sky, my fingers wrapped in his hair, until eventually I slip, boneless, against the blanket.

I release his hair and feel his mouth against my collarbone, masculine and proud. I pull him up, kissing him.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

“God, yes.”

I nudge him over me, guiding him. My knees fall open, shaking a little and he hovers, before gracelessly taking me all at once.