“You sure do.” Lisa gives my various waffles an approving glance. “And the blanket fort was inspired.”

  I look around the blanket fort and smile. “Wright family tradition. When I met my parents, one of the first things we all did together was build a blanket fort in the living room and eat tacos in it. My dad knew it was something my mom used to do with her own parents, so he recreated it for her, and then the tradition stuck.” I glance at Cam, locking eyes with him when I say this next thing. “It’s what we do when one of us needs a little extra comfort.”

  His face goes soft, his eyes so intense that butterflies swarm my stomach at the same time as a deep satisfaction settles over me at being able to share my own family tradition with this little family that has come to mean so much to me. Cam opens his mouth to say something before he’s interrupted by Ethan.

  “Why’d you have to meet your parents?” He sounds so confused that I almost laugh, and I glance at Cam, wondering if it’s okay to share my story with his kids. When he smiles and nods, I turn back to Ethan.

  “I was adopted,” I tell him. “My biological mom died when I was very little, and then my biological dad couldn’t take care of me, so I came to live with my parents. I’m pretty lucky because they’re the best.”

  “Our mom died when Riley and me were little too,” Ethan says matter-of-factly. “But we’re also pretty lucky because our dad is also the best.” He slides his gaze to Cam. “Even if he won’t let me have a phone for three more years.”

  And with that, what could be a melancholy moment turns into the exact opposite, as we all burst out laughing.

  “I get my love of junk food from my mom. She’s been addicted to M&M’s for my entire life, so she’s the one who taught me to take candy very, very seriously.”

  “Everyone should take candy seriously,” Lisa says, abandoning her waffle and eating Reese’s Pieces straight from the bag. “I’m so glad Cam didn’t turn into one of those athletes that eats all clean and stuff, whatever that means. I never could have handled it.”

  I smile, taking a sip of my second cup of perfect coffee. I may have freaked out just a tiny bit when Cam’s mom strolled into the entryway earlier, because holy shit it was Cam’s mom, but I got over that in ten seconds flat because holy moly is she amazing. She is so much like my own family—immediately welcoming, openly crazy about her grandchildren, making me feel like I belong right here in this house—that I was instantly at ease. And if I had a little shot of anxiety at the thought of widening the circle of people who know about Cam and me and risking it getting out before we’re ready? Well, I told that anxiety to fuck right off because it has no business in this warm, cozy living room.

  Besides, I jingled my rearview mirror disco balls before I knocked on the door, so I’ve got luck on my side.

  “I eat fine,” Cam grumbles, and it’s so adorable I have to stop myself from actually squealing.

  “But do you?” I give him a raised eyebrow. “You had all these bags of candy in your kitchen, and your affinity for tossing M&M’s into popcorn is…well documented.” My raised eyebrow turns to a devious smile at the reminder of all the candy popcorn we’ve shared.

  In bed.

  After.

  When Cam’s eyes go molten, I know he knows exactly what I’m referring to, and when he slides his foot lightly up my leg, my pulse goes haywire.

  “M&M’s in popcorn is brilliant.” Riley immediately gets up from the floor to go rummage through the kitchen pantry. She crows in victory when she comes up with a bag of popcorn, unwrapping it and sticking it into the microwave. “What?” she says at Cam’s look. “It sounds like something I need to try immediately.”

  “Same!” Ethan says. “I’m still hungry.”

  “Want another waffle?” Lisa asks.

  “Nah.” Ethan shoves his plate away. “I’m not more waffles hungry. I’m M&M’s in popcorn hungry. Ry, make two bags.”

  “On it!” she says, going back to the pantry.

  Cam just shakes his head and smiles. The candles flicker as the rain drums quietly on the windows, the storm long over, and I think this is the best day I’ve ever had.

  “So, what’s the deal with you guys?” Riley asks, flopping back down on the pillows and putting a giant bowl of popcorn in the middle of the fort, dumping a massive bag of M&M’s right into the bowl and giving the whole thing a shake. “You’re, like, together right?” Her voice is casual, but when she looks up and her gaze bounces between Cam and me, she looks more like a detective interrogating a witness.

  Did I say this was the best day I’ve ever had? What I meant was, Holy shit teenagers are terrifying and thank fucking god this teenager’s actual parent is in this room to answer the question because what even are words anyway, since I don’t know one single one.

  Except that parent suddenly looks like he, too, has forgotten all the words, and Lisa is trying not to laugh, and how did this go to shit so fast?

  Cam pulls himself together quickly though, tapping his foot against mine, his eyes saying, I’ve got this.

  “Is that okay with you?” he asks Riley.

  She rolls her eyes. “Duh. Maddy is, like, so cool, and she has a giant family and so many of them are women who talk to Zoe and me like we’re actual people instead of just kids. I love them. I’m glad you waited to have a girlfriend until now so it could be Maddy. This is great.”

  Well shit. I will myself not to cry, even though Riley’s words make me feel like I won a gold medal and the Stanley Cup all at the same time. Teenage approval is no small thing.

  “Wait, she’s your girlfriend?” Ethan asks, and his eyes go wide. “If you get married, does that mean I get to be related to Jeremy and Oliver Wright?”

  The way Cam reacts to the word married, the way he immediately looks at me with a smile curving his lips, his eyes crinkling at the corners, like this is something he wants, and he wants to make sure that maybe it’s something I want too, has my heart tripping in my chest because I could, is my first thought. I think I could want exactly that. When I give him a wink, his whole face lights up and he turns back to Ethan.

  “No one is getting married right now. We like each other, and we like spending time together.”

  “And I like spending time with you,” I say to both of them, before turning to Ethan. “But if you want to hang with my dad and brother more, they would love that.”

  “I want,” Ethan says immediately, making everyone laugh again.

  Lisa takes my hand and squeezes it, and Cam looks like someone just gifted him the keys to the universe, and the kids are both grinning while they shove handfuls of candy popcorn into their mouths. The kitchen is a disaster, and the blanket fort is littered with half-eaten waffles and empty mugs, and somewhere out there is probably a clock ticking down to the destruction of my career—but there’s time to worry about all of that later.

  I am right where I’m supposed to be.

  “Anyone want to see a movie today?” Lisa asks, glancing between Riley and Ethan. “I think a dark theater is the best place to spend a rainy day. And maybe dinner afterwards?”

  “Tacos.” Riley says immediately. “Maddy mentioned tacos, and now I can’t think about anything else.”

  Lisa nods. “Definitely tacos. Go get dressed and we’ll find a movie.”

  “You don’t have to,” Cam says to his mom when the kids both disappear upstairs in a cacophony of pounding feet and slamming doors. “This was supposed to be our day together.”

  Lisa smiles at both of us. “And now it’s your day together. I don’t think you get very many of those. Let me give you this one.”

  “We’ll take it,” Cam says, giving me a look that has me suppressing a shiver.

  “Oh, I bet you will,” Lisa says, sounding amused.

  True to her word, twenty minutes later, Cam and I are alone.

  “So…that happened,” he says with a grin, wrapping a hand around my ankle and pulling me closer to him.

  Swinging a leg over his lap, I straddle him with a knee on either side of his thighs, weaving my fingers into his hair. “That absolutely happened. I really like your mom.”

  Cam leans in and kisses me, wrapping his arms around my waist, big hands splayed on my lower back. “She likes you too,” he says against my lips. “And she’s a tough customer.”

  I scoff. “No, she isn’t. All the women in my life are just like her, so I know how she operates. You like me, so she likes me. I’m yours, so I’m hers too. But upset you or your kids and I’m dead to her for all of eternity.”

  Cam laughs, bringing his lips back to mine. “Better keep me then,” he murmurs, his fingers sliding under my sweatshirt to draw maddening circles on my hips that light tiny licks of fire under my skin. “Because I really, really like you. And you’re definitely mine.”

  “Yours,” I say, carding my fingers through his hair. Our mouths move together in a wet, messy tangle, and I think I’ve never liked the sound of that word more in my entire life than I do right now, with Cam’s lips on mine and his hands on me and the feel of his growing erection settling between my legs.

  “Mine,” he mutters, trailing his lips down my jaw and my neck, licking and sucking the sensitive skin until I’m whimpering. And when I rock my hips over him, Cam exhales roughly and grips the hem of my sweatshirt, yanking it off and tossing it to the side. Leaning back, he groans at the view of my naked breasts.

  “Fuck, Wildcat. No bra?”

  I shrug, gliding my hands up my torso. When I pinch my nipples, it’s Cam’s turn to whimper. God, I love that fucking sound. “It’s a no-work Sunday and I just didn’t feel like it.” I lean in so my mouth is at his ear. “I’m not wearing underwear either.”

  “Shit,” he practically moans, dipping his head and taking me in his mouth, flicking his tongue over one nipple and sucking it into a tight peak while he rolls the other between his thumb and forefinger. The motion sends an electric shock right to my clit and I gasp, rocking my hips to try and get more friction.

  “So sweet,” Cam murmurs, his hot breath against my skin making me ache all over. Then he lifts his head, giving me a mischievous grin. “But you could be sweeter.”

  Before I can ask him what he means, he’s swiping a finger through the leftover whipped cream on his plate and running it over my nipple, then sealing his mouth over me and sucking it right off. I cry out at the sensation, groaning when he does it again on the other side. And when he lifts his head and crashes his lips to mine, I taste the whipped cream on his tongue mixed with lust and desire and Cam, and my head threatens to spin right off my body.

  “I need you,” I mutter, working myself over his hard cock. “Want to taste you.” I haven’t, not since the night we met, and suddenly it’s all I can think about.

  “Taste me where?” he asks, his voice a low rasp as his tongue does delicious things to the skin behind my ear.

  “Taste you here.” I slide a hand between us, palming his erection over his joggers and giving him a long, slow stroke.

  “Goddammit, Wildcat,” he grits, pulling back to look at me, his pupils blown wide with pleasure as I rub my thumb over his tip, feeling the wet spot on his sweatpants. “It’s been too damn long since you had those pretty lips wrapped around my cock. I remember your mouth feeling like a dream.”

  I lean in until my mouth is right by his ear again. “Why don’t you let me refresh your memory?” I whisper, before biting down on his earlobe and then sucking it into my mouth. He grunts, thrusting his hips up, hard cock rubbing against me deliciously.

  Who is this sex goddess? I wonder idly.

  Couldn’t be me, except it totally is because Cam growls, rolling us over in one smooth motion so I’m pinned underneath him, the blankets at my back and his erection grinding against my stomach like he’s as desperate as I am.

  I made him that way.

  Me.

  Cam kisses me once before sliding up my body, his powerful legs straddling my chest as he tears his shirt over his head and looks down at me, blue eyes blazing.

  Holy fucking shit.

  This is how I go.

  I’m dead now, killed completely by the sight of this huge, gorgeous man looming over me, all muscles and desire and impressive erection threatening to burst out of his joggers, looking at me like he wants to eat me alive.

  “Like this,” he rasps. Shoving his pants and boxers down enough to free his cock, he gives it a slow stroke before wrapping my hair around his fist and lowering his hips, rubbing his tip over my lips.

  “Open,” he orders.

  It doesn’t even occur to me to hesitate, his command sending lust spiraling through me. I open immediately, swiping my tongue over him, tasting the precum pooling at his slit before running my tongue from base to tip and then again, spurred on by his low curse.

  “Holy fuck, Maddy. Your mouth. It’s like fucking heaven. I need more. Can you take more, baby?”

  “Don’t hold back,” I order, gripping his cock with one hand. Wrapping my lips around him, I suck the tip, flicking my tongue into the sensitive groove just under his head and smiling around him when it has the desired outcome. With a groan, Cam plants his hands on either side of my head and rocks his hips, pushing further into my mouth. Reaching around him, I grip his ass with my free hand, urging him on.

  “Fuck yes. Just like that,” he mutters, his eyes locked on mine as he fucks my mouth in shallow strokes. Cam might be looming over me, but with his panting moans and the way he rasps my name, there’s no mistaking who’s in charge here.

  On my back, with Cam’s dick bumping the back of my throat and the way he tugs my hair sending a delicious burn through my scalp, I am the most powerful woman in the universe.

  It’s that thought that has me dipping a hand down between his legs, rolling his balls in my palm and stroking a finger over the sensitive skin right behind his sac as I swallow around him. I gag a little as tears prick my eyes and relish the needy rumble that comes from his chest.

  “So beautiful. So perfect, with my cock in your mouth. You like when I fuck your throat, don’t you?” he asks. “I remember the last time you sucked me off, you were dripping wet for me afterwards. Are you wet, Maddy? Is that needy cunt begging to be filled?”

  He gasps the last word as I drag my teeth lightly up the underside of his cock, nodding as I hollow my cheeks out and suck hard because I’m fucking drenched.

  “Show me,” he grunts, his eyes on fire. “Push a finger inside your pretty pussy and show me how much you want me inside you.”

  My body blazes with heat as I shove a hand into my leggings, gasping around him as my finger grazes my clit before I dip inside to where I’m hot and aching for him and, just as he predicted, dripping wet. Pulling my hand out, I hold it up, and Cam groans, lowing his head to suck my fingers into his mouth, swirling his tongue around like he doesn’t want to waste a single drop as he pumps his cock in and out of my mouth. It’s wild and filthy and, by a mile, the most erotic experience of my life.

  “Oh my god,” he mumbles, letting my fingers go, his legs shaking slightly as he pulls back, sliding out of my mouth and leaning down, crashing his lips to mine. “I want to come down your throat so badly,” he rasps against my lips. “But I want to come inside you even more.”

  “Please,” I gasp, so full of lust and heat that I wonder how I’m not in flames. “Please just get inside me.”

  Cam gives me an untamed grin. “I love it when you beg.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CAM

  Iam the luckiest fucking guy in the universe. Maddy lies on my living room floor, red hair a messy tangle around her face and lips swollen from sucking me off, staring up at me with need and lust swirling in her eyes. When my time on this earth comes to an end, that will be the last thing I think about, and I’ll know it was a good life because I spent some of it like this.

  Pleasure skates under my skin as I slide down her body, pressing my mouth to hers in a deep, wet kiss before trailing my lips down her neck, licking and kissing a path over her collarbone and between her breasts, rolling her nipples between my fingers as I move lower. She writhes under me, panting as she tangles her fingers in my hair.

  “Do I need to beg some more?” Maddy asks, her voice a breathy moan as I lick along the waistband of her leggings.

  I chuckle, sitting up on my knees and tossing her a wink. “Couldn’t hurt.”

  Maddy’s desperate, needy laugh in response turns my cock to steel. Curling my fingers into the waistband of her leggings, I peel them down slowly. When I toss them away and stare down at her, I realize I’m the one who’s going to be begging because holy shit.

  She’s gorgeous. Pink and perfect and dripping for me, and I’m two seconds from combusting without her even touching me. I want to touch her. Taste her. Come inside her and fill her so full she’ll feel me for days. Mark her so the entire world knows she’s mine.

  I grip her thighs and push her legs apart, leaning down and licking up her seam, holding her open for me as I dip my tongue inside her and moan when her taste explodes on my tongue and she yanks at my hair. “So fucking wet for me,” I mutter, swirling my tongue around her clit and chuckling darkly when her hips rocket off the blankets, a quiet cry falling from her lips.

  The beast inside me beats at the bars of his cage and possession roars in my blood, the need to take her, to have her, almost more than I can bear. And when I lift my head to see her staring back at me, pupils blown wide, my mind fractures, the rest of the room—the rest of the world—fading to nothing until it’s just Maddy and me and this thing between us that is so huge and so intense that it lives and breathes.

  Covering her body with mine, I crash my lips to hers, pushing my tongue inside her mouth to taste her, to let her taste herself as I manage to kick my pants the rest of the way down my legs. She wraps her arms around my neck, moaning as her tongue meets mine, her body lifting to grind against me.