The Final Countdown

Chapter 18

Maddie

The stadium is empty aside from the cleaning crew as I sit on one of the couches overlooking the field, waiting for Cameron to meet us. It's taking him longer than usual to freshen up after the game. Normally, he'd call me within thirty minutes of being finished, but sometimes, interviews tend to run over, or Coach wants a word with them before he heads home, so I'm not going to panic.

Not yet.

Izzy is fast asleep on the couch opposite of me as I twirl my fingers around and around, fighting the urge to go and find him myself. He had mentioned Katie wanting to speak with him tonight, and I despise that I can do nothing about this. I'm helpless because she has a video that can destroy my entire life, and although Cameron has expressed it about a thousand times by now, I still feel selfish for having him go along with this.

If only I hadn't wanted to experiment that night in college. If I had just stayed on the straight and narrow like I had for my entire life, then none of this would have happened. Katie wouldn't hold him in her claws, and Cameron could focus on his career and his family rather than trying to appease a twenty-six-year-old conceited bimbo.

Finally, the door opens, and Cameron enters the room still in his uniform. His hair is dampened with sweat, a few strands stuck to his forehead, and his eyes are wild when they land on me.

Even after all these years, he still makes my heart race at the sight of him. I loved him when he was a lanky, geeky teenager, but now... My eyes roam over his uniform pants that cling to all the right places, to the layers of muscle evident beneath his jersey. I can tell just by looking at him that something happened after the game, but he doesn't want to talk about it. From the expression in his eyes...

He drops his duffel bag to the floor with a soft thud, closing the few feet between us to drag me off the couch and haul me into his arms. My legs wrap around his waist, his hands supporting my ass as he heads into the kitchen of the suite.

His lips press against mine with a feral hunger. I'm too dizzy from the heat of his body pressed against mine to ask what happened, especially when his hands skate down my sides, gliding across my stomach and scraping the band of my leggings. 

"Fuck, I need you," he growls, slamming my ass on the counter. He pushes in between my legs and tugs me closer, my chest pressed against his stomach. "Look at me."

I lift my gaze to his, inhaling a sharp breath when he wraps his fingers around my chin and says, "Do you know how in love with you I am? How much you mean to me?"

"Cam, I—"

"I would do anything for you," he mutters more to himself than me. "Anything."

"She was there after the game, wasn't she?" I ask breathlessly.

"I don't want to talk about her right now."

"But she was there?"

His fingers slip into the waistband, creating teasing strokes above my underwear. He's making it so damn hard to focus, but what the hell happened for him to start saying stuff like this? I know he'd do anything for me, but why feel the need to tell me that? Why come up here first without showering? What happened?

Snapping myself out of my lust-filled mind, I pull back, earning a frustrated sigh from him. "What did she say?"

"She just—" He shoves a hand through his hair. "She's making things more complicated. That's all. It's nothing I can't handle."

"Like what? You promised you wouldn't leave me in the dark about this anymore, Cameron."

His eyes narrow at the use of his full name, but when I grasp his face in my hands, stroking his cheeks with the pads of my thumbs, he relaxes into me, gripping the edges of the counter on either side of my thighs. "She wants me to be her date to the charity gala next month," he admits.