Chapter Thirteen

{Zach}

"I think it should be pink," Hannah exclaimed excitedly.

I groaned, because seriously? They wanted me to present something pink? I turned to Jonas and whined, "How did we get stuck doing this girly shit?"

He gave a small shrug and answered simply, "We're outnumbered."

It was true. Hannah, Cammie, and Liz outnumbered Jonas and myself for our chemistry project, so whenever we took to voting to make important decisions, whatever the girls wanted, the girls got.

But I drew the line at anything pink.

"Hey, we let you choose our experiment," Hannah argued, obviously upset that I refused to allow pink on the trifold.

"No, you let Jonas choose our topic," I corrected her. "And Liz helped!"

"Well, if your ideas didn't suck, we would've let you choose," Cammie told me, practically spitting the words at me.

I folded my arms and glared at her. All for show, of course. Even her snarky comment was to throw our friends off our trail. We'd been sneaking around for a little over a month, and after we kissed and made up for me running out and almost ruining everything a few weeks back, things had been going great. We were no longer uncomfortable, and it seemed like our little plan was actually working—we hadn't argued or fought since that first time, and she was quickly becoming one of my favorite people. She was beautiful and smart—of course, I already knew that. After getting to actually know her, I learned she was also witty, bubbly, and affectionate. Very affectionate, when she wanted to be, which I never complained about.

When no one was looking, she sent me a playful wink paired with a wicked smile.

Damn, she didn't know how tempting she was, which made me want her even more.

I tried ignoring the enticement, but not thinking about Cammie's sexiness what proving to be very difficult. For one thing, she was sitting so close to me, wearing a silky shirt that clung to every inch of her, and her perfume mingled evocatively with her natural scent and had me constantly inhaling deeply just to catch the aroma of it over and over.

"Fine," I said, reminding myself that we were in public, and what we did behind closed doors was a private matter—one that nobody even knew about. "So, what am I supposed to do? What's my job in this project?"

"Your job is to be the pretty face and present our project to the class," Liz ordered, writing down every last detail about our experiment in her journal—probably as a guideline for me on what to say during the presentation next week.

"Uh, no," Hannah stated, sounding offended. "That's my job. I'm the pretty face."

Liz sighed and looked up. She looked like she was already tired with the conversation, as if they had been over this a million times and Hannah still just wasn't getting it. "You," she started, looking directly at Hannah and shoving her pencil in her face, "are the pretty face that doesn't talk. Zach will give the presentation and you will just stand there and look good."

Hannah's face scrunched as she considered Liz's words. Then, she nodded and said, "Okay, I can do that."

"Don't mess it up," Cammie told her, giving her a hard time. "Our grade on this depends on how great you look."

I stifled a smile. I loved Cammie's feisty side.

Hannah must not have caught the sarcasm in Cammie's voice, because she held her chin up high and confidently replied, "Then prepare to get the best grade of your life."

Mixed responses came from the group, but no one bothered bursting her bubble. Instead, Liz and Jonas snorted and shook their heads, silently laughing at her, while Cammie and I met gazes and bite back our smiles.

It was times like those, where we were able to act like real friends without the awkwardness that used to follow, that I especially loved about our time together. Sure, kissing Cam was amazing, but nothing could compare to the warm feeling I got when we locked eyes and just smiled, saying a million things without speaking a single word.

Before anyone caught us, I looked away, as much as I hated doing it. Casually, I asked everyone, "Do you guys want to come over tonight and work on the trifold?"

"Sure," Cammie replied almost immediately. A faint blush hit her cheeks as she looked away guiltily, probably hoping no one noticed how quick she was to say yes.

If they did, they didn't say anything.

"Can't," Hannah answered, with a roll of her eyes. "I'm grounded."

"I can't either," Jonas added. "I'm babysitting my brother."

"Liz?" I asked, keeping my voice calm and void of any excitement I had at the possibility of Cammie and I having the house to ourselves.

"I'm going to dinner with my parents," she explained.

Refraining from smiling at that moment was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I managed to look at Cammie with a neutral facial expression. "Looks like it's just you and me tonight," I told her, praying my voice wasn't as husky as it felt.

Her blush from before darkened, and I could tell what was going through that pretty head of hers, mainly because the same dirty thoughts were running through mine as well. When her eyes darkened with want and desire, I could feel all my muscles tightening as they abstained from reaching out and grabbing her right then and there. Fuck me. Shit—no! No thoughts of fucking. Just breathe. Focus on breathing. Not fucking.

"You two alone?" Hannah snorted in mockery, helping me calm the hormones that had been kicked into overdrive. "This'll be good."

"Yeah, better keep your phone close by," Cammie told her, doing a much better job at seeming nonchalant than I was. "I might need your help hiding the body," she teased, her voice laced with laughter.

Despite telling myself not to, I chuckled. The images of what the night might entail for Cammie and me were probably completely different in our friends' minds than our own, and they had no clue how wrong they were.

::*::*::*::

{Cammie}

That afternoon, I laid on Zach's living room floor, adding some finishing touches to our trifold. Although my back was to him while he sat on the couch behind me, I knew Zach was watching me intently. That was all he'd been doing since I started on the dumb poster.

"I can feel you staring at me, you know," I finally told him. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that I was right, and I flashed a smile.

He grinned back, but his was much naughtier than mine had been, his eyes traveling down the backside of my body. "Well, I wasn't trying to be covert about it," he said, his gaze settling on my face again.

I giggled and shook my head, sitting up to get a better look at the almost-completed trifold that I had spent the last two-and-a-half hours on.

Zach slid off the couch and rested next to me on the floor, his arm tactically stretched out along the seat behind me, his hand brushing my shoulder.

The silence between us grew, and he was getting impatient while I continued to work on our presentation, pretending to ignore him.

Finally, when he became too restless, I heard him call my name. "Hey, Cam, look at this."

I turned to look at whatever it was he wanted me to see, but instead I turned right into Zach's lips as he gave me a small peck.

He smirked like I'd seen him do a million times before. "Gotcha."

I laughed, unable to hide my giddiness. "You're ridiculous," I scolded him, despite the smile on my face.

"I've been wanting to do that all afternoon," he told me, wrapping his arms around my body and pulling me into him. "But you've been too busy doing homework to pay attention to me."

Sinking into his side, I explained, defensively, "It had to be done." I pointed to the finished product and asked, "What do you think?"

"Wow," he exclaimed when he actually looked at it, probably for the first time that afternoon. "Impressive."

I smiled proudly, looking up at him from where I was nestled into his side as his arms draped possessively around me. "And no trace of pink on it," I teased.

A small smile of his own slowly slipped across his lips as he leaned forward and planted them on mine. Something about this kiss was different than our others. It wasn't gentle or playful, but it wasn't rough or heated either. It was almost as if he kissed me just because he wanted to—like he didn't even know he was going to do it until he had.

His fingers moved to rest beneath my chin, as if he was afraid I was going to turn away from him. The lightness to his touch was breathtaking, and I felt myself gasp slightly in response.

In an instant, like my gasp had woken up his senses, he pressed his lips to mine even harder, plunging his hand into my hair and holding me against him. This was the type of kiss we were used to—fast, ravenous, greedy. As if it were our last and we needed to drink up every last bit of it. The kind of kiss that stimulates all your hormones until you feel a high. The kind of kiss that wipes your mind blank, it's so intense. It was easier that way—the soft, gentle kisses were the kind that held meaning, something we both agreed didn't belong in our arrangement.

He shifted us, gently grabbing a hold of my leg and moving it to where he could slip between it and the other one. He started to slowly lower me to my back when our lust-filled haze was broken by a ringing phone.

Cursing under his breath, he jumped up and stormed off into the kitchen, where I assumed the ringing was coming from.

I followed him, passing through the dining room where, spread out along the table, was a puzzle. The box sat up as a frame of reference, so I could see what it would look like once finished—five dogs, all different breeds, lined up in tall grass in front of a small body of water, like a puddle maybe, against a bright clear sky—although whoever was putting it together had barely even begun doing so.

Somehow, among the five-hundred pieces, I was able to find the next one that made up the half-finished border. While Zach was on the phone, I continued to put pieces together until the border was fully completed.

I didn't know he'd entered the room until I felt his hands at my hips, trapping me against the table's edge.

"What are you doing?" he asked tenderly, his voice low and seductive as he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on my shoulder before nuzzling his face into my hair.

"A puzzle." Oh, man, my voice was drenched with desire as his hands continued their caress along my sides. As I spoke, my head tipped to the side on it's on volition, allowing him better access.

"Anything to keep you away from me, huh?" he mumbled into my exposed skin before chuckling and pulling back.

The brush of his lips sent shivers down my spine, and goosebumps immediately broke out along my arms. Noticing, Zach rubbed his hands up and down the bare skin to warm them up, and I doubted he had the slightest clue that he was the cause of the chill. Over a month together and it seemed that my body only continued to grow more and more responsive to his touch.

"Who was on the phone?" I asked, ignoring the temptation that stood behind me, his muscled chest flat against my back.

"My mom," he answered calmly. "She was asking about dinner."

As I grabbed another piece to add to the picture, Zach moved to stand beside me, watching me as I worked. Once again.

"Do you like puzzles?" he asked, grabbing a piece of his own and seeing if it fit with what I had already put together. It didn't.

I shrugged. "If I'm in the mood."

"My mom loves them."

I reached for one of the pieces that made up the Bulldog's paw, my hand bumping into his as he went for it, too. I apologized, abandoning the piece and deciding to grab a different one, one that belonged to the grass at the bottom of the puzzle. Again, his hand knocked into mine as we both reached for the same piece. This time, I glanced at him, but he didn't notice. I moved my hand to another random piece and he followed, snatching the piece off the table before I had a chance to.

"What are you doing?" I chuckled.

"Putting together a puzzle," he answered, feigning innocence.

I tried one more time to grab a piece, but he stole it from me again. Genuinely laughing, I repeated, "Seriously, what are you doing?"

"Seriously, putting together a puzzle," he said again, this time grinning, unable to hide his amusement any longer. Holding the plain blue piece out to me, he asked, "What do you think? Sky or water?"

I took the tiny piece out of his hand, our fingers brushing as I grabbed it. "I think it's water," I said after analyzing it.

His arm brushed across my body as he reached for another piece. "And this one?" he asked again. "Sky or grass?"

I giggled. "Definitely grass," I told him. I grabbed the new piece, too, knowing he was doing all of this just to give us an excuse to touch. As if we needed it.

"What about this?" he asked one last time, reaching past where I stood with the arm furthest from me so that his body came between mine and the table, our chests touching slightly. He paused before picking up the piece, looking down at me for a second.

I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks as they flushed a royal red under his gaze.

His eyes dropped to my lips, his forming into a smirk. Finally, he held out the last piece for me to examine. "Which dog do you think it is?"

I looked at it briefly, immediately knowing the white fur and black spot belonged to the Dalmatian. I glanced up at him again and I saw the recognition on his face as well. But he simply looked at me as if he was waiting for my final say.

"Hmmm," I pretended to ponder. "Here. Let me check the box." I took the piece and leaned over the table to where the box sat, holding the piece up to the picture to compare where it belonged. Doing so, I arched my back, feeling my pants hug my ass as I stuck it out noticeably. The motion pulled my shirt up slightly, revealing a hint of my lower back.

Zach's eyes moved over my curves, assessing every inch of me. He was obviously restraining himself—from jumping me, from touching me, from even moving towards me. Every muscle of his was clenched tight in self-control as I tortured him.

And I loved it. I loved that I could turn him on like a lamp in a dark room.

I straightened and turned back around, holding the piece out to him. "I couldn't figure it out," I told him, playing dumb since it was so clear what dog the puzzle piece belonged to. "Now, we'll never finish it." I pouted with a dramatic sigh.

"I guess that means we're done with the damn puzzle?" he asked as he stalked toward me, his movements fluid and sensual, but at the same time menacing, like a cheetah stalking its prey.

I bit back a smile, still enjoying how aroused I made him. This is how he must feel when my body reacts to his touch. It was empowering, knowing you had that much control.

I nodded, but I didn't say anything. I didn't need to—he could see that I was ready to abandon the puzzle and get back to where we were before the stupid phone call interrupted us.

"Good," he growled.

And the next thing I knew, he grabbed my face and kissed me hungrily, to which I gladly returned the favor.


Hey y'all! So, the holidays are always a busy time for me, so I apologize that it's taken me a little while to get this out, but I finally did! Yay!

I'm kind of a really big fan of this chapter. It's pretty simple, no drama, and nothing too serious, but I think that's why I like it so much (: Let me know what you guys think!

You guys are so great, I absolutely love all of your reviews. Every time I get an update that a review has been left, it makes my day (: Keep up the awesome support, that's the only thing that keeps me going! Thanks, and stay awesome (:

Happy Holidays!