Chapter Eight

{Cammie}

The next day, we spent most of our time down by the river, hanging out and enjoying the perfect relaxation weather. We swam, played games, talked, and most importantly, Zach and I actually got along (something our friends were constantly commenting on). By the time we got back to our campsite and finished packing up our stuff, we were all drained from the day's activities and the sun's heat. Although the trip was exhilarating and loads of fun, I couldn't wait to get home and take a nap.

After another two-hour long drive through the middle of nowhere, I finally walked through my front door and called out, "Hey, Mom. I'm home!"

Excitedly, my mom sprung from the kitchen and hurried over towards me. By the smell engulfing the house and the flour on her apron, she must've been baking something. "Hey, kiddo! How was your camping trip?" she asked, smiling brightly and squeezing me tight.

"So much fun," I answered, hugging her back just as hard. "How was your night?"

"Oh, it was great," she replied, leading both of us back into the kitchen where she continued with her baking. "I got to experiment some with my cooking, and I made the best lasagna."

"Ooh, I can't wait to try it," I told her. "Did Dad like it?"

"Oh, he didn't make it in yesterday," she exclaimed calmly.

I frowned at her words, my eyebrows crinkling in confusion. "I thought his flight was supposed to land around three?"

"It was rescheduled," she said nonchalantly, as if telling me the store was out of milk and we'll just get some another time.

My face fell at the news of my dad's delayed return. I had been looking forward to it for days now.

Noticing my sullen mood, my mom smiled sympathetically. "Don't worry, kiddo. He comes in on Tuesday. That's not too far away," she offered, obviously trying to cheer me up. What I couldn't understand was how she wasn't more upset about it.

"He's already been gone for two weeks," I argued.

Walking around the island, she gave me another hug. "That's the life of a pilot, kiddo. Unfortunately, that means he's gone often. That just makes our time with him that much more special." She kissed the top of my head and gave me a wink before returning to her stirring.

I nodded, knowing she was right but still annoyed with the turn of events. "I'm gonna go take a shower before dinner," I said, hoping I didn't sound as sad as I felt.

"Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything, but you do kinda smell like murky water," my mom said as she wrinkled her nose.

I laughed before I left the kitchen and headed up the stairs to my room. I grabbed a towel and turned on the shower, relishing the hot water as it streamed over my body. Besides the feeling of being clean, the best thing about showers was that they were the perfect place to think. So, I took advantage of that time to sulk, not for the first time, about my dad's extended leave. It seemed like that was happening more often than not—he'll say he'll be gone for a week and then he'll be scheduled to do two more flights before he can come back home.

I know he always claimed to miss my mom and me, but I highly doubted that he minded having extra flights thrown at him last minute. My dad loved to fly; it had always been his dream to become a pilot. When I was little, all he'd talk about was getting his license so he could travel all over and visit places he never imagined he could go. And now, he works for the largest airline company in the world and gets to do all of that and more. He's told me more than once that he was finally living out his dream.

And I felt so guilty for wishing he would just give it all up and come home. I was the worst daughter ever.

I decided I was done drowning my sorrows in the now-ice-cold shower water, so I got out and dried off, slipping into fresh clothes and running a towel through my hair. My phone beeped with a new message, but I didn't bother to look at it. I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment. When it beeped again, and again, and again from what I assumed was probably a group chat between the girls, I finally turned it on silent before shoving it in my pocket and flopping onto my bed.

I must've dozed off for a few minutes, because the next thing I heard was my mom calling me from downstairs telling me a friend of mine was here, but I hadn't heard the doorbell ring.

Groaning up at the ceiling, I whined, "Seriously?" I just wanted to be left alone for the night. Couldn't my friends see that from how I was ignoring their messages?

I heard whoever it was as they pounded up the stairs. I got off my bed to greet them when they suddenly appeared in my doorway.

I gasped, shocked by his presence, and asked a tad too sharply, "What are you doing here?"

::*::*::*::

{Zach}

How the hell I ended up at Cammie's house, let alone inside her room, I didn't know. One moment, I was stuck in a car with Ryan and Jonas while they acted like idiots for two hours and then the next, I was standing in front of a stunned Cammie. But she wasn't the only one who was surprised by my arrival, and I was sure I looked just as shocked and confused as she did.

"Zach?" she asked, probably worried considering I was just standing there like a psycho instead of answering her.

Finally, I snapped back.

She raised her eyebrows at me, still waiting for me to tell her what the hell I was doing there.

"I, uh—" I stammered, unsure of how to answer that. I was too distracted with thoughts of her and the fact that I was in her room and she wasn't shoving me back out the door. Not only that, but her hair was wet and undone, naturally falling in all directions. Holy shit, was she just in the shower? That just blurred away any coherent thought I had on why I was there in the first place, and was replaced with reasons why I wanted to be there now.

A concerned look crossed her face, her lips slightly open and turned downward in a frown, and her eyes wide and blazing blue.

She looked incredibly hot, just like she had earlier in the day in her multicolored bikini. Suddenly, I remembered why I came—because I'd been wanting her all day, and this was the only way I could have her.

But how to tell her that? There was simply no way, even if I could form articulate sentences.

"Aw, fuck it," I said, giving up on finding the right words.

I grabbed her small body and pulled her into me, slamming the door behind me as I went. I pressed my mouth against hers, probably a little more aggressively than I planned on, and the softest of moans escaped her lips. She slipped her hands up my chest and over my shoulders before swiping them down my back. Landing at the hem of my shirt, her fingers stilled momentarily, and then they plunged beneath the cotton fabric. Her fingers danced shyly along my waist as if she was nervous to be touching my bare skin. But I didn't want her to be nervous. I wanted her to give me everything she wanted to without hesitation, and I needed to show her that.

I thrusted my hand into her hair as I deepened the kiss, lacing my tongue with hers. We engaged in a dance of lips and tongues, sometimes eager, and then growing soft. I spun both of us around, capturing her body between mine and the door. Her hands roamed up and down my back, and at one point, just barely dipped into the waistband of my jeans. I let out an appreciative groan because…well…damn, I loved where this was heading.

"Do you know how badly I've wanted to do this to you all day?" I asked against her mouth. "Seeing you in that bikini and having to keep my hands to myself was driving me crazy."

"Could've fooled me," she mumbled as I took her mouth in mine again, "what with all the glaring and disgusted looks thrown my way."

"Not at you, babe," I told her, thinking back to when the other guys were all over her—splashing water at her, picking her up and throwing her around, carrying her—knowing I couldn't be that carefree with her with all our friends around. "At the guys," I growled.

She must've known what I meant by that, because she threw her head back and laughed, giving me the perfect opening to devour the soft skin at her neck.

"I think someone's jealous," she teased, a slight moan mixing in with her words as my hands wandered beneath her shirt and up her ribs, her melting into my embrace.

"Not at all." Cupping her ass in both hands and lifting her up so she had to wrap her legs around me, I playfully bit at her bottom lip and winked. "But now it's my turn to play with you."

I threw her onto the bed, causing her to giggle—which made my pride swell because that meant she was having fun.

I slithered my way up her body, eyeing every inch of it as I went. When my face was above her stomach, I nudged her T-shirt up with my nose and gently kissed her skin before moving farther up to hover above her at eye level. I leaned down and softly kissed her, feeling her smile when I touched her lips.

I was just about to pick up momentum again when a buzzing in her pocket broke through our lust-driven haze.

"You're vibrating," I whispered against her mouth, amused.

Laughing, she corrected me, "It's my phone," and tried to dig it out of her pocket.

"Don't answer it," I pleaded, kissing my way down the side of her neck. When the phone broke free from her jeans, I reached for it, but she was too fast and held it out of my reach.

"It's probably one of the girls," she argued.

"But they just saw you." Shit, even I could hear the desperate whine in my voice. Pathetic.

"So did you," she countered, lightly shoving me off her and rolling me onto my back.

I watched as she sat up and checked her messages. Her face was flushed, her lips were swollen from being properly kissed, and her hair was a complete mess from me running my hands through it.

And she couldn't have looked sexier.

Simply admiring her, I ran the back of my fingers up and down her arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind every stroke.

Finally, she clicked off her phone and turned back to me, looking over her shoulder with a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Hey, you should stay for dinner," she said suddenly.

I chuckled. Yeah, right. Let me stay and meet your parents after dry-humping and kissing the shit out of their daughter. That'll go well.

But when I saw her serious face, I instantly stopped laughing. "Oh, you're serious?" I asked, feeling completely out of my comfort zone. It had taken me almost a year before I had dinner with Aubree and her family, and yet Cammie was expecting me to meet hers after a week of us getting along. And we weren't even dating!

"Yeah. I mean, it's the least I can do after…" her voice trailed off as she waved her hand around as if to say all that.

"Is that the deal?" I asked, teasingly. "I kiss you, you give me food? I'm starting to feel a little dirty, like you're paying for my services."

"Is that a no?" she asked, challenging me with a smirk.

I grinned. This girl never ceased to amaze me. Beautiful, smart, sweet, and spunky—she was the total package.

Too bad she was completely off-limits. This, whatever is was, was only temporary and no-strings-attached. Whatever I was feeling needed to be stamped down and forgotten. I needed to be in control and emotionally unattached, keeping her at arm's length if I wanted to come out of this unscathed. It shouldn't be too hard considering I'd been doing it for the past three years, just without the kissing.

Oh, shit. Did we just come a full circle?

I feel like the ending was kinda confusing...whoops. Sorry! Basically, Zach knows that he could easily fall for Cammie if he let himself, but he also knows that he can't let that happen. So, he has to be careful and keep his emotions at bay, just like before when they were pretending to hate each other. So, it's kind of like nothings changed. Does that make more sense?

I know in the books, Rachel Morgan was an awful cook, but I don't know, for some reason I wrote her this way where she likes to cook and she's good at it.

So, is it hot in here or what? ;) Zach and Cammie are amping it up people! I try really hard not to go too overboard with their make-out/kissing scenes, but I don't really know if I'm doing too much, too little, or what. Sorry if I make anyone feel awkward..but it could always be worse lol. Same goes for the profanity. Guys in general cuss more than girls, so I tend to incorporate it more into Zach's POVs, but again, sorry if the word "fuck" makes anyone feel uncomfortable. Heads up... I'm going to keep using it. Just let me know how y'all feel about those two things, though, cause my goal isn't to try to make everyone cringe lol.

This chapter and the next are kind of together, like how chapter one and two were, so here's hoping I get it up soon!

Thanks for all the love! Love your reviews and comments, and I look forward to reading new ones every single day (: Stay awesome (: