Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
He had to pull it together before Jo got back from her run with Meredith. If he was going to be with Jo, he had to fix this. Figure out how to get rid of these damn dreams. He sniffed at his T-shirt. Did he smell like him? Was it his imagination that the nasty, cloying scent had somehow crossed space and time and infected the fibers of his clothing again? Cam ripped the shirt over his head and tossed it across the room. He strode to the bathroom, shedding his jeans and stepping into Jo’s gargantuan shower.
The water wasn’t hot enough. Nothing could wash away the filth. Those hands on his shoulders. Sweat dripping from above into his hair. Spittle on his face. God, he couldn’t get clean. He barely noticed his chest and arms reddening under the scalding water and the vigorous scraping of his nails. He sank to the shower’s stone bench, pulling one knee up and enfolding it with his arm. The hot water wasn’t nearly as scorching as the shame these memories burned into him every time they paid him a nocturnal visit.
“Cam!” Jo’s voice, bordering on urgent, already concerned. “Are you here?”
Cam swallowed over his aching vocal cords. He’d awakened with screams running up his throat and fleeing his mouth. He turned off the shower, stepped out, and grabbed a towel from the hook by the door, knotting it around his hips.
“I’m in here. In the bathroom.” He prayed he sounded normal, even though he didn’t feel it yet. Couldn’t reach it yet.
Jo waved at the thick-as-soup steam filling the room.
“Good grief. Was the water set on hot as hell?” She stopped in her tracks, her eyes resting on his bare torso. “What happened to you?”
“Huh?” He looked down at himself. His arms and chest glowed red, angry lines striping him where his nails had dug in. “Oh, I guess I was…the water must have been too hot.”
“I have some ointment we can—”
“It’s fine, Jo. Leave it.”
“No, really.” Jo walked over to open the medicine cabinet. “I know I have some.”
“I said drop it.” Cam’s sharp voice sliced through the steam.
Jo looked over her shoulder, still facing the medicine cabinet.
“Jo, I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just…Leave it, okay?”
Jo faced him, leaning against the bathroom counter. She pulled her headband off and the elastic holding her hair hostage. She fiddled with them both before wrapping them around her wrists and looking him in the eye.
“Did you…did you scratch yourself like that, Cam?”
Jo would never understand not feeling clean. Like in-your-bones, under-your-skin dirty. Beyond-scalding-water dirty. One day in and he was already giving her reason to regret taking a chance on him. She’d think he was crazy if he told her he smelled that monster’s cologne on his shirt, on his skin, in his hair. The man was dead.
“Maybe I’m having some allergic reaction.”
He walked over to her, tightening the knot on his towel as he went, until he stood directly in front of her. He swept her mass of hair over one shoulder, leaning down to kiss behind her ear.
“Good morning.” He smiled when she shivered from his breath in her ear. His responsive girl. “Did you have a good run?”
“Yeah. It was fine.” Her words sounded light and airy.
He took a step closer until the water from his chest dampened the fabric of her running top. He ran his finger along his new favorite body part, Jo’s collarbone. So delicate, like elegant dashes just under her skin.
“And now I’m getting you”—he kissed her ear and brushed his hand over her bottom, down her thigh, and gently gripped—“all wet.”
She lowered her long, curly lashes until they rested on her cheeks.
“Are you trying to distract me with that beautiful body, Cameron Mitchell?”
Wow, the full name. And, yes, he had been, but he’d forgotten Jo wasn’t one of these girls he could bat his lashes at and turn her mind to mush.
“Me?” He touched the chest riveting Jo’s eyes. “I distract you?”
He stepped back, turned on his heel, and walked toward the bathroom door.
“Good to know,” he said, giving her a wicked grin over his shoulder. “I’m going to cook breakfast. You should probably shower. Don’t you have a meeting?”
Jo just looked at him for a moment through the steam still floating in the bathroom. Without a word, she pulled her top over her head and did a slow peel of her running shorts over her hips and legs. Cam’s mouth fell open. That was the last thing he’d expected her to do. She stood tall and naked and absolutely perfect, the steam curling lovingly around her long, lean body and clinging to the lush curves, concealing as much as it showed.
“Now who’s distracted?”
She walked over to the shower, turned the water on, got in, grabbed a sponge, and started soaping her body in long swipes.